Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way begins with an excerpt from an email that Bruce Campbell received from Barry Neville from St. Martin''s Press in regard to a book, Walk this Way, that he was attempting to write. The email expresses the publisher''s disinterest in that book, but a desire for Campbell to work on a different project. Upon calling Barry Neville, Bruce is presented with the idea of writing a relationship book. Bruce feels he cannot approach the concept, since he does not see himself as an authority on the subject and feels his editor has a false impression of his mastery of relationships. He is contacted by his acting agent, Barry, about a potential role in a Richard Gere/Renée Zellweger romantic comedy entitled Let''s Make Love, written by Kevin Jarre, directed by Mike Nichols and produced by Robert Evans. Bruce jumps to the conclusion that the role is a small, insignificant part, but he finds out that his role is in fact a large part as the wise-cracking doorman. Bruce ends up going to New York and auditioning for the role. Bruce ends up getting the role despite the fact he was not the first, second or last choice; others considered included Johnny Depp, John Cusack, Billy Campbell, Gary Sinise, John Malkovich and Robert Patrick. From this point on, Bruce tries to do research for his role. He first tries being a doorman at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where he has an encounter with Colin Powell that does not end well. Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way continues to follow Bruce Campbell through his trials and tribulations with the movie. He goes to a gentleman''s club, supposedly to learn how to be a true Southern gentleman, but instead finds it to be no more than a strip club and ends up getting shot for portraying himself as someone else while there. Bruce also makes a trip out to see a friend about relationships, but finds his friend to be nothing more than a sleaze who takes advantage of his clients. By the end of the book, Bruce is fighting to keep his role and seeing Let''s Make Love sliding from an A-List movie to a B-List movie supposedly due to the B-Movie actor curse caused by Bruce Campbell.

Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way

Camilla celebrates a long and wonderful life with her friends and family when she is presented with an award for lifetime achievement. But her son''s snide comments at the event stir up trouble which lead to Camilla''s granddaughter, Raffi, demanding answers about her family history. Camilla relives her younger days as she attempts to give Raffi the answers she seeks. Camilla''s story begins when she is an astronomy student in college. Her life has been peaceful until her mother, Rose, visits her on campus and promptly has sex with one of her professors, which Camilla accidentally sees. As she tries to get away, she bumps into a young man named Mac Xanthakos, who is volunteering at a local church, while training to be an Episcopalian priest. Mac invites Camilla in to talk and have a cup of tea, at which point, Camilla sadly explains about her mother. This event leads to a friendship between Camilla and Mac. A romance blooms between the pair but Mac suddenly pulls away. Camilla is left saddened and confused. She continues her education and devotes herself to her work. Then suddenly, Mac reappears and asks Camilla to marry him. Camilla accepts. Mac introduces Camilla to his wonderful and wise parents. They accept Camilla as their own daughter and Camilla begins to feel like she belongs with them. She and Mac are married and Mac begins to work at a church in a small town. Camilla becomes pregnant. The happiness ends in devastation when Camilla''s pregnancy ends in miscarriage. Her pain is deepened when Camilla''s parents announce they are expecting another child. Camilla becomes pregnant a second time. But once again disaster strikes. Rose is in a car accident and is killed. Before she dies, doctors are able to deliver her baby by c-section. The baby, a boy, needs a blood transfusion and Rafferty attempts to donate. When doctors compare the blood types, they discover a terrible truth. The baby is not Rafferty''s. The true father of the baby is unknown. Rafferty is driven nearly insane by combined grief and anger. He begs Camilla to take the child and raise it, with the promise that he pay for all the costs of the baby. She and Mac agree to raise the baby and name it Artaxias, who is quickly nicknamed Taxi. A few months later, their daughter is born and named Frankie. Camilla and Mac raise Taxi as their own child and as Frankie''s brother. But their idyllic bliss is shattered after a few short years. Red Grange, Camilla''s former professor, appears and claims that Taxi is his son. He ''proves'' his paternity with a letter from Rose that states that he is the father. Red gains legal rights to Taxi and takes him from Camilla and Mac. Years pass and Camilla and Mac do not know how to move past the loss of their surrogate son. Frankie is confused by the loss of her brother and constantly prays he will come back to them. Finally Taxi is returned but only after several years have passed and Red and his second wife have been killed in a car crash. But Taxi has changed and no longer remembers Camilla, Mac or Frankie. He is angry, rude, tough and very confused about his identity. Camilla and Max do their best to raise Frankie and Taxi but the problems are endless. Taxi tries desperately to distance himself from Red Grange and his past. He longs to be Camilla and Mac''s true son but is constantly reminded by the world that he is not. He frequently acts out and disrupts their home. Frankie is confused by her changed brother and pours herself into her artwork. Camilla flashes forward to the future and explain to Raffi that nothing changed. Taxi became a soap-opera star, married and had one child, Raffi. Taxi is still hurting because his past and still confused about his identity. Frankie still pours her emotion into her art and has become a successful artist. Although the past may be gone and over with, it is still affecting the family and their future. Raffi accepts Camilla''s story but is amazed when she accidentally discovers a missing piece in the puzzle. Red Grange was not Taxi''s father. Red''s son is Taxi''s real father. Raffi is excited by this discovery and eagerly tells Taxi. Raffi believes her father will be happy to know that his father is not horrible Red Grange. Taxi instead lashes out and Raffi runs to Camilla for an explanation. Camilla simply says to give it time and Taxi will eventually calm. Raffi believes Camilla and despite the evidence otherwise, accepts Camilla as her one true grandmother.

A Live Coal in the Sea

The Enchantress picks up where its predecessor, The Warlock left off. Two of its central characters, the fifteen year old twins, Sophie and Josh Newman, have been re-united after being briefly separated. The twins, along with John Dee and Virginia Dare, go back in time to the Isle of Danu Talis, where Osiris and Isis are revealed to be Dee''s masters and the twins'' parents. Osiris removes Dee''s immortality, but Dee does not immediately die (he is later found by Marethyu, who restores his health and sight). Virginia Dare chooses to side with Osiris and Isis. Meanwhile, the Flamels, Niten, and Prometheus discover that Mars, Hel, and Odin are not faring well and that Machiavelli and Billy the Kid have joined them. The Flamels decide to join them on Alcatraz, but Billy mistakenly throws the spears with the Words of Power at her (he also used them to kill the Sphinx earlier). The Morrigan throws herself in front of Perenelle and dies instead. Odin and Hel both die slaying an army of Anpu. After finding Aerop-Enap''s cocoon, the Flamels and Machiavelli attempt to awake her while Billy and Black Hawk fight a Karkinos (giant crab). Billy is mortally wounded and Black Hawk is thrown into the water, presumably eaten by the Nereids. Machiavelli heals Billy and Aerop-Enap kills the Karkinos after Mars uses his aura to lead it away from the group, which causes him to spontaneously combust. Tsagaglalal returns herself to her youthful immortal state and it is discovered that she is one of the First People that were awakened by Prometheus. After putting on an ancient suit of ceramic armour, she goes to the Golden Gate Bridge to fend off an army of Spartoi (dragon teeth sewn in the ground and watered with blood that become reptilian soldiers) that were animated by Quetzalcoatl and the present Bastet. In the center of the bridge, Niten and Prometheus defeat quite a few of the Spartoi, but both are mortally wounded. After slaying the rest of the Spartoi, Tsagaglalal finds them, but only has enough of her aura left to heal Prometheus. The dismayed Elder convinces her to use his aura to heal Niten, asking her to tell him to marry Aoife, whom Niten loves. On Danu Talis, Scathach, Joan of Arc, Saint-Germain, Palamedes, Shakespeare, and the young Prometheus crash their vimana on the original Yggdrasill and meet Hekate and Mars (then Huitzilopochtli), who plan to lead the human inhabitants of Yggdrasill to liberate the incarcerated Aten. Anubis and the younger Bastet prepare to take over Danu Talis, but Isis and Osiris have other plans. Telling Sophie and Josh to don silver and gold suits of armour, they prepare to present the twins to the council of elders as the rightful rulers of Danu Talis. Marethyu finds Virginia Dare and presents her with an emerald tablet from Abraham the Mage, persuading Dare to side with the humani. Dare meets Dee in front of the prison, later telling him that she had only wanted a world so that she could make it completely free. She leads the humani against the Elders along with Dee, who dies when allowing her to draw energy off of his aura. Scathach, Joan, Saint Germain, Shakespeare, and Palamedes fight the final battle along with the twins. Osiris and Isis admit that Sophie and Josh aren''t their children (Josh was found in a Neanderthal camp shortly after the Fall of Danu Talis, and Sophie was found in Russia in the ninth or tenth century 30,000 years after) and they transform into their true forms, revealing that they aren''t Elders, but Earthlords. After defeating the pair, Sophie and Josh reach an agreement and Sophie leaves with the other warriors. Josh sits on the center of the Pyramid of the Sun and begins to read the Codex, discovering that Sophie, Joan, Scathach, Dare, and Aten lead the survivors onto the new Earth and assist them for several hundred years before returning to the present time. He then combines the Four Swords of Power (Clarent, Excalibur, Durendal, and Joyeuse) to create the fifth power--- Aether. The swords form a hook, revealing that Josh becomes Marethyu. He plunges his hook into the center of the Pyramid of the Sun, speaking aloud the last words he read in the Codex ("Today I become Death, the destroyer of worlds") and thereby destroying Danu Talis. On Alcatraz, Nicholas and Perenelle spend their last moments together. Marethyu tells Perenelle and the Alchemyst that he is Josh and takes them to Paris, where the Flamels die. In a letter to Sophie, Josh (Marethyu) reveals that he and the Flamels were present at Aoife and Niten''s wedding, where Scathach was the bridesmaid.

The Enchantress: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

The novel picks up a couple years later with Larten Crepsley and Wester who are part of a small group of cubs. But after a bad incident with a Vampaneze named Randel which resulted in the death of Zula in a duel, they leave the war pack and go in search of Seba Nile. Part two of the book starts out with Seba, Larten and Wester observing the American civil war. They meet up with Vancha March and soon realize that Seba wants them to meet up with Lady Evanna in hopes that one of them would be chosen by her as a mate, which could result in vampires becoming the dominant species. Evanna is amused with Larten and grants him permission to find her whenever he wants to. In part three of the book another council at Vampire Mountain is hosted and Larten does better in his duels than he did previously thus catching the eye of some generals and princes. He then begins his training to become a vampire general while Seba pursues his new job of Quartermaster and Wester becomes part of a Vampaneze hater group. Larten, a few month before finishing his training, falls out with the Vampires and seeks more of the world. At the beginning of part four in his travels he meets up with Vancha for a short while and soon goes to find Evanna again. He ends up disrespecting her while being drunk and ends up fleeing for his life with a large cut on his face. One of Evanna''s assistants Malora tags along with Larten on the night he leaves. She helps him with the vampire he contracted after a visiting with Evanna. Larten later insists on traveling to Greenland in a ship and Malora does her best to collect blood and make sure he doesn''t reveal his true self while on the ship. But inevitably he consumes blood from a woman with a baby on the boat and reveals himself as a vampire. Malora sacrifices herself to give him more time. Meanwhile he recovers and kills almost everyone on the boat once he see''s Malora''s corpse hanging by the neck. He keeps a single crew member and a couple of people to feed off of. But he is torn by his conscience since he could only find the baby and not the mother on the boat. He then discovers that one of the people he kept in the storeroom has killed and cannibalized the others claiming that Larten can''t kill him now since he is a vampire like him. Larten then proceeds to jump off the boat with the baby and rows to shore in a small boat.

Ocean of Blood

60-year-old Nathan Glass returns to Brooklyn after his wife has left him. He is recovering from lung cancer and is looking for "a quiet place to die". In Brooklyn he meets his nephew, Tom, whom he has not seen in several years. Tom has seemingly given up on life and has resigned himself to a string of meaningless jobs as he waits for his life to change. They develop a close friendship, entertaining each other in their misery, as they both try to avoid taking part in life. When Lucy, Tom''s young niece who initially refuses to speak, comes into their lives there is suddenly a bridge between their past and their future that offers both Tom and Nathan some form of redemption. The Brooklyn Follies contains the classic elements of a Paul Auster novel. The main character is a lonely man, who has suffered an unfortunate reversal. The narrative is based on sudden and randomly happening events and coincidences. "It is a book about survival" as Paul Auster says. The novel was published in Danish in May 2005, under the name Brooklyn Dårskab. It was published in English in November 2005. The Traditional Chinese version appeared in October 2006 with the title slightly altered as Mr. Nathan in Brooklyn.

The Brooklyn Follies

As the novel begins, a glitch—an instability of the magnetic field inside the star caused by changes in the star''s rotation—is about to destroy a net made up of ropes, where a group of 50 humans live. During this several of the older humans are killed, and importantly the humans lose their main food, a herd of "air pigs", animals indigenous to the star. To find more food, Dura, together with her young brother Farr, Adda (the eldest of the Humans and one of the novel''s main characters), Philas (wife of a man killed during the glitch; this man was also seeing Dura), and 6 other adults travel high into the top of the mantle of the star to find food in the forest. Whilst there Adda is injured by a pregnant sow air pig. Just after, the humans encounter Toba Mixxax, a human from Parz City. Parz is a massive wooden city where other star humans live, with a functioning economy and upper and nether classes etc. As becomes apparent, the ancestors of Dura''s group did originally live in Parz, but left when their belief that the Xeelee should ultimately be accepted as being for the good of humanity was not accepted by the rulers of Parz. A hospital, "The Hospital of the Common Good" in the heart of Parz City is Adda''s only chance for survival. While in Parz, we meet several other characters: Muub, the head physician and advisor to Hork, the administrator of Parz. To pay for Adda''s treatment, Dura''s labor is sold to a "mantle farm" (where trees are harvested for use as fuel or as building blocks for the city), and Farr is sold to work in the underbelly of the city. Farr makes two friends whiles here: Toba Mixxax''s son Criss and Byza, a fellow miner. Criss teaches Farr to board (using a specially constructed plate to "surf" along the flux lines), an ability which allows him to escape from the eventual attack by the Xeelee. After various plot points, the characters realise the instabilities are actually being caused by the attack of the Xeelee, and the next instability could destroy both Parz and possibly the star itself. Hork calls a combination of Muub, Dura (called due to her experience as a star human), Adda, Farr and a scientist to go down into the inhabitable centre of the star and try and retrieve ancient weapons, supposedly left by the humans who originally created the star human race.

Flux

The Star of the Sea of the title is a famine ship, making the journey from Ireland to New York. Aboard are hundreds of refugees, most of them with humble and desperate backgrounds. Key protagonists are David Merridith Lord Kingscourt, his wife Laura, their servant Mary, the ship''s captain Josias Lockwood, a friendless Irishman named Pius Mulvey, and American journalist Grantley Dixon. The narrative of the novel follows multiple threads interwoven by the journalist character Dixon from documents such as diaries and letters, or from conversations/interviews with some of the principal characters or their relatives/descendants. The narrative partly follows the chronological course of the voyage, and for the intermediate or interposed parts consists of the meshed-in background lives of some of the emigrants & their relatives before they left Ireland (or England, or even after they arrived in the US). The novel departs from the usual formula of a murder mystery in that readers are vaguely informed of the identity of the murderer and the victim early in the novel, but the murder does not take place until the closing pages of the novel, and murder does not carry the full idea or sense of the killing. As the writer was clearly aware in choosing the name, the term "Star of the Sea" has deep roots in Catholic tradition. Our Lady, Star of the Sea - a translation of the Latin Stella Maris - is the Blessed Virgin Mary in her aspect as a guide and protector to those who work or travel on the sea and under which title she is venerated in many Catholic seaside communities. Indeed, in Dutch and other translations the book was given the title "Stella Maris". In 2008, London band Silvery released the song "Star of the Sea" on their debut album Thunderer & Excelsior on Blow Up Records, loosely following the narrative of the book.

Star of the Sea

Renia and Josl Bensky grow up in the Polish town of Łódź, Poland. Shortly after their marriage, they are forced to move to the Ghetto of Łódź, and soon, they are deported to the concentration camp of Auschwitz. After the downfall of the Third Reich, they meet again, and their first daughter Lola is born in a DP camp in 1946. In 1948, The Benskys move to Melbourne and try to start a new life, far away from the horrible crimes they had to endure during the Holocaust. They find good friends among fellow Jewish Immigrants, and with this tight group of friends, they try to live as normal a life as possible. Josl and Renia both try to live with their past; in this mixture of trying to forget and to commemorate, they raise Lola to be an Australian girl. Lola knows she will never understand her parents completely since she will never experience what they had to live through. She has her own problems. She has overweight, weird boyfriends and a first husband whom she does not love. When she turns 19, Lola starts to write for a rock magazine and gets to travel around the world to interview the stars of her time. Apart from her job, she raises her children and tries to figure out her life. Finally, she marries the artist Garth and moves to New York.

Things Could Be Worse

Alvin''s family is migrating west. When they try to cross the Hatrack River, an unknown force tries to stop the as-yet-unborn Alvin being born - since Alvin would be the seventh son of a seventh son, therefore possessing incredible powers as a Maker. The force sends a tree down the river to crush the wagon the pregnant Mrs. Miller is riding in. Her son Vigor diverts the tree, but is mortally wounded in the act. Because a seventh son must be born while the other six are alive, Vigor desperately clings to life until Alvin is born. Help is dispatched at the insistence of five-year-old "torch" (a person who, among other things, can see the life forces of people and under certain conditions, their myriad alternate futures) Peggy Guester, who sees Alvin and Alvin''s possible future as a Maker. As the years pass, Alvin avoids numerous attempts an unknown force to kill him, often helped by the intervention of a mysterious protector. Alvin''s father, a non-believer in God, believes that a water spirit is trying to kill Alvin. When Alvin is seven, a new Reverend, named Thrower, arrives in town, trying to build a church. Alvin''s father refuses to help, but Mrs. Miller has all of her sons work on building the church. When the ridgebeam is being place onto the church in construction, it shivers and breaks, seemingly about to fall on Alvin. However, mid-air, it breaks in two, and misses Alvin - yet another example of Alvin''s close-to-death experiences. When Alvin goes home, he provokes one of his sisters by poking her, so they get revenge on Alvin by putting needles into his night gown. Alvin avenges himself by using his knack to send cockroaches after his sisters. The plan works, Alvin winning a victory over his sisters. However, afterwards, he has a vision he dubs Shining Man, who makes him promise only to use his knack for good. When Alvin is ten, "Taleswapper" (William Blake) a traveling storyteller who arrives in the town Alvin''s parents have founded. After stopping by Alvin''s brother-in-law''s house (who directs Taleswapper to the Miller house), he visits the church, where he notices that the altar has been touched upon by an evil entity. Reverend Thrower kicks him out, and Taleswapper goes to the Miller''s, where his timely intervention stops Mr. Miller from killing Alvin. Taleswapper is welcomed in. Taleswapper helps to put a name to the unknown force that tries to stop Alvin from realizing his true powers as a Maker: the Unmaker. Meanwhile, the Reverend Philadelphia Thrower becomes a tool of the Unmaker - who was the evil force that touched the altar. Soon the Miller family goes to a quarry to cut out a millstone. Here Alvin''s knack is revealed - single-handedly he cut the millstone through hard rock. During the night, Taleswapper and Mr. Miller guard the millstone. Mr. Miller tells Taleswapper a story about how a force is trying to use him to kill Alvin - revealing the reason why Mr. Miller was about to kill Alvin when Taleswapper first arrived. Taleswapper advises Mr. Miller to send Alvin away to someplace where he may be safe. The next day the millstone is taken home. The Unmaker finally manages to injure Alvin, by making a millstone fall on him. Taleswapper encourages him to heal himself. Alvin does so, but finds that a part of his bone he cannot heal alone, and Alvin falls into a time of bad health. He realizes that he might need outside help to heal himself. Reverend Thrower (acting as a surgeon) attempts to kill him, but finds himself unable to by a mysterious force. Alvin heals himself (with the aid of his brother Measure, who performs the surgery). Alvin contracted as an apprentice to a blacksmith in the town on the Hatrack River where he was born. Taleswapper meets up with Peggy. It is revealed that she, using her torch powers and Alvin''s birth caul, had protected Alvin all his years, and the Unmaker was only able to hurt Alvin with the millstone because Alvin himself overrode her powers that tried to save him. The book''s sequel, second in the tales of Alvin''s life, is Red Prophet.

Seventh Son

Sent by the Humanx Commonwealth Science Council, a team of explorers manage to find the planet Quofum—which only occasionally appears on long range scans. Since the planet is outside of the Commonwealth territory their mission is deemed minor and unimportant. The team’s four scientists—two human males, one human female and one male thranx—initially discover four separate, unique sentient species. Combined with Quofum’s nine percent alcohol oceans, its unstable appearance is seemingly part of the nature of Quofum: every species on Quofum is seemingly unrelated—casting well-established scientific notions of evolution into doubt. When the team’s mechanic, Salvador Araza murders the ship’s captain—revealing himself to be a member of the assassin clan, the Qwarm—the scientific exploration nearly ends. Before stranding the scientists on Quofum, Araza kills one member of the team who tries to stop him from stealing the ship’s shuttle. Upon returning to the ship Araza leaves Quofum but quickly discovers he is not in any part of the known universe. Unknowingly he left the planet while it was in an alternate universe where it periodically hides. Upon realizing his mistake, Araza tries to re-locate Quofum, but fails—stranding himself in the alternate universe. The three remaining scientists fall into a survivor’s depression realizing their small expedition won’t be missed while also lacking a means to return home on their own. They continue to explore and document Quofum’s flora and fauna, documenting upwards of ten different sentient species of various degrees of technological development. Eventually they happen upon an entrance to the inner workings of the planet. The ancient race (unnamed, but obviously the Xunca) that once inhabited Quofum altered their planet when they realized the inter-galactic Great Evil was eventually coming to their corner of the universe. The main alternation was to give Quofum the ability to shift to a different universe to protect itself. They also started multiple experiments to create different diverse races in an attempt to find a species that could trigger the "Great Attractor device" they set up in the Norma cluster to fight the Great Evil. The solution to the problem, and the conclusion to the storyline is actually revealed in Flinx Transcendent.

Quofum

Charlie Decker, a Maine high school senior, is called to meeting with his principal over a previous incident in which Decker attacked his chemistry teacher with a heavy wrench. For unknown reasons, Charlie subjects the principal to a series of insulting remarks, resulting in his expulsion. Charlie storms out of the office and retrieves a pistol from his locker, setting its contents on fire. He then returns to his classroom and fatally shoots his Algebra teacher. The fire triggers an alarm, but Charlie forces his classmates to stay in the classroom, killing another teacher when he enters. As the students and teachers evacuate the school, police and media arrive at the scene. In the following four hours, Charlie toys with various authority figures who attempt to negotiate with him, including the principal, the school psychologist, and the local police chief. Charlie gives them certain commands, threatening to kill students if they do not comply. Charlie also admits to his hostages that he does not know what has compelled him to commit his deeds, believing he will regret them when the situation is over. As his fellow students start identifying with Charlie, he unwittingly turns his class into a sort of psychotherapy group, causing his schoolmates to semi-voluntarily tell embarrassing secrets regarding themselves and each other. Interspersed throughout are narrative flashbacks to Charlie''s troubled childhood, particularly his tumultuous relationship with his abusive father. Several notable incidents include a violent disagreement between two female students, and a SWAT team sniper shooting Charlie in the chest. However, Charlie survives due to the bullet striking his locker''s padlock, which he had earlier placed in his shirt pocket. Charlie finally comes to the realization that one student is really being held there against his will: a seeming "big man on campus" named Ted Jones, who is harboring his own secrets. Ted realizes this and attempts to escape the classroom, but the other students brutally assault him, driving him into a battered catatonic state. At 1:00 PM, Charlie releases the students. When the police chief enters the classroom, he shoots the now-unarmed Charlie when he attempts suicide by cop. Charlie survives and is found not guilty by reason of insanity, committed to a psychiatric hospital in Augusta until he is no longer a threat to society. The story ends with Charlie addressing the reader, "I have to turn off the light now. Good night."

Rage

"Rab and His Friends" is a simple story of how John Brown''s teacher and employer, Doctor James Syme, taught and operated. The other main characters are Rab, a ferocious dog, his owner the Howgate Carter Jamie, and the Carter''s ailing wife. The story begins with a fight between Rab and a bull-terrier and ends with the faithful sheep dog''s funeral. Ailie had a lump in her breast. “One fine October afternoon I ( the student ) was leaving the Hospital and saw the large gates open and in walked Rab with that great and easy saunter of his. After him came Jess, now white from age, with her cart and in it a woman carefully wrapped up, the Carrier leading the horse anxiously and looking back. When he saw me, James, (for his name was James Noble), he made a curt and grotesque bow, and said, Maister John, this is the mistress; she has got a trouble in her breest some kind of income we are thinking. By this time I saw the woman''s face; she was sitting on a sack filled with straw with her husband''s plaid round her and had his big coat with its large white metal buttons over her feet. Had Solomon in all his glory been handing down the Queen of Sheba at his palace gate, he would not have done it more daintily that did James the Howgate Carrier when he had lifted down Ailie, his wife. Rab led the way into the consulting room, grim and comic, willing to be happy and confidential, Ailie sat down, undid her open gown and her lawn handkerchief round her neck and without a word showed me her right breast. I looked at and examined it carefully. What could I say? There it was, hard as stone, a centre of horrid pain. Next day my master, the surgeon, examined Ailie. It could be removed; it would give her speedy relief. She curtsied. "Tomorrow” said the kind surgeon - a man of few words. The following day, at noon, the students came in, hurrying up the stair, eager to secure good places. The theatre is crowded; much talk and fun, and all the cordiality and stir of youth. The surgeon with his staff of assistants is there. In comes Ailie: one look at her quiets and abates the eager students. That beautiful old woman is too much for them; they sit down, and are dumb. These rough boys feel the power of her presence. She walks in quickly, but without haste; dressed in her mutch, her neckerchief, her white dimity short-gown, black bombazeen petticoat, showing her white worsted stockings and her carpet shoes. Ailie stepped up, and laid herself on the table, as her friend the surgeon told her; arranged herself, gave a rapid look at James, shut her eyes, rested herself on me, and took my hand. The operation was at once begun; it was necessarily slow; chloroform was then unknown. The pale face showed its pain, but was still and silent. Rab''s soul was working within him; he growled and gave now and then a sharp impatient yelp; but James had him firm. It is over; she is dressed, steps gently and decently down from the table, looks for James; then turning to the surgeons and the students, she curtsies, - and in a low, clear voice, begs their pardon if she has behaved ill. All of us wept like children; the surgeon happed her up carefully, - and, resting on James and me, Ailie went to her room. We put her to bed. James said, ''Maister John, I''ll be her nurse”, and as swift and tender as any woman, was that horny-handed, peremptory little man. As before, they spoke little. For some days Ailie did well. The wound healed ''by the first intention''; for as James said, ''Oor Ailie''s skin''s ower clean to beil''. The students came in quiet and anxious. She said she liked to see their young, honest faces. Four days after the operation, my patient had a sudden and long shivering, a ''groosin'', as she called it. Her eyes were too bright, her cheek coloured; she was restless, and ashamed of being so; mischief had begun. On looking at the wound, a blush of red told the secret; her pulse was rapid, her breathing anxious and quick, she wasn’t herself, as she said, and was vexed at her restlessness. We tried what we could, but she died in three to four days. No asepsis, a dog in theatre and no anaesthesia. Speed, trust and hope.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way

By Bruce Campbell

A Live Coal in the Sea

By Madeleine L''Engle

The Enchantress: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

By Michael Scott

Ocean of Blood

By Darren Shan

The Brooklyn Follies

By Paul Auster

Flux

By Stephen Baxter

Star of the Sea

By Joseph O''Connor

Things Could Be Worse

By Lily Brett

Seventh Son

By Orson Scott Card

Quofum

By Alan Dean Foster

Rage

By Stephen King

Rab and his Friends

By John Brown