The Doctor's Wife

Chapter 6. The Rescue

Feeling for a pulse, Alice noted Neil's fingers and chapped lips had taken on a bluish tinge. He was cold to touch, but not shivering. She shuddered to think he had probably fallen shortly after he left his cabin. He had been laying in the stream all this time. Three, maybe four hours? The temperature was not overly cold but that long in cold water could cause hypothermia on a summer day. It was a miracle that he was alive. She pushed away the question of how much longer that would be.

"Jeb! David!" Alice shouted, although the men were less than a foot away. "Help us get him out of the water. We have to get him warm. We're going to need a litter, too."

The men had been rooted to the spot, but Alice's orders spurred them to action.

David took off his coat and laid it over Neil. The coat was barely large enough to cover him, Neil was a good bit more broad-shouldered than David.

"If we can lift him over yonder onto my coat," it will make it easier to get him warm and fix up a litter," said Jeb.

"No lifting, yet," said Mrs. Alice, "we need to try to roll him onto his side first and then onto the coat."

David nodded grimly. He hoped the jostling would not cause the doctor more injury, or worse.

"We'll have to move him gently. Carefully," Alice instructed. "I fear there is more damage than eyes can see. But we have to get him out of the water. Sam Houston, will thou please collect his instruments and put them back in his bag?"

"Yes ma'am!" Sam Houston went to work, eager to be of assistance.

Mrs. Alice bent down by Neil's left leg, which was still bent oddly over the rock. She shook her head sadly. Pulling a small pocketknife out of her pocket, she began to cut away Neil's pant leg. It was black and blue and distorted at a sickly angle, but to some small relief, she could not see bone sticking through the skin.

Christy looked up. "You're not going to try to set his leg here, are you?"

"No, we must get him out of the water first. His skin is like ice."

Jeb and David both pushed up their sleeves and knelt down on Neil's right side, Alice on his left.

"On the count of three, you two pull him up and over and I'll place the coat underneath him," said Mrs. Alice, removing her own coat as well. She placed her coat over David's, and then took Jeb's and laid it flat next to Neil.

"Neil, they need to move you, darling. I know it will hurt, but we're going to get you out of there and warm," Christy whispered into his ear.

"One...two...THREE!"

"AAACCCH!" Neil made so pitiful a sound it took Christy's breath way. Besides being hypothermic, he was clearly delirious with pain.

As the men rolled him to his side, his leg slid off the rock and into the water. Mrs. Alice quickly and deftly placed Jeb's coat down and the men rolled him back. She felt again for a pulse. His breathing was shallow.

"Neil. Neil! Listen to my voice. Please. I'm here. Stay with me." Christy brushed the sodden tendrils from his face, revealing a gash across his forehead. His skin was raw and red with many small cuts and bruises. She felt big warm, salty tears sliding down her cheeks.

"So c-cold," he groaned, barely audible.

"Neil, we are going to get you out of here and back to the mission. You just hold on," Alice seemed to command him.

They all looked around for the best way back up to the trail. Sam Houston was standing by a more graduated incline. "Over here!" he motioned the way with a sweep of his arm.