“That’ll do!” Dr. Harrison barked. “If I knew any of you had cancer, I’d tell you so to your face. If Bear Sterling had found any man here suffering from an incurable brain tumor, he would have told that man. We are not asking you for symptoms, Hoffbein. Have you any evidence, yes or no?”
Hoffbein’s eyes lost their whites. “No.”
“Then let’s get on to people who have. Read Ethridge’s testimony, please, MacArthur.”
Dr. MacArthur picked up the long white sheet of paper and began in an even voice:
“Complying with the decision of the General Staff of the Elijah Wilson Hospital, I admitted Rose Standish, graduate nurse of this institution, as a patient in Medicine Clinic, Ward B, Bed 11, yesterday afternoon. The diagnosis, for the benefit of the nursing staff, being a possible tubercular effusion.
“She received a routine examination from the house staff and from seven-ten until seven-thirty last evening my father, Dr. Sterling, and I went over her. We found her lungs in excellent shape, her heart slightly enlarged, but not seriously so, her general physical condition splendid, with the exception of the fact that she was somewhat thin and underweight. There were no signs of any malady of any kind whatever. Her temperature was normal, her pulse good, though a little rapid, which, considering the circumstances was not surprising, and her spirits commendably calm.
“We both felt most reassured by her mental and physical condition, though my father, Dr. Sterling, in case she might discover herself too fatigued to sleep advised a sedative. We told Miss Standish of the order and suggested she call for the potion if she felt the necessity.
“There was some vague hysteria in the ward, which both Miss Standish and ourselves sensed, and I understand from the seven-to-nine-student nurses that she calmed it by conversation.
“The prescription for the potion was, later, removed from Miss Standish’s chart and is in the possession of Dr. MacArthur, as is, also, the testimony of a patient who claimed to have seen Miss Kerr, student nurse, standing over Miss Standish’s bed for several seconds during the thunderstorm which extinguished the lights at nine-forty.
“From the time we walked off the ward at seven-thirty, until Mattus notified me of Rose Standish’s death at one-ten, I did not see Miss Standish. Mattus saw her around ten and reported her in practically the same condition in which Father and I had left her.
“After seeing my father, Dr. Sterling, to his car at seven-thirty, I went to dinner in the doctors’ dining room, took a short walk, and was in bed by eleven-thirty.
“When Mattus notified me of Miss Standish’s death at one-ten, I immediately called Dr. MacArthur who ordered an autopsy, tried to get my father and learned that the cold he had complained of was settling in his chest and his temperature was 101. At his orders I got his assistant, Dr. Withers, who in the presence of Dr. MacArthur, Mattus and myself, performed the autopsy, the findings of which will be given by Dr. Heddis, who came in when it was half finished and later took the organs for examination.
“Because of the excellent forethought of Mattus, we borrowed an operative patient from Surgical Clinic and rolled her bed into the place where Rose Standish’s had stood and left orders to say to the patients that Miss Standish had hemorrhaged and been put in a private room. From the time the ward awoke until the operation was called, the new patient was in the process of preparation and did not realize the change.
“From the time of the discovery of Rose Standish’s corpse, until Mattus and I had rolled the bed toward the elevator, the deportment of William, the orderly, was most praiseworthy and the demeanor of Miss Evelina Kerr astonishingly calm.
“While the autopsy was still in progress, my mother called to say that Dr. Sterling’s temperature had risen to 103, his breathing was labored and he was requesting I come to him. Dr. MacArthur insisted that I go. I found him with a definite case of pneumonia, both lungs seriously involved, pulse irregular, and breathing labored, semi-delirious. I immediately called an ambulance and brought him into the hospital for oxygen.
“The response is disheartening. His heart is weakening. I have remained by his bedside, again through the advice of Dr. MacArthur.
“Dictated to Dr. MacArthur’s secretary, outside room 511, Medicine Clinic, at 8:30 A. M. Wednesday, May 18th.
“(Signed): Ethridge Sterling, Jr., M.D. Physician-in-Chief (Pro-tem), The Elijah Wilson Hospital.”
Dr. MacArthur laid the paper down and looked from the window.
“Questions?” his voice was old and heavy, and he brought his eyes back to the men with an effort.
Dr. Harrison shot a glance around the room and insisted:
“Let’s continue with the evidence.”
Dr. MacArthur pushed a button upon his desk, the door into the corridor opened and Miss Evelina Kerr, night student nurse on Ward B, entered.