Stephanie hadn’t impressed me very much, but at that time I didn’t think we’d have need of her services. I drove back to the Caine farm at a reckless speed, the more so since I wasn’t familiar with the curving, uneven road. Then Franny and I rushed into the house and found Jack, sitting on the floor now with his back against the wall, playing gin with Duff.

“You’d better start looking sicker before the doctor comes,” I said.

“The leg honestly doesn’t hurt as much as before,” Jack said. “It’s kind of numb now, although it hurts if I try to put any weight on it.”

Dr. Fowler arrived within ten minutes. He was a small, spry seventy or so, wearing an old-­fashioned white linen suit and glasses with a ribbon. He knelt and examined Jack’s leg quickly.

“Fractured coxa—broken hip,” he said laconically, then took a stethoscope from his bag and checked Jack’s heart. “Ticker’s OK, near as I can tell, but he’ll have to go to the hospital to have that hip repaired. Ashland is the nearest and it’s where I’m affiliated, not that that matters.”

“Couldn’t we take him back to a New York hospital?”

“You could, I suppose, but I wouldn’t—not if it was my hip.”

“How long will I need to be hospitalized?” Jack asked. He had turned paler, but he was trying to smile.

“Not too long, I should think, once the hip is reduced. We can get you into surgery and do that early on the schedule today.” He took a vial out of his bag and shook a few capsules into my hand. “Give him two of these with a glass of water. Now we need an ambulance and a stretcher.”

He said he would telephone for the ambulance from the Weber house. I went out to his car with him, wondering if he had any more alarming information to give me out of Jack’s hearing.

He didn’t. He assured me that he saw no reason for Jack’s not making a complete recovery from the accident.

“How soon can he go back to New York then?”

“I suppose he could go as soon as the bone is repaired and immobilized, if there’s a real necessity for his going.”

“I guess there’s no immediate necessity.”

“Maybe you think he can get better care in New York. I can guarantee you we have the most modern facilities here and, although I won’t know until I see the X rays, I think your husband’s fracture is a relatively uncomplicated one.”

“Well, whatever is best for him.”

“That’s the way to look at it. And I’ll be glad to consult by telephone with any New York medical man you like.”