"I"ve got a proposition to put up to you," she began, "a scheme that I had in the back of my head ever since you started in to "make the desert bloom like the rose.""
Her covert sneer did not escape him, but he made no sign.
She went on--
"It"s an easy graft; it"s done everywhere, and I know it"ll work here like a breeze."
Graft was a raw word and Symes"s face hardened slightly, but he waited to hear her out.
"You"re putting a big force of men on the ditch, I understand. How many?"
"About five hundred."
"Give me a medical contract."
So that was it? His eyes lit up with understanding. She wanted to make money--through him? Her tone and att.i.tude was not exactly that of a person asking a favor. A faint smile of derision curved his lips. She saw it and added--
"I"ll give you a rake-off."
He resented both the words and her tone, but she only laughed at the frown which appeared for a moment.
"You"re "out for the stuff," aren"t you?" she demanded. "Well, so am I."
He regarded her silently. Had she always been so coa.r.s.e of speech, he wondered, or for some reason he could not divine was she merely throwing off restraint? Brushing the ashes from his cigar with deliberation, he inquired non-committally--
"Just what _is_ your scheme?"
"It"s simple enough, and customary. Take a dollar a month out of your employees" wages for medical services and I"ll look after them and put up some kind of a jimcrow hospital in case they get too bad to lie in the bunk-house on the works. I can run in some kind of a cheap woman to cook and look after them and you bet the grub won"t founder "em. Why, there"s nothin" to it, Mr. Symes--I can run the joint, give you two bits out of every dollar, and still make money."
Symes scarcely heard what she said for looking at her face. It seemed transformed by cupidity, a kind of mean penuriousness which he had observed in the faces of persons of small interests, but never to such a degree. "She"s money mad," Grandmother Kunkel had said; the old woman was right.
He was not squeamish, Andy P. Symes, and it was true that he was "out for the stuff," but the woman"s bald statement shocked him. Upon a few occasions Symes had been surprised to find that he had standards of conduct, unsuspected ideals, and somehow, her att.i.tude toward her profession outraged his sense of decency. If a minister of the gospel had hung over his Bible and shouted from the pulpit "I"m out for the stuff!" the effect upon Symes would have been much the same.
Until she thrust her sordid views upon him he had not realized that he entertained for the medical profession any deeper respect than for any other cla.s.s of persons engaged in earning a livelihood, but now he remembered that the best physicians he had known had seemed to look upon their life-work as a consecration of themselves to humanity and the most flippant among them, as men, had always a dignity apart from themselves when they became the physician, and he knew, too, that as a cla.s.s they were jealous of the good name of their profession and sensitive to a degree where anything affected its honor. The viewpoint now presented was new to him and sufficiently interesting to investigate further; besides it shed a new light upon the woman"s character.
"But supposing the men object to such a deduction," he said tentatively.
"There"s little sickness in this climate and the camps are sanitary."
"Object? What of it!" she argued eagerly. "They"ll have to submit if you say so; certainly they"re not goin" to throw up their jobs for a dollar. Work"s too scarce for that. They can"t kick and they won"t kick if you give "em to understand that they"ve got to dig up this dollar or quit."
"But," Symes evaded, "the most of this work is let to contractors and it"s for them to determine; I don"t feel like dictating to them."
"Why not?" Her voice quavered with impatience. "They want new contracts.
They"d make the arrangement if they thought it would please you?"
"But," Symes answered coolly, "I don"t know that it would please me."
He saw the quick, antagonistic glitter which leaped into her eyes, but he went on calmly--
"Where the work is dangerous and the force is large your scheme is customary and practicable, I know, but upon a project of this size where the conditions are healthy, there is nothing to justify me in demanding a compulsory contribution of $500 a month for your benefit."
She controlled her temper with visible effort.
"But there will be dangerous work," she urged. "I"ve been over the ground and I know. There"ll be a tunnel, lots of rock-work, blasting, and, in consequence, accidents."
"That would be my chief objection to giving you the contract."
"What do you mean?"
His smile was ironical as he answered--
"You are not a surgeon."
"h.e.l.l! I can plaster "em up somehow."
Symes stared. His expression quickly brought her to a realization of the mistake into which her angry vehemence had led her and she colored to the roots of her hair.
"Your confidence is rea.s.suring," he said dryly at the end of an uncomfortable pause. "But tell me,"--her callousness aroused his curiosity--"would you, admittedly without experience or practical surgical knowledge, be willing to shoulder the responsibilities which would come to you in such a position?"
"I told you," she answered obstinately, "I can fix "em up somehow; I can do the trick and get away with it. You needn"t be afraid of _me_."
"What _I"m_ afraid of isn"t the question; but haven"t you any feeling of moral responsibility when it comes to tinkering and experimenting with the lives and limbs of workingmen who have families dependent upon them?"
"What"s the use of worryin" over what hasn"t happened?" she asked evasively. "I"ll do the best I can."
"But supposing "the best you can" isn"t enough? Supposing through inexperience or ignorance you blunder, unmistakably, palpably blunder, what then?"
"Well," she shrugged her shoulder, "I wouldn"t be the first."
"But," he suggested ironically, "a victim has redress."
She snorted.
"Not a doctor"s victim. Did you ever hear of a patient winnin" a case against a doctor? Did you ever hear of a successful malpractice suit?"
He considered.
"I can"t say that I"ve known the sort of doctors who figure in malpractice suits, but since I think of it I don"t believe I ever read or heard of one who ever did."
"And you won"t," she said tersely.
"Why not? The rest of the world must pay for the mistakes of incompetency."
""The ethics of the profession,"" she quoted mockingly. "We protect each other. The last thing a doctor wants to do, or will do, is to testify against a fellow pract.i.tioner. He may despise him in his heart but he"ll protect him on the witness stand. Besides, we"re allowed a certain percentage of mistakes; the best are not infallible."
"That"s true; but supposing," he persisted, "that the mistake to a competent surgeon was so obviously the result of ignorance that it could not be gotten around, would he still protect you?"
"Nine times in ten he would," she replied; "at least he"d be silent."