Chapter IV
I
Dr. Quick, Chairman and Commissioner of the Board of Health for Black Elk Territory, was a man with a wonderful sense of humour. Though plump and rosy, he did not look a jester. His face was always solemn and his twinkling grey eyes were so hidden by his huge round glasses that nothing could be read in them. Taking advantage of these facts, the doctor made his life one round of fun. He was one of the busiest men in Discovery City, working night and day and carrying almost all the burden of his department on his own shoulders; but he still found time for tricks and jokes. The doctor was an inexplicable enigma to those who did not know him. To his friends he was a perpetual delight and one of the cleverest practitioners in North America.
The doctor, being a shrewd man, knew the real thing when he saw it; hence his deep friendship for the Superintendent commanding at Discovery.
One night not long after the Rev. Mr. Northcote's return from Prospect, the doctor lingered on in Hector's quarters till the last of the guests had gone. Then he suddenly said, in his slow, solemn way:
"Adair, I'd a queer experience today—a joke. Last winter, at Nugget there was a fine big Yankee there, dying of pneumonia. Very far gone. I treated him. 'Doctor,' he says, 'if you're going to save me you'll have to be quick.' 'Quick?' said I. I'm always Quick!'" (The doctor's favourite pun.) "Well, he pulled through. He was grateful, the poor cuss. Early this evening, Adair, I saw that man again."
"Is that so?"
Hector wondered what was coming.
"Yes. I went into the Cash-In—no, not for a drink; to see a fellow lying upstairs with a broken leg, a man who can't be moved. Afterwards, on my way downstairs, a fearful specimen of human microbe held me up, asked for my money or my life. I've lots of money but only one life. Besides, he had a gun. So I obliged. One of the first holdups we've had in Discovery."
"Can you describe the man?"