“Don’t remember,” Ottman mumbled. He closed his eyes again, but aroused as he heard the shrill siren of an approaching ambulance. “Don’t let ’em take me to a hospital,” he pleaded. “Take me home.”
The ambulance drew up in the alley. Stretcher bearers carefully lifted the young man.
“I’m all right,” he insisted, trying to sit up. “Just take me home.”
“Where’s that?” asked one of the attendants.
Burt Ottman mumbled an address which was on a street not far from the boat dock he operated.
“We’ll take you to the hospital for a check up,” the young man was told. “Then if you’re okay, you’ll be released.”
Deeply interested in the case, Mr. Parker and Penny followed the ambulance to City Hospital. There, after an hour’s wait in the lobby they were told that Burt Ottman had suffered no severe injury. A minor head wound had been dressed, and he was to be released within a short while.
“What caused the accident?” Mr. Parker asked one of the nurses. “Did the young man say?”
“He couldn’t seem to remember what happened,” she replied. “At least he wouldn’t talk to the doctor about it.”
Overdue at the Star office, Mr. Parker could remain no longer. However, Penny, whose time was her own, loitered about the lobby for an hour and a half until Burt Ottman came down in the elevator. The young man’s head was bandaged and he walked with an unsteady step as he leaned on the arm of a nurse.