“Hold on!” commanded Tom. He leaped upon the running board and leaned over and stopped the car in spite of the chauffeur. His eyes flashed into those of the remarkable Dr. Raddiker.
“Hold on!” he repeated. “You speak of that girl. Do you know who she is? It is her father who is dying and whom the doctors here want you to visit. Can’t you do that much for the poor girl who was nice to you?”
“You are telling me the truth—yes?” stammered Raddiker doubtfully.
“Tell this man to drive you to Mr. Nestor’s house. His daughter will be there,” the young fellow replied.
“Vell! Vell!” agreed Raddiker. “Go on. We will try. But if you deceive me—Ach!”
He was evidently very angry. Tom did not care how angry the man was with him; he was determined he should fulfill his agreement with the local doctors and examine Mr. Nestor.
Tom rode beside the chauffeur and the moment the car stopped at the Nestor place he called Mary to the door and ran in himself and had Mrs. Nestor call up the two doctors who had been attending her husband.
Dr. Raddiker put the best face he could on a troublesome matter, now that he saw Mary and knew that the patient was one in whom she had an interest. Mary had quite charmed the grouchy savant. He stamped into the house with one of his small bags, peering about through his huge spectacles, and apparently criticising unfavorably everything that he saw.
It was certain that he criticised everything the doctors in the case had done and bluntly told them his small opinion of them when they arrived in haste to meet him. But they knew Raddiker and his unpleasant manners and accepted his diatribes in silence. One of the local physicians afterward told Tom that he considered a man with as keen a mind as the foreign doctor had the right to be as ungentlemanly as he pleased.
“Not a bit!” cried the young inventor. “The greatest man in the world could not be excused for using such language or displaying such a mean spirit.”