Birtwell's. "If I had not been betrayed
into drinking wine enough to disturb seriously my nervous system and
leave it weak and uncertain to-day, if Mr. Ridley had not been
tempted to his fall, if poor Archie Voss had been at home last night
instead of in the private drinking-saloon of one of our most
respected citizens, do you think that hand," holding up his right
hand as he spoke, "would have lost for a moment its cunning to-day
and put in jeopardy a precious life?"
The doctor rose from his chair in much excitement and walked
nervously about the room.
"It did not lose its cunning," said Doctor Kline, in a calm but
emphatic voice. I watched you from the moment of the first incision
until the last artery was tied, and a truer hand I never saw."
"Thank God that the stimulus which I had to substitute for nervous
power held out as long as it did. If it had failed a few moments
sooner, I might have--"
Doctor Hillhouse checked himself and gave another little shudder.
"Do you know, doctor," he said, after a pause speaking in a low,
half-confidential tone and with great seriousness of manner, "when I
severed that small artery as I was cutting close to the internal
jugular vein and the jet of blood hid both the knife-points and the
surrounding tissues, that for an instant I was in mental darkness
and that I did not know whether I should cut to the right or to the
left? If in that moment of darkness I had cut to the right, my
instrument would have penetrated the jugular vein.
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