The Camp was much concerned to hear of poor Mr. Jonstone's accident. A
round stone, he said, had rolled suddenly under his foot and
precipitated him down a steep pitch of path. He had put out his hands to
save his face and, it seemed, broken a bone in one of them. And at that,
the attempted rescue of his face had not been an overwhelming success.
It was not until the doctor had come and gone that Mr. Jonstone told his
cousin what had really happened. Colonel Meredith was much excited and
intrigued by the narrative.
"And you've no idea who she was?" he asked.
"No, Mel; I've thought that the voice was familiar. I've thought that it
wasn't. It was a very well-bred Northern voice--but agitated probably
out of its natural intonations. Voices are queer things. A man might not
recognize his own mother's voice at a time when he was not expecting to
hear it."
"Voices," said Colonel Meredith, "are beautiful things. This wasn't a
motherly sort of voice, was it?"
"But it might be," said Mr. Jonstone gently. "I wonder if they've
anything in this place to make a fellow sleep. Bromide isn't much good
when you've a sure-enough sharp pain."
"You feel mighty uncomfortable, don't you, Bob?"
The invalid nodded. He was pale as a sheet, and he could not keep still.
He had received considerable physical punishment and his entire nervous
system was quivering and jumping.
"I'll see if anybody's got anything," said Colonel Meredith, and he went
straight to the office, where he found Maud Darling and Eve.
"My cousin is feeling like the deuce," he said. "He won't sleep all
night if we don't give him something to make him. Do you know of any one
that's got anything of that sort--morphine, for instance?"
"The best thing will be to take the _Streak_ and get some from the
doctor," said Maud. "Let's all go."
"I think I won't," said Eve, looking wonderfully cool and serene. "But
I'll walk down to the float and see you off. What a pity for a man to
get laid up by an accident that might have been avoided by a little
attention!"
Colonel Meredith stiffened.
"I am sorry to contradict a lady," he said, "but my cousin has given me
the particulars of his accident, and it was of a nature that could
hardly have been avoided by a man. I think, Miss Maud, if you will order
a launch, I had better tell my cousin where I am going, in case he
should feel that he was being neglected."
"Don't bother to do that," said Eve. "I'll get word to him."
"Oh, thank you so much, will you?"
"He's lying down, I suppose."
"Yes; he has retired for the night."
"I'll send one of the men," said Eve, "or Sam Langham."
So they went one way and Eve went the other, walking very quickly and
smiling in the night.
"Mr. Jonstone--oh, Mr. Jonstone! Can you hear me?"
With a sort of shudder of wonder Mr. Jonstone sat up in his bed.
"Yes," he said, "I do hear you--unless I am dreaming."
"You're not dreaming. You are in great pain, owing to an accident which
could hardly have been avoided by a man, and can't sleep."
"I am in no pain now."
"Colonel Meredith has gone to Carrytown for something to make you
sleep, so you aren't to fret and feel neglected if he doesn't come back
to you at once."
"Just the same it's a horrible feeling--to be all alone."
"But if some one--any one were to stay within call----?"
"If _you_ were to stay within call it would make all the difference in
the world."
"You don't know who I am, do you?"
"I don't know what you look like, and I don't know your name. But I know
who you are. And once upon a time--long years ago--you promised, you
half promised, to tell me the other things."
"My name is a very, very old name, and I look like a lot of other
people. But you say you know who I am. Who am I?"
Mr. Bob Jonstone laughed softly.
"It's enough," said he, "that I know. But are you comfortable out there?
You're on the porch, aren't you?"
"No; I'm standing on the ground and resting my lazy forehead against the
porch railing."
"I'd feel easier if you came on the porch and made yourself comfortable
in a chair, just outside my window. And we could talk easier."
"But you're not supposed to talk."
"Listening would be good for me."
There was a sound of light steps and of a chair being dragged.
"I wish you wouldn't sit just round the corner," said Mr. Jonstone
presently. "If you sat before the window, sideways, I could see your
profile against the sky."
"I'm doing very well where I am, thank you."
"But, please, why shouldn't I see you? Why are you so embarrassed at
me?"
"Wouldn't you be embarrassed if you were a girl and had been through the
adventure I went through? Wouldn't you be a little embarrassed to see
the man who helped you, and look him in the face?"
"Don't you ever want me to see you? Because, if you don't, I will go
away from this place in the morning and never come back."
"Somehow, that doesn't appeal to me very much either."
"I am glad," said Mr. Jonstone quietly.
"How does your hand feel?"
"Which hand?"
"The one you hurt."
"It feels very happy, and the other hand feels very jealous of it."
"Seriously--are you having a pretty bad time?"
"I am having the time of my life--seriously--the time that lucky men
always have once in their lives."
"Are you very impatient for the morphine?"
"I shall not take it when it comes. It is far better knowing what one
knows, remembering what one remembers, and looking forward to what a
presumptuous fool cannot help but look forward to--it is far better to
keep awake; to lie peacefully in the dark, knowing, remembering, and
looking forward."
"And just what are you looking forward to?"
"To a long life and a happy one; to the sounds of a voice; to a sudden
coming to life of the whole 'Oxford Book of Verse'; to seeing a face."
There was a long silence.
"Are you there?"
"Yes; but you mustn't talk."
"I think you are tired. Please don't stay any more if you are tired."
"I'm not tired."
"Then perhaps you are bored."
"I'm not bored."
"Then what are you?"
"You keep quiet."
When, at last, Colonel Meredith came, important with morphine and the
doctor's instructions, he found his cousin Mr. Bob Jonstone sleeping
very quietly and peacefully, a much dog-eared copy of the "Oxford Book
of Verse" clasped to his breast.
Unfortunately the colonel, after putting out the light again, bumped
into a table, and Mr. Jonstone waked.
"That you, Mel?"
"Yes, Bob; sorry I waked you. Did Miss Darling send word explaining that
I should be quite a while coming back?"
"Which Miss Darling?"
"Which? Why, Miss Eve."
"Yes, she sent word."
"And how have you been?"
"I took a turn for the better shortly after you left. A little while ago
I lighted a candle, and read a little and got sleepy. And now I think
I'll go to sleep again."
"You don't need the morphine?"
"No, Mel. Thank you. Good-night."
"Good-night."
"Mel?"
"What is it?"
"Isn't Eve about the oldest name you know?"
"Oldest, I guess, except Adam and Lilith. You go to sleep."
And Colonel Meredith tiptoed out of the room, murmuring: "Seems to be a
little shaky in his upper stories."