He
accepted, however, Rachel's warm water.
"You might get me some Condy's Fluid," he said shortly.
She had none! It was a terrible lapse for a capable housewife.
Dr. Yardley raised his eyebrows: "No Condy's Fluid in the house!"
She was condemned.
"I do happen to have a couple of tablets of Chinosol," he said, "but I
wanted to keep them in reserve for later in the day."
He threw two yellow tablets into the basin of water.
Then he laid Louis flat on the sofa, asked him a few questions, and
sounded him in various parts. And at length he slowly, but firmly,
drew off Mrs. Heath's bandages, and displayed Louis' head to the
light.
"Hm!" he exclaimed.
Rachel restrained herself from any sound. But the spectacle was
ghastly. The one particle of comfort in the dreadful matter was that
Louis could not see himself.
Thenceforward Dr. Yardley seemed to forget that he ought to have been
elsewhere. Working with extraordinary deliberation, he coaxed out
of Louis' flesh sundry tiny stones and many fragments of mud,
straightened twisted bits of skin, and he removed other pieces
entirely. He murmured, "Hm!" at intervals. He expressed a brief
criticism of the performance of Mrs. Heath, as distinguished from her
intentions.
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