THE CRISIS
Brave words are one thing, and inflammation in a gunshot wound is
another. Infection set up in Jerry Boyle's hurt on the day after that
which the doctor had marked as the critical point in his battle for
life.
Dr. Slavens was of the opinion that the bullet had carried a piece of
clothing into the wound, which it was not able to discharge of itself.
An operation for its removal was the one hope of saving the patient, and
that measure for relief was attended by so many perils as to make it
very desperate indeed.
The doctor viewed this alarming turn in his patient with deep concern,
not so much out of sympathy for the sufferer and his parents, perhaps,
as on his personal account. The welfare of Jerry Boyle had become the
most important thing in life to him, for his own future hinged on that
as its most vital bearing.
Agnes was firm in her adherence to the plan of procedure which she had
announced. She declared that, as matters stood, she would not become a
burden, with all her encumbrances, upon his slender resources. If
mischance wrested the promised fee out of his hands, then they must go
their ways separately. She repeated her determination to abide by that
on the morning when Dr. Slavens announced the necessity of the
operation.
Slavens was hurt and disappointed. It seemed that his faith in her
suffered a blighting frost.
"In plain words," he charged, "you will refuse to marry me because I am
poor."
"There's no other way to put it," she admitted. "But I refuse only out
of my boundless esteem and tenderness for you and your success. I am
putting down happiness when I do this, and taking up an additional load
of pain. But what peace or self-respect would ever be mine again if I
should consent to add the burden of two helpless old people to what you
will have to carry on your own account?"
"My back is broad enough to be Atlas to your little world," he
declared.
"But there's no use strangling success," she argued. "It can't be many
years, at the longest, until time and nature relieve my tottering
charges of their dependence on me. If you would care to wait, and if I
might not be too old----"
"If there's nothing better for it, then we'll wait," he cut in almost
sharply. "Do you remember how I showed you to hold that cone?"
She had consented to assist him in the operation to the extent of
keeping the patient under the ether after he had administered it.
"This way," said she, placing the cotton-filled paper cone over the
nostrils.
From the physician's standpoint, the operation was entirely successful.
A successful operation, as the doctor defines it, means that the doctor
gets what he starts after. Frequently the patient expires during the
operation, but that does not subtract anything from the sum of its
success.
In the case of Jerry Boyle the matter wore a brighter aspect all around.
The doctor found the bit of coat-lining which the bullet had carried in
with it, and removed it. The seat of inflammation was centered around
it, as he had foreseen, and the patient was still alive, even though the
greater part of the day had passed since the tormenting piece of cloth
was removed.
The camp was hushed in the depression of despair. Until that day they
had heard Mrs. Boyle's hopeful voice cheering her husband, upon whom the
foreboding of disaster seemed to weigh prophetically. Sometimes she had
sung in a low voice as she watched beside her son. But now her courage
seemed to have left her, and she sat in the tent with the Governor,
huddled like two old tempest-beaten birds hiding under a frail shelter
which could not shield them from the last bitter blow. They had given
the care of their son over to the doctor and Agnes entirely, watching
their coming and going with tearful eyes, waiting for the word that
would cut the slender stay of hope.
On the afternoon of the second day after the operation, Agnes entered
the tent and looked across the patient's cot into Dr. Slavens' tired
eyes. He shook his head, holding the sufferer's wrist, his finger on the
fluttering pulse. It seemed to Agnes that Boyle had sunk as deep into
the shadow of the borderland as human ever penetrated and drew breath.
From all appearances he was dead even that moment, and the solemn shake
of the head with which the doctor greeted her seemed to tell her it was
the end.
She went to her own tent and sat in the sun, which still fell hot and
bright. The Governor and his wife had let down the flap of their tent,
as if they could no longer bear the pain of watching. Tears came into
Agnes' eyes as she waited there in the wreckage of so many human hopes;
tears for the mother who had borne that unworthy son, but whose heart
was tender for him as if his soul had been without a stain; tears for
the old man whose spirit was broken, and tears for herself and her own
dreams, and all the tender things which she had allowed to spring within
her breast.
After a long time Dr. Slavens came out of the hospital-tent and let the
flap down after him. The sun was striking long, slanting shadows across
the barrens; the fire was dying out of its touch. Agnes' heart sank as
she saw the doctor draw away a little distance, and then turn and walk a
little beat, back and forth, back and forth, his head bowed, his hands
clasped behind him in an attitude of thorough disappointment and deep
gloom. She got up and went to him, a feeling that all was over.
"Never mind," she consoled, lifting her tear-streaked face to meet his
haggard look. "You've lost, but I have come to tell you that it makes no
difference between us. We will go on with our life together as we
planned it; we will take up our dreams."
"Agnes, you have come in good time," said he, lifting his hand to his
forehead wearily.
"I am not noble enough to sacrifice my happiness for your good," she
continued. "I am too weak and common, and womanly frail for that. I
cannot carry out my brave resolution, now that you've lost. We will go
away together, according to your plan, and I will live by your plan,
always and forever."
"You have come in good time--in good time," said he again, as one
speaking in a daze.
Then he drew her to his breast, where her head lay fair and bright, her
straying hair, spread like a shattered sunbeam, lifting in the young
wind that came from the hills beyond the river.
There she rested against the rock of his strength, his hand caressing
her wild tresses, the quiver of her sobbing breast stirring him like a
warm and quickening draught.
"You did well to come and tell me this," said he, "for, as I love you,
my dear, dear woman, I would not have had you on the other terms. But I
have not lost. Jerry Boyle has emerged from the shadow. He will live."
* * * * *
After that day when his adventuring soul strayed so near the portal
which opens in but one direction, Boyle's recovery was rapid. Ten days
later they loaded him into a wagon to take him to Comanche, thence to
his father's home by rail.
Young Boyle was full of the interest of life again, and his stock of
audacity did not appear to be in the least diminished by his melancholy
experience. He treated Dr. Slavens on the footing of an old friend, and
if there was any shame in his heart at his past behavior toward Agnes,
his colorless cheeks did not betray it.
With the exception of one flying visit to the capital city of the state,
Governor Boyle had remained in camp faithfully since the day of the
tragedy. But the slow days in those solitudes were galling to his busy
mind once the safety of his boy's life was assured. He became in a
measure dictatorial and high-handed in his dealings with the doctor, and
altogether patronizing.
Dr. Slavens considered his duty toward the patient at an end on the
morning when they loaded him into the spring wagon to take him to
Comanche. He told the Governor as much.
"He'll be able to get up in a few days more," said the doctor, "and
inside of a month he'll be riding his horse as if daylight never had
been let through him."
Governor Boyle took this announcement as the signal for him to produce
his checkbook, which he did with considerable ostentation and flourish.
"How much did you expect to get out of this pile of rocks?" he asked the
doctor, poising his fountain-pen over the page.
Dr. Slavens colored under the question, which came so sharply and
indelicately, although he had rehearsed in his mind for that moment an
uncounted number of times. He said nothing, fumbling as he was for a
reply.
Jerry, lying back on his cot in the wagon, his head propped up, laughed
shortly and answered for him.
"It was about twenty thousand, wasn't it, Doctor?"
"Somewhere around there," admitted Slavens, as if confessing some wild
folly.
"Well, I said I'd give you half as much as you expected to get out of it
if you pulled Jerry through, and I'm here to keep my word," said the
Governor, beginning to write.
Agnes looked at the doctor, indignant amazement in her face. Then she
turned to the Governor sharply.
"I beg your pardon, Governor Boyle, but I was present when you made that
promise; you said you'd pay him _twice_ as much as he hoped to get out
of the claim if he saved Jerry's life," said she.
Governor Boyle raised his eyes with a cold, severe look on his bearded
face.
"I beg your pardon!" said he with withering rebuke, which carried with
it denial and challenge of proof. That said, he bent to his writing
again.
Jerry Boyle laughed.
"Oh, jar loose a little, Governor--be a sport!" he urged.
"Here is my check for ten thousand dollars, Doctor," said the Governor,
handing the slip to Slavens; "I consider that pretty good pay for two
weeks' work."
The Governor mounted his horse, and gave the driver the word to proceed
slowly to the station.
"And if I croak on the road over the Governor'll stop payment on the
check," said Jerry facetiously.
"Well, unless you get busy with that little gun of yours and somebody
puts another hole through you on the way," the doctor assured him, "I'll
make it to the bank door with a perfectly good check in my hand."
Young Boyle held out his hand in farewell, his face suddenly sober and
serious.
"The gun has been cached," said he. "I promised mother I'd never sling
it on a man again, and I'm going to stick to it. I'm going to get a bill
put through the Legislature making it a felony to pack one, if it can be
done. I'm cured, Doctor, in more ways than one."
The cavalcade moved off down the winding road. Agnes was ablaze with
indignation.
"The idea of that man going back on his solemn word, given in the very
presence of death!"
"Never mind; that's the way he made his money, I suppose," said the
doctor. "I've got more out of it than I ever expected to get without a
row, and I'm going to make a line for that bank in Cheyenne and get the
money on his check before he changes his mind. He may get to thinking
before he gets home that Jerry isn't worth ten thousand dollars."
As they rode up to the rise of the hill, Agnes reined in and stopped.
"Here is where we changed places on the coach that day when Smith
thought there was going to be a fight," she recalled.
"Yes, this is the place," he said, looking around with a smile. "Old Hun
Shanklin was up here spying out the land."
"Smith called you to the box to help him, he told me later, because he
picked you out as a man who would put up a fight," said she.
"Well, let us hope that he made a good guess," Slavens said, "for here's
where we take up the racket with the world again."
"We changed places on the coach that day; you took the post of danger,"
she reflected, her eyes roaming the browning hills and coming back to
his face with a caress in their placid depths.
"Yes," he said, slowly, gravely; "where a man belongs."
Dr. Slavens gathered up his reins to go, yet lingered a little, looking
out over the gray leagues of that vast land unfolded with its new
adventures at his feet. Agnes drew near, turned in her saddle to view
again the place of desolation strewn over with its monumental stones.
"This is my Gethsemane," she said.
"It was cursed and unholy when I came to it; I leave it sanctified by my
most precious memory," said he.
He rode on; Agnes, pressing after, came yet a little way behind, content
to have it so, his breast between her and the world. And that was the
manner of their going from the place of stones.
* * * * *
EDGAR RICE BURROUGH'S NOVELS
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_TARZAN THE UNTAMED_
Tells of Tarzan' s return to the life of the ape-man in his search for
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_JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN_
Records the many wonderful exploits by which Tarzan proves his right
to ape kingship.
_A PRINCESS OF MARS_
Forty-three million miles from the earth--a succession of the weirdest
and most astounding adventures in fiction. John Carter, American,
finds himself on the planet Mars, battling for a beautiful woman, with
the Green Men of Mars, terrible creatures fifteen feet high, mounted
on horses like dragons.
_THE GODS OF MARS_
Continuing John Carter's adventures on the Planet Mars, in which he
does battle against the ferocious "plant men," creatures whose mighty
tails swished their victims to instant death, and defies Issus, the
terrible Goddess of Death, whom all Mars worships and reveres.
_THE WARLORD OF MARS_
Old acquaintances, made in the two other stories, reappear, Tars
Tarkas, Tardos Mors and others. There is a happy ending to the story
in the union of the Warlord, the title conferred upon John Carter,
with Dejah Thoris.
_THUVIA, MAID OF MARS_
The fourth volume of the series. The story centers around the
adventures of Carthoris, the son of John Carter and Thuvia, daughter
of a Martian Emperor.
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FLORENCE L. BARCLAY'S NOVELS
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_THE WHITE LADIES OF WORCESTER_
A novel of the 12th Century. The heroine, believing she had lost her
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_THE UPAS TREE_
A love story of rare charm. It deals with a successful author and his
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_THROUGH THE POSTERN GATE_
The story of a seven day courtship, in which the discrepancy in ages
vanished into insignificance before the convincing demonstration of
abiding love.
_THE ROSARY_
The story of a young artist who is reputed to love beauty above all
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real people superbly capable of love, its sacrifices and its exceeding
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_THE MISTRESS OF SHENSTONE_
The lovely young Lady Ingleby, recently widowed by the death of a
husband who never understood her, meets a fine, clean young chap who
is ignorant of her title and they fall deeply in love with each other.
When he learns her real identity a situation of singular power is
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_THE BROKEN HALO_
The story of a young man whose religious belief was shattered in
childhood and restored to him by the little white lady, many years
older than himself, to whom he is passionately devoted.
_THE FOLLOWING OF THE STAR_
The story of a young missionary, who, about to start for Africa,
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conditions of her uncle's will, and how they finally come to love each
other and are reunited after experiences that soften and purify.
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_THE LAMP IN THE DESERT_
The scene of this splendid story is laid in India and tells of the
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_GREATHEART_
The story of a cripple whose deformed body conceals a noble soul.
_THE HUNDREDTH CHANCE_
A hero who worked to win even when there was only "a hundredth
chance."
_THE SWINDLER_
The story of a "bad man's" soul revealed by a woman's faith.
_THE TIDAL WAVE_
Tales of love and of women who learned to know the true from the
false.
_THE SAFETY CURTAIN_
A very vivid love story of India. The volume also contains four other
long stories of equal interest.
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ZANE GREY'S NOVELS
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THE MAN OF THE FOREST
THE DESERT OF WHEAT
THE U. P. TRAIL
WILDFIRE
THE BORDER LEGION
THE RAINBOW TRAIL
THE HERITAGE OF THE DESERT
RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE
THE LIGHT OF WESTERN STARS
THE LAST OF THE PLAINSMEN
THE LONE STAR RANGER
DESERT GOLD
BETTY ZANE
LAST OF THE GREAT SCOUTS
The life story of "Buffalo Bill" by his sister Helen Cody Wetmore,
with Foreword and conclusion by Zane Grey.
ZANE GREY'S BOOKS FOR BOYS
KEN WARD IN THE JUNGLE
THE YOUNG LION HUNTER
THE YOUNG FORESTER
THE YOUNG PITCHER
THE SHORT STOP
THE RED-HEADED OUTFIELD AND OTHER BASEBALL STORIES
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JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD'S STORIES OF ADVENTURE
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THE RIVER'S END
A story of the Royal Mounted Police.
THE GOLDEN SNARE
Thrilling adventures in the Far Northland.
NOMADS OF THE NORTH
The story of a bear-cub and a dog.
KAZAN
The tale of a "quarter-strain wolf and three-quarters husky" torn
between the call of the human and his wild mate.
BAREE, SON OF KAZAN
The story of the son of the blind Grey Wolf and the gallant part
he played in the lives of a man and a woman.
THE COURAGE OF CAPTAIN PLUM
The story of the King of Beaver Island, a Mormon colony, and his
battle with Captain Plum.
THE DANGER TRAIL
A tale of love, Indian vengeance, and a mystery of the North.
THE HUNTED WOMAN
A tale of a great fight in the "valley of gold" for a woman.
THE FLOWER OF THE NORTH
The story of Fort o' God, where the wild flavor of the wilderness
is blended with the courtly atmosphere of France.
THE GRIZZLY KING
The story of Thor, the big grizzly.
ISOBEL
A love story of the Far North.
THE WOLF HUNTERS
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THE GOLD HUNTERS
The story of adventure in the Hudson Bay wilds.
THE COURAGE OF MARGE O'DOONE
Filled with exciting incidents in the land of strong men and women.
BACK TO GOD'S COUNTRY
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from this book.
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ELEANOR H. PORTER'S NOVELS
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JUST DAVID
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hearts of the gruff farmer folk to whose care he is left.
THE ROAD TO UNDERSTANDING
A compelling romance of love and marriage.
OH, MONEY! MONEY!
Stanley Fulton, a wealthy bachelor, to test the dispositions of his
relatives, sends them each a check for $100,000, and then as plain
John Smith comes among them to watch the result of his experiment.
SIX STAR RANCH
A wholesome story of a club of six girls and their summer on Six Star
Ranch.
DAWN
The story of a blind boy whose courage leads him through the gulf of
despair into a final victory gained by dedicating his life to the
service of blind soldiers.
ACROSS THE YEARS
Short stories of our own kind and of our own people.
Contains some of the best writing Mrs. Porter has done.
THE TANGLED THREADS
In these stories we find the concentrated charm and tenderness of all
her other books.
THE TIE THAT BINDS
Intensely human stories told with Mrs. Porter's wonderful talent for
warm and vivid character drawing.
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"STORM COUNTRY" BOOKS BY GRACE MILLER WHITE
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JUDY OF ROGUES' HARBOR
Judy's untutored ideas of God, her love of wild things, her faith in
life are quite as inspiring as those of Tess. Her faith and sincerity
catch at your heart strings. This book has all of the mystery and
tense action of the other Storm Country books.
TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY
It was as Tess, beautiful, wild, impetuous, that Mary Pickford made
her reputation as a motion picture actress. How love acts upon a
temperament such as hers--a temperament that makes a woman an angel or
an outcast, according to the character of the man she loves--is the
theme of the story.
THE SECRET OF THE STORM COUNTRY
The sequel to "Tess of the Storm Country," with the same wild
background, with its half-gypsy life of the squatters--tempestuous,
passionate, brooding. Tess learns the "secret" of her birth and finds
happiness and love through her boundless faith in life.
FROM THE VALLEY OF THE MISSING
A haunting story with its scene laid near the country familiar to
readers of "Tess of the Storm Country."
ROSE O' PARADISE
"Jinny" Singleton, wild, lovely, lonely, but with a passionate
yearning for music, grows up in the house of Lafe Grandoken, a
crippled cobbler of the Storm Country. Her romance is full of power
and glory and tenderness.
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KATHLEEN NORRIS' STORIES
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SISTERS. Frontispiece by Frank Street.
The California Redwoods furnish the background for this beautiful
story of sisterly devotion and sacrifice.
POOR, DEAR, MARGARET KIRBY.
Frontispiece by George Gibbs.
A collection of delightful stories, including "Bridging the Years" and
"The Tide-Marsh." This story is now shown in moving pictures.
JOSSELYN'S WIFE. Frontispiece by C. Allan Gilbert.
The story of a beautiful woman who fought a bitter fight for happiness
and love.
MARTIE, THE UNCONQUERED.
Illustrated by Charles E. Chambers.
The triumph of a dauntless spirit over adverse conditions.
THE HEART OF RACHAEL.
Frontispiece by Charles E. Chambers.
An interesting story of divorce and the problems that come with a
second marriage.
THE STORY OF JULIA PAGE.
Frontispiece by C. Allan Gilbert.
A sympathetic portrayal of the quest of a normal girl, obscure and
lonely, for the happiness of life.
SATURDAY'S CHILD. Frontispiece by F. Graham Cootes.
Can a girl, born in rather sordid conditions, lift herself through
sheer determination to the better things for which her soul hungered?
MOTHER. Illustrated by F. C. Yohn.
A story of the big mother heart that beats in the background of every
girl's life, and some dreams which came true.
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BOOTH TARKINGTON'S NOVELS
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SEVENTEEN. Illustrated by Arthur William Brown.
No one but the creator of Penrod could have portrayed the immortal
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PENROD. Illustrated by Gordon Grant.
This is a picture of a boy's heart, full of the lovable, humorous,
tragic things which are locked secrets to most older folks. It is a
finished, exquisite work.
PENROD AND SAM. Illustrated by Worth Brehm.
Like "Penrod" and "Seventeen," this book contains some remarkable
phases of real boyhood and some of the best stories of juvenile
prankishness that have ever been written.
THE TURMOIL. Illustrated by G. E. Chambers.
Bibbs Sheridan is a dreamy, imaginative youth, who revolts against his
father's plans for him to be a servitor of big business. The love of a
fine girl turns Bibbs' life from failure to success.
THE GENTLEMAN FROM INDIANA. Frontispiece.
A story of love and politics,--more especially a picture of a country
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interest.
THE FLIRT. Illustrated by Clarence P. Underwood.
The "Flirt," the younger of two sisters, breaks one girl's engagement,
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to lose his fortune, and in the end marries a stupid and unpromising
suitor, leaving the really worthy one to marry her sister.
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THE NOVELS OF GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL LUTZ
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THE BEST MAN
Through a strange series of adventures a young man finds himself
propelled up the aisle of a church and married to a strange girl.
A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS
On her way West the heroine steps off by mistake at a lonely watertank
into a maze of thrilling events.
THE ENCHANTED BARN
Every member of the family will enjoy this spirited chronicle of a
young girl's resourcefulness and pluck, and the secret of the
"enchanted" barn.
THE WITNESS
The fascinating story of the enormous change an incident wrought in a
man's life.
MARCIA SCHUYLER
A picture of ideal girlhood set in the time of full skirts and poke
bonnets.
LO, MICHAEL!
A story of unfailing appeal to all who love and understand boys.
THE MAN OF THE DESERT
An intensely moving love story of a man of the desert and a girl of
the East pictured against the background of the Far West.
PHOEBE DEANE
A tense and charming love story, told with a grace and a fervor with
which only Mrs. Lutz could tell it.
DAWN OF THE MORNING
A romance of the last century with all of its old-fashioned charm. A
companion volume to "Marcia Schuyler" and "Phoebe Deane."
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