Medical contracts between Drs. Harpe and Lamb, Andy P. Symes and the
several contractors upon the project, were properly executed before
Symes left for Chicago--alone. It entailed a delay, but Dr. Harpe
insisted upon immediate action, and her covert threats had the desired
result.
"I've kept my word," she said, "and it's up to you to keep yours. If Gus
comes to see me that's your lookout, not mine." And since Symes could
not help himself, he consented, although he knew that the delay might
mean the loss of an investor.
Dr. Harpe quickly realized that she had assailed him in his most
vulnerable spot and Symes realized as surely that she would use this
knowledge to the limit to attain her ends.
"Am I a coward or a hero?" Symes sometimes asked himself in his hours of
humiliation and ignominy.
The day Andy P. Symes left for Chicago Dr. Harpe celebrated the era of
prosperity upon which she was about to enter, by the purchase of a
"top-buggy," which is usually the first evidence of affluence in the
West.
"Doc's all right--she's smart," chuckled the populace when they heard
the news of the contract and watched her sitting up very straight in the
new vehicle with its shining red wheels and neatly folded top.
"Moses!" Dr. Harpe told herself frequently and complacently, "'getting
there' is easy enough if you've only the brains and the nerve to pull
the right wire," and she considered that she had taken a turn around
Opportunity's foretop in a manner which would have been creditable to a
far more experienced hand than hers; also she had no reason to doubt
that the "wire" upon which she now held an unshakable grip held manifold
possibilities. By her astuteness and daring, she assured herself, she
was in absolute control of a situation which promised as great a success
as any person handicapped by petticoats could hope for. Assuredly the
top wave made pleasant riding.
Lamb accepted her partnership proposition with an avidity which rather
indicated that he needed the money. He had no objections to being a
salaried scapegoat providing the pay was sure, but naturally it did not
occur to Lamb to regard himself in any such light. If Dr. Harpe dubbed
him her "peon," she took care to treat him and his opinions with
flattering deference.
They rented a long, unpainted, one-story building which had been a
boarding house, for hospital purposes. It was divided lengthwise by a
narrow hall which ended in a dingy kitchen in the rear. Dr. Lamb who had
some vague theories upon sanitation protested feebly when the operating
room was located next to the kitchen, but the location was not changed
on that account. The office in the front was furnished with a few
imposing bottles and their combined display of cutlery was calculated to
impress. Their ideas as to keeping expenses for equipment at a minimum
were in perfect harmony, for Lamb as well as Dr. Harpe regarded it as a
purely commercial venture. The latter, however, was disposed to regard
the purchase of an X-ray machine as a profitable investment because of
the impression it would make upon their private patients.
"Moses!" She chortled at the notion. "Wouldn't their eyes bung out if I
showed 'em their own bones! I could soak 'em twice the fee and they'd
never peep."
Lamb discouraged the idea for the present on the grounds of economy and
advised a sterilizing apparatus instead, which Dr. Harpe opposed for the
same reason.
If Dr. Harpe had been given the opportunity of selecting an associate
from a multitude of practitioners, it is doubtful if she could have
found another better suited to her purpose than the man Lamb. Although,
by some means, he had succeeded in being graduated from an institution
of good repute, he was a charlatan in every instinct--greedy,
unscrupulous, covering the ignorance of an untrained mind with a cloak
of solemn and pious pretence which served its purpose in the uncritical,
unsuspicious western community where a profession is always regarded
with more or less awe.
Lamb's colorless personality had made no great impression upon Crowheart
and as yet he was known chiefly through his professional card which
appeared among the advertisements in the Crowheart _Courier_. Dr. Harpe
had not reckoned him a formidable rival, but she recognized in him an
invaluable associate; and often as she contemplated his pasty face, his
close, deep-set eyes and listened to his nasal voice she congratulated
herself upon her choice, for he was what she needed most of all, a
pliable partner.
"Be you goin' to put up a sign?" inquired Lamb.
"Sure; we want all the advertisin' we can get out of this, don't we?"
And soon the day came when the two partners stood across the street and
read proudly: