"Warren!" she said in a voice that those who heard it remembered all
their lives. "It's Derry! He's hurt--he's dying, I think! Can you--can
you save him?" And with a great burst of tears she gave up the child.
"My God--what is it!" said Warren Gregory on his feet, and with Derry
in his arms, even as he spoke. For a second the tableau held: Rachael,
agonized, her beautiful face colorless, and dripping with rain, her
husband staring at her as if he could not credit his senses, the
child's limp body in his arms, yet not quite freed from hers. In the
background were the whitefaced servants and the gray-headed doctor upon
whose conversation the newcomers had so abruptly broken.
"We've just brought him up from Clark's Hills!" Rachael said.
"From Clark's Hills--YOU!"
His look, the dear familiar look of solicitude and concern, tore her to
the soul.
"There was nothing else to do!" she faltered.
"But--you drove up to-night?"
"Since seven."
He looked at her, and Rachael felt the look sink into her soul like
rain into parched land.
"And you came straight to me!" His voice sank. "Rachael," he said, "I
will save him for you if I can!"
And instantly there began such activities in the old house as perhaps
even its dignified century of living had never known. Rachael, hungry
through these terrible hours of suspense for just the wild rush and
hurry, watched her husband as if she had never seen him before.
Presently lights blazed from cellar to attic, maids flew in every
direction, fires were lighted, the moving of heavy furniture shook the
floors. Derry, the little unconscious cause of it all, lay quiet, with
Mary watching him.
New York had been asleep; it was awakened now. Motor cars wheeled into
the Gregorys' street; Mrs. Gregory herself answered the door. Here was
the nurse, efficient, yet sympathetic, too, with her paraphernalia and
her assistants. Yes, she had been able to get it, Doctor Gregory. Yes,
Doctor, she had that. Here was the man from the drug store--that was
all right, Doctor, that was what he expected, being waked up in the
night; thank you, Doctor. And here was George Valentine, too much
absorbed in the business in hand to say more than an affectionate
"Hello" to Rachael. But with George was Alice, white-faced but smiling,
and little sleepy Jimmy, who was to be smuggled immediately into bed.
"I thought you'd rather have him here," said Alice.
Rachael knew why. Rachael knew what doctors said to each other, when
they gathered, and used those quick, low monosyllables. She knew why
Miss Redding was speeding the arrangements for the improvised
operating-room with such desperate hurry. She knew why one of these
assisting doctors was delegated to do nothing but sit beside Derry,
watching the little hurt breast rise and fall, watching the bubble of
blood form and break on the swollen mouth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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