By the first of July he was in New Jersey. The driving had been difficult. Roads in nineteen thirty-four were poor. The tires on the truck had the nasty habit of going flat. Tim stopped at various towns along the way and did odd jobs for merchants and people to add to his ever dwindling supply of money.
The experience of helping the mechanics at camp six came in handy each time the truck broke down, which was often.
In New Jersey, on July first, he was driving along when suddenly on a whim, he decided to turn west, cross over into Pennsylvania and visit Ed and Tony in Sligo,
He started west by driving on Route one just outside the northern outskirts of Trenton, New Jersey. It had been raining hard all day. Late in the afternoon the rain increased in intensity. It was hard to see more than a few feet ahead. Tim had been following a strange looking truck for miles. He had not passed any other traffic for a half hour. Suddenly, on a curve, the red tail lights on the truck ahead disappeared. They seemed to go to the left and downward.
Tim slowed down to a creeping, slow speed. He saw a gap in the wooden guard rail. Pulling over to the side of the road he stopped in front of the gap, rolled down his window and looked out. He could see the tracks of the truck in the mud by the side of the road. They led down the embankment and into the trees at the bottom.
Tim reached behind the seat and dragged out his slicker and rain hat. He put them on, got out of the truck and started down the embankment. The heavy rain and the water rushing over the embankment from the road had already washed away most of the tire tracks.
Tim entered the tree line before he spotted the truck. It must have rolled over at least once before it crashed headlong into a very large tree. The truck had split open like an egg shell upon contact with the tree. As he passed the side of the truck Tim could see printed on its side, FIDELITY ARMORED CAR COMPANY.
Tim continued along the side of the truck. The passenger, whose uniform indicated that he was a guard, had been thrown out of the truck upon impact. Upon close examination Tim determined that he was dead of a broken neck.
Tim went to the drivers side of the truck. The driver, also in uniform, was lying on the floor. He was alive but unconscious. Tim moved him onto the front seat and examined him. He was bleeding badly from a deep slash in his left leg. Tim applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. He tore up the mans shirt and used it as a pressure bandage. The mans arm was broken. Tim found a newspaper among the debris on the floor. He folded it until it was stiff, wrapped it around the broken arm and tied it in place with cloth from the shirt. The driver had a bad bruise on his forehead, which Tim was forced to ignore.
Having done all he could for the driver. Tim went to the back of the truck. The guard in the back had been thrown head first into the steel panel separating the front from the back of the truck. His head was crushed. He was dead.
The back of the truck was loaded with ten very large canvas bags that were closed with metal draw strings at the top and secured with locks. Tim was curious as to what the bags contained. He took out his pocket knife, opened the blade and slit the top of one bag. He put in his hand and brought out a fist full of hundred dollar bills. He slit the top of another bag, it contained twenty dollar bills. A third bag contained fifty dollar bills.
Tim sat down on a couple of bags, stunned. After a full five minutes of deep thought and inner turmoil, he made up his mind. One by one he carried the bags up the embankment and stuffed them into the roofed trunk bed. That done he carried the unconscious driver up to the truck and put him in the front seat.
The rain was still coming down in buckets when Tim turned into and parked next to an emergency entrance at a hospital in Trenton, New Jersey. Tim went inside the entrance and found a parked gurney. He took the gurney out to the truck and with great difficulty put the still unconscious driver on the gurney. He removed the guards wallet and uniform jacket so that there was no means of identifying the man.
Tim buttoned up the front of his slicker, pulled down his rain hat over his eyes and wheeled the gurney into the hospital. He went up a hall until he saw an emergency room sign. He wheeled the gurney into the room and almost knocked over a nurse.
The nurse asked, What are you doing?
Tim replied, This man has been in an accident.
The nurse looked the guard over. He looks in bad shape. She turned to another nurse. Have Doctor Davis come to emergency room one. Grabbing the gurney she added, Ill take him to room one and get him ready. To Tim she said, Wait in the waiting room down the hall to the left.
After she left, Tim walked out of the hospital, got into his truck and drove off. A half hour later he crossed into Pennsylvania going west. By nine that evening he was west of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, heading for Pittsburgh.
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