The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1925-01-21
Chapter VIII

drug devil still chung to the nervous
refugees Of its physical domain, the
hands still trembled, the man started
at sudden sounds; but the shifty.
furtive, lying spirit had taken its de-
parture.
Joan only discovered afterward
what Lancaster must have endured.
The treatment had been more heroic
than Joan had known, with her own
limited experience, and the antidotes
which she administered, under Lam
casters own directions, were purpose
ly limited, for fear Of supplanting one
habit with another.
Lancaster had gone through the
worst of his ordeal; and yet certain
features of his illness were puzzling
to both of them. The symptoms of
morphine poisoning, elusive and pro-
team as they are, seemed in this case
lrreconciiable with those classically
accepted There was Lancaster's COM
plete prostration on the morning when
Joan discovered the nature of his ILL
ness. He told her afterward that he
had been conscious all the time, but
physically inert, as if paralyzed. That
did not point to morphine poisoning.
And a certain lethargy remained one
of the LIST symptoms of the case.
The intimacy of the sick room, born
of their struggle, had become the most
natural thing to both of them. The
passing OF Myers had wrought an ex-
traordinary change in the atmosphere
of the institution. And somehow the
news of Lancaster's recovery had
spread into Millville. Joan inferred
that even tie country people had boy
cotted the institute, but now two moth
ers brought their babies to Lancaster,
and it was amazing and delightful to
Joan to see the doctors transforma-
ton. his holiness and tenderness to-
ward the children.
I'm using my respite" he said
whimsically. 81 want to get well to
face my harder battle"
1T is no respite" answered Joan.
"You are free now, Doctor Lancaster;
It is only a habit of thought that holds
you"
There ensued three wonderful days
after the secretary's departure, always
to remain clear in the girls memory.
They were three days of uninterrupt-
ed recovery. After the second no
more morphine was given. The fight
was won; there was no questioning
that.
81 suppose you will have to return
to Avonmouth SOON" Joan suggested.
He turned a startled look on her.
"Yes-soon." he said. and fell into
gloomy meditation from which she
could not arouse him.
That afternoon a telephone message
came from Thompson, hill village.
fifteen miles distant. A Farmland
had been crushed by a falling tree;
would Lancaster come at once and see
II anything could be done for him?
would you like to come with me?"
asked the doctor.
"If can be of help"
"Of course you can-the greatest
help shall need you badly, perhaps
to administer an anesthetic," he an
swered.
Lancaster telephoned to Jenkins for
the buggy, and half an hour later they
were driving along the country road
into the heart of the mountains. They
Travelled for the most part in silence;
Lancaster's thoughts were occupied
with his prospective case, and Joan
was content to sit quietly at his side
and watch the changing panorama of
the land she loved and knew so well.
The road assembled continuously. I'M
til at last, when the sun was low down
in the sky, they entered Thompson, a
tiny settlement in the very heart of
the mountain peaks.
1t was a serious case, and the pa
tient was already comatose. The
tree had fallen across the chest, crush
ing it, and driving rib into lung.
An immediate operation offered the
only hope, and the doctor decided to
perform it in the cabin.
Joan. having bundled out the family |
and the neighbors. administered the |
ether. She had never been greatly |
impressed by the legend of the skilled |
surgeon with the wonderful touch; |
her first operation at Avonmouth had |
seemed to her like a sort of gloritied |
plumbing, and the leisurely manner of |
the surgeons had reduced the art to a
science in her estimation. Now she
revised her opinion as, seated at the
patients head, she watched Lancaster
working within compass of fraction
al inches, where a slip would have
been deadly. His fingers, which had
trembled as he held the reinS were
as steady as the steel instruments he
held, his dizziness and precision were
and when at last the opera
tion was ended. and the patients re-
covery announced as probable. she
could not conceal her enthusiasm.
They were to remain at the cabin
overnight in case of a change for the
worse, returning to the institute in
the morning. After scrappy meal
they had wandered to the end of the
village, toward patch of woodland
that was encroaching on the tiny set