CHECKMATED.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2358, 19 April 1901, Page 6

CHECKMATED.

A NURSE'B ADVENTURE A lady, who by adverse fortune was forced to take to sick nursing for a livelihood, gives the following as an instance of the perils that surround such a life : '* v ou know there are nine of us girls. I come in third, and we three older ones were born with the proverbial silver spoon in our mouths. When things went flat, and we had to hustle, our attention was directed to trained nursing as a profession, quiet, re'ired. and womanly. Mother said she

would feel better satisfied if we got at that ! instead of more venturesome things. I proposed travelling for men's neckwear, or face powder, or embroidery silks, or some- j thing of that kind, but the family fairly ; gasped at the idea. Then I spoke of | being a reporter, and f-aid that I had a born j irtitution for news. An extinguisher was | put on t hat and on everything else 1 sug- i gested The office of nurse was safe, j sheltered, away from the public eye, and ! eminently respectable, so there are four cf j us trained nurses, ministering angels, so to I speak, at whose bidding "p»in and evil vanish as by niagjc. Once ou| of the traces, irksome traces they were, I took a case or , two to test my mettle, and then I husilid I round among the big doctors 1 knew aud j got them to look me up a better position, i My three years of married life, dnring the silver sooon epoch, stood me in good stead, and even though 1 looked young the 'Mrs.' to my name was a distinct advantage. I received an offer of the superintendency of a hospital in a big Western city ; not to be matron mark you. I had nosed round sufficiently to find out that the office cf matron, singly, and by itself, was not desirable, but that to be superintendent, although it involved work, and being on the jump all the time also meant being one's own mistress. I went to the front at once. ' We haven't had very good order in the hospital hitherto, Mrs. W.,' the mouthpiece of the Governing Board told mequite a gocd-looking mouthpiece, large and expansive. ' We're a young institution yet. and it takes time to regulate things. We hope a good deal from your discipline Make cast-iron rules and stick to 'em and you'll come out ahead.' Well ! of all the higgledy piggedy messes I ever undertook to manage that place was the woist ! There wern't any rules in particular about anything, apparently, and very little attention was paid to things I had been taught to think of the utmost importance, both in a hygienic way and every other way. I did the stern act though, and put on all my high and mighty airs, and at the end of a couple of months the faculty complimented me on the improvement in things. I instituted rigid etiquette among the doctors and nurses and their patients, and I persisted in having my rules carried out in every smallest particular. It was hard work. I had personally to superintend everything, and often I longed for the old days of Belf-indulgpnce, or even for one hour of uninterrupted time to myself. Sometimes I had a chance to do a kindly thing.

One of the patiflnts was a fencing master, stranded without money in a strange city. When he got well enough to work I took fencing lessons from him, and got some other women to take fencing lessons enough to eke out his board until he could go elsewhere. He took a fancy to me—l had known how to fence before-and when he was leaving insisted on my accepting a set of foils that he thought a good deal of in token of his grctitude. The foils hung conveniently in evidence in my room, and thereby hangs a tale One of the departments of the women's ward of the hospital was down in an L., back of where the nurses slept. It was a ward for poor women, the lying-in ward, in fact. One night, just at bedtime, one of the younger nur.-es catoe to my room all in a flutter, and said she had heard what she thought was a man's footstep in the free ward, pnd that she thought she had heard voices as of some one whispering. ' Why did you not go and see what it was about ?' I asked, but she said it was all dark back there and she was afraid. Then she added that one the nurses two or three nights before had heard the same thing—just a muffled kind of sound, they did not know exactly what. I laughed at her for being so timid, and said that the next day 1 would have the outside entrance examined and made even more secure. 'it is impossibe for any one to have come in,' I said, * but if you hear anything further come for me on the instant.' I then went to bed. I had a woman named Katie sleeping in an anteroom just outside my door. I had been advised to have her there in case 1 needed anything, but she was too sleepy-headed to be much protection ; besides, I never was 4 nervous person. My father and uncles were army officers, and 1 suppose I inherited Mine small share of courage. Later in the night I heard the nurse's tap at my door, and :-he came in with a white scared face and said the had heard the sounds again. Flinging on a wrapper, I set out on an investigation tour. I heard the muffled whisper, and walked toward the room whence the sounds came. My heart gave an uncomfortable thump when 1 saw that one of the young doctors was in the room, a proceeding entirely uncalled for and in express violation of rules. He saw me just as plainly as I saw him. ' It is useless for me to pretend that 1 do not know who is in this room,' I said, turning my back. ' doctor, 1 will wait for you outside,' and wait I did, trembling inwardly and wondering whit I should do,but determined to act out my part.

The doctor came of a family well-known and his father had contributed to the hospital. ' Mrs W., you know what this means to me,' ho said, as he reached my side. 'lf you make this known my career is over in this town, and maybe everywhere else.' He was pale and seemed agitated. I had trad hints before that men, even in cities, carried firearms about with them, and I was not surprised when I saw a pistol in his hand. In my haughtiest manner I told him that I should report the matter the next day. In an instant he had his pistol on a level witli my eyes. ' Desperate cases call for desperate

measures,' he said. 'I must be sure of your silence.' It was not a comfortable moment but I don't believe I felt afraid just then. I was keyed up too besides I felt instinctively that he was a cowaid. • You won't d> that," I sa.d. ' Munler would ruin your career quite as effectually.' He

quailed before my seeming calmness and in that one moment tliat he was off his guard I got the pistol out of his hand.

Well the upshot of it all was that I gob sorry for him and promised to reserve my decision until the next day when I would have thought things out more carefully. 1 got back to bed, and I suppose I was exhausted, for after thinking for a time I went to sleep and slept soundly. It was summer, and my bed was pulled well out into the room. On a table by the side of it I laid the doctor's pistol dewn as I came in from my adventure, and my blue wrapper I flung carelessly over a sort of cabinet desk at the other side. I saw one of the foils with which I had been fooling in the afternoon lying on the desk as I flung the wrapper down on it, but I was too preoccupied just then to trouble about anything being out of place. I woke just about daybreak with the feeling that some one was near me, and on opening my eyes I saw the doctor standing by me with his arms folded and a most disagreeable expression on his face. I was wide awake in

an instant, and sitting up looked at him. 'Mrs W.,'he said, with the self-same nasty expression. ' 1 think we are even on this. Give me your solemn promise not to mention last night's escapade to the faculty or to anyone else. If you do not,' and he said this slowly, ' I will wake up Katie as Igo out.' I saw 1 was cornered, and I was mad -furious. I could have killed him where he stood, looking down on me witii that triumphant smile, as though I was some child to be indulged. I remembered the foil within reach, there under my wrapper. 1 saw the end of the blade sticking out, but he didn't. It does not take long for thoughts to form in one's mind I assumed a frightened air. ' Yes, doctor,' I said, ' I admit that you have beaten me at my own game, lam at your mercy ; then, quicker than it takes to tell it, I had that foil out from under the wrapper, and I had let fly a blow at his wrist, which, although it was badly aimed, owing to my awkward position, drew blood. I grabbed the pistol off the table also, and flung it on the other side of the bed. He had neglected to pick it up. He was not depending on the pistol that time, but on a more deadly weapon still ' You may wake up Katie as you go out,' I said scornfully, 'but you go out wounded.'

How did things come out ? Did I inform the faculty ? Indeed I did. I notified them each and all after breakfast that very morning to come to a meeting, and I made my report in a very business-like manner. I know that man ha'ies me, wherever he is ; he would like to see me consigned to eternal torment because I got ahead of him. A few minutes after he left my room I sent Katie and a nurse to offer their assistance in dressing his wrist. He was walking up and down the room, almost foaming at the mouth with rage, and he indignantly refused their kind offices.though he was hurt a little.