“YOU SAVED MY ARM.”
It was two days later. Young Raynor, his injured arm in a sling, sat on
the edge of Jack’s bunk. They had passed out of range of the _Parisian_,
but, thanks to Jack’s quick wit, the crushed arm was getting along well,
and the “wireless doctor” had left instructions for the treatment of the
case as it progressed.
“Jack, old fellow, you saved this flipper for me, all right, with those
Hertzian waves of yours,” said Raynor, “and you know just how I feel
about it. But how in the world did you ever come to think of such a
stunt?”
“I can’t claim that it was very original,” was Jack’s rejoinder; “in
fact, it has been done two or three times before on freight ships that
carry no doctors.”
“Tell us about it,” urged the invalid.
“Well,” was the answer, “one case I heard about occurred on board the S.
S. _Parismina_, while she was crossing the Gulf of Mexico. A sudden call
came to her from a small island out of the path of regular ships called
Suma. A small colony lived there like so many Robinson Crusoes, mining
phosphates.
“A tramp steamer happened along once in a while, and they could sail to
the mainland, but those were their only links with civilization. To
carry the phosphates from the mines to the coast, they had a narrow
gauge railway. One day this railway cut up didoes; a train ran away and
crushed a workman’s foot.
“Luckily, the island had a wireless station with a powerful equipment.
There was no doctor and the man was so badly injured that it was feared
he would die before they could get one. Well, what did the bright young
wireless man do but get busy and start sending out calls broadcast for a
doctor.
“At last the _Parismina_ picked up his message, and Dr. C. S. Carter of
the ship volunteered his services. The _Parismina_ was then just two
hundred miles away from the island. The doctor transferred his office to
the liner’s wireless room and took the patient’s pulse and temperature,
via the air line. Then he told them just how to prepare a strong
antiseptic and how to fix up the broken ligaments.
“The wireless treatment was kept up till the _Parismina_ was four
hundred and twenty miles away, when the doctor was able to dismiss the
case.”
“Some class to that,” said Raynor admiringly. “Do you know any more like
that?”
“Yes, there is one other I can recall, so you see that I can’t claim the
credit for any originality in the idea.”
“Tell us about that other one,” urged Raynor.
Jack paused a moment to adjust his instruments and send a message to
another ship, giving their position and the weather. Then he shut off
the connection and turned to his chum.
“This other one, as you call it, occurred on the freighter _Herman
Frasch_, while she was well out at sea. Captain McGray of the ship was
seized with a bad attack of ptomaine poisoning. He grew worse, although
they did all they could for him with the help of the ship’s medicine
chest and the book of directions that goes with it.
“The ship was out in the Atlantic off the Florida coast. The captain
suddenly thought of a plan by which his case might be treated
intelligently. He knew there was a government station at Dry Tortugas,
Florida, one hundred miles off. He ordered a despatch sent there.
“As it so chanced, the despatch was not picked up by the government
station, but by the operator of the Ward Liner _Merida_, which was just
leaving Progresso, Yucatan.
“‘Doc!’ he exclaimed, rushing into the cabin of the _Merida’s_ doctor,
‘there’s a man awful sick with ptomaine poisoning.’
“The doctor lost no time in grabbing up his medicine case.
“‘Where is he, my man? What stateroom?’ he asked. ‘I don’t want to lose
any time on such a case.’
“‘Well, he’s about eight hundred miles to the west of us, Doc,’ said the
operator dryly, ‘but here is the diagnosis,’ and he handed the doctor a
long aerogram.
“The doctor whistled.
“‘Pretty bad,’ said he, ‘temperature 104, nausea, rash on face and
neck.’ Then he added quickly, ‘Give me an aerogram blank quickly.’
“He wrote out a prescription and a few minutes later it was being
flashed across the sea to the _Frasch_. The medicine was prepared, and
not long after the wireless reported that the captain was ‘Resting
easily.’
“The following morning the captain’s temperature was sent and he was
reported ‘a little better.’ The prescription was changed and the captain
improved rapidly. By this time a number of other ships had picked up the
messages, and the stricken skipper might have had a consultation of
physicians if his case had demanded it.
“So you see I did nothing very wonderful,” concluded Jack with a smile,
turning once more to his key.
“You saved my arm,” insisted Raynor stoutly, and then he left Jack to
his work and hastened off to the chief engineer’s cabin to ascertain how
soon he could be taken off the sick list.
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