Ole Doc Methuselah Part 11

"Will he recover?" asked Pauma behind the curtains.

"No thanks to you," said Ole Doc. "The boy was nearly dead from a terrible infectious disease. I would not be surprised to find that many suffer from it right here in the palace."

There was silence and a chill amongst the guards. But a laugh came from behind the curtains.

"And if you are not interested in that," said Ole Doc, "you might be interested to learn that diseases are no respecters of rank and glory and that I scent yet another in this very room."

There was silence.

Finally the curtains moved a little. "What may it be?"

"It is known as schizophrenia," said Ole Doc, "dementia praec.o.x with delusions of persecution. A very deadly thing, your majesty. It destroys both victim and execu- tioner."

There was silence again. The silence of ignorance.

"It is a dreadful thing, born from psychic shock. I scent

here a broken schizoid of the persecution type, a paranoi- ac as dangerous to herself as to those about her." Ole Doc thought he spoke plainly and for the life of him, after what he had witnessed below and seen outside, he could not have refrained from this. But plain as he thought it was, only some annoyed glimmering was transmitted.

"I think you mean to be insulting," came from the curtains.

"Far from it," said Ole Doc. "I only wish to help. I speak of a thing which I know. Here, I will show you."

He faced a guard and then as though he plucked it from the air, a small whirling disc spun brightly in Doc's hand. He held it under the soldier's nose and spoke in a fierce, rapid voice.

There had been a movement to stop him but the antics of the soldier an instant later startled the guards and Sir Pudno into activity. The small disc had vanished, seen by none except the soldier.

"Bow wow! Woof!" and on all fours the soldier began to gallop around the room and sniff at boots.

Ole Doc turned to the dais. "You see, your majesty?

The illness is contagious. By merely shoving at him the soldier becomes a dog."

There was fear and something more behind the cur- tains. "Remove the guard immediately! Come, you doctor.

Do others have this here? Tell me! Do others have this here?"

With something like disgust when he realized the men- talities with which he dealt, Ole Doc faced Sir Pudno.

"I see traces of it here."

"No!" bawled Sir Pudno, backing and stumbling.

But the disc appeared and Ole Doc's voice was harsh if almost unheard even by Sir Pudno.

"Woof! Bow wow!" said Sir Pudno and instantly began to gallop around the room.

There was fear in the place now. Ole Doc took two or three steps towards the guards who had remained and then, suddenly, they bolted.

There was a scream from behind the curtains and then terrified anger as she vainly sought to order them back.

Ole Doc was wary. He knew she must be armed. And he carefully halted ten paces from the curtains.

"I am sorry," he said soothingly. "I am very sorry to have had to disclose this to you. I know what you go through and what you have to face. Only an intelligent

man would truly understand that. It must be terrible to be surrounded by such people and to know-"

And the little disc was spinning in his hand.

It does not take many years for a powerful personality to acquire the trick. Ole Doc, in a purely medical way, had been practising it for the last seven hundred. One gets a certain facility that way. And the little disc spun.

There was a sigh behind the curtains. Ole Doc flung them back.

Had he not known the things she had done pity would have moved him now. For the sight he saw was horrible.

The bomb, six orbits ago, had left but little flesh and had blackened that.

He took a gla.s.s bomb from his kit and exploded it, carefully backing from the smoke. The narcotic would do what the disc had begun.

She must have spent all her hours behind that curtain for there was her bed, her few clothes, small dresser. And on the dresser, where the mirror should have been, was a life-size painting of her as she had been in her youth.

Indeed she had been a lovely woman.

Ole Doc rummaged in his kit, sneezing a little as the narcotic fumes drifted his way, and finally located the essentials he needed.

The work did not take long for he had a catalyst. Sir Pudno was guarding the door and growling from time to time, but admitting no one.

Ole Doc ripped the finery from her and bared her back.

His all-purpose knife, in his hands, was more than sculp- tor's entire rack of tools. He looked from time to time at the life-size painting and then back to his task.

The catalyst went in with every thrust of the knife and before he was finished with the back it had already begun to heal and would only slightly scar. The s.h.i.+ny grease was the very life of cells and hurled them into an orgy of production.

His surgery was not aseptic for it did not have to be.

Before he was through he would guard against all that.

The work was long for the likeness must be good and the scar tissue was stubborn. And then there was the matter of cartilage which must be cut just so. And it took a while for the follicles of the eyelashes to set. And it required much care to restore activity to the eye nerves.

But it was a masterful job. Ole Doc, three hours later, stood back and told himself so.

He gathered up the b.l.o.o.d.y sheets and thrust his patient into a sitting position on the chair. And all the while he was talking. Her eyes fixed on him now, absorbing every syllable he uttered, began slowly to clear.

Ole Doc had his eyes on the scars which soon ceased to be pink and then turned bone white. Finally they sank out of sight and something like circulation began to redden the cheeks.

It was time now to do other things.

Sir Pudno barked his compliance and went out to order workmen up and soon a stream of these, hampered by their chains until Ole Doc had them struck off, began to restore the mirrors and paintings to the walls. Other furniture soon appeared, a little frayed from years in storage but nevertheless very brightening. The lighting was altered. New clothes were issued.

Every time anyone came in and demanded authority for orders such as the removal of the hanging dead at the land- ing field, Ole Doc had only to shove a hand inside the curtains and a signature came out.

Soon he was able to bring up the rightful king, his queen and prince and they came, blinking and dirty to be seized without explanation and rushed away. But as they were certain of death they were too stunned to protest.

They were washed and robed.