The trusty in charge of the hospital is getting nervous as the day of
his release approaches. A week before the release, no matter how
disciplined and peaceful the prisoner may have been, he starts getting
cranky and impertinent to the keepers. He acts like a man under great
stress, and when he is disturbed he turns savagely round like an angry
dog.
The old trusty acted like a drunkard, talking and laughing incessantly,
and we thought it was for joy at the thought of his near release. But
the real reason was soon discovered. The old thief, Fritz, had been
operated on, and when the night orderly was ordered by the doctor to
change the sick man's bandages every fifteen minutes, he bribed the old
trusty with a long drink of whiskey to do the work for him.
The spectacle of the official orderly trying to do his duty was
intensely amusing. In all the years of his work he had slept and snored
peacefully and undisturbed. When the time came to change the bandages,
he uncovered the patient and began gingerly removing the soaked
bandages, holding them with two fingers, at a safe distance, and walking
on tiptoe, as if expecting the whole thing to explode. When he saw the
terrible, gaping wound he dropped everything back, saying: "I can't do
it, it makes me sick!" and woke up the trusty to do the work for him.
The next day he reported sick, and he never showed up again until he
heard that the patient was dead.
In the meanwhile the old trusty left and I had to attend to the sick
man. Every fifteen minutes of twenty interminable days and nights I had
to watch, and nurse, and answer the calls of that cranky old man. The
wound was ghastly. The surgeons had made an incision twelve inches long
right down into the bladder, wherein they had stuck a thick rubber tube.
The sight was sickening, the work exhausting and thankless, and if I had
not known that the patient had only a few days to live, I think I would
have applied for a job in the coal gang.
On the twentieth night, at about twelve o'clock, I was awakened by the
moans of the dying man, who was calling in a faint voice. His face was
flushed and it seemed as if all the blood had gone to his head; but he
seemed suddenly to turn deadly white, and he lay back still.
A young boy sleeping next to him hid his head under the bed clothes in
fright. I was sent to notify the doctor upstairs.
The young doctor declared him dead, and turning to me ordered me to
dress him.