Comprehension and Discussion Questions. 1. Where does this story take place?
1. Where does this story take place?
2. What kind of office did Mr. Whitney himself occupy?
3. Why does the author say that Mr. Whitney appeared to be more or less the type of man that he expected to see?
4. What woman had come to see Mr. Whitney recently?
5. Why did the woman begin to cry before telling Mr. Whitney her story?
6. Did "Mrs. Rossiter" say that her husband had lost much money or little money the day before?
7. What did Mr. Whitney finally agree to do?
8. What one condition, however, did he make before returning the money to her?
9. Why did Mr. Whitney become very angry the next day when he learned that Mr. Rossiter was again gambling in his place?
10. What did he say to Mr. Rossiter? How did Mr. Rossiter answer him?
Vocabulary and Idiom Review
A. Circle the word in parentheses which completes each sentence correctly:
1. In a restaurant you use a (desk/menu/season/flag).
2. The most famous gambling place in the world is located in (Washington/London/Venice/Monte Carlo).
3. The best place in which to keep money is a (safe/gambling house/handkerchief/desk).
4. He had an opportunity to make some money; that is, he had a (fame/surprise/chance/desire) to make some money.
5. If I am pretty mad, I am (very mad/not mad at all/awfully mad/rather mad).
6. That man is filled with pride; that is, he is very (pride/ proud/pried/ashamed).
7. A notorious person has (brilliant clothes/beautiful eyes/a lot of money/a bad reputation).
8. A communicative person usually (eats a lot/talks well/sleeps /gambles).
9. Mad means angry; it also means (lazy/hungry/insane/happy).
10. When you enter a room, you (come into/go out of/sleep in/ eat in) it.
B. Use the following expressions in sentences of your own:
1. pay attention to 5. get caught 9. keep doing something
2. give back 6. show someone in 10. at all
3. show someone out 7. sooner or later 11. feel sorry for
4. at any rate 8. get acquainted with 12. as a rule
C. The ending -tion is used to make nouns from some verbs. The noun shows the thing that results from the action of the verb.
Example: He wanted to educate himself, so he read every book he could find; his education, however, was far from complete.
Change the following verbs to nouns by adding -tion. Then use each of the resulting words in a sentence of your own:
1. instruct ___________ ____
2. communicate ___________ ____
3. operate ___________ ____
4. complete ___________ ____
5. invent ___________ ____
6. illustrate ___________ ____
7. collect ___________ ____
8. attract ___________ ____
9. fascinate ___________ ____
10. duplicate ___________ ____
A Case of Suspicion
By Ed Wallace
He threw back the covers and sat up on his bed, his feet feeling along the cold floor for his house slippers, the telephone ringing insistently a little distance away.
He turned on the light and picked up the phone.
"This is Doctor Benson," he said.
The November wind was bringing sounds of winter as it blew around the little white house. The doctor got into his clothes. He went to the table and stared a moment at his watch, his spirit complaining at the job ahead of him.
Two o'clock. His mind also complained at the horrible hour and he wondered why children always had to be born at such improper times. He took up two small satchels: the short pill bag, as the people of the town knew it, and the long obstetrical case — the baby bag they called it.
Doctor Benson stopped a moment to light a cigarette, then put the pack of cigarettes in his overcoat pocket. The wind felt like a surgeon's knife at his face as he opened the door and ran, bending low, around the driveway to the garage.
His car started with difficulty, coughed a half-dozen times as he drove down the driveway but then began to run more smoothly as he turned down Grass Street and on to the deserted highway.
Mrs. Ott Sorley, whom Doctor Benson was on his way to visit, already had almost a dozen children, but it seemed to the doctor that never once had she had a baby in good weather, nor in daylight. And while Doctor Benson was a country doctor, he was still a young man and couldn't find the pleasure that his father, "the old Doc Benson", had found in seeing Ott, the father, always two or three babies behind in the payment of his baby bills.
It was a long ride out to the Sorley farm and the sight of a man walking alone along the country road, as seen just ahead by the lights of the car, was a welcome relief to the doctor. He slowed down and looked at the man walking along with difficulty against the wind, a little package under his arm.
Coming alongside, Doctor Benson stopped and invited the man to ride. The man got in.
"Are you going far?" asked the doctor.
"I'm going all the way to Detroit," said the man, a rather thin man with small black eyes filled with tears from the wind. "Could you give me a cigarette?"
Doctor Benson unbuttoned his coat, then remembered the cigarettes in the outer pocket of his overcoat. He took out the package and gave it to the rider who then looked in his own pockets for a match. When the cigarette was lighted, the man held the package a moment, then asked, "Do you mind, mister, if I take another cigarette for later?" The rider shook the package to remove another cigarette without waiting for the doctor to answer. Doctor Benson felt a hand touch his pocket.
"I'll put them back in your pocket," the little fellow said. Doctor Benson put his hand down quickly to receive the cigarettes and was a little irritated to find them already in his pocket.
After a few minutes Doctor Benson said: "So you're going to Detroit?"
"I'm going out to look for work in one of the automobile plants."
"Are you a mechanic?" asked the doctor.
"More or less. I've been driving a truck since the war ended. But I lost my job about a month ago."
"Were you in the army during the war?"
"Yeah, I was in the ambulance section. Right up at the front. Drove an ambulance for four years."
"Is that so?" said Doctor Benson. "I'm a doctor myself. Doctor Benson is my name."
"I thought this car smelled like pills," the man laughed. Then he added, more seriously, "My name is Evans."
They rode along silently for a few minutes and the rider moved himself in his seat and placed his package on the floor. As the man leaned over, Doctor Benson caught his first good look at the small, catlike face.
The doctor also noticed the long deep scar on the man's cheek, bright and red-looking as though it were of recent origin. He thought of Mrs. Ott Sorley and reached for his watch. His fingers went deep into his pocket before he realized that his watch was not there.
Doctor Benson moved his hand very slowly and very carefully below the seat until he felt the leather holster in which he always carried with him his automatic pistol.
He drew out the pistol slowly and held it in the darkness at his side. Doctor Benson stopped the car quickly and pushed the nose of his gun into Evans' side.
"Put that watch into my pocket," he said angrily.
The rider jumped with fear and put up his hands quickly. "My God, mister," he whispered. "I thought you...."
Doctor Benson pushed the pistol still deeper into the man's side and repeated coldly, "Put that watch in my pocket before I let this gun go off."
Evans put his hand in his own vest pocket and later, with trembling hands, tried to put the watch into the doctor's pocket. With his free hand Doctor Benson pushed the watch down into his pocket. He opened the door and forced the man out of the car.
"I'm out here tonight, probably to save a woman's life, but I took the time to try to help you," he said to the man angrily.
Doctor Benson started the car quickly and the wind closed the door with a loud noise. He put the pistol back into the leather holster under the seat and hurried on.
The drive up the mountain to the Sorley farm was less difficult than he had feared and Ott Sorley had sent one of his older boys down the road with a lantern to help him across the old wooden bridge that led up to the little farmhouse.
Mrs. Sorley's many previous experiences with bringing children into the world apparently helped her greatly because she delivered this child with little difficulty and there was no need on Doctor Benson's part for the instruments in the long bag.
After it was over, however, Doctor Benson took out a cigarette and sat down to smoke.
"A fellow I picked up in my car on my way up here tonight tried to rob me," he said to Ott, feeling a little proud. "He took my watch. But when I pushed my 45 pistol into his side he decided to give it back to me."
Ott smiled wide at such an exciting story coming from young Doctor Benson.
"Well, I'm glad he gave it back to you," Ott said. "Because if he hadn't, we wouldn't have any idea what time the child was born. What time would you say it happened, Doc?"
Doctor Benson took the watch from his pocket.
"The baby was delivered about thirty minutes ago, and right now it's . . ." He walked over to the lamp on the table.
He stared strangely at the watch in his hand. The crystal was cracked and the top was broken. He turned the watch over and held it closer to the lamp. He studied the worn inscription:
"To Private T. Evans, Ambulance Section, whose personal bravery preserved our lives the night of Nov. 3, 1943, near the Italian front. Nurses Nesbitt, Jones, and Wingate."