Nelson motioned to Mr. Prentice to open the door. Ted was also looking inside now, through the back-seat window. Making an obvious effort, Mr. Prentice managed to boost himself to a raised position and tried the door, but it refused to open. Then Nelson motioned for him to try the rear door, which he did, with the same result. Apparently he was able to follow suggestions, though he still wasn’t thinking too clearly on his own.
“What’ll we do, get help?” asked Ted.
“How long will that take? Besides, what can they do except raise the car, and from the looks of it the other side is damaged worse than this. They’ll have to end up cutting him out. No, I think the best thing to do is break in this back window.”
“It’ll be tough. This is safety glass, and it isn’t even cracked.”
“Lucky thing for him. There’s nothing much worse than flying glass. Too bad this isn’t one of those kick-out windows, though. Hunt up a couple of rocks, and I’ll try to make him understand what we’re doing.”
By the time Ted returned, Nelson had made their intention known, and Mr. Prentice, having nodded his approval, was protecting himself as well as he could from the possibility of scattering glass. They were able to knock out a section of glass sufficiently large for Nelson to reach the wind-up handle. Carefully protecting his wrist from cuts, he was able to roll the window down a little, and through the larger opening at the top he could now reach the handle again, and roll the window down all the way. He was still unable to open the door, however, even from the inside.
If he were to get out very soon, Mr. Prentice would have to crawl through that open window. Fortunately, his mind now seemed a little clearer, and he was able to maneuver his head and shoulders through the opening. Then the boys were able to grab a shoulder each and give him some help. He was soon standing beside them, still a little dazed, but able to talk.
“I guess I was pretty lucky,” he decided.
“Lucky!” Nelson exclaimed. “It looked to me as if that guy rode you right off the road on purpose.”
“What for? What would he have against me?”
“How about something to do with the union,” Ted suggested, “the strike or the court hearing?”
Mr. Prentice shook his head. “No, I can’t see it. I’m not doing anything about calling a strike. I might even be able to head off a strike where another man couldn’t. As for the court hearing, I can tell you in advance that I don’t have any deep, dark secrets that are likely to hurt anybody. I’m simply going to tell the truth, and people can believe me or not.”
“Then you think it was simply an accident?” asked Ted.
“Must have been. You meet a lot of those reckless characters on the road. I didn’t see him in my mirror, but I did see another car coming from the opposite direction. Maybe he didn’t see it in time, or thought he could make it past me. Then he had to cut in in front of me to get out of the way. And naturally he didn’t stop afterward—that kind never does. Well, accident or on purpose, the result was just about the same either way.”
“Well, where do we go from here?” asked Nelson restlessly.
Mr. Prentice stared at the car a moment. “It’ll take a garage to handle that, all right. And I suppose we have to make some sort of report to the police. Echo’s the nearest place. I imagine they’ll have some kind of county or state police official there. If not, at least they’ll have a telephone.”
“How about a doctor?” asked Ted with some concern, for Mr. Prentice still wasn’t looking too sharp.
“Oh, I guess I’ll be all right. Still, I suppose a doctor would be the proper thing, in case the question of insurance liability came up—in fact, the police would probably insist upon it.”
“Then let’s find a doctor first,” Ted suggested, “and he can tell us how to locate the police.”
“If we climb up over this way, the hill isn’t so steep, and I can bring the car around,” Nelson offered. “Then it’s back to Echo. I had a feeling that I hadn’t seen the last of that burg.”
4. Echo
DESPITE ITS SMALL SIZE, ECHO HAD A COMMUnity hospital, toward which Nelson was directed. Now that the first shock was wearing off, Mr. Prentice admitted to feeling some bruises. As Ted and Nelson waited in the corridor, he was given an emergency examination. Then he came out into the corridor to tell them the results.
“Nothing broken, but the doctor wants me to stay overnight as a precautionary measure. That seems overly cautious to me, but of course it’s their job to be careful. He’s telephoning the sheriff’s office right now, and they’ll probably send a man out. Don’t leave until you’ve talked to him, since he’ll want to get your account of the accident, too.”
“Anything we can do, about the car or anything else?” Ted volunteered.
“No, Ted, I don’t think so. There’s a garage here in Echo, and I’ll telephone while I’m waiting and make the necessary arrangements. And I’ll have to cancel my appointment with my attorney in Forestdale. He’s Mr. Waring. Do you know him?”
The boys nodded.
“He wanted to go over my testimony for the hearing tomorrow, but I guess we probably won’t make it now. That’s all right by me. I surely haven’t anything to hide. I just hope the whole truth comes out. By the way, Ted, is it all right for me to give him your name, just in case he should want more information about the accident, or anything else you might be able to help with?”
“Of course, Mr. Prentice. I just wish we could do something more for you. It doesn’t seem right to leave you here alone in the hospital.”
“Nonsense. I owe you boys a great deal already, and don’t think I don’t appreciate it.”
Fortunately he knew better than to offer them a reward, and so saved the boys the embarrassment of refusing. While Mr. Prentice made his calls, Ted, in another phone booth, called the Town Crier office, explaining the delay. Once he was certain neither of the boys was injured, Mr. Dobson asked them to stay in Echo as long as they could help Mr. Prentice.
When the policeman arrived on a motorcycle, Mr. Prentice was being formally admitted to the hospital, so the officer spoke with the boys first. Ted really had very little to tell, having seen nothing until the car had already left the road. Nelson’s account was a little more complete. He knew the color of the other car, and thought he knew the make, but admitted he wasn’t positive about it. He didn’t have the license number, of course. And though Nelson made it clear that the other car was at fault, he said nothing to indicate that the incident had been deliberate. Ted had already advised him it would be better not to make any wild charges he couldn’t support. Anyway, leaving the scene of an accident was already a serious enough charge.
The boys would have liked to see Mr. Prentice once more before leaving, but the officer was with him now, and a hospital attendant told them the patient could have no more visitors until evening. Rather reluctantly they set out for Forestdale.
“I didn’t see much sense at first in the two cars sticking together,” Nelson remarked, “but this time it was pretty useful—like the buddy system at camp.”
“You still think it was done deliberately?” Ted inquired.
Nelson nodded. “All I can tell you is what I saw, and that’s the way it looked to me. What about you, Ted?”
“I might believe it if I could see any sense to it. I don’t see how it accomplished anything.”
“Oh, a man like Mr. Prentice must have dozens of enemies. And if this was one of them, he played it mighty rough. You knew he was going to Forestdale, so I suppose other people could have known it, too.”
“Yes, I expect so. It was mentioned in the paper that he had an appointment in Stanton Thursday morning, and of course he had a