CHAPTER XVI
THE LONG NIGHT
With the speedy runabout it did not take Tom Swift and Mr. Damon longto reach the place where the Air Scout had been grounded a few hoursbefore, and where they had heard the cry for help. All was as dark andas silent as when they had been there before.
But, as Tom had said, the lights from his electric runabout would givea brilliant illumination, and these he now directed toward the clump oftrees whence the cry for help had seemed to come.
"Doesn't appear to have been visited by any one since we were here,"remarked Tom, as he observed the marks of the new automobile tire inthe dust. "Now we'll look about more carefully."
This they did, but they were about to give up in despair and start forthe nearest telephone to call up the hospitals, when Mr. Damon gave anexclamation.
"What is it?" asked Tom.
"Something bright and shining!" said his companion. "I saw it gleam inthe light of the lamps. You nearly put your foot on it, Tom. Just stepback a moment."
Tom did so, and the eccentric man, with another exclamation, this timeof satisfaction, reached down and picked something up from the dustyroad.
"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 abit bent and scratched. It's stopped, too!" he added as he held it tohis 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 handsthan 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, andbeen hurt. It was Mr. Nestor who cried for help, and who was taken awayby the autoists. They've probably taken him to some hospital. There'sbeen an accident all right."
Tom and Mr. Damon were of one mind now in thinking that Mr. Nestor hadmet with some mishap on the road--an automobile accident mostlikely--and that he was the person who had called for help.
"If they had only answered when we hallooed at them," said Tom, "wewouldn't be in all this stew now. We could have told the strangers whocame to his aid who he was, and we might even have taken him to thehospital in the airship."
"Well, it's too late to think of that now," returned Mr. Damon. "Wehad better get into communication with him as soon as we can, and thensend 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 allspeed for the nearest telephone, and Tom Swift lost little time indoing this. They found a drug store which was open a little later thanusual, and at once Tom went into the booth and called up the Shoptonhospital. He was well known there, as he and his father were liberalsupporters of the institution, which was a private affair. Many ofTom's men were treated at the dispensary, and, as accidents were ofmore or less frequent occurrence at the works, the young inventor hadfrequent occasions to call up the place.
"Mr. Nestor would ask to be taken there, as it's nearest his home--thatis, if he was able to speak," Tom said to Mr. Damon, who agreed withhim. There was a little delay in getting the hospital on the wire, butwhen Tom had it, and was talking to the superintendent, he was rathersurprised, to tell the truth, to be told that Mr. Nestor had not beenbrought in.
"We haven't had any accident cases all day, nor to-night, Mr. Swift,"the superintendent reported. "Was this some one special you wereinquiring about?"
For Tom, determining not to give Mr. Nestor's name, except as a lastresort, had merely inquired whether any recent accident cases had beenbrought in.
"I'll let you know later, Mr. Millard," he told the superintendent, notexactly answering the question. He hung up the receiver, and, openingthe door of the booth, said to Mr. Damon: "He isn't there."
"Then try Waterfield," was the suggestion; and Tom did so, though hecould not imagine why an injured man, such as Mr. Nestor might prove tobe, should be taken as far as Waterfield, when the hospital at Shoptonwas nearer.
"Unless," he told Mr. Damon, "the people which ran down Mary's fatherdidn't know about our hospital."
The reply from the institution in Mr. Damon's home town was just asdiscouraging as had been the answer from Shopton. At first, when Tominquired, the head nurse had said there was an accident case at thatmoment being brought in. Tom was all excitement until she went toinquire the name and circumstances, and then he learned that it was thecase of a little boy who had fallen downstairs at his home and broken aleg. There was no record of any one answering the description of Mr.Nestor having been brought in that evening.
"Hum! This is getting to be mysterious," mused Tom, as he came out ofthe booth. "What shall we do--go back and tell Mrs. Nestor and Mary, orcommunicate with the police?"
"Why not try the Alexian Hospital?" asked Mr. Damon. "That's away overin Centerford, to be sure, but it's more likely to be known topassing tourists than either of our institutions around here,especially if the autoists were strangers."
"That's so," agreed Tom. The Alexian Hospital was operated under thedirection of the Brothers of that faith, and was well known in thatpart of the state. Often cases of persons who had been injured bypassing automobiles had been taken there for treatment, for, as Mr.Damon had said, it was well known, and Centerford was the nearest largecity.
"I can just about see how it happened," said Tom. "They ran Mr. Nestordown, and stopped to pick him up after they heard his cries for help.And the Alexian Hospital was the first one they thought of. We shouldhave called that up first."
But once more disappointment awaited the young inventor and his friend.Word came back over the wire that no accident case, which bore anyresemblance to Mary's father, had been brought in.
"Well, I'm stumped!" exclaimed Tom. "What shall we do now, Mr. Damon?"
"Much as I dislike it," said the eccentric man who was too muchworried, now, to do any "blessing," which was his favorite expression,"I think we ought to communicate with Mrs. Nestor. She will be veryanxious."
"I guess we'll have to," said Tom. "But wait! I'll call up my housefirst, and see if he has gone back there."
But Mr. Nestor had not done this, and Mrs. Baggert, who answered thetelephone, said Mary had been calling frantically for Tom, as hermother was now on the verge of complete collapse.
"No help for it," said Tom, ruefully. "We've got to tell 'em we have nonews, and can't find him."
And, hearing this, Mrs. Nestor did collapse, and a doctor was called in.
Thereupon Tom, who with Mr. Damon had gone back to the Nestor home,took charge of matters, sending for Mrs. Nestor's sister to come andstay with her and take charge of the house.
"You'll need some one to stay with you," he told Mary.
"Yes, I shall," she admitted, trying bravely not to give way to heremotion. "Oh, Tom, I wish you could stay, too. I'm sure somethingdreadful must have happened to poor father. Please stay and help usfind him!"
"I will," Tom promised. "As soon as your aunt comes I'll take Mr. Damonhome, and then I'll give the rest of my time to you."
And this Tom did, sending word home that he would remain at theNestor's all night and part of the next day.
Tom got but little sleep that night. He communicated with the policeand saw to it that a general alarm was sent out. He called up allhospitals within a radius of fifty miles, but could get no trace of anyinjured man whose description resembled that of Mr. Nestor.
"What can have happened?" asked Mary tearfully.
"Well, the way I figure it out is this," said Tom. "Your father left myhouse soon after Mr. Damon and I did in the Air Scout. Mr. Nestor wasriding his bicycle, and he must have been run into by an automobile.That is how his watch was damaged and that was when Mr. Dam
on and Iheard the cries for help."
"Oh, do you think he was badly hurt?" asked Mary.
"No, I don't," and Tom answered truthfully. "The voice sounded asthough he was in pain, certainly, but it was strong and vigorous, andnot at all as though he was dangerously hurt."
"And what do you think happened to him after he was hurt?" asked Mary.
"The autoists took him away," decided Tom. "In fact, we heard themachine go, but of course we never connected the call for help and whatfollowed with your father. The autoists took him away."
"Where?"
"I should say to some hospital. Perhaps a private one of which we knownothing, and which may be near here. I'll get a full list from theBoard of Health to-morrow. Or it may be that the autoists, seeing thedamage they had done, took your father to the home of one ofthemselves, and summoned a doctor there."
"Why would they do that?"
"Well, they may have been so frightened they didn't realize what theywere doing, or they may have thought he would get better treatment in aprivate house, if he were not badly injured, than if he should be takento a hospital. It may have been that one of the persons in the auto wasa physician, and wished to try his own skill on the man he had hurt."
"You make me feel more comfortable, Tom," said Mary. "But, evensupposing all this, why couldn't they telephone to us that my fatherwas all right? He always carries an identification card with him, andif he were unconscious it could be ascertained who he was."
"That's what I can't understand," said Tom frankly. "It puzzles me. Butwe'll find him--never fear!"
And so he kept on with his telephone inquiries, while a physician andher sister ministered to Mrs. Nestor. The night was very, very long,and no good news came in.