Doctor Jones' Picnic Part 13

"Yes, it grieves me exceedingly to be obliged to leave her, but I have no option in the matter. If that globe were my private property, I would not leave her until she was out of danger. But, under the circ.u.mstances, I cannot do so. After all," said he, brightening up with the thought, "she will probably do as well without me."

"She is the loveliest creature I ever saw," said Mattie. "How gentle, beautiful, and patient she is. Much as I desire to visit the North Pole, still I would gladly remain here six months or a year if it would do her any good."

The day pa.s.sed away without incident. After dinner all met in the drawing-room, and the invalid girl occupied an easy chair among them.

She extended her hand to Dr. Jones with a grateful smile, and said:

"Doctor, I have not pa.s.sed so comfortable a day for a very long time. I shall get well. Your medicine has done wonders for me already. You are, no doubt, in great haste to reach your destination, but you must not leave me until I am better. If you do, I shall die."

"O, no! my dear Miss Feodora, you will not die. I shall leave you medicines that will help you through nicely."

This the Doctor said with all the a.s.surance and cheerfulness he could command. But she instinctively detected a slight shade of anxiety or uncertainty in his tone. The physician must be a consummate actor who can deceive a patient whose perceptions are preternaturally acute as were Feodora's. He saw that he had not deceived her, and cried:

"Do not let us think of that subject to-night. This unfavorable wind may last many days, and I promise to see you better before I go."

She smiled sweetly and gratefully as he gave her this promise, and abandoned herself to the enjoyment of the music, conversation, etc., of the evening. Instrumental and vocal music const.i.tuted the princ.i.p.al source of amus.e.m.e.nt, and the audience awarded unstinted praise and applause. The singers were in the best possible form, not one of them complaining of cold or hoa.r.s.eness, as is customary. Nothing could exceed the sweetness and richness of Mrs. Jones' voice. It seemed to fill the gloomy halls and rooms of the castle to its farthest confines. And Mattie's contralto beautifully and n.o.bly seconded the soprano. The tenor and ba.s.s could scarcely have been better, and altogether it was a concert worthy of the praise of that, or any other, audience.

"You will never know what a change your coming has made in our home,"

said Feodora to Mrs. Jones and Mattie as they sat beside her. "Before your coming, all was so still and dark, and scarcely a sound could be heard in the rooms or halls all day. Now see the servants sitting and standing about the halls, chatting and laughing as if nothing had ever been wrong in the house. And look at papa talking and laughing as if he were not the saddest man on earth only two days ago. As for myself, I am simply astonished beyond measure. I have really forgotten for a time this evening that I am not perfectly well. O, what a beautiful, beautiful change! And it is perfectly heavenly to have a respite from pain, even if it be but temporary."

The two ladies, one sitting upon either side, smiled their sympathy and happiness, and pressed her poor emaciated hands between their own cool, soft, plump ones in a way that went directly to her heart.

"Let us help you up stairs," said Mrs. Jones, "for I am sure that you must be getting tired."

She a.s.sented, bade the company good-night, and retired with the two ladies.

"Now you must let us do everything we can for you while we are here,"

said Mrs. Jones. "You know that we are to see you better before we go away, and I have so much confidence in Dr. Jones' system of medicine that I am positive of your recovery."

Leaving her then to the nurse, they retired for the night.

CHAPTER XIV.

Doctor Jones Commits Treason.

As they met at the breakfast table next morning, they found the Count joyous and jubilant. Feodora had spent a comparatively comfortable night. At the regular hour, 3 o'clock, A.M., the st.i.tching pains and cough recurred, but were so much less than usual, and lasted so much shorter a time that she was radiant with joy, and thanked Dr. Jones so sweetly that the good man was obliged to hem and cough and wipe his nose and eyes, and complain of a slight cold which he had contracted. As for the n.o.bleman himself, he declared that he was the happiest and soundest of all the Czar's subjects.

"I cannot understand this matter, Doctor," said he. "I have absolutely exhausted the medical science of Europe without the slightest benefit.

Here you come from the United States, a new country, and supposed to be very much behind in all matters of science and letters, yet you have done for me and my daughter, as if by magic, what the acc.u.mulated science and knowledge of Europe have not been able to do at all. Is your science a mystic or esoteric affair, and are you the only one in possession of the secret?"

"No, indeed, Count Icanovich. So far from my system being esoteric or exclusively my own, I have for many years taught and exemplified to the best of my ability the law by which I am governed in the selection of the remedy. And there are a n.o.ble few in my country who are like children sitting in the market, crying, 'We have mourned unto you and ye would not mourn; we have piped unto you and ye would not dance.' By every possible means we have endeavored to induce the dominant school of medicine to investigate our claims, but they simply deride and laugh us to scorn."

"But surely, Doctor, they cannot deny the evidence of their own senses!

If you cure that which they cannot, they certainly must heed you.

Anything else is unthinkable," exclaimed the Count.

"My dear sir, human nature is past finding out in its capacity for stupidity and foolishness. G.o.d gives every man the power to choose good or evil, and no amount of evidence can dispossess him of this elective franchise. Hence he is the arbiter of his own fate. Abraham said to Dives concerning his brethren, 'If they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, though one arose from the dead.'

Jesus Christ healed the sick, raised the dead, restored the lame, the halt, the blind, in the presence of priests, lawyers, and doctors, the scientists of those days; and they put him to death in precisely the same spirit that they expatriated Samuel Hahnemann for discovering and promulgating the only law of cure in G.o.d's universe. Human nature has not changed a particle since the days of Adam and Eve, and it never will be any more nor less than what it is now, except as it is regenerated through the Atonement."

"This is marvelously strange," said the Count musingly. "I do not remember to have heard of your system more than a few times in my life, and then but as something ridiculous or foolish. Cannot something be done to bring it before the public?"

"So far as I know, Count Icanovich, there is not a school in Europe where the tenets of our system are taught. The dominant school of medicine has used its power, and legislation effectually bars us out in every European country. Only in America have we colleges, and even there whatever privileges we enjoy are the results of deadly and uncompromising warfare. So you will understand the difficulties under which we labor."

"It seems, then, that it is simply a matter of ignorance with the laity that your system has not become universally adopted," interposed Professor Gray. "And the 'Regular School,' as they style themselves, is exceedingly active in keeping them thus ignorant."

"That is the state of affairs exactly," cried Dr. Jones. "To ill.u.s.trate the fact that we have a law of cure, while the so-called Regulars have nothing like it, a certain physician, a number of years ago, sent out twenty letters, ten to prominent men of each school. He sent to each the ordinary price of a prescription, and represented himself as a patient.

He detailed precisely the same symptoms to each. Now, if medicine is worthy of being called a science, why should there not have been an answer, and but one answer, as to the remedy indicated in this case?"

"So I have said a thousand times," exclaimed the Count, excitedly. "And I can foretell the denouement so far as the Regular school is concerned: You received as many prescriptions that were totally unlike as there were men of that school who prescribed for you."

"Right, you are, my lord!" shouted the Doctor. "But eight of them responded. No two of their prescriptions at all resembled each other, and the aggregate number of drugs prescribed by them was somewhere near seventy, if I remember correctly. If all these drugs had been put into a jug, the compound would have been a ma.s.s of incompatibles that would have poisoned any miserable wretch who was fool enough to take it."

"But how did the men of your school do, Doctor?" asked Professor Gray.

"Did they do any better?"

"Did they!" again shouted Dr. Jones, swelling and flus.h.i.+ng with pride.

"Every one of them prescribed Lycopodium Pollen, which was the indicated remedy."

"How many physicians of your school are there in America?" asked the Count.

"Something like twelve thousand, I believe."

"And would each of them have prescribed the remedy you mentioned?"

"All worthy of the name would have done so."

"And are not all worthy?"

"I am forced to say no! not by a great many. Like every other representative system of truth, our greatest source of danger is from within. No chain is stronger than its weakest link, as has been said many times. The world judges us by our weaklings. Every good thing has its hordes of counterfeits."

"Well," said the Count, "I am deeply interested in this matter. I must hear more of it, Doctor."

"And I also am desirous of information upon this all important subject,"

added Professor Gray.

The wind had veered around to the west-nor-west. It had materially abated in violence, but was still unfavorable for our navigators. And, in truth, the Doctor was not nearly so anxious to depart at this time as was Professor Gray. The good Doctor's mind was divided between a desire to be off for the Arctics, and a professional interest in, and friendly solicitude for, the beautiful Feodora. Nothing could exceed the delight with which he noted the manifest curative power of the dose which he had given her. And he had pledged his word that he would not leave her until material improvement was apparent. So it was with a considerable degree of resignation that he saw the wind continue northerly.

The matter stood about thus between him and Professor Gray: While Dr.

Jones was really commander of the expedition, yet the Professor represented the Government's interests, and he kept a strict record of every day's occurrences. These must be subjected to the inspection of the proper authorities upon their return to Was.h.i.+ngton. The fact that Dr. Jones had interested himself in a sick girl in the heart of Russia, even though she was the only child of a Count who stood high with the Emperor of all the Russias, could not excuse him to his Government for holding in abeyance the mighty interests of the expedition upon which it had projected him.

For two more days the northerly winds prevailed. Then came the hoped-for, yet dreaded, change. At six o'clock in the morning, the Professor rapped upon Dr. Jones' chamber door.

"Come, Doctor," he cried. "Ho! for the North Pole. A glorious breeze from due South."

The Doctor joined him in a few moments, and they walked into the park.

The aluminum flag fluttered straight toward the north. The Doctor expressed his delight, but there tugged at his heart the thought of leaving the poor girl who clung to him for her life. But he did not dare to mention this fact to Professor Gray. He knew that no merely sentimental grounds would have any weight with that gentleman, and that he (the Professor) would hold him strictly accountable to the Government for any unnecessary delay.