She must have the tooth out. "Was there a
dentist in the place?"
I looked at Jack: he looked at me: Ellen groaned with pain.
"Why, yes! of course there is," said this man for emergencies;
"Fisher takes out teeth, he told me so the other day."
Now I did not believe that Fisher knew any more about extracting
teeth than I did myself, but I breathed a prayer to the Recording
Angel, and said naught.
"I'll go get Fisher," said Jack.
Now Fisher was the steamboat agent. He stood six feet in his
stockings, had a powerful physique and a determined eye. Men in
those countries had to be determined; for if they once lost
their nerve, Heaven save them. Fisher had handsome black eyes.
When they came in, I said: "Can you attend to this business, Mr.
Fisher?"
"I think so," he replied, quietly. "The Quartermaster says he has
some forceps."
I gasped. Jack, who had left the room, now appeared, a box of
instruments in his hand, his eyes shining with joy and triumph.
Fisher took the box, and scanned it. "I guess they'll do," said
he.
So we placed Ellen in a chair, a stiff barrack chair, with a
raw-hide seat, and no arms.
It was evening.
"Mattie, you must hold the candle," said Jack. "I'll hold Ellen,
and, Fisher, you pull the tooth."
So I lighted the candle, and held it, while Ellen tried, by its
flickering light, to show Fisher the tooth that ached.
Fisher looked again at the box of instruments. "Why," said he,
"these are lower jaw rollers, the kind used a hundred years ago;
and her tooth is an upper jaw."
"Never mind," answered the Lieutenant, "the instruments are all
right. Fisher, you can get the tooth out, that's all you want,
isn't it?"
The Lieutenant was impatient; and besides he did not wish any
slur cast upon his precious instruments.
So Fisher took up the forceps, and clattered around amongst
Ellen's sound white teeth. His hand shook, great beads of
perspiration gathered on his face, and I perceived a very strong
odor of Cocomonga wine. He had evidently braced for the occasion.
It was, however, too late to protest. He fastened onto a molar,
and with the lion's strength which lay in his gigantic frame, he
wrenched it out.
Ellen put up her hand and felt the place. "My God! you've pulled
the wrong tooth!" cried she, and so he had.
I seized a jug of red wine which stood near by, and poured out a
gobletful, which she drank. The blood came freely from her mouth,
and I feared something dreadful had happened.
