The Scarlet Car
Page 4
Fred?" called the owner.
Fred peered over the stern of the flying car.
"The constable's jumping around the road," he replied, "and the longone's leaning against a tree. No, he's climbing the tree. I can'tmake out WHAT he's doing."
"_I_ know!" cried Miss Forbes; her voice vibrated with excitement.Defiance of the law had thrilled her with unsuspected satisfaction; hereyes were dancing. "There was a telephone fastened to the tree, a handtelephone. They are sending word to some one. They're trying to headus off."
Winthrop brought the car to a quick halt.
"We're in a police trap!" he said. Fred leaned forward and whisperedto his employer. His voice also vibrated with the joy of the chase.
"This'll be our THIRD arrest," he said. "That means----"
"I know what it means," snapped Winthrop. "Tell me how we can get outof here."
"We can't get out of here, sir, unless we go back. Going south, thebridge is the only way out."
"The bridge!" Winthrop struck the wheel savagely with his knuckles. "Iforgot their confounded bridge!" He turned to Miss Forbes. "Fairportis a sort of island," he explained.
"But after we're across the bridge," urged the chauffeur, "we needn'tkeep to the post road no more. We can turn into Stone Ridge, andstrike south to White Plains. Then----"
"We haven't crossed the bridge yet," growled Winthrop. His voice hadnone of the joy of the others; he was greatly perturbed. "Look back,"he commanded, "and see if there is any sign of those boys."
He was now quite willing to share responsibility. But there was nosign of the Yale men, and, unattended, the Scarlet Car crept warilyforward. Ahead of it, across the little reed-grown inlet, stretchedtheir road of escape, a long wooden bridge, lying white in themoonlight.
"I don't see a soul," whispered Miss Forbes.
"Anybody at that draw?" asked Winthrop. Unconsciously his voice alsohad sunk to a whisper.
"No," returned Fred. "I think the man that tends the draw goes home atnight; there is no light there."
"Well then," said Winthrop, with an anxious sigh, "we've got to make adash for it."
The car shot forward, and, as it leaped lightly upon the bridge, therewas a rapid rumble of creaking boards.
Between it and the highway to New York lay only two hundred yards oftrack, straight and empty.
In his excitement the chauffeur rose from the rear seat.
"They'll never catch us now," he muttered. "They'll never catch us!"
But even as he spoke there grated harshly the creak of rusty chains ona cogged wheel, the rattle of a brake. The black figure of a man withwaving arms ran out upon the draw, and the draw gaped slowly open.
When the car halted there was between it and the broken edge of thebridge twenty feet of running water.
At the same moment from behind it came a patter of feet, and Winthropturned to see racing toward them some dozen young men of Fairport.They surrounded him with noisy, raucous, belligerent cries. They were,as they proudly informed him, members of the Fairport "Volunteer FireDepartment." That they might purchase new uniforms, they had arrangeda trap for the automobiles returning in illegal haste from New Haven.In fines they had collected $300, and it was evident that already someof that money had been expended in bad whiskey. As many as could do socrowded into the car, others hung to the running boards and step,others ran beside it. They rejoiced over Winthrop's unsuccessfulflight and capture with violent and humiliating laughter.
For the day, Judge Allen had made a temporary court in the clubroom ofthe fire department, which was over the engine house; and theproceedings were brief and decisive. The selectman told how Winthrop,after first breaking the speed law, had broken arrest and Judge Allen,refusing to fine him and let him go, held him and his companions for ahearing the following morning. He fixed the amount of bail at $500each; failing to pay this, they would for the night be locked up indifferent parts of the engine house, which, it developed, contained onthe ground floor the home of the fire engine, on the second floor theclubroom, on alternate nights, of the firemen, the local G. A. R., andthe Knights of Pythias, and in its cellar the town jail.
Winthrop and the chauffeur the learned judge condemned to the cells inthe basement. As a concession, he granted Miss Forbes the freedom ofthe entire clubroom to herself.
The objections raised by Winthrop to this arrangement were of a natureso violent, so vigorous, at one moment so specious and conciliatory,and the next so abusive, that his listeners were moved by awe, but notto pity.
In his indignation, Judge Allen rose to reply, and as, the better tohear him, the crowd pushed forward, Fred gave way before it, until hewas left standing in sullen gloom upon its outer edge. In imitation ofthe real firemen of the great cities, the vamps of Fairport had cut acircular hole in the floor of their clubroom, and from the engine roombelow had reared a sliding pole of shining brass. When leaving theirclubroom, it was always their pleasure to scorn the stairs and, likereal firemen, slide down this pole. It had not escaped the notice ofFred, and since his entrance he had been gravitating toward it.
As the voice of the judge rose in violent objurgation, and all eyeswere fixed upon him, the chauffeur crooked his leg tightly about thebrass pole, and, like the devil in the pantomime, sank softly andswiftly through the floor.
The irate judge was shaking his finger in Winthrop's face.
"Don't you try to teach me no law," he shouted; "I know what I can do.Ef MY darter went gallivantin' around nights in one of themautomobiles, it would serve her right to get locked up. Maybe thisyoung woman will learn to stay at home nights with her folks. Sheain't goin' to take no harm here. The constable sits up all nightdownstairs in the fire engine room, and that sofa's as good a place tosleep as the hotel. If you want me to let her go to the hotel, whydon't you send to your folks and bail her out?"
"You know damn well why I don't," returned Winthrop. "I don't intendto give the newspapers and you and these other idiots the chance toannoy her further. This young lady's brother has been with us all day;he left us only by accident, and by forcing her to remain here aloneyou are acting outrageously. If you knew anything of decency, or law,you'd----"
"I know this much!" roared the justice triumphantly, pointing hisspectacle-case at Miss Forbes. "I know her name ain't Lizzie Bordenand yours ain't Charley Ross."
Winthrop crossed to where Miss Forbes stood in a corner. She stillwore her veil, but through it, though her face was pale, she smiled athim.
His own distress was undisguised.
"I can never forgive myself," he said.
"Nonsense!" replied Miss Forbes briskly. "You were perfectly right.If we had sent for any one, it would have had to come out. Now, we'llpay the fine in the morning and get home, and no one will know anythingof it excepting the family and Mr. Peabody, and they'll understand.But if I ever lay hands on my brother Sam!"--she clasped her fingerstogether helplessly. "To think of his leaving you to spend the nightin a cell----"
Winthrop interrupted her.
"I will get one of these men to send his wife or sister over to staywith you," he said.
But Miss Forbes protested that she did not want a companion. Theconstable would protect her, she said, and she would sit up all nightand read. She nodded at the periodicals on the club table.
"This is the only chance I may ever have," she said, "to read the'Police Gazette'!"
"You ready there?" called the constable.
"Good-night," said Winthrop.
Under the eyes of the grinning yokels, they shook hands.
"Good-night," said the girl.
"Where's your young man?" demanded the chief of police.
"My what?" inquired Winthrop.
"The young fellow that was with you when we held you up that firsttime."
The constable, or the chief of police as he called himself, on theprinciple that if there were only one policeman he must necessarily bethe chief, glanced hastily over the heads of the crowd.
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"Any of you holding that shoffer?" he called.
No one was holding the chauffeur.
The chauffeur had vanished.
The cell to which the constable led Winthrop was in a corner of thecellar in which formerly coal had been stored. This corner was nowfenced off with boards, and a wooden door with chain and padlock.
High in the wall, on a level with the ground, was the opening, orwindow, through which the coal had been dumped. This window now wasbarricaded with iron bars. Winthrop tested the door by shaking it, andlanded a heavy kick on one of the hinges. It gave slightly,