“That’s the best coffee roll I ever had outside of Paul’s.”
Otto beamed and cocked his head slowly.
“Fank you! Fen2 I fus cum to dis country, I vork in Paul’s. Two vyears.”
Matt put his weight in his shoulders and his voice was admiring.
“Why did you come West?”
Otto began wringing3 his towel helplessly.
“Vell, my vivfe vus humsic, so I tried to make into a Jerman settl’ment ... an’....”
He stood silent a moment. All of his verve wilted4.
Higgins interposed, “Any news around town?”
Otto peered over his glasses pleasantly.
“Ve reever made four inchers, las’ night. Eif 232 she continuers....” He threw out his hands. His face flashed sober and he drew his hands over his abdomen5 and said carefully:
“Docturr Bearr Sterlink is ... dyin ... k.”
Matt squared his shoulders and sat straight on the stool. He stretched his torso upward.
“Great man I guess ... that Bear Sterling7! Saved the lives of lots of people...!”
Otto reached over the counter and began carefully balancing the dishes and his words.
“Yess. Lots. Lots of people. But even great men half der veak spots....”
Matt Higgins poised8 a spoon upon the saucer of the cup Otto was lifting.
“What do you mean ... ‘weak spots’...?”
“Vell...,” Otto’s conscience and his philosophy collided. He peered over his glasses again.
“Du ... did you kno’, Docturr Bearr Sterlink?”
Matt Higgins shook his head definitely.
“By reputation, only. What’s his weak spot?”
Otto closed his lips completely and turned his back. When the dishes were safely deposited, he said:
“Sum men are veak vid de knife, sum aroun’ de heart, sum like me, aroun’ de stumack...! Sum ven ve are young.... Sum ven ve are studients.... Sum ven ve are in bed....” He whirled 233 quickly and threw out his hands. His head nodded the periods to his sentences.
“Ve all haf dem!”
An interne burst through the door and begged:
“Otto, gimme some coffee quick! Quick, Otto! Black!”
Matt Higgins noted10 the boy’s blanched11 face and shaking hands.
Otto soothed12:
“Fut vus hit, Docturr?”
The interne gulped13 the coffee and shook his head pleadingly.
Otto leaned across the counter and ordered:
“Fut ... frightened you, Docturr?”
The boy put down the cup.
“Hell!” he strode toward the door, “I ain’t frightened. It was a nigger baby with a severed14 head. It just got my guts15 ... that’s all...!”
When he was gone Otto turned to Matt Higgins, shrugged16 and smiled.
“Hiss iss ... fear!” he said.
Then leaning upon the counter he asked:
“Vy did you cum Vest?”
Matt looked him straight in the eyes and replied:
“I’m a New York gangster17, on vacation, come to see my kid brother interning18 at the hospital.”
Otto perked19 his head.
“Maybe ... I know him.”
234
Matt Higgins shook his head.
“No. You couldn’t know him. He’s high-hat as hell. Only lets me see him half a day every six months.... He’s my ... weak spot!”
He slid from the stool and stepped aside. Four medical students jostled through the door.
Otto mopped his counter, slowly, thoughtfully, painstakingly20.
Matt Higgins tipped his gray hat over his narrowed eyes, and went through the door.
That man knew something ... but there was no use trying to get him to....
He turned down Beeker Street and made his way over to Wilson Boulevard, one end of which was fa?aded by the Elijah Wilson group; the other was bounded by the River. He looked back over his shoulder to see if he could get a glimpse of anything denoting the river. Only a curling line of smoke from a ferry-boat.
The air was clear, still and comforting and the people all walked like New Yorkers. But the women didn’t amount to much. No good legs. No poise9. No New York verve.
He looked at his watch as he entered the tall iron gate and approached the main entrance. It was eight forty-five.
At the main entrance he took off his gray overcoat and stood back to let two nurses pass. They weren’t much.
235
He passed the statue of Elijah Wilson, went on into the main corridor and turned to the left. He walked with the air of a man who knows where he is going and is not to be stopped by trifles. Long experience had taught him that demeanor21 could get one almost anywhere. Especially in a hospital.
Nurses and doctors passed, returning from breakfast. The faces of the lovelorn and the love-lettered were revealed by every passing window. Intermingled with all of these were a group of abnormally sad faces, and then he remembered that today was the day of that nurse’s funeral. She’d been a pretty little thing, too. Her fragile little corpse23 had skipped rope in all of his dreams last night! He quickened his pace and his hairy hands were clenched24 in his pockets.
Halfway25 down the main corridor he stopped ostensibly to look from a window at the back garden of the hospital. He took in the approaching people in both directions at a glance. They were all of them distant enough to risk it.
He walked several feet further, began walking close to the wall, and faded into a door. The door opened into what had been the old laboratory building, and with the renovating26 of the hospital had been left vacant. The corridor was lighted by a series of tall windows at the far end. The brilliant morning sun sifted27 through them vaguely. The 236 grime and dust of the panes28 and of the intervening corridor made its trickle29 thin and eerie30.
Matthew Higgins closed the door softly and stood silently against it for a second, listening. Then he accustomed his eyes to the light and looked at the floor. In the center were the tracks he and Dr. MacArthur and Snod had made last night. On the far side were the tracks which he and Snod had agreed Snod should make this morning.
He shifted his hat upon the back of his head and began walking up the corridor next to Snod’s morning tracks. Halfway up, he stopped and listened. Then he threw his overcoat over his shoulder and approached, cautiously, the door of the laboratory they had decided31 upon. On tiptoe. Silently. His weight was thrown forward with the expert training of a toe-dancer. Slowly, melting into it as he did so, he pushed open the door of the laboratory.
It was darker than the corridor. The outside window blinds had been closed for several years. He stood silently several seconds and then decided to chance a match. He took off his hat and struck it carefully in the shadow the hat provided. Then when it was well-lighted he lifted it and surveyed the room.
The dusty lab sinks, the rotting rubber hose, the two stools with their cane32 bottoms gone, and upon a bamboo couch in the corner Snod Smooty, 237 his face totally devoid33 of expression, sleeping with the abandon of an infant.
As the match burned low in his fingers Matthew Higgins leaned over and watched Snod Smooty sleep. This was the first time in ten years he had known Snod to sleep with someone watching him.
The night must have been a swell34 affair! The smell of smoke reached Smooty’s consciousness; he turned over suddenly and opened his eyes completely. His face was still blank with an effort to see in the darkness, and his voice came huskily:
“Matt?”
The answer was in keeping with the dimness. The match had burned out and Matt Higgins was killing35 it on the floor with his toe.
“Yeah. Wake up! Any news?”
Snod Smooty raised his slim body to a sitting posture36 and slung37 his thin feet to the grimy floor. He ran his left hand through his colorless hair and wiped out his eyes with the right palm.
“Cigarette?”
Matt Higgins took The Morning Call from his overcoat pocket and placed it over the hole in one of the stools. Over that he folded his overcoat and raised himself onto the stool.
“Better not. Watchmen or something. How was the night?”
Smooty put the unlit cigarette sullenly38 in his hip39 pocket and said sweetly:
238
“Hell all the time ... and then some.... ’Bout ten a drunk naval40 officer-beau of the dead nurse brought her a bouquet41 of red roses, darling. Thought she was doing duty on the ward6. Didn’t know about her death. Shook the guts outa that student nurse when she told him and then began playing hide-and-seek under the patients’ beds with me.”
“The devil!”
“Yeah, himself! I got him outa the hospital, socked him, and tucked him into a parked car to sleep it off. Went over him first, though. William Brady, U. S. N. Loot. J. G.
“Then I went back to the ward. And he had left the roses on the bed of one old blattering fool and she took it that she’s next to go and can she scream! So loud the others couldn’t make a squeak42. Well, the Jew doctor got there and a mess of nurses and hen medics and give them all a bromide and then they needed bed-pans again ... and then ... they had to have a drink of water. And then another bed-pan around. Like salt and pepper, you know. Now I see why the Waldorf makes money. Pay toilets for ladies.”
“And Lil?” Matt’s voice was demanding.
“Lil’s lost her nerve, Matt. Swears if you don’t get her outa there by this afternoon, she’s going to walk out. Says the examination she had to get in that damn bed was just like being frisked naked. 239 During pan-rounds we had some conversation.
“She’s took it into her head that that student nurse, the niece of the head nurse, is doing the murders. She’s took it that the girl is like that moll she caught in the circus last spring (she says you know which one) working for a hypnotist and selling dope. Damn if Lil ain’t decided that the head nurse of the clinic, Miss Kerr, who got her stout43 old tail up there before it was all over, ain’t making her niece work for somebody ... ain’t both of them working for some control ... who is having them murder patients.”
“Lord God! That ties up, too.... Go on ... finish your story.”
“It’s Lil’s idea, Matt, that they are doing it because they hate young Sterling and are trying to ruin him, and get him out ... and nothing I could say ... between bed-pans and glasses of water ... could change her mind a nits worth. When Lil is out of reach ... you know what I mean ... she’s hard to reason with.
“And she’s got the creeps bad as the rest of them, now, and told me if I let that little bitch come within fifteen feet of her the rest of the night she’d....
“So after we’d gotten all them females quieted 240 inside and out, I had to spend till seven this A. M. doing things that would keep me where I could see the nurse. Sweeping44 corridors and asking questions and messing up the guts of the electric refrigerator and, you know ... having the hell of a good time....”
He threw out his hands futilely45.
“Women who can walk and talk is bad enough, but when they ain’t got nothing to do, except lay out in bed ... thirty strong ... I ain’t been this tired since I worked in a prison camp in Germany in ’16.
“That student nurse and her aunt suspect me, too. And I had to put up some alibi46 about having been a hospital orderly in London and when I was always in the place I was told not to be, that was the way ... you know.... Lil says if I ain’t back on the ward by three this afternoon, time the aunt usually makes floor rounds, pretending to be learning the ways from the day orderly, she will be outa there ... and ... you know....”
“Good work, Snod.” Higgins complimented, and then ordered, “Good idea. Be back on by three. Sleep here this morning. After last night, the murderer will either strike quick, or lay off for some time. I’ll wire for another man this morning; but he may not get here until tomorrow.... We’ll have to do double time all around....”
Snod’s voice was flat and caustic47.
“Yeah.”
Higgins ignored it and said:
“After you went on, MacArthur and I had another 241 talk, and he took me to see the nurse’s body. Lovely thing. Seems this coniine can be prepared synthetically48 but the toxicologist laughs off the idea that it was. Too hard to do. And I brought out that however prepared the first thing to do was to stop the ‘shots’. MacArthur agrees, but he won’t commit anybody. You were right. I told him it’s a crazy nurse or doctor and he had apoplexy. He’s straight. I like him. I’m to see the heads of all departments today and see what I can find out, unobserved. And I’ll meet you here again at two-forty, before you go back on the ward.
“If Lil’s right, they are working for the psychiatrist49, and if she’s not, then it’s the man MacArthur is shielding. See anybody last night took your eye?”
“No. They were all too shocked. The murderer wasn’t there.” Smooty, who had a habit of talking “in character” was too interested to “think” as an orderly. “The person in authority was the Jew and he’s white. Jew doctors are! Those Kerr women, head nurse and student, took it too calmly.”
“Want any breakfast?” Higgins asked from the door.
“No. Just a bed-pan, please!”
Snod’s voice fluted50 after him.
With the overcoat, Snod Smooty made himself a pillow, and was asleep before Mr. Higgins had retraced51 his steps halfway up the corridor.
242
When Higgins reached the place where the basement steps came up into the corridor of the vacant building, he struck another match, again under the protection of his hat and looked for the tracks he and Dr. MacArthur had made last night. Then he descended52 the steps and stood in the dark basement corridor. He stood erect53, with his shoulders thrown back, listening. When the silence assured his mind and hurt his eardrums he began walking up the basement corridor, toward the entrance into the main service corridor, which ran directly under the main hospital corridor. He and Dr. MacArthur had decided the best way to get out of the lab building would be through the service corridor, the door of which had a spring lock, and then up the service elevator to the main floor of the Administration Building.
The basement corridor was black as night, but totally dead. The worn-out odor of old chemicals mingled22 with that of damp plaster. The smell began to permeate54 his nostrils55 and made each creak of the sagging56 floor hit his brain like a pistol shot. The soft blackness closed in like a sweating fog.
He began to feel as a swimmer feels against strong tides. The door at the end of the corridor was diminishing as the door in Alice in Wonderland, or had it been Alice who diminished? He had just convinced himself that the last sound and the newest smell were caused by a leaking water tap 243 and an escaping gas jet, when something struck his foot, ran up his pants’ leg to his waist, and down the other side.
Rats!
He jumped with the agility57 of a fencing expert into an open door and threw up his arm automatically. He stood with his muscles flexed58, listening and beginning to feel the beads59 of perspiration60 starting under his arms and trickling61 down his thighs62.
And then he laughed at himself and tried to lower his arm. It wouldn’t come. He tugged63 and he could feel his coat sleeve beginning to give. The tap continued its regular drip, drip, and his nerves became strung and he reached his free hand in his pocket and drew out a match and lit it upon the seat of his pants, regardless.
Then he saw the trouble instantly. His arm was caught by a long iron hook suspended from the ceiling. He looked around and saw the room was full of such hooks.
“Wuuh!”
The ejaculation came naturally. He was in the room where they had once hung the cadavers65. His coat was caught upon a cadaver64 hook! And with the realization66 his reflexes began working automatically. He leaped and freed his arm and struck his head upon the ceiling.
Then he leaned against the wall and shivered. 244 The feel of the burning match against his flesh brought him to, like a pain.
“Fool!” he muttered reprovingly and his perspiring67 body was seared dry by a consuming shame. “Lighting matches in a basement with escaping gas and getting hysterical68 over rats. Get out of here!”
He regained69 the corridor and proceeded quickly in the direction of the door. When his hand was upon the handle he stopped for a moment to consider and get himself together.
Was Snod safe in this building? Had those feelings he had just been through been entirely70 hysterical or were they partly occasioned by the presence of the murderer, somewhere, in that basement?
He checked over it all step by step and decided that they were pure ... might as well admit it ... pure hysteria. An innate71 fear of dead people, which he knew perfectly72 well he had had ever since that boy in Mexico took so long to die when he shot him fifteen years ago. And he had glassed his eyes on him when he finally did go.
Nobody but Snod was in this building. A murderer left tracks just like any other man and he had examined all of the tracks.
You had to take a chance....
He snapped the spring lock and stepped out into the service corridor. The door slammed behind him and he looked both ways.
245
The corridor was whitewashed73 and brilliantly lighted with electric lights, like a subway station. In the distance were two orderlies pushing two large laundry bins74. They had their backs to him. In the other direction were three maids standing75 around a woman who was talking hurriedly and gesticulating wildly. They were standing in a knot and did not see him. He started to walk and as he lifted his foot it caught upon something. He looked down.
He had kicked a huge bunch of American Beauty roses from in front of the door. Somehow he side-stepped them and began making his feet rise, fall, and move.
Should he go back? Should he go on? Should he pick them up? The great thing was to keep moving ... the great thing, and by the time he had begun moving he had decided to ignore the flowers ... temporarily ... and try to remember MacArthur’s directions. Past the print shop, past the laundry entrance, and then the first door to the left....
He had accomplished76 the print shop when he discovered that walking beside him was a small faded woman, and she was carrying the roses. And then he decided to find out.
“Is this the main corridor of the hospital?” He had removed his hat and was giving her the “somebody’s mother” treatment. “Pretty flowers!”
246
She began to gasp77 out respectfully:
“No, sir. Take the elevator there, Doctor,” she pointed78. “Pretty, ain’t they? Miss Kerr told that maid,” she pointed again toward a retreating figure, “to bring them over to the Nurses’ Home for Miss Standish’s funeral (she was of that simple class which believes everybody knows her acquaintances) and an orderly in the corridor told the maid....”
The elevator door opened and Matt Higgins had learned all he needed to know, immediately.
He gave the woman his “silver threads among the gold” smile and asked the elevator boy:
“Is the main corridor above this?”
“Yes, sir. Lost? It’s easy to get lost around here.”
They reached the main floor and Matt Higgins stepped from the elevator and began walking toward the entrance from the main corridor to the Administration Building.
He was dead tired....
But when he saw Dr. Henry MacArthur, through the open door of his office, he knew that whatever he had just been through he must hide.
The last man he had seen with that look of steely panic was the president of the bank in Wall Street during the first days of the 1929 collapse79. That kind of panic was followed by icicles of fear in the brain and after that....
247
“Good morning, Doctor,” his voice was calm and confident.
With its tone, MacArthur’s courtesy revived, but it was automatic. He rose with an obvious effort and motioned the detective to a chair, closed the door into the corridor, and offered Higgins a cigarette.
“Thanks.”
Neither of them noted the brilliant sun upon the mahogany director’s table, nor the glint it gave the diamond upon the finger of Elijah Wilson in the portrait hanging behind MacArthur’s desk.
MacArthur re-seated himself, rubbed his eyelids80 listlessly and then, his blue eyes upon Higgins’ gray ones, asked:
“You know about last night?”
Higgins nodded and replied:
“We must do something, Doctor. After that the murderer will either strike immediately, or wait indefinitely. In either case, we need a man on the ward day as well as night. May I call the agency now?”
“Why not use a local man?”
Higgins shook his head decisively.
“Too much depends on the man to take someone I am not sure of. With your permission?”
He reached for the telephone and MacArthur said, “You have it.”
“New York. Digby 4-3872. Mr. Anderson. 248 James P. Anderson. Put it through right away, please.”
He held the receiver and put his hand over the mouthpiece. Dr. MacArthur began pacing the room. He carried himself with a brittle81 straightness, and Higgins watched him closely while the girls were saying, “Indianapolis? Chicago? Hello Buffalo82?” ... and then ... “New York?” and then Anderson’s voice.
“Anderson?” Higgins knew the voice immediately. “Higgins. Can you get Rogers on the Westbound mail plane in twenty minutes? Then the other plane and he’ll have to change at Chicago, or charter a plane from there. Yes, shaping up. No news yet. Good! O.K.”
MacArthur wheeled.
“He will be here this afternoon?”
Higgins pushed the telephone over upon the desk.
“If he makes the plane leaving in twenty minutes. Otherwise about eight tonight. Next to Smooty I’d rather have him than any man on the force.
“Smooty passed himself off as an orderly from a London hospital and will go back on at three to watch things and learn the Elijah Wilson routine from the day orderly. So you can rest easily, as to the vigilance, Doctor.”
249
His voice, like his person, was strong and commanding.
Dr. MacArthur slackened his pace and Higgins continued:
“Doctor, Miss Parkins thinks that the head nurse and her niece are mediums murdering for some control ... some doctor....”
Dr. MacArthur sat down suddenly and an imperceptible shadow of relief passed over his graven face.
Last night he would have exploded at the mere83 mention of such an idea, while this morning....
His voice was old and unconvinced.
“I don’t believe it, Higgins. I have known doctors by the thousand. Good. Bad. And indifferent. But I do not believe any doctor....”
“A crazy doctor?”
MacArthur threw up his hands helplessly.
“A crazy somebody, yes. But not a doctor....”
Higgins decided to pass up the point and continued:
“Whoever it is must be caught quickly. I suggest we give up the idea of putting me through as a patient. Last night it appeared feasible but I spent most of the night thinking, and I feel certain, Doctor MacArthur, that after the episode on the ward, we must hasten everything. Put me through the hospital as a member of the administrative84 staff of some distant hospital. Thereby85 I get a chance 250 to see the heads of every department, including the Psychiatrist, and the Physician-in-Chief....”
Dr. MacArthur winced86. Then that was the man! Higgins continued, placidly87, “And decide who I must question, and also permit me ... if necessary ... to get about the hospital suddenly. After last night....”
Dr. MacArthur interrupted him. His panic was welling up.
“I’ll agree to anything ... almost, Mr. Higgins. After last night action is vital. Tomorrow is visiting day throughout the hospital. By tomorrow night relatives of every patient on that ward will know that Rose Standish was murdered! And we cannot avoid their knowing it. If we close the ward to visitors ... we have never in all the years the hospital has been in existence done ... that! Public confidence is our greatest asset. Has been. What shall we do? The newspapers, the police, the reputation of the hospital, d’y’see?”
“Too well, sir.”
But the tension was wearing itself out in speech and Dr. MacArthur went on:
“The hysteria among the nursing and medical staffs was bad enough, God knows, but before today is over, we must face the hysteria manifesting itself among the menial staff. How can a hospital run without orderlies, electricians, cooks? If the menials become hysterical...?”
251
“They already are, Doctor. When I came out of the basement entrance of the old lab building into the service corridor fifteen minutes ago, my feet caught upon a bunch of red roses.”
“What?”
“I said, sir, my feet caught....”
“I heard you. Where did they come from?”
“They had been dropped, Doctor, by a maid who had been ordered by Miss Kerr, the head nurse in Medicine Clinic, to take them over to the Nurses’ Home for the funeral of Miss Standish. An orderly told the maid where they came from....”
“God!”
The panic re-entered Dr. MacArthur’s eyes and Higgins took advantage of it.
“You are right about time, Doctor. It’s everything. To save time I must have every atom of knowledge which you have. Last night I hoped to work independently, but now....”
He leaned forward and shot his gimlet gray eyes into the horror stricken ones of MacArthur.
“Is the man everybody but you suspects, young Sterling?”
MacArthur’s groan88 was evidence.
“Well, I thought so. Last night you suggested I question him last on account of his father.”
MacArthur’s fight seemed suddenly to return and he shot back:
“This morning I demand it. His father will be 252 dead by midnight. I appreciate your position, but I must ask you to respect my wishes. Have you given up the idea that Bear Sterling is implicated89?”
“No, sir. But we cannot await another murder to clear him.”
“Precisely90. Nor anybody else, Mr. Higgins. I see that. But I also see that if Cub91 Sterling does not leave his father’s side today and is not questioned until after his death, supposing ... the other ... to be correct ... you will have not lost anything. They must all be checked, automatically, since you believe the murderer is a crazy doctor. Check them today, Mr. Higgins. And if....”
He rose and began to pace the floor, and his figure was more than erect. It was almost illuminated92.
“You belong, sir, to that type of man which can appreciate trust between strong men. Between Cub Sterling and his father such a trust has always existed. Within twenty hours it will be broken and ... why, Mr. Higgins, if you wish, I shall sit outside the door of the room in which he is fighting for Bear’s life, from now until you release me.... But my position ... d’y’see?”
“I do, and I respect you for it, Doctor. But the two men who have attended all of the dead patients were the Doctors Sterling. Regarding the questioning, 253 I shall do as you desire, provided, sir, that when the superintendent93 of nurses takes me to Medicine Clinic, you will insist that Dr. Cub Sterling accompany us over the clinic, in precisely the same manner in which the other men are to do. Thereby I can at least judge the man. Otherwise I throw up the case, here and now. My position would be hopeless, if I were to be denied at least a summary ... not made through the eyes of personal esteem94 and family fame ... of one of the two chief suspects. Perhaps it is brutal95 to put it so, but the chief suspect in the eyes of the nursing and menial staffs.”
“I know it, Higgins. I’ll do as you wish.”
His voice and his face were parched96 and sad.
Their eyes locked again and Higgins said:
“You brought me here to find the criminal. In many things we shall have to fight each other. Mainly because all evidence points to a crazy doctor and you cannot accept the evidence. Somehow I’m glad you can’t, Doctor.”
Higgins stretched out his large hairy hand and Dr. MacArthur gripped it firmly.
Then MacArthur looked at his watch and reached for the telephone.
“Superintendent of nurses, please.”
“Miss Carruthers? Dr. MacArthur. Will you please come over to my office immediately?”
254
As he hung up, he seemed to have regained his old authoritative97 manner.
“About Miss Standish’s funeral. Do you think it worth your while to attend? Would a murderer of this type go to the funeral of a person he had murdered?”
“Hardly, Doctor. What time is it?”
“Four-fifteen.”
“The Kerrs?”
“Have both asked to come.”
“Then I will.”
They were interrupted by a knock upon the door and the figure of Miss Carruthers.
Dr. MacArthur rose and smiled her into a chair.
“May I present Mr. Immerheld, Miss Carruthers. He is on the administrative staff of the Cornell Medical Centre, and I want him to see the Elijah Wilson. He came unexpectedly and this morning I am upset about Dr. Sterling. Mr. Immerheld used to know Dr. Sterling ... and understands.... Will you please take him around, and see that he sees the heads of all clinics? Cornell has been very kind about approving our rebuilding plans and Mr. Immerheld has been a great prop98 ... to the hospital. His advice....”
Miss. Carruthers smiled politely at Matthew Higgins, and rose.
“I shall be delighted, Dr. MacArthur.”
Her voice, body and face were brittle, and at 255 the same time authoritative. She was the spun-glass skeleton of what had been a buxomly commanding woman.
“May I leave my hat, Doctor?”
Higgins rose and stood beside Miss Carruthers; as he opened the door, he gave her the “silver threads among the gold” look and she took it as sand does water.
Dr. MacArthur’s voice halted their pleasant unity99.
“By the way, Miss Carruthers. Will you be so good as to telephone Miss Kerr just before you go to Medicine Clinic? I am especially anxious for Mr. Immerheld to meet Ethridge Sterling. Go over the building with him. He knew Dr. Bear when he was....”
His voice faded and hers filled the gap.
“Certainly, Dr. MacArthur.”
And as they started up the corridor, her words floated back:
“As a great teaching hospital, Mr. Immerheld, the Elijah Wilson has always....”
“Been free from crazy doctors.” Dr. MacArthur thought and his hands pounded his desk ... hopelessly.
“What are you smoothing my bed for?” Lil Parkins’ voice was irritable100. She had been awake for twenty hours now and her nerves were fraying101.
256
“Rounds.” Miss Kexter, the day white nurse, was brisk and snappish. These murders were beginning to get on her nerves. Not that she was scary. Or that she had liked Rose Standish. But just the same, those roses against her face, when she had gone to breakfast, and gone up to “look at her,” left the stomach kind of.... And then “Foots” Kerr was trying to behave....
Lil Parkins looked her over casually102 and decided that she was out of it. Spineless as a stick of cooked macaroni and ... and....
The conversation in the ward had died and all of the women were either sitting or lying respectfully still. Dr. Cub Sterling, Dr. Mattus had telephoned, was going to leave his dying father and come down to see how they were.
The lull103 was welcome to Lil Parkins and she felt, suddenly, for a few hours at least, she was safe and free to just relax a little.
She awoke to find a tall, angular man with bushy hair leaning over her and saying, “Pretty fair. Considering. Strengthened in the night?”
The Jew doctor, who had admitted her, stood beside the tall man whose left shoulder was cocked at a queer angle.
“Good bit, Dr. Sterling. When she came in....” he slid off into medical terms and Lil Parkins’ face took on one of its flashes of sudden intensity104 and Cub Sterling’s responded. His response was slow 257 and he was tired, but his eyes were gorgeous and his hands were soothing105.
“Pretty tired, weren’t you?”
The question was put in the voice one used with a social equal and Lil Parkins knew she really liked him. He recognized that she wasn’t just “another free patient.”
“Has your name come back?”
He had straightened up and stood at the foot of her bed looking kindly106 into her eyes. With a supreme107 effort, Lil knew that she must manage to act, really act!
She shook her head slowly, and her face faded blank again.
“It will,” he said confidently. “What you needed was rest. How did you get that scar?”
He pointed to one halfway up her left forearm and Lil, mesmerized108 by his eyes, actually told the truth.
“In the circus. Trapeze work.”
“With that heart!” his voice carried both reprimand and admiration109, “What circus?”
“Ringling Brothers.”
“You did!”
The heart case two beds up was sitting boldly erect. “You don’t say? An old trouper! Well, I’ll be doggone! Ringling Brothers, too! Top-notcher ain’t you, kid? Is Fred Bradna still ringmaster? How far out did you get last year? Playing Texas 258 this spring? Is Old Bill, the bull elephant, you know ... still alive...?”
Dr. Cub Sterling laughed spontaneously and every woman in the ward smiled.
“You’ll have to wait till she’s better. And then she’ll remember everything.”
His voice was crisp and final. The other doctors had passed on and were discussing Mrs. Witherspoon’s condition. Cub Sterling joined them, but he turned suddenly and smiled into the limpid110, waiting eyes of Lil Parkins.
“Go to sleep!”
His lips formed the words noiselessly, and her tension snapped and her eyes began to close, listlessly.
Cub started toward Room Two. Mattus’ voice halted his steps. Mattus said:
“She’s all right, Doctor! Slept clear through it! I just saw her ten minutes ago. Your father’s latest tank of oxygen is half gone, sir. Do you wish me...?”
Cub nodded silently and walked down the corridor toward the waiting elevator.
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1
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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2
fen
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| n.沼泽，沼池 | |
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wringing
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| 淋湿的，湿透的 | |
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wilted
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| （使）凋谢，枯萎( wilt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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abdomen
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| n.腹，下腹(胸部到腿部的部分) | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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7
sterling
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| adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑) | |
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poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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10
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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11
blanched
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| v.使变白( blanch的过去式 )；使（植物）不见阳光而变白；酸洗（金属）使有光泽；用沸水烫（杏仁等）以便去皮 | |
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12
soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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13
gulped
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| v.狼吞虎咽地吃，吞咽( gulp的过去式和过去分词 )；大口地吸（气）；哽住 | |
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14
severed
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| v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂 | |
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15
guts
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| v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠 | |
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16
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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17
gangster
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| n.匪徒，歹徒，暴徒 | |
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18
interning
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| v.拘留，关押( intern的现在分词 ) | |
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19
perked
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| （使）活跃( perk的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）增值； 使更有趣 | |
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20
painstakingly
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| adv. 费力地 苦心地 | |
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21
demeanor
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| n.行为；风度 | |
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22
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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23
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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24
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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26
renovating
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| 翻新，修复，整修( renovate的现在分词 ) | |
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27
sifted
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| v.筛( sift的过去式和过去分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审 | |
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28
panes
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| 窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
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29
trickle
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| vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散 | |
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30
eerie
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| adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的 | |
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31
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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32
cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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33
devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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34
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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35
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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36
posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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37
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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38
sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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39
hip
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| n.臀部，髋；屋脊 | |
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40
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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41
bouquet
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| n.花束，酒香 | |
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42
squeak
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| n.吱吱声，逃脱；v.（发出）吱吱叫，侥幸通过；（俚）告密 | |
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44
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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45
futilely
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| futile（无用的）的变形； 干 | |
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46
alibi
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| n.某人当时不在犯罪现场的申辩或证明；借口 | |
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47
caustic
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| adj.刻薄的，腐蚀性的 | |
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48
synthetically
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| adv. 综合地，合成地 | |
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49
psychiatrist
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| n.精神病专家；精神病医师 | |
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50
fluted
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| a.有凹槽的 | |
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51
retraced
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| v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
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52
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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53
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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54
permeate
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| v.弥漫，遍布，散布；渗入，渗透 | |
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55
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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56
sagging
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| 下垂[沉，陷]，松垂，垂度 | |
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57
agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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58
flexed
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| adj.[医]曲折的，屈曲v.屈曲( flex的过去式和过去分词 )；弯曲；（为准备大干而）显示实力；摩拳擦掌 | |
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59
beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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60
perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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61
trickling
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| n.油画底色含油太多而成泡沫状突起v.滴( trickle的现在分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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62
thighs
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| n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿 | |
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63
tugged
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| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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64
cadaver
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| n.尸体 | |
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65
cadavers
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| n.尸体( cadaver的名词复数 ) | |
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66
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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67
perspiring
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| v.出汗，流汗( perspire的现在分词 ) | |
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68
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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69
regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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70
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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71
innate
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| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
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72
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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73
whitewashed
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| 粉饰，美化，掩饰( whitewash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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74
bins
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| n.大储藏箱( bin的名词复数 )；宽口箱（如面包箱，垃圾箱等）v.扔掉，丢弃( bin的第三人称单数 ) | |
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75
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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76
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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77
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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78
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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79
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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80
eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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81
brittle
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| adj.易碎的；脆弱的；冷淡的；(声音)尖利的 | |
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82
buffalo
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| n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛 | |
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83
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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84
administrative
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| adj.行政的，管理的 | |
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85
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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86
winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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87
placidly
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| adv.平稳地，平静地 | |
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88
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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89
implicated
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| adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的 | |
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90
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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91
cub
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| n.幼兽，年轻无经验的人 | |
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92
illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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93
superintendent
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| n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长 | |
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94
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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95
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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96
parched
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| adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干 | |
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97
authoritative
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| adj.有权威的，可相信的；命令式的；官方的 | |
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98
prop
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| vt.支撑；n.支柱，支撑物；支持者，靠山 | |
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99
unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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100
irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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101
fraying
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| v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的现在分词 ) | |
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102
casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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103
lull
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| v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇 | |
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104
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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105
soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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106
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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107
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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108
mesmerized
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| v.使入迷( mesmerize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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109
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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110
limpid
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| adj.清澈的，透明的 | |
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