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Page 47
"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 been brought 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.
"Hum! This is getting to be mysterious," mused Tom, as he came
out of the booth. "What shall we do--go back and tell Mrs. Nestor
and Mary, or communicate with the police?"
"Why not try the Alexian Hospital?" asked Mr. Damon. "That's
away over in Center-fiord, to be sure, but it's more likely to be
known to passing 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 the direction of the Brothers of that faith, and was well
known in that part of the state. Often cases of persons who had
been injured by passing automobiles had been taken there for
treatment, for, as Mr. Damon had said, it was well known, and
Centerford was the nearest large city.
"I can just about see how it happened," said Tom. "They ran Mr.
Nestor down, 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 should have 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 any resemblance 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 much
worried, now, to do any "blessing," which was his favorite
expression, "I think we ought to communicate with Mrs. Nestor.
She will be very anxious."
"I guess we'll have to," said Tom. "But wait! I'll call up my
house first, and see if he has gone back there."
But Mr. Nestor had not done this, and Mrs. Baggert, who
answered the telephone, said Mary had been calling frantically
for Tom, as her mother was now on the verge of complete collapse.
"No help for it," said Tom, ruefully. "We've got to tell 'em we
have no news, 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 and stay with her and take charge of the house.
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