Daphne Deane (24 page)

So William came with frightened eyes and a fat roll of money concealed in his trousers pocket, in case he should find it necessary to hand it over.

But he seemed rather relieved than otherwise to find the young man still in a serious condition and not able to see him even for a minute, and he took himself away like one who has had a sudden reprieve.

Emily Lynd, thoughtful always, refrained from telephoning and sent her nurse Delia over for a whispered word with Daphne at the back door, to find out just how the young man really was and tell briefly what she had seen and heard the night of the shooting.

She was scarcely gone when Evelyn Avery arrived, noisily, at the front door.

"Hello!" she greeted Daphne casually. "I just ran in to see Keith a few minutes and cheer him up. Hard lines having to lie still, and I thought he might like to see some of his friends. Brought over a pack of cards if he feels like playing, and some candy and magazines to pass the time away. Shall I run right up? Which is his room?"

Daphne drew her out on the veranda and closed the door behind her, speaking in a hushed voice.

"Mr. Morrell is in a very serious condition," she said with dignity. "He would not be able to see you. He has not been conscious at all so far yet."

"For heaven's sake!" said the girl quite taken aback. "What doctor have you got? I should think a doctor could always bring anybody around if they were alive at all."

Daphne named the imposing array of eminent physicians.

"Well, I suppose they're all right," reluctantly admitted the young woman. "But I should think you ought to have a nurse, as serious as that is."

"We have two of them," said Daphne quietly.

"Well, how soon do they think he'll be up and around?" asked Evelyn after an annoyed pause.

"They do not know whether he will ever be up and around. It is a question of whether he can possibly live or not."

"Why, I understood he was only shot in the ankle. I don't see how that could possibly be so serious. Are you sure you know what you are talking about?"

Daphne gave her a steady look and then said gently: "He was shot three times. One bullet entered the lung near the heart. They operated and took that out, but he lost a great deal of blood. In addition, he was struck on the head with a blackjack and has a serious concussion. The doctor has said that there is only a slight chance that he can pull through, and he may die at any minute. If you want to know anything more than that, you had better ask the doctor yourself. I have told you all I know, and we ought not to be talking here so near his window. The nurse is trying to keep it very quiet."

"Oh, my goodness!" said the caller, turning swiftly toward the steps. "I'd better get away. I never can bear to be around where there's talk of dying. It makes me actually sick. If he rallies, you might tell him I called!" And Evelyn hurried down the steps to her car and was soon out of sight.

There came a bevy of reporters almost at once, but Daphne made short work of them, for the doctor had told her what to say.

And then came Anne Casper.

She arrived in a taxi, which she left throbbing at the gate.

Daphne, weary-eyed and sad, came to the door again, and the two girls eyed each other hostilely. Daphne was very tired, and this seemed but another Evelyn Avery. A little more expensively dressed, perhaps, but even more beautifully insolent than Evelyn.

Did that moment's pause as she stared at Daphne show that Anne recognized the beauty of the girl before her and was measuring swords, wondering who she was and what she was doing here?

Then she lifted her haughty chin naughtily.

"Is this the gardener's cottage?" she asked loftily.

"Oh, no," said Daphne amusedly, "this is where Mr. Deane lives. I don't know any gardener living around here."

"Well, but I understood this was the place. A young woman in a car just directed me. She said she had just come from here and that I would find the gardener's daughter here. Aren't you the gardener's daughter?"

So, this was the way Evelyn Avery had taken her revenge! It was so like her, it was almost funny. A whimsical little twinkle came into Daphne's eyes.

"Sorry," she laughed softly, "but my father happens to be a professor in the university, chair of English. However, who is it you want to find? I might be able to direct you."

"I want to find Mr. Keith Morrell," said Anne Casper coldly. "I understood he had had an accident and had been brought to some house in this neighborhood. It is unaccountable that he should not have been taken to a hospital. I cannot understand it. Do you know where he is?"

Daphne's eyes were suddenly shadowed. Who was this insolent creature?

"Yes," she answered quietly. "He is here."

"Well, take me to him!" commanded Anne Casper.

"I'm sorry," said Daphne. "It's against the doctor's orders. Nobody but the nurse is allowed in the room."

"Indeed! Well,
I'm
somebody who
will
be allowed, you'll find out. I've come to take him to the hospital, and I'm keeping the taxi waiting while he gets ready. Won't you hurry?" Anne Casper stepped within the hall and glared up the stairs.

"Come this way," said Daphne, quickly leading her down the hall to the dining room and closing the door behind them. "We must speak very quietly. They want no noise. I brought you in here to explain. Mr. Morrell is in a serious condition. It would be quite impossible to move him anywhere. That was why he was brought here, because the doctors were afraid he might die on the way. He has lost a great deal of blood, and he is unconscious. There are symptoms of delirium, and his life is hanging in the balance. We have been told that no one must go near him and that the house must be kept very quiet."

"All this is quite irrelevant," said Anne with a sweep of her jeweled hand. "I came here to take charge. I must see Mr. Morrell, and I intend to see him at once! Stand aside, won't you! If you won't show me where he is, I'll find him for myself."

"No!" said Daphne, placing herself firmly in front of the door. "You cannot see him now. It might make all the difference between life and death for him."

Anne Casper was white with anger.

"I guess you don't understand who I am!" she said furiously.

"Does that matter now, while his life hangs in the balance?" said Daphne wearily. She felt as if she would like to break down and cry. Suddenly all the reserve strength seemed to have gone out of her.

"Matter?" said Anne, growing angrier momentarily. "It certainly does. I am Mr. Morrell's fiancée! Now, do you understand? I have a right to see him and to take him away from here to a hospital where he would stand some chance of getting well under proper professional care."

Daphne was very white and her head was reeling with a sudden faintness that came over her, but by sheer force of will she controlled herself and answered steadily: "If you are his fiancée, I am sure you will want to do what will be best for him, and will be reasonable. You can sit down here and wait till the doctor comes. He was to be here about five o'clock, and you can talk with him. I was instructed to keep people away from him, and I'm going to do it until he gets here."

"The very idea!" said Anne Casper furiously. "If you think for a minute you are going to control me, or hinder me going to Mr. Morrell when I like, you are sadly mistaken. Get out of my way!" And Anne Casper caught Daphne's wrist with a jerk, digging her long sharp fingernails into the firm flesh and looking like a small storm of fury.

"That'll be about all of that!" said Donald's cool voice as he appeared at the side door. "We'll just go out this way!"

Then the broad football shoulders stooped, and he picked up Anne Casper as if she had been a doll and carried her outside, setting her down in the kitchen garden among the carrots and spinach, far enough from the house that her voice could not be heard.

"Don't you dare to lay your hands on me!" she raved, stamping her foot and then stopping to stare at the good-looking young giant who stood grinning at her. "You insolent creature! I'll have you arrested."

"You dared to lay your hands on my sister!" said Don pointedly. "Think that over. And while you're thinking, just remember you're not to make any noise around here, or I'll lay some more hands on you. In fact, I'll turn you over my knee and spank you if you don't shut right up. And I don't care whose fiancée you are. If you're worth anything at all, you'll realize that it's more important that Keith Morrell gets a break to live, than that you should have your own way."

"Donald!" said Daphne, coming out and laying a gentle hand on her brother's arm. "You're forgetting yourself! You mustn't speak that way to a lady."

"Maybe I am forgetting myself, Daffy," said Donald vexedly, "but she's no lady!"

"That's no reason why you shouldn't be a gentleman!"

"That's all I care to hear from either of you!" burst forth the visitor, having recovered from her amazement. "I'm going down to the city and bring a doctor and an ambulance. We'll see who's master here!" And she flounced away toward the taxi.

"Hop to it!" called Donald after her, before Daphne could put her hand over his mouth. "I hope you get to ride in one yourself someday! It'll do you good!"

"Donald!" said Daphne. "Why did you do that? If she's really Keith Morrell's fiancée and he ever gets to know it, how terrible you will feel. How we will all feel!"

"If she's his fiancée, I'll eat my hat!" said Donald fiercely. "In fact, if she's his fiancée, if he's gone and tied himself to a piece of selfishness like that, I don't know as I care what he thinks of me. But he's not like that, Daphne. You know he's not."

Daphne looked him sadly in the eyes.

"Perhaps not," she said wistfully. "But, Donald, you know you didn't do right."

"Well, no, I don't suppose I did, not what you call right, but I'm still glad I did it! She had it coming to her."

"But Mother and Father would have been so ashamed of you."

"Would they? I wonder! Dad might not have done it in the same language, but if he'd seen and heard what I did, I'm not so sure but he'd have secretly rejoiced. However, I'm sorry. Of course, I knew I would be." And he gave his sister a sheepish grin and then lifted her up and carried her in to the couch.

"Now, you lie there, sweetie, and shut your eyes for a few minutes. You're all in and need a wink of sleep."

He tucked her up on the couch with a light shawl that lay there, and tiptoed out of the room.

 

The doctor arrived ten minutes ahead of Anne Casper and her procession. She was still riding in her taxi, followed by her doctor in his own car and the big white noisy ambulance clanging its bell importantly in the rear, bringing all Rosedale in excitement to its front windows. There hadn't been so much excitement in Rosedale in many a day.

"Now," said Donald, looking out of the window as they drew up before the house, "we'll see the fur fly! I'd better warn Doc so he'll know what he's up against. He's upstairs, isn't he?"

"I've already told him about it," said Daphne, coming to look out of the window. "She's brought the ambulance all right. I wonder if she will really take him after the doctor talks to her."

"Oh, she's got her own doctor. Great Caesar's ghost! Will ya look who she's got. His majesty Doctor Morgan himself! Now, how do you suppose she managed that? He's not a man who usually goes for money, I hear."

"She has probably told him that Keith is dying and he is the only hope of saving his life," said Daphne bitterly. "Has Father come back from the university yet? I wonder if he couldn't do something."

"I guess you'd better go to your room and pray, little sister," advised Don with sudden gravity.

Daphne prayed, but she had to go and let the strangers in. She was thankful to see the doctor in charge coming down the stairs as she walked down the hall to the front door, and to have him stand looming behind her, a grave and imposing figure with brows drawn down.

She could barely control her voice to introduce him: "Miss Casper, this is Doctor McKenna who is in charge of the case," she said and saw contempt in Anne Casper's eyes.

"Well, he won't be very long," Anne said haughtily. "This is Doctor Morgan. Show him to the patient right away, please." The please was an outward touch of courtesy for the doctor that was not included in the tone of voice used.

But suddenly the look on Anne Casper's face changed as she saw the look on the two doctor's faces.

"Why, hello, Dick, have they brought you here? Say, this is great!" said Doctor McKenna heartily. "I haven't seen you out of the operating room in a year of Sundays. I certainly am glad to greet you."

And the great Doctor Morgan fairly beamed.

"Pat McKenna, as I live!" he exclaimed, shaking the other's big hand eagerly. "Say, how did you get here? You're not the inefficient country doctor I was led to expect, are you? Because if you are, I start back at once. I've three very sick patients to see yet tonight before dinner, and nobody wants any better doctor than you are."

Doctor McKenna grinned.

"Not on your life!" he said. "You don't go back till you've given your opinion on this case. I tried hard to get you three days ago, but they said you were out of town."

"I was. They took me up to Hoover's Island to see a man who had to be operated on right away. I got back sooner than I expected. But I couldn't think of stopping now. I've got all sorts of important cases waiting."

"Really, Doctor Morgan," began Anne Casper freezingly. "I brought you here to take charge of this case and get the patient to the hospital at once. I don't see why you waste time gossiping with this other doctor. He can be dismissed now. I want you to take entire charge."

Doctor McKenna suddenly looked sharply at Anne.

"You're supposed to be the fiancée of the patient, I believe? Well, I've only this to say. If you want to kill him, you'll attempt to move him now. I'll be only too glad to turn the case over at once to my old friend and colleague Doctor Morgan, but when he hears just what condition the patient is in, I am quite sure he will agree with me that it would be sure death to move him."