"Quick, I think, is preferable. Even if they do come back the next day, there's no sense in sentencing anyone to a slow, painful death of gangrene or suffocation or some such thing. Call me sentimental, if you will."

Watson shrugs, though it's a vague, helpless sort of gesture.

"Forgive me if the question is impertinent, Mr. Maximilien," because it's been nagging at him and he really wants to know, "but are you entirely mechanical?"