We ran back and pulled open the doors of the car.
The engine was still running.
Koster reached for the switchboard and pulled out the key.
The coughing of the engine died away and we heard someone groaning.
Every window of the heavy limousine was shattered.
In the semidarkness of the interior we saw the face of a woman streaming with blood.
Beside her was a man jammed between steering wheel and seat.
We first lifted out the woman and laid her on the road.
Her face was full of cuts, a few splinters were still sticking in it, but the blood flowed steadily.
It was worse with her right arm.
The sleeve of her white blouse was bright red and dripping fast.
Lenz slit it up.
A surge of blood flowed out, then went on pulsing.
The artery was severed.
Lenz twisted his handkerchief to a tourniquet.
"Get the man out, I'll be done here in a minute," said he. "We must get to the nearest hospital quickly."
To extricate the man we had to unscrew the back of the seat.
Fortunately we had enough tools with us and it went pretty quickly.
The man was bleeding likewise and apparently had some ribs broken. When we helped him out he dropped wfth a cry. There was something up with his knee too. But we could do nothing for it at the moment.
Koster drove Karl in reverse close up to the place of the accident.
The woman screamed hysterically from fear, when she saw him coming so near, though he drove only at a walk.
We put down the back of one of the front seats and so were able to let the man lie down.
The woman we placed in the back seat.
I took up a position beside her on the running board while Lenz held the man on the other side.
"You stay here and look after the car, Jupp," said Lenz.
"By the way, what's become of the cyclist?" I asked.
"Hopped it while we were busy," announced Jupp.
We drove off slowly.
Not far from the next village was a small sanatorium.
We had often seen it when passing. It lay white and low on a hillside.
So far as we knew it was a sort of private asylum for mild, well-to-do patients—but there was sure to be a doctor there and some sort of dressing station.
We drove up the hill and rang.
A very pretty nurse came out.
She turned pale at the sight of the blood and ran back.
Immediately a second, decidedly older one came.
"Sorry," said she at once, "we are not equipped for accidents.
You must go to the Virchow Hospital.
It's not far."
"It's a good hour from here," replied Koster.
The nurse looked her refusal.
"We aren't equipped for this kind of thing.
Besides, there's no doctor—"
"Then you're infringing the law," declared Lenz. "Private institutions of this kind must have a resident doctor.
Would you allow me to use your telephone?
I should like to speak to the police and one of the newspapers."
The nurse began to weaken.
"I don't think you need worry," said Koster coldly. "Anything you do will certainly be well repaid.
What we need is a stretcher.
I expect you can get hold of a doctor all right."
She still hesitated.