CHAPTER XXX 



ALEXIS ST. MARTIN AND ALCOHOL 



Many years ago there was a young man in Canada 

 who was wounded in his stomach by a bullet. Perhaps 

 this was not so very strange, for the fellow belonged to 

 the American Fur Company and he hunted fur-covered 

 animals for a living. The really strange part of the affair 

 was this : the bullet went into his stomach in such a way 

 that it did not kill him, although it tore the flesh so badly 

 that it left a wide opening. Indeed, this opening was so 

 large that it could never grow together again. You know 

 most cuts heal up after a while, but all this one did was 

 to stop bleeding and get healed around the edges. It 

 never did more than that. 



The result was that from that time on, as long as the 

 hunter lived, there was an opening through the side of 

 his body into his stomach. It was two and a half inches 

 around, and there was a piece of the lining of the stomach 

 that hung down over the opening like a valve and cov- 

 ered it up. If anybody wanted to look into the man's 

 stomach, and if Alexis St. Martin (that was the hunter's 

 name) would let him do it, all that was necessary was to 

 push the valve back with the finger and peep in. 



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