"It has been tried with success. You remember cases of?--but he is so far gone, I doubt--transfusion of blood--do you think?" It startled them, the way the weeping girl sprung to her feet. New life seemed to come to her. She threw off the long fur cloak from her slender form, pushed back the sleeve from the most beautiful white arm they had ever beheld, and cried, beseechingly: "You can save him! Oh, take my blood--my very life, so that you restore him!" They were shocked at first, but she would not listen. She implored them to yield to her wish. "I am so strong, I have such splendid health, it will not hurt me--I can bear it!" she cried, pleadingly, and they were full of admiration for her courage and bravery. Her lovely face shone with its lofty purpose. "Impossible!" they answered; but they gazed with admiring eyes at the beautiful girl whose fresh young loveliness indeed hinted at glowing health and strength; but it seemed hopeless, such an experiment. He was so far gone. Any minute might launch his life's bark out upon death's unknown sea. She could not bear it, this obstinate refusal. Oh, to save him, to save him she would lay down her life! A desperate thought came to her. Her dark eyes fastened on a rich blue vein in the rosy white arm she had bared to their view. A furtive movement and she had slipped from the burnished mass of her golden tresses a toy dagger with a jewel-studded hilt. Maddened with misery, she thrust the keen point against the blue vein, and the scarlet tide of her life-blood spurted out in a tiny vivid jet. Oh, horror! They sprung toward her, one bound a handkerchief over the wound, but--her bravery had thrilled their hearts. They could not hesitate longer. It was a forlorn hope, but yes, they would try the experiment! CHAPTER LXII. "GOD BLESS BRAVE, BONNY KATHLEEN CAREW!" So silent! Yet it seems to me That had you lived, and had I died, My dead heart must have heard you call, And, throbbing with new life, replied. Doctor Beard was an enthusiast in his art, and his fine eyes shone with eager interest as he realized the delicate and dangerous operation that lay before him and his colleague, Doctor Miller. Both were comparatively young, but they had attained eminence already, and if any physician in Boston was capable of conducting this experiment, it was one or both of these two.