Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1939-07-07

nave Deen no need Tor the perllOuS
operation. The mans life had been
saved when the inspector succeeded
in stopping the machinery, dashed
down to the twenty-fifth floor for aid.
Linda had been one of the first at
the scene. She had watched, aided,
while the young doctors-the tall
bronzed one-with another to assist
him steady him and whisper encour-
agement, had amputated the crushed
arm of the workman, extricating him
from the clutch Of the steel.
The alarm, the race for the roof
these and other less related thoughts
sped through Linda's mind as she
stood on the ladder. For the first
few minutes she scarcely heard the
voice above her, the voice of the man
with impatient eyes and tanned face,
as he ordered abruptly: "Kelly," and
she automatically reached up with
the Kelly hemostat to stem the flow
of blood from the severed artery.
This was hardly like the first am
putation she scrubbed for while a
probe. No firm white tile under
foot, no neatly stacked surgical tray
at her arm; just grab and hit or miss
atop ladder.
"Sponge"
Automatically, she handed it up to
the waiting doctor; automatically she
received it again, now red and warm
and wet.
She knew why they chose her for
the job, all right. Because DR..
Thorpe's office was the nearest to the
stairs on the twenty-fifth floor and
it was there that the state Inspector
had raced with news of the emergen-
cy. It was from there that he had
telephoned to the building office for a
doctor, in the absence of Linda's en-
ployer.
The two young doctors had raced
past her on the roof, the tall one first
up the ladder, a barred hypodermic
needle ready in his hand. The short
er one, with the scowl and mustache
and dark hair, had showed a hastily
packed bag into her hands.
The screams of the trapped man
had subsidized into low means. She
focused her eyes on the hem of the
doctors gown.
That was when Linda's gaze fol
lowed the line of the hem, up the slip
pied white expanse Of the surgical
gown and saw HIM clearly for the
first time. .........
"Don't be fooled, Linda" she told
herself. cts a pretty tough or
deal"
That tingly sensation about her
spine, that sort of graspy feeling in
her chest-well, it must be the strain,
the altitude, she argued.
She scarcely heard when the scowl-
ing young doctor said:
Toward you, Bill, not away. Easy
now!" And the blond head nodded sill
emily.
"Catgut ties!" she heard that all
right. It was HIS voice.
She also heard the other doctors
quick countermanding.
"Silkworm pleased
The scowly one knows his stuff,
Linda unused.
"Not catgut on the big one, Bill"
she heard the shorter mans whisper.
"You want the axillary tied to stay"
All hob to pay if the big artery
were tied with readily absorbed liga-
ture, Linda recalled from DR.. Stur-
tevant's long patient drilling.
Then it was all over, and the two
doctors were carefully handing the
injured man down to waiting men
who swarmed up the ladder almost
dislodging Linda before she edged her
way down.
1t seemed that nearly hundred
persons swarmed all over the sundeck,
the bright-awning solarium which was
the newest attraction of Titan Tow
er.
Beautiful work, Blaine" she heard
one say. 81 never saw anything like
it."
So that was his name. Bill Blaine.
DR.. Blaine. It was a nice name. Lin
da resolved she liked it.
Don't give me the credit, Sam,"
she heard Blaine say, and she saw
his even white teeth in a grin as he
said it. "Rennie here gave me the
cues. How could I miss?"
The scowly one looked as though
he wanted no part of the praise. He
- l.