“Have there?” I looked at him, seeing his broad, rather serious features through a blur of pain.
“Aye.” He nodded. “There are such things as spontaneous cures. We don’t know the cause of them. I wish we did. Some change in the chemistry of the patient, maybe — or a psychological readjustment. Anyway, once in a while it happens.” He leaned forward, his large gray eyes peering down at me from behind the thick-lensed glasses. “Listen, Mr. Wetheral. I don’t want to raise any false hopes. We’ll know soon enough when they’ve developed those X-ray plates. There’s just a chance, that’s all.” There was a glint of excitement in his eyes now. It showed in his manner, in the way he spoke. “I can’t believe a case as desperate as yours must have been when Doctor Maclean-Hervey gave you that verdict could have gone on for five months, living the way you have been, unless the condition had improved. You’ve been eating well and instead of getting weaker, you’ve got stronger.” He suddenly sat back, taking his glasses off and polishing them. “I shouldn’t really have spoken to you about it. I should have waited till I had the X-ray results. But—” He hesitated and got to his feet. “It’s a most interesting case, you see. I didn’t want you to feel that I was just taking the opportunity to examine you out of curiosity.” He smiled suddenly. “You must be about as obstinate a man as your grandfather, I guess. Anyway, I’ll be back just as soon as I’ve got a picture of what’s going on inside you.”
He left me then, and for a while I lay there, thinking over what he had said. I felt suddenly restless. The mood of excitement I had seen reflected in the doctor’s eyes had communicated itself to me.
Almost unconsciously I reached for the papers and began reading Steve’s article again. I was still rending it when the nurse showed Jean in. She was followed by Johnny and Garry.
“We just looked in to say good-by,” Johnny said. “Garry’s off to Edmonton to see about a new rig and I’m going up to the Kingdom.” He came and stood over me, his eyes narrowed as though he were looking straight into the sun, a lazy smile on his lined face. “You look pretty comfortable lying there, Bruce.”
“What are you going up to the Kingdom for?” I asked him.
“Well, that’s what I come to see you about, I guess.” He rubbed his chin awkwardly. “You see, the boys who were working on the power station have got together and put up some dough. A few of them are coming up to the Kingdom with me and my two Americans to clear up Campbell’s place and make it snug for the winter. The rest —” He hesitated. “Well, it’s like this, Bruce: they came to me and asked what they could do about it. They’re a decent bunch and they felt sort of bad about you lying here in hospital and all of them fit and well. I didn’t know quite what to say, but I hinted you were figuring on settling down around this neighborhood, so they’ve decided to buckle to and build you a house down by the ford at the entrance to Thunder Valley. You know, the place we camped.”
“But I couldn’t possibly allow them to do that,” I said. “They’ve got their living to—”
“Now, listen, Bruce,” he cut in. “They feel had about this. It’s their way of showing they’re grateful to you. You just, got to accept it. It’s a sort of—” He glanced at Jean, and then said. “Well, anyway, they want to do it, and nothing’ll stop them, I guess.” He moved awkwardly to the door. “I must be going now... You coming, Garry?”
The big drilling contractor nodded. “I just wanted to say I’m glad you’re O.K.” He gripped my left hand. “And I’m proud to be associated with you.” He coughed in embarrassment and added quickly, “I’ll go down to Calgary and see Winnick. Things will begin to hum now. I’ll tell him you’ll be in to see him as soon as you can. I’ll see you I hen and find out whether you want to sell out to one of the big companies or whether you plan to develop the area yourself.”
He turned quickly and went out, leaving me alone with Jean. She hadn’t moved all the time they had been talking. I glanced at her face. It. was very pale and she seemed nervous. “You look much better,” she murmured, her eyes sliding away from mine. “Doctor Graham’s very pleased with you.”
An awkward silence fell between us. She moved toward the window. “Did Doctor Graham say anything to you?” She had turned to face me.
I closed my eyes. She looked so cool and fresh and radiant.
“How did you know I had it?” I asked her.
“Sarah Garret told me.”
“She shouldn’t have. I told her because—” What was the use of talking about it? I felt tired now. “I want to sleep,” I murmured. Anything to get her out of the room, to avoid having to look at her and have her eyes and face and body reproaching me for the future that might have been. “Please, Jean,” I whispered. “Leave me. Let me go to sleep now.”
There was no sound in the room, only a tense silence. Then I heard her move. “Not until I’ve said something,” she said gently. I opened my eyes to see her bending over me. A shaft of sunlight touched her hair, rimming her face in gold. Her hand touched my face, smoothing my forehead. “I’m not leaving you, Bruce. Whether you marry me or not doesn’t matter, but you’ll just have to get used to having me around.”
I stared up at her for a moment and then closed my eyes. I think I wanted to hold the memory of her face, that little smile that spread up into the eyes. “The doctor may be wrong,” I murmured.
“If you weren’t injured I’d slap you for that.” Her voice trembled slightly. Then she bent over me and her lips touched mine. “I seem fated to fall in love with men who are under sentence of death.” Her fingers touched my temple and then I heard her footsteps cross the room, the door closed and I was alone.
I lay there, feeling relaxed and happy. I wasn’t afraid of anything now. I wasn’t alone. Even the pain seemed dull as I sank slowly into a deep sleep.
It is winter now and the mountains lie under a white mantle of snow. I am writing this, sitting at the desk my grandfather made. Johnny brought it down from the Kingdom with him. Through the window I look across a clearing in the colt on woods to the ford where the waters of Thunder Creek glide, swift and black, to the lake. Someday that clearing will be a garden. Already Jean has a library of gardening books sent out from England and is planning the layout. We are full of plans — plans for the house, plans for the development of the Kingdom, plans for a family. It is just wonderful to sit back and plan. To plan something is to have a future. And to have a future is to have the whole of life.
As you’ve probably guessed already, the miracle did happen. Doctor Graham was right. The X-ray pictures showed no trace of what had threatened me. How it happened nobody seems to know. I can only quote the letter I received from Doctor Maclean-Hervey.
Dear Mr. Wetheral: Doctor Graham has sent me full details of your case, together with the X-ray photographs he has had taken. I can only say that I entirely agree with his view that you are completely cured and have no need to worry for the future.
You must be wondering now whether I was correct in my original diagnosis. For your benefit, I am sending Doctor Graham copies of the X rays taken at the London Hospital, together with a copy of the case notes I made at the time. You might like to frame one of the pictures side by side with Graham’s X ray as a reminder that you have confounded the experts! I need hardly add that I am delighted that you have.
Doctor Graham will doubtless have told you that occasionally canes of spontaneous cure do occur. The causes are not known and the instances are few. In your case I am inclined to the view that it may be largely psychological. You underwent a sudden and complete change of environment, coupled with the acquisition of an intense interest — or, since I understand you have recently got married, I should perhaps say interests. This, together with the fact that you become involved in a struggle outside yourself, may well have given you an overwhelming interest in living which you had not before. All this is not strictly within orthodox medicine, but in a case of this sort it is necessary to look beyond the laboratory and the operating theater. It is perhaps nearer to the miracle than to medicine.