American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, American
“Couldn’t help it,” he said. “I never kicked a millionaire before in my
life. I may never have another opportunity.”
“Now,” said Doctor Gales, after a couple of hours, “he’ll do. But keep
him awake for another hour. You can do that by talking to him and
shaking him up occasionally. When his pulse and respiration are normal
then let him sleep. I’ll leave him with you now.”
I was left alone with Tom, whom we had laid on a couch. He lay very
still, and his eyes were half closed. I began my work of keeping him
awake.
“Well, old man,” I said, “you’ve had a narrow squeak, but we’ve pulled
you through. When you were attending lectures, Tom, didn’t any of the
professors ever casually remark that m-o-r-p-h-i-a never spells
‘quinia,’ especially in four-grain doses? But I won’t pile it up on you
until you get on your feet. But you ought to have been a druggist, Tom;
you’re splendidly qualified to fill prescriptions.”
Tom looked at me with a faint and foolish smile.
“B’ly,” he murmured, “I feel jus’ like a hum’n bird flyin’ around a
jolly lot of most ’shpensive roses. Don’ bozzer me. Goin’ sleep now.”
And he went to sleep in two seconds. I shook him by the shoulder.
“Now, Tom,” I said, severely, “this won’t do. The big doctor said you
must stay awake for at least an hour. Open your eyes. You’re not
entirely safe yet, you know. Wake up.”
Tom Hopkins weighs one hundred and ninety-eight. He gave me another
somnolent grin, and fell into deeper slumber. I would have made him
move about, but I might as well have tried to make Cleopatra’s needle
waltz around the room with me. Tom’s breathing became stertorous, and
that, in connection with morphia poisoning, means danger.
Then I began to think. I could not rouse his body; I must strive to
excite his mind. “Make him angry,” was an idea that suggested itself.
“Good!” I thought; but how? There was not a joint in Tom’s armour. Dear
old fellow! He was good nature itself, and a gallant gentleman, fine
and true and clean as sunlight. He came from somewhere down South,
where they still have ideals and a code. New York had charmed, but had
not spoiled, him. He had that old-fashioned chivalrous reverence for
women, that—Eureka!—there was my idea! I worked the thing up for a
minute or two in my imagination. I chuckled to myself at the thought of
springing a thing like that on old Tom Hopkins. Then I took him by the
shoulder and shook him till his ears flopped. He opened his eyes
lazily. I assumed an expression of scorn and contempt, and pointed my
finger within two inches of his nose.
“Listen to me, Hopkins,” I said, in cutting and distinct tones, “you
and I have been good friends, but I want you to understand that in the
future my doors are closed against any man who acts as much like a
scoundrel as you have.”
Tom looked the least bit interested.
“What’s the matter, Billy?” he muttered, composedly. “Don’t your
clothes fit you?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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