"Anything is good that will restore suspended circulation," he replied; "we"ll try it. But wait a moment. I"ve employed a nice test, and if there"s life I think this little expedient will reveal it." He held the child"s hand, and I noted that a string had been tied around one of the small white fingers, and that he intently watched the part of the finger beyond the string. I comprehended the act at once, and recognized the truth that there would be little hope of life if this test failed. If there was any circulation at all the string would not prevent the blood flowing out through the artery, but it would prevent its return, and, therefore, if there was life a faint color would manifest itself in the finger. I bent over and held my breath in my eager scrutiny.
"The child"s alive!" I exclaimed.
By a quick, impressive gesture the physician checked my manifestation of feeling and excitement as he said:
"Yes, she"s alive, and that"s about all. We"ll try a plunge in the hot bath, and then friction and artificial respiration again."
We set to work once more with double zeal under the inspiration of Miss Warren"s words and manner, but especially because a.s.sured that life still lingered. In less than a quarter of an hour there was a perceptible pulse. At last she was able to swallow a little stimulant, and the faint spark of life, of which we scarcely dared to speak lest our breath might extinguish it, began to kindle slowly. When at last she opened her eyes, Miss Warren turned hers heavenward with a fulness of grat.i.tude that must have been sweet to the fatherly heart of G.o.d if the words be true, "Like as a father pitieth his children."
Mrs. Yocomb threw herself on her knees by the bedside, sobbing, "Thank G.o.d! thank G.o.d!"
Reuben was growing wild with joy, and the father, overwhelmed with emotion, was struggling to rise, when the doctor said, in low, decided tones:
"Hush! Nothing must be said or done to excite or surprise her. Mr. and Mrs. Yocomb, as you love your child, control yourselves. You, Mr.
Morton, would seem strange to her, and, with Reuben, had better leave us now. Miss Warren will help me, and I think all will be well."
"Don"t overtax Miss Warren," I urged, lingering anxiously at the door a moment.
She gave me a smiling, rea.s.suring nod, as much as to say that she would take care of herself.
"G.o.d bless her!" I murmured, as I sought my room. "I believe she has saved the child."
CHAPTER XV
MY FATE
Having lighted the lamp in my room, I looked around it with a delicious sense of proprietorship. Its quaint, homely comfort was just to my taste, and now appeared doubly attractive. Chief of all, it was a portion of the home I had had some part in saving, and we instinctively love that which ministers to our self-complacency. An old house seems to gain a life and being of its own, and I almost imagined it conscious of grat.i.tude that its existence had not been blotted out. Mrs. Yocomb"s cordial invitation to come and stay when I could gave me at the time a glad sense that I had found a country refuge to which I could occasionally escape when in need of rest. I felt now, however, as if the old walls themselves would welcome me. As to the inmates of the home, I feared that their grateful sense of the services I was so fortunate as to render might make their boundless sense of obligation embarra.s.sing to me. It would be their disposition to repay an ordinary favor tenfold, and they would always believe that Reuben and I had saved their lives, and the old home which no doubt had long been in their family.
"Well, I"ll never complain of fortune again," I thought, "since I"ve been permitted to do for these people what I have;" and I threw myself down on the lounge, conscious of the warm, comfortable glow imparted by dry clothes and the strong coffee, still more conscious of an inner satisfaction that the threatening events of the night had ended just as I could have wished.
"Since it was to be, thank G.o.d I was here and was able to act for the best," I murmured. "The June sunshine and the lightning have thrown considerable light on my future. I said to Emily Warren, "What could I have done without you in this emergency?" With still greater emphasis I feel like asking, What would life be without you? It seems absurd that one person should become essential to the life of another in a few brief hours. And yet, why absurd? Is it not rather in accord with the deepest and truest philosophy of life? Is the indissoluble union of two lives to result from long and careful calculations of the pros and cons? In true marriage it seems to me the soul should recognize its mate when meeting it."
It thus may be seen that I was no exception to that large cla.s.s who accept or create a philosophy pleasing to it, and there is usually enough truth in any system to prevent its being wholly unreasonable.
I heard a step in the hall, and as I had left my door open so that at any sound I could spring up, I was so fortunate as to intercept the object of my thoughts. Her face was full of deep content, but very pale. To the eager questioning of my manner, she replied:
"The doctor says Zillah is doing as well as we could expect. Oh, I"m so glad!" "Miss Warren, you don"t know how pale you are. When are _you_ going to rest? I"ve been lying down, and my conscience troubled me as I thought of you still working."
"I never imagined that editors had such tender consciences," she said, with a low laugh, and she vanished into Adah"s room.
I knew she wouldn"t stay long, and remained at the end of the hall, looking out of the window. The lightning flashes had grown faint and distant, but they were almost incessant, and they revealed that the clouds were growing thin toward the west, while near the horizon a star glimmered distinctly.
"Miss Warren," I called, as she came out of Adah"s room, "I"ve a good omen to show you. Do you see that star in the west? I think the morning will be cloudless?"
"But those flashes prove that the storm is causing fear and loss to other and distant homes."
"Not at all. It is, no doubt, causing "better grain and clearer skies,"
as Mr. Yocomb said. Such an experience as we have had to-night, while having its counterparts not infrequently, take the world over, is by no means common."
"Oh, I hope we may have no more heavy thunderstorms this summer. They are about the only drawback to this lovely season."
"You are perfectly safe so long as you remain here," I laughed; "you know the lightning never strikes twice in the same place."
"I hope to stay here, but for better reasons than that."
"So do I."
"I should think you would. You, certainly, are no longer homeless. Mr.
and Mrs. Yocomb will adopt you in spite of yourself as soon as they realize it all. The string of the latch will always hang outside of the door for you, I can tell you; and a nice place it will be for a city man to come."
"And for a city woman, too. Mrs. Yocomb had adopted you before all this happened, and I don"t believe she"ll forget that you really saved little Zillah"s life."
"The dear little thing!" she exclaimed, tears starting to her eyes.
"How pathetic her little unconscious form was!"
"To me," I replied earnestly, "it was the most exquisite and sacred thing I ever saw. I don"t wonder you felt as you did when you said, "I can"t--I won"t give her up," for it seemed at the moment almost as if my life depended on her life, so powerful was her hold on my sympathy.
The doctor spoke truer than he thought, for it seems as if the lightning had fused me into this family, and my grief would have been almost as great as Reuben"s had little Zillah not revived."
"I feel as if it would have broken my heart," and her tears fell fast.
Dashing them away she said, "I cry as well as laugh too easily, and I"m often so provoked that I could shake myself. I must say that I think we"re all becoming well acquainted for people who have met so recently."
"Oh, as for you," I replied, "I knew you well in some previous state of existence, and have just met you again."
"Mr. Morton," she said, turning on me brusquely, "I shall not be quite sure as to your entire sanity till you have had a long sleep. You have seemed a little out of your head on some points ever since our extended acquaintance began. You have appeared impressed or oppressed with the hallucination that this day--is it to-day or to-morrow?"
"It"s to-day for a little while longer," I replied, looking at my watch.
"Well, then, that to-day was "a day of fate," and you made me nervous on the subject--"
"Then I"m as sane as you are."
"No, I hadn"t any such nonsense in my mind till you suggested it, but having once entertained the idea it haunted me."
"Yes, and it haunts you still," I said, eagerly.
"What time is it, Mr. Morton?"
"It lacks but a few moments of midnight."
"No," she said, laughingly, "I don"t believe anything more will happen to-day, and as soon as the old clock downstairs strikes twelve I think the light of reason will burn again in your disordered mind.
Good-night."
Instead of going, however, she hesitated, looked at me earnestly a moment, then asked:
"You said you found me unconscious?"