"You needn't look startled.

It isn't suicide I am thinking of.

Are you a Doctor ?" He turned his fierce dark eyes upon me as he asked this last question.
"Yes; I am," I answered.
"Then put your hand here," he said, with a smile, motioning with his manacled wrists towards his chest.
I did so; and became at once conscious of an extraordinary throbbing and commotion which was going on inside.

The walls of his chest seemed to thrill and quiver as a frail building would do inside when some powerful engine was at work.

In the silence of the room I could hear a dull humming and buzzing noise which proceeded from the same source.
"Why," I cried, "you have an aortic aneurism!" "That's what they call it," he said, placidly.