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Page 31
"Well," answered Bennett, "wait a few days. We'll see by the end of the
week."
The week passed. Ferriss went gradually from bad to worse, though as yet
the disease persistently refused to declare itself. He was quite
helpless, and Bennett watched over him night and day, pottering around
him by the hour, giving him his medicines, cooking his food, and even
when Ferriss complained of the hotness of the bedclothes, changing the
very linen that he might lie upon cool sheets. But at the end of the
week Dr. Pitts declared that Bennett himself was in great danger of
breaking down, and was of no great service to the sick man.
"To-morrow," said the doctor, "I shall have a young fellow here who
happens to be a cousin of mine. He is an excellent trained nurse, a
fellow we can rely upon. He'll take your place. I'll have him here
to-morrow, and you must get away. Hide somewhere. Don't even allow your
mail to be forwarded. The nurse and I will take care of Mr. Ferriss. You
can leave me your address, and I will wire you if it is necessary. Now
be persuaded like a reasonable man. I will stake my professional
reputation that you will knock under if you stay here with a sick man on
your hands and newspaper men taking the house by storm at all hours of
the day. Come now, will you go? Mr. Ferriss is in no danger, and you
will do him more harm by staying than by going. So long as you remain
here you will have this raft of people in the rooms at all hours. Deny
yourself! Keep them out! Keep out the American reporter when he goes
gunning for a returned explorer! Do you think this," and he pointed
again to the crowd in the anteroom, "is the right condition for a sick
man's quarters? You are imperilling his safety, to say nothing of your
own, by staying beside him--you draw the fire, Mr. Bennett."
"Well, there's something in that," muttered Bennett, pulling at his
mustache. "But--" Bennett hesitated, then: "Pitts, I want you to take my
place here if I go away. Have a nurse if you like, but I shouldn't feel
justified in leaving the boy in his condition unless I knew you were
with him continually. I don't know what your practice is worth to you,
say for a month, or until the boy is out of danger, but make me a
proposition. I think we can come to an understanding."
"But it won't be necessary to have a doctor with Mr. Ferriss constantly.
I should see him every day and the nurse--"
Bennett promptly overrode his objections. Harshly and abruptly he
exclaimed: "I'm not taking any chances. It shall be as I say. I want the
boy well, and I want you and the nurse to see to it that he _gets_ well.
I'll meet the expenses."
Bennett did not hear the doctor's response and his suggestion as to the
advisability of taking Ferriss to his own house in the country while he
could be moved. For the moment he was not listening. An idea had
abruptly presented itself to him. He was to go to the country. But
where? A grim smile began to relax the close-gripped lips and the hard
set of the protruding jaw. He tugged again at his mustache, scowling at
the doctor, trying to hide his humour.
"Well, that's settled then," he said; "I'll get away
to-morrow--somewhere."
"Whereabouts?" demanded the doctor. "I shall want to let you know how we
progress."
Bennett chose to feel a certain irritation. What business of Pitts was
it whom he went to see, or, rather, where he meant to go?
"You told me to hide away from everybody, not even to allow my mail to
be forwarded. But I'll let you know where to reach me, of course, as
soon as I get there. It won't be far from town."
"And I will take your place here with Mr. Ferriss; somebody will be with
him at every moment, and I shall only wire you," continued the doctor,
"in case of urgent necessity. I want you to have all the rest you can,
and stay away as long as possible. I shan't annoy you with telegrams
unless I must. You'll understand that no news is good news."
* * * * *
On that particular morning Lloyd sat in her room in the old farmhouse
that she always elected to call her home as often as she visited
Bannister. It was some quarter of a mile outside the little village, and
on the road that connected it with the railway at Fourth Lake, some six
miles over the hills to the east. It was yet early in the morning, and
Lloyd was writing letters that she would post at Fourth Lake later in
the forenoon. She intended driving over to the lake. Two days before,
Lewis had arrived with Rox, the ponies and the phaeton. Lloyd's
dog-cart, a very gorgeous, high-wheeled affair, was always kept at
Bannister.
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