It was Luke Gant. At four o’clock his father had had another h?morrhage, he had lost consciousness, all efforts to awaken2 him had failed, they thought he was dying.
The nurse listened carefully for a moment to Luke’s stammering3 and excited voice, which was audible across the wire even to McGuire. Then, with a troubled and uncertain glance toward the doctor’s sprawled and drunken figure, she said quietly:
“Just a minute. I don’t know if the doctor is in the hospital. I’ll see if I can find him.”
Putting her hand over the mouth-piece, keeping her voice low, she spoke4 urgently to McGuire:
“It’s Luke Gant. He says his father has had another h?morrhage and that they can’t rouse him. He wants you to come at once. What shall I tell him?”
He stared drunkenly at her for a moment, and then, waving his finger at her in a movement of fat impatience5, he mumbled6 thickly:
“Nothing to do. . . . No use . . . . Can’t be stopped. . . . People expect miracles. . . . Over. . . . Done for. . . . Tell him I’m not here . . . gone home,” he muttered, and sprawled forward on the desk again.
Quietly, coolly, the nurse spoke into the phone again:
“The doctor doesn’t seem to be here at the hospital, Mr. Gant. Have you tried his house? I think you may find him at home.”
“No, G-g-g-god-damn it!” Luke fairly screamed across the wire. “He’s not at home. I’ve already t-t-tried to get him here. . . . N-n-n-now you look here, Miss Creasman!” Luke shouted angrily. “You c-c-can’t kid me: I know where he is — He’s d-d-down there at the hospital right now — wy-wy-wy — stinkin’ drunk! You t-t-tell him, G-g-g-god-damn his soul, that if he d-d-doesn’t come, wy-wy-wy — P-p-p-papa’s in a bad way and and and f-f-frankly, I fink it’s a rotten shame for McGuire to act this way, wy-wy-wy after he’s b-b-been Papa’s doctor all these years. F-f-frankly, I do!”
“Nothing to be done,” mumbled McGuire. “No use. . . . All over.”
“I’ll see what I can do, Mr. Gant,” said Creasman quietly. “I’ll let the doctor know as soon as he comes in!”
“C-c-c-comes in, hell!” Luke stammered7 bitterly. “I’m c-c-comin’ down there myself and g-g-get him if I have to wy-wy-wy d-d-drag him here by the s-s-scruff of his neck!” And he hung up the receiver with a bang.
The nurse put the phone down on the desk, and turning to McGuire, said:
“He’s raving8. He says if you don’t go, he’ll come for you and get you himself. Can’t you pull yourself together enough to go? If you can’t drive the car, I’ll send Joe along to drive it for you.” (Joe was a negro orderly in the hospital.)
“What’s the use?” McGuire mumbled thickly, a little angrily. “What the hell do these people expect, anyway? . . . I’m a doctor, not a miracle man. . . . The man’s gone, I tell you . . . the whole gut9 and rectum is eaten away . . . he can’t live over a day or two longer at the most. . . . It’s cruelty to prolong it: why the hell should I try to?”
“All right,” she said resignedly. “Do as you please. Only, he’ll probably be here for you himself in a few minutes. And since they do feel that way about it, I think you might make the effort just to please them.”
“Ah-h,” he muttered wearily. “People are all alike. . . . They all want miracles.”
“Are you just going to sit here all night?” she said with a rough kindliness10. “Aren’t you going to try to get a little sleep before you operate?”
He waved fat fingers at her, and did not look at her.
“Leave me alone,” he mumbled; and she left him.
When she had gone, he fumbled11 for the jug12 and drank again. And then, while time resumed its sanded drip, and he sat there in the silence, he thought again of the old dying man whom he had known first when he was a young doctor just beginning and with whom his own life had been united by so many strange and poignant13 memories. And thinking of Gant, the strangeness of the human destiny returned to haunt his mind; there was something that he could not speak, a wonder and a mystery he could not express.
He fumbled for the jug again, and holding it solemnly in his bearish14 paws, drained it. Then he sat for several minutes without moving. Finally, he got up out of his chair, grunting16 painfully, and fumbling17 for the walls, lurched out into the hall, and began to grope his way across the corridor toward the stairs. And the first step fooled him as it had done so many times before; he missed his step, even as a man stepping out in emptiness might miss, and came down heavily upon his knees. Then, pushing with his hands, he slid out peacefully on the oiled green linoleum18, pillowed his big head on his arms with a comfortable grunt15, and sprawled out flat, already half dead to the world. It was in this position — also a familiar one — that Creasman, who had heard his thump19 when falling, found him. And she spoke sharply and commandingly as one might speak to a little child.
“You get right up off that floor and march upstairs,” she said. “If you want to sleep you’re going to your room; you’ll not disgrace us sleeping on that floor.”
And like a child, as he had done so many times before, he obeyed her. In a moment, as her sharp command reached his drugged consciousness, he grunted20, stirred, climbed painfully to his knees, and then, pawing carefully before him like a bear, unable or unwilling21 to stand up, he began to crawl slowly up the stairs.
And it was in this position, half-way up, pawing his burly and cumbersome22 way on hands and knees, that Luke Gant found him. Cursing bitterly, and stammering with wild excitement, the young man pulled him to his feet, Creasman sponged off the great bloated face with a cold towel and, assisted by Joe Corpering, the negro man, they got him down the stairs and out of the hospital into Luke’s car.
Dawn was just breaking, a faint glimmer23 of blue-silver light, with the still purity of the earth, the sweet fresh stillness of the trees, the bird-song waking. The fresh sweet air, Luke’s breakneck driving through the silent streets, the roaring motor — finally, the familiar and powerfully subdued24 emotion of a death chamber25, the repressed hysteria, the pain and tension and the terror of shocked flesh, the aura of focal excitement around the dying man revived McGuire.
Gant lay still and almost lifeless on the bed, his face already tinged26 with the ghostly shade of death, his breath low, hoarse27, faintly rattling28, his eyes half-closed, comatose29, already glazed30 with death.
McGuire sighted at his shining needle, and thrust a powerful injection of caffeine, sodium31, and benzoate into the arm of the dying man. This served partially32 to revive him, got him through the low ebb33 of the dark, his eyes opened, cleared, he spoke again. Bright day and morning came, and Gant still lived. And with the light, their impossible and frenzied34 hopes came back again, as they have always been revived in desperate men. And Gant did not die that day. He lived on.
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1
sprawled
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| v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词)；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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2
awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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3
stammering
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的现在分词 ) | |
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4
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7
stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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raving
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| adj.说胡话的；疯狂的，怒吼的；非常漂亮的；令人醉心[痴心]的v.胡言乱语(rave的现在分词)n.胡话；疯话adv.胡言乱语地；疯狂地 | |
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gut
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| n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏 | |
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10
kindliness
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| n.厚道，亲切，友好的行为 | |
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11
fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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12
jug
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| n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂 | |
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13
poignant
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| adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的 | |
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bearish
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| adj.(行情)看跌的，卖空的 | |
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15
grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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grunting
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| 咕哝的，呼噜的 | |
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fumbling
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| n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理 | |
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linoleum
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| n.油布，油毯 | |
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19
thump
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| v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声 | |
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20
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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21
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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22
cumbersome
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| adj.笨重的，不便携带的 | |
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glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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24
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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26
tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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27
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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28
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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29
comatose
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| adj.昏睡的，昏迷不醒的 | |
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30
glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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31
sodium
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| n.（化）钠 | |
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32
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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33
ebb
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| vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态 | |
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34
frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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