The Outsider Page #4

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crooked limbs.

Now what would we have called it?

A "perambulatory automatic electrical extension".

For the reduction of, er...

...femoral congenital dislocation...

...and lateral curvature.

Well, at least the public wouldn't

know what it meant.

- Mr Ragatzy.

- Ah!

Good afternoon, gentlemen.

I must apologise for being a trifle late.

Please, don't apologise.

We quite understand.

- Ah, Dr Ladd!

- How d'you do, how d'you do?

And, er... now I must introduce

you to my colleagues.

Sir Montague Tollemach - Mr Ragatzy.

Mr Helmore. Sir Nathan Israel.

Mr Wilson.

Dr Langley and Mr Kinley. Dr Murray.

I'm very honoured that you meet me.

But where is Mr Sturdee?

I hoped above all that he'd be here.

Mr Sturdee was called away to Newcastle,

to perform an operation.

Oh, but I read that he returned

to London last night.

Oh.

So he won't meet me?

Well, will you please tell me why?

Why not?

Why not?

Mr Ragatzy.

I think perhaps we had better tell you

that his only daughter...

- ...is a cripple.

- What?

He is a master of surgery, and he has a

daughter that he cannot cure?

Huh! That puts him in rather

a stupid situation!

That shows how much good his

degree does for him.

Her incurable condition is due to

an unqualified practitioner.

Who attended her when she was a child.

Ah, so he hates us all indiscriminately, eh?

I think I've heard of this girl.

- Doesn't she make music?

- Yes.

Isn't she the Lalage Sturdee who wrote the

musical version of "School for Scandal"?

She is.

Oh! But what music, gentlemen.

That aria of Lady Teazel's - exquisite!

Oh, well...

...we're not here to talk about

music, but about me.

She's quite a celebrity.

What a patient for me!

"Ragatzy cures famous surgeon's daughter".

Good publicity, eh?

We're not here to discuss the effect of

your surgery on the daily press...

...but to examine your knowledge, and your---

"Famous Electra-Therapeutic Ragatzy Rack".

You fall in love with him when you see him.

I fetch him now.

Here she is, gentlemen.

Isn't she beautiful?

And all made by my own brains -

and my own hands.

It's certainly very well made.

Now I make some explanations.

- If you please, Dr Ladd.

- Certainly.

The mechanism inside is worked

from an ordinary power plug.

Now...

...we switch on.

Now she's going.

The energy created by the machinery...

...is carried through these flexible tubes...

...to the stretching apparatus.

You can't see any movement at all...

...because she only pulls one ten-thousandth

part of an inch, every hour.

But she's going all the time.

She's gentle, eh?

A little stronger.

Hmm. Very ingenious.

I'd have liked Sturdee to have seen this.

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