Read SHERLOCK HOLMES IN NEW YORK for Free Online Page B

open mouth his breath came raspingly. He was clearly quite drunk or under the influence of some opiate, and I felt a professional obligation to see him in surroundings where he could avoid further injury to his system.
    "Why don't I see you to your cabin, old fellow?" I said as heartily as I could.
    "Goo' idea. Hot . . . here."
    The man looked up at me as if through a pond-deep layer of water.
    "And where's your cabin, eh? B Deck, or what?" It seemed to me that he muttered "flummery."
    "What?"
    He made a greater effort for clarity. "'Nn . . . frm'ry. Infirm'ry. 'M doctor. Ship's doc tor."
    I flushed with rage and shame for my profession. The one physician available for hundreds of souls on this ship, and the man was dead drunk! Brusquely, I helped him to his feet and ushered him from the lounge—aware, with little regret, that I was missing a large lady beginning an impassioned reading from her favorite poems of Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
    Once we were out of earshot of the crowd and I was hustling him down the corridors and stairways that led to the infirmary, where he was quartered, I could not refrain from remonstrating with him.
    "This is disgraceful, man! Think of those dependent on you—scores and scores of people who might at any moment suffer injury or sickness, and have only you to turn to! Why, there's an old lady aboard practically on the point of death! Do you propose to minister to her, should she require it, fuddled with drink? Or are you even aware of her presence among your . . . practice? "
    "Rum ol' lady," he mumbled, his rubber-legged walk making him twist in my grasp. "Of course saw 'r. She's sick. Tha's what I do, see sick people. Ship's doctor, y'know. Looked in on 'r jus' before concert, dam' fellow there wouldn't let m' see 'r. Gave me a cup of tea, chat 'bout how she's restin' com'f'bly, sent me off with flea in ear. I know that kin'. Next thing, 'll want death stifk't. No queshions 'n' a nice sea burial. Won't get it, not f'm me . . ."
    During this drunken maundering, I managed to get the doctor to his quarters, place him on his bunk, and loosen his tie. Praying that there would be no calls until at least morning—preferably not until the end of the voyage—on his skills, I left him.
    Outside the infirmary, I stood uncertainly for a mo ment.
    The old lady I had seen carried on board was surely gravely ill, and the doctor who should have been responsible for her care was incapable of seeing to it. Ought I not make some effort to satisfy myself of her condition? If so, how? I had no idea of her name or her cabin, and I shrank from making inquiries of the ship's staff, which would inevitably expose the doctor to a ruinous investigation; after all, this might be only a momentary aberration, and, in spite of my indignation, I had no wish to destroy the man's career.
    My problem was partially solved by the sudden appearance of a man whom I recognized as he who had followed the old lady's invalid-chair up the gang plank at Liverpool. He was emerging from a door down the corridor. He carried a book in one hand, and I surmised that he was going to the ship's library to exchange it for another, doubtless his means for whiling away the hours of his vigil.
    "Sir!" I called after him.
    He stopped, and I explained that I was a physi cian and—stretching the truth somewhat—had been asked to give a consultant's opinion on the old lady, about whom the ship's doctor was concerned.
    "My aunt is well enough," the man observed. "She is sturdier than she looks, Doctor, and may well bury many who are younger than she." He seemed to find the thought amusing. "In any case; she has a passion for privacy, and flatly refuses to see any physician or other person whatever. You may tell your colleague that Miss Jacobs is as well as her age allows her, and that she does not stand in need of his services—or yours, sir. Good night."
    I was affronted at the man's curtness, but, I con fess, relieved that there seemed to be no further