16
PARTISAN REVIEW
A moment later the Doctor's wagon pulled up before them and
they heard the high grinding wail of the second tow truck swelling
across the fields. The truck smashed down trees as
it
came swiftly
over the ridge, and Charlie ran out to stop it. Then, when the
Doctor's wagon backed away with its burden, he waved to the
truck and it plunged backward into the marshy bottom, and the dif–
ficult labor began.
They worked for nearly an hour-the two firemen on the
back of the truck, the driver, Charlie, and the Chief. And meantime
from north and south, from the turnpike and from the development
behind the forest, men and women, children and dogs, formed a
widening arc behind them.
The Chief turned his car about so that its beams were trained
upon the grove. Together with the pair of battery searchlights from
the truck, they pushed a great drift of white through the mists toward
the finder and others who had stepped out from the arc.
"Stay back there 1" they were shouting to the crowd. "Some–
body'll get hurt. Stay back 1"
The broad rear tires sank deep into the mud, spun wildly,
threw forth whirling, giant clods, slid backward finally over the
wedged boards. While the motor throbbed muscularly and figures
jerked across the lights preparing the next lunge, the arc of witnesses
drew a few steps nearer. It advanced again when, with the chains
of the tackle grinding against the steel pivot, the huge hooks were
slowly let down crashing against the grille and the bumper of the
car. But suddenly above the pivot the car was visible, gleaming in
the light, its fenders quivering in the wet air, the scarred chrome
grille dripping. And now the crowd stood motionless, fixed at the
edge of the scene, glaring into the chaos of shadows and sounds
before it...
When the task was over and the forest was dark again save
for the beams of the Chief's car, the Chief and Charlie circled the
area to make certain that every observer had departed, and then
returned to the car. The finder was seated on the running board
awaiting them.
"You should've caught a ride back," the Chief said.
