The Best of Mary Roberts Rinehart

by Mary Roberts Rinehart

  We were all deceived.

  Charlie Sands came the next morning. He was on the veranda reading a paper when we got down to breakfast. Tish's face was a study.

  "Who sent for you?" she demanded.

  "Sent for me! Why, who would send for me? I'm here to write up the race. I thought, if you haven't been out to the track, we'd go out this morning."

  "We've been out," said Tish shortly, and we went in to breakfast. Once or twice during the meal I caught her eye on me and on Aggie and she was short with us both. While she was upstairs I had a word with Charlie Sands.

  "Well," he said, "what is it this time? Is she racing?"

  "Worse than that," I replied. "I think she's backing the thing!"

  "No!"

  "With her cousin Angeline's legacy." With that I told him about our meeting Mr. Ellis and the whole story. He listened without a word.

  "So that's the situation," I finished. "He has her hypnotized, Charlie. What's more, I shouldn't be surprised to see her enter the race under an assumed name."

  Charlie Sands looked at the racing list in the Morris Valley Sun.

  "Good cars all of them," he said. "She's not here among the drivers, unless she's--Who are these drivers anyhow? I never heard of any of them."

  "It's a small race," I suggested. "I dare say the big men--"

  "Perhaps." He put away his paper and got up. "I'll just wander round the town for an hour or two, Aunt Lizzie," he said. "I believe there's a nigger in this woodpile and I'm a right nifty little nigger-chaser."

  When he came back about noon, however, he looked puzzled. I drew him aside.

  "It seems on the level," he said. "It's so darned open it makes me suspicious. But she's back of it all right. I got her bank on the long-distance 'phone."

  We spent that afternoon at the track, with the different cars doing what I think they called "trying out heats." It appeared that a car, to qualify, must do a certain distance in a certain time. It grew monotonous after a while. All but one entry qualified and Jasper just made it. The best showing was made by the Bonor car, according to Charlie Sands.

  Jasper came to our machine when it was over, smiling without any particular good cheer.

  "I've made it and that's all," he said. "I've got about as much chance as a watermelon at a colored picnic. I'm being slaughtered to make a Roman holiday."

  "If you feel that way why do you do it?" demanded Bettina coldly. "If you go in expecting to slaughtered--"

  He was leaning on the side of the car and looked up at her with eyes that made my heart ache, they were so wretched.

  "What does it matter?" he said. "I'll probably trail in at the last, sound in wind and limb. If I don't, what does it matter?"

  He turned and left us at that, and I looked at Bettina. She had her lips shut tight and was blinking hard. I wished that Jasper had looked back.

  V

  Charlie Sands announced at dinner that he intended to spend the night at the track.

  Tish put down her fork and looked at him. "Why?" she demanded.

  "I'm going to help the boy next door watch his car," he said calmly. "Nothing against your friend Mr. Ellis, Aunt Tish, but some enemy of true sport might take a notion in the night to slip a dope pill into the mouth of friend Jasper's car and have her go to sleep on the track to-morrow."

  We spent a quiet evening. Mr. Ellis was busy, of course, and so was Jasper. The boy came to the house to get Charlie Sands and, I suppose, for a word with Bettina, for when he saw us all on the porch he looked, as you may say, thwarted.

  When Charlie Sands had gone up for his pajamas and dressing-gown, Jasper stood looking up at us.

  "Oh, Association of Chaperons!" he said, "is it permitted that my lady walk to the gate with me--alone?"

  "I am not your lady," flashed Bettina.

  "You've nothing to say about that," he said recklessly. "I've selected you; you can't help it. I haven't claimed that you have selected me."

  "Anyhow, I don't wish to go to the gate," said Bettina.

  He went rather white at that, and Charlie Sands coming down at that moment with a pair of red-and-white pajamas under his arm and a toothbrush sticking out of his breast pocket, romance, as Jasper said later in referring to it, "was buried in Sands."

  Jasper went up to Bettina and held out his hand. "You'll wish me luck, won't you?"

  "Of course." She took his hand. "But I think you're a bit of a coward, Jasper!"

  He eyed her. "Coward!" he said. "I'm the bravest man you know. I'm doing a thing I'm scared to death to do!"

  * * * * *

  The race was to begin at two o'clock in the afternoon. There were small races to be run first, but the real event was due at three.

  From early in the morning a procession of cars from out of town poured in past Eliza Bailey's front porch, and by noon her cretonne cushions were thick with dust. And not only automobiles came, but hay-wagons, side-bar buggies, delivery carts--anything and everything that could transport the crowd.

  At noon Mr. Ellis telephoned Tish that the grand-stand was sold out and that almost all the parking-places that had been reserved were taken. Charlie Sands came home to luncheon with a curious smile on his face.

  "How are you betting, Aunt Tish?" he asked.

  "Betting!"

  "Yes. Has Ellis let you in on the betting?"

  "I don't know what you are talking about," Tish said sourly. "Mr. Ellis controls the betting so that it may be done in an orderly manner. I am sure I have nothing to do with it."

  "I'd like to bet a little, Charlie," Aggie put in with an eye on Tish. "I'd put all I win on the collection plate on Sunday."

  "Very well." Charlie Sands took out his notebook. "On what car and how much?"

  "Ten dollars on the Fein. It made the best time at the trial heats."

  "I wouldn't if I were you," said Charlie Sands. "Suppose we put it on our young friend next door."

  Bettina rather sniffed. "On Jasper!" she exclaimed.

  "On Jasper," said Charlie Sands gravely.

  Tish, who had hardly heard us, looked up from her plate.

  "Bettina is betting," she snapped. "Putting it on the collection plate doesn't help any." But with that she caught Charlie Sands' eye and he winked at her. Tish colored. "Gambling is one thing, clean sport is another," she said hotly.

  I believe, however, that whatever Charlie Sands may have suspected, he really knew nothing until the race had started. By that time it was too late to prevent it, and the only way he could think of to avoid getting Tish involved in a scandal was to let it go on.

  We went to the track in Tish's car and parked in the oval. Not near the grandstand, however. Tish had picked out for herself a curve at one end of the track which Mr. Ellis had said was the worst bit on the course. "He says," said Tish, as we put the top down and got out the vacuum bottle--oh, yes, Mr. Ellis had sent Tish one as a present--"that if there are any smashups they'll occur here."

  Aggie is not a bloodthirsty woman ordinarily, but her face quite lit up.

  "Not really!" she said.

  "They'll probably turn turtle," said Tish. "There is never a race without a fatality or two. No racer can get any life insurance. Mr. Ellis says four men were killed at the last race he promoted."

  "Then I think Mr. Ellis is a murderer," Bettina cried. We all looked at her. She was limp and white and was leaning back among the cushions with her eyes shut. "Why didn't you tell Jasper about this curve?" she demanded of Tish.

  But at that moment a pistol shot rang out and the races were on.

  The Fein won two of the three small races. Jasper was entered only for the big race. In the interval before the race was on, Jasper went round the track slowly, looking for Bettina. When he saw us he waved, but did not stop. He was number thirteen.

  I shall not describe the race. After the first round or two, what with dust in my eyes and my neck aching from turning my head so rapidly, I just sat back and let them spin in front of me.

  It wa
s after a dozen laps or so, with number thirteen doing as well as any of them, that Tish was arrested.

  Charlie Sands came up beside the car with a gentleman named Atkins, who turned out to be a county detective. Charlie Sands was looking stern and severe, but the detective was rather apologetic.

  "This is Miss Carberry," said Charlie Sands. "Aunt Tish, this gentleman wishes to speak to you."

  "Come around after the race," Tish observed calmly.

  "Miss Carberry," said the detective gently, "I believe you are back of this race, aren't you?"

  "What if I am?" demanded Tish.

  Charlie Sands put a hand on the detective's arm. "It's like this, Aunt Tish," he said; "you are accused of practicing a short-change game, that's all. This race is sewed up. You employ those racing-cars with drivers at an average of fifty dollars a week. They are hardly worth it, Aunt Tish. I could have got you a better string for twenty-five."

  Tish opened her mouth and shut it again without speaking.

  "You also control the betting privileges. As you own all the racers you have probably known for a couple of weeks who will win the race. Having made the Fein favorite, you can bet on a Brand or a Bonor, or whatever one you chance to like, and win out. Only I take it rather hard of you, Aunt Tish, not to have let the family in. I'm hard up as the dickens."

  "Charlie Sands!" said Tish impressively. "If you are joking--"

  "Joking! Did you ever know a county detective to arrest a prominent woman at a race-track as a little jest between friends? There's no joke, Aunt Tish. You've financed a phony race. The permit is taken in your name--L.L. Carberry. Whatever car wins, you and Ellis take the prize money, half the gate receipts, and what you have made out of the betting--"

  Tish rose in the machine and held out both her hands to Mr. Atkins.

  "Officer, perform your duty," she said solemnly. "Ignorance is no defense and I know it. Where are the handcuffs?"

  "We'll not bother about them, Miss Carberry", he said. "If you like I'll get into the car and you can tell me all about it while we watch the race. Which car is to win?"

  "I may have been a fool, Mr. County Detective," she said coldly; "but I'm not a knave. I have not bet a dollar on the race."

  We were very silent for a time. The detective seemed to enjoy the race very much and ate peanuts out of his pocket. He even bought a red-and-black pennant, with "Morris Valley Races" on it, and fastened it to the car. Charlie Sands, however, sat with his arms folded, stiff and severe.

  Once Tish bent forward and touched his arm.

  "You--you don't think it will get in the papers, do you?" she quavered.

  Charlie Sands looked at her with gloom. "I shall have to send it myself, Aunt Tish," he said; "it is my duty to my paper. Even my family pride, hurt to the quick and quivering as it is, must not interfere with my duty."

  It was Bettina who suggested a way out--Bettina, who had sat back as pale as Tish and heard that her Mr. Ellis was, as Charlie Sands said later, as crooked as a pretzel.

  "But Jasper was not--not subsidized," she said. "If he wins, it's all right, isn't it?"

  The county detective turned to her.

  "Jasper?" he said.

  "A young man who lives here." Bettina colored.

  "He is--not to be suspected?"

  "Certainly not," said Bettina haughtily; "he is above suspicion. Besides, he--he and Mr. Ellis are not friends."

  Well, the county detective was no fool. He saw the situation that minute, and smiled when he offered Bettina a peanut. "Of course," he said cheerfully, "if the race is won by a Morris Valley man, and not by one of the Ellis cars, I don't suppose the district attorney would care to do anything about it. In fact," he said, smiling at Bettina, "I don't know that I'd put it up to the district attorney at all. A warning to Ellis would get him out of the State."

  It was just at that moment that car number thirteen, coming round the curve, skidded into the field, threw out both Jasper McCutcheon and his mechanician, and after standing on two wheels for an appreciable moment of time, righted herself, panting, with her nose against a post.

  Jasper sat up almost immediately and caught at his shoulder. The mechanician was stunned. He got up, took a step or two and fell down, weak with fright.

  I do not recall very distinctly what happened next. We got out of the machine, I remember, and Bettina was cutting off Jasper's sweater with Charlie Sands' penknife, and crying as she did it. And Charlie Sands was trying to prevent Jasper from getting back into his car, while Jasper was protesting that he could win in two or more laps and that he could drive with one hand--he'd only broken his arm.

  The crowd had gathered round us, thick. Suddenly they drew back, and in a sort of haze I saw Tish in Jasper's car, with Aggie, as white as death, holding to Tish's sleeve and begging her not to get in. The next moment Tish let in the clutch of the racer and Aggie took a sort of flying leap and landed beside her in the mechanician's seat.

  Charlie Sands saw it when I did, but we were both too late. Tish was crossing the ditch into the track again, and the moment she struck level ground she put up the gasoline.

  It was just then that Aggie fell out, landing, as I have said before, in a pile of sand. Tish said afterward that she never missed her. She had just discovered that this was not Jasper's old car, which she knew something about, but a new racer with the old hood and seat put on in order to fool Mr. Ellis. She didn't know a thing about it.

  Well, you know the rest--how Tish, trying to find how the gears worked, side-swiped the Bonor car and threw it off the field and out of the race; how, with the grandstand going crazy, she skidded off the track into the field, turned completely round twice, and found herself on the track again facing the way she wanted to go; how, at the last lap, she threw a tire and, without cutting down her speed, bumped home the winner, with the end of her tongue nearly bitten off and her spine fairly driven up into her skull.

  [Illustration: Without cutting down her speed, bumped home the winner]

  All this is well known now, as is also the fact that Mr. Ellis disappeared from the judges' stand after a word or two with Mr. Atkins, and was never seen at Morris Valley again.

  Tish came out of the race ahead by half the gate money--six thousand dollars--by a thousand dollars from concessions, and a lame back that she kept all winter. Even deducting the twenty-five hundred she had put up, she was forty-five hundred dollars ahead, not counting the prize money. Charlie Sand brought the money from the track that night, after having paid off Mr. Ellis's racing-string and given Mr. Atkins a small present. He took over the prize money to Jasper and came back with it, Jasper maintaining that it belonged to Tish, and that he had only raced for the honor of Morris Valley. For some time the money went begging, but it settled itself naturally enough, Tish giving it to Jasper in the event of--but that came later.

  On the following evening--Bettina, in the pursuit of learning to cook, having baked a chocolate cake--we saw Jasper, with his arm in a sling, crossing the side lawn.

  Jasper stopped at the foot of the steps. "I see a chocolate cake cooling on the kitchen porch," he said. "Did you order it, Miss Lizzie?"

  I shook my head.

  "Miss Tish? Miss Aggie?"

  "I ordered it," said Bettina defiantly--"or rather I baked it."

  "And you did that, knowing what it entailed? He was coming up the steps slowly and with care.

  "What does it entail?" demanded Bettina.

  "Me."

  "Oh, that!" said Bettina. "I knew that."

  Jasper threw his head back and laughed. Then:--

  "Will the Associated Chaperons," he said, "turn their backs?"

  "Not at all," I began stiffly. "If I--"

  "She baked it herself!" said Jasper exultantly. "One--two. When I say three I shall kiss Bettina."

  And I have every reason to believe he carried out his threat.

  * * * * *

  Eliza Bailey forwarded me this letter from London where Bettina had sent it to her:-- />
  Dearest Mother: I hope you are coming home soon. I really think you should. Aunt Lizzie is here and she brought two friends, and, mother, I feel so responsible for them! Aunt Lizzie is sane enough, if somewhat cranky; but Miss Tish is almost more than I can manage--I never know what she is going to do next--and I am worn out with chaperoning her. And Miss Aggie, although she is very sweet, is always smoking cubeb cigarettes for hay fever, and it looks terrible! The neighbors do not know they are cubeb, and, anyhow, that's a habit, mother. And yesterday Miss Tish was arrested, and ran a motor race and won it, and to-day she is knitting a stocking and reciting the Twenty-third Psalm. Please, mother, I think you should come home.

  Lovingly, BETTINA.

  P.S. I think I shall marry Jasper after all. He says he likes the Presbyterian service.

  I looked up from reading Eliza's letter. Tish was knitting quietly and planning to give the money back to the town in the shape of a library, and Aggie was holding a cubeb cigarette to her nose. Down on the tennis court Jasper and Bettina were idly batting a ball round.

  "I'm glad the Ellis man did not get her," said Aggie. And then, after a sneeze, "How Jasper reminds me of Mr. Wiggins."

  The library did not get the money after all. Tish sent it, as a wedding present, to Bettina.

  LIKE A WOLF ON THE FOLD

  I

  Aggie has always been in the habit of observing the anniversary of Mr. Wiggins's death. Aggie has the anniversary habit, anyhow, and her life is a succession: of small feast-days, on which she wears mental crape or wedding garments--depending on the occasion. Tish and I always remember these occasions appropriately, sending flowers on the anniversaries of the passing away of Aggie's parents; grandparents; a niece who died in birth; her cousin, Sarah Webb, who married a missionary and was swallowed whole by a large snake,--except her shoes, which the reptile refused and of which Aggie possesses the right, given her by the stricken husband; and, of course, Mr. Wiggins.