Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-08-11

CHAPTER (COHIlnueuJ.
"Look here he said, taking the man
by the shoulder. You're wanted, do
you hear?"
Purkess raised his heavy face.
GO to the bottom Of the hill and
stand there. When the doctor comes,
bring him on here at once. A minute
or two may make all the difference.
RUM"
The heavy face frightened A
minute later, Hugo heard the man
gathering down the hill. Action had
touched him with healing fingers.
Hugo went back into the inner room.
The nurse had the child on her knee,
trying with all her art and experience
to soothe it.
''Is there nothing we can do?" whis-
pered Hugo.
eff Mr.. Tisdale were here he would
try tracheotomy. see!" She pressed
the swollen throat. ''There is the
the thickening; below the passage is
quite clear. One tiny incision-and a
tube! I've seen 1t done several times.
could do it with sharp pair Of scis-
sors myself"
do it, said Hugo.
IT daren't."
1.-THE child is dying"
Eyes, yes; butt darent, tell you
and we have no tube"
The words died on her lips as q,
worse spasm seized the child. The
struggle for breath was terrible to
witness. The nurse lad the child,
face down on her lap. Hugo looked
on, feeling the sweat break upon his
forehead.
After an eternity, the swollen throat
relaxed for an instant the breath
passed through with fierce gasp, the
twitching limbs lay quiet.
Fl thought she had gone then"
whispered the nurse.
/ 'tYou say the incision must be made
in the windpipe, and held open by
something
That's it."
She stared at him, arrested by an
expression upon his face that few had
ever seen. The moment was intensely
dramatic. Nurse and man knew that
a life was being snatched because
they lacked the skill to save it. That
the man who could save it was close
at hand, perhaps not more than half
a mile away, made the situation In
finitely more tragic.
The breathing began to grow labor
ed again. Ever since Hugo had been
in the room, these dreadful intermit-
tances had taken place. And always
the period of ease had been shortened.
Another violent attack was about to
begin.
Hugo hurried from the room; when
he came back his face was quite i'm
passive.
81 can't hear the motor" he said
quietly.
The nurse gave a significant shrug
of her shoulders; and as she did so
the child's legs curled up piteously
and the spasm began.
"Oh!" said the nurse.
Into that one exclamation she con-
densed everything: her protest against
the irony of fate, against her own help
lessness, against the torture she was
about to witness, unable to alleviate
It. She had passed the last seven
years of her life in the hospitals, and
might have been deemed case-hard-
ened, but Hugo saw two tears trick
ling down her cheeks as she tried in
vain to calm the twitching legs and
writing arms.
''I'll make the incision," said Hugo.
"Show me the exact place!"
She obeyed in silence, after one
glance upward. She realized that pro-
I test was unavailing; he had counted
the cost. Upon the table near the
I bed was vessel Of disinfecting fluid.
She saw Hugo dip his penknife into
1t.
"A hairpin, please he said, in the
same even tones.
Again she obeyed, too bewildered
to understand. He dipped the hairpin
into the fluid, watching the child, but
with ear intent for the distant toot
Of the motor.
TITS now or never" said the nurse,
desperately. Afterwards she admit
ted that she was entirely dominated
by Hugo. She had forgotten that he
was a layman; from his cool manner
she might have supposed that at some
time or other he had practiced as a
tsurgeon. Nevertheless, she had wait
ed till the last possible second; the
child's face was lvid.
Keep the tncision open with the
hairpin,' said Hugo
/ Five minutes afterwards the motor
troared up the hill.
| Next day Hugo saw Joy for few
minutes. Everybody was frantically
fbusy turning Jordan cottage into a
temporary hospital, but Joy led him
aside and grasped his hands.
"Mr. Tisdale says that hairpin was
inspiration.
"Yes," said Hugo stif1y, seeing the
Ifriendliness, the interest, the admira-
ton in her frank eyes.
~And he tells me that you have
guaranteed the money for this" she
Indicated the changes in the Jordan
cottage. "Of course, the ratepayers
will have to settle with you in full,
but father and I are so grateful.
Father will be down directly"
He moved slightly away from her,
muttering:
because you took that risk, I, we
her eyes sparkled. "shall never forget
their dear brother drinking, Sir Giles
what you have done"