in wonder for the next step.

They consisted in forcibly untangling the mass of tubes and arteries
all about the organ. Presently everything was clear; and then,
without delay, the nurses brought forward a strange-looking device.

It was of silver, shaped like a flattened egg, and a trifle smaller
than that laboring, human blood-pump; To it was attached a pair of
long, flexible, silver pipes, which led to Billie knew not where.
And near one extremity the egg was provided with eight curious
nozzles.

At times the flying hands partly interfered with Billie's vision;
yet she saw nearly all that amazing process, from beginning to end.
To put it briefly, the eight nozzles were boldly introduced, almost
at a single operation, into tiny incisions in the eight
corresponding tubes of the heart. In they were forced, until they
filled the arteries and veins; and once inserted, silver clamps were
instantly tightened on the outsides of the tubes. All this was done
in two or three seconds; and when all was complete, the heart itself
had been entirely isolated and its place absolutely taken by that
little silver egg.

The patient gave no sign that anything out of the ordinary had
occurred. Not a drop of blood had been spilled except in the process
of getting at the organ; but now, with a few deft motions of certain
instruments, the heart was sliced away from the surrounding tissues,
the tubes were severed, and the whole powerful pump, still beating
faintly, was removed from the body altogether.