The daily monitor. (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1940-1942, 1941-04-24
enfield boratory, driver
Please r,Ishi am 80

Please rush! i am So
That's east, miss. The explo-
sion was southwest. You know
what it was? Gee, it knocked me
outa my"
"Was it? Oh! Oh dear! :.
look, driver, do you know q
farmhouse out 80 miles? "A
deserted-a place with land
around"
She stopped, realizing how i'm
adequate that was, how silly
really. Distress in her voice
made him stare at her.
"Then let's 60 there!' she
suddenly ordered. Southwest,
! mean. Until we learn"
"Okay!" murmured the driver,
roaring off.
Two minutes later the taxicab
was positively crawling; but no
she glanced over at the speed,
ometer-hardly crawling, at 48.
The streets weren't crowded.
The man screeched and skidded
his tires on sudden turns.
'Thisaway, I'm positive" he
shouted back to her. Then be-
cause he was highly interested
himself, he added, Don't you
worry about the fare, miss"
She hadn't even thought of
that, but she felt q flash of graft
tude. He was a gentlemanly
driver, and skilled.
' They passed several other
taxicabs going southwest, and
then a police car with siren
shrilling passed them. They had
to'pull over to let fire trucks 90
by. They knew now they had
the right direction. If fire trucks
were coming from this distance,
and this long after the explosion,
it must mean a second or even
general alarm Are somewhere,
the driver said. But no blaze
was visible. Ambulances streak
ed by them twice.
"Oh-h-h!" That was involun-
tary. from Carolyn.
What was it, miss? What
busted?"
"I-I don't know"
He let it 60 at that. And 20
minutes later they had the an
swer before them.
They had left the main bust
ness district, passed miles of out
lying groceries, small firms and
dwellings and were in the subur-
ban industrial area when the
matter became more plain.
"Gee!" murmured the driver,
appalled,. He slowed down be-
cause he had to, now. In a mo-
ment the traffic stopped him en-
tirely. "Come on, miss! On foot,
eh?" He was excited.
Efficiently he escorted her up
q railroad embankment. He ask
ed questions of everybody. He
climbed part way up a power
pole ladder the better to see,
then boosted Carolyn up. He
learned what they wanted to
know.
all the big furniture fac
tory, a florists greenhouse COW
ering two acres, an old ware
house four stories high, half
mile of railroad track" Thus
the awed driver summarized
what they had learned from look
ing and listening. "Spies, hah?
You think spies, miss? They
oughta-"
"Oh-o-h!"
Carolyn was inarticulate now.
Devastation before them was
overwhelming. From her point
six feet up the power pole she
could see limitless wreckage.
Twisted Orders. Piles of brick
and stone. Flames. Smoke.
Every kind of debris.
It was as IL the whole area
had been run through q grinder,
50 small were the pieces. She
wasn't familiar with this section
of town and so couldn't tell what
structures had actually gone
down, but the whole lurid land
scape here was q scene from Eu-
ropes hell.
She looked around to sides and
rear. She couldn't even pick out
her taxi now in the sea of cars
that had crowded up behind.
Honkings and shoutings, police
whistles, wailing, sirens, all
added to the general hysteria.
She felt more and more i'm
PEELED to do something. But
what?
Nothing before had ever struck
her city like this. People and
vehicles were packed around by
the Thousands and doubtless
were still coming. Whatever
could she do?
"rve rot to!" she whispered
desperately to herself. I've got
to And him!"
tie De Centinued)