For Mostyn the week which ensued after his wife's secret elopement was
a period of sheer mental torture. Every minute he expected the
startling tidings to reach his friends and associates. Every morning at
breakfast he studied the crafty and sullen face of old Mitchell and the
swarthy visages of the servants to see if suspicions of the truth were
dawning. At the bank he tried to overhear the conversations of the
bookkeepers, sometimes fancying that a burst of low laughter or a
whispered colloquy had him for their incentive. He was sure that it was
little less than a miracle that the matter had not leaked out. With
Delbridge getting into harness at his desk, he had considerable time on
his hands, which he spent in long nervous walks, generally in the
suburbs of the city. For that week he wholly neglected his child. There
was something unbearable in the thought of the boy's future social
status, left in the care, as he was, of an all but witless grandfather
and a father upon whom the contempt of the public was so soon to fall.
Infinitely horrible was the reflection that little Dick would
inevitably grow into a comprehension of the family calamity and inquire
as to its causes. It was Saturday night, eight days after the
elopement. Mostyn had that day been irritated--that is, as much as a
man in his plight could be irritated by any extraneous incident--by
Delbridge's open criticism of the negligent condition of some of his
accounts. The work of going over the books with his successor in
rectifying really glaring mistakes detained him at the bank till late
at night. It was twelve o'clock when he finally reached home, ascended
to his room, and began to undress. He had thrown off his coat, when he
heard voices and movements in the nursery adjoining his room. At once
he was all attention. He had his usual overpowering yearning to see his
child. It was as if the touch of the boy's little hand or a glance from
his innocent young eyes might mildly soothe his lacerated spirits. It
was the cry of kindred blood to kindred blood from the darkest deeps of
despair--the incongruous cry of parent to offspring. He overheard the
impatient tone of the drowsy nurse, and the fainter, rather rambling
accents of the child.
"You go to sleep!" Hilda called out. "You'll disturb yo' pa. He just
come home, an' he don't want no noise fum yo' this time o' night."
The gas was burning in the nursery, as was shown by the pencil of light
beneath the door. Mostyn turned the bolt and looked into the room. A
breath of warmer air told him that the servant had again neglected to
open the windows sufficiently. He went to Dick's little bed, turning
the overhead gas higher as he did so. The child looked up, recognized
him, and with a cry of welcome held out his arms. Mostyn, bending down,
felt the little hands clasp his neck. They were dry and hot. Dick's
cheeks were flushed red.
"What ails him?" Mostyn cried, aghast, turning to Hilda, who had risen,
thrown on a wrapper, and stood at the table, where a bottle and a spoon
lay.
"I think he's got er little bit er fever, sir," she said. "It is his
stomach gone wrong ergin. I'm givin' 'im his fever-mixture now."
"It hurts right here, Daddy." Dick made a wry face as he bravely
pressed his hand on the lower part of his right side. "Dick couldn't
play to-day."
"How long has he had fever?" Mostyn demanded, sharply.
"Jes' to-day, I think, sir. I never noticed it till dis evenin' about
an hour by sun. He's been complainin' of his stomach fer mo'n a week,
but dat is 'cause he eats--"
"It may be something serious." The words shrank back from utterance.
"Why didn't you send for the doctor?"
"Huh!" the nurse sniffed, resentfully. "Yo' all expect me ter ten' ter
everything. I _did_ tell his grandpa, but he didn't even know what I
was talkin' about, jabberin' all de time about Miss Irene stayin' off
so long, en--en I don't know what all--_you_ an' _yo'_ doin's 'long wid
de rest."
The woman was approaching with the bottle and spoon. "Don't give him
any more of that stuff." He waved it away. "I'll send for Dr. Loyd at
once."
"Oh, Daddy, I don't want the doctor!" Dick began to whimper and cling
more tightly round his father's neck.
"He won't hurt you; he is a good man," Mostyn said, tenderly. "He will
give you something to make you cool off, so you can sleep."
Mostyn left the room and groped his way down to the telephone in the
lower hall. A new fear had clutched him, a fear so compelling that all
else was forgotten. A chill of grim, accusing horror was on him. His
brain was in a whirl as he tried to recall the desired number. Did
Providence, Fate, or whatever the ruling force was, intend this as his
crowning punishment? Had the impalpable hand, reaching for him,
descended on his offspring? He finally got the doctor's servant on the
'phone, then Dr. Loyd himself, who had just arrived in his automobile.
"Have you taken his temperature?" was the doctor's first question.
"No, we haven't a thermometer, and do not know how to use one, anyway."
"Well, I'll be out immediately," was the brusque answer. "I must see
him to-night--don't exactly like the symptoms. I saw him in driving
past your home the other day, and did not quite like his looks."
Mostyn dragged himself up the stairs. Passing Mitchell's room, he half
paused at the door. Should he wake him and explain the situation? He
decided against it. The child's condition would only loosen the man's
pent-up wrath in the presence of the physician and perhaps delay the
examination. He went back to the nursery, and, lifting Dick in his
arms, he bore him into his own room, which was cooler. He dampened a
towel in ice-water, folded it, and laid it on the flushed brow.
"That feels nice, Daddy," Dick smiled, grimly, "but it hurts here,"
putting his hand gingerly on his side.
A few minutes later the doctor's car was heard on the drive. Mostyn
descended to meet him. They shook hands formally, and Mostyn led him up
the stairs to the patient. The doctor was past middle age, iron-gray,
full-whiskered, and stockily built. He took the child's temperature,
and looked grave as he glanced at the thermometer under the drop-light,
and washed it in a glass of water.
"One-hundred and five!" he said, crisply. "Big risks have been taken,
Mostyn. I only hope my fears are groundless."
"Your fears?"
But the doctor seemed not to hear. He raised the child's thin
night-shirt and passed his fingers gently over the abdomen.
"Tell me where that pain is, Dick," he said, softly. "Where does it
hurt most when I press down?"
"There! there!" Dick cried out in sudden agony.
"I see. That will do. I sha'n't hurt you again." He drew the shirt down
and moved back toward the lamp.
"I'm sure you will give him--something to reduce that fever." Mostyn
knew that the remark was a mere tentative foil against the verdict
stamped upon the bearded face. The doctor slowly wiped the tiny tube
and restored it to its case.
"I must be frank," he said, in a low tone. "My opinion is that he must
be operated on at once--without delay--early in the morning at the very
latest."
"Why--why--surely--" Mostyn began, but went no further. The objects in
the room seemed to swim about him. He and the doctor were buoys
floating face to face.
"It is appendicitis," Loyd said. "Of course, I'd call another doctor in
consultation before anything is done, but I am sure I am not mistaken."
Mostyn's soul stared from a dead face with all but glazed eyes. He
nodded toward the door opening into the hall and led the doctor from
the room. In the hall he put his hand on Loyd's shoulder.
"I am sure you know best," he gasped. "What do you propose?"
"That I take him at once to my sanitarium in my car. In warm weather
like this you won't have to wrap him much. You'd better get him ready
now. I'll telephone the nurse to have a room prepared."
"Very well." Mostyn was stalking back to the child when the doctor
detained him.
"And his mother--I don't see her about; is she at home?"
"No, she is out of town. Just now she is away."
"Well, you had better telegraph her."
"I--I don't exactly know where she is." Mostyn was vaguely thankful for
the dimness of the hall light.
"You must find her--locate her at once."
"Is it really so--so serious as that?"
"I may as well be frank." The doctor cleared his throat. "It won't do
any good to mislead you. The little fellow has a weak heart, as I
explained the last time he was ill, and it seems worse now. Then--then,
I am sorry to say that I detect strong symptoms of peritonitis. If I
could have seen him a week ago--I presume the fact of your wife being
away, and you being busy at the bank--"
Mostyn's head rocked like a stone balanced on a pivot. "Yes," he said.
"I am afraid we were not attentive enough. Will you be ready soon?"
"Yes; tell Dick it is for a ride in my car. He won't mind it. He is a
plucky little fellow. He has fought that pain for several days. We
would have known it earlier but for that."
Five minutes later Mostyn sat on the rear seat of the automobile with
his child in his arms. The doctor sat in front beside the colored
chauffeur. Mostyn chatted with Dick about the ride, about the "nice,
cool room" he was to have at the "good doctor's house"; but, to his
growing horror, Dick had lost interest in all things. He lay passive
and completely relaxed, a lack-luster gleam in his half-closed eyes.
"Am I speeding him to his execution?" Mostyn's very dregs whispered the
query. "Is this my last word with him?" Seeing the faces of the doctor
and the chauffeur directed ahead, and half ashamed of his tenderness,
he bent down and kissed the child's forehead. In vague response Dick
lifted his little hand to the overbrooding cheek, but immediately
dropped it to his side.
"Go slowly over this rough place," the doctor ordered; and the speed
lessened, to be renewed a little farther on, where the asphalt pavement
began again.
Reaching the sanitarium, a spacious white building in pleasant, shaded
grounds, they alighted. Mostyn, with his boy in his arms, stepped out.
At the door a nurse took Dick into the house and bore him to a room on
the floor above. She spoke to him in a motherly way. As she vanished up
the stairs Mostyn saw Dick's small limp hand hanging down her side. Was
it, he asked himself, a farewell salute?
"You may sit here in the waiting-room if you wish, or you may return
home in my car," Loyd suggested. "I shall send it at once for the other
doctors. You are really of no service here, and, of course, I can
communicate with you by 'phone as to our decision."
"I'll be here, or close about on the outside," Mostyn answered. "I
presume it will be some time before the consultation?"
"It must be within half an hour. I am not willing to wait longer."
Mostyn sat alone in the sitting-room. A clock on the wall ticked
sharply. He heard the wheels of the automobile grind on the pavement as
it sped away under the electric lights. He went out on the lawn. He
felt in his pocket for a cigar, but, finding none, he forgot it. The
dew of the grass penetrated to his feet. It seemed to him that he felt
Dick's fever coursing through his own veins. He was still outside half
an hour later, his eyes raised to the windows of the lighted room
occupied by his child, when the automobile returned. Two doctors whom
he knew got out and sauntered into the house. He heard them laughing
over the mistake a so-called quack had made in the case of a credulous
patient, Mostyn lurked back in the shadows--he would not detain them by
a useless greeting. He followed them into the house. The nurse at the
foot of the stairs was beckoning them to hasten. Mostyn was again alone
in the sitting-room. Presently the nurse came in, evidently looking for
something. Mostyn caught her eye, and she gave him a hurried but
sympathetic look. He decided that he would sound her.
"Do you think an operation will be necessary?" he asked.
Her glance fell. "I have only Dr. Loyd's opinion. He thinks so, and I
have never known him to be wrong in diagnosing a case."
"He thinks, also, I believe"--Mostyn's voice sounded as hollow as a
phonograph--"that the child has hardly strength enough to resist
the--the ordeal?"
She raised her eyes as if doubting her right to converse on the
subject. "I think he _is_ afraid of that," she admitted. "Your child is
very, very sick."
"And you--you, _yourself?_" Mostyn now fairly implored. "According to
_your_ experience, do you think there is a chance of his living through
it?"
"I really can't say--I _mustn't_ say," she faltered. "I am only judging
by Dr. Loyd's actions. He is very uneasy. Mr. Mostyn, I have no right
to speak of it, but your wife ought to be here. The doctor says she is
out of town. She ought to get here if possible; she will always regret
it if she doesn't. I am a mother myself, and I know how she will feel."
Mostyn stifled a reply which rose to his lips. He heard, rather than
saw, her leave the room, for a mist had fallen on his sight. In the
patient's chamber above there was the grinding of feet on the floor.
The chandelier overhead shook. The crystal prisms tinkled like little
bells. Presently the nurse came to him.
"Dr. Loyd instructed me to say"--she was looking down on his clasped
hands--"that they have agreed that the operation must be performed at
once. They all think it is the only chance."
An hour later the aiding doctors came down the stairs, glided softly
past the sitting-room door, and passed out. He called to one of them.
"Is the operation over?" he asked.
The doctor nodded gravely. He had taken a cigar from his pocket, and
was biting the tip from the end. "It was the worst appendix I ever saw,
fairly rotten. Loyd will show it to you. It is a serious case, Mostyn.
If Loyd pulls him through it will be a miracle. Peritonitis has already
set in, and there is very little heart-action. He is sleeping now, of
course, and every possible thing has been done and will be done. He is
in the best of hands. We can do nothing but wait."
It was near dawn. Mostyn was pacing back and forth on the grass in
front of the house. The dark eastern horizon was giving way to a
lengthening flux of light. A cab drove up to the door, and a man and a
woman got out. It was Mrs. Moore and old Mitchell. Mrs. Moore reached
her brother first, and tenderly clasped his hands. As well as he could
he explained the situation.
"Hilda telephoned me," Mrs. Moore went on, in a low, matter-of-fact
tone. "She was almost in hysterics, and I could not understand her
fully. I thought the operation was to be done there, and so I dressed
and went in a cab. Then I found that Mr. Mitchell wanted to come, and
so I brought him on."
The old man tottered forward. For once he had no comment to make. He
passed them, slowly ascended the steps, went into the waiting-room and
sat down, leaning forward on his stout cane, which he held upright
between his knees.
"We'd have got here sooner, but he stopped at the telegraph-office.
Dick, he has sent a telegram to Irene in care of the Hardys. I saw by
that that he didn't suspect the truth. I tried to think of some way to
prevent it, but couldn't. I told him I was in a hurry, but he would
stop. Now I suppose the truth will have to come out."
"It makes no difference," Mostyn answered. "It might as well come now
as later."
They went in and took their seats against the wall in the waiting-room.
Mitchell stared at them half drowsily, betraying the usual complacency
of old age in regard to serious illness or death.
"Are they going to operate?" he asked.
Mrs. Moore told him that it had already been done.
"And Irene wasn't here," the old man sniffed, in rising ire. "It is a
shame! I reckon she will have the decency to take the first train home
now. This will be a lesson to her, I hope."
The nurse came down the stairs hurriedly. Her face was swept with
well-controlled dismay. She paused in the doorway. Her eyes met those
of the brother and sister.
"Dr. Loyd thinks you'd better come up."
"Is the boy--is--he worse?" Mrs. Moore asked.
"You had better hurry," the nurse answered. "There is only a minute--if
that. He is dying."
A few minutes later Mostyn and his sister came down the stairs.
"Try to realize what the poor little darling has escaped," she said.
"It may be the merciful hand of God, Dick. I know it is killing you,
but that ought to be _some_ comfort."