interested in his patient--exploding
with the violence of imprudent youth. "They boss mayors, the aldermen,
the politicians--boss the governor himself. That's because they've got
the machine and the money. They've got a lot of money, because they
won't wake up and spend it to lay lines far enough to tap the lakes in
the hills. They tap these rotten rivers at our back doors, pump poison
through the mains, sell it at prices that yield them twenty percent
dividends. They say the water is all right--and back it up with
analyses. I say it's all wrong."

"And you damnation doctors are letting this go on--letting folks drink
poison--telling us when it's too late!" shouted Farr, purple replacing
the white in his face.

"Well, the folks up-town who have got wisdom and the money buy
spring-water and mineral water. All the doctors don't agree that
the river is responsible for the typhoid. With the governor and the
legislature bossed by Dodd and his associates, and the city governments
tied up by them, and the banks taking orders from the syndicate in case
any town or an independent company tries to borrow money and install a
water system, and the mill corporations and the tenement-block owners
all in cahoots, a crusader who expected to get anywhere in politics or
make money out of his business would stand a fine and dandy show, now
wouldn't he? And the most of us in this world are trying to get ahead
either in business or in politics." He snapped the catch of his little
black case. "Forget what I have said, you two. I hold my job through
politics. I'm apt to talk too much when I get started. But don't drink
city water, no matter if Colonel Dodd's analyses do give it a clean
bill."

Farr caught him at the door, restraining him with a heavy hand.

"You stay here, don't you let that baby die. By the gods, she sha'n't
die!"

"My staying will do no good, my friend. The little girl is death-struck
already. It's quick work with the children. Sometimes we can bring the
grown folks through. Get another doctor, if you feel like it, but I've
got to keep moving--there are lots of folks waiting for me in these
tenements."

He shook off Farr's hand and hurried away.

Old Etienne stood by the bedside, gazing down on the little sufferer,
closing and unclosing his shriveled hands as if he were grasping at
straws of hope, dragging the depths of his soul for reassurance even as
he dragged his rake in the black waters of the canal.

"The w