“Tell him he must go to sleep,” he said, and stepped back again out of sight.
“And to get well,” continued Frank, “you’ve got to go to sleep and bring your strength back. David, don’t you remember our two beds at the end of dormitory? Well, think yourself back in yours with me in the one next you, and imagine it’s time to go to sleep. It’s quite easy you know. Imagine it’s that jolly evening after our house-match last year, when you were so tired you fell asleep without undressing.”
He was silent a little, but his eyes were still wide.
“I say, would it bore you awfully to hold my hand,” he said. “You’re so strong and fit and quiet. I might get some. I don’t know. Am I talking rot?”
Frank fitted his hand into David’s, which lay like a sick child within it.
“Yes, ripping,” said he, a little drowsily. “Sure it’s not an awful bore?”
“You didn’t get a rise out of me,” he said.
“Shall have another try before long,” said Frank. “Comfortable?”
David lay for some ten minutes still wide-eyed, but quiet. Then his eyelids fluttered, closed and opened again.
“Awfully comfortable,” he said. “I wanted just you to tell me what to do. I did so want you to come.”
David’s eyelids dropped again, and the doctor came round to Maddox’s side.
“Sit quite still,” he whispered, “and don’t speak to him again.”
“Sure it doesn’t bore you?” asked David once more.
Again there was silence, and the two, the friend and the doctor, remained absolutely still for some five minutes. Then from the bed came a long sigh. David’s head rolled a little sideways on the pillow, and after that came the quiet, regular breathing. Then the doctor whispered once more to Maddox.
“You may have to sit like that with your arm out for hours,” he said. “We’ll try to make you comfortable presently. Can you manage it?”
The doctor quietly left the room, but came back soon after with pillows, and, as well as he could, propped up Maddox’s outstretched arm. Then he spoke to the nurse who was to sit up, and came back to the bed and looked at David a moment, listening to his regular breathing.
“I’m going to get a bit of sleep now,” he whispered to Frank, “but I’m afraid you won’t. You must stop just as you are. If he lets go of your hand you must still sit there in case he wakes and asks for you. If he says anything, answer him as if he was in his dormitory, and you in the bed next him. You’re in charge.”