“Hello, Strong, what’s up?”
“Why, hello, Smith! how d’y do?” returned mine host, stepping briskly forward and shaking hands. “Glad to see you. But haven’t ye heard the news? Old Farmer Himes, simpleton that he was to be travelling down the river on a raft, was attacked by the burglars last night—or, rather, early this morning I suppose it was—and pretty nigh murdered. Dr. Jasper’s been working with him for the last two hours; he’s in there now,” nodding his head in the direction of the room where the wounded man lay, “but I reckon he’ll bring him round.”
A stranger standing at Smith’s side started slightly at the mention of the doctor’s name, and, fixing his eyes on the speaker, listened intently as he went on to give a detailed account of the nature and extent of Himes’s hurts, and what had been done for his relief. “Ah, here comes the doc himself!” he exclaimed, pausing in his narrative as a gentleman stepped from the doorway into their midst. “How’s your patient, doc?”
“Doing as well as could reasonably be expected, Mr. Strong,” returned Dr. Jasper, quietly, but as one in some haste. “Not well enough for me to leave him to-day,” he added, “and I must send a telegram to my wife, lest she should be anxious at not seeing me.”
“Got it ready, I see,” said Strong, noticing that the doctor held a slip of paper in his fingers. “Just give it to me, and I’ll have it sent right away. Now walk in to breakfast, gentlemen—all of you; it’s on the table, smoking hot.”
All this time the stranger had eyed Dr. Jasper askance, and now taking a seat nearly opposite him at the table, he continued to do so during the meal.
The doctor did not seem to perceive the scrutiny to which he was being subjected, but ate as one whose thoughts were preoccupied with something else than his immediate surroundings or the food of which he was partaking.
Naturally the talk at the table ran principally on the startling event of a few hours previous; but the doctor took no part in it, except when directly addressed by remark or query.
Presently the announcement, “Stage for Prairieville leaves in five minutes!” sent several persons, including the stranger who had so persistently eyed the doctor, hurrying out.
Dr. Jasper rose the next moment, and was passing through the hall on his way to his patient, when the driver slammed the door to upon his passengers, the stranger leaning eagerly forward to catch a last glimpse of the physician.