In short, the arrangement provided duplicate sources, in vest-pocket
size, of power for operating a mechanical heart. The electricity
worked the air-pumps, which in turn supplied the little silver
egg--implanted in the patient--with both pressure and vacuum, while
doubtless the artificial organ itself housed a valve system which
did the rest. The regulating device kept the blood circulating at
the proper rate.
The surgeon seemed satisfied with it all, and, after another
critical examination of the patient, glanced about the room,
straightened up, took a deep breath, and spoke:
"Quick work. Thanks very much, everybody."
And Billie did not know which to be the more astonished at: the fact
that the voice was unmistakably a woman's, or that she, Billie, was
able to understand all that was said. She did not fully appreciate
until afterward that it was her own brain which did the translating;
the surgeon's subconscious mind had merely furnished a thought-image
which would have been exactly the same, regardless of language.
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