"Oh!" she sprang out and rushed to the stairs. "Doctor!"

"John!" The snores continued. Ting-a-ling-ling-ling-ling-ling!

"Oh, dear!" gasped Mary, hurrying down as fast as her feet could take her. Straight to the 'phone she went. It must be appeased first.

"h.e.l.lo?"

"h.e.l.l-_o_! Where's the doctor?"

"He is very fast asleep."

"I've found that out. Can you get him awake?" Sharp impatience was in the man's voice.

"Hold the 'phone a minute, please, and I'll rouse him."

She went into the bedroom and calling, "John! John!" shook him soundly by the shoulders. He sat up in bed with a wild look.

"Go to the 'phone, quick!" commanded Mary.

"Eh?"

"Go to the _'phone_. It's been ringing like fury. Hurry."

At last he was there and his wife knew by his questions and answers that he would be out for the rest of the night. She crept into bed. After he was gone she would go upstairs. When he was dressed he came to the door and peered in.

"That's right, Mary," he said, with such hearty satisfaction in his tones that she answered cheerfully, "All right--I'll stay this time."

And when he was gone she turned her face from the moonlit window and slept till morning, oblivious to the thieves and murderers that did not come.

Ting-a-ling-ling-ling. Ting-a-ling-ling-ling.

"Is the doctor there?"

"He was called out awhile ago; will be back in perhaps twenty minutes."

"This is Mr. Cowan. I only wanted to ask if my wife could have some lemonade this morning. She is very thirsty and craves it--but I can call again after awhile."

How discouraging to the feverish, thirsty wife to have her husband come back and tell her he would 'phone again after awhile. And if, after waiting, he still failed to find the doctor? Mary knew the Cowans quite well so she made bold to say, hastily, "I think the doctor would say _yes_."

"You think he would?" asked Mr. Cowan, hopefully.

"I think he would, but don't let her have too much, of course."

"All right. Thank you, Mrs. Blank."

An uneasy feeling came into Mary's mind and would not depart as she went about her work. Really, what right had she to prescribe for a sick woman even so harmless a thing as lemonade. How did she know that it was harmless. Perhaps in this case there was some combination of symptoms which would make that very thing the thing the patient ought not to have.

In about fifteen minutes there came a ring--three. Mary started guiltily. It sounded like the doctor's ring. Was he going to reprimand her? But it was the voice of a friend and it surprised Mary with this question:

"Mrs. Blank, if you were me would you have your daughter operated upon?"

"Operated upon for what?"

"For appendicitis."

"Nettie, let me tell you something: if I had no more sense than to give you advice on such a question as that, I certainly hope you would have more sense than to take it. Advice about a thing with no sort of knowledge of that thing is as worthless as it is common."

"Why--I thought since you are a doctor's wife you would know about it."

"Can you draw up a legal will because you happen to be the wife of a lawyer?"

"No-o, but--"

"But me no buts," quoth Mary. "We're even now."

"Well, I've heard it said a doctor's wife knows even less than many others about ills and their remedies because she is so used to depending on her husband that she never has to think of them herself. I guess I'd better talk to the doctor. I just thought I'd see what you said first.

Good-bye."

"My skirts are clear of any advice in that direction," thought Mary, her mind reverting again to the lemonade.

"Nettie couldn't have 'phoned me at a more opportune minute to get the right answer. But I wonder if John is back. I'll see." She rang.

"h.e.l.lo."

"Say, John, Mr. Cowan 'phoned awhile ago, and his wife was very thirsty and craved lemonade and--don't scold--I took the liberty of saying--it's awful for a thirsty person to have to wait and wait you know--and so I said I thought _you_ would say she might have it."

"I hope you weren't this long about it," laughed her husband.

"Then it was all right?"

"Certainly." Much relieved Mary hung up the receiver. "What needless apprehension a.s.sails us sometimes," she thought, as she went singing to her broom.

"Just the same, I won't prescribe very often."

CHAPTER XI.

It was five o'clock in the morning when the doctor heard the call and made his way to it. His wife was roused too and was a pa.s.sive listener.

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Down where? I don't understand you."