Part 33 (2/2)
”It's hard to tell,” he said, ”whether that was dreams or not.”
As he started to go, she asked,--
”Did they tell you downstairs that some one had been here to see him?”
He shook his head.
”He came while I was down in the office, and they said he had been here two or three times before. He wanted to see Mr. Bridge, he said, on a very important business matter.”
The doctor smiled. ”I'm afraid,” he said, ”that business will be indefinitely postponed. Who was the man?”
”He's one of our aldermen, Michael Blaney.”
They were startled by a cry from the bed. Bridge was sitting bolt upright, and terror was in his face.
”Stop him, Weeks!” he gasped. ”He's trying to choke me. Pull him off. You said he shouldn't touch me.”
The voice died away in a moan, and he sank back in the pillows, breathing thickly. The nurse slipped quickly to his side, clasped his wrist in her cool hand, and laid the other on his forehead, and in a few moments his breath was coming more regularly and the mad light was gone out of his eyes.
The doctor looked on admiringly. ”You'll pull him out of this if anybody can,” he said. ”It's strange he's got this Weeks business in his head. He hasn't known anything since Sunday night, and there wasn't much about it in the papers up to that time.”
There was a silence while the doctor, after a long look at his patient, turned and walked to the door. When he reached it he said:--
”There's something beside scarlet fever that keeps up that delirium, I believe; something on his mind. I'd watch what he says pretty carefully, if I were you. He may give you a clew to what's bothering him. Then perhaps we can bring him around. Good night.”
Grace Burns was not in the habit of reading the papers, for her activities, her sympathies, and her thoughts were pretty well absorbed without them, but on Thursday morning she read with eager interest the account of the fight for the M. & T. railroad. She also read an editorial on Jim Weeks, and then found out all she could from the newspapers of the two days previous. When she had finished, she abandoned a half-formed project of the night before to write to Weeks and explain the situation to him on the chance of his being of a.s.sistance. She saw on what a large scale this man did things and concluded that it was unlikely that he had any connection with Bridge's affairs, if, indeed, he had ever heard of him. He would be too busy to pay much attention to anything she might write.
All day long she listened to the sick man's continuous talk, hoping that some meaning would transpire through the incoherent sentences, something that would guide her to the source of his trouble; but her patience had little reward. He spoke vaguely of a contract once or twice, and as many times he mentioned the name of Jim Weeks, and at those times she thought of her plan again; mentally she would begin framing the note she would write to the great capitalist. But as often as she did this she realized that she had nothing to say to him, and with a sigh she put the thought away to wait at least until she could find out something more definite.
The next morning, Friday, she read in the papers of the dramatic happenings of the day before and of Jim Weeks's going to Chicago, presumably for a conference with the Governor. The bigness of it appalled her a little, and again the courage she had been storing up over night to write the note oozed away. For after all it was a question of courage, courage to do something which common sense called absurd on the bare chance that it might do good.
The day was a repet.i.tion of the day before, but late in the afternoon the persistent thought, ”it might do some good,” drove her to write to Jim Weeks. The note read:--
”Mr. Bridge [she did not know his initials] is dangerously sick here in the hospital. He has been delirious ever since he was brought here, and has frequently called for you, sometimes as if he wanted to tell you something, and at others as if he desired your protection. I write in the hope that you will be able either to come or to suggest some clew to his delusions which may enable us to remove them.”
It was mailed that evening and reached Jim about noon Sat.u.r.day. Not half an hour afterward she received a telegram which took a load off her mind:--
Shall reach Tillman at eight this evening and will drive direct to the hospital. Please arrange it so I can see him immediately after I arrive there.
She was in the sick room watching, when Jim was shown in. He walked directly to the bed and stood looking down at Bridge for a moment, and then spoke to Grace Burns.
”Has he any chance? What is it?”
”It's scarlet fever. The doctor doesn't seem to think there's much hope.”
”Poor devil,” said Jim under his breath.
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