He roused Dan then, and sent him running madly for Doctor
Smalley, with a warning to bring him past Mrs. Boyd's door quietly,
and to bring an intubation set with him in case her throat should
close. Then, on one of his innumerable journeys up and down the
stairs he encountered Mrs. Boyd herself, in her nightgown, and
terrified.
"What's the matter, Willy?" she asked. "Is it a fire?"
"Edith is sick. I don't want you to go up. It may be contagious.
It's her throat."
And from that Mrs. Boyd deduced diphtheria; she sat on the stairs
in her nightgown, a shaken helpless figure, asking countless
questions of those that hurried past. But they reassured her, and
after a time she went downstairs and made a pot of coffee. Ensconced
with it in the lower hall, and milk bottle in hand, she waylaid them
with it as they hurried up and down.
Upstairs the battle went on. There were times when the paralyzed
muscles almost stopped lifting the chest walls, when each breath was
a new miracle. Her throat was closing fast, too, and at eight
o'clock came a brisk young surgeon, and with Willy Cameron's
assistance, an operation was performed. After that, and for days,
Edith breathed through a tube in her neck.
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