e could put up six months from me
and the kids, but nobody said nothing about it. Just gave her back to
me." He frowned slowly, his dull voice uncertain. "They told me they'd
done all they could, not to bring her back. That's why she was so strong
on getting Doc."

"I don't like it," Jake said flatly. "It stinks. They always charge.
George, did they suggest she get in touch with Doc here?"

"Maybe they did, maybe not. Harriet did all the talking with them. I
just do what she tells me, and she said to get Doc."

Jake swore. "It smells like a trap. Are you sure she's sick, George?"

"I felt her head and she sure had a fever." George Lynn was torn
between his loyalties. "You know me, Doc. You fixed me up that time I
had the red pip. I wouldn't pull nothing on you."

Doc had a feeling that Jake was probably right, but he vetoed the
suggestion that they stop to look for spies. He had no time for that. If
the woman was really sick, he had to get to her at once, and even that
might be too late.

He remembered the woman, sickly from other treatment. He'd been forced
to remove her inflamed tonsils a few months before. She'd whined and
complained because he couldn't spend all his time attending her. She was
a nag, a shrew, and a totally selfish woman. But that was her husband's
worry, not his.

He dashed into the little house when they reached Einstein, and his
first glance confirmed what George Lynn had said. The woman was sick,
all right. She was running a high fever. Much too high.

She began whining and protesting at his having taken so long, but the
pain soon forced her to stop.

"There may still be a chance," Doc told her husband brusquely. He threw
the cleanest sheet onto a table and shoved it under the single light.
"Keep out of the way--in the other room, if you can all pile in there.
This isn't exactly aseptic, anyhow. You can boil a lot of water, if you
want to help."

It would give them something to do and he could use the water to clean
up. There was no time to wait for it, however. He had to sterilize with
alcohol and carbolic acid, and hope. He bent over the woman, ripping her
thin gown across to make room for the operation.

Then he swore.

Across her abdomen was the unhealed wound of a previous operation.
They'd worked on her at Southport. They must have removed the appendix
and then been shocked by the signs of infection. They weren't supposed
to release a sick patient, but there was an easy out f