Ralph of the Roundhouse; Or, Bound to Become a Railroad Man

by Frank V. Webster

  CHAPTER IX--AN UNEXPECTED GUEST

  Ralph soon drew the attention of his friends, and in a few minutes WillCheever and his companion had made their way into the old factory.

  Both looked startled as they entered the room, and serious and anxiousas Ralph hurriedly told of his discovery and theory.

  "It looks as if you were right, Ralph," said Will as he looked closelyat the silent form on the floor.

  "Poor fellow!" commented Will's companion. "He must have been lyinghere all alone--all through that storm, too---since yesterdayafternoon."

  "He isn't dead," announced Will, but still in an awed tone. "What areyou going to do, Ralph?"

  "We must get him out of here," answered Ralph. "If one of you couldbring the cot over from the clubhouse, we will carry him there."

  Will sped away on the mission indicated. When he returned, theyprepared to use the cot as a stretcher. The strange boy moved andmoaned slightly as they lifted him up, but did not open his eyes, andlay perfectly motionless as they carefully carried him down the stairs,across the ballfield, and into the clubhouse.

  There was a telephone there. Ralph hurriedly called up a youngphysician, very friendly with the boys, and whose services theyoccasionally required.

  He arrived in the course of the next fifteen minutes. He expressedsurprise at the wet and draggled condition of his patient, felt hispulse, examined his heart, and sat back with his brows knitted inthoughtfulness.

  "Who is he?" inquired the doctor.

  "I don't know," answered Ralph. "He is a stranger to Stanley Junction.From his clothes, I should judge he is some poor fellow from the countrydistricts, who has seen hard work," and Ralph told about the firstsensational appearance of the stranger at the depot the morning before,and the details of his accidental discovery an hour previous in the oldfactory.

  "Your theory is probably correct, Fairbanks," said the young physiciangravely. "That blow on the head is undoubtedly the cause of his presentcondition, and that baseball undoubtedly struck him down. Lyingneglected and insensible for twenty-four hours, and exposed to thestorm, has not helped things any."

  "But--is his condition dangerous?" inquired Ralph in a fluttering tone.

  "It is decidedly serious," answered the doctor. "There appears to be asuspension of nerve activity, and I would say concussion of the brain.The case puzzles me, however, for the general functions are normal."

  "Can't you do something to revive him?" inquired Will.

  "I shall try, but I fear returning sensibility will show serious damageto the brain," said the doctor.

  He opened his pocket medicine case, and selecting a little phial,prepared a few drops of its contents with water, and hypodermicallyinjected this into the patient's arm.

  In a few minutes the watchers observed a warm, healthy flush spread overthe white face and limp hands of the recumbent boy. His musclestwitched. He moved, sighed, and became inert again, but seemed nowrather in a deep, natural sleep than in a comatose condition.

  The doctor watched his patient silently, seemingly satisfied with theeffects of his ministrations.

  After a while he took up another phial, held back one eyelid of thesleeper with forefinger and thumb, and let a few drops enter the eye ofthe sleeper.

  The patient shot up one hand as if a hot cinder had struck his eyeball.He rubbed the afflicted optic, gasped, squirmed, and came half-uprighten one arm. Both eyes opened, one blinking as though smarting withpain.

  He wavered so weakly that Ralph braced an arm behind to support him.

  "Steady now!" said the doctor, touching his patient with a proddingfinger to attract his attention. "Who are you, my friend?"

  The boy stared blankly at him as he caught the sound of his voice, andthen at the three boys. He did not smile, and there was a peculiarlyvacant expression on his face.

  Then he moved his lips as if his throat was parched and stiff, and saidhuskily:

  "Hungry."

  The doctor shrugged his shoulders, puzzled and amused. Ralph himselfhalf-smiled. The demand was so distinctively human it cheered him.

  The patient kept looking around as if expecting food to be brought tohim. The young physician studied him silently. Then he projected halfa dozen quick, sharp questions. His patient did not even appear to hearhim. He looked reproachfully about him, and again spoke:

  "Fried perch would be pretty good!"

  "He must be about half-starved, poor fellow!" observed Will. "Doctor,he acts all right, only desperately hungry. Maybe a good square mealwill fix him out all right?"

  The doctor moved towards the door, and beckoned Ralph there.

  "Fairbanks," he said, "this is a serious matter--no, no, I don't meanthe fact that the baseball did the damage," he explained hurriedly, ashe saw Ralph's face grow pale and troubled. "That was an accident, andsomething you could not foresee. I mean that this poor fellow is, forthe present at least, helpless as a child."

  "Doctor," quavered Ralph, "you don't mean his mind is gone."

  "I fear it is."

  "Oh, don't say that! don't say that!" pleaded Ralph, falling against thedoor post and covering his face with his hands.

  He was genuinely distressed. All the brightness of his good luck andprospects seemed dashed out. He could not divest his mind of a certainresponsibility for the condition of the poor fellow on the cot, whoseusefulness in life had been cut short by an accidental "lost ball."

  "Don't be overcome--it isn't like you, Fairbanks," chided the doctorgently. "I know you feel badly--we all do. Let us get at the practicalend of this business without delay. We had better get the patientremoved to the hospital, first thing."

  "No!" interrupted Ralph quickly, "not that, doctor--that is, anyway notyet."

  "He needs skillful attention."

  "He's needing some hash just now!" put in Will Cheever, approaching, hisface, despite himself, on a grin. "Hear him!"

  The stranger was certainly sticking to his point. "Hash with lots ofonions in it!" they heard him call out.

  "Will it hurt him to eat, doctor?" inquired Ralph.

  "Not a bit of it. In fact, except to feed him and watch, I don't seethat he needs anything. You can't splint a brain shock as you can abroken finger, or poultice a skull depression as you would a bruise.There's simply something mental gone out of the boy's life that sciencecannot put in again. There is this hope, though: that when the physicalshock has fully passed, something may develop for the better."

  "You mean to-day, to-morrow----"

  "Oh, no--weeks, maybe months."

  Ralph looked disheartened, but the next moment his face took upon it alook of resolution always adopted when he fully made up his mind toanything.

  "Very well," he said, "he must be taken to our house."

  With the doctor Ralph was a rare favorite, and his face showed that heread and appreciated the kindly spirit that prompted the youngrailroader's action. He placed his hand in a friendly way on hisshoulder.

  "Fairbanks," he said, "you're a good kind, and do credit to yourself,but I fear you are in no shape to take such a burden on your youngshoulders."

  "It is my burden," said Ralph firmly, "whose else's? Why, doctor! if Ilet that poor fellow go to the hospital, among utter strangers, handeddown the line you don't know where--poorhouse, asylum, and pauper'sgrave maybe, it would haunt me! No, I feel I am responsible for hiscondition, and I intend to take care of him, at least until somethingbetter for him turns up. Help me, boys."

  "I'll drop in to see him again, at your house," said the doctor. "Idon't think he will make you any trouble in the way of violence, orthat, but you had better keep a constant eye on him."

  Ralph thought a good deal on the way to the cottage. He felt that hewas doing the right thing, and knew that his mother would not demur tothe arrangements he had formulated.

  Mrs. Fairbanks not only did not demur, but when she was made aware ofthe particulars, sustained Ralph in his resolution.

  "Poor fe
llow!" she said sympathetically. "The first thing he needs is awarm bath, and we might find some dry clothes for him, Ralph."

  The widow bustled about to do her share in making the unexpected guestcomfortable. Will Cheever and his companion felt in duty bound to lenda helping hand to Ralph.

  They had put the cot in the middle of the kitchen, and quiet now, butwith wide-open eyes, its occupant watched them as they hurriedly got outa tub and put some water to heat on the cook stove.

  "Swim," said the stranger, only once, and was content thereafter towatch operations silently.

  "He's got dandy muscles--built like a giant!" commented Will, as half anhour later they carried the boy into the neat, cool sitting room, andlodged him among cushions in an easy-chair.

  Meantime, Mrs. Fairbanks had not been idle. She had prepared anappetizing lunch. The stranger looked supremely happy as Ralph appearedwith a tray of viands. He ate with the zest of a growing, healthy boy,and when he had ended sank back among the cushions and fell into a calm,profound sleep.

  "Ralph Fairbanks, you're a brick!" said Will. "He don't look much likethe half-drowned, half-starved rat he was when you picked him up."

  "Knocked him down, you mean!" said Ralph, with a sigh. "Well, mother,we'll do what we can for him."

  "We will do for him just what I pray some one might do for my boy,should such misfortune ever become his lot," said the widow tremulously."He looks like a hard-working, honest boy, I only hope he may come outof his daze in time. If not, we will do our duty--what we might think aburden may be a blessing in disguise."

  "You're always 'casting bread on the waters,' Mrs. Fairbanks!" declaredWill, in his crisp, offhand way.

  To return after many days--light-headed, light-hearted Will Cheever!There are incidents in every boy's life which are the connecting linkswith all the unknown future, and for Ralph Fairbanks, although he littledreamed it, this was one of them.