od huddled together as if in whispered
conspiracy about some black contagion of a deadlier malice than
any that had yet struck terror to the hearts of men.

Several years ago it was typhoid fever that had helped many
people to move out of Duck Town. A very badly behaved disease it
was. It came right up into the city and went stalking brazenly
into the most stately homes along the wooded avenues and
beautiful boulevards.

Next after the ravages of typhoid came diphtheria in its most
malignant form, and this time--Heaven help us!--this time scarlet
fever had come. And this time, as before, there were competent
physicians to receive the plague; there were specialists and
careful nurses with snowy aprons and pretty caps.

But not in Duck Town. Down there the people knew a man whom they
called the Old Doctor. He was not old, not really; it was merely
that he had the manner of a veteran. He browbeat them shamefully,
as was perfectly proper for an old doctor; he bullied them a
great deal, and scolded, and called names, and worked for them,
and did not know how to sleep. That made them fear and respect
him, but goodness knows what made them love him. They did,
though--feared, respected, and loved the man.

Only he could not teach them to be sanitary. He knew their names,
their silly Russian names and their silly Polish names; he knew
their Slavic and their Bohemian names, but their language he did
not know, and all the hygiene they could learn was to call for
him when sickness and trouble came to them.

"Keep clean," he would say. "Drain your cellars; air out and keep
clean; do try to keep clean!"

But how could they do that? Four big families in one small house
do not help much to keep one small house both clean and sanitary.
Dr. Redfield knew that, and he swore at Duck Town for a vile and
filthy hole. So did the people swear at Duck Town, and many of
them suddenly stopped living there. For, despite the strength and
courage of their champion; despite the potency of drugs; despite
the sleepless nights and days spent in fighting disease, the
deadly contagion grew and spread.

Dr. Redfield had gone through epidemics before, but never one
like this, and now his energy was gone. For the first time in his
life the impulse had come upon him to own defeat and surrender.
Other men, younger doctors than he, should take up the fight. As
for him, he could not battle against such odds. He would give it
up; he would go away. He w