Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1904 — On the Hot Wave’s Crest [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

On the Hot Wave’s Crest

By A. S. RICHARDSON

Young Dr. James tlghtsewl up his belt with a scowl ns he heard the ambulance gong sound. The little tents which dotted the grounds of the hospital were already tilled with victims of the heat. His own head whirled, and his pulse throbbed violently, and there were four hours of relentless sunlight still before the scorching city. The electric ambulance rolled lightly and noiselessly under the porte cochere of the great hospital and then, with its clang of warning, threaded its way between cars, trucks and delivery wagons. People eyed It with curiosity not unmixed with awe. There was no telling whose turn would come next. And, unmindful of

their stare. Dr. James sat on one of the lengthwise seats, with his feet stretched on the one opposite, and continued to scowl. Nothing but heat prostrations, a cut bend or so and innumerable cases of cholera infantum had come his wny since he was put in charge of the umbulance. The deadly monotony was getting on his nerves. He hated the interminable round of remedies, thdr whimpering babies and the whining mothers. This was not the energetic surgical work be had seen before him during fils hospital term. He wondered if, after all, the doctor’s life did not hold a deal of drudgery. And the path to fame and success was bound to be strewn with years of monotony. It all might have been very different if Maud Allen had stood by him—had married him when, in his impetuous fashion, be had asked her to come to the city with him and live on the slender income which came to him through his uncle’s estate. But she had said that lie must first show his mettle. She lacked faith in him, and, like all women, she was not content to help a fellow work his way, but would be quite ready to enjoy the fruits of his success.

That -was the way when a girl's father had money and the man v.bo loved her had few assets except 1 clever brain and a prospective career. No doubt she was enjoying herself this very moment at some .seaside resort, with a string of silly summer men paying her sillier compliments. He hadn’t written to her, and he wouldn’t until be bad something to show, and then perhaps he would not care. All of which were exceedingly bitter thoughts to be Indulged In by a fine looking young chap . dressed In white dock and bowling along In the finest electric ambulance In the great city. He pulled himself together and shouted to the driver: “Hey, Bill: where In time are we gotngr - _ 1

“To Stinson's wholesale millinery shop. Bet there’s half a dozen girls tumbled under. It's awful under that skylight where they trim. We got a dozen cases from there last summer.” Dr. James leaned back moodily, and the ambulance swung round a corner, then stopped before the entrance of a high factory building. A policeman stood guard at the door. “Right up the elevator, doc. Pretty nasty case, I guess. They’ve been working over her quite a bit.” “And doing the worst things possible, I suppose,” growled the young medical man as he stepped into the elevator. The driver and policeman followed with the stretcher. Up they shot past floor after floor, where the whirring of machines sounded like the emphasized waves of heat. On the top floor girls sewed pantingly amid the silks and velvets which were being worked into new fall millinery for the trade. The heavy fabrics added to their discomfort, but they barely looked up as the surgeon passed, though one of their number lay silent and motionless in the private office. It was all in the day's work. Dr. James entered the little room. The green shades had been drawn tight. A woman leaned over a figure stretched on the floor, with ice on the wrists and head. Dr. James jerked up the shade, and the, pitiless sunlight shot across the floor and rested on the deathlike face. The policeman and the driver reached the door just In time to hear a groan which came not from the patient, but from the young doctor, lie turned as white as bis new found patient, dropped on bis knees and went to work with Ups set grimly and nerves that quivered. “How long has she been like this?” "Half an hour,” faltered the forewoman, frightened at his savage tones. “God!” murmured the doctor. Then he issued some sharp orders to his assistants, and the girl was raised with a tenderness new to the ambulance surgeon, and as the bearers turned to leave he said to the forewoman harshly, “Give me a cloth.” He covered her face. The gaping crowd should not see her. As they passed out of the elevator he still grasped the wrist of the forewoman. "What Is she doing here?” The thoroughly frightened woman replied stammeringly: "Working, sir. We don’t know much about her, sir. She’s seen better duys, but she tries awful hard.” Would that elevator never reach the ground floor? And was that hospital at the other end of the city? Every minute was precious now. lie leaned toward the driver. “Clip it up, Bill.” And Bill turned on more power. They swung round the last comer before reaching the hospital, and a terrific rumbling sound greeted their ears, mingled with shouts and screams. It was all over in a second—the runaways attached to the heavy dray dashed straight into the ambulance. The driver hurtled through the air. Dr. James felt a blow somewhere, there was an instant of blankness, then he realized that he was stumbling blindly toward the sidewalk with that deathlike figure in his arms and something very hot trickling, trickling Into his eyes.

It was twt> days before it all came back to him, clear and suffocating as an awful nightmare. He clutched the nurse’s hand. Xi “Where is she?" “Who?" “Maud —Miss Allen”— “Oh, maybe you mean the girl you snatched out of the ambulance Just in time. She’s coming round, I guess, though she had a dreadful prostration.” *T must see her at once," he said in his o.d. peremptory fashion. The nurse laughed. “Well, Just wait until you ran raise your head from the pillow. You will get a medal or honorable mention for that work. Dr. James. You are quite the hero of the hospital.” “I want something more than medals, 1 * said the young doctor grimly. Then, while the nurse wondered, be fell asleep. It was two days more before he could be pulled Into Maud's room, and very white and til he looked, propped up In his invalid chair. But they settled the matter then and there, for

Maud told him" How she "had "wanted to wait, merely to see that he had not inherited his father’s weakness and lack of ambition, and how when her father lmd died suddenly, leaving his affairs badly entangled, she had left all for the creditors and come to the big city to lose herself in the one line of work for which she felt fitted. And when Billy heard about it all he said if his broken leg mended in time he proposed to be best man, because he’d carried the young surgeon to his ladylove, if she was a half dead one.

HE STUMBLED BLINDLY TOWARD THE SIDEWALK.