Adventure stories; Automobiles -- Juvenile fiction; New York (State) -- Fiction; Teenage boys -- Fiction
“And I’ll bet I’ll be running this old car all night long in my
dreams,” answered Tom with a sigh. “My arm is as stiff as a poker right
now and has funny little pains in it.”
“Couldn’t I take the wheel a while? I guess I wouldn’t be any more
scared to run the car than I am sitting here watching for trouble!”
“I’ll stick it out,” answered Tom grimly. “There can’t be much further
to go.”
After that silence reigned for several miles. Occasionally a dim
reddish glow from the back of the car told them that Mr. Connors was
fighting nervousness with cigars. On and on, mile after mile, sped The
Ark, never once faltering in its task. Willard’s eyes became heavy,
and once, forgetting his anxiety, he actually slumbered for a moment
between jounces! Then Tom’s voice startled him into full wakefulness.
“Finley Falls,” said Tom briefly.
Ahead of them the sky glowed as from the many lights of a city.
The road began to show small houses on each side, the homes of
truck-farmers. Then a factory loomed dark and formless at the left, and
they crossed a stream that fell over a dam and drowned for an instant
the noise of the car. And then, almost before they realized it, they
were in the outskirts of the town and The Ark was running smoothly in
the rails of a trolley road. Lights flashed from houses that clustered
closer and closer together. Vehicles began to dispute the crossings
with them and Tom was forced to slow down. Then cobblestones took the
place of dirt under the wheels, stores appeared, flooding the street
with light, and The Ark was at the end of its journey.
And yet not quite, for when Tom stopped in front of a brilliant
drug-store and Willard leaped out to make inquiries they found that
they must traverse the center of town before they could reach the
hospital. That was slow work, for it was a Saturday night and Finley
Falls was a busy place, and more than once Tom had to stop at crossings
or crawl along for rods at a time behind slow-moving trolley cars and
teams. But once through the shopping district Tom sped faster again and
a few minutes later The Ark was brought to a final halt in front of a
big building with many lighted windows and a wide doorway at the top
of a flight of granite steps. Mr. Connors was out almost before the car
stopped and was hurrying toward the entrance. But half-way up the steps
the boys saw him stop. He stood quite motionless for a moment. Then he
went on slowly and was lost to sight within the building.
Tom sighed. “I hope we got him here in time,” he said softly.
“So do I,” agreed Willard as he climbed stiffly out and stretched his
legs. “I wonder how long it took us, Tom.”
“What time is it now?”
“Just twenty-four minutes past eight.”
“We left at six-fifty-two. That makes it an hour and――and thirty-two
minutes. If it’s about fifty-two miles that’s pretty good time!
Especially as we had to crawl through the city when we got here!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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