While taking a walk one day in her hours off duty, Shesa wandered farther away from the hospital than usual. She was thinking of Ima. Before realizing it, she had lost her direction and found herself in a lovely little valley. The scenery along the border had been so uninteresting, with low cactus plants growing out of the sand, and scrub bushes stretching away in low irregular outline, that this spot came as a delightful surprise.
Spying a little cabin on the side of the mountain above the valley, she decided to inquire the way back, and, quickening her steps, reached it in a short time.
A slovenly woman appeared at the door. Five small children surrounded her, pulling at her skirts as the}' saw the stranger. The youngest set up a howl of disapproval as Shesa came nearer. In her arms the woman held a baby and in one hand a tin pan of maize or corn. A few chickens came scurrying around the corner of the house as the woman tapped a wooden paddle on the edge of the pan.
The woman stopped and eyed Shesa suspiciously as she came still nearer.
"Good afternoon," said Shesa with a smile. ''Do you speak English?"
"Howdy," grunted the woman. "Yes. Hush up, will ye?" to the children, whose noises made conversation difficult.
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| "Sister!" He exclaimed. |
"United States?" she asked as she looked Shesa's uniform over.
"Yes, yes," replied Shesa. "I'm a nurse."
"Xuss?" said the woman. "Then ye'll know what be ailing him. Come in."
Shesa hesitated a moment before entering the low cabin which was scarcely more than a hut; but, being a brave girl, she thought, "If I am needed, I mustn't hesitate. I'll try to find out what's wanted."
"Tell me about your trouble," she said kindly to the woman. "Is your husband ill?"
"Nope," the woman shook her head, "he be all right. It's a U. S. man we found up yonder," pointing up the mountain road. "Been shot in arm. My man brought him home, but his arm gets worse all time. You know what to do?"
"I think I can help," said Shesa, wishing with all her heart she had brought her emergency kit with her. " Let me see your patient."
The woman led the way into the only bedroom in the cabin. On a rude wooden bed lay a young man, dressed in a much soiled khaki uniform. At the sound of Shesa's voice, he started up. " Sister!" he exclaimed. "Why, this seems too good to be true! Oh, perhaps I'm dreaming. My arm pains so I guess I'm just 'seeing things' from fever."
For one moment Shesa lost her self-control. Tears filled her eyes and she longed to throw her arms about Ima's neck and cry to her heart's content. "But I must not," she chided herself. "I must do everything I can to help him."
"It's not a dream, Ima, dear," she said as naturally as if they were in their faraway home. "You are ill and certainly do need me. Let me see your arm."
The sight of his poor wounded arm made her feel sick, for it evidently had been neglected from the first.
"How did it happen?" Shesa asked, as she tore her apron into bandages and directed the woman to boil some water on the open fire which she had seen outside.
She saw that Ima wanted to talk, sick and weary as he was.
"I was taking a stroll alone one evening," he explained, "not thinking of the least danger, for our camp lights were scarcely out of sight. Suddenly I heard the report of a gun, and felt an awful pain in my right arm. One of the bandits had evidently spotted me from ambush. I'd have been all right, but the fellow or an accomplice sprang upon me, and after a struggle knocked me senseless and took my emergency kit and everything else useful away from me. The settler who owns this cabin found me and brought me up here on his shoulders. His wife did what she could for my wound, but it became infected almost immediately, and I was too weak from loss of blood to walk back to camp, even with the man's help. Besides, in some way, I had a sprained ankle."
"Well, dear, you are going to be helped in every way soon, so don't talk any more," said Shesa, taking off some of the dirty rags which the woman had tied clumsily upon Ima's ankle. She bathed the ankle in hot water and bound it firmly in a figure-of-eight bandage, which gave him the first ease from pain since the accident.
She replaced the outside layers of the dirty bandages on his wounded arm. "The wounds may bleed if I take the dressings off," she decided wisely, "and I have no remedies here."
"I wonder why the man didn't go for help?" she thought.
Just at that moment Ima whispered, "I would have sent word to camp, but for some reason the settler seems afraid of the bandits, maybe."
"Well," said Shesa, "you rest here, and we'll soon have help."
"But, Shesa, it will be dangerous for you to go," said Ima. Then suddenly, "Why, how did you happen to come here, anyhow?"
"Never mind, dear, I'll explain all that later," replied Shesa.
"But I want to hear now," insisted Ima, his eyes bright with fever. So to satisfy him, Shesa briefly related the story of her little walk.
"Now," she added "since the emergency hospital is so near, you need not worry until I come back?"
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