“Did he look ashamed?”
“I didn't wait to see. I had urgent business out just then.”
“Is the patient in the tent now?”
“Yes, all snug and comfortable with a nurse to take care of him. That was my urgent business. I went into the back room of the office in the midst of their jabber, slipped out the door, got into the buggy hitched back there, drove to the hotel and with Dr. Collins' help, got the patient down the ladder waiting for us, into the buggy, then got the nurse down the ladder and in, too, then away we drove lickety-cut for the tent while the mob was away from there. Then I went back to the office and attended the meeting,” added the doctor, laughing heartily.
His wife laughed too, but rather uneasily. “Were they still there when you got back?”
“Every mother's son of 'em. They didn't stay long though. I advised them to go home, that the patient was in the tent and would stay there. They broke for the tent—vowed they'd set fire to it with him in it and I think they intended to hang me,” and the doctor laughed again.
“John, don't ever get into such a scrape again. I 'phoned Mr. Felton and begged him to go down there and take someone with him.”
“You did? Well, he came, and it happened there was a member of the State Board of Health in town who had got on to the racket. He came, too, and you ought to have heard him read the riot act to those fellows:
“‘We've got a sick man here—a stranger, far from his home. You are in no danger whatever. Every doctor in town has told you so. We're going to take care of this man and don't you forget it. We have the whole State of Illinois behind us, and if this damned foolishness don't stop right here, I'll have the militia here in a few hours' time and arrest every one of you.’ That quieted them. They slunk off home and won't bother us any more.”