Cherry Ames 22 Rural Nurse (13 page)

AMES,

RURAL

NURSE

Cherry shook her head. She set about taking his temperature, pulse, and respiration, and making the man as comfortable as possible. “We’d better call Dr. Clark,” Cherry said. Mrs. Grisbee nodded, and went downstairs to telephone the doctor.

“Honestly,” Cherry said, when Mrs. Grisbee came upstairs again, “I’m surprised at you, letting Mr. Grisbee swallow such junk. You know better.” Mr. Grisbee groaned in agreement. Phoebe Grisbee said:

“I—I thought the herbs in it made it all right. Snell was positive it would do Henry heaps of good. In fact, he was so certain that I’d want to buy a jar of it, he promised to wait for me at his shack in the woods tomorrow.”

“He did!” What a piece of good luck! Why, that would give the Food and Drug man a chance to nab the pedlar!

“He’ll be at the shack late tomorrow afternoon,” Mrs. Grisbee added.

“Why tomorrow?” Cherry risked. She checked herself from saying that until now the old pedlar had apparently been hiding out, that this morning his shack had been closed up. “Why tomorrow especially?”

“Oh, Snell told me he’s been staying and visiting with an old crony,” Mrs. Grisbee said, “but tomorrow he’s moving back to his own place.” Cherry was puzzled about the sudden boldness of the old pedlar. Why did he choose this particular time
THE

SEARCH

119

to come out of hiding? Why was he beginning to sell the remedy in the towns
now
?

Phoebe Grisbee rattled on, trying to excuse herself.

“Old Snell had a long list of word-of-mouth testimoni-als, from people I actually know here and across the river, so I thought—”

“He’s selling across the river in Missouri, too? At present?”

“Land’s sakes, yes! Said he has lots of new customers in Missouri.”

Cherry stared at her. “Mrs. Grisbee, you’re entirely too trusting. Just because Snell is an old acquaintance!

By the way, have you any Nature’s Herb Cure left?”

“No. I never had any in the fi rst place. Old Snell gave me a bit—a teaspoonful. Henry wouldn’t take but a taste. Why?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

Cherry prepared the patient for the doctor’s visit.

Within a few minutes Dr. Aloysius Clark arrived. He examined and questioned Mr. Grisbee.

“It looks to me,” Dr. Clark said, “as if you’re more miserable than sick.”

It was a good thing, Dr. Clark remarked to Cherry, that Mr. Grisbee had taken very little of the fake remedy.

As soon as the doctor no longer needed her, Cherry hurried back to the county health offi ce.

This page intentionally left blank
c h a p t e r x

A Ruse Is Set Up

if cherry had not been expecting the food and Drug inspector, she would not have recognized the man talking with Dr. Hal as a special kind of detective.

This quiet, studious-looking man seemed more like a scientist or a teacher.

“Here she is,” Dr. Hal said, as Cherry came in, and both men rose. “Mr. Short, this is our county nurse, Cherry Ames. Cherry, the United States Food and Drug inspector—”

“I’m Paul Short,” he said, and held out his hand to her. “Dr. Miller tells me that people here are taking this dangerous remedy in spite of a warning.” He spoke in a quiet, thoughtful way. “We’d better move quickly.”

The three of them sat down around the desk. Cherry was bursting with the news that the pedlar would be back at his shack late tomorrow afternoon, but she of 121

122
CHERRY

AMES,

RURAL

NURSE

course waited to hear how the Food and Drug man would proceed.

“The fi rst thing I want to know,” Mr. Short said, “is who manufactures this Nature’s Herb Cure?”

“We don’t know, sir,” Dr. Hal said. “We have a suspicion that it may be made at an abandoned farmhouse near here, but that’s only a suspicion. All we know for certain is that an old pedlar named Snell sells it secretly.”

Hal handed the inspector the jar that Mrs. Swaybill had given Cherry. He explained that the manufacturer’s address on the label was a false one.

Mr. Short read the label and shook his head. “The usual hokum. Crude directions for use, and the claims are fantastic. This is grounds for Food and Drug action.”

Cherry asked, “Is this what you call misbranding?”

“The worst kind,” Mr. Short said. “We could put someone in jail for this—if we could get an offi cial sample.”

He explained that an offi cial sample was one that the Food and Drug inspector collects and seals, with a printed form on the seal that he fi lls out and signs.

Although Mr. Short was most interested to see the jar that the county doctor and nurse had obtained, he had to obtain the offi cial sample himself. Without it, the Food and Drug Administration could take no action.

“Before we discuss that,” Mr. Short said, “you must tell me all you know about this remedy, particularly

A RUSE IS SET UP

123

how it is being sold and falsely promoted. I realize,” the Food and Drug inspector added, “it’s not possible for you two to furnish me with complete evidence. That’s what I’m here for. Any leads you can give me—” Dr. Hal and Cherry told him what facts they knew.

The inspector listened closely.

“The Food and Drug Administration needs evidence.

Proof,” he said. “We can accept your testimony, as competent medical persons, until we get our own sample and make our own analysis of the remedy. We abso-lutely must get an offi cial sample. And what we need is
proof
that the pedlar is selling the stuff out of state.” Hal scowled, and Cherry guessed he was trying to think how to proceed with the search.

“Have you any ideas about where I’ll be able to get an offi cial sample?” Paul Short asked. “Our usual pro-cedure is to go to the place of manufacture and inspect the premises, and take a sample. But we can’t do that since you’re not sure where this stuff is being made. Of course I could go have a look in the abandoned farmhouse, on a chance—”

Cherry said, “If you’d like to try to get a sample from the pedlar, he’ll be waiting at his shack in the woods late tomorrow afternoon.”

“He will!” Dr. Hal exclaimed, and Mr. Short’s eyes gleamed with interest. Hal demanded, “How come Snell will be there? How did you fi nd out about it?” Cherry described her visit with Phoebe Grisbee.

Paul Short gave Cherry an appraising look. “I have an idea what to do about that appointment, if it’s 124
CHERRY

AMES,

RURAL

NURSE

acceptable to Miss Ames. If you can persuade your friend, Mrs. Grisbee, to go to the pedlar’s shack—”

“Why, I’ll—I’ll certainly ask Mrs. Grisbee to go and buy a jar of Nature’s Herb Cure from the pedlar for us.

And I’ll do anything further I can to help.”

“Anything? Do you mean that? If you’d be willing to take a risk, Miss Ames, I think we could move in on this case tomorrow afternoon. At the shack. But I warn you, it’s risky. I’m not urging you. It’ll be perfectly all right if you say no.”

“Say no to what?” Hal asked.

The inspector took a long breath. “This is the plan I have in mind. I want Cherry Ames to go with Mrs. Grisbee to the pedlar’s shack. I want her to pose as a patient. Pose as Mrs. Grisbee’s niece from another state, who’s been taken sick here. Buy some of the remedy from the pedlar on his claim that it will cure you.

And buy it with the pedlar’s knowing that you plan to take it home with you to another state.” The inspector leaned toward them. “Do you see? That will give us the offi cial sample, and will constitute proof of secret deliveries to out-of-state customers.”

“But—but the pedlar knows who I am,” Cherry said.

“He’d recognize me.”

“That’s exactly where the risk comes in,” Mr. Short said. “You’d have to disguise yourself a little, and pretend to be sick.”

“Cherry?” Hal asked. “Think you want to take such a risk? Snell is obviously an eccentric and may be dangerous. He might even be armed.”

A RUSE IS SET UP

125

She was trying to think. She was aware of the danger, but that was not the main thing. She thought angrily of the hurt done to so many of her patients. She must not let Snell slip away.

“You and Mrs. Grisbee wouldn’t go alone,” the Food and Drug inspector said. “I’d go with you, and whoever the local police could send—your sheriff or his deputy—someone to give you protection, someone who can make an arrest on my complaint.”

“I’d go along, too,” Hal said to Cherry. “
If
you go.” The plan began to catch fi re in her imagination. She thought of Phoebe Grisbee’s huge old sedan. It had plenty of room in the back seat for three men to sit on the fl oor, unseen. With three men along—

“I’ll do it,” said Cherry.

“Are you sure?” Mr. Short asked her. She nodded.

“That’s wonderful! That will be invaluable help.” He coached her in detail as to what she and Phoebe Grisbee were to say and do. As for himself, he and the sheriff would have to get a warrant of arrest from the nearest federal court.

“The nearest is in Des Moines,” Hal said.

The Food and Drug inspector looked at his wristwatch. “It’s twenty to three now. The court closes at four, and opens again at ten in the morning. Let’s see.

It took me approximately three and three-quarters hours today to drive the hundred and fi fty or more miles from Des Moines to Sauk. That means seven and a half hours for the round trip. Figure about half an hour to get the warrant, and a little time to get meals and 126
CHERRY

AMES,

RURAL

NURSE

gas—” He broke off to ask, “Has Sauk got an airport?

Or anyone with a private plane who’ll fl y the sheriff and me to Des Moines?”

“Unfortunately no,” Hal said.

“Well, then,” Mr. Short said, “the sheriff and I had better start pretty soon for Des Moines, stay there overnight, get the warrant at ten, and drive back here tomorrow. I don’t want to risk being late for that appointment with Snell.”

As important as it was to fi nd and inspect the place where the drug was manufactured, Mr. Short decided that the chance to nab the pedlar and obtain an offi cial sample was still more urgent. The question of the place of manufacture could wait for a few hours longer.

Now that their plan of action was decided on, they talked for a few minutes about how Mr. Short worked.

In order to do his job, he was highly trained in the organic sciences and in his particular kind of scientifi c crime detection techniques.

“Sounds exciting,” Dr. Hal said.

“Sometimes collecting samples is a little risky,” Paul Short said. “You’ll fi nd out tomorrow afternoon. Inci-dentally, I wish you’d both still be alert for a sample, in case our ruse falls through. Though I think Snell will show up.”

“Next thing,” said Cherry, “is to persuade Mrs. Grisbee to go along with our plan.”

While Dr. Hal and Mr. Short went to another part of the courthouse building to see the sheriff, Cherry went to Phoebe Grisbee’s house.

A RUSE IS SET UP

127

Thank goodness Henry Grisbee was asleep. Phoebe was surprised to see Cherry again so soon, even more surprised when Cherry asked her for a pledge of secrecy.

“I’ll be quiet as the grave. Can’t I even tell your aunt or my husband about what we’re going to do?”

“Not yet,” Cherry said. “Snell is breaking the law and making lots of people sick. Your husband, for instance.

Snell is wanted by the federal government.” Phoebe Grisbee’s eyes and mouth opened. “Snell?

A—a criminal? I thought he was just a poor lonely old backwoods fellow—”

She listened solemnly while Cherry told her the chief facts of the racket, and then outlined the Food and Drug man’s strategy for tomorrow afternoon.

“Will you cooperate, Mrs. Grisbee? Will you take this risk in order to help yourself and your neighbors?”

“Well, I do lots of community work—I guess tomorrow afternoon would be for the general welfare, too, wouldn’t it?” Phoebe Grisbee’s round face was very sober as she thought it over. “I could ask a neighbor to stay with my husband. All right, I’ll go. Though I don’t know what Mr. Grisbee will say when he fi nds out.”

“Good for you!” Cherry squeezed her plump hand.

“I’ll come back here tomorrow around four.”

“I’ll have some clothes ready for you to wear as a disguise,” Phoebe Grisbee said. “Mercy! We’ll both of us have to do a good piece of play acting.” From Mrs. Grisbee’s house, Cherry notifi ed Dr. Hal that her aunt’s friend would take part in the plan.

128
CHERRY

AMES,

RURAL

NURSE

Mr. Short and the sheriff had already left for Des Moines. Then Cherry drove out into the country to see her nursing cases.

It would be just today, when she was preoccupied, that a rural storekeeper told her of a new family with a crippled child. Rumor said that the little boy had had polio a year ago; he wore a brace and limped. The family had just moved into the county, and the other children wondered why he did not come to school.

Cherry drove to where the road ended, then got out of her car and walked. She found, on an under-developed farm, a brave family and a seriously handi-capped boy of seven.

There was no possibility of his travelling to school. A teacher would have to come to him. Or, Cherry realized, the doctors might decide eventually to send Billy to a crippled children’s hospital, or to the University Hospital for surgery, where his deformity might be corrected.

She told the family of the good work done by the State Services for Crippled Children, a team of specialists who came from the University of Iowa Hospital to hold clinics in various parts of the state. It was the county nurse’s job to fi nd patients and prepare them for the team’s visit.

“Can they help our Billy?” the family asked.

Cherry gave Billy and his family all the encourage-ment she honestly could. She wanted very much to see this little boy walk normally, and run, and someday play baseball with other boys his age. She was so glad she’d found him.