"I"m going to be a policeman long enough to "get" the gangsters that "got" me, Mr. Barton. And I believe I"m going to try a little housecleaning, or white-wings work around that neighborhood, just as a matter of sport. It doesn"t hurt to try."
And Burke"s jaw closed with a determined click, as he smiled grimly.
Barton was about to speak when the door from the inner ward opened behind them.
"Father! Father!" came a fresh young voice, and the old man turned around in his chair with an exclamation of delight.
"Why, Mary, my child. I"m so pleased. How did you get to see me?
It"s not a visiting day."
A pretty girl, whose delicate, oval face was half wreathed with waves of brown curls, leaned over the wheeled chair and kissed the old gentleman, as she placed some carnations on his lap.
She caught his hand in her own little ones and patted it affectionately.
"You dear daddy. I asked the superintendent of the hospital to let me in as a special favor to-day, for to-morrow is the regular visiting day, and I can"t come then--neither can Lorna."
"Why, my dear, where are you going?"
The girl hesitated, as she noticed Burke in the wheel-chair so close at hand. By superhuman effort Bobbie was directing his attention to the distant roofs, counting the chimneys as he endeavored to keep his mind off a conversation which did not concern him.
"Oh, my dear, excuse me. Mr. Burke, turn around. I"d like to have you meet my daughter, Mary."
Bobbie willingly took the little hand, feeling a strange embarra.s.sment as he looked up into a pair of melting blue eyes.
"It"s a great pleasure," he began, and then could think of nothing more to say. Mary hesitated as well, and her father asked eagerly: "Why can"t you girls come here to-morrow, my dear? By another visiting day I hope to be back home."
"Father, we have----" she hesitated, and Bobbie understood.
"I"d better be wheeling inside, Mr. Barton, and let you have the visit out here, where it"s so nice. It"s only my first trip, you know--so let me call my steersman."
"No secrets, no secrets," began Barton, but Bobbie had beckoned to the ward attendant. The man came out, and, at Burke"s request, started to wheel him inside.
"Won"t you come and visit me, sir, in my little room? I get lonely, you know, and have a lot of s.p.a.ce. I"m so glad to have seen you, Miss Barton."
"Mr. Burke is going to be one of my very good friends, Mary. He"s coming around to see us when I get back home. Won"t that be pleasant?"
Mary looked at Bobbie"s honest, mobile face, and saw the splendid manliness which radiated from his earnest, friendly eyes. Perhaps she saw just a trifle more in those eyes; whatever it was, it was not displeasing.
She dropped her own gaze, and softly said:
"Yes, father. He will be very welcome, if he is your friend."
On her bosom was a red rose which the florist had given her when she purchased the flowers for her father. Sometimes even florists are human, you know.
"Good afternoon; I"ll see you later," said Bobbie, cheerily.
"You haven"t any flowers, Mr. Burke. May I give you this little one?"
asked Mary, as she unpinned the rose.
Burke flushed. He smiled, bashfully, and old Barton beamed.
"Thank you," said Bobbie, and the attendant wheeled him on into his own room.
"Nurse, could you get me a gla.s.s of water for this rose?" asked Bobbie.
"Certainly," said the pretty nurse, with a curious glance at the red blossom. "It"s very pretty. It"s just a bud and, if you keep it fresh, will last a long time."
She placed it on the table by his cot.
As she left the room, she looked again at the rose.
Sometimes even nurses are human.
And Bobbie looked at the rose. It was the sweetest rose he had ever seen. He hoped that it would last a long, long time.
"I will try to keep it fresh," he murmured, as he awkwardly rolled over into his bed.
Sometimes even policemen are human, too.
CHAPTER III
THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT
Officer Burke was back again at his work on the force. He was a trifle pale, and the hours on patrol duty and fixed post seemed trebly long, for even his st.u.r.dy physique was tardy in recuperating from that vicious shock at the base of his brain.
"Take it easy, Burke," advised Captain Sawyer, "you have never had a harder day in uniform than this one. Those two fires, the work at the lines with the reserves and your patrol in place of Dexter, who is laid up with his cold, is going it pretty strong."
"That"s all right, Captain. I"m much obliged for your interest. But a little more work to-night won"t hurt me. I"ll hurry strength along by keeping up this hustling. People who want to stay sick generally succeed. Doctor MacFarland is looking after me, so I am not worried."
Bobbie left the house with his comrades to relieve the men on patrol.
It was late afternoon of a balmy spring day.
The weeks since he had been injured had drifted into months, and there seemed many changes in the little world of the East Side. This store had failed; that artisan had moved out, and even two or three fruit dealers whom Bobbie patronized had disappeared.
In the same place stood other stands, managed by Italians who looked like caricatures drawn by the same artist who limned their predecessors.
"It must be pretty hard for even the Italian Squad to tell all these fellows apart, Tom," said Bobbie, as they stood on the corner by one of the stalls.
"Sure, lad. All Ginnies look alike to me. Maybe that"s why they carve each other up every now and then at them little shindigs of theirs.
Little family rows, they are, you know. I guess they add a few marks of identification, just for the family records," replied Tom Dolan, an old man on the precinct. "However, I get along with "em all right by keeping my eye out for trouble and never letting any of "em get me first. They"re all right, as long as you smile at "em. But they"re tricky, tricky. And when you hurt a Wop"s vanity it"s time to get a half-nelson on your night-stick!"
They separated, Dolan starting down the garbage-strewn side street to chase a few noisy push-cart merchants who, having no other customers in view, had congregated to barter over their respective wares.
"Beat it, you!" ordered Dolan. "This ain"t no Chamber of Commerce.