340 THE MAN OF TWO LIVES. 



hadn't been for Frizzle. Oli! Kezia, how I should like to shave his 

 head. How I should like to whip off his head with a razor." Here 

 the face of the barber underwent a distortion which in its present 

 fictitious state rendered him truly appalling-. 



It was not until the approach of evening that the fully-occupied 

 Slash made it convenient to find his way to the barber's dwelling. A 

 professional knock at the door apprised the conspirators of his ar- 

 rival. " Now, go down-stairs very slowly," cried the barber in a 

 timid whisper, as he huddled into bed and laid himself out, " and be 

 sure, immediately the door opens, you set up a weeping and wailing. 

 I wish you had practised a little beforehand. Gently, gently." 



By an intense projection as it were of the sense of hearing, Singe 

 was enabled to satisfy himself that these directions were obeyed ; and 

 now the step of Slash was heard upon the stairs, and the voice of that 

 skilful chirurgeon exclaiming, as he ascended, " What ! dead ! dead 

 already, Mrs. Singe ; impossible !" *' He doubts the fact,'' thought 

 the barber, as with a violent effort he discomposed his features into a 

 more ghastly derangement, and tremblingly awaited the corning 

 scrutiny. 



Entering the apartment, the prudent leech maintained a respect- 

 able distance from the frail wreck of mortality that lay before him. 

 " You must get me a light, I think, said he," addressing the widow. 

 " Let me once more peruse the features of my poor and worthy ac* 

 quaintance." 



" Oh Lord !'' almost groaned the deceased, as his sobbing partner 

 retired to do the bidding of the doctor, " I shall be discovered, sure 

 enough curse the fellow's officious kindness." 



" And so thou art gone, my little barber," apostrophized Slash, as 

 he inserted the end of his walking-stick into the most sensitive part of 

 Samuel's fifth rib, which he tickled even to agony, " well, we must 

 all die, nothing lasts here to-day, gone to-morrow. Oh, here 's a 

 candle." 



" Bless us!" exclaimed the doctor, raising the light above his head, 

 and leaning forward on tip-toe, while he gazed at the corrugated 

 chaps of the defunct, " this must have been a new stage of that fear- 

 ful disease ; nothing like it has yet come under my notice. A most 

 extraordinary metamorphosis of the facial organs. Did he take my 

 physic ?" 



" He did, Sir," sighed the wife, " and " 



"Yes." 



" And died instantly." 



" Ah !" and the doctor shook his head, and indulged in a suspi- 

 ciously 'prolonged gaze. "Very extraordinary," he repeated, " very, 

 very but," and he turned suddenly towards the window, and, placing 

 the candlestick in one of her hands, seized the other, which he pressed 

 fervently. " Make yourself easy, my good woman ; be assured that 

 all that could have been done for that worthy man has been done. We 

 are all grass, nothing lasts here to-day, gone to-morrow." 



" Which I mean to be, or my name is not Singe," said the barber, 

 slowly rising as he heard the street-door close upon Slash, " and catch 

 me trying this experiment again. I thought that sharp-pointed cane 

 of his would have let the secret out/' 



