The Scarlet Car
Page 13
world he was alone, alone onan empty country road, with a grim, alert young man.
"When I asked you how you knew my name," said the young man, "I thoughtyou knew me as having won some races in Florida last winter. This isthe car that won. I thought maybe you might have heard of me when Iwas captain of a football team at--a university. If you have any ideathat you can jump from this car and not be killed, or, that I cannotpound you into a pulp, let me prove to you you're wrong--now. We'requite alone. Do you wish to get down?"
"No," shrieked Schwab, "I won't!" He turned appealingly to the younglady. "You're a witness," he cried. "If he assaults me, he's liable.I haven't done nothing."
"We're near Yonkers," said the young man, "and if you try to takeadvantage of my having to go slow through the town, you know now whatwill happen to you."
Mr. Schwab having instantly planned on reaching Yonkers, to leap fromthe car into the arms of the village constable, with suspiciousalacrity, assented. The young man regarded him doubtfully.
"I'm afraid I'll have to show you," said the young man. He laid twofingers on Mr. Schwab's wrist; looking at him, as he did so, steadilyand thoughtfully, like a physician feeling a pulse. Mr. Schwabscreamed. When he had seen policemen twist steel nippers on the wristsof prisoners, he had thought, when the prisoners shrieked and writhed,they were acting.
He now knew they were not.
"Now, will you promise?" demanded the grim young man.
"Yes," gasped Mr. Schwab. "I'll sit still. I won't do nothing."
"Good," muttered Winthrop.
A troubled voice that carried to the heart of Schwab a promise ofprotection, said: "Mr. Schwab, would you be more comfortable back herewith me?"
Mr. Schwab turned two terrified eyes in the direction of the voice. Hesaw the beautiful young lady regarding him kindly, compassionately;with just a suspicion of a smile. Mr. Schwab instantly scrambled tosafety over the front seat into the body of the car. Miss Forbes madeway for the prisoner beside her and he sank back with a nervous,apologetic sigh. The alert young man was quick to follow the lead ofthe lady.
"You'll find caps and goggles in the boot, Schwab," he said hospitably."You had better put them on. We are going rather fast now." Heextended a magnificent case of pigskin, that bloomed with fat blackcigars. "Try one of these," said the hospitable young man. Theemotions that swept Mr. Schwab he found difficult to pursue, but heraised his hat to the lady. "May I, Miss?" he said.
"Certainly," said the lady.
There was a moment of delay while with fingers that slightly trembled,Mr. Schwab selected an amazing green cap and lit his cigar; and thenthe car swept forward, singing and humming happily, and scattering theautumn leaves. The young lady leaned toward him with a book in aleather cover. She placed her finger on a twisting red line thattrickled through a page of type.
"We're just here," said the young lady, "and we ought to reach home,which is just about there, in an hour."
"I see," said Schwab. But all he saw was a finger in a white glove,and long eyelashes tangled in a gray veil.
For many minutes, or for all Schwab knew, for many miles, the younglady pointed out to him the places along the Hudson, of which he hadread in the public school history, and quaint old manor houses set inglorious lawns; and told him who lived in them. Schwab knew the namesas belonging to down-town streets, and up-town clubs. He becamenervously humble, intensely polite, he felt he was being carried as anhonored guest into the very heart of the Four Hundred, and when the carjogged slowly down the main street of Yonkers, although a policemanstood idly within a yard of him, instead of shrieking to him for help,"Izzy" Schwab looked at him scornfully across the social gulf thatseparated them, with all the intolerance he believed becoming in theupper classes.
"Those bicycle cops," he said confidentially to Miss Forbes, "are toochesty."
The car turned in between stone pillars, and under an arch of red andgolden leaves, and swept up a long avenue to a house of innumerableroofs. It was the grandest house Mr. Schwab had ever entered, and whentwo young men in striped waistcoats and many brass buttons ran down thestone steps and threw open the door of the car, his heart flutteredbetween fear and pleasure.
Lounging before an open fire in the hall were a number of young men,who welcomed Winthrop delightedly and, to all of whom Mr. Schwab wasformally presented. As he was introduced he held each by the hand andelbow and said impressively, and much to the other's embarrassment,"WHAT name, please?"
Then one of the servants conducted him to a room opening on the hall,from whence he heard stifled exclamations and laughter, and some onesaying "Hush." But "Izzy" Schwab did not care. The slave in brassbuttons was proffering him ivory-backed hair-brushes, and obsequiouslyremoving the dust from his coat collar. Mr. Schwab explained to himthat he was not dressed for automobiling, as Mr. Winthrop had invitedhim quite informally. The man was most charmingly sympathetic. Andwhen he returned to the hall every one received him with the mostgenial, friendly interest. Would he play golf, or tennis, or pool, orwalk over the farm, or just look on? It seemed the wish of each to behis escort. Never had he been so popular.
He said he would "just look on." And so, during the last and decisiveday of the "whirlwind" campaign, while in Eighth Avenue voters werebeing challenged, beaten, and bribed, bonfires were burning, and"extras" were appearing every half hour, "Izzy" Schwab, the Tammanyhenchman, with a secret worth twenty thousand votes, sat a prisoner, ina wicker chair, with a drink and a cigar, guarded by four young men inflannels, who played tennis violently at five dollars a corner.
It was always a great day in the life of "Izzy" Schwab. After aluncheon, which, as he later informed his friends, could not have costless than "two dollars a plate and drink all you like," Sam Forbes tookhim on at pool. Mr. Schwab had learned the game in the cellars ofEighth Avenue at two and a half cents a cue, and now, even in ColumbusCircle he was a star. So, before the sun had set, Mr. Forbes, who atpool rather fancied himself, was seventy-five dollars poorer, and Mr.Schwab just that much to the good. Then there followed a strangeceremony called tea, or, if you preferred it, whiskey and soda; and thetall footman bent before him with huge silver salvers laden down withflickering silver lamps, and bubbling soda bottles, and cigars, andcigarettes.
"You could have filled your pockets with twenty-five cent Havanas, andnobody would have said nothing!" declared Mr. Schwab, and his friendswho never had enjoyed his chance to study at such close quarters thetruly rich, nodded enviously.
At six o'clock Mr. Schwab led Winthrop into the big library and askedfor his ticket of leave.
"They'll be counting the votes soon," he begged. "I can't do no harmnow, and I don't mean to. I didn't see nothing, and I won't saynothing. But it's election night, and--and I just GOT to be onBroadway."
"Right," said Winthrop, "I'll have a car take you in, and if you willaccept this small check----"
"No!" roared "Izzy" Schwab. Afterward he wondered how he came to doit. "You've give me a good time, Mr. Winthrop. You've treated mefine, all the gentlemen have treated me nice. I'm not a blackmailer,Mr. Winthrop." Mr. Schwab's voice shook slightly.
"Nonsense, Schwab, you didn't let me finish," said Winthrop, "I'mlikely to need a lawyer any time; this is a retaining fee. Suppose Iexceed the speed limit--I'm liable to do that----"
"You bet you are!" exclaimed Mr. Schwab violently.
"Well, then, I'll send for YOU, and there isn't a police magistrate,nor any of the traffic squad, you can't handle, is there?"
Mr. Schwab flushed with pleasure.
"You can count on me," he vowed, "and your friends too, and theladies," he added gallantly. "If ever the ladies want to get bail,tell 'em to telephone for 'Izzy' Schwab. Of course," he saidreluctantly, "if it's a retaining fee----"
But when he read the face of the check he exclaimed in protest. "But,Mr. Winthrop, this is more than the Journal would have give me!"
They put him in a car belonging to one of the other men, an
d all cameout on the steps to wave him "good-by," and he drove magnificently intohis own district, where there were over a dozen men who swore he tippedthe French chauffeur a five dollar bill "just like it was a cigarette."
All of election day since her arrival in Winthrop's car, Miss Forbeshad kept to herself. In the morning, when the other young people wereout of doors, she remained in her room, and after luncheon when theygathered round the billiard table, she sent for