The Mill Mystery | Page 7

from midnight--I suddenly heard voices at
the door, and Mrs. Gannon came in with Dr. Farnham.
"It is very extraordinary," I heard him mutter as he crossed the
threshold. "One dying and another dead, and both struck down by the
same cause."
I could not imagine what he mean, so I looked at him with some
amazement. But he did not seem to heed me. Going straight to the bed,
he gazed silently at Ada's pure features, with what I could not but

consider a troubled glance. Then turning quickly to Mrs. Gannon, he
said, in his somewhat brusque way:
"All is over here; you can therefore leave. I have a patient who
demands your instant care."
"But----" she began.
"I have come on purpose for you," he put in, authoritatively. "It is an
urgent case; do not keep me waiting."
"But, sir," she persisted, "it is impossible. I am expected early in the
morning at Scott's Corners, and was just going to bed when you came
in, in order to get a little sleep before taking the train."
"Dr. Perry's case?"
"Yes."
He frowned, and I am not sure but what he uttered a mild oath. At all
events, he seemed very much put out.
I immediately drew near.
"Oh, sir," I cried, "if you would have confidence in me. I am not
unused to the work, and----"
His stare frightened me, it was so searching and so keen.
"Who are you?" he asked.
I told him, and Mrs. Gannon put in a word for me. I was reliable, she
said, and if too much experience was not wanted, would do better than
such and such a one--naming certain persons, probably neighbors.
But the doctor's steady look told me he relied more on his own
judgment than on anything she or I could say.
"Can you hold your tongue?" he asked.
I started. Who would not have done so?
"I see that you can," he muttered, and glanced down at my dress.
"When can you be ready?" he inquired. "You may be wanted for days,
and it may be only for hours."
"Will ten minutes be soon enough?" I asked.
A smile difficult to fathom crossed his firm lip.
"I will give you fifteen," he said, and turned towards the door. But on
the threshold he paused and looked back. "You have not asked who or
what your patient is," he grimly suggested.
"No," I answered shortly.
"Well," said he, "it is Mrs. Pollard, and she is going to die."
Mrs. Pollard! Mrs. Gannon and I involuntarily turned and looked at

each other.
"Mrs. Pollard!" repeated the good nurse, wonderingly. "I did not know
she was sick"
"She wasn't this noon. It is a sudden attack. Apoplexy we call it. She
fell at the news of Mr. Barrows' death."
And with this parting shot, he went out and closed the door behind him.
I sank, just a little bit weakened, on the lounge, then rose with renewed
vigor. "The work has fallen into the right hands," thought I. "Ada
would wish me to leave her for such a task as this."
And yet I was troubled. For though this sudden prostration of Mrs.
Pollard, on the hearing of her young pastor's sorrowful death, seemed
to betoken a nature of more than ordinary sensibility, I had always
heard that she was a hard woman, with an eye of steel and a heart that
could only be reached through selfish interests. But then she was the
magnate of the place, the beginning and end of the aristocracy of S----;
and when is not such a one open to calumny? I was determined to
reserve my judgment.
In the fifteen minutes allotted me, I was ready. Suitable arrangements
had already been made for the removal of my poor Ada's body to the
house that held her lover. For the pathos of the situation had touched all
hearts, and her wish to be laid in the same grave with him met with no
opposition. I could therefore leave with a clear conscience; Mrs.
Gannon promising to do all that was necessary, even if she were
obliged to take a later train than she had expected to.
Dr. Farnham was in the parlor waiting for me, and uttered a grunt of
satisfaction as he saw me enter, fully equipped.
"Come; this is business," he said, and led the way at once to his
carriage.
We did not speak for the first block. He seemed meditating, and I was
summoning up courage for the ordeal before me. For, now that we were
started, I began to feel a certain inward trembling not to be entirely
accounted for by the fact that I was going into a strange house to nurse
a woman of whom report did not