possible. Dr. Holcomb--pardon me. I do not wish to appear a sot;
but this brandy is about the only thing to hold me together. I
have only a few hours left."

He took the glass, and at one gulp downed the contents. I do not
know what the doctor had dropped into it. Chick revived suddenly,
and a strange light blazed up in his eyes, like life rekindled.

"Ah, now I am better. So?"

He turned to us all; then to the doctor.

"So you say the secret of life is impossible?"

"I--"

Chick smiled wanly. "May I ask you: what it is that has just
flared up within me? I am weak, anaemic, fallen to pieces; my
muscles have lost the power to function, my blood runs cold, I
have been more than two feet over the border. And yet--a few
drinks of brandy, of stimulants, and you have drawn me back, my
heart beats strongly, for an hour. By means of drugs you have
infused a new life--which of course is the old--and driven the
material components of my body into correlation. You are
successful for a time; so long as nature is with you; but all the
while you are held aghast by the knowledge that the least flaw,
the least disarrangement, and you are beaten.

"It is your business to hold this life or what you may. When it
has gone your structures, your anatomy, your wonderful human