BRINGING THE DOCTOR

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1037, 28 January 1911, Page 3

BRINGING THE DOCTOR

A "BACKBLOCKS" INCIDENT, (By Turu.) ft was the only thing to do. Medical help must bo brought, and at once, or her husband would surely die. With a heart full of determination, but with a moan of despair as she noted the unmistakablo increase in the fever and tho delirium, Graco Enndcll resolved to carry out hoi- plan.

Under ordinary circumstances the doctor would have been summoned hours ago from' the township, a few miles away. But tho only road giving outlet to this lately-settled district ran through a dangerous papa cutting, and that morning a slip of many, tons of earth, had come down and quite severed communication. There was no other means of reaching the township—except one. This the young- schoolmistress, to save her husband's life, now resolved to take. . Rousing tho girl, who acted as her "help," she sent her.out in the night to their nearest neighbour's, and soon the messenger returned with a motherly German woman, tho wife of a settler. This woman and her husband wero the only people living within.at least a mile, and the man had been prevented from returning homo from tho township that night by the block in the road. •

lUs; RandeU. explained everything to her sympathetic friend and neighbour, and extracted a promise that sho would spend every moment by the side of her husband. She knew she need have little anxiety in.that respect. Then with.pale,-set faco she donned a macintosh, and, taking a lantern, went out with tho girl to the stable, where between them they saddled and bridled the lu'rse. Then she mounted and rode out in the darkness, past the little' schoolJiouse and into the road.

The heavy rain—which had been responsible for the slipping of the treacherous papa bank—had now ceased. But the night was intensely dark and unfriendly, and tho wind' howled savagely. . Grace Raudcll rode as desperately as she dared for two miles.

Then she dismounted, and leading her horse aside, hitched him to some bushes in a sheltered snot.

Leaving him there, she pursued her c jra.y on foot. , Walking' away from the road shD hastened • across the - paddocks, with difficulty in tho. darkness avoiding the treacherous blackened stuinns, *and stumbling over rush bushes. ; She heard at length the unmistakable roar of rushing waters. The sound came from far beneath. Searching about sho found that for which she Bought—a taut, heavy, steel cable which stretched away from where she stood into the darkness, in the'direction of the river. Then a" little cry "of thankfulness. broke from her as, feeling about, she discovered that the "cage" was on.her side of the river. Without hesitation she climbed into this clumsy, wooden box contrivance, and prepared to launch herself over the chasm?

Only those who have performed this feat can really appreciate tho bravo act this woman, ■ this frail woman, contemplated. Yes, frail woman, for she was no stout, robustj country' girl—though even in : tlioso circumstances tho 'deed would havo been far from an ordinary one.' Three years back, before her marriage, she had been forced to abandon school-teaching in a' town through feeble health. Afterward? she had married, but illness overtaking her husband, she had again sought employment in. her profession, this time as a livehood ' for . both of them'. Hoping that the country air would prove beneficial to her husband, she hacl.accepted the charge of her present school, which was in a nowly-opencd district of the North Island. The, hope had been realised, but the recent unseasonable September weath.er;had again laid hini low with a sudden attack of- lung affection. ' ; -~,

Grace Eandell,- however, brave-woman that she-'wa;, had no"thoughts now of personal unfitness. Exerting • all' ' her strength she .pulled on- the rope .and caused the rough wood box. to niovo slowly along tho wiro line, 'from which it hung. 'Gradually sho moved out 'into space. She knew that more than a .hundred giddy feet'helow raged the swirling, flooded river. Its roar over tho rapids beneath was deafening. The wind hovleil and caught her in its icv gusts, swaying the-ear dangerously.. Her; hands'were numbed sotkat-slie could. scarcely grasp the rope.

Once there did come a creepy fear of would she have strength, after all, to pull herself up the slight incline in the rope after the "sas" in the-centre was passed? Or would the cage set stuck on its pulleys-and hold her suspended helplessly, unable to go back or forward, her husband dying, and no one about for hours to hear her cries for help? The cage was how but rarely used — since the sawmill had- been closed.

No, no. Sho cast away these unnervins thoughts! Once when the cage moved faster than usual, as it neared the centre she badly jambed some of her fingers; but bravely sho struggled on, , pulling handoverhand in the darkness.

It was a terribly slow journey across those three hundred feet of rope. . . . But it came to an end at last, and Grace, with, a prayer* of-thankfulness, was able to clamber out and stand on the bank on. the other side.

But her task was not yet completed. Sho. was still two.miles from the township. But the road was familiar, and. walking and running, she quickly covered the distance, rough though the country highway was, with two steep hills to climb. At last, however, she stood before the dcor of the doctor's house.:

It was after midnight, but the country doctors of New Zealand—hardy, brave," and kindly men—are prepared for emergencies, men whose lives are interwoven with those.of their patients. This man had made himself particularly dear to the district. He knew his visitor well. He gazed with the blankest astonishment at her! -Well-he might, though he hardly realised at the moment how she had got. there. He saw also her deep, distress. This doctor was not of a romantic disposition, but when ho heard,- in his surgery, 1 the brave-wife's brief explanation and appeal for help, and heard of the way she had come to him, he felt that thrill of deepest admiration that possesses all men when face to faco with heroism.

lie naturally! pressed her to remain with his own wife. He would make the journey back aloner-for he never for one moment intended otherwise than to go. But no, Grace llandell would return to her ■husband at all hazards.

More than an hour,later they reached tho school-house. Tho sick man's condition was grave indeed. -

But the doctor was able to announce that there was hope, and after many hours of anxious care and watching he at last declared the invalid out of danger. Had he arrived'an hour later no power on earth could have pulled the man through. Tho brave schoolmistress had saved her husband's life - as surely as if her arms had plucked .him from a burning building. ■ :■- .'."..: .'-•-' ..'..' ■. -V.. ■

The life she pave liim is now usefully employed in the'district.- ami no one is prouder than he; of ,;tlie" deep admiration of the hardy settlers for his wife. . . . And that, surely, is where all good romance should end.

But this .is no romance.' It'is a true story: one of mauy that could be told of our frontier: one that sounds best when heard straight from the. lips of the settlers themselves.-These.people hold it a proud record of their little district..