moment of death--have everything ready, do what you will--my artificial heart is a very perfect instrument, mechanically speaking--and how long does it take to start the artificial circulation through the carotid artery? Not a hundredth part so long a time as drowned people often lie before being brought back, without a pulsation, without a breath. Yet I never succeeded, though I have made the artificial heart work on a narcotised rabbit, and the rabbit died instantly when I stopped the machine, which proves that it was the machine that kept it alive. Perhaps if one applied it to a man just before death he might live on indefinitely, grow fat and flourish so long as the glass heart worked. Where would his soul be then? In the glass heart, which would have become the seat of life? Everything, sensible or absurd, which I can put into words makes the soul seem an impossibility--and yet there is something which I cannot put into words, but which proves the soul’s existence beyond all doubt. I wish I could buy somebody’s soul and experiment with it.” He ceased and sat staring at his specimens, going over in his memory the fruitless experiments of a lifetime. A loud knocking roused him from his reverie. He hastened to open the door and was confronted by Unorna. She was paler than usual, and he saw from her expression that there was something wrong. “What is the matter?” he asked, almost roughly. “He is in a carriage downstairs,” she answered quickly. “Something has happened to him. I cannot wake him, you must take him in--” “To die on my hands? Not I!” laughed Keyork in his deepest voice. “My collection is complete enough.” She seized him suddenly by both arms, and brought her face near to his. “If you dare to speak of death----” She grew intensely white, with a fear she had not before known in her life. Keyork laughed again, and tried to shake himself free of her grip. “You seem a little nervous,” he observed calmly. “What do you want of me?” “Your help, man, and quickly! Call your people! Have him carried upstairs! Revive him! do something to bring him back!” Keyork’s voice changed. “Is he in real danger?” he asked. “What have you done to him?” “Oh, I do not know what I have done!” cried Unorna desperately. “I do not know what I fear----” She let him go and leaned against the doorway, covering her face with her hands. Keyork stared at her. He had never seen her show so much emotion before. Then he made up his mind. He drew her into his room and left her standing and staring at him while he thrust a few objects into his pockets and threw his fur coat over him. “Stay here till I come back,” he said, authoritatively, as he went out. “But you will bring him here?” she cried, suddenly conscious of his going.