Andrew's dreams of success and wealth were coming true. His practice was growing every week. His business relations with Hamson and Ivory were very close, and were earning him a lot of money. Deedman was also sending him patients. And now le Roy, who owned a large food factory, had offered him a post as medical adviser to his company. Andrew had a feeling of power; he could do nothing wrong.

Then - quite suddenly and without warning - his whole life was changed.

One evening in November the wife of a shoemaker came to his house. Her name was Mrs Vidler, a small, cheerful woman of middle age whom Andrew knew well.

'Doctor,' she said, 'my husband is ill. He has been ill for several weeks, but he refused to come to you because he didn't want to trouble you. Will you call and see him, Doctor?'

When Andrew called next morning, Harry Vidler was in bed with a bad pain in his stomach. He examined Vidler and found that, although not seriously ill, he needed an operation to be done quickly. He explained this to the Vidlers, who asked him to arrange for a good surgeon to do the operation in a nursing home.

That evening Andrew telephoned Ivory. 'I would like you to do a stomach operation, Ivory,' he said. 'The patient is a shoemaker. He has very little money; and so I shall be grateful if you will reduce your charges for him.'

Ivory was pleasant. They discussed the case for several minutes; and then Andrew telephoned Mrs Vidler.

'Mr Ivory, a West End surgeon, has agreed to do this operation for thirty pounds,' he told her. 'His usual charge is a hundred pounds. So I think this is very satisfactory.'

'Yes, Doctor, yes.' She sounded worried. 'It's very kind of you to arrange this for us. We'll find the money somehow.'

A few days later, Ivory did the operation in a private nursing home. Vidler was very cheerful. Before he was put to sleep, he smiled at Andrew and said: 'I shall feel better after this.' The next moment he was asleep.

Ivory took his surgeon's knife and made a long cut in Vidler's stomach. At once a large flesh bag of poisonous matter sprang out of the wound like a wet ball. This bag was the cause of Vidler's pain. Ivory tried to catch hold of the ball and cut it away from the inside of the stomach. He must have tried 20 times, but on each attempt the ball slipped out of his hand.