“Doctor Joe,” said Thomas in a strangely husky voice, “I’d rather have you do th’ cuttin’ than the other doctor, _what_ever. I knows what you says is right, and you’ll do un better than any other doctor could because you’re fond of Jamie and he’s fond of you, and you’re my friend. Whatever comes of un will be th’ Almighty’s will, and if Jamie goes blind after th’ cuttin’ I’ll never be complainin’.”
“Oh, Doctor Joe!” said Margaret, who had been listening, fascinated by Doctor Joe’s story, and whose eyes were moist with tears, “we all trusts you! We trusts you more than we trusts anybody else in the world!”
And Doctor Joe’s emotions nearly got the better of him when Jamie came over and put his hand in his.
“To-morrow, then,” said Doctor Joe, “we’ll operate. Jamie, are you afraid to have me cut the mist away?”
“No,” said Jamie stoutly, “I’d never be afraid t’ have _you_ cut un away.”
“But you _have_ got grit, now!” exclaimed Doctor Joe.
And so, with much hope and much foreboding, Jamie was prepared for the operation the following morning, and he was as brave as ever a little lad could be when, quite unassisted, he climbed upon the operating table which Doctor Joe had improvised.
Then Thomas, under Doctor Joe’s direction, applied the ether, while Doctor Joe watched its effect, and quickly Jamie passed into unconsciousness.
Deftly, and with a feather-like touch, Doctor Joe with a delicate instrument made a triangular incision upon the membrane which covered the white of one of Jamie’s eyes, and turning the membrane back removed a minute button-shaped piece from the exposed eyeball. Immediately this was done a fluid began to drain through the slight opening, and Doctor Joe spread the membrane back into place.
The other eye was treated in similar manner, and the eyes quickly bandaged by Doctor Joe. And then the unconscious Jamie was gently lifted into Thomas’s bunk, which Margaret had prepared for him.
Not a word had been spoken during all this time save by Doctor Joe, as he issued sharp, crisp directions to Thomas or Margaret. And now, when he looked up, there was a new alert enthusiasm in his face--a something they had never seen there before.
“We never can tell the result,” said he, “until the bandage is removed, but I never operated more skilfully. Sometimes it doesn’t cure, but it is the only thing to be done in such cases, and we’ll hope we have succeeded.”