The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1939-03-11
Rains
Came
Continued From Page 14l

minutes. L Is important that they
see you. so that they know they
are not forgotten or abandoned.
When they think that. they simply
turn over and die
Then she gave Lady Esketh a
paper on which were written fiv
numbers. If any OF these wakes
or cries out. you are TO call me.
Don't trouble the major. If it's
necessary, I'll wake him.
And then she gave her another
paper with four numbers written
on il. AL Of these are going TO
die, she said. You must watch
the beds because none Of them will
cry out. I have seen TO 1t that
they will not wake again. II they
die you must call the porters TO
carry out the bodies
Suddenly she looked sharply at
Lady Esketh. Have you ever
seen a dead person Do you know
when they are dead ?"
Il never saw one until I came
here. I'm not sure If I would
know"
For a moment Miss MaeDsid
was silent, then she said. You'll
know. There's something that tells
you. The main thing is not to fall
asleep and to call me If there's any
trouble. I'm counting on you. It's
more responsibility than I should
give TO any greenhorn. but there's
nothing else to do. I've got to
have some rest If I'm to keep CO.
ing. l can't afford to break down.
I'll come at 5 o'clock"
When Miss MacDaid had gone.
Lady Esketh sat down at the table
with the oil and wick on it. It
was empty save for a pitcher Of
boiled water covered by a filter
paper, a glass, an alarm clock, a
roll of cotton gauze, a block OF
paper with a pencil, and the two
bits of paper with the numbers
which Miss MacDaid had given
her. She was awake now, and her
mind felt numb and entranced.
She read the numbers on the
first paper ia, SO, Is, 81.
Those were the ones who were
deathly i'll but might be saved. II
they cried out or Weakened. she was
to fetch Miss MacDaid.
On the other were written the
numbers-211. 70. 13. 90. Those
were the ones who were to die, for
whom there was no hope, who lay
already stupefied by Miss Mac
Dads needle. so that they should
not moan or cry out and alarm the
others. These she must watch.
waiting for them to die, so that
they might be carried out and their
bodies burned.
81 must keep all this straight"
she thought, Il must keep my head
clear, I must not make any mis-
takes" To make certain she took
un the pencil and at the top of the
one list she wrote the word dead
and at the top of the other the
word dying"
Until three days ago she had
never encountered death. Once or
twice in her life death had crossed
her path, but each time she had
avoided it.
There were the deaths of friends
during the war, long ago, the boys
and older men she had known, but
all that had been far away and
there were so many deaths then,
and they happened so far away in
the mud of Belgium or before
Amien Or on the Chemin des
Danes. that in the hysteria and
numbness of wartime they had lit
tie reality. Their deaths had been
little more than a telegram-"The
War Office regrets :" like the
refusal of an invitation r. S. V. p.
Repondez sill vous plat, Respon-
deZ a la morte. Ecrive 81 vous
pourrez gardere rendezvous.
And there VS. her father dead
suddenly of a stro< in Vienna.
When they had asked her If she
wished to see the corpse she had
refused. What was dead was dead.
What you loved was gone. What
remained was only clay.
And Albert. She had not seen
him dead. but only as a bloated
object mercifully concealed in her
own pink silk sheets. He must
have hated dying. if he knew 1t.
Albert would never want to die.
The animal in him would want to
; on m ond IN that x-an< httf1t.tnO
vitality would keep dragging him
back from death. Even If he were
drugged, the body would fight. He
hadn't been like these poor In
dians whose undernourished bodies
put up no fight, who simply closed
their eyes and died as if. willing it,
they were only going to sleep.
Now for three days she had seen
death all about her. She had seen
the corpses drifting past the bal
cony where she stood with Tom
Ransome. waiting for the flood to
abate, and the body of that skinny
Hindu hanging from the branches
Of a tree held only by his own poor
cotton dhoti. and Albert's shape
less corpse wrapped In her sheets.
and the bodies lying in the streets.
some shattered and broken by the
flood and others contorted and
purple with the awful death by
cholera.
The sight OF so much death had
made her numb. and she began to
understand how 1t was that people
like Miss MacDaid. who had seen
hundreds and perhaps thousands Of
dying people. were no longer afraid
Of anything on this earth and how
it was that they could go on Lead
ing lives Of their own. as II there
was a part of them detached. as II
at times they shut themselves
away in a compartment which be-
longed TO them alone.
TO Be Continued
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