| Show by br mary roberts rinehart sma 1 o t P 14 0 6 4 e e M copyright by mcclure publications luc inc SIDNEY IS MADE THE VICTIM OF FOUL REVEN REVENGE Gr AND LITTLE JOHNNY ROSENFELD NEARLY DIES AT A MURDER ERS HANDS K LeS LeA Ioyne loyne a m mysterious stranger takes a room at a t tho the page home presided over by sidney her mother anna and her aunt harriet a fashionable dressmaker through the influence of dr sins max wilson a brilliant young surgeon smitten with her charm sidney becomes a hospital nurse K loves her from a distance so does joo joe drummond an all old high school chum at the hospital sidney makes the acquaintance ot of carlotta harrison who has been over intimate with doctor wilson and who Is jealous of 0 the alie innocent newcomer sid chum christine lorenz marries palmer ilowe a society rake and they take rooms with the pages howe is untrue to ills bride nis ills arm Is brohan la in a joyriding joy riding accident and johnny rosenfeld Il ills chauffeur is mortally injured all these people are neighbors so there is a sort of common interest among them doctor wilson discovers that le moyne lemoyne Is a famous doctor Lid edwardes living incognito and keeps the secret CHAPTER al XIV continued 12 1 I believe it Is wilson smiled at her and yet you continue to tempt me and expect me to yield sidney replied one of the most delightful things 0 about abo ut temptation is yielding now and then i after all the situation seemed absurd here was her old frien dand neighbor ask asking ing to take her out for a daylight ride the swift rebellion of youth against authority surged up in sidney very well rii HI go carlotta had gone by that time gone with hate in her heart and black despair she knew very well what the issue would be sidney would drive with him and he would tell her how lovely she looked with the air on her face and the snow about her the j jerky erky notion motion of the little sleigh would throw them close together how bow well she knew it all ne ile would touch sid hand daringly and smile in her eyes that was his method to play fit at love making like an audacious boy until quite suddenly the cloak dropped and the danger was there if she could get sidney out of the hospital it would simplify things she surmised shrewdly that on the street their interests were wide apart it was here that they met on common ground carlotta gave the five medicines then she sat down at the table near the door with the tray in f rent front of her there are certain thoughts hat are at first functions of the brain after a lung time the spinal cord takes them up and converts them into aub acts almost automatically perhaps because tor for the last month she had done the thing so often in her mind its actual performance was almost without conscious thought carlotta took a bottle from her medicine cupboard clipboard and writing a new label for it pasted it over the old one then she exchanged it tor for one of the same size on the medicine tray throughout the dining room busy and competent young women came and ate lias hastily or leisurely as their opportunity was and went on their way again in their hands they held the keys ays eys not always of life and death perhaps but auf of ease from pain of tenderness of smooth pillows and cups of water to thirsty lips id their eyes as in kidneys Sid burned the light of service the supper room was waa filled with their soft voices the rustle of their skirts the gleam of their stiff white while caps it when carlotta came in she greeted nane of them they did not like her and site she knew it before her instead of the tidy supper table she was seeing the medicine tray as she had left it 1 I guess ive fixed her she said to herself her very soul was sick with fear of what she had done CHAPTER XV at something after two that night K put down his pipe and listened lie ile had not been able to sleep since midnight in his dressing gown he had sat by the small fire thinking the content of ills his first few months on the street was rapidly giving way to unrest ile he who had meant to cut him self bc off from life found himself again in close touch with it his eddy was with it and there was a new element clement ile he had thoughts thought at first that he could fight down this love for sidney but it was increasingly hard the innocent touch of her hand on ills his arm the moment N when ben he had held her in his arms atter after her mothers death tho the thousand small contacts of her returns to the little house all these set his blood on fire and it was fighting blood under his quiet exterior K X fought many conflicts those winter days over his desk and ledger at the office in ills room alone with harriot planning fresh triumphs beyond the partition oven even by christides Chri stines fire with christine just across sitting in silence and watching his grave and steady eyes ue ile had a little picture of sidney a snapshot snap duap shot that he had taken himself her hair blowing about her eyes looking out tender lips swi smiling ling when she was not at home it sat on oa K s dresser propped against his collar box when ahe i he was in the house it lay under the pincushion pin cushion two to in the morning then and K in his dressing gown with the picture propped not against the col lar box bor but against his lamp 11 here he could see it ue ile feat bat forward in his chair his hands folded around ills his knee and looked at it lie ile was trying to picture the sidney of the photograph in his old life trying to find a place for her but it was dIc difficult tilt there had been few women omen in his old life his mother smother had died many years before there had been women who had cared for him but he put them impatiently out of his mind then the bell rang christine was moving about below ile he could hear bear her quick steps almost before he had heaved his long legs out of the chair she was tapping at his door outside its mrs rosenfeld she says she wants to see you ue lie went down the stairs mrs rosenfeld was standing in the lower hall a shawl about her shoulders her face was white and drawn above it 11 ive e had word to go to the hospital she said 1 I thought maybe go with me it seems as it if I 1 cant stand it ilone alone oh johnny johnny wheres palmer K demanded of christine lies iles not la in yet are you afraid to stay la in the house lone alone 7 no please go lie ile ran up the staircase to his room and flung on some clothing in the lower hall mrs Ro sobs had become low moans christine stood helplessly over her 1 I am terribly sorry she said terribly sorry when I 1 think whose fault all this Is I 1 mrs rosenfeld put out a work hard ened hand band and caught Christ christides Chri stines luei fingers never mind that she said you yon do it I 1 guess you and I 1 understand each other only pray god you never have a child IZ never forgot the scene in the small emergency ward to which johnny had been taken under th the white ewhIte lights his bis boyish figure looked strangely long there was wa a group around the bed max mas wilson two or three interned In ternes the t h e night nurse on duty and the head sitting just inside the door on a straight chair was sidney such a sidney as lie he never had seen before her face colorless her eyes wide and unseeing her hands clenched in her lap when he stood beside her slie she did not move or look up the group around the bed had parted to admit mrs roi 1 1 IL Y ali R M 1 liy I 1 1 1 k 44 1 v 1 ca X f 4 aj ah 1 effi 4 q 4 f 1 I 1 r T they say I 1 gave him the wrong medicine sent eld and closed again only sidney and K X remained d by the door isolated clone alone you must not take it like that dear its sail sad of course but bill after till all in that condition P it was her first knowledge that he was there but she did not turn 9 they say I 1 poisoned him her voice was dreary you what they say I 1 gave him the wrong medicine that hes dying that I 1 murdered him she shivered ir touched her hands bands they were ice cold tell me about it there Is nothing to toll tail I 1 came on duty ot at six and gave the medicines when the night nurse came on oa at seven everything was till nil right the medicine tray was just as it should be johnny was asleep I 1 went to say goodnight good night to him and he be he was asleep I 1 give him anything hut but what was on the tray she finished piteously 1 I looked at the label I 1 always look by a shifting of the group around the bod bed K s eyes looked for a moment directly into Carl ottas just for a moment then the crowd closed up again it was well for carlotta that it did she looked as if she had seen a ghost closed her eyes even reeled miss harrison is worn out doctor wilson said brusquely get someone to take her place but carlotta rallied after all the presence of this plan in this room at such a time meant nothing tie ile was Sid kidneys friend that was all but her nerve was shaken the thing had gone beyond her she had not meant to kill it was the alie boys weakened condition that was turning her revenge into tragedy 1 I am nil all right she pleaded across the bed to the head let me st stay ay please lies iles from my ward I 1 I 1 mn am responsible wilson allson was at his wits end ne had done everything he knew without result the boy rousing for an instant would lapse again into stupor with a healthy man they could have tried tred more vigorous measures could have forced him to his feet and walked him about could have beaten him with knotted towels dipped in ice fee water but the wrecked body on the bed could stand no such heroic treatment it was le moyne af after ter all who saved johnny Ro life for when staff and nurses had exhausted all their resources lie stepped forward with a quiet word that brought the in ternes to their feet astonished there was a new treatment for such cases it had been tried abroad ile he looked at max max had never heard of it he threw out his hands bands try it for heavens sake he said im all in the apparatus was not in the house must be extemporized indeed at last of odds and ends from the operating room K X did the work his long fingers deft and skillful while mrs rosenfeld knelt by the bed with her face burled buried while sidney sat dazed and bewildered on her little chair ln in ade side the door while night nurses upped tiptoed ped along the corridor and the night llight watchman stared incredulous from outside the door when the two great rectangles that were the emergency ward windows had bad turned from mirrors reflecting the room to gray rectangles in the morning light johnny rosenfeld opened his bis eyes and spoke the first words that marked his return retura from the dark valley gee this Is the ilfeld he said gald and smiled into K s watchful face when it was clear that the boy would live K rose stiffly from the bedside and went over to kidneys Sid chair iles all right now he sald said as all right as he can be poor lad Youdia you did it lt youl you how strange that you should know such a thing how am I 1 to thank you the in ternes talking among themselves had wandered down to the dining room for early coffee wilson was giving a few last instructions as boys care quite unexpectedly sidney caught K s hand band and held it to her lips the iron repression of the night of months indeed tell fell away before her simple caress my dear my dear he said huskily anything I 1 can do tor for you at any time P it was af after ter sidney had crept like a broken thing to her room that carlotta harrison arrison II and K X came face to face johnny jolany wits was quite conscious by that time a little blue around the lips but valiantly cheerful cho erful more things can happen to a fellow I 1 than han I 1 ever knew there was he sa said ld to ills mother and submitted rather sheepishly to her tours tears and caresses you were a good boy johnny she said just you get well enough to conic come home ill take care of you the ret ut of my life we will get you a wheelchair wheel chair when you can be about and I 1 can take you out in the park when I 1 come coine from work woric ill be passenger and bo be chauffeur ma mr le moyne is going to get your father sent up again with sixty five cents a day and what ahat I 1 make well get along you bet we will I 1 oh johnny johnay it if I 1 could see you coming in the door again and yelling mother and supper in one br breath eathl 1 the meeting between carlotta and le moyne was very quiet she had bad been making a sort ot of subconscious impression pres slon on the retina ot of ills his mind during ili all tile the ciglio it would be difficult to tell when lie he actually knew her when the preparations for moving johnny back to the big ward had been made the other nurses left the room and carlotta and the boy were together K stopped her on her way to the door miss yes doctor edwardes 1 I am not doctor edwardes edwardea here my name Is le moyne ali ah 1 I have not seen you since you left st johns no 1 I 1 I rested tor for a few months 1 I suppose they do not know that you were that you have had any previous hospital experience no are you going to tell them 1 I shall not tell them of course and thus by simple mutual consent it was arranged that each should respect the others confidence carlotta staggered to iier her room there had bad been a time just before lawn when she had had one of ass swift revelations that sometimes come fit the end of a long night she had seen herself its she was the boy wits very low hardly breathing her past stretched before her a series of small revenges and passionate outbursts swift slow remorse she nsf dared not look ahead she would have given every hope she had in the world just ss then for kidneys Sid stainless past she hated herself with that deadliest loathing that comes with completo complete self cevela revelation lion and she carried to her room the knowledge that the nights ruggie struggle lad had been in valri that although john ny rosenfeld Ko would live she had aled gained nothing by abat lie had suffered suf the whole night had shown her the hopelessness of any anny stratagem to win wilson from ills his new allegiance she had surprised him in the hallway watching watching kidneys slender figure as she made her way upstairs to her room never in till nil his past overtures to her had she seen that look in his eyes CHAPTER XVI XV 1 to kidneys Sid sentence of thirty days suspension came as a blow K broke the news to her that evening evening before the time for sidney Sid neya arrival tile the little household was sharing in harriets prosperity katie had ha Z a 8 helper now a little austrian gri girl named mimi and harriet had aln 10 4 4 r f SK it seems to me id better not go back fished on the street the innovation of after dinner coffee it was waa over the after dinner coffee that E K made his announcement what do you mean by saying she Is coming home tor for thirty days Is the child not ill although she Is not quite well there was a mistake about the medicine and she was blamed all shed better come home and stay home said nan harriet let shortly 1 I hope it get in the papers this dressmaking business Is a funny sort of thing one word against you or any of your family and the crowds off somewhere else theres nothing against sidney K reminded her nothing in the world I 1 saw the superintendent superintend eit myself this afternoon it seems its a mere matter of discipline somebody made a mistake and they cannot let such a tiling thing go by but he believes as I 1 do that it was not sidney however harriet had hardened herself s if against the girls arrival all she had meant to say fled when ailien she saw kidneys Sid circled eyes and pathetic mouth you child ill she said you poor little girl and took her to her cor feted bosom for the time at least kidneys Sidney Sid 3 world had gone to pieces about her all her brave vaunt of service faded before her disgrace when christine would have seen her she kept her door locked |
