XXVII
The Camp was much concerned to hear of poor Mr. Jonstone's accident. Around stone, he said, had rolled suddenly under his foot andprecipitated him down a steep pitch of path. He had put out his hands tosave his face and, it seemed, broken a bone in one of them. And at that,the attempted rescue of his face had not been an overwhelming success.
It was not until the doctor had come and gone that Mr. Jonstone told hiscousin what had really happened. Colonel Meredith was much excited andintrigued by the narrative.
"And you've no idea who she was?" he asked.
"No, Mel; I've thought that the voice was familiar. I've thought that itwasn't. It was a very well-bred Northern voice--but agitated probablyout of its natural intonations. Voices are queer things. A man might notrecognize his own mother's voice at a time when he was not expecting tohear it."
"Voices," said Colonel Meredith, "are beautiful things. This wasn't amotherly sort of voice, was it?"
"But it might be," said Mr. Jonstone gently. "I wonder if they'veanything in this place to make a fellow sleep. Bromide isn't much goodwhen you've a sure-enough sharp pain."
"You feel mighty uncomfortable, don't you, Bob?"
The invalid nodded. He was pale as a sheet, and he could not keep still.He had received considerable physical punishment and his entire nervoussystem was quivering and jumping.
"I'll see if anybody's got anything," said Colonel Meredith, and he wentstraight to the office, where he found Maud Darling and Eve.
"My cousin is feeling like the deuce," he said. "He won't sleep allnight if we don't give him something to make him. Do you know of any onethat's got anything of that sort--morphine, for instance?"
"The best thing will be to take the _Streak_ and get some from thedoctor," said Maud. "Let's all go."
"I think I won't," said Eve, looking wonderfully cool and serene. "ButI'll walk down to the float and see you off. What a pity for a man toget laid up by an accident that might have been avoided by a littleattention!"
Colonel Meredith stiffened.
"I am sorry to contradict a lady," he said, "but my cousin has given methe particulars of his accident, and it was of a nature that couldhardly have been avoided by a man. I think, Miss Maud, if you will ordera launch, I had better tell my cousin where I am going, in case heshould feel that he was being neglected."
"Don't bother to do that," said Eve. "I'll get word to him."
"Oh, thank you so much, will you?"
"He's lying down, I suppose."
"Yes; he has retired for the night."
"I'll send one of the men," said Eve, "or Sam Langham."
So they went one way and Eve went the other, walking very quickly andsmiling in the night.
"Mr. Jonstone--oh, Mr. Jonstone! Can you hear me?"
With a sort of shudder of wonder Mr. Jonstone sat up in his bed.
"Yes," he said, "I do hear you--unless I am dreaming."
"You're not dreaming. You are in great pain, owing to an accident whichcould hardly have been avoided by a man, and can't sleep."
"I am in no pain now."
"Colonel Meredith has gone to Carrytown for something to make yousleep, so you aren't to fret and feel neglected if he doesn't come backto you at once."
"Just the same it's a horrible feeling--to be all alone."
"But if some one--any one were to stay within call----?"
"If _you_ were to stay within call it would make all the difference inthe world."
"You don't know who I am, do you?"
"I don't know what you look like, and I don't know your name. But I knowwho you are. And once upon a time--long years ago--you promised, youhalf promised, to tell me the other things."
"My name is a very, very old name, and I look like a lot of otherpeople. But you say you know who I am. Who am I?"
Mr. Bob Jonstone laughed softly.
"It's enough," said he, "that I know. But are you comfortable out there?You're on the porch, aren't you?"
"No; I'm standing on the ground and resting my lazy forehead against theporch railing."
"I'd feel easier if you came on the porch and made yourself comfortablein a chair, just outside my window. And we could talk easier."
"But you're not supposed to talk."
"Listening would be good for me."
There was a sound of light steps and of a chair being dragged.
"I wish you wouldn't sit just round the corner," said Mr. Jonstonepresently. "If you sat before the window, sideways, I could see yourprofile against the sky."
"I'm doing very well where I am, thank you."
"But, please, why shouldn't I see you? Why are you so embarrassed atme?"
"Wouldn't you be embarrassed if you were a girl and had been through theadventure I went through? Wouldn't you be a little embarrassed to seethe man who helped you, and look him in the face?"
"Don't you ever want me to see you? Because, if you don't, I will goaway from this place in the morning and never come back."
"Somehow, that doesn't appeal to me very much either."
"I am glad," said Mr. Jonstone quietly.
"How does your hand feel?"
"Which hand?"
"The one you hurt."
"It feels very happy, and the other hand feels very jealous of it."
"Seriously--are you having a pretty bad time?"
"I am having the time of my life--seriously--the time that lucky menalways have once in their lives."
"Are you very impatient for the morphine?"
"I shall not take it when it comes. It is far better knowing what oneknows, remembering what one remembers, and looking forward to what apresumptuous fool cannot help but look forward to--it is far better tokeep awake; to lie peacefully in the dark, knowing, remembering, andlooking forward."
"And just what are you looking forward to?"
"To a long life and a happy one; to the sounds of a voice; to a suddencoming to life of the whole 'Oxford Book of Verse'; to seeing a face."
There was a long silence.
"Are you there?"
"Yes; but you mustn't talk."
"I think you are tired. Please don't stay any more if you are tired."
"I'm not tired."
"Then perhaps you are bored."
"I'm not bored."
"Then what are you?"
"You keep quiet."
When, at last, Colonel Meredith came, important with morphine and thedoctor's instructions, he found his cousin Mr. Bob Jonstone sleepingvery quietly and peacefully, a much dog-eared copy of the "Oxford Bookof Verse" clasped to his breast.
Unfortunately the colonel, after putting out the light again, bumpedinto a table, and Mr. Jonstone waked.
"That you, Mel?"
"Yes, Bob; sorry I waked you. Did Miss Darling send word explaining thatI should be quite a while coming back?"
"Which Miss Darling?"
"Which? Why, Miss Eve."
"Yes, she sent word."
"And how have you been?"
"I took a turn for the better shortly after you left. A little while agoI lighted a candle, and read a little and got sleepy. And now I thinkI'll go to sleep again."
"You don't need the morphine?"
"No, Mel. Thank you. Good-night."
"Good-night."
"Mel?"
"What is it?"
"Isn't Eve about the oldest name you know?"
"Oldest, I guess, except Adam and Lilith. You go to sleep."
And Colonel Meredith tiptoed out of the room, murmuring: "Seems to be alittle shaky in his upper stories."
The Seven Darlings Page 27
