CHAPTER XVIII
"Father, We Want You!"
Rupert was so much better when he woke from his long sleep that thedoctor told Nealie she might be quite easy to leave him to the care ofSylvia on the following day and go in search of her father if shewished.
"You will be able to look after him too, will you not?" asked Nealiewistfully, for in her heart she rather doubted Sylvia's nursing skill.
"No, I am coming with you," he answered, looking at her with a smile.
Nealie flushed hotly and burst into vigorous protest. "Please, please donot take so much trouble for me; and besides, think of your patients,and what you may lose by being away."
He shrugged his shoulders and laughed. "Doctors have very hard times inthe back blocks, Miss Plumstead. Those who are really ill cannot as arule afford to pay for medical skill, and everyone is too busy to havetime for imaginary complaints. I have no patients at the moment that Icannot leave, except the man who lives out in the direction of PigHill, and I thought that I would ride over there this afternoon, andthen we would start at dawn to-morrow morning. You don't ride, do you?"
"Not much, and I am sure that I could not sit on Rockefeller, because heis so clumsy," said Nealie.
"Then I will borrow Jim Brown's two-wheeled cart; but I think that weshall have to take your horse, because mine is rather worn. The trackout to Pig Hill is a heavy one, and I have been there every day oflate," said the doctor, and then he hurried away to see his patients inthe town, while Nealie did her best to arrange for leaving the othersfor a few days.
There was one thing which Nealie had to do that she could not speak ofto the doctor, who had been so truly good to them. Her money wasexhausted save for a few shillings, and, being face to face withdestitution, and not sure of finding her father even when she reachedMostyn, she must have money from somewhere.
In her extremity she thought of Mr. Runciman, and although it would takemost of her remaining shillings to cable to him, she had determined todo it.
When Dr. Plumstead had started for Pig Hill she found her way to thetelegraph office and dispatched her pitiful request.
"Please send us some money, we have not found Father here.
"Cornelia Plumstead."
But cables are expensive things, and when she came to send it she foundthat she would not have enough money for the whole, and had to shortenit, so that when it actually went it was more a demand than a plea:
"Send us money; Father not here."
"And if he does not send it, whatever shall we do?" cried Sylvia, whohad to be told, if only for the sake of sobering her and making her morekeenly alive to the responsibilities of the situation.
"He will send it, I am quite sure," replied Nealie, with a beautifulfaith in Mr. Runciman's real goodness of heart that was justified in duecourse by the arrival of a cablegram authorizing her to draw fiftypounds from the Hammerville bank as she needed it.
But she had to start off in the grey dawn of the next morning, incompany with the usurping Dr. Plumstead--as Sylvia would persist incalling him--without knowing that her need was to be met in thisgenerous manner. It was perhaps the very darkest hour in her life, andher face was drawn and pinched with the weight of her care as she liftedit to the cold grey of the sky when she mounted into the hightwo-wheeled cart which the doctor had borrowed for the journey. But evenas she looked, all the grey was flushed with rose colour from the risingsun, and the sight brought back her courage with a rush, so that she wasable to turn and smile at the little group gathered at the door of thedoctor's house to see her drive away.
"Mind you take good care of Rupert, Sylvia," she called, feeling thather next sister was really not old enough for such a heavyresponsibility; only, as there was no one else to take it, of courseSylvia would have to do her best.
"I will see that she looks after him properly," said Rumple, with a wagof his head, at which the doctor laughed; for when sleep seized uponRumple he was of little use in looking after other people.
Don and Billykins flung up their caps and shouted hurrah as Rockefellermoved off, and Ducky joined in with her shrill treble, so that Nealiefelt they were doing their very best to keep her spirits up at themoment of parting, and she could not let them think their efforts werewasted in the least; therefore she waved her hand and tried to appear asfree from care as the rest of them.
After the heavy wagon, Rockefeller made short work of the light-weightcart, and went along at such a tremendous pace that Nealie wouldcertainly have been afraid if anyone but Dr. Plumstead had been driving.His treatment of Rupert, however, had inspired her with such confidencein him that she sat smiling and untroubled while the big, clumsy,vanhorse cut capers in the road, and then danced on all-fours because asmall boy rushed out of one of the little wooden houses on the otherside of the town and blew a blast on a bugle right under the horse'snose.
"It really looks as if the creature had not had enough work for the lastthree or four weeks," said the doctor, with a laugh, as he proceeded toget pace out of Rocky in preference to pranks.
"It is a very good horse and has done us good service," said Nealie, ina rather breathless fashion, as a sudden swerve on the part of Rockysent her flying against the doctor, and then, as she settled back intoher own corner and clutched at the side of the cart to keep from beingtossed out, she went on in an anxious tone: "I wonder what Mr. Walliswill say to our keeping Rocky to go this journey instead of at oncehanding him over to the nearest agent of the firm?"
"If he is the wise and just man that I take him to be he will say thatyou have done quite right," replied the doctor. "You have not reachedyour father yet, and you must have the horse for this extra journey,don't you see?"
Nealie shook her head as if in doubt about this sort of reasoning, andthen she sat silent for so long that the doctor might have believed herto be asleep, if he had not seen that her gaze was fixed on thelandscape.
The district outside Hammerville on the Mostyn track was at first mainlycomposed of rich pasture, mostly settled by dairy farmers, althoughfarther away on the higher ground it was sheep farming that was most inevidence.
Twenty miles out of Hammerville the road had dwindled to a grassy track,and as they were now on the northern side of the Murrumbidgee River thecountry grew very wild and mountainous, the track cut through forestswhich the doctor told Nealie had only been half-explored, and thehilltops were so solitary that it did not seem as if there were anypeople in the world at all.
But it was a well-watered country, and on every side there were brawlinglittle streams rushing down precipitous heights or scurrying awaythrough woody valleys, as if anxious to find the very nearest way to thesea.
By the time the hottest part of the day had arrived Rockefeller had donehalf the journey to Mostyn, and driving up to a lone house the doctorwas so fortunate as to find a woman living there, to whose care heconfided Nealie for a few hours' rest and refreshment while he took asiesta lying on the ground under the cart, which had been drawn closeunder the shade of the willows fringing the river at this part.
It was sundown before they reached Mostyn, and then it was only to bemet with disappointment, for the doctor had been sent for to cope withan outbreak of smallpox at Latimer.
"That settles it!" exclaimed the doctor. "I shall drive you back toHammerville to-morrow morning, for certainly I cannot take you to adisease-stricken town, and equally I cannot leave you here."
"I shall not go back until I have found Father," said Nealie, smiling upat him in a way that somehow robbed her words of their mutinous flavour."And there is no need to worry about the danger of taking me to asmallpox place, because I had the complaint when I was a little girl,before I was old enough to remember, so there is no danger for me."
The doctor was very hard to convince on this score, and was eveninclined to throw doubt on her statement, and to declare that she mustbe mistaken, as it was so extremely unlikely that a child in herposition would contract the disease.
"I must go until I find my father, and if you will not take me I must goalone," she said, when he left off arguing because he had no more tosay; but her gaze was very wistful, for Mostyn was so much rougher thanHammerville that her heart sank very low as she thought of how roughLatimer might be.
"If you must go I must certainly go too, for I cannot let you out of mycare in places like this," he said in a tone as decided as her own.
For that one night she was lodged with a good woman who cleaned thechurch and school, and who kept her awake for half the night telling hergruesome stories of happenings in disease-stricken towns, such asLatimer was at that moment supposed to be. But if she thought tofrighten Nealie into consenting to go back to Hammerville withoutfinding her father she made a very great mistake indeed.
Bad as had been the journey of the doctor and his escort when he rodefrom Mostyn to Latimer through the fierce heat, the experiences of youngDr. Plumstead and Nealie were still worse. Rockefeller had lost thefine vigour displayed on the first part of the journey, and went at aslow trot, hanging his head and stumbling so often that Dr. Plumsteadwas forced into a pretty liberal use of the whip to keep the creature onhis feet at all.
There was a strong wind blowing to-day, but luckily it came from behind,and so Nealie opened a big umbrella, which kept off some of the dust andalso acted as a sail and helped them along. Sun, wind, and dust seemedto bring on a sort of fever in Nealie; her hands burned like coals offire, she had a lightheaded sensation, and saw so many visions duringthe last miles of that trying journey that she could never afterdetermine which was real and which was fancy of all the incidents andhappenings of that long, weary day.
"Hullo, look at that smoke yonder; is it a bush fire, I wonder, or is itpossible they have been having a big blaze at Latimer?" said the doctor,pointing with his whip to the crest of a long hill up which the trackwound its dusty way.
"Are we near to Latimer?" asked Nealie in a languid tone.
"I think we ought to be by this time, unless we have come wrong. Butwhat a hill! I fancy Rockefeller expects me to walk up here," said thedoctor, who was secretly very anxious concerning that smoke which washanging in a cloud about the crest of the hill.
"Shall I walk too?" she asked, wondering whether the act of walkingwould tend to steady her wavering fancies, and to stop that horribletendency to light-headedness which bothered her so badly.
"I think not; you must be quite tired enough without adding to yourfatigue by scrambling along this dusty track. Hullo!"
Nealie saw a sudden swerve on the part of Rocky, then the doctor's canecame cutting through the air, and there was a great wriggling andcommotion on the dusty ground; but the doctor was so busy soothing thehorse that he did not even answer when she called out to know what wasthe matter.
"Was it a snake?" she asked, as the cart was dragged forward at a jerk,and Rocky, prancing along on two legs, snorting and plunging, took allthe doctor's skill to keep him from bolting in sheer fright.
"Yes; and I am very glad that you were not walking, for they are notpleasant creatures to meet," replied the doctor, thinking how fortunateit was that he happened to be on foot at the moment, and with a stick inhis hand, for the snake was of a very deadly kind, and the horse wouldhave stood no chance at all against the poison of its forked tongue.
Nealie shivered and sat suddenly straight up; it seemed as if thelittle shock had restored her in some strange way. The fiercest heat ofthe sun was past, and the raging of that terrible wind had dropped to agentle breeze which blew cool and refreshing from another quarter.Indeed she would have felt quite cheerful had it not been for the menaceof that smoke haze lying in a cloud along the line of the hills.
Another half-hour and they were crossing the top of the ridge, whileLatimer, most snugly placed, lay on the slope of the other side. But atfirst sight of the town both Nealie and the doctor had burst intoexclamations of horror, for it looked as if it had been burned out. Acloud of smoke from the ruined houses hung thickly over the place, andRockefeller, with a horse's objection to facing fire, turned about onthe track and showed so much disposition to go back by the way he hadcome that the doctor had to get down again and lead the scared creature.
Presently they saw a man just ahead of them, the first human being theyhad glimpsed for hours, and calling to him the doctor asked what hadhappened.
"It has been a fire," said the man, which, considering the smoke risingin all directions from the ruins, was rather an unnecessary explanation.
"So I see; but what started it?" asked the doctor.
"No one will admit knowing much about that," replied the man grimly,"but we have our thoughts all the same. We have got smallpox in thetown, you know, and one case was lodged in Jowett's hotel. The doctorthat we fetched from Mostyn said pretty decidedly that the one atJowett's was certainly not smallpox whatever the other two might be, butsome people won't be convinced, try how you will. So when the doctor'sback was turned it is supposed that someone, either by accident ordesign, set the place on fire where the sick man was lying. In a droughtsuch as we are having now you may guess how the place burned. The doctorhappened to catch sight of it starting; but though he ran at the top ofhis speed, all that he could do was to get there in time to see theplace one mass of fire, and he might easily have been forgiven if he hadturned his back on it then. He is made of brave stuff, though, and theysaid he dashed straight into that blazing place, and, with the flamesand smoke all around him, he brought his patient out in the nick oftime, for the whole show collapsed just as he got to the doorway, thesheets of red-hot corrugated roofing fell down upon him, and he was sobadly burned that someone will have to go and find a doctor to cure upthe one we've got, for I'm thinking that Latimer won't let a hero ofthat sort die without making an attempt to save him."
"I am a doctor; I can look after him. Just lead on, and show me where heis, will you, please?" said young Dr. Plumstead brusquely. He wouldhave spared Nealie the ugly story if he could, but on the whole it wasgood for her to hear that her father had played the part of a hero. Ifhe had only known it, the hearing was good for him too, for he had beenvery ready to despise the man who had given up his practice inHammerville and rushed away because he had not the moral courage to livedown a scandal. He had despised Nealie's father, too, because of histreatment of his children, and altogether had decided that the poor manwas very much of a detrimental, so that this story of heroism had amighty effect on him as he walked by the side of the loquacious personwho had first given them the news; while Nealie sat perched up in thecart behind, straining her ears to catch what they were saying, andfeeling so thankful that she had insisted on coming all the way that shecould have shouted with joyfulness in spite of her anxiety.
The man told Dr. Plumstead that the fire had spread from building tobuilding with such awful rapidity that it had been as much as anyonecould do to get the people out of their houses, so many of them havinggone to bed when the outbreak started.
"What about the smallpox patients?" asked the doctor.
"We have looked everywhere, but can't find a trace of them, and weshould have thought that they had lost their lives in the fire, only thebuilding where they lay was not touched, and they had not merelydisappeared, but they had taken their clothes with them, and as muchelse as they could lay hands on," replied the man, and the doctor was sotickled that he burst out laughing at the story.
"It does not look as if the outbreak of smallpox could have been veryserious," he remarked.
"Just what everyone is saying, and the boys are downright mad with oldMother Twiney because the old woman could not tell whether it was reallysmallpox or not; but, as I said, you could not expect an ignorant womanto know a disease of that sort, and we had bett
er have a scare thatended in smoke than let the real thing gain ground without our takingany steps to stamp it out," said the man, and then he turned off shortbetween two heaps of smoking ruins, and the doctor led Rocky, snuffingand snorting, past the smouldering fire to the cool shadow of the forestbeyond.
"The doctor and his patient are in that hut yonder. It is where thesmallpox patients were lying; but there was no other place, and so wehad to put them there," said the man; and the doctor, turning round,said to Nealie:
"You had better get down now and wait here by the horse while I go andhave a look at your father. Oh yes, I will come back for you in a fewminutes, and then I shall be able to arrange with this good man aboutsomewhere to shelter you for the night. I dare say the accommodationwill not be very grand, seeing the condition of things here."
"I don't mind about accommodation, but I do want to go to my father,"said Nealie, her voice breaking in a sob as she scrambled down from thecart, ignoring the hand her companion stretched out to help her, andthen she stood beside Rocky leaning her head against his side, while herheart beat so furiously that it seemed to her the man who told them thenews, and was still lingering near, must hear it thumping away againsther side.
Would Dr. Plumstead never come? How could he be so cruel as to keep herwaiting so long?
"Ah, what news have you for me?" she asked, as the doctor emerged fromthe hut with a quick step and a very grave face indeed.
"Nothing very good, I fear," he said quietly, and then turned to the manand asked him to see that the horse was fed and cared for without delay.
"Tell me, please, is Father very bad? I can bear anything better thansuspense," she said, keeping her voice steady by a great effort.
"I think you can, and you have already proved yourself a girl ofmettle; but you will want all your courage now, for I fear that you havefound your father only to bid him goodbye," replied the doctor; and thenhe caught her by the arm and held her fast while the first dizziness ofthe shock was upon her.
"I am all right now," she said, moving forward in the direction of thedoor, and he walked beside her, still holding her arm, as if he doubtedher strength to stand alone.
There was an old woman, very snuffy and dirty to look at, but with aface of genuine kindness, who came forward to meet her, and, leading herpast the first bed, where a man was lying who had a much-bandaged head,she took her to another bed in the far corner, whispering: "That is yourpa, Miss dear, and you had better speak to him quick, for we think thathe is going fast, poor brave gentleman!"
Going fast, and she had only just found him!
Nealie gave a frightened gasp, and crept closer, falling on her knees bythe bed, and trembling so that she could hardly clasp the fingers of theuninjured hand which lay outside the thin coverlet.
"Father, dear Father, I am Nealie, your own daughter, and I have comeall the way from England to find you, and to help make home again! Oh,you cannot go away and leave me now!" she wailed in passionate protestagainst his dying.
"Hush, Missy dear, it may scare him if you speak so loud!" said the oldwoman in a warning tone, for Nealie's voice had unconsciously risenalmost to a scream.
The heavy eyelids opened, and the eyes looked straight into Nealie'sface with blank amazement in their gaze.
"Who are you?" he asked, his voice so faint that it was hardly more thana whisper.
"I am your child, dear Father; I am Nealie! We have come to Hammervilleto live with you. You should have had a letter weeks ago to warn youthat we were all coming, only it was forgotten to be posted," she said,being determined to take half the blame of that omission on her ownshoulders, for surely it was as much her fault as Rumple's, seeing thatshe had never thought to remind him of the letter or to ask if it hadbeen safely posted.
"All seven of you?" he asked, and now there was a shocked expression inhis face which cut Nealie to the heart; only, for once, she was quitemistaken as to its cause, and the shocked look did not mean that he wasangry with them for coming, but was solely because of what their plightwould be if he slipped out of life just then.
"Yes, we are all here," she admitted, feeling more guilty than in allher life before; and then, almost against her will, her voice roseagain in a passionate plea to him to get better. "Dear Father, do tryand get better, for we all want you so badly!"
"I will try. All seven of you! I can't go and leave you yet!" heexclaimed, with so much more strength in his tone that Nealie was amazedat the change.
At that moment young Dr. Plumstead, who had come close to the bed,touched her on the shoulder, saying quietly: "Go and sit on that benchjust outside the door until I call you in again. You have done him goodalready, and perhaps now we may pull him through, if God wills; but Mrs.Twiney is going to help me dress his wounds properly now, and thenperhaps he will be more comfortable."
And Nealie went obediently to sit on the bench outside the door, wherethe air was heavy with the tarry smell of burning pine and the strongeucalyptus odours; then, clasping her hands, she prayed fervently thather father might be restored to health, so that they might let him knowhow much they loved him.
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