Judgment Day

Continuation of the Details--page 3
MacNeill's Laboratory With Miss Alice stricken with tetanus and MacNeill away tending patients in another town, Christy is forced to go out in a storm to retrieve the necessary medicine from MacNeill's cabin. Christy In MacNeill's LaboratoryShe bravely presses on through the driving rain and lightning to reach his cabin and once inside breaks into the place she believes he keeps his medicine, the mysterious locked room. Looking around the room by the flickering light of a lamp, she discovers that the room is really a laboratory where the doctor is performing extensive research, and she discovers his experiments, copious notes, meticulously organized slides, and finally the medicine she needs.

Two Doctors Meanwhile back at the Mission, MacNeill has arrived to check on Alice and is alarmed when he finds out that Christy is out in the storm going after the tetanus antiserum. The two doctors have a head to head confrontation about the young school teacher, MacNeill furiously defending Christy and attacking Ferrand's methods. Christy earlier had stood up to Ferrand and challenged his assessment of her, and now MacNeill jumps in to come to her defense as well. Christy arrives just in time with the medicine, and MacNeill rushes upstairs to treat Alice.

His Best Kept Secret A few days later Christy catches up with MacNeill exiting the mission house after a visit to his patient, Alice. They slip away for a private conversation on the foot bridge where MacNeill asks her to dispense with the formalities and call him by his first name because "after all, you know my best-kept secret." When Christy questions him about his research, he hesitates for just a second and then confides in her, hopeful of how she might respond to this revelation. MacNeill is conducting research on the eye disease trachoma in the hope of finding a cure, Just Neil and Christy since the disease is so prevalent in the area and causes blindness. After this revelation, Christy begins to see him in a shining, new light, which he notices and is quite pleased by her interest. What a wonderful pastoral setting for a swoony little moment! (Ahh, but those of us who have been paying attention know that his *real* best kept secret is that he has special feelings for the young schoolteacher, but sh-h-h-h, we'll let her figure that out in her own time.)


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