CHAPTER XIII
A Widening Horizon
“I’m Dr. Starr,” the man introduced himself. “It’s turning mighty cold again. We only hit the high places after I got on Stefan’s toboggan, I can tell you. How the man kept up with his team I can’t tell you, but he ran all the way.”
He threw off his heavy coat and turned to the bunk.
“Now let’s see what we’ve got here,” he said.
The two women were scanning his face, holding their breaths, but Mrs. Papineau had the lamp and held it so as to cast some light on Hugo. The doctor’s expression, however, was quite inscrutable.
“Your husband?” he asked the girl, who shook her head. “Well, perhaps it’s a good thing he’s not. Put a lot of water to boil on the stove, please. Can’t you find another lamp here––this one doesn’t give much light?”
There was no lamp but they found a package of candles which were soon flickering on 252 the table, stuck in the necks of bottles. The doctor was pulling a lot of things out of his bag, coolly. To Madge it seemed queer that he could be so unaffected by what he saw. Presently he went to work, after baring the injured shoulder.
After it was all over it seemed to the girl like some dreadful nightmare. After just one keen glance the doctor had probably decided that her young hands would afford him the better help. And so she had been obliged to remain at his side and look upon the sinewy shoulder and the arm that had been laid bare, and at the angry and inflamed wound which had been flooded with iodine. And then had come the picking up of shining instruments just taken out of one of the boiling vessels. Her teeth left imprints on her lips and she felt that she was surely going to stagger and fall as the man made long slashing incisions. From them he took out a piece of cloth and a bullet that had been flattened against the bone. After this there was a lot more disinfecting and the placing of red tubes of rubber deep down in the wound, which was finally covered with a large dressing. But it was only after this was all finished that Madge dropped on a stool, feeling sick and shaken.