CHAPTER XVII

THE CELEBRATED DOCTOR

Jerry, Ned and Andy were on their feet together and in an instant. Together, also, they started for the place where poor Bob lay.

“That was a nasty fall,” declared Ned as he raced onward.

“A hard one,” agreed Jerry.

“Is he dead, do you think?” Andy asked. “Maybe his neck is broken--what’ll we do? Have to get a doctor--I’ll go--in the auto--poor Bob! I wonder if he got the lizard?”

“Dry--up!” ordered Ned, pausing between the two words, and the volatile Andy subsided.

Ned and Jerry leaned over their friend. He was unconscious, and, as Jerry lifted him, a trickle of blood ran from the back of his head.

“Oh, his skull is fractured!” cried Andy, who shuddered at the sight of the bright, crimson stream that spread over Jerry’s hand.

“Andy, if you don’t cut out that kind of talk I’ll boot you one!” cried Ned, in exasperation. “Now you go get some water and something for a bandage. Take one of my shirts if you can’t find anything else. Hustle now!”

That was the best advice to give Andy. He needed something to do to take his mind off the accident.

“Is he hurt badly, do you think?” asked Ned, as he helped Jerry carry Bob to a grassy place.

“It’s hard to tell. I’ll have a look when I wash off his head. There’s a bad cut, that’s evident.”

They laid the stout lad, now sadly limp and white, on a soft place in the grass. By this time Andy had come up with the water, and some pieces of cloth, obtained by hastily tearing up the only extra shirt he had brought along for himself.

Jerry soaked a rag in water, and carefully sponged away the blood; but, as he did so, more spurted out from a long gash on the scalp.

“I guess I’d better let it alone until it coagulates, or at least until a doctor can look at it,” he said. “It will need sewing up, if I’m any judge, and we’ll have to get help for that.”

Jerry and his chums knew something of rough and ready first aid to the injured, but this was beyond their skill.

“What’ll we do?” asked Ned, rather helplessly.

“We’ll have to get a doctor,” said Jerry. “Let’s see, the last town we passed through was Lynnhaven. It didn’t look as though it would support a physician of any account, and the nearest doctor must live a good ways out.”

“There’s quite a town just ahead of us,” suggested Ned. “I noticed the last signboard we passed said it was eleven miles to it. There ought to be a doctor there, and we could bring him to Bob in the auto.”

“That’s what I’ll do!” cried Jerry. “You and Andy will have to stay with Bob, Ned, while I go for help. You can put up the tent, and get him under that, while I’m gone.”

“Shall we give him any medicine?” asked Ned, for they had brought a few simple things with them, as they always did.

“No, I wouldn’t give him anything but water,” replied the tall lad. “He’ll probably develop a fever, and the simpler the things he has, the better for him, until the doctor sees him.

“Come on, Andy!” called Jerry to the small lad. “You’ve carried water enough. Now you help Ned put up the tent, and make Bob as comfortable as you can. I’m off.”

Jerry lost no time. Taking out of the auto the tent, and other things he thought would be needed, he took his place at the wheel, shoved over the lever of the self-starter, and was off in a cloud of dust. For Jerry had determined not to observe any speed laws, save as they concerned his own safety. He realized that his errand would be excuse enough if he were stopped, and he did not think he would be, as it was getting dusk.

“I ought to do the eleven miles in short order,” reflected Jerry, as the car swung around a turn, almost skidding. “The only trouble will be to find a doctor at home.”

But it was not to be all smooth sailing for Jerry. He had not covered more than five of the eleven miles when the sky became overcast, and a little later he was in the midst of a thunderstorm.

He did not mind this, however, as the canopy was up, and the rain-shield protected him. Jerry switched on the electric lights, and kept on, though he reduced his speed somewhat. He had to stop once to get out at a cross-road and read the signs, and then, as luck would have it, he took the wrong turn. It was not his fault, as the old sign post leaned so that it was difficult for a stranger to determine in which direction the hand pointed.

“Am I on the road to Brookville?” Jerry yelled at a passing farmer, who sat huddled up in a horse blanket on the seat of his rickety wagon.

“Whoa! Hey?” asked the man, one remark being addressed to his horse, and the question to Jerry.

“I say, am I on the road to Brookville?”

“No, you’re headed for Deanhurst. You ought to have took the left hand road a piece back to get to Brookville. Can’t you read the signs?”

“I can, yes--when they’re right,” snapped Jerry, who was not in the best of humor. “Thanks!” he called, as he waited for the other to pass on, so that he might turn the car. It was no easy matter to get the big machine headed the other way in the narrow road, but Jerry finally managed it and then he sent the auto on at a fast clip, passing the man who had given him the needed direction.

Jerry reached the decrepit sign post again, and this time made the right turn. It grew darker and darker as he advanced, but the lights on the car were powerful. The thunder and lightning had ceased, but it still rained hard, and the roads were fast becoming puddles of mud and water.

“I’m glad I have the car,” reflected Jerry. “A doctor won’t have the excuse that he doesn’t want to take his horse out in the storm.”

It was fully night when Jerry reached Brookville, though had it not been for the storm there would have been the glow of sunset to dispel the gloom. The tall lad stopped at the first house he came to, in order to inquire about a doctor, and was delighted to learn that a physician lived about a mile down the road.

But his delight was turned to disappointment when he reached the office, and learned that the medical man had been called out into the country, on a case that would probably keep him all night.

“But he’s needed for an accident!” cried Jerry. “Is there any other physician in town?”

“Yes,” he was informed. “Dr. Madison lives about two miles out, on the State road.”

But Dr. Madison was not at home either, and his wife could not say when he would return.

“Sometimes he is out until long after midnight,” she said. “His patients are widely scattered.”

“What shall I do?” muttered Jerry, speaking more to himself than to the doctor’s wife. He thought of poor Bob in the little tent, with Andy and Ned keeping lonely vigil beside him.

“I’m very sorry,” said the lady, when Jerry had told of the circumstances, and the need of haste. “I heard there is a New York doctor stopping at the hotel in the village. He came up here for a rest, but perhaps he might go see your friend. I don’t know who the doctor is, but I have heard my husband speak highly of him. He is some sort of a specialist, so I understand.”

“I’ll try him!” decided Jerry desperately. “He can’t refuse to help us out in this emergency.”

A little later his mud-spattered car drew up at the only hotel in the village.

“Is there a physician stopping here?” asked Jerry of the hotel clerk. The lad’s appearance indicated the need of haste, and alarm and anxiety showed on his face.

“Yes, Dr. Wright is stopping here,” replied the man behind the desk, “but I don’t know that he would like----”

“May I see him?” interrupted Jerry. “It’s a case of accident, and he’s just got to come. Both the other doctors are out of town.”

As he spoke a tall, slim gentleman, in a well-fitting, dark suit came from the dining-room to the hotel corridor. Beside him walked a handsome young woman. The man showed interest in Jerry’s rather loud remarks, and at the word “doctor” said:

“Is someone hurt?”

“Yes--my chum,” replied Jerry quickly. “He had a bad fall and his skull may be fractured.”

“That is Dr. Wright,” the clerk informed Jerry, but the lad had already guessed as much.

“Oh, can you come?” appealed Bob’s chum. “We’re afraid he’s badly hurt. It was a fall!”

“Where is he?” asked Dr. Wright.

“About eleven miles from here.”

The doctor involuntarily looked out at the raging storm.

“I have a car!” cried Jerry eagerly. “You won’t get a bit wet. I can have you there in half an hour, and bring you back.”

The doctor smiled grimly at the lady beside him.

“I can’t seem to escape from it,” he remarked.

“No,” she answered with a gentle smile. “But perhaps you had better go, even if you are on your vacation.”

“Oh, yes,” he assented, somewhat wearily. “I must go, of course, as long as there is no one else. I’ll be with you directly, young man,” he said to Jerry. “Just as soon as I can get on a coat, and pack my bag.”

“I came out here to get rid of work,” he went on, “but I seem to have it thrust upon me. But never mind.”

Jerry fidgetted about impatiently until the physician, wearing a heavy raincoat, and carrying a black bag, descended from his room. Then, eager to be in motion, Jerry led the way to the waiting car.

“That’s a fine auto you have,” observed Dr. Wright.

“Yes, it goes, too,” added Jerry. “I’ll soon have you there.”

Neither Jerry nor the physician spoke much on the trip. Each was too busy with his own thoughts. Jerry sent the car ahead at even greater speed than he had used coming out, for he knew the road now. Soon, splashing through mud and water, now sliding on some inclined highway, and again puffing up a hill, they came in sight of a lighted tent beside the road.

“Oh, you are camping here!” exclaimed the doctor.

“Not exactly,” Jerry explained. “We are making a trip, and we have a sleeping tent. My chum is in there with a friend.”

“Well, we’ll have a look at him.”

It was raining hard when the doctor and Jerry alighted, and the small tent was not the best place in the world wherein to make an examination. Andy had worked well, however, and had made Bob as comfortable as possible. The latter was on an improvised bed, with rubber blankets under him, and well covered. Fortunately the tent was waterproof.

The doctor bent over Bob.

“Has he showed any signs of consciousness since he received the hurt?” he asked.

“He moaned once or twice--that’s all,” answered Andy.

“Hum!” remarked the physician non-committally. “I’m afraid I can’t do anything for him here. He ought to be at the hotel. Do you think you can take him there in the auto?”

“We’ll have to,” said Jerry simply.

They made an improvised stretcher, and carried Bob through the rain to the car. He was propped up in the tonneau, and then, the tent being struck, Jerry, Andy and Ned, with the physician, took their places in the car.

Jerry drove more slowly on the return trip, but it was made in good time, and without accident. Bob was still unconscious when carried into the hotel, and taken to a room that was hastily prepared for him. The doctor took charge of matters now, and, somewhat to Jerry’s surprise, the lady he had seen with the doctor appeared in the garb of a trained nurse.

“You fellows are in luck,” remarked the hotel clerk, while Ned, Andy and Jerry were waiting in the corridor for the result of the doctor’s examination.

“I should say so!” agreed Jerry. “A doctor and a trained nurse located at the same time. Is she the doctor’s nurse?”

“Yes, his head one, I believe. You know who Dr. Wright is; don’t you?”

“Can’t say I do,” replied Jerry.

“Why, he’s the greatest surgeon on brain diseases and head injuries in the country!” exclaimed the admiring clerk. “He’s an authority, and so much in demand that he can charge anything he pleases. He gets anywhere from one to ten thousand dollars for an operation.”