virus?"
"I think so. At least it's a better possibility than the things they'reusing up there." His voice was urgent. "And to think I might neverhave seen it if you hadn't put me on the track."
"Are you sure you're right?"
"Not absolutely, but the facts fit. The theory's good."
"Then I'm going to the clinic. I can't risk infecting you. I'm a carriernow. I can kill you, and you're too important to die."
"You don't know how wrong you are," Kramer said.
"Let go of me!"
"No--you're coming back!"
She twisted in his grasp. "Let me go!" she sobbed and broke into a fitof coughing worse than before.
"What I was trying to say," Dr. Kramer said into the silence thatfollowed, "is that if you have Thurston's Disease, you've been a carrierfor at least two weeks. If I am going to get it, your going away can'thelp. And if I'm not, I'm not."
"Do you come willingly or shall I knock you unconscious and drag youback?" Kramer asked.
She looked at his face. It was grimmer than she had ever seen it before.Numbly she let him lead her back to the laboratory.
* * * * *
"But, Walter--I can't. That's sixty in the past ten hours!" sheprotested.
"Take it," he said grimly, "then take another. And inhale. Deeply."
"But they make me dizzy."
"Better dizzy than dead. And, by the way--how's your chest?"
"Better. There's no pain now. But the cough is worse."
"It should be."
"Why?"
"You've never smoked enough to get a cigarette cough," he said.
She shook her head dizzily. "You're so right," she said.
"And that's what nearly killed you," he finished triumphantly.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm certain. Naturally, I can't prove it--yet. But that's just a matterof time. Your response just about clinches it. Take a look at therecords. Who gets this disease? Youngsters--with nearly one hundred percent morbidity and one hundred per cent mortality. Adults--less thanfifty per cent morbidity--and again one hundred per cent mortality. Whatmakes the other fifty per cent immune? Your crack about leather lungsstarted me thinking--so I fed the data cards into the computer and keyedthem for smoking versus incidence. And I found that not one heavy smokerhad died of Thurston's Disease. Light smokers and nonsmokers--plenty ofthem--but not one single nicotine addict. And there were over tenthousand randomized cards in that spot check. And there's the exactreverse of that classic experiment the lung cancer boys used to selltheir case. Among certain religious groups which prohibit smoking therewas nearly one hundred per cent mortality of all ages!
"And so I thought since the disease was just starting in you, perhaps Icould stop it if I loaded you with tobacco smoke. And it works!"
"You're not certain yet," Mary said. "I might not have had thedisease."
"You had the symptoms. And there's virus in your sputum."
"Yes, but--"
"But, nothing! I've passed the word--and the boys in the other labsfigure that there's merit in it. We're going to call it Barton's Therapyin your honor. It's going to cause a minor social revolution. A lot oflaws are going to have to be rewritten. I can see where it's going to beillegal for children not to smoke. Funny, isn't it?
"I've contacted the maternity ward. They have three babies still aliveupstairs. We get all the newborn in this town, or didn't you know.Funny, isn't it, how we still try to reproduce. They're rigging a smokechamber for the kids. The head nurse is screaming like a wounded tiger,but she'll feel better with live babies to care for. The only bad thingI can see is that it may cut down on her chain smoking. She's beenworried a lot about infant mortality.
"And speaking of nurseries--that reminds me. I wanted to ask yousomething."
"Yes?"
"Will you marry me? I've wanted to ask you before, but I didn't dare.Now I think you owe me something--your life. And I'd like to take careof it from now on."
"Of course I will," Mary said. "And I have reasons, too. If I marry you,you can't possibly do that silly thing you plan."
"What thing?"
"Naming the treatment Barton's. It'll have to be Kramer's."
Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from _Analog Science Fact and Science Fiction_ February 1962. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.
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