“I thought the boy very bad; I noticed how weak he was and the blue look round his lips. I asked the nurse if he ought not to have some medicine. She told me that his medicine was finished, and that the chemist had not yet sent a fresh supply. I then asked her to give him brandy. She brought some. I endeavored to put a little between his lips. Nurse came up and watched me as I did so.
“‘He ought to have the proper medicine,’ she said.
“She asked me to fetch it. She gave me the address of the chemist, and I rushed off. I was absent about ten minutes. When I came back with the medicine the boy was looking very queer and white. Nurse took the bottle into the dressing-room and I accompanied her. She poured out a dose and gave it to me. She stayed in the dressing-room while I went back to the room. The light was dim, for the boy complained of it hurting his eyes. I raised him up and managed to get the medicine between his lips. I had scarcely done so before nurse came back. She said he ought to be better now, that the medicine was a very strong heart stimulant and ought to act immediately.
“I told her I did not think it was doing so. It seemed to me that the child’s breathing was becoming slower and slower. I touched his forehead and it was cold. I looked round at the nurse.
“‘Is anything the matter?’ she asked.
“‘I do not like the condition of the child,’ I said. The moment I said so she started up, switched on the light and bent over him.
“‘Go down-stairs and fetch up some more brandy,’ she said.
“I ran down. I did not want to frighten Mrs. Pelham, and I could not find the butler immediately. I had to go down to the kitchen premises in search of him. This caused a delay, and I was not back in the sick-room for two or three minutes. When I returned the child was in his present condition. How dreadfully bad he looks! What is the matter?”
Tarbot made no reply.
He bent again over the child. Once again he held the pulseless wrist between his finger and thumb; once again he listened at the cold still heart.