“All right, you may order a fire to be lighted at once, so that my room will be warm by the time I am through supper,” responded the young physician, and then he turned to follow a servant to the dining-room. Half an hour later he retired to his room and to bed, having first given orders to be called at eight o’clock the next morning. “Make sure that I am awake,” he said to the call-boy, as he went upstairs, “for I have an important engagement at nine.” It was well for him that he gave this order, or he would never have opened his eyes in this world again. Promptly at eight the next morning the boy rapped upon the door. There was no response. Again he knocked, and more vigorously. Still no answer from within. “Hallo there!” he cried, at the same time using his knuckles with redoubled energy. “Wake up, can’t you?” But the occupant of the little room over the hall was either a very heavy sleeper, or something was wrong with him. The man put his ear to the keyhole, and could plainly detect the sound of heavy breathing. “Something is amiss; nobody could remain in any natural sleep during such a racket as I’ve made,” muttered the man, an anxious look coming into his face. He hastened below, and reported to the clerk, and together they hurried back to the physician’s room and tried a second time to arouse him. It was in vain, however; there was not the slightest movement within, although they could plainly detect the heavy breathing of the man. “He’s in a fit of some kind, and we shall have to force the lock or break the door,” said the clerk. Both men put their shoulders against it and used all their strength for this purpose; but in vain, for the door was stronger than they. A step-ladder was then brought, and a boy with a rope around his body was sent up to remove the transom, then told to crawl through, when they would let him down inside the room to unlock the door. This was soon accomplished, and the moment the clerk stepped inside the door he comprehended the situation. The room was full of coal gas. The man upon the bed was asphyxiated. Every window in the room was closed, and the damper in the stove-pipe had, by either the force of a strong draught or a sudden gust of wind, been shut, and thus the fumes from the burning coal had been thrown into the room. The young doctor lay flat upon his back, breathing stertorously, while his face was ghastly, his skin clammy, and his pulse alarmingly feeble. By this time quite an excitement prevailed on that floor of the hotel, and a crowd of curious and awe-stricken people had gathered about, the proprietor among them. “A doctor—is there a doctor in the house?” cried some one who had not been quite so fully paralyzed by the appalling discovery as the others. This aroused the proprietor to a sense of his duty.