CHAPTER XV
A VAIN SEARCH
Tom Swift's speedy little electric car was soon at the door inreadiness to take him and Mr. Damon to the Nestor home. The electricrunabout was a machine Tom had evolved in his early inventive days, andthough he had other automobiles, none was quite so fast or so simple torun as this, which well merited the name of the most rapid machine onthe road. In it Tom had once won a great race, as has been related inthe book bearing the title, "Tom Swift and His Electric Runabout."
"Mary didn't telephone again, did she?" Tom asked his father, as hestopped at the house to get Mr. Damon, having gone out to see aboutgetting the electric runabout in readiness.
"No," was the answer. "The telephone hasn't rung since."
"Then, I guess, Mr. Nestor can't have arrived home," said Tom. "It's abit queer, his delay, but I'm sure it will be explained naturally. OnlyMary and her mother are alone and, very likely, they're nervous. I'lltelephone to let you know everything is all right as soon as I getthere," Tom promised his father and Mrs. Baggert as he drove off downthe road, partly illuminated by the new moon.
Rapidly and almost as silently as his Air Scout Tom Swift drove thespeedy car down the highway. It was about three miles from his home tothat of Mary Nestor, and though the distance was quickly covered, toTom, at least, the space seemed interminable. But at length he droveup to the door. There were lights in most of the rooms, which wasunusual at this time of night.
The sound of the wheels had not ceased echoing on the gravel of thedrive before Mary was out on the porch, which she illuminated by anoverhead light.
"Oh, Tom," she cried, "he hasn't come yet, and we are so worried! Didyou see anything of father as you came along?"
"No," was Tom's answer. "But we didn't look for him along the road, aswe came by the turnpike, and he wouldn't travel that way. But he willbe along at any moment now. You must remember it's quite a walk from myhouse, and--"
"But he was on his bicycle," said Mary. "We wanted him to go in theauto, but he said he wanted some exercise after supper, and he wentover on his wheel. He said he'd be right back, but he hasn't come yet."
"Oh, he will!" said Tom reassuringly. "He may have had a puncture, orsomething like that. Bicyclists are just as liable to them asautoists," he added with a laugh.
"Well, I'm sure I hope it will be all right," sighed Mary. "I wish youcould convince mother to that effect. She's as nervous as a cat. Comein and tell us what to do."
"Oh, he'll be all right," declared Mr. Damon, adding his assurances toTom's.
They found Mrs. Nestor verging on an attack of hysteria. Though Mr.Nestor often went out during the evening, he seldom stayed late.
"And he said he'd be right back if he found you weren't at home, Tom,"said Mrs. Nestor. "I'm sure I don't know what can be keeping him!"
"It's too soon to get worried yet," replied the young inventorcheerfully. "I'll wait a little while, and then, if he doesn't come,Mr. Damon and I will go back over the road and look carefully. He mayhave had a slight fall--sprained his ankle or something like that--andnot be able to ride. We came by the turnpike, a road he probablywouldn't take on his wheel. He's all right, you may be sure of that."
Tom tried to speak reassuringly, but somehow, he did not believehimself. He was beginning to think more and more how strange it wasthat Mr. Nestor did not return home.
"We'll wait just a bit longer before setting out on a search," he toldMary and her mother. "But I'm sure he will be along any minute now."
They went into the library, Mary and her mother, Tom and Mr. Damon. Andthere they sat waiting. Tom tried to entertain Mary and Mrs. Nestorwith an account of his trial trip in the Air Scout, but the two womenscarcely heard what he said.
All sat watching the clock, and looking from that to the telephone,which they tried to hope would ring momentarily and transmit to themgood news. Then they would listen for the sound of footsteps or bicyclewheels on the gravel walk. But they heard nothing, and as the secondswere ticked off on the clock the nervousness of Mrs. Nestor increased,until she exclaimed:
"I can stand it no longer! We must notify the police--or do something!"
"I wouldn't notify the police just yet," counseled Tom. "Mr. Damon andI will start out and look along the road. If it should happen, as willprobably turn out to be the case, that Mr. Nestor has met with only asimple accident, he would not like the notoriety, or publicity, ofhaving the police notified."
"No, I am sure he would not," agreed Mary. "Tom's way is best, Mother."
"All right, just as you say, only find my husband," and Mrs. Nestorsighed, and turned her head away.
"Even if Mr. Nestor had had a fall," reasoned Tom, "he could call forhelp, and get some one to telephone, unless--"
And as he reasoned thus Tom Swift gave a mental start at his own use ofthe word "help."
That weird cry on the lonely meadow came back to him with startlingdistinctness.
"Come on, Mr. Damon!" cried Tom, in a voice he tried to make cheerful."We'll find that Mr. Nestor is probably walking along, carrying hisdisabled bicycle instead of having it carry him. We'll soon have himsafe back to you," he called to the two women.
"I wish I could go with you, and help search," observed Mary.
"Oh, I couldn't bear to be left alone!" exclaimed her mother.
"We'll telephone as soon as we find him," called Tom to Mrs. Nestor, ashe and Mr. Damon again got into the runabout and started away from theplace.
"What do you think of it, Tom?" asked the eccentric man, when they wereonce more on the road.
"Why, nothing much--as yet," Tom said. "That is, I think nothing morethan a simple accident has happened, if, indeed, it is anything morethan that he has delayed to talk to some friends."
"Would he delay this long?"
"I don't know."
"And then, Tom--bless my spectacles! what of that cry we heard? Couldthat have been Mr. Nestor?"
There! It was out! The suspicion that Tom had been trying to keep hismind away from came to the fore. Well, he might as well race the issuenow as later.
"I've been thinking of that," he told Mr. Damon. "It might have beenMary's father calling for help."
"But we looked, Tom, near the trees, and couldn't discover anything. Ifhe had been calling for help--"
Mr. Damon did not finish.
"He may have fallen from his wheel and been hurt," said Tom, as heturned the electric runabout into the highway that Mr. Nestor would,most likely, have taken on his way from Shopton. "Then he may havecalled for help, and some autoists, passing, may have heard and takenhim away."
"Yes, but where, Tom? Whoever called for help was taken away, that'ssure. But where?"
"To some hospital, I suppose."
"Then hadn't we better inquire there? There are only two hospitals ofany account around here. The one in Shopton and the one in Waterfield.My wife is on the board of Lady Managers there. We could call thathospital up and--"
"We'll look along the road first," said Tom. "If we begin to makeinquiries at the hospitals there will be a lot of questions asked, anda general alarm may be sent out. Mr. Nestor wouldn't like that, if heisn't in any danger. And it may turn out that he has met an old friend,and has been talking with him all this while, forgetting all about thepassage of time."
They were now driving along the highway that led from the little suburbwhere Mr. Nestor lived, to the main part of Shopton, just beyond whichwas Tom's home. This section was country-like, with very few houses andthose placed at rather infrequent intervals. The road was a good one,though not the main-traveled one, and Mr. Nestor, as was known,frequently used it when he rode his bicycle, an exercise of which hewas very fond.
As Tom and Mr. Damon drove along, they scanned, as best they could inthe light from the young moon and the powerful lamps on the runabout,every part of the highway. They were looking for some dark blot whichmight indicate where a man had fallen from his wheel and was lying insome huddled heap on the road. But they saw nothin
g like this, much totheir relief.
"Do you know, Tom," said Mr. Damon, when they were nearing the town,and their search, thus far, had been in vain, "I think we're going atthis the wrong way."
"Why, so?"
"Because Mr. Nestor may have fallen, and been hurt, and have beencarried into any one of a dozen houses along the road. In that case wewouldn't see him. We've passed over the most lonely part of the journeyand haven't seen him. If the accident occurred near the houses hiscries would have brought some one out to help him. He is well knownaround here, and, even if he were unconscious and couldn't tell who hewas, he could be identified by papers in his pockets. Then his familywould be notified by telephone."
"Perhaps you are right, Mr. Damon. We may be wasting time this way.What do you suggest?" asked Tom.
"That we don't delay any longer, but call up the hospitals at once. Ifhe isn't in either of those he must be in some house, and in suchcondition that his identity cannot be established. In that event it isa case for the police. We haven't found him, and I think we had bettergive the alarm."
Tom Swift thought it over for a moment. Then he came to a suddendecision.
"You're right!" he told Mr. Damon. "We mustn't waste any more time. Heisn't along the road he ought to have traveled in coming from my houseto his home--that's sure. But before I call up the hospitals I want totry out one more idea."
"What's that, Tom?"
"I want to go to the place where we heard that cry for help."
"Do you think that could have been Mr. Nestor?"
"It may have been. We'll go and take another look around there. Someman was evidently hurt there, and was taken away. We may get a clew.The lights on the runabout will give us a better chance to look aroundthan we had by the little pocket lamp. We'll try there, and, if wedon't find anything, then I'll call up the hospitals."