Carl Rasmus

“ What kind of an examination do you think a doctor can make if he can't see his patient or hear her talk? Have you never been to a doctor yourself?" The man hesitated, fingering his automatic.
"Open that door!" he commanded, after a pause. Carlson did as he was told.
"Teresa!" She appeared so quickly that Carlson was sure that she had been listening behind the door. "The doctor will have to ask her a few questions, and she will have to answer. Go and tell her. And tell her from me—that if she says anything she doesn’t have to say—T. N. T. for her! Do you get me?" ”

“ Everything will be all right." As her fingers gripped his convulsively, a horrible snarling sound, as from an angry hippopotamus, came from Tony. Carlson disengaged the girl's hand and faced the giant. ”

“ Here it is: 'Father of of Ina Holden gets another threatening letter'"
Edwards jaw set. "If I had my way," he said, "every kidnapper would go to the chair!"
"I'll go you one better. If I had my way, they'd get the Georgia treatment!"
"What's that?"
"Lynching!"
Edwards was silent.
"The trouble is," Carlson went on, "that we have too much legal red tape, too much politics, too many lawyers, and too little real law."
"I suppose so," said Edwards. "When we haven't children of our own, it takes some special circumstance to bring home to us the meaning of a damnable crime like kidnapping. ”

“ A deep, feverish flush was over the arms, neck and the strip of forehead above the bandage. But Carlson's trained fingers could not feel even a suggestion of the "shotty" feeling which goes with the first rash of smallpox.
"What do you make of it, Doc?" asked the man impatiently.
"Highly suspicious, but I cannot tell certainly until I have finished my examination. Madam. may I listen to your lungs and heart with my stethoscope?"
"Yes," she faintly murmured. Carlson looked around at the man.
"I am not in the habit of examining women in the presence of strange men," he said sharply. ”

“ There seems to be severe hemorrhage into the pleura. He must be rushed to the nearest hospital for immediate operation."
"Doctor," Ina asked with shaking voice. "Is he—will he recover?"
"I am sorry to say, Miss Holden, the chances are against him. Quick, boys! The stretcher. One of you telephone Mercy Hospital to have the operating-room ready."
And then another man burst like a whirlwind into the room— a large, bearded man of about fifty—a man of commanding presence, before whom everyone made way.
"Ina!—my Girl!—"
Slowly Ina turned her eyes from Carlson and looked at her father. ”

“ Tony was dead!
Carlson picked up Tony's automatic, turned off the light plug in the large bed room. and went back to Ina. She was at her post, her elbows on the little table, the receiver at her ear. She looked up at him with a grave smile.
"The police have been asking me a lot of questions. How about the man in the next room?"
"Dead. I'm sorry I killed him, but there was nothing else to do. Anyway," said Carlson, "it makes our work easier. We won't have to watch him, and his body will help hold the door a little longer." ”

“ He flew back to the huge bed and began dragging it toward the door. It was heavy as a safe, and incredibly hard to move. Suddenly it became easier, and to his amazement he saw that the girl was helping him. When they had placed it so that the head completely blocked the door, Carlson ran to Tony.
"Help me drag this carcass against the foot of the bed. Take the feet—so! That will brace the bed better. Now take this pistol. You know how to use it?"
"O, yes!"
"Fine! Watch that beast while I telephone the police. If he moves, shoot him." ”

“ The only case on record in which that Senn S-incision had been made for appendicitis was the case of Ina Holden.
He heard the masked man muttering in angry impatience, and then his brain began to work again. The Holden child. Edwards had spoken of her as "little Ina."
Though the papers had been full of accounts of the Holden kidnapping case for the last five days, he, Carlson, had read nothing but the headings, and his impression from them and from Edwards' talk was that Ina was a small girl, quite a child. And yet this was a woman, or a well-grown girl of 16 or 17 at the least. ”

“ The devastating sound that followed told that the heavy overhanging canopy of the bed had fallen inward. Carlson kept steadily working away barricading the second door.
"Thank God this door opens outward!" he said to Ina. She was still at her post at the telephone.
"Hello!" she said calmly. "They have just smashed in the outer door and are climbing in over the ruins of the bed and furniture. We have retreated into a smaller room, and the doctor is piling furniture against it—" She looked at Carlson.
"The police want to know how long we can hold out!" ”

“ He laid the pistol and flash-light on the table, but just within reach of his hand, and then held out one hand for the electric plug.
"There—twist them out again, right there," said Carlson in a slow, monotonous voice. As he spoke, his other hand closed over a heavy glass paper weight that lay at the farther end of the table. Tony put the plug on the table and bent his face over it.
Carlson felt that he could soon have Tony completely under his own hypnotic power. But time was too precious to wait for that. The "boss" might return any minute. ”

“ I'll have a car for you in five minutes, and take you home afterwards, if you'll only come."
"Try another doctor first."
"We have tried, but can't find one of the only other two we have confidence in. Money is no object. Please do reconsider, Doctor."
"Who recommended me to you? Do I know you?"
"I do not know you personally. But you are highly recommended by the Brooklyn Hospital. Once more let me say that your fee can be as large as you like."
Carlson did not answer for a while. ”

“ He stepped into a small dressing room and Carlson followed.
"Shut the door!"
Carlson obeyed.
"Now, here's the proposition. We've got a sick woman on our hands—damned sick! But she’s got in trouble with the law and the police are after her. Get me?" ”

“ He looked quickly around the room.
"And now for our plan of defense until the police come. The barricade in the bedroom may hold till then. But. if it doesn't then we will have to barricade ourselves again in here. We ought to be able to hold out easily."
And then Carlson began dragging furniture from the bedroom into the dressing room until the latter was nearly full.
"I guess that'll be enough," he said. "They're taking a long time fixing that fuse, but they can't be too long for us." He stood beside Ina once more, having done all that could be done for the present. ”

“ Another agonizing wait; then—
"Police headquarters speaking."
"Ina Holden is in a house with phone number Cartwright 872. Mark it down." He heard the voice of the officer dictating "Cartwright 872. Ina Holden." Then. "What else, sir?"
"There are at least four armed men in the house, and one woman."
"Where is the house?"
"I don't know. I'm a prisoner with her myself. Send enough men at once to surround the house. Look it up in the numerical index."
Carlson could hear the officer giving rapid orders, and, more faintly, their repetition being shouted out through the station. ”

“ He was brought here by the kidnappers when I seemed to be very sick. We had no time for anything but defense."
The lieutenant took off his overcoat and placed it over Ina's shoulders, and then they both followed the two officers who carried the unconscious Carlson out through the wreck of the dressing-room and larger bedroom.
And what a scene of ruin and blood! They had to pick their way through masses of broken furniture. One masked dead man lay just outside the bathroom—the man Ina had shot. ”

“ He had clear hazel eyes with a very direct look, and thick and wavy brown hair, which was much admired by his women patients. All this, with good and strong features and a pleasant expression, made an ensemble which expressed health, confidence and efficiency. ”