At this critical instant, the surgeon entered, and at once put an end to the interview, by taking charge of the patient, and directing all but one or two necessary attendants, to quit the room.
The three chosen witnesses of what had just past, repaired together to a parlour; Atwood, by a sort of mechanical habit, taking with him the paper on which the baronet had scrawled the words just mentioned.

This, by a sort of mechanical use, also, he put into the hands of Sir Gervaise, as soon as they entered the room; much as he would have laid before his superior, an order to sign, or a copy of a letter to the secretary of the Navy Board.
"This is as bad as the '_nullus_!'" exclaimed Sir Gervaise, after endeavouring to decipher the scrawl in vain.

"What is this first word, Mr.Rotherham--'Irish,' is it not,--hey! Atwood ?" "I believe it is no move than 'I-n,' stretched over much more paper than is necessary." "You are right enough, vicar; and the next word is 'the,' though it looks like a _chevaux de frise_--what follows?
It looks like 'man-of-war.' Atwood ?" "I beg your pardon, Sir Gervaise; this first letter is what I should call an elongated n--the next is certainly an a--the third looks like the waves of a river--ah! it is an m--and the last is an e--n-a-m-e--that makes 'name,' gentlemen." "Yes," eagerly added the vicar, "and the two next words are, 'of God.'" "Then it is religion, after all, that was on the poor man's mind!" exclaimed Sir Gervaise, in a slight degree disappointed, if the truth must be told.

"What's this A-m-e-n--'Amen'-- why it's a sort of prayer." "This is the form in which it is usual to commence wills, I believe, Sir Gervaise," observed the secretary, who had written many a one, on board ship, in his day.

"'In the name of God, Amen.'" "By George, you're right, Atwood; and the poor man was trying, all the while, to let us know how he wished to dispose of his property! What could he mean by the _nullus_--it is not possible that the old gentleman has nothing to leave ?" "I'll answer for it, Sir Gervaise, _that_ is not the true explanation," the vicar replied.