Surgeon at Arms

happened. He stood back from the door and started to shout. A grizzled head appeared at an upstairs window. He recognized Air Marshal Sir Giles Perrins, K.C.B., D.S.O., D.F.C. and bar.
    ‘What the hell do you think you’re up to?’ demanded the householder.
    ‘I’ve come to see Felicity.’
    ‘Oh, it’s you. Well, clear off. Neither Felicity nor anyone here wants to set eyes on you again.’
    ‘I demand to see my future wife.’
    ‘For God’s sake, man! Get away, will you? You know perfectly well my daughter wishes to have nothing whatever to do with you.’
    ‘Felicity agreed to marry me.’
    ‘Please, please be reasonable. You’re just causing trouble for yourself and all of us. Felicity never said anything of the kind. You know that as well as I do.’
    ‘You’re deliberately keeping her from me.’
    ‘Do go away, there’s a good chap. You’re disturbing the neighbourhood. It’s terribly early.’
    ‘I demand admittance.’
    ‘Oh, clear off, you stupid little bastard.’
    ‘How dare you speak to me like that! I am a healer. I demand the respect to which I am entitled.’
    There was a milk-bottle on the step. Alec picked it up and threw it into the closed downstairs window. He thought the crash sounded very satisfactory.
    The rest of his morning was confused. There were policemen, the Air Marshal, even Felicity in the background, in her dressing-gown. People kept holding him down. They were persecuting him terribly. They wouldn’t listen, however much he tried to explain. There was another man, very worried. He was a doctor, he explained. ‘Now calm down, old man, calm down,’ he implored. ‘Look what a mess you’ve made of this sitting-room.’
    ‘I didn’t make the mess,’ Alec protested violently. ‘They made it, they’re trying to discredit me. It’s all a plot. What’s that?’ he demanded.
    ‘It’s only a syringe. I think you’d benefit from a sedative.’
    ‘You’re trying to poison me.’
    ‘No, I’m not. You’ll recognize the need for it yourself when you recover.’
    ‘Recover? I’m not ill. Everyone’s against me. Oh God, everyone’s always against me.’
    Alec suddenly felt he couldn’t be bothered with these unpleasant persons any longer. Drowsiness overcame him. He’d had a tiring few hours, he had to agree. People seemed to be moving him. He let them have their way. He’d let them persecute him. He’d lost the will to resist. He was lying on his back, moving along. In something, a car. Surely not an ambulance, he wasn’t in the slightest ill. He was still on his back, in the fresh air again. His surroundings struck him as familiar. The flat dome, the smoke-belching minarets, the magnificent portico. Smithers Botham. They wheeled him to the block which had quartered the Emergency Squad, one of the first sections of the hospital returned to rightful use.
    ‘Hello, Alec.’
    He looked up. It was Dr Dency, long fingers playing with the little gold bars of his watch-chain as usual.
    ‘Don’t worry, Alec. We’ll look after you. You’ll be all right here.’
    ‘Home again,’ said Alec simply. ‘Yes, I always liked this place.’
     

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
     
    I’M SORRY I’M LATE,’ Graham apologized. ‘I had to go out to Smithers Botham. My nephew Alec was admitted there yesterday.’
    ‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ said Haileybury. ‘Nothing serious, I hope?’
    ‘No, not too alarming. He’s in the psychiatric block as a voluntary patient. Dency’s looking after him. Alec’s landed himself in a bit of trouble. He’s been behaving rather oddly recently, I must say. I expect they’ll get him straightened out. I gather they’ve some new drugs coming in for this manic-depressive business, which should help the poor fellow.’
    ‘Nevertheless, it must be very disturbing for you.’
    ‘It is.’ Graham sat down. ‘I thought we had enough mental illness in the family with my wife. God knows where Alec inherited it from. Though his father could be peculiar enough when he liked. Missionary or not, there were one or two stories about him I shouldn’t care to repeat.’
    ‘No, no, of course not,’ said Haileybury hastily. ‘Anyway, every family’s got one or two mad ones in it, if you look closely enough. Not that Alec’s certifiable, anything like that. He just needs watching for a while. He’s grown into a peculiar young man all round. And I’m more or less responsible for him, with his mother in America. At least, I promised her as