Utterly exhausted, he slept until noon. When he woke, it was with the feeling that something vitally important had happened. He could not remember what it was until he heard the rustling of paper and saw the two telegrams. He read them once more, in the clear light of day, fearing to find the message but a fantasy of the night. To his unbounded relief, it was still there--no dream of water to the man dying of thirst, but a living reality that sunlight did not change.
"Thank G.o.d," he cried aloud, sobbing for very joy, "Thank G.o.d!"
Meanwhile, the Resourceful One had shown the nurse how to cut a sleeve out of one of Allison"s old coats, and open the under-arm seam. Having done this, she was requested to treat a negligee shirt in the same way.
Then the village barber was sent for, and instructed to do his utmost.
"Funny," remarked Doctor Jack, pensively, "that n.o.body has thought of doing that before. If I hadn"t come just as I did, you"d soon have looked like a chimpanzee, and, eventually, you"d have been beyond the reach of anything but a lawn-mower. They didn"t even think to braid your hair and tie it with a blue ribbon."
The nurse laughed; so did Allison, but the pensive expression of the young man"s face did not change.
"I"ve had occasion lately," he continued, "to observe the powerful tonic effect of clothes. A woman patient told me once that the moral support, afforded by a well-fitting corset was inconceivable to the mind of a mere man. She said that a corset is to a woman what a hat is to a man-- it prepares for any emergency, enables one to meet life on equal terms, and even to face a rebellious cook or janitor with "that repose which marks the caste of Vere de Vere.""
"I"ve often wondered," returned Allison, "why I felt so much--well, so much more adequate with my hat on."
"Clear case of inherited instincts. The wild dog used to make himself a smooth bed in the rushes of long gra.s.s by turning around several times upon the selected spot. Consequently, the modern dog has to do the same stunt before he can go to sleep. The hat is a modification of the helmet, which always had to be worn outside the house, in the days when hold-ups and murders were even more frequent than now, and the desire for a walking-stick comes from the old fashion of carrying a spear or a sword. If a man took off his helmet, it was equivalent to saying: "In the presence of my friend, I am safe." When he takes off his hat to a lady now, he merely means: "You"re not a voter." You"ll notice that in any gathering of men, helmets are still worn."
So he chattered, with apparent unconcern, but, none the less, he was keenly watching his patient. With tact that would have done credit to a diplomat, he kept the conversation in agreeable channels. By noon, Allison had his clothes on, the coat being pinned under the left arm with two safety pins that did not show, and was out upon an upper veranda.
Doctor Jack encouraged him to walk whenever he felt that he could, even though it was only to the other end of the veranda and back to his chair. Somewhat to his astonishment, Allison began to feel better.
"I believe you"re a miracle-worker," he said. "Two days ago, I was in bed, with neither strength, ambition, nor hope. Now I"ve got all three."
"No miracle," replied the other modestly. "Merely sense."
That afternoon the Crosby twins telephoned to know whether they might call, and the nurse brought the query upstairs. "If they"re amusing,"
said the doctor, "let "em come."
Allison replied that the twins had been highly amusing--until they ran "The Yellow Peril" over his left hand. "Poor little devils," he mused; "they"ve got something on their minds."
"Mighty lucky for you that it wasn"t a macadamised boulevard instead of a sandy country road," observed the doctor. "The softness underneath has given us a doubt to work on."
"How so?"
"It"s easier, to crush anything on a hard surface than it is on a pillow, isn"t it?"
"Of course--I hadn"t thought of that. If there had been more sand--"
"I look to you to furnish that," returned the other with a quick twist of meaning. "You"ve got plenty of sand, if you have half a chance to show it."
"How long--when do you think you"ll know?" Allison asked, half afraid of the answer.
"If I knew, I"d be glad to tell you, but I don"t. I"ve found out that it"s easier to say "I don"t know" straight out in plain English than it is to side-track. It used to be bad form, professionally, to admit ignorance, but it isn"t now. People soon find it out and you might as well tell "em at the start. You just go on and keep the fuel bins well supplied and the red corpuscles busy and pretty soon we"ll see what"s doing."
The twins were late in coming, because they had had a long discussion as to the propriety of wearing their sable garments. Romeo, disliking the trouble of changing, argued that Allison ought to see that their grief was sincere. Juliet insisted that the sight would prove depressing.
At the end of a lively hour, they compromised upon white, which was worn by people in mourning and was not depressing. Juliet donned a muslin gown and Romeo put on his tennis flannels, which happened to be clean.
As they took pains to walk upon the gra.s.s and avoid the dusty places, they were comparatively fresh when they arrived, though very warm from the long walk.
Both had inexpressibly dreaded seeing Allison, yet the reality lacked the antic.i.p.ated terror, as often happens. They liked Doctor Jack immensely from the start and were greatly relieved to see Allison up and outdoors, instead of lying in a darkened room.
Almost before they knew it, they were describing their sacrificial rites and their repentance, with a wealth of detail that left nothing to be desired. Doctor Jack was suddenly afflicted with a very bad cough, but he kept his back to them and used his handkerchief a great deal. Even Allison was amused by their austere young faces and the earnest devotion with which they had performed their penance.
"We"ve had your car fixed," said Romeo. "It"s all right now."
"We"ve paid the bill," added Juliet.
"We want to pay everything," Romeo continued.
"Everything," she echoed.
"I don"t know that I want the car," Allison answered, kindly. "If I had been a good driver, I could have backed into the turn before you got there and let you whiz by. I"m sorry yours is burned. Won"t you take mine?"
"No," answered Romeo, with finality.
"We don"t deserve even to ride in one," Juliet remarked. "We ought to have to walk all the rest of our lives."
"You people make me tired," interrupted Doctor Jack. "Just because you"ve been mixed up in an accident, you"re about to get yourselves locoed, as they say out West, on the subject of automobiles. By careful cultivation, you could learn to shy at a baby carriage and throw a fit at the sight of a wheelbarrow. The time to nip that is right at the start."
"How would you do it?" queried Allison. His heart was heavy with dread of all automobiles, past, present, and to come."
"Same way they break a colt. Get him used to the harness, then to shafts, and so on. Now, I can run any car that ever was built--make it stand on its hind wheels if I want to and roll through a crowd without making anybody even wink faster. I think I"ll go out and get that one and take the whole bunch of you out for a cure."
Juliet was listening attentively, with her blue eyes wide open and her scarlet lips parted. Doctor Jack was subtly conscious of a new sensation.
"I see," she said. "Romie made me hold snakes by their tails until I wasn"t afraid of "em, and made me kill mice and even rats. Only sissy girls are afraid of snakes and rats. And just because we were both afraid to go by the graveyard at night, we made ourselves do it. We can walk through it now, even if there isn"t any moon, and never dodge a single tombstone."
"Was it hard to learn to do it?" asked the doctor. If he was amused, he did not show it now.
"No," Juliet answered, "because just before we did it, we read about it"s being called "G.o.d"s Acre." So I told Romie that G.o.d must be there as much or more than He was anywhere else, so how could we be afraid?"
"After you once get it into your head that G.o.d is everywhere," added Romeo, "you can"t be afraid because there"s nothing to be afraid of."
The simple, child-like faith appealed to both men strongly. Allison was much surprised, for he had not imagined that there was a serious side to the twins.
"Will you forgive us?" asked Juliet, humbly.
"Please," added Romeo.
"With all my heart," Allison responded, readily. "I"ve never thought there was anything to forgive."
"Then our sacrifice is over," cried Juliet, joyously.
"Yes," her brother agreed, with a wistful expression on his face, "and to-night we can have something to eat."
The twins never lingered long after the object of a visit was accomplished, so they rose almost immediately to take their departure.
"Cards, Romie," Juliet suggested, in an audible whisper.
Romeo took a black bordered envelope from an inner pocket and gravely extended a card to each. Then they bowed themselves out, resisting with difficulty the temptation to slide down the banister instead of going downstairs two steps at a time.