Doctor On The Boil Read Online Free PDF

looked round and dropped his voice. ‘I wouldn’t like this to get back to my father, but I’ve been writing a few scripts.’
    ‘Not more hospital dramas–’
    ‘No, quite different. Comedy scripts. They’re really not bad. At least, our au pair girl thinks so, though she has a Swedish sense of humour, of course, and doesn’t speak English very well.’
    ‘I might possibly fix something,’ Ken told him loftily. ‘My bird works in the script department, too.’ George’s eyes shone brighter. ‘But exam questions first. Intro after. All right?’
    ‘All right,’ George agreed in a guilty voice. ‘Thanks for the beer. Sorry I haven’t time to buy you the other half.’
    Terry Summerbee was meanwhile hurrying down the flight of stone steps from the main hall to the X-ray department, which occupied a section of the basement, and like every other department in the Victorian building was so overcrowded with equipment as to appear in a permanent state of improvisation. Tightening the knot in his tie and looking round furtively for signs of the senior radiologist, he stepped determinedly among the apparatus towards a door at the far end marked DARK ROOM – KEEP OUT.
    ‘Hello, there! Young Summerbee, I see. Brushing up your X-rays for the exam? Very keen of you. In my day, if I had the bad luck to be confronted with a radiograph I’d simply give a low whistle and say “That does look a nasty one”. Surprising how often the examiner would agree heartily and let out what it was.’
    Terry cursed under his breath. Dr Grimsdyke was popular among the students – as once the most experienced student in the country, he always saw their point of view. But he was inclined to be pushful, talkative, and a shade hearty – not at all the sort Terry wanted hanging about the scene of his delicate mission.
    ‘I just thought I’d get a few films out of the X-ray museum.’
    ‘Very wise of you. They always raid that little store of horror-pictures for the exams. But perhaps you’ll allow me to point out that the museum’s at the other end of the department?’
    ‘Oh, is it?’ asked Terry innocently. ‘I don’t know my way around as well as you do.’
    ‘No, I think perhaps not,’ agreed Grimsdyke. ‘Toddle along now. If you find the baby who’s swallowed a nappy-pin, notice its heart is pointing the wrong way. They caught me on that one way back in…well, the little thing is probably a father itself by now.’
    Grimsdyke watched with a half-smile and Terry made towards the far end of the basement. When the student was safely through the door marked MUSEUM, he moved to the dark-room door and tapped on it.
    ‘Come in. The light’s on.’
    Grimsdyke made his way through a double door guarding the entrance. The small room, with its open tanks and dripping fluids resembling some coastal grotto, was illuminated by the ghostly glow of diffuse light through negatives of human skeletons. Grimsdyke thought it lit rather prettily Stella the new pupil radiographer, with her long blonde hair falling to the shoulders of her white nylon overall – contrary to regulations, but she seemed to regard those as inconveniences only for other people.
    ‘Any interesting snaps today?’
    ‘You made that remark yesterday,’ she said. ‘Lover boy.’
    ‘Did I?’ Grimsdyke perched himself on the edge of a tank on the far side of the room. ‘How about coming out tonight for a quiet dinner?’
    ‘But lover man, I told you. It’s my night for Oxfam.’
    ‘Then how about tomorrow?’
    ‘That’s Thursday, isn’t it? Oh… I’ve one of those boring evenings with my parents.’
    ‘Then Friday?’
    ‘Friday’s the evening for my cordon bleu cookery classes, lover boy. And Saturday’s booked for months and months.’
    ‘Sunday?’
    ‘Oh, I’m far too religious. Do you mind if I turn out the light?’
    ‘No, no, go ahead.’
    Illuminated only by a dull red glow from the corner, Stella started splashing in a tank. Grimsdyke rose