第32章

With the speedy runabout it did not take Tom Swift and Mr.Damon long to reach the place where the Air Scout had been grounded a few hours before, and where they had heard the cry for help.All was as dark and as silent as when they had been there before.

But, as Tom had said, the lights from his electric runabout would give a brilliant illumination, and these he now directed toward the clump of trees whence the cry for help had seemed to come.

"Doesn't appear to have been visited by any one since we were here," remarked Torn, as he observed the marks of the new automobile tire in the dust."Now we'll look about more carefully."This they did, but they were about to give up in despair and start for the nearest telephone to call up the hospitals, when Mr.Damon gave an exclamation.

"What is it?" asked Tom.

"Something bright and shining!" said his companion."I saw it gleam in the light of the lamps.You nearly put your foot on it, Tom.Just step back a moment."Tom did so, and the eccentric man, with another exclamation, this time of satisfaction, reached down and picked something up from the dusty road.

"It's a watch!" he exclaimed."A gold watch! And it's been stepped on, evidently, or run over by an auto.Not much damaged, but the case is a bit bent and scratched.It's stopped, too!" he added as he held it to his ear.

"What time does it show?" asked Tom.

"Eight forty-seven," answered Mr.Damon, as he consulted the dial."Why, Tom, that was just about when we heard the cries for help!""Yes, it must have been.Let me see that watch."No sooner had the young inventor taken the timepiece into his hands than he, too, uttered a cry of amazement.

"Do you recognize it?" asked Mr.Damon, in great excitement.

"It's Mr.Nestor's watch!" cried Tom."He must have fallen here, and been hurt.It was Mr.Nestor who cried for help, and who was taken away by the autoists.They've probably taken him to some hospital.There's been an accident all right."Tom and Mr.Damon were of one mind now in thinking that Mr.Nestor had met with some mishap on the road--an automobile accident most likely--and that he was the person who had called for help.

"If they had only answered when we hallooed at them," said Tom, "we wouldn't be in all this stew now.We could have told the strangers who came to his aid who he was, and we might even have taken him to the hospital in the airship.""Well, it's too late to think of that now," returned Mr.Damon."We had better get into communication with him as soon as we can, and then send word to his wife and daughter.I hope he isn't badly hurt."Tom hoped so, too, with all his heart.

There was nothing to do but to get back in the runabout and make all speed for the nearest telephone, and Tom Swift lost little time in doing this.They found a drug store which was open a little later than usual, and at once Tom went into the booth and called up the Shopton hospital.He was well known there, as he and his father were liberal supporters of the institution, which was a private affair.Many of Tom's men were treated at the dispensary, and, as accidents were of more or less frequent occurrence at the works, the young inventor had frequent occasions to call up the place.

"Mr.Nestor would ask to be taken there, as it's nearest his home--that is, if he was able to speak," Tom said to Mr.Damon, who agreed with him.There was a little delay in getting the hospital on the wire, but when Tom had it, and was talking to the superintendent, he was rather surprised, to tell the truth, to be told that Mr.Nestor had not been brought in.

"We haven't had any accident cases all day, nor to-night, Mr.Swift," the superintendent reported."Was this some one special you were inquiring about?"For Tom, determining not to give Mr.Nestor's name, except as a last resort, had merely inquired whether any recent accident cases had beenbrought in.

"I'll let you know later, Mr.Millard," he told the superintendent, not exactly answering the question.He hung up the receiver, and, opening the door of the booth, said to Mr.Damon: "He isn't there.""Then try Waterfield," was the suggestion; and Tom did so, though he could not imagine why an injured man, such as Mr.Nestor might prove to be, should be taken as far as Waterfield, when the hospital at Shopton was nearer.

"Unless," he told Mr.Damon, "the people which ran down Mary's father didn't know about our hospital."The reply from the institution in Mr.Damon's home town was just as discouraging as had been the answer from Shopton.At first, when Tom inquired, the head nurse had said there was an accident case at that moment being brought in.Tom was all excitement until she went to inquire the name and circumstances, and then he learned that it was the case of a little boy who had fallen downstairs at his home and broken a leg.There was no record of any one answering the description of Mr.Nestor having been brought in that evening.