
warning. He jammed on the brakes. The car skidded halfway across the road before it came to a stop.
Fred lowered the window as the red lantern came swinging forward. He turned on the dome light. As
rain drizzled into the coupe, a man thrust his head and shoulders through the window. A rough but
friendly face showed below the dripping brim of an oilskin hat.
"Didn't want to jolt you off the road, friend," announced the man with the lantern, "but I had to flag you
before you got past. The bridge is out down the road."
"Have you reported it?" queried Jay, from the driver's wheel.
"That's what I'm doing now," laughed the informant, gruffly. "We were coming over from Westbury in a
truck when we saw that the bridge was gone. Pete, he started back; but I waded through the creek to
get over on this side. I'm heading into Sheffield, I am."
"You should have telephoned word," declared Jay.
"Ain't no houses along this stretch of road," retorted the man in oilskins. "Say - who do you reckon you
are to be telling me what I ought to have been doing?"
"My name is Goodling," replied the man at the wheel of the coupe. "Jay Goodling. I -"
"That's different," growled the man in oilskins, his rough tone apologetic. "I hadn't no idea who you were.
Jay Goodling, eh? The new county prosecutor. I kind of reckoned Jay Goodling was an older man than
you. My name's Turner, Mr. Goodling."
TURNER thrust a beefy, rain-soaked paw through the window. Goodling smiled as he received the
fellow's shake. The dome light showed Goodling's features as those of a man in his early thirties; but his
face, though youthful, bore the firmness that befitted his legal position.
"This is Fred Lanford," introduced Goodling, indicating the passenger. Lanford was younger and less
challenging than the prosecutor. "We're on our way to Westbury. Our best plan is to leave you here to
stop other cars while we go ahead and find some house from which we can telephone."
"Suits me, Mr. Goodling," acknowledged Turner. "Being a night like this and after midnight, I don't
reckon there'll be any more cars along. But I'll watch for them. Only thing is, where are you going to find
the house to call from?"
"What about that old dirt road that cuts off to the right?" questioned Goodling. "The one that was the old
route into Westbury?"
"Nobody uses it any longer," informed Turner. "Leastwise, nobody except those folks that live on it. It's
like all those other dirt roads leading off. There's a raft of them that don't go anywhere."
"But there are houses on the old Westbury road. Some of them ought to have telephones."
"Like as not, Mr. Goodling. Well, I'm staying here, like you said to."
Turner drew away with his lantern. Goodling straightened the car and started off through the storm while
Lanford raised the window and turned out the dome light.
"The old Westbury road," mused Goodling, as he drove along. "Well, Fred, we won't have very much
trouble finding it. That old sign will tell us when we get there. It still has its pointer marked Westbury."
"Maybe we'll see the sign," returned Lanford, peering at the sweeping downpour, "but it's a cinch we