Dr. Kildare's Girl by Max Brand

Author:Max Brand [Brand, Max]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Medical, Romance
Publisher: Roy Glashan's Library
Published: 2019-09-08T22:00:00+00:00

DR. LEONARD GILLESPIE,

HOURS 12 A.M. TO 12 A.M.

It would have been a dry jest from another man. It was cold fact, coming from Gillespie.

Then Gillespie himself came back and cleared the office with one of his roars.

“Did you really do it, Jimmy?” he asked, when they were alone.

“What, sir?”

“Set up this fellow Thornton for operation by&mdash:er&mdash:by using my name?”

“Yes, sir!”

“You actually made Lane think that I was behind the idea?”

Kildare said nothing.

“It’s queer,” said Gillespie. “I’m not fool enough to think that I know any man, really; but this time you’ve surprised me. You surprised Carew, too, but not very much.”

Kildare began to say that he was sorry. Gillespie cut him short by remarking: “A fellow like Carew is a blessing to the institution he heads and a curse to a good many other things. He’s an executive first, a damned good doctor second. But he always thinks that he’s a general.”

“He’s going to give me the limit?” asked Kildare. “He was torn in two directions,” said Gillespie. “You’ve done so much for the hospital that he’s grateful, he’s almost affectionate. On the other hand you’ve done so much for the hospital that you’re an outstanding figure even as an interne. It’s like this: If a private disobeys orders, he can be sent to the guardhouse. But if a general officer disobeys the high command, he’s cashiered.”

“I understand,” said Kildare.

“You have from here to Friday for something more than understanding,” answered Gillespie. “You have that time to do something about it!”

“You managed to get that much delay?”

“Never mind what I did. The question is: What are we going to do, Jimmy?”

He gathered his shaggy, white brows over his eyes and folded his hands together, backs up.

“There’s another question first,” said Kildare. “Is there anything that I possibly could do to straighten it out?”

“It’s not simply ‘you’; it’s ‘we,’ you fool!”

“Yes, sir.”

“Why couldn’t some other young jackass in the place have had the idea? But no, it had to be my boy.” Kildare, staring at him, bit his lip. He did not speak for the moment because there was no room in his throat for words.

“Friday the board of directors is meeting. And the case of young Dr. Kildare comes up, as it came up once before. Only then you were just a young fool who broke the rules and now you’re a reprobate, dyed-in-the-wool, who has formed the rotten habit of doing as he pleases, regardless of the higher-ups. Friday is the day when your head goes off, then. And now, Jimmy, we put our heads together. State the case to me, first of all.” Kildare said:&mdash:“Dr. Lane performs an authorized operation that produces insanity in the patient; it’s discovered that the fault is mine, after all. So I get the gallows.”

“Let’s ask the right questions first, and then maybe we’ll get the answers. What could be done to take the curse off?”

“If I could prove that the insanity existed before the operation, that would take the curse off.”

“It’s hard

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