Aunt Janes Nieces in the Red Cross | Page 7

times on the high seas."
Patsy clapped her hands gleefully.
"That's it; a hospital ship!" she exclaimed.
They regarded her with various expressions: startled, doubtful,
admiring, approving. Presently, with added thought on the matter, the
approval became unanimous.
"It's an amazing suggestion," said Maud, her eyes sparkling.
"Think how greatly it will extend our usefulness," said Beth.
Uncle John was again trotting up and down the room, this time in a
state of barely repressed excitement.
"The very thing!" he cried. "Clever, practical,
and--eh--eh--tremendously interesting. Now, then, listen carefully--all
of you! It's up to you, Jones, to accompany Maud on the night express
to Washington. Get the Red Cross Society to back our scheme and
supply us with proper credentials. The Arabella must be rated as a
hospital ship and our party endorsed as a distinct private branch of the
Red Cross--what they call a 'unit.' I'll give you a letter to our senator
and he will look after our passports and all necessary papers. I--I helped
elect him, you know. And while you're gone it shall be my business to
fit the ship with all the supplies we shall need to promote our mission
of mercy."
"I'll share the expense," proposed the boy.
"No, you won't. You've done enough in furnishing the ship and crew.
I'll attend to the rest."
"And Beth and I will be Uncle John's assistants," said Patsy. "We shall
want heaps of lint and bandages, drugs and liniments and--"

"And, above all, a doctor," advised Ajo. "One of the mates on my yacht,
Kelsey by name, is a half-way physician, having studied medicine in
his youth and practiced it on the crew for the last dozen years; but what
we really need on a hospital ship is a bang-up surgeon."
"This promises to become an expensive undertaking," remarked Maud,
with a sigh. "Perhaps it will be better to let me go alone, as I originally
expected to do. But, if we take along the hospital ship, do not be
extravagant, Mr. Merrick, in equipping it. I feel that I have been the
innocent cause of drawing you all into this venture and I do not want it
to prove a hardship to my friends."
"All right, Maud," returned Uncle John, with a cheerful grin, "I'll try to
economize, now that you've warned me."
Ajo smiled and Patsy Doyle laughed outright. They knew it would not
inconvenience the little rich man, in the slightest degree, to fit out a
dozen hospital ships.
CHAPTER III
THE DECISION OF DOCTOR GYS
Uncle John was up bright and early next morning, and directly after
breakfast he called upon his old friend and physician, Dr. Barlow. After
explaining the undertaking on which he had embarked, Mr. Merrick
added:
"You see, we need a surgeon with us; a clever, keen chap who
understands his business thoroughly, a sawbones with all the modern
scientific discoveries saturating him to his finger-tips. Tell me where to
get him."
Dr. Barlow, recovering somewhat from his astonishment, smiled
deprecatingly.
"The sort of man you describe," said he, "would cost you a fortune, for
you would oblige him to abandon a large and lucrative practice in order

to accompany you. I doubt, indeed, if any price would tempt him to
abandon his patients."
"Isn't there some young fellow with these requirements?"
"Mr. Merrick, you need a physician and surgeon combined. Wounds
lead to fever and other serious ailments, which need skillful handling.
You might secure a young man, fresh from his clinics, who would
prove a good surgeon, but to master the science of medicine,
experience and long practice are absolutely necessary."
"We've got a half-way medicine man on the ship now--a fellow who
has doctored the crew for years and kept 'em pretty healthy. So I guess
a surgeon will about fill our bill."
"H-m, I know these ship's doctors, Mr. Merrick, and I wouldn't care to
have you and your nieces trust your lives to one, in case you become ill.
Believe me, a good physician is as necessary to you as a good surgeon.
Do you know that disease will kill as many of those soldiers as
bullets?"
"No."
"It is true; else the history of wars has taught us nothing. We haven't
heard much of plagues and epidemics yet, in the carefully censored
reports from London, but it won't be long before disease will devastate
whole armies."
Uncle John frowned. The thing was growing complicated.
"Do you consider this a wild goose chase, Doctor?" he asked.
"Not with your fortune, your girls and your fine ship to back it. I think
Miss Stanton's idea of venturing abroad unattended, to nurse the
wounded, was Quixotic in the extreme. Some American women are
doing it, I know, but I don't approve of it. On the other hand,