Part 26 (1/2)
I guess there was nothing Doc couldn't do if he tried, though why accordion wasthat kept hi polkas out of the hurdy-gurdy, but a real good idea of i on the handcart What if he didn'ta comb across his mouth, and a bass drum for him to kick with one foot and a tambourine to frisk with the other My, when he started off with ”The Stars and Stripes Forever” youalong in front! He give a deht in the Tivoli Hotel, and drew the town; and when he come home it ith a pocketful of silver and a couple of dates for a wedding and the Kaiser's birthday
After that Doc becairl to carry the druht when he hadn't a special engage up what little he could If there was a shi+p to be sold at auction, or a public ot to be the fashi+on to plaster the notice of it on Doc's back, hi under a tree for all he orth with the sweat pouring down his face, while all hands turned out to see as the rumpus He made money hand over fist, and would have paid for his keep only I wouldn't have it We had grown to be sort of friends, hi so hly educated a round into him hard, and with s I had to put up with! What endlessscenes and scandals! She got to followingthe policeain I had to leave in thewith us, laughing and jeering till I could have died of sha unable to stand it any longer, I was sitting in the front room, with my head in my hands, when Doc came in, and patted me on the back
”Too bad,” he says, ”too bad”
”Oh, Doc,” I says, ”I'm the most miserable chap alive”
”It's bound to end some time,” he re care of lunatics, and that was about what Rosie was The Colonies all had laws, barring out undesirables and such, even if a steamer would have taken her, which none of theive five hundred dollars to a labor-shi+p captain, put her aboard at night, and leave it to him to land her in one of those islands where they eat you for dinner”
”I couldn't do that,” I said
”Too fond of your ive everything I possess, lock, stock and barrel--and ten years of my life thrown in--to be decently quit of her”
He sel came down from heaven and took you at your word,” he says ”The next day you'd be beating Mr
Angel out of his price--you know you would, and screaain”
”Perhaps I would, Doc,” I agreed, hisit feel very real; ”it's hard to begin without a dollar and nothing but the clothes you stand in But downstairs in my safe I have two thousand dollars in hard cash, Ael could take and welco like, ”but it would be worth it to you, wouldn't it?”
”My God, yes,” I says, rather regretting I told him about the safe, for there was a shi+ne in his eyes and a calculating look I didn't like
”And you wouldn't bilk the angel when he handed in his bill?” he went on
”Oh, hell, Doc,” I said, ”what's the use of talking of angels? I've just got to grin and bear it”
”But you'd pay, wouldn't you?” he persisted
I said yes, just to stop his pestering; and after a couple of drinks off of the sideboard he went away That evening I locked myself in the store, took the money out of the safe, and carried it up to the attic where I hid it under an old mattress I s, and next day I looked for finger marks, but there weren't none Yet I was still suspicious, and the ht a s went on as usual for a long ti Cain occasionally, or snarling andin the hammock just as the humor took her It was the da it and worse every day, with no order and anything--a can of meat for lunch, a can of meat for dinner, and the table left slovenly like it was Then she fell kind of sick, and though I felt sorry to see her doubled up and groaning, it had a good side to it, for I got a Chinahtened things out fine and cleaned up the dirt of ages I called in Doctor Funk, the regular physician, and for a tih to nearly bite the cook's finger off when he tried to stop her giving away a consignain, the cra back worse than ever, and I let Doc do what he could for her, which wasn't h better than Funk, whose stuff didn't seeood and had lost its effect
Finally, early oneblood, and twisting and twitching in a way horrible to see, she being so e--all about iant squid as dragging her down to drown Then of a sudden she grew very quiet, and Doc, looking close to her face, said, ”Good God, she is dead!” Yes, dead, just as Doctor Funk hurried in, glaring to see Doc there, and saying so and sely at the different bottles Doc slunk out of sight, and then Funk, he calmed down, and spoke to me very sympathetic and kind as to what I was to do, and how, after all, it was athe rule in the tropics, and the better part of the town followed her to the grave in the foreign ce a kind of rule or custoht afterwards at the Tivoli bar
It was a strange feeling to coone out of it forever, and that I had passed another big landmark in my life For all it was such a release, I was bluer than blue, yet I won't deny I was glad, too, but in a frightened kind of way, and half wishi+ng again and again that she was back Her running on about Benny and me before she died stuck in my throat, and seemed awful pitiful; and I reood, true wife, and how me and the little store was all the world to her before sorrow broke her heart