"TO DIE--WILL BE AN _AWFULLY_ BIG ADVENTURE!"
--_Peter Pan_.
Two minutes later we were driving back to the Cathedral Arms. It was
snowing heavily, but I never noticed the fact. Neither did I realise
that I had abandoned my post at a critical and dangerous moment, and
left my friends on the platform to explain to a puzzled and angry
audience why the Candidate had run away without answering their
questions. But there are deeper things than politics.
Phillis, we learned from Dolly, had been attacked by violent pains early
in the evening; and about nine o'clock there had been a sudden rise of
temperature, with slight delirium, followed by a complete and alarming
collapse. Dr Farquharson had been sent for, hot-foot, from Stridge's
platform, and his first proceeding had been to summon me from mine.
He was waiting for us in the hall of the hotel when we arrived, and
Kitty and I took him into our sitting-room and, parent-like, begged to
be told "the worst."
The doctor--a dour and deliberate Scot--declined to be positive, but
"doubted" it might be perityphlitis. "Appendicitis is a more fashionable
term," he added. The child had rallied, but was very ill, and nothing
more could be done at present except keep her warm and afford relief by
means of poultices and fomentations until the malady should take a
definite turn for the better or the worse.
"In either case we shall know what to do then," he said; "but for the
present the bairn must just fight her own battle. Has she good health,
as a rule?"
Yes, thank God! she had. Physically she was frail enough, but she
possessed a tough little constitution. After I had taken a peep into the
room where the poor child, a vision of tumbled hair and wide bright
eyes, lay moaning and tossing, I left Kitty and Dolly and the doctor to
do what they could for her, and went downstairs to take counsel with my
friends.
Now that the first shock was past, my head was clear again, and my
course lay plain before me. Downstairs I found Robin, Champion, and Cash
silently taking supper.
"Now, gentlemen," I said, when I had answered Robin's anxious
inquiries--I believe he loved the child almost as much as I did--"this
misfortune has come at a bad time; but one thing is quite plain, and
that is that I must go through with the election. I quite see that I am
not my own master at present."
Cash looked immensely relieved. Evidently he had been afraid that I
would throw up the sponge. Robin and Champion nodded a grave assent, and
the latter said--
"You are right, Adrian. It's the only thing to do."
"That's true," said Cash. "I am sure you have our deepest sympathy, Mr
Inglethwaite, but we can't possibly let you off on any account."
It was not a very happy way of putting it, but Cash was an election
agent first and a man afterwards.
"It was bad enough your running away from the meeting to-night," he
continued, in tones which he tried vainly to keep from sounding
reproachful. "They'd have torn the benches up if Mr Fordyce hadn't let
'em have it straight. I'm afraid it will cost us votes to-morrow."
All this grated a good deal. I could hear Robin begin to breathe through
his nose, and I knew that sign. I broke in--
"What did you say to them, Robin?"
"Say? I don't really know. I assured them that you must have some good
reason for leaving in such a hurry, and persuaded them to keep quiet for
a bit in case you came back. We put up a few more speakers, but the
people got more and more out of hand; and finally, after about five
minutes of Dubberley, they grew so riotous that we ended the meeting."
"They had every excuse," said I. "They considered themselves defrauded."
"So they were," said Cash.
"Of course, if they had _known_," said Champion, "they would have gone
home like lambs."
"Somehow," said Robin, "I wish they could have been told, Adrian. I
should have liked fine to explain to them that you didn't leave the
meeting just because you couldn't answer that last question."
"By gum!" Cash had been striving to deliver himself for some time. "Mr
Inglethwaite," he said excitedly, "they must be told at once! We can get
more good out of your little girl's illness than fifty meetings would do
us. You know what the British public are! I'll circulate the real reason
of your departure from the meeting first thing to-morrow morning, and
half the wobblers in the place will vote for you out of sheer
kind-heartedness. I know 'em!"
The exemplary creature almost smacked his lips.
There was a tense silence all round the table. Then I said, with some
heat--
"Mr Cash, I have delivered myself into your hands, body and soul, ever
since Nomination Day, and I have obeyed you to the letter all through
this campaign. But--I am not going to allow a sick child's sufferings to
be employed as a political asset to-morrow."
There was a sympathetic growl from the other two.
"Oh, we shouldn't do it as publicly as all that," said the unabashed
Cash. "Trust me! No ostentation; just an explanatory report circulated
in a subdued sort of way--and perhaps a strip of tan-bark down on the
road outside the hotel--eh? _I_ know how to do it. It'll pay, I tell
you. And there'll be no publicity----"
I laid my head upon the table and groaned. For three weeks I had had
perhaps four hours' sleep a-night, and I had been worked down to my last
reserve of energy, keeping in hand just enough to meet all the probable
contingencies of to-morrow's election. Dialectics with Cash as to the
market value of a little girl's illness had not been included in the
estimate. I groaned.
Champion answered for me.
"Mr Cash, don't you see how painful these proposals are to Mr
Inglethwaite? Put such ideas out of your head once and for all. No man
worthy of the name would accept votes won in such a way."
There was a confirmatory rumble from Robin.
"We can't have _ad misericordiam_ appeals here, Mr Cash," he said.