Then he addressed me.
"Mr. Jelliffe, do take her away. I hear that she was here last night and remained for hours. You will take her away to St. John's at once, and have her given a preventive injection. Now please hurry off."
I could see that the poor chap's voice rasped his throat painfully. His two hands dropped to his side, with the palms turned forward, in a feeble gesture of entreaty.
"You knew this morning that you had it," said Helen again. "And you only had that vial and used it all for the boy."
He nodded, with another slight shrug of his shoulders.
"I see that you have been playing the game!" she said quietly.
Then she turned to me, seizing one of my arms.
"Hurry!" she cried. "You must hurry, Daddy. Why don't you go on? He has diphtheria, and perhaps half the people here will have it now. Perhaps he is going to die! Come, Daddy, you must hurry. The Snowbird will take you to St. John's and you must buy antitoxine, a lot of it, and come back with it at once. And you should get a doctor, and a nurse or two, and I will stay here, and please don't look at me that way! Do hurry, Daddy! Oh! I was forgetting your poor leg. Never mind, take your time, Daddy, but as soon as you are on board make them hurry. Susie will stay with me. A few days won't matter, Daddy!"
"Oh! Daughter. Please come," I implored her. "I promise that I will send the yacht back at once with a doctor and everything."
She looked at me in amazed surprise.