The doctor swung the table in place, and with George's help laid
Peter on it, then began tearing open his clothes. As they worked
the two men followed into the house to see if they could do
anything and excited neighbours began to gather. George and his
mother explained how Peter had exhausted himself walking two miles
from the country that hot morning, how he had entered the office,
tottering with fatigue, and had fallen in the chair in a fainting
condition. Everything was plausible until a neighbour woman,
eager to be the centre of attention for a second, cried: "Yes, we
all see him come more'n an hour ago; and when he begin to let out
the yells we says to each other, 'THERE! George has got his first
patient, sure!' An' we all kind of waited to see if he'd come out
better."
The doctor looked at her sharply: "More than an hour ago?" he
said. "You heard cries?"
"Yes, more'n a good hour ago. Yes, we all heard him yell, jist
once, good and loud!" she said.
The doctor turned to George. Before he could speak his mother
intervened.
"That was our Kate done the yellin'," she said. "She was scart
crazy from the start. He jest come in, and set in the chair and
he's been there ever since."
"You didn't give him any treatment, Holt?" asked the doctor.
Again Mrs. Holt answered: "Never touched him! Hadn't even got
time to get his table open. Wa'n't nothing he could 'a' done for
him anyway. Peter was good as gone when he got here. His fool
folks never ought 'a' let him out this hot day, sick as he was."
The doctor looked at George, at his mother, long at Peter. "He
surely was too sick to walk that far in this heat," he said. "But
to make sure, I'll look him over. George, you help me. Clear the
room of all but these two men."
HE began minutely examining Peter's heart region. Then he rolled
him over and started to compress his lungs. Long white streaks
marked the puffy red of the swollen, dropsical flesh. The doctor
examined the length of the body, and looked straight into George
Holt's eyes.
"No use," he said. "Bill, go to the 'phone in my office, and tell
Coroner Smith to get here from Hartley as soon as he can. All
that's left to do here is to obey the law, and have a funeral.
Better some of the rest of you go tell his folks. I've done all I
can do. It's up to the Coroner now. The rest of you go home, and
keep still till he comes."
When he and George were left alone he said tersely: "Of course
you and your mother are lying. You had this man stripped, he did
cry out, and he did die from the pain of the treatment you tried
to give him, in his condition. By the way, where's your wife?
This is a bad thing for her right now. Come, let's find her and
see what state she is in."