Doctor On The Boil by Richard Gordon Page B

fault about it. I told you in the ward, you were perfectly right. It was a normal chest. I trust you don’t want it in writing?’
    ‘I mean it was my fault they got muddled, sir. You see, I was in the dark-room with Miss Gray while she was sorting them.’
    The dean frowned. ‘Dark-room? What on earth were you doing in the dark-room?’
    ‘I was distracting her, sir. Had it not been for me, she would never have made the mistake, sir.’
    ‘Do you realize what you are saying?’
    ‘I do, sir. I realize that I could have let Miss Gray carry the can, sir. But that wouldn’t have been right. I knew that I had to take the blame.’
    ‘And the consequences?’ asked the dean sombrely.
    ‘Exactly, sir.’
    ‘Well, Mr Summerbee…’ The dean leant back and put his finger-tips together. ‘However much I must admire your honesty and decency, you have been responsible, through interfering with the – er, affairs of the X-ray department, for causing great anguish not only to Sir Lancelot Spratt but to all of us who are his friends.’
    ‘I’m fully aware of that, sir.’
    ‘You have particularly distressed me–’ The dean broke off. ‘What exactly were you doing to the girl? No, it doesn’t matter, these days nothing is left to the imagination in either literature or life. And, Mr Summerbee, you have distressed even more our new matron.’
    ‘The matron, sir?’ Terry was perplexed.
    ‘Yes, on the strength of it all, Sir Lancelot – Nothing, nothing. I’m afraid this is a very serious offence. You will assuredly have to come before the full disciplinary committee of the hospital – not the usual subcommittee, you know, which deals with your student pranks. And the full committee will certainly punish you severely, if only to justify the inconvenience to its members of being summoned to sit on it.’
    ‘They’ll throw me out, you mean, sir?’
    The dean nodded. ‘That might well be the likely outcome.’
    ‘Well…I suppose I’ll leave with a clear conscience, at least.’
    ‘I’m sure you’ll make your way in some other career, with such shining honesty,’ the dean told him kindly. ‘Perhaps the Church?’ There was a knock on the door. ‘Come in.’
    ‘Do I interrupt?’ asked Grimsdyke cheerfully.
    ‘What is it, what is it?’ snapped the dean.
    Grimsdyke closed the door. ‘I gather there’s been something of an imbroglio about Sir Lancelot’s X-rays. I came to say that it was all my fault.’
    The dean looked bemusedly from one to the other. ‘What?’
    Grimsdyke nodded. ‘You see, I was in the darkroom with Miss Gray while she was sorting them.’
    ‘How big is this bloody dark-room?’ complained the dean.
    ‘Had it not been for my distracting her – delicacy prevents my giving more details in your presence, sir – she most certainly would not have made so uncharacteristic a mistake. I’m aware that I could easily have let poor young Miss Gray take all the blame. But I knew in my heart of hearts it was only right and proper that I should–’
    ‘ He says he was fiddling about with the girl,’ shouted the dean, pointing at Terry. ‘What are you? A pair of cat’s-eyed Casanovas?’
    Grimsdyke made a gentle gesture of amused tolerance. ‘I’m afraid Summerbee is simply carried away by gallantry. Miss Gray is a most attractive young lady, sir. Summerbee just wanted to save her from the inevitable push. Didn’t you, old man?’
    ‘I did not ,’ Terry said irately. ‘I was only telling the truth.’
    ‘You were nowhere near the dark-room,’ Grimsdyke insisted smoothly. ‘You were in the X-ray museum. I saw you go there myself. Let’s put it to the dean. Which of us do you believe?’
    The dean sat for some time with his head in his hands. At last he announced, ‘Dr Grimsdyke – I accept your word rather than Mr Summerbee’s. And don’t look so smug. I do so solely because long experience of you in the hospital, as a student and member of the junior medical staff, makes the