of that old blighter, high-handedly as
suming he’d be In there playing, after
Semple! And even after him! He forgot
his weariness; he shed his exhaustion
like a cloak and felt new strength pour
ing over him.
Thunder heads marched up a sultry
disc of breathless bronze sky and the
leaves stood still in wilted, mute waiting.
Dr. Fairchild Laird was playing Semple
down and out of running, and the Nomad
Tom - wound to a mad, stupendous finish,
unaware that in a small private room
in Linwood Hospital drama moved
sharply, swiftly toward an exit marked
death.
“Get Dr. Laird," Johnny said sternly,
and the nurse fled on winged feet.
“Dr. Laird is playing and cannot be
disturbed,” she reported.
“Get Dr. Laird and get him here in ten
minutes or IH haul you both before the
State Board for criminal negligence.”
Johnny barked. She fled, white-faced.
She had seven years of profitable nursing
behind her and not all the golf nuts in
Christendom could strip her of her prized
R. N. and J. Benedict meant business —
no fooling.
Dr. Laird raged in, hot, perspiring and
furious. He had had to default to Sem
ple within four holes of a rousing tri
umph. He knew Semple had been throw
ing his shots in every direction and th»
lid was off.
“I could have told you this was futile,
young man,” he began impotently, but
Johnny cut him short.
“Get into your coat and glove*, and be
damned quick about it—we’ve seconds
only. And it’s one shot in 10,000.”
JOHNNY’S hand did not falter as he
worked swiftly, surely. Not until his
shocked eyes saw and measured the
dread gangrene infection. The one thing
he had gambled against— the one thing
that could turn his hopes to gre. defeat.
“Don’t,” Laird gasped sharply T o,mny’s
eyes measured his for a split second and
moisture oozed along his forehead and
streaked into his dark brows above the
mask. “You haven’t one chance in a
million, Benedict! Only two men have
done that —with success.”
“Shut —up!” Johnny said succinctly
and the head nurse dropped her hypo
and it clattered along the floor. Johnny
bent to his task. His forehead creased
and nurses wiped perspiratior from his
eyes. He took instruments, used them
swiftly, dropped them, took more. He
sponged, cleaned, sutured and sterilized
and a prayer lived on his lips and sealed
his heart.
Finally he was done. Mechanically he
stripped off the gloves and followed the
stretcher up, his hand on the fluttering
Pose of the boy. He dtank black cotT> ♦.
liot and clear, and severar *liots of 1 stiff
□randy. He stood bv tIA bed nr nu t in
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Johnny Missed a Golf Tournament,
but Saved a Life and Won a
Fair-Haired Daughter of
His Chief Opponent
stated bitterly. “We’d need only a blotter
and a trowel to pick ur* then, In
case!"
“A Laird," Susan reminded him
sweetly, “can’t make mistakes!”
“No?" Johnny growled, “well then, Dr.
Laird, please remember this —I’ll do two
thirds the duty on this tour, but I’m play
ing In that tournament, whether tnere’s
a surgeon on duty or not!”
“Why, Pop,” Susan said reprovingly,
were you afraid you’d lose? When you
Know your game was never better?”
Johnny glared at her a*.d tramped off
to the office to check out. So that was It
—old Laird thought he’d grab off the
cup this year again! Well, he’d show
him! He stormed into his lockei room
and yanked off the white tunic and linen
trousers and flung them to the floor with
line disregard for rules. He grabbed his
gray flannei slacks and gray sweater
with savage haste and forgot to tie one
gray mvei led calf shoe. His clubs clanked
cheerfully as he slammed ou ol the
elevator and across the court to the
nattered old roadster parked among ail
,ne sleek town cars of the other doctors.
I_f B FIN ISH Hi ) eighteen holes and was
*--*■ satisfied that his game was shaping
up. He was physically tired now aim re
laxed, and the shower room and cheer
lui gossip oi the men lounging around
in ail stages of areas auu untuess com
pleted his mental rejuvenation.
He hmsneo dressing and went out to
uie veranoa just as susan came up the
steps, loliowed eagerly oy a rangy, thin
young man with a shoot ol tniot oiond
nair ana contraaictory aar*. or own eyes.
On, Dr. Benedict, she said casually,
this is captain Seilers —Lloyd sellers,
ui Lie Nomau f ours. Dr. jonnny Ben
edict, one oi our bettei surgeons, uioyd,’
sue added mischievously.
“There are two oi us,” Jonnny told
nioya Seilers coolly, • surgeons, you know
—her dad and me!’’ He shook hands
with the young man and disliked mm
cordially on pmfcipie. He didn’t like
oiond men and he couldn't
the mania tiiat was motorcycle racing *
molts Ilian Uts could cumuißlißiui Lim
JOHNNY BENEDICT was mad. He was
so mad he was getting more logical,
and when we tell you that, you must
know that Johnny was a doctor. Not just
a doctor, really, but . surgeon, and one
of the two best surgeons In Linwood
County. The only two. The other was
Fairchild Laird. Fairchild had been car
pentering the insides of the residents ol
Linwood for some thirty-five years and
was still going strong. Thereby hung
Johnny's ire.
Laird had an uncanny genius for land
ing In the thick of things both dramatic
and glamorous, and somehow Johnny
always found himself on the wrong end
of the deal, swearing vengeance and vow
ing he’d never be the goat, no, never—
until next time. There was the case ol
the Pulaski quadruplets— and who but
"Fair” Laird could have guessed that the
stout, aging mother of seven, living in the
four-door shack out at the mica mines,
aould possibly produce four offspring?
Ehe’d looked just the same as ever and
acted just the same. But no, “Fair”
turned young Mrs. Reggie Wallbrook over
to Johnny, and for four months he leaped
to answer phones and stood for minutes,
groaning and inwardly cursing while the
lovely spoiled young society briae detailed
her strange and complex feelings. And
at the end of the course, Mrs. Reggie pro
duced a nine-pound, bouncing boy, ab
ruptly went into violent hysterics and
convulsions and, only by the grace of
Cod and the skill of the hastily called
Laird, was saved. '
Then when the quadruplets were born,
••Fair’’ cracked every big paper in the
country with pictures of himself, the
four babies and the complacent, stolid
Mrs. Pulaski. Which charred a little
more hide on young Dr. Benedict’s nose
and Increased the fund of scores.
rpHERE were other issues. Dr. Fairchild
Laird was house uoctor at the Lin
wood City Hospital through the trying
Winter months, always, but once the
golfing weather arrived he became noble*
pef%ecuted and weary and Johnny was
elected. . * .
If there \vWs a messy tonsillotomy one
Ih. t.w.o 1 rthu 4*