第3章

THE child's dead," said Nora, the nurse.It was the upstairs sitting-room in one of the pretentious houses of Sutherland, oldest and most charming of the towns on the Indiana bank of the Ohio.The two big windows were open; their limp and listless draperies showed that there was not the least motion in the stifling humid air of the July afternoon.At the center of the room stood an oblong table; over it were neatly spread several thicknesses of white cotton cloth; naked upon them lay the body of a newborn girl baby.At one side of the table nearer the window stood Nora.Hers were the hard features and corrugated skin popularly regarded as the result of a life of toil, but in fact the result of a life of defiance to the laws of health.As additional penalties for that same self-indulgence she had an enormous bust and hips, thin face and arms, hollow, sinew-striped neck.The young man, blond and smooth faced, at the other side of the table and facing the light, was Doctor Stevens, a recently graduated pupil of the famous Schulze of Saint Christopher who as much as any other one man is responsible for the rejection of hocus-pocus and the injection of common sense into American medicine.For upwards of an hour young Stevens, coat off and shirt sleeves rolled to his shoulders, had been toiling with the lifeless form on the table.

He had tried everything his training, his reading and his experience suggested--all the more or less familiar devices similar to those indicated for cases of drowning.Nora had watched him, at first with interest and hope, then with interest alone, finally with swiftly deepening disapproval, as her compressed lips and angry eyes plainly revealed.It seemed to her his effort was degenerating into sacrilege, into defiance of an obvious decree of the Almighty.However, she had not ventured to speak until the young man, with a muttered ejaculation suspiciously like an imprecation, straightened his stocky figure and began to mop the sweat from his face, hands and bared arms.

When she saw that her verdict had not been heard, she repeated it more emphatically."The child's dead," said she, "as I told you from the set-out." She made the sign of the cross on her forehead and bosom, while her fat, dry lips moved in a "Hail, Mary."The young man did not rouse from his reverie.He continued to gaze with a baffled expression at the tiny form, so like a whimsical caricature of humanity.He showed that he had heard the woman's remark by saying, to himself rather than to her, "Dead? What's that? Merely another name for ignorance." But the current of his thought did not swerve.It held to the one course: What would his master, the dauntless, the infinitely resourceful Schulze, do if he were confronted by this intolerable obstacle of a perfect machine refusing to do its duty and pump vital force through an eagerly waiting body?

"He'd _make_ it go, I'd bet my life," the young man muttered.

"I'm ashamed of myself."

As if the reproach were just the spur his courage and his intelligence had needed, his face suddenly glowed with the upshooting fire of an inspiration.He thrust the big white handkerchief into his hip pocket, laid one large strong hand upon the small, beautifully arched chest of the baby.Nora, roused by his expression even more than by his gesture, gave an exclamation of horror."Don't touch it again," she cried, between entreaty and command."You've done all you can--and more."Stevens was not listening."Such a fine baby, too," he said, hesitating--the old woman mistakenly fancied it was her words that made him pause."I feel no good at all," he went on, as if reasoning with himself, "no good at all, losing both the mother and the child.""_She_ didn't want to live," replied Nora.Her glances stole somewhat fearfully toward the door of the adjoining room--the bedroom where the mother lay dead.

"There wasn't nothing but disgrace ahead for both of them.

Everybody'll be glad."

"Such a fine baby," muttered the abstracted young doctor.

"Love-children always is," said Nora.She was looking sadly and tenderly down at the tiny, symmetrical form--symmetrical to her and the doctor's expert eyes."Such a deep chest," she sighed.

"Such pretty hands and feet.A real love-child." There she glanced nervously at the doctor; it was meet and proper and pious to speak well of the dead, but she felt she might be going rather far for a "good woman.""I'll try it," cried the young man in a resolute tone."It can't do any harm, and----"Without finishing his sentence he laid hold of the body by the ankles, swung it clear of the table.As Nora saw it dangling head downwards like a dressed suckling pig on a butcher's hook she vented a scream and darted round the table to stop by main force this revolting desecration of the dead.Stevens called out sternly: "Mind your business, Nora! Push the table against the wall and get out of the way.I want all the room there is.""Oh, Doctor--for the blessed Jesus' sake----""Push back that table!"

Nora shrank before his fierce eyes.She thought his exertions, his disappointment and the heat had combined to topple him over into insanity.She retreated toward the farther of the open windows.With a curse at her stupidity Stevens kicked over the table, used his foot vigorously in thrusting it to the wall.

"Now!" exclaimed he, taking his stand in the center of the room and gauging the distance of ceiling, floor and walls.