A Burnt Out Case Read Online Free Page B

have grown an extra layer. ‘Have you no kind of electrical knowledge?’
    ‘I’m sorry.’
    ‘Because I’m expecting some apparatus from Europe. It’s long overdue. With it I will be able to take the temperature of the skin simultaneously in twenty places. You can’t detect it with your fingers, but this nodule here is warmer than the skin around it. I hope one day to be able to forestall a patch. They are trying that in India now.’
    ‘You are suggesting things too complicated for me,’ Querry said. ‘I’m a man of one trade, one talent.’
    ‘What trade is that?’ the doctor asked. ‘We are a city in miniature here, and there are few trades for which we could not find a place.’ He looked at Querry with sudden suspicion. ‘You are not a writer, are you? There’s no room for a writer here. We want to work in peace. We don’t want the press of the world discovering us as they discovered Schweitzer.’
    ‘I’m not a writer.’
    ‘Or a photographer? The lepers here are not going to be exhibits in any horror museum.’
    ‘I’m not a photographer. Believe me I want peace as much as you do. If the boat had gone any farther, I would not have landed here.’
    ‘Then tell me what your trade is, and we will fit you in.’
    ‘I have abandoned it,’ Querry said. A sister passed on a bicycle busy about something. ‘Is there nothing simple I can do to earn my keep?’ he asked. ‘Bandaging? I’ve had no training there either, but it can’t be difficult to learn. Surely there has to be someone who washes the bandages. I could release a more valuable worker.’
    ‘That is the sisters’ province. My life here would not be worth living if I interfered with their arrangements. Are you feeling restless? Perhaps next time the boat calls you could go back to the capital. There are plenty of opportunities in Luc.’
    ‘I am never going to return,’ Querry said.
    ‘In that case you had better warn the fathers,’ the doctor said with irony. He called to the dispenser, ‘That’s enough. No more this morning.’ While he washed his hands in spirits he took a look at Querry over his shoulder. The dispenser was shepherding the lepers out and they were alone. He said, ‘Are you wanted by the police? You needn’t be afraid of telling me – or any of us. You’ll find a leproserie just as safe as the Foreign Legion.’
    ‘No. I’ve committed no crime. I assure you there’s nothing of interest in my case. I have retired, that’s all. If the fathers don’t want me here, I can always go on.’
    ‘You’ve said it yourself – the boat goes no farther.’
    ‘There’s the road.’
    ‘Yes. In one direction. The way you came. It’s not often open though. This is the season of rains.’
    ‘There are always my feet,’ Querry said.
    Colin looked for a smile, but there was none on Querry’s face. He said, ‘If you really want to help me and you don’t mind a rough journey you might take the second truck to Luc. The boat may not be back for weeks. My new apparatus should have arrived by now in the town. It will take you about eight days there and back – if you are lucky. Will you go? It will mean sleeping in the bush, and if the ferries are not working you’ll have to return. You can hardly call it a road,’ he went on; he was determined that the Superior should not accuse him of persuading Querry to go. ‘It’s only if you want to help . . . you can see how impossible it is for any of us. We can’t be spared.’
    ‘Of course. I’ll start right away.’
    It occurred to the doctor that perhaps here too was a man under obedience, but not to any divine or civil authority, only to whatever wind might blow. He said, ‘You could pick up some frozen vegetables too and some steak. The fathers and I could do with a change of diet. There’s a cold storage at Luc. Tell Deo Gratias to fetch a camp-bed from my place. If you put a bicycle in the back you could spend the first night at the Perrins’, but you