"Who, Dr. Palmer? No; I haven't seen him. Is anyone hurt? Can I help?"
"I guess not. John Baxter's sick, but--oh, Lord! Here comes Wingate.
He'll talk for a week."
Seth, panting and excited, was pushing his way toward them, shouting the Captain's name at the top of his voice.
"Hey, Eri!" he hailed. "I want to know if you'll sign a petition to git the town a fire ingyne? I've been talkin' to a couple of the s'lectmen and they--"
"Oh, Mr. Wingate," interrupted Ralph, "Mr. Mullett's been looking for you. He's over there by the pump, I think."
"Who, Lem Mullett? Is that so! He's jest the feller I want to see. See you later, Eri."
The Captain grinned appreciatively as the convert to the hand-engine proposal disappeared.
"That wasn't so bad," he said. "I'm much obliged. Hey! There's the whistle. Come on, Mr. Hazeltine, if you ain't in a special hurry. Maybe we WILL need you."
They reached the corner by the post-office to find Dr. Palmer, who had practiced medicine in Orham since he received his diploma, waiting for them. Captain Perez, who had discovered the physician on the Nickerson piazza, was standing close by with his fingers in his mouth, whistling with the regularity of a foghorn.
"Cut it short, Perez!" commanded Eri. "We're here now."
"Yes, but Jerry ain't." And the whistling began again.
"Dry up, for the land's sake! D'you want to fetch the whole tribe here?
There's Jerry, now. Come on, Doctor."
John Baxter was lying just as the Captain had left him, and the others watched anxiously as the doctor listened at the parted lips, and thrust his hand inside the faded blue waistcoat.
"He's alive," he said after a moment, "but unconscious. We must get him home at once."
"He heard the bell and was runnin' to the fire when he was took," said Captain Jerry. "Run out in his shirt sleeves, and was took when he got as fur as here."
"That's the way I figger it," said Eri unblushingly. "Lift him carefully, you fellers. Now then!"
"I warned him against over-exertion or excitement months ago," said the Doctor, as they bore the senseless burden toward the big house, now as black as the grave that was so near its owner. "We must find someone to take care of him at once. I don't believe the old man has a relation within a hundred miles."
"Why don't we take him to our house?" suggested Captain Jerry.
"'Twouldn't seem so plaguey lonesome, anyhow."
"By mighty!" ejaculated Captain Eri in astonishment. "Well, Jerry, I'll be switched if you ain't right down brilliant once in a while. Of course we will. He can have the spare room. Why didn't I think of that, I wonder?"
And so John Baxter, who had not paid a visit in his native village since his wife died, came at last to his friend's home to pay what seemed likely to be a final one. They carried him up the stairs to the spare room, as dismal and cheerless as spare rooms in the country generally are, undressed him as tenderly as their rough hands would allow, robed him in one of Captain Jerry's nightshirts--the buttons that fastened it had been sewed on by the Captain himself, and were all sizes and colors--and laid him in the big corded bedstead. The Doctor hastened away to procure his medicine case. Ralph Hazeltine, having been profusely thanked for his services and promising to call the next day, went back to the station, and the three captains sat down by the bedside to watch and wait.
Captain Eri was too much perturbed to talk, but the other two, although sympathetically sorry for the sufferer, were bursting with excitement and curiosity.
"Well, if THIS ain't been a night!" exclaimed Captain Jerry. "Seem's if everything happened at once. Fust that darky and then the fire and then this. Don't it beat all?
"Eri," said Captain Perez anxiously, "was John layin' jest the same way when you found him as he was when we come?"
"Right in the same place," was the answer.
"I didn't say in the same place. I asked if he was layin' the same way."
"He hadn't moved a muscle. Laid jest as if he was dead."
It will be noticed that Captain Eri was adhering strictly to the truth. Luckily, Perez seemed to be satisfied, for he asked no further questions, but observed, "It's a good thing we've got a crowd to swear how we found him. There's a heap of folks in this town would be sayin'
he set that fire if 'twa'n't for that."
"Some of 'em will be sayin' it anyhow," remarked Jerry.
"Some folks 'll say anything but their prayers," snapped Eri savagely.
"They won't say it while I'm around. And look here! if you hear anybody sayin' it, you tell 'em it's a lie. If that don't keep 'em quiet, let me know."
"Oh, all right. WE know he didn't set it. I was jest sayin'--"
"Well, don't say it."
"My, you're techy! Guess fires and colored folks don't agree with you.
What are we goin' to do now? If John don't die, and the Lord knows I hope he won't, he's likely to be sick here a long spell. Who are we goin' to git to take care of him? That's what I want to know. Somebody's got to do it and we ain't fit. If Jerry 'd only give in and git married now--"
But Captain Jerry's protest against matrimony was as obstinate as ever.
Even Perez gave up urging after a while and conversation lagged again.
In a few minutes the Doctor came back, and his examination of the patient and demands for glasses of water, teaspoons, and the like, kept Perez and Jerry busy. It was some time before they noticed that Captain Eri had disappeared. Even then they did not pay much attention to the circumstance, but watched the physician at work and questioned him concerning the nature of their guest's illness.
"D'you think he'll die, Doctor?" inquired Jerry in a hushed voice, as they came out of the sick room into the connecting chamber.
"Can't say. He has had a stroke of paralysis, and there seem to be other complications. If he regains consciousness I shall think he has a chance, but not a very good one. His pulse is a little stronger. I don't think he'll die to-night, but if he lives he will need a good nurse, and I don't know of one in town."
"Nor me neither," said Captain Perez.
"Well, A'nt Zuby might come," suggested Jerry, "but I should hate to have her nuss me, and as for bein' WELL in a house where she was--whew!"
"A'nt Zuby!" sneered his messmate. "If Lorenzo had a fit and they called A'nt Zuby he'd have another one and die. A'nt Zuby! I'd 'bout as soon have M'lissy and be done with it."
"Yes, I don't doubt YOU WOULD," was the anything but gentle retort.
What Perez would have said to this thrust must be surmised, for just then the dining-room door opened and closed again.
"There's Eri," said Captain Jerry. Then he added in an alarmed whisper, "Who on airth has he got with him?"
They heard their friend's voice warning someone to be careful of the top step, and then the chamber door opened and Captain Eri appeared. There were beads of perspiration on his forehead, and he was carrying a shabby canvas extension-case. Captain Jerry gazed at the extension-case with bulging eyes.
Captain Eri put down the extension-case and opened the door wide. A woman came in; a stout woman dressed in black "alpaca" and wearing brass-rimmed spectacles. Captain Jerry gasped audibly.
"Dr. Palmer," said Captain Eri, "let me make you acquainted with Mrs.
Snow of Nantucket. Mrs. Snow, this is Dr. Palmer."
The Doctor and the lady from Nantucket shook hands, the former with a puzzled expression on his face.