FRANK TURNS CHAUFFEUR
"Don't you want your gun?" asked Bones, in a low voice, that
showed some trace of excitement; for, truth to tell, Bones was
inclined to be suspicious by nature, and there had been stories
told lately throughout that section, of raids by thieving tramps.
Possibly that may have been one reason why Bones was so desirous
of having company on this little excursion up to the farm to try
his new gun.
"What for?" asked Frank, surprised, as he dropped out of the
vehicle.
"Oh! there's no telling. This may be just a trap to stop any
travelers and make them hand over. It's been done before. I'd hate
to lose my double-barrel the first thing."
He was groping under the seat for the aforesaid article at that
very moment, as though he would feel safer with it in his hands.
But Frank laughed scornfully.
"Don't you believe it, Bones. Ten to one this is some vehicle that
has left the road and gone into the ditch. I'm only afraid I may
find the driver badly hurt in being thrown out, that's all."
He left the buggy as he spoke, and walked hastily forward toward
the dark object that seemed to be half on the road and partly
among the trees. "Why, it looks like an automobile," said Frank
to himself, as he came closer; and five seconds later he added
positively, "That's just what it is. I wonder what's happened
now?"
He soon knew. Upon reaching the scene he found that the car must
have suddenly swerved from the road and struck a tree, head on. It
could not have been going at a very rapid pace at the time, for
although some damage had been done to the hood, and one of the
lamps seemed to be smashed, the machine did not appear badly
damaged.
Some one was grunting close by, and as Frank drew near he saw a
figure crawling out from the bushes.
"What's happened here?" he asked, promptly.
The figure of a man started up, and as Frank struck a match he saw
that the other seemed to be decently dressed, although his clothes
were somewhat torn after his headlong flight in among the bushes.
"We had an accident," muttered the man, staring hard at him; and
Frank thought with a look not unlike suspicion on his scratched
face.
"I see you had," returned Frank, at the same time noting almost
unconsciously from the way the machine headed they must have been
coming away from Columbia at the time; "but you speak as if there
might be another party along with you. Did he get tossed out too
when you hit the tree?"
"I don't know. I wasn't seeing anything just then but a million
stars. He don't seem to be in the car, does he?" ventured the
other, who was rubbing himself all over as if trying to ascertain
whether any ribs, or other bones, had been broken in his rough
experience.
"Then he must be in the bushes, the same as you, though it's a
miracle how he went out, being behind the steering wheel; and also
how he missed hitting this tree. Fortunately it happens to be a
small one. Let's look and see."
As he spoke Frank lit another match and started to examine the
bushes alongside the stranded car and beyond. By the time he had
used three matches success rewarded his efforts, for they found
the man.
"He's dead!" exclaimed the stranger, in horrified tones.
"Oh! perhaps not. He may only have fainted from the shock," and
lying down, the boy put his head down close to the chest of the
motionless man.
"His heart is beating and that proves he is alive. Take hold here
and we'll carry him to the car. Perhaps he'll come to his senses
when I dash a little water in his face. Lift his heels and I'll
look after his head," and Frank took hold of the broad shoulders
as he spoke.
In this fashion they managed to move the unconscious man to the
road. He was laid down alongside the car. Meanwhile, the other two
boys had come up, Bones urging the frightened horse along with the
whip.
"What is it, Frank?" asked Ralph, jumping out.
"Been an accident; a car rammed a tree. Both passengers thrown
out, and one of them is injured; Anyhow he seems to have been
knocked senseless. I'm going to get a little water in my cap and
try to bring him to," with which Frank darted to the other side of
the road, where his quick ear caught the trickling sound of a
small stream gurgling among mossy stones.
He was back in less than a minute, and immediately started
splashing some of the water in the face of the unconscious man.
"He's coming around," said the other man, watching these
operations with eager eyes; and who several times looked at the
three boys as though wondering what they could be doing there on
that lonely road at such a late hour, for it was now past nine
o'clock.
Frank turned aside to see whether he could not light the
remaining lamp of the car, which did not appear to have been
broken, and had possibly only gone out through the sudden
concussion, as acetyline burners often will.
He found that it was readily made to shed light again, and once
his work here had been done it was only natural for the boy who
delighted in machinery of all kinds to take a hasty look at the
car.
"I think it might run still. Nothing vital seems to be broken,
anyhow," he said aloud, as he came back to the little group.
The second man was recovering, but groaning more or less.
"He ought to be taken to your house, Bones, to let your father
examine him. I'm afraid he may be badly hurt," said Frank; "if you
can help him into the tonneau of the machine I'll try and see if
it will work."
"Say, can you run it?" asked the second man, eagerly.
"I know something about cars; enough to drive this one, if it
isn't damaged in its working parts. I couldn't guarantee to patch
it up, though. Wait and let me see."
He bent over the car, and presently gave the crank a couple of
whirls to turn over the engine. Sure enough, there was an
immediate response, and the whirring that followed announced that,
strange to say, the machine had not been vitally injured in the
smashup, though badly damaged with regard to looks.
Frank backed out, and with a few deft manipulations that proved
the truth of his assertion that he could run a car, managed to
head the machine once more toward Columbia. Neither of the men
seemed to notice just what he was doing. The one who had appeared
to Frank first was bending down over his friend, and they were
holding a whispered conversation.
"Put him in; now Ralph," said the new chauffeur, quietly, "you and
Bones come along after, and leave my gun and the ducks at my
house. I'll be home long before you get there, I reckon, unless
this old machine takes a notion to be tricky again and dump us."
Still groaning, the man was lifted into the tonneau.
"How do you feel, sir?" asked Frank, solicitously; although, truth
to tell, he could not say that he liked the looks of either of the
parties, judging from what little he had seen of them by the light
of the lone lamp.
"Pretty bum, boy. The trouble is, my right arm hangs down like it
might be broken; and without it I can't handle the wheel, you see.
My friend here don't know nothing about a machine, the worse luck.
So I don't see but what we've just got to let you do the drivin'
for us. It's nice in you proposin' it, too. Ugh! that hurts some,
I tell you!"
The man accompanied his words with more or less vehement
expressions that did not raise him the slightest in the estimation
of Frank. However, he was evidently in great bodily pain, and that
might in some measure excuse his strong language.
The second traveler got in alongside his friend, as though he
feared he might be needed sooner or later, if the other started to
faint again.
"I'm going to get you to a doctor as soon as possible," remarked
Frank, as he started off.
He heard the calls of his chums and answered back. Then the car
lost the slow-moving buggy on the road. Frank did not dare drive
very fast. He was not familiar with the machine; and besides,
possibly it was acting freakish--at least the man declared that it
had jumped aside straight at that tree without his doing anything.
On his part Frank accepted this version with a grain of allowance;
for he had long since scented liquor around, and could guess the
real reason for the accident.
As he guided the car Frank could hear the two men talking behind
him. The murmur of their voices just reached him, though he could
not make out anything they said.
Once the man who had come out of the mishap in better trim than
his companion seemed to be groping around under the seats as if
searching for something.
"It's here, all right, Jim!" Frank heard him say, in a satisfied
tone.
A minute later he was asking about the road, where it led, and
what the intentions of the boy at the wheel were. Frank repeated
what he had said before, to the effect that he thought the wounded
man ought to see a physician with as little delay as possible, and
therefore he was heading back to Columbia so as to take him to Dr.
Shadduck.
"Who?" exclaimed the wounded man, as the name was mentioned.
"Doctor Shadduck, the father of one of my chums, who was with me
duck shooting," replied Frank, thinking it strange why the man
while apparently suffering so much should care who attended him,
just so long as he could get relief speedily.
Again the two men conferred in low tones. Frank could hear the
wounded one muttering again. Perhaps his arm had commenced to hurt
once more; or, it may have been something else that started him
off.
And even while Frank was wondering who these parties could be
anyway, with their strange actions and apparent unwillingness to
return to Columbia, which place they must have recently left, a
heavy hand was laid on his arm, and a voice said:
"Say, look here, we don't want to go to Columbia, and what's
more, we ain't meaning to let you take us there! Just ahead is a
road that runs off from this. They told us it runs over to
Fayette. Perhaps you don't want to go that way, but forget all
that and turn off, because you've just _got_ to take us! No
words now, but shove us along lively!"