"Good. Fine. You"ll be O.K. shortly."
The President"s voice became stronger. "I"m glad you"re here, Frank.
Tell me--is it ... bad?"
""Tain"t good, kid," Dr. Frank said with a bedside grin. "You can"t expect a stroke to put you in the best of health, now, can you?"
The lopsided smile came back. "Guess not." The smile went away, to be replaced by a puzzled frown. "My whole left side feels dead. What"s the matter?"
Instead of answering, Dr. Frank Cannon turned to the Navy medic. "I"ll let the commander explain that. What"s your diagnosis, doctor?"
The commander ran his tongue nervously over his lips before speaking.
"There"s apparently a small blood clot in the brain, Mr. President, interfering with the functioning of the efferent nerves."
"Permanent?"
"We don"t know yet, sir. We hope not."
President Cannon sighed. "Well. Thank you, commander. And now, if you don"t mind, I"d like to speak to my brother--alone."
The commander glanced at Dr. Frank, then back at the President.
"Certainly, sir." He turned to leave.
"Just a moment, commander," Dr. Frank said. "There"ll be news reporters out there. Tell them--" He frowned a little. "Tell them that the President is conscious and quite rational, but that there is still some weakness. I don"t think anything more than that will be necessary."
"I agree. Certainly, doctor." At the door, the commander paused and said: "I"ll keep everyone out until you call."
"Thanks," said Dr. Frank as the door closed behind the Navy man.
As soon as it closed, President Cannon struggled to get up.
"Don"t try it, kid," the doctor said, "those muscles are paralyzed, even if you aren"t sick. Here, let me help you."
"How did it come off?" Cannon asked as his brother propped him up.
"Perfectly. No one doubts that it"s a stroke. Now what?"
"Give me a cigarette."
"All right, but watch it. Use your right hand, and smoke with the right side of your mouth. Here." The doctor lit a cigarette and handed it to his brother. "Now, what"s the next step?"
"The next step is to tell Matthew Fisher," said the President.
Dr. Frank Cannon scowled. "Why? Why not just go through with the thing and let him be fooled along with the rest? It seems to me he"d be ...
well, more secure in his own position if he didn"t know."
"No." The President hunched himself up on his pillows. "Can"t you raise the head of this bed?"
Dr. Frank touched a b.u.t.ton on the bedside panel, and the upper portion of the bed rose smoothly at an angle. "Better?"
"Fine. Much better."
"You were saying--"
"Yeah. About Matt Fisher. He has to know. He"ll guess eventually, in the next four years, anyway--unless I hide away somewhere. And I have no intention of doing that.
"Oh, I"m not trying to show Matt what a great guy I am, Frank. You know better than that, and so will he. But Matt will have to have all the facts at hand, if he"s to do his job right, and it seems to me that this is a pretty important fact. What do you say, Frank?"
The doctor nodded slowly. "I think you know more about the situation than I do. And I trust your judgment, kid. And Matt"s, too, I guess."
"No." President Cannon"s voice was firm as he looked at his brother with one bright eye. "Don"t trust Matt"s judgment, because he doesn"t have any."
Dr. Frank looked astonished. "Then _what_--?" He stopped.
"Matthew Fisher," said President Cannon authoritatively, "doesn"t need judgment any more than _you_ need instinct. No more so, and no less. I said he doesn"t have any judgment, but that"s not exactly true. He has it, but he only uses it for routine work, just as you or I use instinct.
We can override our instinctive reactions when we have to. Matt can override his judgment when he has to.
"I don"t pretend to know how Fisher"s mind works. If I did, I wouldn"t be doing this. But I _do_ know that Matt Fisher--by some mental process I can"t even fathom--almost invariably knows the _right_ thing to do, and he knows it without using judgment."
"And you"re still convinced that this is the only way out?" Dr. Frank asked. "Couldn"t you stay in office and let him run things under cover?"
"We discussed all this months ago, Frank," Cannon said wearily. "My reasons remain the same. Matt couldn"t possibly operate efficiently if he had to go through me every time. And I am human, too; I"d have a tendency to impose my own judgment on his decisions.
"No, Frank; this is the only way it can work. This country needs Matthew Fisher as President, but he could never have been elected. Now I"ve done my job; now it"s time for me to get out of the way and turn the Presidency over to a man who can handle the office far better than any other man I know."
"You make him sound like some sort of superman," said Dr. Frank with a wry grin.
"h.e.l.l," said President Cannon, "you don"t think I"d turn this job over to anything less, do you?" He chuckled. "Call him in, will you?"
PRESIDENT CANNON RESIGNS!
Ill Health Given As Reason; Doctors Say Recovery Unlikely In Near Future.
VP Fisher To Take Oath Tomorrow.