"Well, they’ve cut the old man’s leg off."
Gusta and the neighbor women looked at Archie in silence. Mrs. Koerner seemed unable to grasp the full meaning of what he had said.
"_Was sagst du?_" she asked, leaning forward anxiously.
"_Sie haben sein Bein amputiert_," replied Archie.
"_Sein Bein--was?_" inquired Mrs. Koerner.
"What the devil’s ’cut off’?" asked Archie, turning to Gusta.
"Why," she said, "let’s see. _Abgeschnitten_, I guess."
"Je’s," said Archie impatiently, "I wish she’d cut out the Dutch!"
Then he turned toward his mother and speaking loudly, as if she were deaf, as one always speaks who tries to make himself understood in a strange tongue:
"_Sie haben sein Bein abgeschnitten--die Doctoren im Hospital._"
Mrs. Koerner stared at her son, and Archie and Gusta and the two women sat and stared at her, then suddenly Mrs. Koerner’s expression became set, meaningless and blank, her eyes slowly closed and her body slid off the chair to the floor. Archie sprang toward her and tried to lift her. She was heavy even for his strong arms, and he straightened an instant, and shouted out commands:
"Open the door, you! Gusta, get some water!"
One of the women lumbered across the kitchen and flung wide the door, Gusta got a dipper of water and splashed it in her mother’s face. The cold air rushing into the overheated kitchen and the cool water revived the prostrate woman; she opened her eyes and looked up, sick and appealing. Archie helped her to her chair and stood leaning over her. Gusta, too, bent above her, and the two women pressed close.
"Stand back!" shouted Archie peremptorily. "Give her some air, can’t you?"
The two women slunk back--not without glances of reproach at Archie. He stood looking at his mother a moment, his hands resting on his hips. He was still smoking his cigarette, tilting back his head and squinting his eyes to escape the smoke. Gusta was fanning her mother.
"Do you feel better?" she asked solicitously.
"_Ja_," said Mrs. Koerner, but she began to shake her head.
"Oh, it’s all right, ma," Archie assured her. "It’s the best place for him. Why, they’ll give him good care there. I was in the hospital a month already in Luzon."
The old woman was unconvinced and shook her head. Then Archie stepped close to her side.