help and what
followed with your father. The autoists took him away."

"Where?"

"I should say to some hospital. Perhaps a private one of which we know
nothing, and which may be near here. I'll get a full list from the
Board of Health to-morrow. Or it may be that the autoists, seeing the
damage they had done, took your father to the home of one of
themselves, and summoned a doctor there."

"Why would they do that?"

"Well, they may have been so frightened they didn't realize what they
were doing, or they may have thought he would get better treatment in a
private house, if he were not badly injured, than if he should be taken
to a hospital. It may have been that one of the persons in the auto was
a physician, and wished to try his own skill on the man he had hurt."

"You make me feel more comfortable, Tom," said Mary. "But, even
supposing all this, why couldn't they telephone to us that my father
was all right? He always carries an identification card with him, and
if he were unconscious it could be ascertained who he was."

"That's what I can't understand," said Tom frankly. "It puzzles me. But
we'll find him--never fear!"

And so he kept on with his telephone inquiries, while a physician and
her sister ministered to Mrs. Nestor. The night was very, very long,
and no good news came in.

CHAPTER XVII

SILENT SAM

Slowly the dawn broke through the mists of darkness, and made the earth
light. The sun came straggling in through cracks in the shutters in the
home of Mr. Nestor, the gradually increasing gleam paling the electric
lights, in the glare of which Tom Swift, Mary, and her aunt sat,
waiting for some word of the missing man. But none came.

"What shall we do now?" asked Mary, as she looked at Tom.

"Oh, there's lots to do," he said, trying to make his voice sound
cheerful. "We'll be busy all day. I sent word to have one of my touring
cars ready to hurry to any part of the country the moment we should get
word from your father."

"And do you think we shall get word, Tom?" the girl went on wistfully.

"Of course we shall!" he cried. "Word may come in at any time. Now get
ready, eat a good breakfast, and then you can go with me as soon as we
hear anything definite. Come, we'll have breakfast!"

"I can't eat a thing!" protested Mary.

"Oh, yes you can," said her aunt, who was a cheerful sort of person.
"I'll see about getting something for you and Mr. Swift, and see that
your mother is all