Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-07-13


that" he commanded Kemp. Kemp
clutched the arm. The bones seemed
TO bend to the grip. Lieber chose a
swollen vein and pierced it with the
needle. He forced the dose into the
blood. There" he said with a smile
to Gerry, that's what's known as an
intrayenous administration of quinine
and arsenic: II another paroxysm
hits him he's done for, but We'll know
all about that In forty-eight hours
time"
He went into the house and brought
out clean sheets, soft wooden blankets,
pillows and pillow-slips. Kemp had
never seen such linen; Gerry had al
most forgotten the feel of IT. Gerry
came to life. With one hand under
Alan's shoulder and another under his
hips, he lifted him as though he were
an empty she'll, while Kemp and Lie
Der drew out the dust-caked blankets
and hammock and spread first a cane
mat over the settle and then a blanket
and, on top of that, a sheet. The touch
Of Alan's dry, cracking skin seemed
to Gerry to be burning his hands at
Is as though there were fire in him."
he said TO Lieber.
Lieber looked at his patient with an
all-seeing eye. He paused before COW
ersng him up. That's it." he said
There's fire In him-the worst kind
and he's been playing with it, just
tickling 1t with stale Quinine" His
eye ran rapidly over the thin body. 81
said the dose I gave him would prob
ably kill him, but I've changed my
mind. I'm betting the other way, now
I really look at him. There's no flesh
on him, but he doesn't look like a skel-
eton. Why? Because of the sinews
and bones Of him.they're perfect
Look at the. way the sinews hold his
neck and the way the neck carries the
sinews. Look at the fat bulge of his
ribs and the. breadth of his shoulders
over the hips. That means heart and
lungs and yitals. That mans been a
fighter, and unless I'm a bigger fool
than I was yesterday he's a fighter
yet"
Cover him up, for Gods sake" said
Gerry.
Lieber dropped the sheet and went
off to the kitchen. Gerry and Kemp
covered the stripped body and tucked
many blankets over it, Lieber came
back and took off half the blankets.
Mustn't tire him with weight" he ex-
planned. "If he's going to sweat, he'll
sweat all right. gnant
fever-is the tiredest disease in the
world. When they get too tired to
breathe, that's the end" He took hold
of Alan's wrist. ITO feel his pulse,
you'd say he was dead now"
"'Bout time we was startin'," re-
marked Kemp with his eyes toward
the declining sun.
Gerry's first impulse was to say he
would stay, but he suddenly remem-
bered Margarita. How far away from
life she seemed! Alan and Margarita
could not crowd into one day or even
into one wOrld-it was against the or
der Of things. But facts do not stand
on the order Of their coming, they sim
ply come, and against the protest of
mans will they present his fate;
against the cry of the troubled and
displaced soul they voice the eternal
j'y suis, j'y reste Of inanimate things
One cannot go around a fact. One
mus. either break ones head against
1t or swallow it and LET it take Its
course through the mental gorge.
Gerry longed to stay by Alan's side.
and through his returning conscious
ness, as through magnifying glass,
gaze upon the world he had fOresworn
the heritage he had abandoned. But
the fact of Margarita and her boy
suddenly declared itself-demanded
digestion-and Gerry turned his back
on Alan. He mounted, and with the
silent Kemp reversed the drive they
had made together months before.
Lieber did not go with them. When
he had seen them off, he busted him
self giving orders for the tidying up
of the veranda, the feeding Of Alan's
convoy beast and man, and the prepa-
ration Of room for the self-invited
guest. From the pile of dusty pillows
a servant was picking up, fell board.
Ldeber glanced down at it. Words
were cut roughly but clearly into its
surface. They spoke to him. They
held his eyes. He stopped laboriously
and picked up the board. He took 1t
into his private room, propped it up
against some books on the table and
sat before it with his face dropped
in his hands To his closed eyes the
words seemed no longer carved in
wood. Against the inward darkness
OF his brain they shOne out in points
Of light He could not shut them out.
"Quf de nous ma pas Gu sa terre
promise, son jour d'extase, ct sa fin en-
exil?"
At shutdown Lieber came out to his
patient. He had him moved, settle
and all, into a room whose windows
opened upon the verapde. Lieber sat
beside him and nursed him through the
long, hot night. To the deftness Of
his hand had been added tenderness,
and into his face a new determination
had come-a resolve to win Alan's
battle for him whatever the odds.
Gerry aid not sleep that night. He
lay on the little extra bed he had made
upon his sons arrival and, propping
himself on his elbow, gazed around