William Butterworth Read Online

Lussey had hastily interrupted.

'When I see one,' Dr. Pierce had gone on. 'Whatever are you going to say to Mrs. Lussey when she returns home from her tour of the world's cultural capitals and places like that ?'

'Isn't there anything that can be done ?'

'My diagnosis might possibly be in error,' Dr. Pierce had said. 'You could do one of two things. You could seek another opinion. I know a good G&S man in Bangor . ..'

'G&S?'

'Gonorrh—'

'You said two things,' Mr. Lussey had said quickly. 'What was the other?'

'Well, as I said, my diagnosis might be in error.' 'It might?'

'There's only one way I could tell for sure whether you have what I think you have or whether it's merely an advanced case of athlete's foot.'

'Athlete's foot?

'By an odd coincidence, the treatment for a severe case of athlete's foot, such as you might possibly have, is just about the same thing.... massive doses of penicillin... as it is for that other unmentionable social condition.'

'It is?'

'Indeed. And I recall a case quite clearly where a chap who had both was cured of both at the same time.'

'You don't say?' Mr. Lussey had said. 'I probably caught it at the Spruce Harbor Health Spa. How soon can you start treatment?'

'That poses a little problem,' Dr. Pierce had said. ‘I won't know if it's athlete's foot until I run some tests, and our present testing equipment is so old that I consider it unreliable.'

'Then get some new equipment,' Mr. Lussey had said. ‘I’ll pay for it!' 'I thought you'd say that. I just happen to have some literature here in my desk.' Dr. Pierce had opened the drawer and pushed some four-color brochures across his desk to the savings-and-loan executive.

Mr. Lussey had examined it briefly.

'This doesn't say anything about athlete's foot,' he'd said. 'This equipment is an expensive data transmission system. What sort of data do you have to transmit about athlete's foot?'

'I sometimes like to seek outside opinions on really bad cases of what you have,' Dr. Pierce had said.

'Athlete's foot, you mean,' Mr. Lussey had said.

'We won't know that until we have the equipment, will we ?' Dr. Pierce had countered.

'But it costs $21,750!'

"The G&S man's name is Carter, but they call him Old Blabbermouth,' Dr. Pierce had said. 'He holds office hours every day. I'll give him a call and make an appointment for you—'

Mr.