ead to the floor.
"Better lie flat for a while," he ordered in a tone of authority. "I
wonder where her people are?" the doctor added to himself, glancing
again at the five cot beds. Then he drew up a chair and watched Miss
Helen Campbell as she dropped into a doze.
In a little while she exclaimed in a much stronger tone of voice:
"Please take me out of this wobbly thing; I want to lie on my own bed."
The walking-doctor promptly lifted her in his arms like a little child
and deposited her on one of the cots. Her hands were cold, and he
covered her with a Roman blanket that lay on the foot of the bed. Then
he found two hot water bottles, marched down stairs, heated a kettle of
water on the kerosene stove, searched for beef tea in the ice chest and
by good luck found half a jar. With the water bottles at her feet and a
little beef tea to nourish her, Miss Campbell at last fell into a deep
sleep, while the doctor, sitting near at hand, read one of the magazines
and, occasionally tip-toeing to her bedside, listened to her breathing
and felt her pulse.
Toward late afternoon, he descended into the lower regions of the log
house and foraged for food. He found crackers and cheese, a tin of beans
and a bottle of ginger ale. Having refreshed himself, he was about to
return to his patient when Mr. Lupo staggered into the kitchen with a
market basket on his arm.
"Where is my wife?" he asked in a thick voice.
"She is not here and you'd better go, too, quick," answered the doctor.
Mr. Lupo looked at him with an ugly expression, his eyes narrowing, as
his wife's had done when she had approached Miss Campbell with the
carving knife.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I am a doctor."
"Has anything happened? My wife, she is crazy when she is mad. Is that
the reason why she ran away?"
"Does your wife flourish carving knives?"
Mr. Lupo retreated with a terrified expression.
"She has--?" he was too frightened to finish.
"No," replied the doctor. "The lady was too strong for her here." He
touched his forehead with his finger.
"She was not touched--the lady?"
"No, but she has collapsed from fright,--she is very ill,--I could not
answer for her recovery if you gave her another shock."
Without a word, Mr. Lupo rushed out of doors, jumped into a rickety
wagon drawn by an old mountain-climbing horse and in another instant was
clattering down the road.
Toward evening Miss Campbell grew stronger. The doctor raised he
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