There was no answer, and Ben looked
about for help. Across the street there was a light in the kitchen of a
house. He hurried there. A tall, slim girl of perhaps nineteen or twenty
answered his knock.
"Ma'am," said Ben doffing his cap
and putting on his most responsible air, "my mate is lying out here bad
hurt. He got hit on the head and I am fearful for him. Could we, if you
please, bring him inside, and I will see to a doctor?"
"Of course you can. I will call my
grandfather and my brother. We will have to carry him on something.
Perhaps an overcoat will do."
Surprised by this cool competence,
Ben went back to his charge. The four carried him in on a greatcoat. They
put him on a couch, and a swift examination took place. The girl brought a
basin of water and towels and commenced gently to clean the wound, but she
said at once, "I think we'd best get a doctor."
"Peter," this to her brother, "run
over to Dr. Craig's house as fast as you can and ask him to come. Tell him
it looks like a skull fracture. I pray he's not away somewhere."
Dr. Craig's examination was
unhurried. He did not seem surprised at what he found.
"I'm afraid, Mr. Ellis," he said to
the grandfather, "that we'll have to operate here with your permission. I
hesitate to move him in this condition. I have what is needful with me."
"By all means," said the elderly
man. "Just tell us what to do."
"For one thing move this table under
the hanging lamp. Then, Janet," this to the girl, "we need sheets and
towels and hot water."
Jim was placed on the table,
breathing heavily.
"Janet, either you or Mr. McAdam
must give the anaesthetic. Do you think you can do it?"
"I can do as you tell me, Doctor."
"Mr. McAdam, can you take a pulse?"
"Yes, Doctor, and call me Ben."
"Then take his pulse now, Ben, and
become familiar with it. It may become faster later. Peter, set that lamp
on the sideboard and get me a lantern. I don't trust lamps in anyone's
hands in these situations," he said as Peter went for the lantern..
"Lanterns don't have as many accidents."
So by the light of the lamps and a
lantern there commenced one of the oldest operations known to man,
trepanning, the removal or straightening of a piece of bone pressing on
the brain. Ten thousand years ago men performed this operation using only
crude instruments. Dr. Craig was no stranger to it; he had done the same
thing at least half a dozen times. In a population in which about half was
occupied in bush work, the number of accidents from falling limbs and
trees toppling the wrong way was appalling. He worked slowly and coolly,
and his assistants took courage from his unhurried manner. He finished,
apparently satisfied.
"I see no reason why he should not
recover.
They removed Jim to a bed already
warmed by hot bricks and water bottles.
"I will lie on the couch," said Dr.
Craig. "Wake me, of course, if there is anything unusual. In any case wake
me in two hours without fail."
Dr. Craig went promptly to sleep. In
his life sleep was a precious commodity. When morning came the doctor was
called to another patient. He left instructions for Ben and Janet. "He'll
come to soon and he'll be pretty sick. Keep him as quiet as you can, but
don't be too alarmed if he makes a fuss. We do what we can, but we don't
work miracles."
Jim forced himself awake at last. He
had been in a strange, misty place with some sailors and Ben McAdam. He
saw the girl beside the bed.
"I don't know you."
"Well, I know quite a lot about you.
Wherever did you learn to swear like that?"
"I'm sorry, miss. I don't seem to
know what's going on."
"You got a bang on the head and we
brought you in here and Dr. Craig patched your thick skull."
"Oh Yes." Jim paused, considering.
His thoughts required arranging. "That would be the axe handle. Where's
Ben?"
"Asleep over there in the rocking
chair."
"Tell him to get the team, I'm ready
to go now."
"No, you're not ready to go, and
won't be for a week or so. Lie quiet now. The doctor said you must be
quiet."
"I can't, I'm going to puke."
"Hold tight, I'll get a basin ...
now then."
There followed half an hour in which
Jim alternately got relief and then wished he could die. Presently it was
over. He lay back exhausted. Ben McAdam slept, snoring with his mouth
open.
"Now, Mr. Jim `Bad Words' McGregor,
I'll get some warm water and some soap and clean you up. You smell just
like Dennis Riley's tavern, worse if anything, and a bit of soap in your
mouth wouldn't hurt either."
The brave words were mostly to cover
her own anxiety. The man certainly hadn't been quiet, and Dr. Craig was
out of reach. But Jim was worn out; he slept for hours, and it looked like
a normal sleep. The worried girl was ready to collapse herself. After an
hour of near misses Ben swallowed his tongue. He woke, contemplating the
ceiling, with a series of gurgles, then came fully awake.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, I dozed off there
for a minute. How is he now?"
"He's well enough, but don't light a
match. He got rid of a lot of bad whiskey. Where do you take your men for
entertainment, Mr. McAdam?"
"Ah, the lads do have to get tanked
up now and then, miss, but they mean no harm. I try to persuade them away
from the stuff, and they say I'm just a fussy old hen. But we are beholden
to you and to your grandfather, Miss Ellis. For what can be paid in money
Andrew Murdoch will attend to. For your kindness and goodness we can only
say thank you."
"Say no more about it, Mr. McAdam,
or Ben, if I may call you so, and excuse my sharp words. I seem to be
tired. We must have some help. Has he a sister, or perhaps his mother
could come and stay?"
"I will round up the boys
right now, miss. They will be wandering about like lost sheep. One of them
will take a message to his mother. I will come then, if I may, and mind
him while you get some rest."
The mother came; even behind Andrew
Murdoch's fast horse and seated in his newest buggy with the good springs,
it was a weary journey. The frail woman alighted almost in need of as much
care as Jim. She rallied when she saw Janet's anxious look and
straightened to the erect carriage in which she had been trained as a
girl. After all, she was a MacNeill.
"My dear Miss Ellis, I thank you for
the care of my boy and I thank God that he has been spared. If I may just
rest a little, now; my strength seems to have left me."
They settled into a routine in which
Jim was watched carefully for the first few days. He was not an easy
patient. Never in his life had he been confined, and he refused to admit
the need of it now. The two women, alike enough to have been mother and
daughter, worked as a team. They praised, coaxed, scolded, and badgered
Jim into a sulky submission. They managed to keep him in bed for a week.
His mother left then for home.
"I'd best go, Janet, else I'll not
have strength left to travel. And I thank you from my heart for all you
have done. "You will have to let him up in spite of what Dr. Craig says; I
think myself he's well enough."
The two stood face to face, and the
heart of each was open to the other as they looked into each other's eyes.
"He's a good boy, Janet,
and kind, though rough. This wild country makes them rough. But he's like
all the rest, my dear, he'll be off into the bush somewhere carving out a
farm for himself and it's hard for the women that follow these men. Think
well about it, child, and make no mistake."
She was gone as Janet stood
red-faced, her cool poise upset. Why, it was ridiculous, a rough workman,
of course he meant nothing to her. It was just that she was always
mothering something that was hurt, a bird or a pet, and now this hulking
big Highlander.
"You might as well go now, Jim, you
do yourself no good stewing and fretting like this. Why are you so ready
to go back to that gang of roughnecks? Is Miss Ellis not treating you
well? For myself I would be glad of a week's rest in her care."
"I think he doesn't like my cooking,
Dr. Craig. His oatmeal isn't just the way he likes it."
"Now, Janet - Miss Ellis, I should
say - you know that isn't so. It's just that I am well now and must not
trouble you more. You have been so kind, and me a rough sort of man that
knows but little of gentle ways. And you did things for me when I was very
sick that I blush to think of, and all in a way that I must respect. You
are very like my mother. I thought there was no woman like her. Now I know
better."
Janet was taken aback by this
lengthy speech and somewhat surprised by its courtesy. She said nothing.
"I would like to call here, Janet,
when I am fully recovered, to see you and your grandfather, and I hope you
will allow me to bring a small gift. I haven't the words to tell you how
much it has meant to me to be in this house and to know you."
Still shocked by this flow of Celtic
eloquence the girl hardly knew what to say.
"I will be going to Toronto soon,
Mr. James McGregor," she said, at last, imitating his formality, "but at
Christmas time I will be back with Peter and Grandfather. We would all be
glad to see you at that time."
They parted on the porch with a
formal handshake and the girl re-entered the house slowly, somewhat shaken
and vaguely disappointed. She shook herself angrily.
"What could I expect? The man
wouldn't kiss me out on the front porch in front of everyone. I could have
managed it better."
Back with the gang, Jim was
surprised to find that he was of little use. He got dizzy even going up a
ladder. His head ached and his hands were shaky. To protect the wound he
wore a hard hat of Andrew Murdoch's, of the kind called a Christy Stiff.
The gang paid him exaggerated respect, referring to him as Mr. Murdoch.
The joke wore thin after a time. Ben let him help with measurements and
some mallet-and-chisel work. Most humiliating of all, he was water boy.
"Mr. Murdoch, if you please, some water
over here."
He gave up and went home to help Angus
on the farm.