A CASE OF SUSPICION
(A country doctor sets out to help a patient in the middle of a windy night. Whom does he meet on the way ? And, what does he learn ? Let's read and find out.)
He threw back the covers and sat up on his bed, his feet feeling along the cold floor for his house slippers, the telephone ringing insistently, a little distance away.
He turned on the light and walked to the phine, and took down the receiver.
"This Doctor Benson," he said.
The November wind was bringing sounds of winter as it blew around the little white house. The doctor got into his clothes. He went to the table and stared a moment at his watch, his spirit complaint at the horrible hour and he wondered why children had to be boun at such improper times. He took up two smail handbags, the short pill bag, as the people of the town know it, and the long obstetrical case, the haby bag they called it.
Doctor Benson stopped a moment to light and, then put the pack of cigarettes in his overcoat pocket. The wind felt like a surgeon's knife at jis face as he opend the door and ran, bending low, around the driveway in the grage.
Hid car started with difficulty, coughed half a dozen times as he drove down the driveway but then began to run more smoothly as he turned sown Grass Street and on to the deserted highway.
Mrs. On Sorley, who Doctor Benson was ont his way to visit, already had almost a dozen children, but it seemed to the doctor that never once had she had a baby in goo weather, nor in daylight. And while Doctor Benson was a country doctor. he was still a young man and shouldn't find the pleasure that his father, the old Doctor Benson had found in seeing Ott, the father, always two or three babies behind in payment of his baby bills.
(How do you think the story proceeds ? Will it be about Mrs. or Mr.Sorley ? Or will there be a chance meeting with someone else ? Read ahead to find out .)
It was a long ride to the Sorley farm and the sight of a man walking alone the country road, as seen just ahead by the lights of the car, was a welcome relief to the doctor. He slowed down and looked at teh man waling along with difficulty against the wind, a little package under his arm.
Coming alongside, Doctor Benson stopped and invited the man to ride. The man got in.
"Are you going far?" asked the doctor.
"I'm going all the way in Detroit," said the man, a rathe thin man with small black eyes filled with tears from the wind. "Could you give me a cigarette ?"
Doctor Benson unbuttoned his coat, then remembered the cigarettes in the outer pocket of his overcoat. He took out the packet and gave it to the rider who then looked in his own pockets for a match. When the cigarette was lighted, the man held the packet a moment, then asked, "Do you mind, mister, if I take another cigarette for later?". The rider shook the packet to remove another cigarette without waiting for the doctor to answer. Doctor Benson felt a hand touch his pocket.
"I'll put them back in your pocket, "the little fellow said, Doctor Benson put his hand down quickly to receive the cigarettes and was a little irritated to find them already in his pocket.
A few minutes later, Doctor Benson said, "So you're going to Detroit?"
''I am going out to look for work in one of th automobile plants"
"Are you a mechanic?" asked the doctor.
"More or less, I've been driving a track since the war ended. But I lost my job about a month ago."
''Were you in the army during the war?"
"Yeah, I was in the ambulance section. Right up at the front. Drove an ambulance for four years."
"Is that so?" said Doctor Benson. "I'm a doctor myself. Doctor Benson is my name."
"I thought this car smelled likes pills," the man laughter. Then he added, more seriously, "My name is Evans"
They rode along silently for a few minutes and the rider moved himself in his seat and placed his package on the floor. As the man leaned over, Doctor Benson caught his first good look at the small, catlike face.
The doctor also noticed the long deep scar on the man's cheek, bright and red - looking as though it were of recent origin. He thought of Mrs. Ott Sorly and reached for his watch. His fingers went deep into his pocket before he realized that his watch was not there.
(Did the doctor like Evans' small catlike face and bright fresh scars? Would yu have thought well of Evans ? What do you think will happen next?)
Doctor Benson moved his hand very slowly and very carefully below the seat untill he felt the leather holster, in which he always carried with him, his automatic pistol.
He drew out the pistol slowly and held it in the darkness at his side. Doctor Benson stopped the car quickly and pushed the nose of his gun into Evans' side.
The rider jumped with fear and put up his hands quickly "My God, mister, "he whispered "I thought you...."
Doctor Benson pushed the pistol still deeper into the man's side and repcated coldly, "Put that watch in my pocket before I let this gun go off."
Evans put his hand in his own vest pocket and later. with trembling hands, tried to put the watch into the doctor's pocket, With his free hand ,Doctor Benson pushed the watch down into his pocket. He opened the door and forced the man out of the car.
"I'm out here tonight, probably to save a woman's life, but I took time out to try to help you," he said to the man angrily.
Doctor Benson started the car quickly and the wind closed the door with a loud noise. He put trhe pistol back into the leather holster under the seat and hurried on.
The drive up the mountain to the Sorley farm was less difficult than he had feared and On Sorley had sent one of his older boys down the road with a lantern to help him across the old wooden bridge that led up to the little farm house.
Mrs. Sorley's many previous experiences with bringing chidren into the world apparently helped her greatly because she delivered this child with little difficulty and there was no need on Doctor Benson's part for the instruments in the long bag.
After it was all over, however, Doctor Benson took a cigarette and sat down to smoke Was the doctor right in turning Evans out in the cold? Do you think he will ever know whether he was right or wrong ? Was the case of suspicion justified ?
"A fellow picked up in my car on my way up here tonight tried to tob me." he said to On, feeling a little proud. "He took my watch. But when I pushed my 0.45 pistol into his side, he decided to give it to the back."
Ott smile wide at such an exciting story coming fram young Doctor Benson.
"Well, I', glad he gave it back to you," Ott said, "Because if he hadn't we wouldn't have any idea what time the child was born. What time would you say it happened Doc?"
Doctor Benson took the watch from his pocket.
"The baby was delivered about thirty minutes ago, and right now it's......"He walked over to the lamp on the table.
He started strangely at teh watch in his hand. The crystal was cracked. the top was broken, he turned the watch over and held it closer to the lamp. He studied the worn inscription there.
"To Private T.Evans, Ambulance Section, whose personal bravery preserved our lives the night of Now.3,1943 near the Italian front Nurses Nesbitt. Jones and Wingate"
-E.Wallace
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