CHAPTER XXVIII
THE LAST LAP
The night would never pass, it seemed, yet slowly the hours of darknesscrept onward. To Jerry and Bob, first one and then the other, crouchedin the cramped motor compartment, holding the string of the tensionspring, which alone kept the machinery in motion, the sixty minutes ineach hour seemed like sixty thousand.
They had passed from the lake into the river, and but a comparativelyfew miles now separated them from the place where the auto had beenleft. The land part of their journey would take them until nearlynight, they calculated.
It was now fully light, and still they sped on. Neither of them coulddesert his post. Jerry managed, by lashing the steering wheel, tosnatch a few moments during which he rushed into the galley, and setthe coffee to boiling. Then he was back at the helm again, for the boatwas driving herself on shore.
The two chums ate a hasty meal at their posts, Bob in the motor room,Jerry at the wheel.
It was shortly before noon when they guided the _Scud_ up to Kroll’sboat dock, and as they made their craft fast, and scrambled out, takingonly a few belongings with them, one of the workmen cried:
“What’s your hurry? What’s the matter?”
“Can’t stop to tell now,” Jerry shouted back over his shoulder. “Fixthe boat up--mend that valve spring and have her ready for a dash sometime late to-night or early to-morrow morning!”
There was no delay at the place where the auto had been left.Fortunately the gasoline and oil tanks were filled, and explaining tothe garage keeper their need of haste the two chums were off again.
On and on they rushed. The first part of the auto trip was over goodroads, and for this the boys were thankful. It was about a hundredmiles to Brookville, where they hoped to find Dr. Wright. They hadabout five hours of daylight in which to make it and it would need anaverage speed of twenty miles an hour to cover this.
“If we can reach Brookville by supper time, and persuade Dr. Wright tocome back with us, we ought to get back to the boat some time in theearly morning,” Jerry calculated. “That will give us a long day to makethe trip back to camp.”
“Yes, if nothing happens,” Bob assented.
“Nothing must happen!” cried Jerry fiercely.
And, for a time, all went well. Then, when they had covered a bad bitof road, and reached a smooth stretch, and when Jerry had put on fullspeed, there came a sharp explosion.
“Back fire?” questioned Bob.
“Blow-out!” said Jerry, with a grim tightening of his lips, as he feltthe car skidding under the stress of the collapsed tire.
Jerry brought the machine up with a jerk, and was out on the groundalmost before it had stopped.
“Come on!” he cried grimly to his chum. “Got to put on a new shoe.”
It was not easy work, and it seemed as though it took them longer thanusual, as it always does when one is in a hurry. But, doubtless, theyworked with their usual speed.
Once more they were off again, and kept on speeding. They halted ata country store to get some crackers and a box of herring, also somebottled soda water to relieve their thirst. They ate on the run, gladenough to get their meal that way.
Then a puncture delayed them, but working with feverish haste, theymanaged to get in a new tube. Then, tired, with aching muscles, andcovered with the oil from the motor boat, as well as the dust of theroad, they swung into Brookville, and sent the car around a turn on twowheels, into the hotel driveway.
Once more Jerry was out almost before the vehicle had ceased rolling.Bob followed him more slowly into the corridor of the hotel.
“Dr. Wright--is he here--yet?” panted Jerry to the clerk.
That functionary looked up in surprise, and not a little suspicion atthe grimy and disheveled figure before him.
“Yes, Dr. Wright is here,” was the slow answer, “but I don’t know thathe will see you. He is----”
“Oh, yes, he’ll see us,” said Jerry confidently. “Don’t you rememberus? We were here before. This is Bob Baker, whom Dr. Wright treated,and----”
“Oh, yes. Of course! Now I know you. I didn’t at first because you----”
“No apologies necessary,” interrupted Jerry.
Dr. Wright had evidently not forgotten the motor boys, for he came downat once on receipt of the message.
“Why, Jerry!” he exclaimed, and then he drew back in surprise at thesight of his visitor.
Jerry plunged into the story of the professor’s accident. He made it asclear as he could, but it was rather an incoherent story, for all that.Bob put in a word now and then.
“But do I understand you want me to travel with you away up into thewilderness of the mountains--to a lonely hut, and there perform adelicate operation on Professor Snodgrass?” asked Dr. Wright, slowly.
“That’s it,” said Jerry.
“Go with you in your automobile and motor boat?”
“There’s no other way,” responded Jerry, quietly. “No railroad willtake us there any quicker. And we must start at once. Here is the noteDr. Brown told me to give you.”
The great surgeon stretched out his hand for the paper. As he readit a different look came over his face. It was as though he were ageneral receiving news that he was about to take part in some importantengagement.
“Ah,” he murmured, “the DeVerne operation,” for it was so named afterits discoverer, and Dr. Wright was a pupil of that famous Frenchsurgeon. “Yes, that is the only hope in a case like that. Dr. Brownwas fortunate in so quickly recognizing the necessity for it. Ah, yes,indeed,” and Dr. Wright seemed lost in a pleasant professional revery.
“Then you’ll come?” asked Jerry. “We want to save his life,doctor--save the life of Professor Snodgrass.”
“Yes, I’ll come!” exclaimed the great surgeon. “I have heard of yourProfessor Snodgrass. I honor him as a true disciple of science. I woulddo anything in my power to aid him, but,” and his voice grew moresolemn, “I do not promise to save his life.”
He shrugged his shoulders to express his doubt. And then the spiritof the soldier--of the fighter--came back to him. Indeed it had notdeserted him. He merely did not wish to raise false hopes.
“Come!” he cried. “We will go. I will get ready at once. I willneed--let me see----” and he began to go over in his mind the things hewould need, as a general might before undertaking a decisive engagement.
Unseen by the boys, Miss Payson, the nurse, came down. She saw thedoctor, and she must have known what his attitude, and his words, meant.
“Doctor! You’re not going out to-night--on a case!” she exclaimed. “Youforget you came here for rest. You----”
“I forget nothing, my dear Miss Payson,” he interrupted, with a smile.“I only know that I am a doctor, and that a friend--a patient--needsme. You will please get my case ready, and prepare yourself. We areabout to perform the DeVerne operation.”
“The DeVerne operation!” she gasped. “Here--now?”
“Not here and now. In a lonely cabin, away up in the mountains. Weshall have to travel all night, by auto and part of to-morrow by boat.But it can be done--it shall be done! These young men have come to callme to save the life of Professor Snodgrass. So we will go.
“You will please see that everything is ready. Remember we shall needmany things, so do not omit any. Tell my sister. She will go with us.You will need relief if you are to nurse this case. Ah, the DeVerneoperation!” and the doctor rubbed his hands as though he welcomed thesurgical knot he must soon loosen.
“Very well, doctor,” answered Miss Payson. Evidently she knew when shehad sufficiently objected.
“I will be with you inside of an hour,” Dr. Wright told Jerry. “Certainpreparations must be made. Meanwhile you had better rest and refreshyourselves. Have you room to carry three of us? My sister will go alongas assistant nurse to Miss Payson.”
“We have plenty of room,” replied Jerry, quietly. “We will be ready foryou in an hour.”
The preparations of th
e two youths were simple. They washed in thehotel lavatory, and ate--Bob especially doing the latter. Then, as theyhad a night auto trip before them, they carefully examined every partof the machine. The tires were blown up afresh, a thorough oiling wasgiven to every part, and, in addition to the main gasoline tank beingfilled, an extra five-gallon can was taken along.
Punctual to the minute was Dr. Wright. He had with him a bag ofinstruments, and other things needful for the operation. Miss Paysonand Miss Wright were carrying valises containing their personalbelongings.
“We are ready, boys,” said the great surgeon, calmly. “From now, untilwe reach the cabin, we are in your hands.”
“And we’ll get you there,” promised Jerry.
None of those who participated in that night ride ever forgot it.Shortly after starting from the hotel in Brookville it began to rain,and the storm increased in violence until at midnight it was blowing agale, and the rain was coming down in torrents.
“Can we go on?” asked Dr. Wright, calmly, from within the well-enclosedtonneau.
“The machine can,” said Jerry, wondering what the doctor meant.
“And if the machine can, we can,” was the reassuring reply.
The powerful lights marked out the muddy and sloppy road that lay aheadof them. Fortunately Jerry had been over it twice and he was prettyfamiliar with it now. He drove on cautiously enough, but at a pace thatbrought from Miss Payson and Miss Wright exclamations of alarm now andthen. As for Dr. Wright, he betrayed no fear whatever. He sat silentin one corner of the big car.
“Will we be in time? Will we be in time?” was the question that ranthrough Jerry’s mind continually.
That every moment counted he well knew from the look on the faceof Dr. Wright as he read the note Dr. Brown had written. ProfessorSnodgrass was in imminent danger. That much was certain. Could he beoperated on in time? Could he be given back the life that was so fastslipping away, long enough to make the disclosure he had hinted at inhis delirium--a disclosure that would prove the fraud of those who hadtaken the land from Mrs. Hopkins? Jerry asked himself those questions.
On and on they lurched in the auto. Now they glided down some slipperyhill, now they climbed the opposite slope, with all power on.
It was raining hard when a faint streak of light in the east showedthat the dawn was trying to break. It was still raining when theyheaded for the shipyard.
“We had better stop and have some breakfast,” suggested Dr. Wright, andwhen Jerry looked a little dubious at the delay the surgeon said: “Weshall all be better for it, and able to make better time. We must be ingood shape for what lies before us. We must neglect nothing.”
They ate at a little restaurant near the dock. Probably never beforehad the great Dr. Wright--the New York specialist on whose nodmillionaires waited--dined in such a humble place. But he made nocomment, nor did his sister or the nurse. It was a case of emergency,and they all recognized it.
“Is she all right?” asked Jerry of the man at the dock, as they wentdown, through the drizzling rain, to where the _Scud_ lay moored.
“Right as a trivet, sir!” was the answer.
“All aboard!” called Jerry. “We’re on the last lap, now!”
“And none too soon,” murmured Dr. Wright, as he again read the notefrom Dr. Brown, giving the nature of the injury and the symptoms ofProfessor Snodgrass. “None too soon. Speed her all you can, Jerry!”
“I will; yes, sir,” was the low answer.
The motor hummed and throbbed as the _Scud_ swung away from the pierand out into Silver River.
Would they be in time?
Over and over again the chugging motor seemed to say to Jerry:
“Will we be in time? Will we be in time? In time--in time?”