A heavy blizzard just after
Thanksgiving had snarled up traffic. Subsequent storms added to the
snowfall - till now, only a couple of weeks before Christmas, high banks
were piled up on either side of the roads.
As a result most of
Gus Wilson's chores at the Model Garage consisted of mending broken chains
and sending out the wrecker to pull cars out of the drifts. And that
sort of work isn't Gus Wilson's idea of the garage business.
It was about nine
o'clock one night with the mercury dipping uncomfortably to the zero mark.
When Gus and Stan Hicks, his helper, were driving back to the garage from
one of the many tow calls. Gus wouldn't have answered the call at that
hour if it hadn't come from his old crony Doc Marvin who had got himself
stuck in a drift on the outskirts of town and had to get back to the
hospital to perform an operation.
"Cripes, it's cold,"
grumbled Stan as Gus maneuvered the wrecker along the white ribbon of road
between the snowbanks. "A hot cup of coffee sure will taste good."
"Dan's Grill is the
next stop," Gus assured him, "if I don't slide off the road into one of
these drifts myself."
Just then a horn
blasted and headlights flashed behind them. Gus swerved the wrecker as
far to the right as he could and a big sedan sped by. It kicked up
such a swirling plume of snow that Gus had to slow almost to a stop.
A Guy Looking for an Accident
"Damned fool," muttered Gus
as he switched on the wipers to clear the windshield. "There goes a
guy who's sure looking for an accident."
Gus no sooner had the
words out of his mouth than there was a muffled, crunching crash up ahead.
"Sounds like he's
found it," said Stan.
Gus slowed the wrecker
for the hill and curve that he knew were ahead. A glow from headlights
told them that the crash was probably just around the turn.
It was an odd sight.
The big car that had passed them had plowed into the rear of an open truck
piled high with Christmas trees.
Through a cloud of churned-up snow
and falling balsam needles, Gus and Stan could make out the figures of two
men standing in the middle of the road. One was a big heavy-set
fellow, the other small and slight.
The little man was waving his arms
wildly.
Both were shouting at the tops of
their lungs.
Gus Cools Off a Hothead
"Anybody hurt?" called Gus
as he and Stan slid out of the wrecker's cab.
The shorter of the two
men ran toward Gus, and Gus recognized Tony Johns, a successful truck farmer
with a place a few miles out of town.
"Gus," said Tony, "am
I glad to see you!
I parked here just a few minutes
ago to see what was wrong with my truck and the next thing - whammo - this
guy smashes into the back of my truck. Now he says he's gonna sue me!"
"You're blamed right I
am," shouted the big man, pulling the collar of his heavy over coat up
around his ears. "You picked a fine place to park on a night like
this."
"The truck was acting
up so I had to stop. I pulled over to the side of the road as far as I
could without getting into a drift."
"Well, there's a law
in this state that says when a truck is parked for repairs the driver must
set out flares to warn other drivers."
Gus hadn't the
slightest idea who the man was. Judging from his car and clothes, he
was someone with money and maybe influence - but Gus felt it was about time
he stepped in.
"Now wait a minute,
mister," he said.
"When it comes to laws,
there's also a law against reckless driving, and I wouldn't call what you
did when you highballed past me back there exactly safe driving."
"Well, what about my
car?" asked the man, cooling off considerably.
No Great Harm Done
Gus
walked over to the big sedan. Judging from the tracks in the snow the
car had been braked considerably before plowing into the back end of
Tony's truck. The skid had turned the big sedan slightly sideways and
a few extra Christmas trees that Tony had tied onto the back of his truck
evidently had helped ease the shock. The angle at which the car hit
had saved the radiator.
About all the damage Gus could detect was
a slightly rumpled right fender.
"Have you tried to start her?" Gus
asked.
"No."
"Well, see if you can, then
back her away slowly."
The big man grunted as he
squeezed himself under the wheel. The engine took hold immediately.
"Okay," called Gus.
"Now ease her back."
Inch by inch the front of
the car moved away from the truck and its load of trees.
As it did, Gus followed, looking down at
the right wheel and fender.
"No great damage, mister.
Set your brake for a minute and I'll bend this fender up a bit so there'll
be no chance of the wheel hitting it when you make a sharp turn. Then
you can be on your way. There, that's got it."
Stranger Drives Off in a Huff
Without so much as a
"thank you" the big man shifted into first and turned out into the road.
He leaned out of the driver's window and shouted, "You farmers haven't heard
the last of me yet." And then he roared off down the highway.
Gus laughed.
"Pleasant sort of guy to run into on a dark night. Now tell me, Tony,
what are you doing out on a night like this?"
"Christmas trees,"
replied Tony, waving his arm in the direction of his truck. "Got a new
winter business, I buy 'em, cut 'em down and sell 'em in the city.
This is my first load and I gotta deliver these trees tonight. But
something's gone wrong with my truck."
"Engine stalled?"
"No, but right
after I left my farm she began to shake. You know," Tony added,
groping for the right word, "she began to...
"Vibrate?"
"That's
right, she vibrated from side to side. And the faster I went the worse
she shook. So finally I stopped here to take a look."
"Umm. Well,
there's no sense trying to find what's wrong out here. Let's head for
the garage. I'll drive the truck and Stan can trail us in the wrecker
just in case things get worse."
Gus Gets the Shakes
They hadn't gone very far when Gus
realized that the vibration Tony had complained of was no figment of the
imagination. At slow speeds, it wasn't too noticeable, but when the
truck hit about 25 she really started to shake.
"When did you first
notice this?" asked Gus, his voice quivering in time with the vibration of
the truck.
"Right after I started
out tonight. She always ran fine up to now."
When they reached the
Model Garage Stan who had gone on ahead in the wrecker when he saw that the
truck would make it, had the doors open and the lights on.
Gus Cracks the ice for Santa
"Keep your coats on,
boys," called Stan as Gus and Tony climbed off the truck. "It's almost
as cold in here as it is outside. I'm afraid little Stanley forgot to
put some coal on the fire when we left to help out Doc Marvin."
"Well, start stokin'," said
Gus, "And when you finish that, how about brewin' some coffee on the hot
plate?"
"Heat and java coming up."
A Tough Spot for Tony
"Well, Tony," said Gus,
"now let's see if we can find out what's causing this truck of yours to
shake. I hate to say it, but I'm afraid that maybe the universal on
your drive shaft is shot."
"Is that bad?"
"It ain't good," replied Gus
as he wheeled a jack under the truck's differential. "If that's the
trouble. I'm afraid you won't deliver those trees tonight."
"Don't say that, Gus, I
gotta get those trees into the city tonight. No trees tonight, the man
said, no business. No business and I'm stuck with a coupla hundred
trees."
When Gus had the rear wheels of
the truck raised up off the floor he climbed into the driver's seat, started
the engine, put the gearshift in high, and walked around to the rear of the
truck again. At idling speed, there seemed to be little or no
vibration.
Without actually getting under the
truck, Gus kneeled down, trouble light in hand, and inspected the drive
shaft. He couldn't see any side movement.
"Anything I can do while the
coffee's brewin'?" asked Stan.
"Yeah, there is.
Put two permanent screw jacks under that rear axle, I want to get underneath
and have a look while you give the engine the gun."
Gus Goes Looking for Trouble
When Stan had put the two
jacks in place and had climbed into the driver's seat, Gus stretched out on
his creeper and wheeled himself under the truck.
"Stan," he called,
"Give her the gas until she starts to shake, then ease off. Remember
I'm under here, so don't push her too far.
She might wiggle herself off these
jacks and I don't want to be under here if she does."
"Okay, Gus here she
goes."
Stan repeated the
process of speeding up the truck's engine and then letting it slow down
several times. Finally, from under the truck Gus's voice told him to
shut the engine off.
"Find anything?" Stan
asked when he joined Gus at the rear of the truck.
Truck Shimmies Like Gilda Gray
Gus shook his head as he
wiped his hands on a batch of waste. "Not a thing. There's not a
sign of anything the matter with the drive shaft, yet every time you gunned
the engine the old chassis started to shimmy like Gilda Gray."
"Like who?" asked Stan.
"Forget it," said Gus.
"I guess she was before your time."
"Well, at least the
heat's coming up," Stan announced, shedding his coat. "What's the next
step?"
"Think you can fix her,
Gus?" chimed in Tony.
"I think so," Gus lied.
Then Gus did what he
always did when some repair job had got him down. He perched on his
bench and began thumbing shreds of tobacco into his pipe. He was just
about to put a match to it, when he stopped, blew out the match, and slid
down off the bench. A moment later he was on the creeper and had
disappeared under the truck again.
Tony looked at Stan and
shrugged.
A Quick Hunch Pays Off
A few seconds later,
Gus's graying head popped out from under the truck. "Stan, get me a
cold chisel and hammer, will you?"
When Stan had handed him
the tools, his head popped in again and presently Stan and Tony heard some
dull thuds followed by a metal against metal clanking. Finally the
noise stopped and Gus, still on his back on the creeper, slid out. He
looked up at Stan and Tony and grinned.
"Let's try her again, Tony,
I think we've found the source of your wiggle."
Stan clambered up into
the cab again while Gus and Tony watched. Stan fed the gas slowly at
first. No vibration. Then he really tramped down on the pedal.
Still no shakes or shimmies other than the normal vibrations that were set
up by the racing engine.
"She's fixed," shouted Tony
gleefully, clapping Gus on the back. "What did you do?"
"Tony, where did you park
that truck this afternoon?" asked Gus.
"Same place as always.
In the yard outside my house."
"Much snow there?"
"Sure, plenty. Maybe
two feet, maybe more."
"Well, you evidently
scooped up quite a hunk of it on the flange of your emergency brake drum
that's mounted on the drive shaft," explained Gus. "It froze there.
Then as you drove along it picked up dirt, sand and more ice from the snow
kicked up by your front wheels."
Tony still looked a bit
puzzled.
"You see, Tony, that hunk of
ice and dirt added considerable weight to one point on your emergency brake
drum and when the drum, mounted as it is on the drive shaft, turned at high
speed, it set up quite a vibration. It was out of balance."
"But how did you spot the
trouble?"
"While I was sitting up
there on my bench trying to think what might cause it, I happened to spot
that little trickle of water coming out from under the truck," Gus
explained, pointing down at the floor.
"That gave me a hunch what
was wrong.
Then I looked and found that glob of ice
and dirt on the brake drum. It had started to melt as the shop warmed
up."
Gus Gets a Christmas Tree
Later, when Tony had paid
his bill, had insisted on leaving one of his Christmas trees so that Gus and
Stan could decorate the garage for the holidays, and was backing out of the
shop, he suddenly stopped and poked his head out of the driver's window.
"Say, Gus," he called out,
"do you think that big ape really means to sue?"
"Not a chance," grinned Gus.
"After all, there were only two witnesses - and they're both on your side.
Merry Christmas to you, Tony."
END
