“She has done it ever since I can remember,” volunteered Doodles.
“Good!” was the hearty response.
Presently the Doctor took up a curious three-part instrument, and putting an end in each ear laid the other on the boy’s bare chest,—now here, now there, until Doodles wondered if he were going all over in that way. But no, it was only within a certain space.
“Absolutely sound!” Dr. Dudley turned to Mrs. Gaylord with a radiant smile.
“Isn’t that fine!” she returned with a smile equally bright.
Doodles wondered why they were so delighted, but he did not like to ask.
In a few moments he was waiting on the couch in the reception room, while Dr. Dudley and the Gaylords conversed with one another in the adjoining office. A draught had drawn the door almost together, and only fragments of the talk could be heard; but the boy patched them together to make a startling whole.
“Good fighting chance ... always danger ... soon as possible ... Wednesday morning ... walking in a month or two.”
By this time the eager listener was so excited that he failed to hear anything further, and his eyes were unusually brilliant when the Doctor said good-bye.
Dorothy Gaylord put her arm around Doodles, and drew him close, as they spun along the smooth pavement.