Adirondack Mountains (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Hotels -- Fiction; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Love stories; Siblings -- Fiction
"I'll see if anybody's got anything," said Colonel Meredith, and he went
straight to the office, where he found Maud Darling and Eve.
"My cousin is feeling like the deuce," he said. "He won't sleep all
night if we don't give him something to make him. Do you know of any one
that's got anything of that sort--morphine, for instance?"
"The best thing will be to take the _Streak_ and get some from the
doctor," said Maud. "Let's all go."
"I think I won't," said Eve, looking wonderfully cool and serene. "But
I'll walk down to the float and see you off. What a pity for a man to
get laid up by an accident that might have been avoided by a little
attention!"
Colonel Meredith stiffened.
"I am sorry to contradict a lady," he said, "but my cousin has given me
the particulars of his accident, and it was of a nature that could
hardly have been avoided by a man. I think, Miss Maud, if you will order
a launch, I had better tell my cousin where I am going, in case he
should feel that he was being neglected."
"Don't bother to do that," said Eve. "I'll get word to him."
"Oh, thank you so much, will you?"
"He's lying down, I suppose."
"Yes; he has retired for the night."
"I'll send one of the men," said Eve, "or Sam Langham."
So they went one way and Eve went the other, walking very quickly and
smiling in the night.
"Mr. Jonstone--oh, Mr. Jonstone! Can you hear me?"
With a sort of shudder of wonder Mr. Jonstone sat up in his bed.
"Yes," he said, "I do hear you--unless I am dreaming."
"You're not dreaming. You are in great pain, owing to an accident which
could hardly have been avoided by a man, and can't sleep."
"I am in no pain now."
"Colonel Meredith has gone to Carrytown for something to make you
sleep, so you aren't to fret and feel neglected if he doesn't come back
to you at once."
"Just the same it's a horrible feeling--to be all alone."
"But if some one--any one were to stay within call----?"
"If _you_ were to stay within call it would make all the difference in
the world."
"You don't know who I am, do you?"
"I don't know what you look like, and I don't know your name. But I know
who you are. And once upon a time--long years ago--you promised, you
half promised, to tell me the other things."
"My name is a very, very old name, and I look like a lot of other
people. But you say you know who I am. Who am I?"
Mr. Bob Jonstone laughed softly.
"It's enough," said he, "that I know. But are you comfortable out there?
You're on the porch, aren't you?"
"No; I'm standing on the ground and resting my lazy forehead against the
porch railing."
"I'd feel easier if you came on the porch and made yourself comfortable
in a chair, just outside my window. And we could talk easier."
"But you're not supposed to talk."
"Listening would be good for me."
There was a sound of light steps and of a chair being dragged.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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