A QUICK RUN
"Where are you?"cried Tom."Are you hurt?Where are you?"Uttering these words after he had hurried into the woods a short distance, the young inventor paused for an answer.At first he could hear nothing but the drip of water from the branches of the trees; then, as he listened intently, he became aware of a groan not far away.
"Where are you?" cried the lad again."I've come to help you.Where are you?"He had lost what little fear he had had at first, that it might be one of the unscrupulous gang, and came to the conclusion that he might safely offer to help.
Once more the groan sounded and it was followed by a faint voice speaking:
"Here I am, under the big oak tree.Oh, whoever you are, help me quickly! I'm bleeding to death!"With the sound of the voice to guide him, Tom swung around.The appeal had come from the left and, looking in that direction, he saw, through the mist, a large oak tree.Leaping over the underbrush toward it he caught sight of the wounded man at its foot.Beside him lay a gun and there was a wound in the man's right arm.
"Who shot you?" cried Tom, hurrying to the side of the man."Was it some of those patent thieves?" Then, realizing that a stranger would know nothing of the men who had stolen the model, Tom prepared to change the form of his question.But, before he had an opportunity to do this, the man, whose eyes were closed, opened them, and, as he got a better sight of his face, Tom uttered a cry.
"Why, it's Mr.Duncan!" exclaimed the lad.He had recognized the rich hunter, whom he had first met in the woods that spring shortly after Happy Harry, the tramp, had disabled Tom's motor- cycle."Mr.Duncan," the young inventor repeated, "how did you get shot?""Is that you, Tom Swift?" asked the gunner."Help me, please.I must stop this bleeding in my arm.I'll tell you about it afterward.Windsomething around it tight---your handkerchief will do."The man sighed weakly and his eyes closed again.The lad saw the blood spurting from an ugly wound.
"I must make a tourniquet," the youth exclaimed."That will check the bleeding until I can get him to a doctor."With Tom to think was to act.He took out his knife and cut off Mr.Duncan's sleeves below the injury, slashing through coat and shirts.Then he saw that part of a charge of shot had torn away some of the large muscular development of the upper arm.The hunter seemed to have fainted and the youth worked quickly.Tying his handkerchief above the wound and inserting a small stone under the cloth, so that the pebble would press on the main artery, Tom put a stick in the handkerchief and began to twist it.This had the effect of tightening the linen around the arm, and in a few seconds the lad was glad to see that the blood had stopped spurting out with every beat of the heart.Giving the tourniquet a few more twists to completely stop the flow of blood, Tom fastened the stick-lever in place by a bit of string.
"That's---that's better," murmured Mr.Duncan."Now if you can go for a doctor---" He had to pause for breath.
"I'll not leave you here alone while I go for a doctor," declared Tom."I have my motor-boat on the lake.Do you think I could get you down to it and take you home?""Perhaps---maybe.I'll be stronger in a moment, now that the bleeding has stopped.But not---not home---frighten my wife.Take me to the sanitarium if you can---sanitarium up the lake, a few miles from here." The unfortunate man, who had tried to sit upright, had to lean back against the tree again.Tom understood what he meant in spite of the broken sentences.Mr.Duncan did not want to be taken home in the condition he was then in, for fear of alarming his wife.He wanted to be taken to the sanitarium, and Tom knew where this was, a well-known resort for the treatment of various diseases and surgical cases.It wasabout five miles away and on the opposite shore of the lake."Water---a drink!"murmured Mr.Duncan.
Seeing that his patient would be all right, for a few minutes at least,Tom hurried to his motorboat, got a cup and, filling it with water from a jug he carried, he hastened with it to the hunter.The fluid revived the man wonderfully and now that the bleeding had almost completely stopped, Mr.Duncan was much stronger.
"Do you think you can get to the boat, if I help you?"asked Tom."Yes, I believe so.To think of meeting you again, and under suchcircumstances! It is providential."
"Did someone shoot you?" inquired Tom, who could not get out of his head the notion of the men who had once assaulted him.
