Produced by Susan Skinner Eric Eldredand the Online Distributed Proofreading TeamTHE WEB OF LIFEBYROBERT HERRICKAUTHOR OF THE GOSPEL OF FREEDOM THE MAN WHO WINSLITERARY LOVELETTERS AND OTHER STORIESTO G R C  _Hear from the spirit world this mystery   Creation is summed up O man in thee   Angel and demon man and beast art thou   Yea thou art all thou dost appear to be_THE WEB OF LIFEPART ICHAPTER IThe young surgeon examined the man as he lay on the hospital chair in whichward attendants had left him The surgeons fingers touched him deftlyhere and there as if to test the endurance of the flesh he had to dealwith The head nurse followed his swift movements wearily moving anincandescent light hither and thither observing the surgeon with languidinterest Another nurse much younger without the black band watchedthe surgeon from the foot of the cot Beads of perspiration chasedthemselves down her pale face caused less by sympathy than by sheerweariness and heat The small receiving room of St Isidores was close andstuffy surcharged with odors of iodoform and ether The Chicago spring solong delayed had blazed with a sudden fury the last week in March and nowat ten oclock not a capful of air strayed into the room even through theopen windows that faced the lakeThe patient groaned when the surgeons fingers first touched him thenrelapsed into the spluttering labored respiration of a man in liquor or inheavy pain A stolid young man who carried the case of instruments freshlysteaming from their antiseptic bath made an observation which the surgeonapparently did not hear He was thinking now his thin face set in afrown the upper teeth biting hard over the under lip and drawing up thepointed beard While he thought he watched the man extended on the chairwatched him like an alert cat to extract from him some hint as to what heshould do This absorption seemed to ignore completely the other occupantsof the room of whom he was the central commanding figure The head nurseheld the lamp carelessly resting her hand over one hip thrown out herfigure drooping into an ungainly pose She gazed at the surgeon steadilyas if puzzled at his intense preoccupation over the common case of a manshot in a row Her eyes travelled over the surgeons neatfitting eveningdress which was so bizarre here in the dingy receiving room redolent ofbloody tasks Evidently he had been out to some dinner or party and whenthe injured man was brought in had merely donned his rumpled linen jacketwith its right sleeve half torn from the socket A spot of blood hadalready spurted into the white bosom of his shirt smearing its way overthe pearl button and running under the crisp fold of the shirt The headnurse was too tired and listless to be impatient but she had been calledout of hours on this emergency case and she was not used to the surgeonspreoccupation Such things usually went off rapidly at St Isidores andshe could hear the tinkle of the bell as the hall door opened for anothercase It would be midnight before she could get back to bed The hospitalwas shorthanded as usualThe younger nurse was not watching the patient nor the goodlooking youngsurgeon who seemed to be the special property of her superior Even in herfew months of training she had learned to keep herself calm andserviceable and not to let her mind speculate idly She was gazing out ofthe window into the dull night Some locomotives in the railroad yards justoutside were puffing lazily breathing themselves deeply in the dampspring air One hoarser note than the others struck familiarly on thenurses ear That was the voice of the engine on the tenthirty throughexpress which was waiting to take its train to the east She knew thatengines throb for it was the engine that stood in the yards every eveningwhile she made her first rounds for the night It was the one which took_her_ train round the southern end of the lake across the sandyfields to Michigan to her homeThe engine puffed away and she withdrew her gaze and glanced at thepatient To her too the wounded man was but a case another error ofhumanity that had come to St Isidores for temporary repairs to startonce more on its erring course or perhaps to go forth unfinishedremanded just there to death The tenthirty express was now pulling outthrough the yards in a powerful clamor of clattering switches and heartypulsations that shook the flimsy walls of St Isidores and drew newgroans from the man on the chair The young nurses eyes travelled from himto a woman who stood behind the ward tenders shielded by them and theyoung interne from the group about the hospital chair This woman havingno uniform of any sort must be some one who had come in with the patientand had stayed unobserved in the disorder of a night caseSuddenly the surgeon spoke his words shot out at the head nurseWe will operate nowThe interne shrugged his shoulders but he busied himself in selecting andwiping the instruments Yet in spite of his decisive words the surgeonseemed to hesitateWas there any one with this manany friend he asked the head nurseIn reply she looked around vaguely her mind thrown out of gear by thisunexpected delay Another freak of the handsome surgeonAny relative or friend the surgeon iterated peremptorily looking aboutat the attendantsThe little nurse at the foot of the patient who was not impressed by theirregularity of the surgeons request pointed mutely to the figure behindthe ward tenders The surgeon wheeled about and glanced almost savagely atthe woman his eyes travelling swiftly from her head to her feet The womanthus directly questioned by the comprehending glance returned his lookfreely resentfully At last when the surgeons eyes rested once more onher face this time more gently she answeredI am his wifeThis statement in some way humanized the scene The ward tenders and theinterne stared at her blankly the nurses looked down in unconsciouscomment