He nodded. "Operating. It"s the usual way, the thing we all expect to get some day. I"ve been lucky so far; that"s all."
"But--you didn"t give yourself a scratch; you never have done that?"
"No, not up to date anyhow. I might easily enough; I just haven"t happened to."
"Amy didn"t?--She couldn"t!"
"She didn"t--and couldn"t, thank heaven. She"d kill herself if she ever did that unlucky trick. No, she wasn"t a.s.sisting this time. It was an emergency case, early yesterday morning--one of the other men brought in the case. It was hopeless, but the family wanted us to try."
"What sort of a case, Red?" Ellen"s very lips had grown white.
"Now see here, sweetheart, I had to tell you because I knew I was in for a little trouble, but there"s no need of your knowing any more than this about it. It was just an accident--n.o.body"s fault. The blamed electric lights went off--for not over ten seconds, but it was the wrong ten seconds. I didn"t even know I was scratched till the thing began to set up a row. I don"t even yet understand how I got it in the palm.
That"s unusual."
"Who did it?"
"I"m not going to tell you. He feels badly enough now, and it wasn"t his fault. He asked me at the time if he had touched me in the dark and I said no. It was as slight a thing as that. If we"d known it at the time we"d have fixed it up. We didn"t, and that"s all there was to it."
"You must tell me what sort of a case it was, Red."
He looked down at her. The two pairs of eyes met unflinchingly for a minute, and each saw straight into the depths of the other. Burns thought the eyes into which he gazed had never been more beautiful; stabbed though they were now with intense shock, they were yet speaking to him such utter love as it is not often in the power of man to inspire.
He managed still to talk lightly. "I expect you know. What"s the use of using scientific terms? The case was rottenly septic; never mind the cause. But--I"m going to be able to throw the thing off. Just give me time."
"Let me see it, Red."
Reluctantly he turned the hand over, showing the small spot in which was quite clearly the beginning of trouble. "Doesn"t look like much, does it?" he said.
"And it is not even protected."
"What was the use? The infection came at the time."
"And you did all that work in the windbreak. Oh, you ought not to have done that!"
"Nonsense, dear. I wanted to, and I did it mostly with my left hand anyhow."
"Your blood must be of the purest," she said steadily.
"It sure is. I expect I"ll get my reward now for letting some things alone that many men care for, and that I might have cared for, too--if it hadn"t been for my mother--and my wife."
"You are strong--strong."
"I am--a regular t.i.tan. Yes, we"ll fight this thing through somehow; only I have to warn you it"ll likely be a fight. I"ll go to the hospital."
"No!" It was a cry.
"No? Better think about that. Hospital"s the best place for such cases."
"It can"t be better than home--when it"s like ours. We"ll fight our fight there, Red--and nowhere else."
He put one hand to his arm suddenly with an involuntary movement and a contraction of the brow. But in the next breath he was smiling again.
"Perhaps we"d better be getting back," he admitted. "My head"s beginning to be a trifle unsteady. But, I"m glad a thousand times we"ve had this day."
"Was it wise to take it, dear?"
"I"m sure of it. What difference could it make? Now we"ve had it--to remember."
She shivered, there in the warm October sunlight. A chill seemed suddenly to have come into the air, and to have struck her heart.
No more words pa.s.sed between them until they were almost home. Then Ellen said, very quietly: "Red, would you be any safer in the hospital than at home?"
"Not safer, but where it would be easier for all concerned, in case things get rather thick."
"Easier for you, too?"
He looked at her. "Do I have to speak the truth?"
"You must. If you would rather be there--"
"I would rather be as near you as I can stay. There"s no use denying that. But Van Horn wants me at the hospital."
"Is he to look after you?"
"Yes. Queer, isn"t it? But he wants the job. No," at the unspoken question in her face, "it wasn"t Van. But he came in just as the trouble began to show and--well, you know we"re the best of friends now, and I think I"d rather have him--and Buller, good old Buller--than anybody else."
"Oh, but you won"t need them both?" she cried, and then bit her lip.
"Of course not. But you know how the profession are--if one of them gets down they all fall over one another to offer their services."
"They may all offer them, but they will have to come to you. You are going to stay at home. You shall have the big guest room--made as you want it. Just tell me what to do--"
"You may as well strip it," he told her quietly. "And--Len, I"d rather be right there than anywhere else in the world. I think, when it"s ready, I"ll just go to bed. I"d bluff a bit longer if I could, but--perhaps--"
"I"m sure you ought," she said as quietly as he. But she was very glad when the car turned in at the driveway.
CHAPTER XV
CLEARED DECKS
Two hours later, under her direction and with her efficient help, Cynthia and Johnny Carruthers in medical parlance had "stripped" the guest room, putting it into the cleared bare order most useful for the purpose needed. If Ellen"s heart was heavy as she saw the change made she let nothing show. And when, presently, she called her husband from the couch where he had lain, feverish and beginning to be tortured by pain, and put him between the cool, fresh sheets, she had her reward in the look he gave, first at the room and then at her.
"Decks all cleared for action," he commented with persistent cheerfulness, "and the captain on deck. Well--let them begin to fire; we"re ready. All I know is that I"m glad I"m on your ship. Just pray, Len, will you--that I keep my nerve?"
This was the beginning, as Burns himself had foreseen, of that which proved indeed to be a long fight. Strong of physique though he unquestionably was, pure as was the blood which flowed in his veins, the poison he had received unwittingly and therefore taken no immediate measures to combat was able to overcome his powers of resistance and take shattering hold upon his whole organism. There followed day after day and week after week of prostrating illness, during which he suffered much torturing pain in the affected hand and arm, with profound depression of mind and body, though he bore both as bravely as was to have been expected. Two nurses, Amy Mathewson and Selina Arden, alternated in attendance upon him, day and night, and Ellen herself was always at hand to act as subst.i.tute, or to share in the care of the patient when it was more than ordinarily exacting.