THE TRICK IS EASILY SEEN THROUGH
In the next instant all had settled.
There had been a brief moment in which the air around the wrecked auto
had seemed full of flying human beings.
Now, they lay by the road side in varying degrees of disaster.
The left front axle had broken, the wheel rolling some yards ere it
stopped.
Jacob Farnum, seated right over the axle, was hurled out, head first as
nearly as he could afterwards guess. How he avoided landing on his head
and sustaining a broken neck or shattered skull was one of those
miraculous things that no one can explain.
The chauffeur had plunged out over Farnum's head, alighting beyond the
shipbuilder. The chauffeur now lay writhing and groaning.
David Pollard landed first, on one wrist and his chest, a cry of anguish
escaping him.
Eph Somers lay in the road motionless. Jack and Hal fell against the
padded side of the car. Hal remained there during the next second, but
young Benson turned a half-somersault, lightly, landing in the road just
outside.
It was young Captain Jack who first got to his feet. Dazed for a few
moments, he rose slowly seeking for signs of injury.
"I--I believe I'm not hurt," he congratulated himself. "Thank heaven
for that, for there are others here who seem in need of the promptest
help."
First of all Jack turned to his chum, young Hastings. But Hal, though
his face was white from the shock of it all, smiled back, then helped
himself out of the wrecked car.
Within the next few minutes it developed that Eph had been stunned.
Beyond this he had suffered no injury except a bruise along the left
thigh.
Jacob Farnum proved to be only stunned and badly shaken. But David
Pollard displayed a helpless left wrist and complained of severe pain
in the left side of his chest.
The chauffeur had a broken left leg, a broken arm, and a mass of bruises
on his face, where he had struck the hard earth.
"Great Scott, but this is almost like the carnage of war!" muttered Jack
Benson. "Hal, you and Eph help Mr. Farnum with the others. I'm going
down the road to the first house, and send for aid."
Arrived at a farm-house that proved to be connected with the telephone
service, Jack 'phoned for the two nearest doctors, and for men to come
and help the injured. Then he called up the garage from which the auto
had been hired; this address being supplied by the chauffeur.
Then, accompanied by the man of the house, young Benson hurried back to
the scene of the wreck. The submarine captain found that he had at
least been so bruised and shaken up that speed on his feet hurt.
The first to arrive, of those summoned, was the owner of the garage in
Colfax. He came in a large car, burning gasoline fast.
"I'm Graves, from the garage," he introduced himself, shutting off power
and leaping out. "Jove, what a smash this is!"
Until two doctors and several men arrived Graves devoted himself to
helping make the injured victims as comfortable as possible.
When the doctors and helpers appeared on the scene Graves soon called
Jack Benson aside.
"There's something about this affair that must be investigated," declared
the garage man, in an undertone. "The cars that I keep are all of one
make, and there are no stauncher, safer cars made in the world. No such
accident has ever before happened to one of my cars. Come; let's see
what we can find out."
Graves didn't have to look far. He halted at the broken axle, staring
at it hard. Then he looked over the broken casting from all sides.
"See here," Graves ground out, between his teeth, "all the axles on my
cars are branded with the trade-mark of the maker, and the number of the
inspector who passes the axles. Yet this axle is unbranded! Now, I
happen to know that the left forward axle on this car--last
night--was branded as usual, for I had the wheel off and looked it over.
That I can swear to."
"Then another axle has been substituted?" demanded Jack, his eyes
flashing.
"Yes, sirree."
"How long, after you saw the right axle in place here, was it before the
car was taken from your garage?"
"According to the office books this car was taken from the garage at
three o'clock this morning," replied Graves.
"By one of your own men?"
"No, sir! By a stranger who rented the car for a week, paid the rental
price, and gave his name as Hodges. He seemed to understand all about
running a car. He brought it back at six this morning."
"Was that time enough in which to substitute a defective axle?" Jack
asked.
"Oh, yes; a man expert at such work could do it in considerably less
time."
"Such a defective axle might run along smoothly, quite a while at low
speed?" Benson persisted.
"Yes."
"But at high speed--?"
"Look at this axle!" continued the garage man, excitedly. "You know
something about steel, don't you, young man?"
"Enough to run machinery."
"You see what a flawed piece of steel this is--unsuited to any strain?
I don't believe this axle could stand the strain of high speed in a big
auto for the distance of a mile."
"That's about all it stood with us," muttered Jack Benson, his face
white, his jaws firmly set.
"There's been some nasty work here," continued the garage man. "It
wasn't done by my chauffeur, either. He's probably the worst hurt of any
in your party, which assures his innocence of a hand in the despicable
work."
"Oh, I don't suspect your man--not for an instant," Jack assured the
garage owner. "The truth is, I think I can guess just where to place
the blame."
"Hodges turned this car over to you for a pleasure jaunt, didn't he?"
demanded the garage owner.
"Yes."
"And it was the same fellow who took this car out before daylight. It
wasn't used again until it was sent around for your party. Mr. Benson,
I think we can both guess whom to suspect in this desperately wicked
piece of business. If I can find that rascal, Hodges, I'll certainly
lay violent hands on him!"
"Don't!" advised Jack, quietly. "In the first place, Mr. Graves, if you
took the law into your own hands, you'd only get yourself into trouble.
In the second place"--Jack Benson lowered his voice still more--"I
know, as well as I know I'm living, that Hodges was only the agent of
some one else. Mr. Graves, do me a great favor--a great favor to all
our party. For the present, if you must say anything, say just as
little as possible about the accident. Let it go at that. Don't throw
out any suspicions against Hodges. Don't let anyone know that I have
any suspicions. Just keep the whole thing quiet--and in that way
we'll get the authors of this outrage."
"Are you sure?" demanded Graves, his look still darkly vengeful.
"You might talk to just one person--when there's no one else around to
overhear you," Jack agreed. "That man is the chief of police in
Colfax. In view of some other things that he knows the chief will agree
with my view, and will thank you for keeping quiet and looking puzzled
over this affair."
"All right," grumbled Mr. Graves. "I'll do as you ask, Mr.
Benson--until I've talked with the chief of police, anyway."
By this time the badly-injured members of the party had received first
attention from the doctors, and were now being lifted into a big farm
wagon that had been brought to the scene. In this vehicle they were
taken to the nearest house, where they were placed on beds for better
attention.
"I'm going back to the city, now," announced the garage man to the young
submarine captain. "I'm going to the chief of police, and I'll also see
to it that a big auto ambulance is sent out to take your friends and my
man to the hospital in town. Hang it, I hate to keep the truth in this
matter quiet, even for a moment, and I wouldn't do it, only to see
justice worked out. You see, Mr. Benson, such a fearful accident, from
one of my cars, will hurt my business until the whole truth is known.
But I'll stick to my word, and keep quiet."
In three quarters of an hour's time the ambulance had arrived, and also
a car that Graves had sent to bring back Farnum and the three submarine
boys.
"Don't run back at anything like speed, please," begged Mr. Farnum, with
a wan smile. It had cut the shipbuilder to the marrow to find his
friend, Pollard, so badly hurt.
"Nothing faster than ten miles an hour," promised the chauffeur.
Once in the city the auto followed the ambulance to the hospital, where
Farnum went to see that every possible attention was given his friend.
But Mr. Graves had already made splendid arrangements for the care of
both injured men.
Then down to the Somerset went the able bodied survivors of the submarine
party. Though they said nothing in the hearing of the strange chauffeur,
they were no more than inside Jacob's Farnum's room when they let loose
their indignation.
It was not many minutes, however, ere the chief of police arrived.
"I've been talking with Graves, gentlemen," announced the chief, "and
I'm wholly satisfied that the rascal, Hodges, is the first one we want
to find. When we get him we'll try to make him tell who's behind him."
"Did you get anything out of the four fellows you caught night before
last?" asked Jack Benson.
"Not a word to amount to anything, so far," replied the chief. "But
their case was continued a week by the court, and I'll find a way to
make 'em talk! Just now, my whole thought is centered on finding
Hodges."
"He isn't stopping at this hotel?" asked Jack.
"Not much! He wouldn't wait for us to come and gather him in like
that," answered the chief. "No; I'm dragging the town, and I also have
a man at the railway station, and another watching the water front."
"I can't understand how the fellow who called himself Hodges ever got
Judson to write him a letter of introduction to me," muttered Mr. Farnum.
"Do you know Judson's writing?" asked the police chief, suspiciously.
"No-o-o," admitted Mr. Farnum. "But the letter was written on the
letter-head of Judson's hotel."
"Anyone can get a hotel letter-head," retorted the police official,
sagely. "You'd better let me have that letter, and I'll write Judson
to wire me whether he ever signed it."
Farnum passed over the letter, though he muttered, disgustedly:
"Good heavens, have I reached my present only to be taken in with a
faked letter of introduction?"
"If you have," responded the chief of police, grimly, "you won't be the
only traveled, wide awake business man who has been caught by a trick
like that. In this country, where letters of introduction are passed
around as freely as cigars, it's very seldom that a man stops to wonder
whether the letter handed him is genuine."
An hour later the chief was back, to report that a man answering Hodges'
description had taken a train north bound, not buying a ticket.
"I've telegraphed to have the fellow arrested at a point along the
route," continued the police official. "I don't expect to get Hodges
as easily as that, though. He undoubtedly will have left the train
before it gets to where I have some one waiting to receive him."
"But the young woman he called his daughter?" asked Jack
"She wasn't with him. The fellow traveled alone. Of course, the
handsome daughter was only borrowed for the occasion."
From the hospital came the word that unfortunate David Pollard was
resting comfortably.
"The scheme was one that was intended to put our whole party out of
business," declared Jack Benson, his eyes shining savagely. "I won't
go so far as to say the Rhinds crowd wanted us killed, but they hoped
we'd all be too badly hurt to go on with the submarine tests. Oh, what
a rascally way to succeed in business!"