General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1897 Original Publisher: C. Scribner’s Sons Subjects: American fiction Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: IV WITH returning consciousness Steve opened his eyes. He closed them, however, in a painful effort to recall his previous existence. At present he was lying upon a bed in a spacious room, with other beds on either side of him, and all were occupied. A few persons moved silently about, mostly women in gray, with white caps and white aprons. In his struggle to remember what could have happened to bring him here without his knowledge, he started- to sit up, and discovered, in so doing, that his left arm was encased in a hard, unwieldy substance, and that all his muscles were astonishingly weak. One of the women in gray and white approached his bedside and readjusted the coverlet about his shoulders. Looking up into the face that was bending over him, he inquired, as returning memory revealed a fragment of the past, –
Did dad get away ?

Don’t think about that now; everything is all right. Close your eyes and go to sleep again.

Did dad get away ?
he repeated in the impatient tone of one who is not to be trifled with. It was a hard question for a nurse who knew nothing of her patient’s antecedents, and she hesitated.
Did you want him to get away ?

Of course I did !
and into his feverish face came a look which said plainer than words,
What sort of a fool are you, anyway ?
But she answered gently, with a soothing hand upon his shoulder, –
Yes, he got away. Her reward was a smile of triumphant joy, accompanied by a sidelong, somewhat boastful movement of the bandaged head, conveying the impression that …