"There"s nothing to tell." All the self-a.s.surance had gone out of the quack"s voice.
"Father, does Certina cure Bright"s disease?"
"Cure? Why, Boyee, what _is_ a cure?"
"Does it cure it?" insisted Hal.
"Sit down and cool off. You"ve let that skunk, McQuiggan, get you all excited."
"This began before McQuiggan."
"Then you"ve been talking to some jealous doctor-crank."
"For G.o.d"s sake, Father, answer my plain question."
"Why, there"s no such thing as an actual cure for Bright"s disease."
"Don"t you say in the advertis.e.m.e.nts that Certina will cure it?"
"Oh, advertis.e.m.e.nts!" returned the quack with an uneasy smile. "n.o.body takes an advertis.e.m.e.nt for gospel."
"I"m answered. Will it cure diabetes?"
"No medicine will. No doctor can. They"re incurable diseases. Certina will do as much--"
"Is it true that alcohol simply hastens the course of the disease?"
"Authorities differ," said the quack warily. "But as the disease is incurable--"
"Then it"s all lies! Lies and murder!"
"You"re excited, Boy-ee," said the charlatan with haggard forbearance.
"Let me explain for a moment."
"Isn"t it pretty late for explanations between you and me?"
"This is the gist of the proprietary trade," said the Doctor, picking his words carefully. "Most diseases cure themselves. Medicine isn"t much good. Doctors don"t know a great deal. Now, if a patent medicine braces a patient up and gives him courage, it does all that can be done. Then, the advertising inspires confidence in the cure and that"s half the battle. There"s a lot in Christian Science, and a lot in common between Christian Science and the proprietary business. Both work on the mind and help it to cure the body. But the proprietary trade throws in a few drugs to brace up the system, allay symptoms, and push along the good work. There you have Certina."
Hal shook his head in dogged misery. "It can"t cure. You admit it can"t cure. And it may kill, in the very cases where it promises to cure. How could you take money made that way?"
A flash of cynicism hardened the handsome old face. "Somebody"s going to make a living off the great American sucker. If it wasn"t us, it"d be somebody else." He paused, sighed, and in a phrase summed up and crystallized the whole philosophy of the medical quack: "Life"s a cut-throat game, anyway."
"And we"re living on the blood," said Hal. "It"s a good thing," he added slowly, "that I didn"t know you as you are before Milly Neal"s death."
"Why so?"
"Because," cried the son fiercely, "I"d have published the whole truth of how she died and why, in the "Clarion.""
"It isn"t too late yet," retorted Dr. Surtaine with pained dignity, "if you wish to strike at the father who hasn"t been such a bad father to you. But would you have told the truth of your part in it?"
"My part in it?" repeated Hal, in dull puzzlement. "You mean the ad?"
"You know well enough what I mean. Boy-ee, Boy-ee,"--there was an edge of genuine agony in the sonorous voice,--"we"ve drawn far apart, you and I. Is all the wrong on my side? Can you judge me so harshly, with your own conscience to answer?"
"What I"ve got on my conscience you"ve put there. You"ve made me turn back on every principle I have. I"ve dishonored myself and my office for you. You"ve cost me the respect of the men I work with, and the faith of the best friend I"ve got in the world."
"The _best_ friend, Boy-ee?" questioned the Doctor gently.
"The best friend: McGuire Ellis."
Hal"s gaze met his father"s. And what he saw there all but unmanned him.
From the liquid depths of the old quack"s eyes, big and soft like an animal"s, there welled two great tears, to trickle slowly down the set face.
Hal turned and stumbled from the office.
Hardly knowing whither he went, he turned in at the first open door, which chanced to be Shearson"s. There he sat until his self-control returned. As the aftermath of his anger there remained with him a grim determination. It was implicit in his voice, as he addressed Shearson, who walked in upon him.
"Cut out every line of medical from the paper."
"When?" gasped Shearson.
"Now. For to-morrow"s paper."
"But, Mr. Surtaine--"
"Every--d.a.m.ned--line. And if any of it ever gets back, the man responsible loses his job."
"Yes, sir," said the cowed and amazed Shearson.
Hal returned to his sanctum, to find Ellis in his own place and Dr.
Surtaine gone.
"Ellis, you put that motto on my desk."
"Yes."
"What for?"
"Lest we forget," repeated Ellis.
"Not much danger of that," replied his employer bitterly. "Now, I want you to take it down."
"Is that an order?"
"Would you obey it if it were?"
"No."