The old lady turned her head and looked up at him. The note of confidence in his voice had evidently appealed to her.
"It"s my left leg. I think it"s broken just above the knee."
"Do you want me to put a splint on it?"
"Are you a doctor?"
"No, ma"am; but I can fix it so"s it won"t hurt you so bad when we move you," Quin replied.
"How do you know you can?"
Quin ran his fingers through his hair and smiled.
"Well, I wasn"t with the Ambulance Corps for six months in France for nothing."
Madam eyed him keenly for a moment; then, "Go ahead," she commanded.
A chorus of protests from the surrounding group only deepened her determination.
"It"s _my_ leg," she said irritably. "If he knows how to splint it, let him do it. I want to be taken upstairs."
It is difficult enough to apply a splint properly under favorable circ.u.mstances; but when one has only an umbrella and table napkins to work with, and is hemmed in by a doubtful and at times protesting audience, it becomes well-nigh impossible.
Quin worked slowly and awkwardly, putting the bones as nearly as possible in position and then binding them firmly in place. He paid no more attention to the agitated comments of those about him than he had paid to the whizzing bullets when he rendered first aid to a fallen comrade in No Man"s Land.
During the painful operation Madam lay with rigid jaws and clenched fists. Small beads of perspiration gathered on her forehead and her lips were white. Now and then she flinched violently, but only once did she speak, and that was when Miss Enid held the smelling salts too close to her high-bridged nose.
"Haven"t I got enough to stand without that?" she sputtered, knocking the bottle into the air and sending the contents flying over the polished floor.
When Quin finished he looked at her with frank admiration.
"You got nerve, all right," he said; then he added gently: "Don"t you worry about getting upstairs; it won"t hurt you much now."
"You stay and help," said Madam peremptorily.
"Sure," said Quin.
It was not until she was in her own bed, and word had come that Dr.
Rawlins was on his way, that she would let Quin go, and even then she called him back.
"You! Soldier! Come here," was the faint edict from the canopied bed. She was getting very weak from the pain, and her words came in gasps. "Do you know where--the--Aristo Apartments are?"
"No, but I can find out," said Quin.
"I want you--to--go for my son--Mr. Randolph Bartlett. If he"s not at home--you find him. I"ll make it--worth your while."
"I"ll find him," Quin said, with a rea.s.suring pat on her wrinkled hand.
As he went into the hall, Eleanor slipped out of the adjoining room and followed him silently down the stairs. She did not speak until they were at the front door, and even then took the precaution of stepping outside.
"I just wanted to come down and say good-by," she said.
"But you surely won"t be going now?" said Quin hopefully.
"Yes, I"m to go. Grandmother has just told Aunt Isobel that everything is to be carried out exactly as she planned it. But I wish they"d let me stay and help. Poor granny!"
Her eyes brimmed with ready tears.
"She"ll pull through all right," said Quin, to whom the tear-dimmed eyes of youth were more unnerving than age"s broken bones. "Don"t worry, Miss Eleanor, please. What time does your train go in the morning?"
"Ten-thirty."
"I"ll be there at ten."
Eleanor brushed her tears away quickly. "No, no--you mustn"t," she said in quick alarm. "They don"t know that we ever saw each other before. They think you just happened to be pa.s.sing and ran in to help. Oh, I don"t want to give them any more trouble. Promise me not to come!"
"Well, when you come back, then?"
"Yes, yes, when I come back," she whispered hurriedly. Then she put out her hand impulsively. "I think you"ve been perfectly splendid to-night.
Good-by."
For a moment she stood there, her dainty figure silhouetted against the bright doorway, with the light shining through her soft hair giving her an undeserved halo. Then she was gone, leaving him on the steps in the moonlight, tenderly contemplating the hand that had just held hers.
CHAPTER 8
It was well that Quin had an errand to perform that night. His emotions, which had been acc.u.mulating compound interest since five o"clock, demanded an outlet in immediate action. He had not the faintest idea where the Aristo Apartments might be; but, wherever they were, he meant to find them. Consultation with a telephone book at the corner drug-store sent him across the city to a newer and more fashionable residence quarter. As he left the street-car at the corner indicated, he asked a man who was just dismounting from a taxi-cab for further information.
When the dapper gentleman, thus addressed, turned toward him, it was evident that he had dined not wisely but too well. He was at that mellow stage that radiates affection, and, having bidden a loving farewell to the taxi driver, he now linked his arm in Quin"s and repeated gaily:
""Risto? Of course I can find it for you, if it"s where it was this morning! Always make a point of helping a man that"s worse off than I am.
Always help a sholdier, anyhow. Take my arm, old chap. Take my cane, too.
I"ll help you."
Thus a.s.sisted and a.s.sisting, Quin good-humoredly allowed himself to be conducted in a zigzag course to the imposing doorway of a large apartment-house across the street.
"Forgive me f" taking you up stairway," apologized the affable gentleman.
"Mustn"t let elevator boy see you in this condishun. Take you up to my apartment. Put you bed in m" own room. Got to take care sholdiers."
At the second floor Quin tried to disentangle himself from his new-found protector.
"You can find your way home now, partner," he said. "I got to go down and find out which floor my party lives on."
But his companion held him tight.