Summary
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I
DOOM
"Then I'm to understand there's no hope for me?"
"I'm afraid not...." Greyerson said reluctantly, sympathy in his eyes.
"None whatever." The verdict was thus brusquely emphasized by Hartt, one of the two consulting specialists.
Having spoken, he glanced at his watch, then at the face of his colleague, Bushnell, who contented himself with a tolerant waggle of his head, apparently meant to imply that the subject of their deliberations really must be reasonable: anybody who wilfully insists on footing the measures of life with a defective constitution for a partner has no logical excuse for being reluctant to pay the Piper.
Whitaker looked quickly from one to the other of his three judges, acutely sensitive to the dread significance to be detected in the expression of each. He found only one kind and pitiful: no more than might have been expected of Greyerson, who was his friend. Of the others, Hartt had assumed a stony glare to mask the nervousness so plainly betrayed by his staccato accents; it hurt him to inflict pain, and he was horribly afraid lest the patient break down and "make a scene." Bushnell, on the other hand, was imperturbable by nature: a man to whom all men were simply "cases"; he sat stroking his long chin and hoping that Whitaker would have the decency soon to go and leave them free to talk shop—his pet dissipation.
Failing to extract the least glimmering of hope from the attitude of any one of them, Whitaker drew a long breath, unconsciously bracing himself in his chair.
"It's funny," he said with his nervous smile—"hard to realize, I mean. You see, I feel so fit—"
"Between attacks," Hartt interjected quickly.
"Yes," Whitaker had to admit, dashed.
"Attacks," said Bushnell, heavily, "recurrent at intervals constantly more brief, each a trifle more severe than its predecessor."
He shut his thin lips tight, as one who has consciously pronounced the last word.
Greyerson sighed.
"But I don't understand," argued the prisoner at the bar, plaintively bewildered. "Why, I rowed with the Crew three years hand-running—not a sign of anything wrong with me!"
"If you had then had proper professional advice, you would have spared yourself such strains. But it's too late now; the mischief can't be undone."
Evidently Bushnell considered the last word his prerogative. Whitaker turned from him impatiently.
"What about an operation?" he demanded of Greyerson.
The latter looked away, making only a slight negative motion with his head.
"The knife?" observed Hartt. "That would merely hasten matters."
"Yes," Bushnell affirmed....
There was a brief uneasy silence in the gloomy consulting room. Then Whitaker rose.
"Well, how long will you give me?" he asked in a strained voice.
"Six months," said Greyerson, miserably avoiding his eye.
"Three," Hartt corrected jerkily.
"Perhaps...." The proprietor of the last word stroked his chin with a contemplative air.
"Thanks," said Whitaker, without irony. He stood for an instant with his head bowed in thought. "What a damned outrage," he observed thoughtfully. And suddenly he turned and flung out of the room.
Greyerson jumped to follow him, but paused as he heard the crash of the street door. He turned back with a twitching, apologetic smile.
"Poor devil!" he said, sitting down at his desk and fishing a box of cigars from one of the drawers.
"Takes it hard," commented Hartt.
"You would, too, at his age; he's barely twenty-five."
"Must feel more or less like a fellow whose wife has run off with his best friend."
"No comparison," said Bushnell bluntly. "Go out, get yourself arrested for a brutal murder you didn't commit, get tried and sentenced to death within six months, the precise date being left to the discretion of the executioner—then you'll know how he feels."
"If you ask me"—Greyerson handed round the box—"he feels pretty shaky and abused, and he wants a drink badly—the same as me."
He unlocked a cellaret.
"Married?" Hartt inquired.
"No. That's the only mitigating circumstance," said Greyerson, distributing glasses. "He's quite alone in the world, as far as I know—no near relatives, at least."
"Well off?"
"Tolerably. Comes of good people. Believe his family had a lot of money at one time. Don't know how much of it there was left for Whitaker. He's junior partner in a young law firm down-town—senior a friend or classmate of his, I understand: Drummond & Whitaker. Moves with the right sort of people. Young Stark—Peter Stark—is his closest friend.... Well.... Say when."