THE SUPREME GETAWAY AND OTHER TALES FROM THE PULPS Read online

  “There goes all my show of ever gittin’ that thousand,” he cogitated. “But I’m even with him fer this, anyhow.” He rubbed an ugly scar on his thick skull.

  “That was some wallop, believe me! Almost knocked me out. Lucky fer me I had sense enough fer to lay still an’ do the ’possum act. What?”

  He smoked out the fag, and tossed it into the fire, then laughed with ugly tusks.

  “Nutty!” said he. “Sure, he’s nutty now, an’ he must o’ been then. A guy what’d bean a feller just fer asking fer a thousand must o’ been plumb bugs.

  “Gee! I got out of it easy, I’m thinkin’. If he hadn’t of went outa that there silo, an’ gave me a chanst t’ slip off me boots an’ pussy-foot it up that ladder inta that haymow, an’ lay there all day till I could make my getaway that night, God — he sure might o’ bumped me off!

  “Lucky, I calls it. Lucky! Lucky Ruggles, that’s me!”

  FIRE FIGHT FIRE

  HARDLY HAD DR. DEANE Miller landed at the Dorian Club’s boathouse to take on more supplies for the rest of his hunting-trip, when Merle, the pop-eyed negro boy, thrust into his hand a telegram marked Rush.

  Dr. Miller ripped open the envelope with a large, well-tanned forefinger, and this message flashed into his brain: Come at once; stop for nothing; urgent operation; must have you. Benedict.

  The doctor pursed his lips into a “Whee-e-ew!” of annoyed surprise, and shoved back his canvas hunting cap. His curly hair — he hated it — lay heavily clustered on his forehead; his eyes ached with the sunlight and the glare of the Lower Bay; he was dog-tired all over. Decidedly this message did not please him. He turned it over meditatively, as if he might find on the other side some solution to the difficulties of a twenty-mile train-ride and a delicate operation at the other end, without even so much as a change of raiment; but the blank yellow paper offered him no counsel.

  “Hang this!” he grumbled, striking the paper with his big left hand. “Hang it! Can’t a fellow clear out for a couple of weeks to shoot ducks and try to for­get a girl” — he groaned at certain memories — “without this sort of thing yanking him back to work again? If I was what she called me — a coward — I’d fake up some excuse, or say I never got the message; Merle, here, isn’t above money and without price — but no, guess I’ll have to cut for town.”

  Out came his watch. Twelve minutes to train-time — no, the electrics couldn’t possibly do it.

  “Here, Merle, you blackbird!” he commanded, weighing a half-dollar suggestively in his broad palm. “You bring me a telegraph-blank and rustle me up a cab the quickest you ever did in your life! While it’s coming, fix me a basket with sandwiches and a bottle of — no, I can’t even have that if I’m to operate! Well, make it, Pollinaris! Scoot, now, you calcined charcoal!”

  II.

  DR. MILLER’S ENTRANCE into the oper­ating room of the Trail Hospital, clad in full khaki hunting-togs, with even his revolver and cartridges girded around his equator like the rings of Saturn, caused a flutter of consternation among the three prim nurses waiting beside the little glass and iron table. The Trail Hospital, private, sedate, conservative, maintained its dignity even in the face of life and death emergencies. Dr. Miller was, at times, a disturbing factor in its routine, though an absolutely indis­pensable one. The three nurses, not having been informed regarding the sit­uation, exchanged scandalized glances.

  “Where’s Benedict?” demanded Miller curtly of Miss Willett, quelling the young women with a sweep of his eye — an eye which never yet had been dis­obeyed.

  “Hullo, there, doctor!” answered a voice from the sterilizing-room. “I’m washing up. Say, but I’m glad you’re here, though! Come on and scrub.”

  Miller strode through the door.

  “What’s the trouble?” he asked.

  “Trouble enough — patient’s just be­ing etherized now. I was never so re­lieved in all my life as when I got your wire saying you’d be here. Everything’s figured out to a T. If you’d been late, though —”

  Benedict looked around with a grimace as he soused his hands in the third solution, preparatory to drying them on a sterilized towel.

  “Who is it? What is it?” Miller persisted, the while he slipped his oper­ating-tunic over his coat and took a handful of green soap. He glanced sharply at the younger man, his class­mate of five years ago, now his assistant at the Trail.

  “Young woman, about twenty-five or so,” answered Benedict. “Didn’t get the name very well, but I think she’s from Hillingdon. No matter — she’s a stranger here, anyway.”

  “Well, what’s the difficulty?” inter­rogated Miller, a shade of impatience rising in his voice. The word “Hilling­don” recalled the bitter quarrel, the shame of being misunderstood, the curt dismissal — all the miserable affair which his hunting-trip had so signally failed to obliterate. “Well, what is it?”

  “Aneurysm of the left jugular.”

  “So?”

  “Yes — rather unusual, eh?”

  “I should say so. Badly distended?”

  “Liable to end fatally any hour — been coming on for some time, but diag­nosed as neuralgia or some such foolish­ness — very unfortunate error of some local doctor down there.”

  “Why didn’t you call in Ferrell, or go ahead with it yourself?”

  Benedict shook his head.

  “No, no,” he answered, “I thought we’d better wait for you. Don’t want to throw bouquets, you know, but —”

  “There now, that’ll do!” grumbled Miller, rinsing his hands. Miller was impervious to compliments. Not even the fact that at twenty-nine, only four years out of college, he was already some­thing of an authority on aneurisms could upset his strictly impersonal at­titude toward his own skill. “Every­thing all ready?” he went on. “Hemostats? Scalpels? Silver wire? Must have it very fine, you know — can’t wrap a jugular with ship’s cable!”

  “You’ll find everything correct,” Benedict assured him. “There, she’s being brought in now!”

  The quiet opening of a door and the roll of rubber-tired wheels, joined with a sickish whiff of ether, heralded the in­troduction of the patient into the bright glare of the operating room. Miller heard a whispering and a shuffle of feet as the orderly and nurses laid the woman on the table; then a slight scraping noise told that they were dragging the instrument-stands into position. Bene­dict walked out to take his place; Miller gave his hands a last dip, a final drying, and followed him.

  For a moment he did not see the face of the woman; then Miss Willett drew from it the sterilized cloth, and — Miller’s heart gave a sick jump; all the blood in him seemed rushing to it, leaving his ruddy face as gray as winter’s dawn. His stout knees trembled; and that steady hand of his, which had so often held the even balance between life and death — where was now its cunning? Little glistening diamonds of sweat came prickling out all over his forehead.

  He stepped back into the sterilizing-room, shaking like a frightened child.

  “Oh, Lord!” he gasped. “You — Isabelle! Benedict,” he called a mo­ment later, in a choking voice, “come out here!”

  The assistant surgeon came to him.

  “Say, Benedict, I — I —” stam­mered Miller. “Say, what does this mean? How did Isa — she — this patient get here? She — she — why —” He choked, stared, remained speechless.

  “What in time’s the matter with you?” questioned Benedict, alarmed. “Touch of sun?”

  “No — nothing! Just tell me the — the circumstances, can’t you?”

  “Why, there’s nothing much to tell. Got a telephone from Mrs. Dill, up there on Benton Avenue, you know, last night. Went up. Found she had a friend vis­iting from Hillingdon — this woman here. Pain in throat, abnormal pulsa­tion, and all that sort of thing — made the examination — found the aneurysm, that’s all. Had her kept quiet till this morning — then brought here. Consulta­tion. Decided to wire you on the chance — you said you’d be at the Dorian t
o­day. Well, you’re here, and so’s the pa­tient — everything all right so far. Get it? Anything outof order? . . .”

  “No, no, but —”

  “But what? Here’s your patient all anesthetized and waiting. It’s up to you now. If there’s any irregularity anywhere, let it go till later. Profes­sional etiquette — if that’s it — can’t stand in the way now! What’s up, eh? You look like a cadaver, and that’s a fact! Pull up, Miller, and come along out here!”

  The assistant seemed to have taken control; Miller was, for a moment, as clay in his hands. But only for a mo­ment; then he elbowed Benedict out through the door.

  “All right,” he said. “Get every­thing ready; I’ll be there in a minute.” He gripped his strong, sterile hands to­gether so tight that the knuckles whitened under the tan; he clinched his teeth till the big jaw-muscles bunched like cordage. “Now, boy!”

  III.

  Dr. Miller’s hand was steel and his eyes were as glass when he made the primary incision. His voice was even and low:

  “Clip, here — now the scalpel — no, no, the other one — forceps — hold here — so — that’s right!”

  He was beginning one of the most curious, difficult, and dangerous opera­tions known to surgery — that of ex­posing and wrapping with silver wire a weakened, swollen artery of vital im­portance. “Aneurysm” is a word of dread; if one bursts, or if the surgeon’s knife slips, cutting the distended walls — farewell!

  Miller’s knife did not slip; his hand, large and strong, held the keen scalpel with a fine precision of which an etcher might be jealous. His eyes did not wander higher than the patient’s throat; all sense of her personality was gulfed in that almost mechanical accuracy, that nerveless, deliberate skill which from the beginning of his career had marked him as one of the few. His face, neverthe­less, continued to be putty-gray, and the little diamonds on his forehead did not evaporate.

  Benedict seconded him like the able assistant he was; Miss Willett stood at the head of the table, ether-cone in hand; the other two passed instruments, took them from their glass trays of solu­tion, dropped them back, when used, into other solutions. Quiet brooded beneath the glare from the broad skylight — quiet except for the deep breathing of the patient, the clink of the instruments in their trays, or the cool words of the surgeon. The artery lay exposed.

  “Now the wire!” commanded Mil­ler; and Miss Schwenk, the second nurse, reached it to him with silver forceps.

  “Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!”

  Through the hospital thrilled and vi­brated a harsh electric gong, the gong that meant only one emergency — fire!

  Benedict started nervously; the nurses shifted positions a trifle. Miller knitted his broad brows, but otherwise paid no more heed to the strident alarm than if it had been a summons to dinner. He looped the first strand of silver, dexter­ously introduced the second, then said impersonally:

  “Lock the door, please, Miss Schwenk. Lock both doors!”

  The nurse hesitated. Through the reek of ether an acrid odor of smoke had filtered into the windowless room; and over the skylight there was drawing something like a bluish veil. Far down the street jangled a faint distant clangor of bells, mingled with a thin wail of fire-engine whistles.

  “Lock — the — doors!” repeated Mil­ler, and this time his eyes were on Miss Schwenk.

  She gave a nervous little giggle, quite unprofessionally feminine, and obeyed.

  “Now bring me the keys,” murmured the surgeon, bending to his work. “Lay them right here, please.”

  His glance indicated a little clear space on the operating-table. Miss Schwenk obeyed again.

  “Thank you,” said Miller cour­teously.

  The operation continued, Miller icy-cool, the others beginning to fidget a trifle. The engines were drawing near; cries, shouts, hoarse bawlings sounded outside; they heard the clang of the chief’s wagon hurtling down the street; the clattering hoofs, the thundering wheels, as the great machines whirled on. A crowd was gathering — the noise welled up as the tide wells against a cliff-shore.

  Someone rattled the handle of the operating room door, screeched “Out! Out! East wing’s goin’ fast!” and then rushed off down the corridor, where im­mense chaos reigned — whence came cries, groans, the sound of hurrying feet, screams of terror, as nurses and or­derlies rushed the patients unceremo­niously, in wheelchairs or in their arms, over into the west wing, to temporary safety.

  Then, over all that tumult from within and without, blared the hoarse whistle of the heating-plant — three long, bellowing blasts as from a brazen, tortured Minotaur — the signal of ­ex­treme-­emergency — “All out!” And at that sound the tumult waxed into a hur­ricane of rushing terror.

  “Quiet, Miss Chase!” commanded Miller. “Ten minutes, and this patient can be moved — not before! Please ster­ilize this clamp!”

  Calmly he made another loop with the silver wire. Thicker and thicker the smoke puffed in around the door which communicated with the corridor; across the skylight whirled a darkening veil. Miss Schwenk began to sob hysterically.

  “Quiet! Quiet!” repeated the sur­geon; but Benedict, pale to the lips, in­terrupted him:

  “Really, Miller, this is —”

  “Shh-h-h! Hold that hemostat!”

  “But — but — five of us — we’ll be cut off in —”

  “Remember you’re a surgeon!” was Miller’s only answer, yet it covered Benedict’s drawn face with a hot flush.

  Outside, the engines were whirring and puffing; the tumult was that of a great concourse. Inside, the operating room door was beginning to smoke; the air was thick and blue, difficult to breathe. The skylight was obscured; burning brands and cinders were whirl­ing down upon it, faster and faster. It was growing dark.

  “Miss Chase, the lights, please!” commanded Miller.

  The wires, he knew, came in from the front, and were as yet intact. As Miss Chase clicked the switch-button, a bright, warm radiance filled the white-walled room. A louder shouting rose outside. The crowd, mistaking the glow from the skylight for the glare of fire, believed the operating-pavilion itself in­vaded.

  Miller glanced up for an instant with contracted brows. “You can go now,” said he to the women. “Benedict and I can finish this alone. Get out as quick as you can, and shut the door after you, tight! Down the basement stairs and out through the laundry. Understand?”

  Two of the nurses, with scared but grateful glances, took unceremonious leave. The key grated; footsteps pat­tered out through the sterilizing-room — then came a gush of smoke as the corri­dor door opened and closed. The iron stairs into the basement faintly echoed their running steps — they were gone.

  “Well?” asked Miller, looking up and seeing Miss Willett still at the pa­tient’s head.

  “I’ll stay!” said she. “The pavilion won’t cave in for five minutes yet, I’m sure — maybe more. I won’t desert! Go on!”

  She spoke rapidly, with the fever of a gambling chance in her eyes — eyes with dilated pupils and dark, inscrutable depths, that rested upon Miller with a look which no son of Adam ever misun­derstands. Miller did not misunder­stand — he simply did not care.

  “Oh, very well, as you like,” he an­swered. “But go any time you please; nothing but the dressings to do now.”

  “In that case,” spoke up Benedict, “I’m going! You and she can finish all right — this place is afire now — it’ll cave in any minute! Look at that door — burning! I’m off!”

  He laid down the hemostat he was holding, stood up, and faced Miller de­fiantly, his face twitching, his eyes glit­tering in the electric, glare; all around him curled and eddied the thickening smoke.

  “Sit down!” said Miller. “Don’t be a coward!” His firm hands made the last loop. “Don’t let any one ever call you that. It hurts; I know! Hand me over those dressings now, and sit down!”

  Benedict, with an oath, started for the door. As he came around the end of the operating-tabl
e, Miller, holding his needle in his left hand, flung back his tunic with the right and whipped out his long-nosed revolver.

  “You sit down!” said he. “I’ve got some fire of my own, right here, and it’s quicker than what’s outside, too! Take your choice — but remember I can’t miss at such short range! There, that’s right, I knew you’d be reasonable. Hand that tray of bichloride over here — I’ve got to sterilize my fingers. That gun’s aseptic.”

  He dabbled his hand in the sublimate, carefully dried it on the sterile sheet, and started on the dressings. Benedict crouched in his chair beside the table, dazed, mechanical, obeying as a whipped dog obeys. Miss Willett, breathing hard, helped apply the collodion, the cotton, and the bandages.

  The task was nearly done — the blaz­ing corridor door was warping inward; thin little tongues of lire licked up along the panels. Outside reigned pandemo­nium as the fire spread — spread toward the west wing, unheeding the engines, which shook and sobbed and spat glow­ing cinders up into the smoky pall. The skylight, all drifted over with fire­brands, was sagging, fusing; the air in­side the operating room seemed glowing like a furnace, in the electric glare. Then something shook and gave; a roar burst up into the sky; through the fire-shot smoke flared a glorious fan of radi­ance, and the multitude shouted hoarse­ly — the east wing had fallen in like a cardboard-house, and the brick operat­ing-pavilion, with blazing roof and crack­ing walls, was standing alone in that carnival of flame.

  “Hose, here hose!” the shout rang. “Crash!” went the skylight as a stream hit it; down jingled and clattered a shower of glass, down soused a torrent of muddy water. Miller’s big arms and body shielded the woman’s face; smoke poured in, down, all about them — gray, greasy, strangling smoke.

  “That blanket! That blanket!” cried Miller in a choking gasp. “There! Now, raise the shoulders! That’s right! Now under — now over — so! . . . .”