The works of Edgar Allan Poe; newly collected and edited, with a memoir, critical introductions, and notes, by Edmund Clarence Stedman and George Edward Woodberry; the illustrations by Albert Edward Sterner.

TA ] CIENCE
There was an instant retu the hectic circles on
the cheeks; the' tongue qui ed, or rather rolled
violently in the mouth (although the jaws and lips
remained rigid as before); and at length the same
hideous voice, which I have already described, broke
forth:
"For God's sake! -quick! - quick! -put me to
sleep - or, quick! - waken me! - quick! - I say to
you that I am dead!"
I was thoroughly unnerved, and for an instant
remained undecided what to do. At first I made an
endeavor to recompose the patient; but, failing in
this through total abeyance of the will, I retraced my
steps and as earnestly struggled to awaken him. In
this attempt I soon saw that I should be successful -
or at least I soon fancied that my success would be
complete - and I am sure that all in the room were
prepared to see the patient awaken.
For what really occurred, however, it is quite
impossible that any human being could have been
prepared.
As I rapidly made the mesmeric passes, amid ejaculations of "dead! dead!" absolutely bursting from
the tongue and not from the lips of the sufferer, his
whole frame at once -within the space of a single
minute, or even less, shrunk - crumbled - absolutely
rotted away beneath my hands. Upon the bed,
before that whole company, there lay a nearly liquid
mass of loathsome -of detestable putridity.
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