OCR Text |
Show ttee urn m f mi pmt? B ELIZABETH JOHBftEI O D. Applaton Csntuiy Co., Ino. WNU Seivic CHAPTER VIU Continued 22 The sun was behind a bank of clouds and a light breeze had sprung up. When they took their places Rex calmly seated himself beside Joan. No need to consider Stuyve-sant Stuyve-sant now, or be jealous of him. Stuy-vesant Stuy-vesant was annexed and labeled as the property of another girl. The talk was general and much livelier than it had been earlier in the day. Stuyvesant and Hale were in high spirits. The others did their best to share the mood. "It will really be nice to have you in New York," Joan told Hale under un-der cover of the mild discussion between be-tween Stuyvesant and Bert. "I'm thinking of lots of things you can do for me. Besides," she added serenely, se-renely, "I'd rather live in New York than in Chicago or California." Hale shook his head at her. "You're trying to upset my poise," he said severely. "It can't be done. Besides, my present plan is to die of a hopeless love for you. I can't do that if you keep on encouraging en-couraging me with these flirtations. I revive every time you smile at me. How the devil can I die if you keep on smiling?" "Couldn't you give up the funeral and live for me?" Joan wanted to know. But again Hale shook his head at her. "I will not marry you, Joan," he said firmly. "Neither will I let you marry me. But you're driving me to desperate measures. I think I'll offer my heart and hand in self-defense self-defense to Aunt Hosanna. She can protect me." "I doubt it," Joan said thoughtfully. thought-fully. "She isn't even up to protecting pro-tecting Mrs. Spencer Forbes." Hale shot a quick look at her. "Just what do you mean by that?" "Nothing. It's merely one of those enigmatic remarks that keep my friends guessing." She dropped the subject so definitely that Hale almost al-most heard it fall. The consultation with Doctor Nick Crosby the following Tuesday morning morn-ing was brisk and business-like. Crosby in his office was a very different dif-ferent person from the chatty man of the world he had been on Mrs. Nash's veranda, during Rex's first meeting with him. At Joan's suggestion sugges-tion Bert has the first appointment. At Bert's suggestion Rex accompanied accom-panied him into the private office. It was assumed without discussion that Joan's examination would take -more time. Al Bert said was that he was nervously run down, and wanted help in upbuilding. Crosby made some tests, asked some questions, ques-tions, gave him some advice, and wrote out a prescription, all inside of twenty minutes. Then Joan went iti to the doctor alone, and the two young men waited for her in the ante-room. She was gone three-quarters three-quarters of an hour. When the doctor doc-tor had bowed her out of his private office. Rex muttered a word of apology apol-ogy and went into the consulting-room consulting-room himself. There he faced the doctor expectantly. "Well?" he asked. Crosby shrugged. "Everything in Kneeland's case confirms what you told me in our talk last night. He'll soon be all right, with proper care and treatment." treat-ment." "And Miss Kneeland?" "I'm not so sure about her. I don't like some of her symptoms. It's too soon to be definite. I want to watch her a while." "What do you think the trouble is? Surely you must have some notion." no-tion." "I'm holding my notions in abeyance. abey-ance. She may have nothing but a nasty case of indigestion. That can play the very mischief with a patient, pa-tient, once it gets a bad start. I've given her a tonic. I've told her not to eat anything between meals, and to avoid rich dishes. She has no appetite. The tonic may help that. She has been living principally on milk. That's all right for some people, peo-ple, but not so good for others. I've stopped it for the time. I'll talk to you about her in a week or two." Crosby was crisp, professional and not communicative. His manner man-ner suggested preoccupation and an undercurrent of perplexity. Hale drove home in Bert's car with the two patients. It was a shabby affair, af-fair, but good enough for the appalling ap-palling roads of the region. Both patients avowed that they liked the doctor. "He gives me confidence," Joan testified. "He asks some odd questions, ques-tions, though. I'd hate to be his wife and try to have any secrets from him." The shabby car sank into a deep rut and the occupants groaned. "I'm the only girl of my set who hasn't a car," Joan said. "That shows how economical I am," she went on cheerfully. "I have no expensive tastes at all. God made me the ideal bride for a young man struggling along on a small income. Think that over. Rex," she added sweetly. "It ought to suggest a lot of things to an intelligent mind like yours." "By Jove, Hale, I believe she's proposing to you," Bert exclaimed, with more interest than he had shown since the discussion of the new partnership. "Not yet I'm thinking about it and throwing out a few subtle hints," Joan explained. "Is this maidenly?" Bert asked. He gave the wheel a whirl that lifted Joan from her seat. "No. It isn't good driving, either. It's too soon for you to get jealous of Rex. He won't have me yet, at any price. I can only live in hope." Hale said nothing. Girls were inexplicable, in-explicable, he was thinking. Here was Joan Kneeland, making these poor jokes in the presence of a cousin who was still ill and in love with her. It wasn't like her. She wasn't that type. No doubt she was tensed up after her visit to the doctor. doc-tor. Hale rode back to the Camp in silence, hardly hearing the desultory desul-tory talk of his companions. CHAPTER IX The next three weeks' life at Halcyon Hal-cyon Camp moved on almost as serenely as Casper Kneeland had once dreamed it would do. Under the care" of Doctor Crosby Bert Kneeland was beginning to feel himself him-self again. Joan, too, looked and apparently ap-parently felt better than before she though never during the week-ends when he might meet the elder Kneeland. Knee-land. Finding himself alone with the doctor one day before the others oth-ers had come downstairs Rex hinted hint-ed that Joan's progress was not as rapid as he had hoped. "I've no right to butt in " he admitted. "Just the same " "Just the same you're in love with the girL You're mighty anxious about her, too, as well you may be." Crosby spoke shortly. His cheerful, cheer-ful, sunburned face wore a look of perplexity. "Just what do you mean by that?" Rex spoke sharply. "Why should I be anxious?" "Because I'm anxious myself. Because Be-cause you're perfectly right. The girl is improving, but she isn't coming com-ing up as fast as she should. Every now and then, when I'm feeling most encouraged about her, she has a set-back. I'm beginning to think I may have been remiss. If we had been in town I'd have had her x-rayed before this. As it was, I didn't want to drag her to New York in the heat, and there didn't seem any very good reason for it." They were alone on the porch. The doctor had been lounging in the big wicker chair. Now he sat up and looked at Hale almost resentfully. re-sentfully. ."All her symptoms might mean acute nervous indigestion, as I've "She's taking a milk nightcap once in awhile." had put herself into his hands. When Hale pressed her for details of the improvement she said briefly that Doctor Crosby was very satisfactory, satisfac-tory, and that she was following his instructions. Rex was surprised, therefore, when late one night, during dur-ing the third week of her treatment, he saw Rose approaching the door of Joan's room with a small tray in her hand. He passed on; then on an impulse, he stopped and retraced his steps. He checked Rose as she was about to enter the room. "What's that?" he asked, looking look-ing down at the tray. "Just a little milk, sir." Rose was surprised by the question and showed it. Her expression confused the investigator. After all, what right had he . . . "I thought Miss Joan didn't eat anything between meals," he said, less incisively than he had spoken before. He was amazed by his own persistence, and still more by his resentment of that tray. It was a nice little tray, holding nothing but a napkin and' a small thermos bottle. bot-tle. "She doesn't, usually," Rose admitted. ad-mitted. "Only once in a while. Jane said I was to bring this up because she didn't eat much dinner." Hale nodded and walked on to his room. There seemed nothing more he could do tonight. He would certainly cer-tainly speak to Joan in the morning about that milk. It would not be easy. His relations rela-tions with Joan were becoming a trifle strained. She. alternately tormented tor-mented him, teased him, bullied him, and was charming to him. That was all right, of course, if it was the way she wanted to act. But this, too, did not seem like her. He took refuge with Mrs. Spencer Forbes and Bert, both of whom were very friendly, and with Miss Hosanna. who also surprised him at times. She admitted that she was tired. There were days when she was impatient, im-patient, almost snappish. He suspected sus-pected that all was not going smoothly between her and Mrs. Spencer Forbes. Mrs. Spencer Forbes, he saw, was closely observing observ-ing Bert, At times, as she watched him, her pale eyes held something of the look Ainsworth's had so often held when he was observing the humans hu-mans around him the look of an interested in-terested spectator following a drama. Crosby had formed the habit of dropping into the Camp at tea time, said," he went on irritably. "The general condition girls of today get themselves into by the fool things they do passes understanding. She tells me she never went in for much cocktail drinking, but that last winter win-ter she smoked a lot twenty-five cigarettes or more a day, sometimes. some-times. She admits that last winter, too, she was going out every night and getting along on five or six hours" sleep. She says she didn't get to bed till three or four in the morning, and that she was usually awake by eight and couldn't go to sleep again. All that would account for the state she's in if she kept it up. But she isn't doing that. She's leading a perfectly healthy, normal life. She's dieting. She has all the air and sunshine and exercise she needs. With her natural constitution, constitu-tion, which is fine, she ought to be forging ahead steadily not up one week and slipping back the next, like the proverbial cat in the well. She has me guessing. But she swears she's taking her tonic and following my instructions." "Not about her diet," Rex told him. "She's taking a milk nightcap night-cap once in awhile. I caught her at it one night this week and spoke to her about it the next morning." "What did she say?" "Oh, that she had only done it a few times when she was thirsty. She likes milk, it seems. She had been just about living on it this summer till she went to you. She has been brought up on the theory that milk is the ideal food for us alL" "She's got to let me decide that," Crosby said shortly. "I'll speak to her about it." He had no opportunity to do so that day. Joan didn't come down tu tea, and the doctor refused an invitation in-vitation to stay on for dinner. The little conversation lingered in Hale's mind, however, and when that night he again met Rose taking a thermos bottle to Joan's room he was ready for the encounter. Indeed, he was more than ready. He was ruffled and disturbed out of all proportion to the incident. His eyes had the reddish look they took on in anger. "Milk?" he asked curtly. "Yes, sir." "Did Miss Joan order it?" "No, sir. I was told to leave it in her room in case she wanted it during the night. She used to have it every night, you know. Now she doesn't often drink it." "But you leave it there every night?" "No, sir. Only nights when she doesn't eat much dinner. "Who told you to?" "Jane, sir." Rex took the thermos bottle from the tray and held it in his hand. "I'll take care of this," he muttered, mut-tered, and added more calmly, "Rose, you want Miss Joan to get well, don't you?" "Oh, yes, sir. Of course I do!" "Well, the doctor doesn't want her to eat anything between meals. So don't tempt her. Don't leave any liquids or food of any kind in her room after this. Those are the doctor's doc-tor's orders. You won't forget that, will you?" "No, sir. I'll tell Jane what you say." Rose spoke coldly. She liked this young man very much, but she had just decided that in this little matter mat-ter he was exceeding his privileges. Rex smiled at her and took the thermos ther-mos bottle into his own room. He left it in the bathroom, and made his night toilet slowly and thoughtfully. He was wrestling with one of the hunches that always irritated irri-tated him, useful though they had so often proved to be. At last, when he was ready for bed and should have got into it without further hesitation, hesi-tation, he abruptly gave up his mental men-tal struggle. He put on gloves, poured the milk from the thermos bottle into a new glass bottle that stood on a shelf, corked and labeled it, and packed it carefully in a small wooden box. He then packed the thermos bottle' with equal care. It would reveal a choice collection of fingerprints his own, Rose's, Jane's, and perhaps others. But he now had in his growing collection the fingerprints of everyone in the house, just as he had bottles and packing cases in which to ship specimens for fingerprinting finger-printing or analysis. In a household where so many happenings out of the normal had occurred, it would do no harm to take some precautions. precau-tions. He grinned wryly as he took this one. It was time to get out of Halcyon Camp. He was having too many hunches. He was getting morbid. Nevertheless he walked the three miles to the nearest post-office early the next morning, and sent his parcels to their different destinations. desti-nations. (TO BE CONTINUED) |