He shut his teeth hard and the sweat of agony stood out on his pallid
face as she twisted and pulled and probed with clumsy, drunken fingers.

"Nell!" she called thickly.

The woman was watching from the doorway.

"Get the hypodermic and I'll give him a shot of hop, then I'm goin' to
bed. Lamb can look after him when he comes. I'm not goin' to monkey with
him now."

"But, Doc," the boy protested, "don't leave me like this. The bullet's
in there yet, and a piece of my shirt. The boys pulled out some, but
they couldn't reach the rest. Ain't you goin' to clean out the hole or
something? I'm scart of blood-poisonin', Doc, for I've seen how it
works," he pleaded.

His protest angered her.

"God! but you're wise with your talk of blood-poisonin'! You bums from
the Ditch give me more trouble and do more kickin' than all my private
patients put together. What do you want for a dollar a month"--she
sneered--"a special nurse? A shot in the arm will shut your mouth till
morning anyhow."

She shoved up the sleeve of his night clothes on the good arm and
gripped his wrist; then she jabbed the needle viciously.

His colorless lips were shut in a straight line and in his pain-stricken
eyes there was not so much anger now as a great wonder. Was this the
woman of whose acquaintance he had been proud, by whose bow of
recognition he always had felt flattered; this woman whose free speech
and careless good-nature he had defended against the occasional
criticism of coarser minds? This woman with her reeking breath and an
expression which seen through a mist of pain made her face look like
that of Satan himself, was it possible that she had had his liking and
respect? He was still wondering when the drowsiness of the drug seized
him and he slipped away into sleep.

Dr. Harpe gathered his clothes from the foot of the bed as she passed
out.

"Did he have anything on him, Nell?"

"No."

"They must have cleaned him out down below." She jerked her head toward
the dance hall as she turned a pocket inside out. "A dollar watch and a
jack-knife." She threw them both contemptuously upon the kitchen table.
"If he wakes up bellerin', shove the needle into him--you can do it as
well as I can. I'm goin' to bed."

She lunged down the corridor once more and Nell Beecroft stood looking
after with a curious expression of derision and contempt upon her hard
face.

Dr. Harpe threw herself upon the bed in one of the private rooms and
soon h