CHAPTER II
THE KERNEL OF THE DIFFICULTY
"I want to know!" said Capper, with extreme deliberation.
He was the best-known surgeon in the United States, and he looked likenothing so much as a seedy Evangelical parson. Hair, face, beard, allbore the same distinguishing qualities, were long and thin and yellow.He sat coiled like a much-knotted piece of string, and he seemed topossess the power of moving any joint in his body independently of therest. He cracked his fingers persistently when he talked after a fashionthat would have been intolerable in anyone but Capper. His hands werealways in some ungainly attitude, and yet they were wonderful hands,strong and sensitive, the colour of ivory. His eyes were small andgreen, sharp as the eyes of a lizard. They seemed to take in everythingand divulge nothing.
"What do you want to know?" said Lucas.
He was lying in bed with the spring sunshine full upon him. His eyes weredrawn a little. He had just undergone a lengthy examination at the handsof the great doctor.
"Many things," said Capper, somewhat snappishly. "Chief among them, whyyour tomfool brother--you call him your brother, I suppose?--brought meover here on a fool's errand."
"He is my brother," said Lucas quietly. "And why a fool's errand? Isthere something about my case you don't like?"
"There is nothing whatever," said Capper, with an exasperated tug at hispointed beard. "I could make a sound man of you. It wouldn't be easy.But I could do it--given one thing, which I shan't get. Is the sunbothering you?"
He suddenly left his chair, bent over and with infinite gentleness raisedhis patient to an easier posture and drew forward the curtain.
"I guess I won't talk to you now," he said. "I've given you as much asyou can stand and then some already. How's that? Is it comfort?"
"Absolute," Lucas said with a smile. "Don't go, doctor. I am quite ableto talk. I suppose matters haven't altered very materially since yousaw me last?"
"I don't see why you should suppose that," said Capper. "As a matter offact things have altered--altered considerably. Say, you don't have thosefainting attacks any more?"
"No. I've learnt not to faint." There was a boyishly pathetic note aboutthe words though the lips that uttered them still smiled.
Capper nodded comprehendingly. "But the pain is just as infernal, eh?Only you've the grit to stand against it. Remember the last time Ioverhauled you? You fainted twice. That's how I knew you would never faceit. But I've hurt you worse to-day, and I'm damned if I know how youmanaged to come up smiling."
"Then why do you surmise that you have been brought here on a fool'serrand?" Lucas asked.
"I don't surmise," said Capper. "I never surmise. I know." He began tocrack his fingers impatiently, and presently fell to whistling below hisbreath. "No," he said suddenly, "you've got the physical strength andyou've got the spunk to lick creation, but what you haven't got is zeal.You're gallant enough, Heaven knows, but you are not keen. You arepassive, you are lethargic. And you ought to be in a fever!"
His fingers dropped abruptly upon Lucas's wrist, and tightened upon it."That brother of yours that you're so fond of, now if it were he, I couldpull him out of the very jaws of hell. He'd catch and hold. But you--youare too near the other place to care. Say, you don't care, do you, not asingle red cent? It's all one to you--under Providence--whether you liveor die. And if I operated on you to-morrow you'd die--not at once, butsooner or later--from sheer lack of enthusiasm. That's my difficulty.It's too long a business. You would never keep it up."
Lucas did not immediately reply. He lay in the stillness habitual tohim, gazing with heavy eyes at the motes that danced in the sunshine.
"I guess I'm too old, doctor," he said at last. "But you are wrong in onesense. I do care. I don't want to die at present."
"Private reasons?" demanded Capper keenly.
"Not particularly. You see, I am the head of the family. I hold myselfresponsible. My brothers want looking after, more or less."
"Brothers!" sniffed Capper, with supreme contempt. "Thatconsideration wouldn't keep you out of heaven. It's only anotherreason for holding back."
"Exactly," Lucas said quietly. "I don't know what Nap will say to me. Hewill call me a shirker. But on the whole, doctor, I think I must holdback a little longer."
"He'd better let me hear him!" growled Capper. "I wish to heaven youwere married. That's the kernel of the difficulty. You want a wife.You'd be keen enough then. I shouldn't be afraid of your letting go whenI wasn't looking."
"Ah!" Lucas said, faintly smiling. "But what of the wife?"
"She'd be in her element," maintained Capper stoutly. "She'd be to youwhat the mainspring is to a watch, and glory in it. Haven't you seen suchwomen? I have, scores of 'em, ready made for the purpose. No, you willonly go through my treatment with a woman to hold you up. It's a processthat needs the utmost vitality, the utmost courage, and--something greatto live for--a motive power behind to push you on. There's only onemotive power that I can think of strong enough to keep you moving. Andthat is most unfortunately absent. Find the woman, I tell you, find thewoman! And--under Providence--I'll do the rest!"
He dropped back in his chair, cracking his fingers fiercely, his keeneyes narrowly observant of every shade of expression on his patient'sface.
Lucas was still smiling, but his eyes had grown absent. He lookedunutterably tired.
"Yes," he said slowly at length. "I am afraid you have asked theimpossible of me now. But, notwithstanding that, if I could see my wayto it, I would place myself in your hands without reservation--and takemy chance. There are times now and then--now and then--" his wordsquickened a little, "when a man would almost give the very soul out ofhis body to be at peace--to be at peace; times when it's downright agonyto watch a fly buzzing up and down the pane and know he hasn't even thestrength for that--when every muscle is in torture, and every movementmeans hell--" He broke off; his lips usually so steady had begun totwitch. "I'm a fool, Capper," he murmured apologetically. "Makeallowances for a sick man!"
"Look here!" said Capper. "This is a big decision for you to makeoff-hand. You can take three months anyway to think it over. You aregetting stronger, you know. By then you'll be stronger still. You won'tbe well. Nothing but surgical measures can ever make you well. And you'llgo on suffering that infernal pain. But three months one way or anotherwon't make much difference. I am due in London in September for theSchultz Medical Conference. I'll run over then and see if you've made upyour mind."
"Will you, doctor? That's real kind of you." Lucas's eyes brightened. Hestretched out a hand which Capper grasped and laid gently down. "And ifyou undertake the job--"
"If you are fit to go through it," Capper broke in, "I'll do it rightaway before I leave. You'll spend the winter on your back. And in thespring I'll come again and finish the business. That second operation isa more delicate affair than the first, but I don't consider it moredangerous. By this time next year, or soon after, you'll be walking likean ordinary human being. I'll have you as lissom as an Indian."
He cracked his fingers one after the other in quick succession and rose.A moment he stood looking down at the smooth face that had flushedunwontedly at his words; then bending, he lightly tapped his patient'schest. "Meanwhile, my friend," he said, "you keep a stiff upper lip, and_cherchez la femme--cherchez la femme toujours_! You'll be a sound mansome day and she won't mind waiting if she's the right sort."
"Ah!" Lucas said. "You will have to forego that condition, doctor. I amno ladies' man. Shall I tell you what a woman said to me the other day?"
"Well?"
"That I was like a mother to her." Again without much mirth he smiled.His lips were steady enough now.
"I should like to meet that woman," said Capper.
"Why?"
The doctor's hand sought his beard. "P'r'aps she'd tell me I was like afather. Who knows?"
Lucas looked at him curiously. "Are you fond of women?"
"I adore them," said Capper without enthusiasm. He nev
er satisfiedcuriosity.
Lucas's eyes fell away baffled. "I'll take you to see her this afternoonif you can spare the time," he said.
"Oh, I can spend the afternoon philandering so long as I catch the nighttrain to Liverpool," Capper answered promptly. "Meanwhile you must get arest while I go and take a dose of air and sunshine in the yard."
His straight, gaunt figure passed to the door, opened it, and disappearedwith a directness wholly at variance with his lack of repose when seated.
As for Lucas, he lay quite still for a long while, steadily watching themotes that danced and swam giddily in the sunshine.
Nearly half an hour went by before he stirred at all. And then a heavysigh burst suddenly from him, shaking his whole body, sending a flickerof pain across his drooping eyelids.
"_Cherchez la femme_!" he said to himself. And again with a quiveringsmile, "_Cherchez la femme_! God knows she isn't far to seek. But--mydear--my dear!"