The Story of Dr. Wassell Read Online Free PDF Page B

of that at all,” said Goode, “and you’re
just kidding me.”
    The doctor didn’t quite know what to say.
    “Yes, you are,” Goode continued, in a level voice, “because I know the
truth. Muller just told me—he’s from the same town, and he had a letter
with the news in it about Helen. I guess he thought he was breaking it to me
gently.”
    “I’m very sorry,” said the doctor.
    Goode smiled—a curious, forced smile.
    “Nothing to be sorry about. I’m glad she ditched me before she knew. It
would have been awful if she’d stuck to me just because she learned I only
had one eye. She might have. She’s that kind of a girl. Ever know that kind
of a girl, Doc?”
    The doctor started as if he had suddenly been reminded of something, and
when he answered it was in a changed voice. “Sure,” he answered, and then
added to change the subject quickly: “Now let me read the rest of the
letters.”
    He did so, without comment, then patted the boy’s hand and went away. When
he reached the corridor outside the ward he saw a group of nurses chattering
together as if they too were facing tough luck. They told him, as he passed
by, that Singapore had fallen.
    That was oil February fifteenth, and the same day the Japs crossed over to
Sumatra and also began the invasion of Bali. However impregnable Java was,
one could not forget that Sumatra and Bali were the two islands at either end
of it.
    As the men improved in health they began to talk more about the general
situation, for though the radio news kept on dishing out encouragement, the
fact that events were growing daily more serious could not be concealed from
them. They could read it, if nowhere else, in the eyes of the Dutch doctors
and nurses, in the air of expectancy just before the times of the day when
news was broadcast, and in the preoccupied look that Dr. Voorhuys carried
around with him during his daily visits to the wards.
    The doctor from Arkansas did not want to talk much about the war with the
men, because he thought it would not be cheering for them; but he would have
liked to discuss certain aspects of it with Commander Wilson,
because—quite frankly—he was beginning to foresee possibilities
in which the advice of a superior officer might be helpful. What, for
instance, should he do if an invasion of Java were actually attempted, or if
the tide of battle should collie inland? Should he stay at the hospital with
his men, or try to get them to some safer place?
    Once, in this mood of seeking advice, he called up Surabaya on the
telephone, asking for a man at Navy headquarters whom he had got along with
pretty well during his last visit. He was surprised to learn then that all
Navy officials had left Surabaya and were now concentrated at Tjilatjap, on
the south side of the island.
    When he asked the Dutch doctors what they thought Would happen, they just
shrugged their shoulders and declared for the fiftieth time that there would
be no surrender of Java.
    And Wilson was still too ill to talk much.
    Amidst this mounting tension McGuffey chose to absent himself one night,
returning in the morning after adventures which he did not specify, but which
included female companionship, and a grand discussion of wartime strategy
with some British soldiers stationed at the local airport.
    The doctor was furious. “Nov I’m just mad at you, McGuffey—sneaking
out at a time like this! And you needn’t think I shan’t report you for it!
I’m here to see you get decent treatment, and by golly you’ve been given it,
and it’s up to you to give something in return…not go breaking rules all
over the place! I suppose you don’t care about all the extra worry you caused
us!”
    “Sorry, Doc, but you didn’t have to worry. There’s more than me to
worry about, anyway, if you’d heard all that I heard. Some of those English
fellers told me things that make your hair stand on end! I mean about
Singapore, and the