"C M Kornbluth - The Little Black Bag" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kornbluth C M)

Incredulously, the doctor seized her arm and palpated the elbow. The gland infection was zero, and the
temperature seemed normal. The blood-congested tissues surrounding the wound were subsiding as he
watched. The child's pulse. was stronger and no faster than a child's should be. In the sudden silence of
the room he could hear the little girl's mother sobbing in her kitchen, outside. And he also heard a girl's
insinuating voice:

"She gonna be OK, doc?"

He turned and saw a gaunt-faced, dirty-blond sloven of perhaps eighteen leaning in the doorway and
eyeing him with amused contempt. She continued: "I heard about you, Doc-tor Full. So don't go try and
put the bite on the old lady. You couldn't doctor up a sick cat."

"Indeed?" he rumbled. This young person was going to get a lesson she richly deserved. "Perhaps you
would care to look at my patient?"

"Where's my mommy?" insisted the little girl, and the blond's jaw fell. She went to the bed and cautiously
asked:
"You OK now, Teresa? You all fixed up?"

"Where's my mommy?" demanded Teresa. Then, accusingly, she gestured with her wounded hand at the
doctor. "You poke me!" she complained, and giggled pointlessly.




"Well-" said the blond girl, "I guess I got to hand it to you, doc. These loud-mouth women around here
said you didn't know your . . . I mean, didn't know how to cure people. They said you ain't a real
doctor."

"I have retired from practice," he said. "But I happened to be taking this case to a colleague as a favor,
your good mother noticed me, and-" a deprecating smile. He touched the lock of the case and it folded
up into the little black bag again.

"You stole it," the girl said flatly.

He sputtered.

"Nobody'd trust you with a thing like that. It must be worth plenty. You stole that case. I was going to
stop you when I came in and saw you working over Teresa, but it looked like you wasn't doing her any
harm. But when you give me that line about taking that case to a colleague I know you stole it. You
gimme a cut or I go to the cops. A thing like that must be worth twenty-thirty dollars."

The mother came timidly in, her eyes red. But she let out a whoop of joy when she saw the little girl
sitting up and babbling to herself, embraced her madly, fell on her knees for a quick prayer, hopped up to
kiss the doctor's hand, and then dragged him into the kitchen, all the while rattling in her native language
while the blond girl let her eyes go cold with disgust. Dr. Full allowed himself to be towed into the
kitchen, but flatly declined a cup of coffee and a plate of anise cakes and St.-John's-bread.

"Try him on some wine, ma," said the girl sardonically.