"This gentleman's a friend of mine," she said, jerking her head toward Maurice; "he says you _shan't_ carry Jacky off!"
The doctor's relief at having a man to talk to was obvious. And while Maurice was trying to get in a word, there came another whimper from the room where Jacky lay, red and blotched, talking brokenly to himself: "Maw!" Lily ran to him, leaving the two men alone.
"Thank Heaven!" the doctor said; "I'd about as soon argue with a hornet as a mother. She's nearly crazy! I'll tell you the situation." He told it, and Maurice listened, frowning.
"What can be done?" he said; "I--I am only an acquaintance; I hardly know Mrs. Dale; but she sent for me. She's frantic at the idea of the boy being taken away from her."
"He'll _have_ to be taken away! Besides, he'll have ten times better care in the hospital than he could have here."
"Why, if she can afford to take a private room--"
"Good heavens! money's no object; anything to keep her from doing some wild thing!"
"Not the slightest. I--knew her husband."
"The thing for you to do," said the doctor, "is to hustle right out to a telephone; call up the hospital. Get Doctor Nelson, if you can--"
"Yes; if not, get Baker; tell him I--" then followed concise directions; "But try and get Nelson; he's the top man. They're frightfully crowded, and if you fool with understrappers, you'll get turned down. I'd do it, but I've got to stay here and see that she doesn't get perfectly crazy."
Almost before the doctor finished his directions, Maurice was rushing downstairs.... That next half hour was a nightmare. He ran up the street, slippery with ice; saw over a drug store the blue sign of the public telephone, and dashed in--to wait interminably outside the booth! A girl in a silly hat was drawling into the transmitter. Once Maurice, pacing frantically up and down, heard her flat laugh; then, to his dismay, he saw her, through the glass of the door, instead of hanging up the receiver, drop a coin into the slot....
He turned and struck his fist on the counter. "Why the devil don't you have two booths here?" he demanded.
The druggist, lounging against the soda-water fountain, smiled calmly: "You can search _me_. Ask the company."
"Can't you stop that woman? My business is important. For God's sake pull her out!"