The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1938-09-08
CHAPTER XIII-Continued

ly. my dearest hearth" He could
not have known what he looked like,
but he remembered to smile at her.
Mrs. Dana came and pulled at his
arm but he shook her off and bent
lower, still smiling. "My heart"
Sarah Lynn's eyes widened, the
pupils distending, and strange
look of fright and something stran-
ger still came into them. mol" she
cried. go away! Please, please
60 away!"
Mrs. Dana was pressing the but
ton. Nov, do you hear?" she tri-
umphed. 'Do you hear?"
Gunnar thought it was delirium.
He said gently, ''It is Gunnar, my
dearest one-to stay with you al
ways!" He bent to kiss her.
But Sarah Lynn, pinioned and
helpless, able to move nothing but
her eyes, nevertheless, with every
fiber of her being repealed him.
mo, no! Go away! Never come
again-never-com again!"
The press played it up and the
radio buzzed with bulletins about
Gunnar Thorwald's return fight
across the Atlantic, but no news
papers came into Sarah Lynn's hos
pital room, and they never tuned in
for news f1ashes-only for music or
comedy programs, or an occasional
playlet which was known to be
pleasant and amusing.
Gunnar'S name was not men,
toned after the day of his visit.
When, at length, he had been COM
PEELED to leave the room, he could
hear Sarah Lynn's voice, spent
but shrill, saying to her mother,
MAKE him go away! Make him go
away"
He had not waited to hear her
mothers answer, lowering over her
in an agony of protective tender
ness, and he did not know that
Sarah Lynn had cried, quietly,
ceaselessly, for three days. The
tears trickled out of the corners of
her eyes and slid down her temples
into her hair, and she could not lift
her hand to wipe them away.
Her doctors and nurses were dis
turbed, but they didn't seem able to
control it. ''This isn't helping any,"
Miss Burke said.
at is just the reaction, the great
relief, after that distressing and
cruel interview the other day." Mrs.
Dana insisted. Darling, you are
safe with Mother, and no one is go
ing to bother you again! Mothers
right here!" She saw the nurses
cool gray eyes upon her and fol-
lowed her out into the aggressively
clean-smelling corridor. SIT is per-
fectly natural" she said rather
combatively. "She regards him as
the cause of her misfortune, so of
course she shrinks from him."
'You think so?" Miss Burke said
levelly. "Well, I can't give all the
answers, but that wouldn't be my
diagnosis" She went away with her
noiseless, heelless tread. She was
glad she was going on her vaca-
ton; she hated to have cases get
her as this one did.
Sarah Lynn persistently asked for
the old family doctor from Los Ga
tos and they were obliged to send
for him. He could contribute moth
ing, they felt sure, but if it was
comfort to the child
Suppose you just step out and
let us have our visit Alone" he
said mildly. Then he sat down and
patted her hand. "Well, Sarah
Lynn, I brought you into the world,
as the old saying goes, and / saw
you through measles and chicken
pox and the rest of 'em. Pm mighty
sorry about this. Was there any
thing special you wanted to say to
me?"
She could not turn her head, but
her eyes turned to him. "You tell
the truth, always. Am I going to
die?"
'No," he said heartily. "I'm not
up on all the details of your case,
OF course, but I had a talk with
Dunn. No, there's no doubt about
it, Sarah Lynn; you're going to
live"
Must II"
He cleared his throat. 'T guess
you must, girl. I guess that's your
chore."
Sarah Lynn said after long
pause, 81 know doctors can't-kill
people. It's only animals that can
be-what do they say?-'put out of
their misery But can't they-just
not make people live?"
He shook his grizzled head.
''That's their chore, Sarah Lynn,
making people live" Then he said
briskly. "But it's not going to be
like this, you know, always"
Sarah Lynn said, ''They used to
give me stuff all the time to make
me sleep. l wish they still did. If
] have to live, 1 think they might
do that for me-"
"Pain still bad?"
''Not my back my head, my
heart. Will you ask them to give
1t to me again?"
"No," the old country doctor said.
'I won't do that, Sarah Lynn. You
wouldn't want me to. / guess it
took plenty of grit to go up in your
plane, and more than plenty to
come down in parachute. But I