The Scarlet Car Read online

happy enthusiasts, raced past them he groaned.

  "The only one of us that showed any common sense was Ernest," hedeclared, "and you turned him down. I am going to take a trolley toStamford, and the first train to New Haven."

  "You are not," said his sister; "I will not desert Mr. Winthrop, andyou cannot desert me."

  Brother Sam sighed, and seated himself on a rock.

  "Do you think, Billy," he asked, "you can get us to Cambridge in timefor next year's game?"

  The car limped into Stamford, and while it went into drydock at thegarage, Brother Sam fled to the railroad station, where he learned thatfor the next two hours no train that recognized New Haven spoke toStamford.

  "That being so," said Winthrop, "while we are waiting for the car, wehad better get a quick lunch now, and then push on."

  "Push," exclaimed Brother Sam darkly, "is what we are likely to do."

  After behaving with perfect propriety for half an hour, just outside ofBridgeport the Scarlet Car came to a slow and sullen stop, and oncemore the owner and the chauffeur hid their shame beneath it, andattacked its vitals. Twenty minutes later, while they still were atwork, there approached from Bridgeport a young man in a buggy. When hesaw the mass of college colors on the Scarlet Car, he pulled his horsedown to a walk, and as he passed raised his hat.

  "At the end of the first half," he said, "the score was a tie."

  "Don't mention it," said Brother Sam.

  "Now," he cried, "we've got to turn back, and make for New York. If westart quick, we may get there ahead of the last car to leave New Haven."

  "I am going to New Haven, and in this car," declared his sister. "Imust go--to meet Ernest."

  "If Ernest has as much sense as he showed this morning," returned heraffectionate brother, "Ernest will go to his Pullman and stay there.As I told you, the only sure way to get anywhere is by railroad train."

  When they passed through Bridgeport it was so late that the electriclights of Fairview Avenue were just beginning to sputter and glow inthe twilight, and as they came along the shore road into New Haven, thefirst car out of New Haven in the race back to New York leaped at themwith siren shrieks of warning, and dancing, dazzling eyes. It passedlike a thing driven by the Furies; and before the Scarlet Car couldswing back into what had been an empty road, in swift pursuit of thefirst came many more cars, with blinding searchlights, with a roar ofthrobbing, thrashing engines, flying pebbles, and whirling wheels. Andbehind these, stretching for a twisted mile, came hundreds of others;until the road was aflame with flashing Will-o'-the-wisps, dancingfireballs, and long, shifting shafts of light.

  Miss Forbes sat in front, beside Winthrop, and it pleased her toimagine, as they bent forward, peering into the night, that togetherthey were facing so many fiery dragons, speeding to give them battle,to grind them under their wheels. She felt the elation of great speed,of imminent danger. Her blood tingled with the air from the wind-sweptharbor, with the rush of the great engines, as by a handbreadth theyplunged past her. She knew they were driven by men and half-grownboys, joyous with victory, piqued by defeat, reckless by one touch toomuch of liquor, and that the young man at her side was driving, notonly for himself, but for them.

  Each fraction of a second a dazzling light blinded him, and he swervedto let the monster, with a hoarse, bellowing roar, pass by, and thenagain swept his car into the road. And each time for greaterconfidence she glanced up into his face.

  Throughout the mishaps of the day he had been deeply concerned for hercomfort, sorry for her disappointment, under Brother Sam's indignantironies patient, and at all times gentle and considerate. Now, in thelight from the onrushing cars, she noted his alert, laughing eyes, thebroad shoulders bent across the wheel, the lips smiling with excitementand in the joy of controlling, with a turn of the wrist, a power equalto sixty galloping horses. She found in his face much comfort. And inthe fact that for the moment her safety lay in his hands, a sense ofpleasure. That this was her feeling puzzled and disturbed her, for toErnest Peabody it seemed, in some way, disloyal. And yet there it was.Of a certainty, there was the secret pleasure in the thought that ifthey escaped unhurt from the trap in which they found themselves, itwould be due to him. To herself she argued that if the chauffeur weredriving, her feeling would be the same, that it was the nerve, theskill, and the coolness, not the man, that moved her admiration. Butin her heart she knew it would not be the same.

  At West Haven Green Winthrop turned out of the track of the racingmonsters into a quiet street leading to the railroad station, and witha half-sigh, half-laugh, leaned back comfortably.

  "Those lights coming up suddenly make it hard to see," he said.

  "Hard to breathe," snorted Sam; "since that first car missed us, Ihaven't drawn an honest breath. I held on so tight that I squeezed thehair out of the cushions."

  When they reached the railroad station, and Sam had finally fought hisway to the station master, that half-crazed official informed him hehad missed the departure of Mrs. Taylor Holbrooke's car by just tenminutes.

  Brother Sam reported this state of affairs to his companions.

  "God knows we asked for the fish first," he said; "so now we've doneour duty by Ernest, who has shamefully deserted us, and we can getsomething to eat, and go home at our leisure. As I have always toldyou, the only way to travel independently is in a touring-car."

  At the New Haven House they bought three waiters, body and soul, and,in spite of the fact that in the very next room the team was breakingtraining, obtained an excellent but chaotic dinner; and by eight theywere on their way back to the big city.

  The night was grandly beautiful. The waters of the Sound flashed inthe light of a cold, clear moon, which showed them, like pictures insilver print, the sleeping villages through which they passed, theancient elms, the low-roofed cottages, the town hall facing the common.The post road was again empty, and the car moved as steadily as a watch.

  "Just because it knows we don't care now when we get there," saidBrother Sam, "you couldn't make it break down with an axe."

  From the rear, where he sat with Fred, he announced he was going tosleep, and asked that he be not awakened until the car had crossed theState line between Connecticut and New York. Winthrop doubted if heknew the State line of New York.

  "It is where the advertisements for Besse Baker's twenty-seven storescease," said Sam drowsily, "and the billposters of Ethel Barrymorebegin."

  In the front of the car the two young people spoke only at intervals,but Winthrop had never been so widely alert, so keenly happy, neverbefore so conscious of her presence.

  And it seemed as they glided through the mysterious moonlit world ofsilent villages, shadowy woods, and wind-swept bays and inlets, fromwhich, as the car rattled over the planks of the bridges, the wild duckrose in noisy circles, they alone were awake and living.

  The silence had lasted so long that it was as eloquent as words. Theyoung man turned his eyes timorously, and sought those of the girl.What he felt was so strong in him that it seemed incredible she shouldbe ignorant of it. His eyes searched the gray veil. In his voicethere was both challenge and pleading.

  "'Shall be together,'" he quoted, "'breathe and ride. So, one day moream I deified; who knows but the world may end to-night?'"

  The moonlight showed the girl's eyes shining through the veil, andregarding him steadily.

  "If you don't stop this car quick," she said, "the world WILL end forall of us."

  He shot a look ahead, and so suddenly threw on the brake that Sam andthe chauffeur tumbled awake. Across the road stretched the great bulkof a touring-car, its lamps burning dully in the brilliance of themoon. Around it, for greater warmth, a half-dozen figures stamped uponthe frozen ground, and beat themselves with their arms. Sam and thechauffeur vaulted into the road, and went toward them.

  "It's what you say, and the way you say it," the girl explained. Sheseemed to be continuing an argument. "It makes it so very difficultfor us to play together."r />
  The young man clasped the wheel as though the force he were holding incheck were much greater than sixty horse-power.

  "You are not married yet, are you?" he demanded.

  The girl moved her head.

  "And when you are married, there will probably be an altar from whichyou will turn to walk back up the aisle?"

  "Well?" said the girl.

  "Well," he answered explosively, "until you turn away from that altar,I do not recognize the right of any man to keep me quiet, or your righteither. Why should I be held by your engagement? I was not consultedabout it. I did not give my consent, did I? I tell you, you are theonly woman in the world I will ever marry, and if you