"Always. Not the ghost of a chance of anything else. Never was.... Don't
know how anybody calling himself a specialist could have made a mistake
about it."
"He'll live, I suppose?"
"_Live_?" He put his soft flabby hand over my wrist in a way intended to
be encouraging. "My dear sir, there's no need to be _too_ despondent. With
luck he'll live as long as you or me--maybe longer."