"I thought it was best to be on the safe side, so I took him up-town and had his health examined by a doctor. He had to take off his shirt so he could hear Arthur's lungs."
"Well, I'm damned,—what did he do that for?" cried Joe, profoundly astonished.
"It was a mercy I'd washed him first," added Nellie, not comprehending the reason of her husband's sudden show of interest though gratified by it.
"Lord, I thought you meant the doctor had took off his shirt!" said Joe. "He's all right now, ain't he?"
"Yes, but he did have such an alarmin' cough; it hung on and hung on, it seemed to me like it was on his chest, but the doctor said no, and I was that relieved! I used some of the twenty dollars to pay him and to get medicine from the drug store."
Joe was cramming his mouth full of cold meat and bread, and for the moment could not speak; when at length he could and did, it was to say:
"I hear Andy Gilmore's left town?"
"Yes, all of a sudden, and no one knows where he's gone!"
"I guess he's had enough of Mount Hope, and I guess Mount Hope's had enough of him!" remarked Joe.
"They say the police was goin' to stop the gamblin' in his rooms if he hadn't gone when he did."