The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-03-28

M up and@saw Doctor Byfield
" coming along the hospital
corridor she knew instinc-
lively that he was about to ask her
to perform some unusual duty. She
was not prepared, though, for the ex-
IRENE oddly of the commission he i'm
posed upon her.
"Mr. Leighton will send his car for
you this afternoon" he told her.
You're to go right to the young mans
room as soon as you arrive. He will
probably be mapping, but when he -stirs
you're to begin at once trying to pull
him out of himself. You're to pose as
a distant relative who has arrived for
a visit unannounced Mind-no uni
form-only your prettiest and most
becoming frocks. No hint of hospitals
or medicines. You're TO tease him, tan
talize him, boss him-anything to
arouse the spark | know must be left
in that otherwise healthy makeup.
He's in bad shape. Sneaked off and
got into the war when he was mere
infant and he has never recovered
from his terrible experiences overseas.
1 know you can help him. His family
are desperate over his failure to re-
spond to any of their efforts"
"Why pick on me, Doctor Byf1eld?"
because you're the only nurse on
my staff that I'd trust to go there and
not lose her head. Bob Leighton is
handsome devil and | don't want the
heart of the best nurse I've got brok-
en-. Are you sufficiently forewarned?"
AMPLY. I'll he good and report ev-
cry day or two"
Ronne Long was strangely conf
handle Bob Leighton's case. She had
been overseas herself and was not al
together unfamiliar with cases of
Americas finest whom the tragedies
of the World war had turned from
men into seemingly mmovable. stony
hearted images.
Robert Leighton, ST., greeted her
very cordially and asked her if she
understood the terms of their con-
tract. When she answered Affirmative
ly he asked her to lose no time going
to the young mans quarters.
When she opened the door softly
she found herself in large, pleasant
room, beautifully furnished. One
whole side of it was screened and
open to view of the mountains.
Stretched out asleep on long loung-
ing chair lay the man whom she
knew must be her patient"
She sat down across from him and
a little way off, opening her book to
read, planning to begin operations by
startling her patient with her pres
ence when he awakened. Losing her
self in the first interesting pages of
the novel, she finally looked up quick
ly to be startled herself. Bob Leigh
ton was looking at her as though he
had been at it for hours, with a pair
of soft brown eyes. weary in spite of
the amusement in them.
He spoke first. "Are you real or
make-believe?"
you'll find I'm very real" she an
swered with little chuckle. "I'm
Veronica Long. You didn't know you
possessed a Far Western cousin with
nerve enough to wish herself on you
for visit without being invited, did
you?"
LET me see-I believe have heard
such a person mentioned, but didn't
know she hailed from the West"
Ronnie decided that she had made
an suspicious beginning. Already she
had aroused him to the point of feign-
ing knowledge of her instead of stub
bornly refusing 20 talk to her, as
Doctor Byfield had warned her he
might do. That night Bob decided to
try dining with the family and got by
with only one short lapse into one of
his deadly apathetic spells.
AS days heightened into weeks the
process OF the treatment she was u.s.
ing gave Nurse Long some question.
She leased Bob from his dark moods
of dependency; inveigled him into
doing things he utterly refused to do
at first; she even angered him occa-
sionally.
The black, dangerous moods passed
slowly. She felt that she was winning,
but the state of her own heart and
mind, as her patient grew to be more
and more himself, worried her con-
siderably.
Idiot" she told her image as she
was cOmbing her hair one night be-
fore retiring. Here you are doing ex-
actly what Doctor Byfield warned you
against. You're losing your heart to
man who is SO far above you socially
that he won't stop to dust his shoes
on you when he learns the truth"
1t had been arranged that Ronnie
was to accompany Bob on fishing
Obligation of Kinship