Produced by Elaine Laizure from images generously madeavailable by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.
An Idyll of All Fools' Day
An Idyll of All Fools' Day
By Josephine Daskam Bacon
Author of "Memoirs of a Baby," "The Madness of Philip," etc.
_With numerous illustrations_
By R. M. Crosby
New York
Dodd, Mead and Company 1908
Copyright, 1908, by The Phillips Publishing Co.
Copyright, 1908, by Dodd, Mead & Company
_Published, October, 1908_
To A. A. B.
this bit of busy nonsense
is dedicated.
J. D. B.
ILLUSTRATIONS
"Only her shriek of terror saved them from the stone wall" (p, 47)Frontispiece
Facing page "'Here we are at last, Nette dear, dressed in our bestfor you!'"
"'On the right,' he began didactically"
"The red-headed boy bounded beside them, whooping madly"
"At the risk of losing his straight course he stole a rapid glanceat her"
"'Jump! Jump!' he cried hoarsely"
"'Well, here we are!' he said tentatively"
"Nette, wringing her hair and murmuring incoherent abnegations"
"'Mademoiselle,' he began, 'you are--you are--' he paused, forgenuine lack of words"
"'This gentleman here will take you down directly'"
THE ESCAPE
I.
THE ESCAPE
'TWAS a bloomy morning, all crocuses and tree buds, and Antonysniffed it into his nostrils thankfully, even while he scowled.
"Come, come!" said his Uncle Julius, a wealthy old gentlemanbuttoned firmly into a white vest, "what a face! It is nothing soterrible that I ask of you! One would think it a hanging matter, tobeau a pretty young girl about the place!"
"You know that I do not care for schoolgirls, Uncle Julius," saidAntony severely.
"Fiddlestick!" his Uncle Julius cried, "and what are you sir, but aschool boy, I should like to know? What shall we hear next, Iwonder?"
Antony put on some fresh grey gloves with a sigh.
"Schoolgirl! Schoolgirl!" his uncle repeated mimickingly, "shewill not be reciting her lessons, I suppose!"
Antony buttoned his gloves.
"Or if she does, it will be your fault, sir," pursued his uncle.
Antony selected a slender walking stick from a rack of many, andreviewed his collar with a critical hand.
"The young lady's topics of conversation will be a matter ofindifference to me, Uncle Julius," said he, "I assure you."
"And I assure _you_," cried Uncle Julius, "that if we were not onthis open porch, I should be strongly tempted to apply that stickof yours where, as we used to say, it would do the most good!"
Antony adjusted his coat trimly and started down the steps.
"But since we are upon this open porch, let us, Uncle Julius,"said he, "go where duty calls us. _En avant!_"
He strode along the flagged walk with Uncle Julius puffing behindhim, loquaciously indignant.
"Look at your mates, sir, as we pass them, and notice how enviouslythey smile," he urged the youth, who replied shortly that heobserved them.
"In my time, I can tell you," said Uncle Julius, "there was noshilly shallying in these matters. We had more blood. Let anycollege lad be given a free day--and a fine day, too--and one ofthe prettiest girls that ever wore a petticoat to enjoy It withhim, and he was the envy of all his fellows. And I believe," heended with a fine optimism, "that it is so now! Not one of theselads but would change places with you at a nod."
"But you will notnod, my dear Uncle Julius," Antony respondedcalmly, "and so these lads--as you so felicitously call them--willnever lose the opportunity I would cheerfully relin----"
"Hush! there she is!" his uncle whispered, and Antony at onceremoved his hat with a lordly and accomplished gesture, which UncleJulius noted with unwilling admiration.
"Well, here we are!" he said, with an attempt at prankish levity inwhich he received no assistance from Antony. "Here we are at last,Nette dear, dressed in our best for you!"
"So I see. And this is, I suppose, your young nephew, Mr. Julius?"said the person at whose face Antony had not yet looked.
If she had intended to remedy this omission she could not havedevised a more efficacious means. Not only did Antony look at her:he stared. From the topmost strand of her braided chestnut hair tothe lowest dimple In her olive cheek--for she was of thatirritatingly attractive class of females that combines deep-setviolet eyes with a gipsy colouring--every curve of her audaciousbody spelled youth, unmitigated youth, and her tone wascorrespondingly insulting.
"I am truly pleased to meet you," he said with the air of one towhom experience has lent tolerance.
"I should truly never have guessed it," she returned promptly withan amused smile.
Antony flushed. An impudent chit, this. A girl to be taught herplace, and that right early.
"I am to have, I believe," he said, with a fine air of disregardfor any previous conversation, "the honour of escort--of show--of,er, of entertaining you for the day."
"That distinction is indeed yours," she replied gravely, "I have nodoubt that I shall be escort--show--er, entertained mostagreeably."
With this insulting remark she but half concealed a yawn andAntony's blood boiled within him.
"Come," chirped Uncle Julius with a fatuous chuckle, "we aregetting along famously! What did I tell you? Yes, indeed!"
To this idiotic speech neither his nephew nor that nephew's newacquaintance made any further reply than two eloquent but totallyineffective glances. They were ineffective because the glanceas a medium of expression had not been included in Uncle Julius'saesthetic training.
"And what are you going to do first, hey? Where does the great daybegin--see the town sights, I suppose?" this Imbecile old relativemaundered on.
"It will give me great pleasure, if she wishes to see them," saidAntony coldly, "to point out the various objects of local interestto Miss----"
"Good gracious!" Uncle Julius interrupted, "what's come over theboy? 'Miss,' indeed! Didn't I tell you that this is my oldgodmother's own daughter's stepdaughter? 'Miss!' Her name isNette."
"Ah," said Antony.
"And his," continued Uncle Julius, with a flip of his finger at hisnephew and a wink at the young lady, "is Tony. Let's have noformality among chicks of your age. No, no; Tony's his name."
"Indeed!" the young lady observed, gazing critically at theembarrassed possessor of the cognomen, "and a quaint little name, Iam sure."
She smiled with a perfunctory brightness and continued in someinexplicable manner to look down at her escort--though had she beenpresented with ten thousand dollars for every one of the inchesover five feet in her height she would not have appeared before theworld as any considerable heiress. The object of this remarkablyachieved envisagement writhed inwardly. Uncle Julius rubbed hishands in maudlin delight at her appreciation of his nephew'sbaptismal acquirements, and she continued, prettily stifling asecond yawn between her white little pointed teeth:
"Since our young friend naturally pants to show us the beauties ofhis Alma Mater, let us by all means begin with them," _and get themover_, said the strangled yawn.
Antony bit his tongue in his seething rage and the pain turned himcrimson and wet-eyed. This did not escape the intolerable chit andher deep-set violet eyes twinkled maliciously.
"It will not be at all necessary to see"--he began, when UncleJulius's round, astonished eyes interrupted them.
"He is not going to show 'us' at all," explained this worthybut misguided man, "he is going to show you, my dear. I knew
allthese sights well forty years ago. Dear, dear! yes, indeed."
Antony could have choked him for the apprehension that passed overhis young charge's face.
"You will not desert me, Mr. Julius?" she cried with a meltingglance that visibly warmed the cockles of his infatuated old heart,"you can't mean to leave me"--_to the awkward attentions of thisred faced boy!_ her eyebrows continued the appeal, intelligibleonly to Antony.
"But that's just what I do mean, Miss Nette," he assured her,winking incredibly, "I am this moment due at my trustees' meeting.I'm off directly. You must"--and he flapped his hand with airyabandon--"endure the time without me!"
Here he smiled with disgusting coquetry and pattered like a plumpwhite rabbit down the shady brick path. As they stared blanklyafter him he turned and waved his stick at them.
"Oh, I'm no spoil-sport!" he crowed, and rounded his corner. Theywere left alone.
"Silly old ass!" Antony muttered, and then glared angrily atthe spot the buxom gentleman had quitted.
"I beg your pardon?" said the young lady, "did you speak?"
"Not to you," he replied briefly. She shook out a fluffy whiteparasol and under its becoming shadow looked curiously about her.
"Indeed--to whom, then," she inquired.
Antony was silent.
"Minx!" he thought.
"You are not at all like your uncle, are you?" she began, after amoment of this pregnant silence. Then after another moment sheadded absently, "he has such pleasant, easy manners!"
Antony settled his fleckless straw hat firmly upon his head andtightened his grip on his stick.
"My uncle," he began with great control, "is an estimable man. Hisintentions are of the best--that is to say, I have always believedthem to be--but like too many others he does not always carry outhis intentions. Take, for instance, this present situation. It wasevidently his intention to give you (and me) a pleasurable day. Itis quite obvious to me, at least, that he has failed in hisintention--to a certain extent," he added politely, for he hadby now talked himself into his usual superior calm. His eyes werefixed upon the tip of the young lady's parasol, some distance belowhim, as she sat on the brick steps of the old porch before which hestood, her slender figure leaning against a white pillar.
"Now, I have a suggestion to make," he continued, quite pleasantlyby this time. "I can plainly see that my uncle's somewhatPhilistine scheme for my showing you about the place is likely tobore you extremely. Let us, then, omit that part of the programmealtogether. We must try to think of something that will attractyou, however," Antony had by this time a fairly paternal interestin the young lady, "and if you will help me out, no doubt we can.Perhaps," he concluded tentatively, "you would really prefer toremain by yourself, and not be entertained at all?"
He paused, and as no reply appeared to be forthcoming, slowlylowered his eyes along the fluffy parasol till they reached thelevel of those deep-set violet ones. He could not have recognisedthem by their colour, however, for they were closed; the gentlerise and fall of the young lady's breast, the placid anduncharacteristic kindness of her half-smile made the reasonfor this closing only too obvious. She was sleeping.
Antony swallowed hard. Sheer rage choked him and his collar becameintolerably tight. His fingers itched along the supple stick hecarried and a longing to employ it in an absolutely unheard ofmanner nearly flooded him off his feet. "Where it would do the mostgood"--the obnoxious phrase flashed luminously across his mind.
The sudden silence had its natural effect upon the young person onthe brick steps. Slowly, inquiringly, her eyelids lifted, and thepeculiar, rain-washed effect of those dark blue eyes, so startlingabove her olive cheeks, was not lost upon Antony.
"Not entertained at all?" she repeated vaguely, diving under theruffles of the parasol to cover the positively unconcealableparoxysm of the third yawn, "oh, on the contrary! Really. I amdelightfully entertained, Mr.--Mr. Tony!"
"So it appears," he returned acidly. A soft dark colour suffusedher gipsy cheeks, but she brazened it out. She seemed to possess nosense of shame whatever.
"This sun makes one almost sleepy," she said calmly, "and I sat upquite late last night, too--playing picquet with your uncle. He isa poor sleeper."
"Indeed. I am not acquainted with his habits," Antony responded."We will look at the buildings now, I think, if you aresufficiently rested." A fell purpose had suddenly found itself inhis humiliated breast. This insolent young puss should have causeindeed for drowsiness.
She sprang instantly to her feet with a quick and pleasing muscularco-ordination, which, again, was not lost upon Antony. She wore awhite flannel costume dotted with a dull blue--the blue of Cantonchina. Of this colour, too, was the silk stocking that flashed downthe steps above her low-cut shoes. A ludicrous and daring colourfor a brunette--until you encountered her eyes.
"I am quite ready," she said demurely, and Antony started brisklydown the street.
"On the right," he began didactically, "you will see WadsworthHall, the building of applied sciences. It was presented by the twosons of Mr. Ezra Bement Wadsworth in memory of their father, aprominent graduate. It cost three hundred thousand dollars and isone of the most completely equipped buildings of its kind in thecountry, I believe."
"How interesting!" she murmured.
"Yes," Antony agreed, "it _is_ interesting."
"To what are the sciences applied?" she inquired placidly.
"To--er, to--really, I have never gone into it so far as that,"Antony returned, biting his lip, "I am not interested in sciencemyself. But that is what it is generally called: it is on a bronzetablet on the corner. It is probably only an expression."
"Ah, yes, probably," she assented.
"Beyond it and a shade to the left you will see," he continued,with a wave of his stick, "Mansfield Hall. It is a dormitory,occupied by sophomores."
"And who presented that?" his companion inquired, gazingrespectfully at the end of his stick.
"I do not know," he informed her briefly.
"Oh, you do not know," she repeated in her low voice. Something inthe falling inflection caused her guide to wriggle uneasily.
"Nobody knows," he added, rashly. "I should think nobody would wantto, it is so hideous."
"To be sure," she said. "And sophomores live there. Are you perhapsa sophomore, Mr. Tony?"
"I?" Antony exclaimed; then in level tones, "I am a senior."
"Really!" she murmured. "I suppose that means that you are one ofthe older pupils, then? In the first class?"
"It does," he assented grimly, adding as a cutting afterthought, "asophomore, I suppose, would be beneath your notice?"
She smiled sweetly. "Oh, dear me, no!" she assurred him, "not inthe least--it is all the same to me, you see, Mr. Tony!"
Antony should have realised by this time the folly of any furthertilting, but he did not.
"Your interest naturally turns, then, to men of my uncle's age?" heinquired caustically.
She considered this with a pretty seriousness.
"N-no, hardly that," she said at length. "It is only that I do not--that I am not--somehow, young men (_and such very young men!_ hereyes added) do not exactly . . ."
"You need not trouble to explain yourself any further," Antonybroke in coldly. "It is somewhat unfortunate," he continued,enunciating carefully, with averted eyes, "that I, of all people,should have been selected for your escort this morning."
He had never said anything so nearly rude to a woman; but then hehad never to his recollection been so thoroughly annoyed by one,since the dimly distant days when a series of deprecating aunts andspying nurses had darkened his youthful horizon.
"Indeed. And why is that?" she asked pleasantly. She had, when shechose, an exceedingly pleasant manner.
"Because," he returned, astonished at himself, but firmnevertheless, "I am not sufficiently accustomed to the society ofyoung ladies to be certain of my ability to entertain even theordinary variety--much less those who prefer the society ofeccentric old
gentlemen." _Come_, he reflected, _that's not halfbad. Perhaps that will teach her a thing or two!_
It seemed to him that there was a flash of respect in her eyes, buthe could not be sure, it was so fleeting.
"I suppose your studies take up so much of your time that you haveno leisure for society," she said kindly, "but you must not letyourself grow shy: ladies are not very difficult to entertain,really!"
To this remark Antony made no reply, perhaps because he could notthink of one which combined the expression of his feelings withanything remotely resembling propriety. They walked on, therefore,in utter silence.
The village through which they took their way was but a tiny one, agreen and sheltered cradle for the warm brick walls and lichenedchapel of the old college; and soon the grass-grown flagged walkgave way to one of trodden earth, the houses grew sparser andsmaller, the trees thicker and less carefully tended. They were inthe country. The season was well forward: though the calendarmarked April, the warm blue sky, the odorous earth, the fresh,full grass, all smelled of May. The early flowers were out longbefore their wonted times; the birds, misled by the generous sun,were already nesting musically; shock-headed urchins, those mostdelicate barometers of the real seasons, had bravely cast off theirshoes and stockings and renewed the year in the splashing puddlesof some recent rain. All the scene spoke peace and promise ofbetter to come--all, I say, but those two fractious young souls whowalked diverse among the lovely unity of the pleasant world aboutthem. Antony strode on, his eyes fixed on the winding road, thoughit is to be doubted if he saw it. Who would have thought to findhim, Antony, in such a baited, hot-necked frame? The day had gonehideously awry from the beginning, and it was all the fault of thisblue-eyed, brown-cheeked chit.
She, for her part, moved easily and it must be admitted,gracefully, beside him. Her step shot out from the hip, elastic asa boy's; only the faintest shade of red under her skin confessed tothe pace he drove her; she drew regular breaths, through her smallnostrils. Though she could not match his stride, she yet fell intoa sort of rythmical accompaniment to it; evidently she was anaccomplished and enduring dancer.
They swung around a sharp corner under a great sprawling oak andfairly mowed down an unattractive red-headed boy, insufficientlyattired and freckled beyond belief, who was hurrying frantically ina direction only too obviously opposed to their own. Conscious of adistinct relief at the necessity for constructive action, Antonystooped and raised the howling and resentful creature, who dug hisgrimy knuckles into his eyes and yelled the louder at each politequery as to his injuries. After a few minutes of thisfruitless performance, Antony, irritated at his failure to bringeven this sordid incident to a triumphant conclusion, was about toproduce a coin and leave his victim to the sovereign solace ofTime, that great healer, when his companion, who had stood,hitherto, discreetly aside from the business, now stepped forwardand laid a small brown hand on the heaving shoulder of the injuredinfant.
"Where were you going, Bubby?" she asked abruptly.
He looked up from his bent and screening arm, stared a moment, andreplied in a matter-of-fact tone, without a trace of the sobs thatstill echoed about them:
"To see the big snake!"
"The snake?" She shuddered involuntarily. Had the child mentionedLeviathan, the monster would not have seemed more exotic to thisrural and domestic spot. By judicious questioning they elicitedfrom the suddenly secretive imp the successive facts of thespectacular and recent arrival of an enormous foreign reptile; itsdisplay under a tent on the outskirts of the village, very neartheir present station; the establishment of a tariff offifteen cents for one view, or two separate opportunities forexcitement at the comparatively small sum of a quarter of a dollar;and lastly, the cruel certainty that the delay occasioned by thisunexpected and sudden meeting had undoubtedly cost their informanthis only possible view of the monster, since the price of hisadmission, though offered voluntarily by his maternal uncle, wascontingent upon his arrival at the tent ahead of his cousin, who,in case of a previous appearance, was to receive the prize.
Overcome afresh by the bitterness of his lot, the red-headed boywould have renewed his unpleasant and gulping demonstrations, hadnot Antony hastily produced a coin of sufficient size to insure twoperiods of ecstasy and offered it in reparation for what hehandsomely described as his clumsiness. Staggered by this princelygenerosity, the urchin balanced the silver piece doubtfully, thenwith a shy and unlooked-for courtesy suggested that they should useit together.
"And what should I do, then?" asked the young lady with a smile--Ihave mentioned that she had, when she saw fit to employ it, anexceedingly pleasant manner.
The boy hesitated.
"Girls don't like snakes," he finally mumbled; "you could waitoutside!"
"Where is that tent?" she demanded indignantly, and they hurriedon, one on each side of their unconscious guide. No kindlypremonition laid a thrilling chill along Antony's stiff spine; nowholesome doubts as to the successful issue of that doomedexpedition slowed the springing step of his companion. They hurriedon, I say, each with a hand upon the earth-stained, ragged shoulderof that freckled imp whom Fate had selected as the instrument oftheir destiny, and in ironic rivalry they literally urged him on,and shot him, panting, through the roped enclosure that protectedthe elect possessors of the admission price from contact with theenvious herd.
With the curt direction to their guide to invite, if he pleased, afriend to enter with him, Antony slapped down a coin on theimprovised counter, received two greasy green cardboard slips andstrode towards the canvas flap of the small tent. The mingled odourof tobacco smoke, crushed grass, and tethered horses, the cheerful,chattering crowd, the honk and blare of a great claret-colouredmotor-car, hurtling inquiringly up the slope, all imparted a festivalair, a holiday spirit; and it was with a mild excitement that Antonypushed into the close tent, clearing the way punctiliously for hiscompanion.
In the middle, under the opening, was a standard painted a dull,forbidding red, and on this, in a cage of twisted iron, lay amonstrous, coiled thing, hideously and brilliantly mottled, hisblunt, flattened head lazily resting on his topmost ring, hismalignant, weary eyes fixed in a listless stare, that drooped overthe human mushrooms around him, over the seas he had travelled,back to the old gods and the beginnings of things. The inkeddiamonds along his great length gleamed in a dreadful, supplepattern; the eye, entranced in a seductive terror, followed themassive rounds of those murderous coils, longing, yet dreading, totrace them to their horrid head: it seemed that a faint, uncannyodour, a hint of dead spices, like the secret wrapping cloths ofold mummies, hung in the air. Now Antony knew, or supposed he knew,that cobras exhale no such odour, and in a disgusted curiosity hepeered about for the source of it, but found nothing in the stainedand faded tent, nor any nook or cranny in the obvious barenesswhere the source of it could lurk.
The scene was a strange one; no officious showman called attention,in a raucous voice, to the ugly thing in the middle. There appearedto be no director, no advertisement of any kind, no appeal to acredulous or morbid crowd. The tent could contain but a score ofvisitors simultaneously, and they pushed in, fairly quiet as soonas they had entered, slowly encircled the scornful, wicked-eyedheap on the standard, discussed it in low tones and went outthrough another flap to make room for the next group. Indeed, theaccustomed ease with which they performed these evolutions awoke inAntony the wonder whether they had not rehearsed them many times,and he involuntarily mentioned this idea to the girl, who gazed, atonce fascinated and repelled, as Eve at the Seducer.
"I suppose," she returned musingly, "they keep coming to see if itwill by any chance bite some one."
At this precise moment there pushed through the entrance-flap onewho by his distinctive dress showed himself the mechanician of theclaret-coloured motorcar. He was as obviously a foreigner, andamong the simple rural types that filled the tent his mustachioedpersonality stood out as startlingly as the great cobra's. Elbowinghis way through the little crowd he made
himself a place directlybeside Antony and the freckled boy, who had attached himselfdefinitely to his patron, and smiled at the young man in easycosmopolitan contempt of the rustics, conveying at the same time,In a graphic Continental hint of respectful salutation, hisduty to the young lady. Antony accepted the smile with a lordlynod, expressive of his familiarity with mechanicians as a class andhis appreciation of their place in the general scheme of things,and the two men surveyed the reptile in silence.
"I know heem well," volunteered the big fellow in the leather suit,at last.
"_C'est Monsieur le Cobra_, zat one. We have take ze car alls'rough 'is country. Wait--I will amuse Mademoiselle. Watch heem!"
Lowering his head till the great goggles on his cap fronted theslitted eyes in the cage he emitted a long, piercing hiss, a nerveracking, whistling call. Everyone in the tent jumped backwardspasmodically; Antony threw out his arm and pushed the girl behindhim before he realised that there was no danger.
Upon the great snake the effect of the sudden noise was evenmore appalling. His ugly flat head appeared suddenly high abovehis writhing folds; no one saw the movement, for it was toolightning-quick for sight, but it was undoubtedly the fact thathis head was no longer pillowed. The symmetrical turban on hisforehead puffed and quivered, his cold eye caught every eyein the tent with a swift, horrible glance; and every eye shrank,terrified, from his.
"A very unpleasant old party, that snake," Anthony remarked, "Itrust our friend won't think it advisable to repeat----"
In the middle of his sentence the Frenchman hissed again. Thecobra, irritated beyond further endurance, threw its massive weightagainst the side of the cylindrical cage, which swayed slightly andthen dropped forward into the panic-stricken crowd.
Antony felt a soft, sighing breath on his neck and caught hiscompanion as she fell; he heard the ribs of her fluffy parasolcrack under somebody's stamping feet and braced himself to meet thecrushing, struggling rush of the frightened crowd. Through theoaths and shrieks of the nightmare moment piped shrill the voice ofthe red-headed boy.
"Mister, the cover's on! The cover's on tight."
Between the grovelling legs of two infuriated men, fightinglike demons for leeway from the horrid cage, Antony caught aglimpse of it and realised that it was, indeed, completelyfastened. Though it rolled and bounded under the lashings of itsexcited occupant, it was securely padlocked, and another moment offrenzied struggle for the door-flaps emptied the tent sufficientlyto give passage to two angry men who threw a heavy canvas over thecage and righted it, breathing hard.
One of these as he rose to his feet met Antony's eyes, shifted hisgaze to the fainting girl on his arm, and thrust his hand into thecapacious pocket of his flapping linen coat.
"Try her with this," he said shortly, "I've got the crowd tosettle. Then we'll kill the Frenchy, and then we'll leave!"
Antony forced the offered flask into the girl's mouth anddragged her backward through the open flap. As the air reached hershe gasped and choked, gulping down the strong spirit nervously,then stiffening herself in his arm and adjusting her hat.
"Your town is not dull, at any rate, Mr. Tony!" she observed, andthe observation, though a little breathless, was almost perfectlyunder her control.
Antony felt his admiration rise into his eyes, nor did he seek toconceal it.
"You are a brave, sensible--for heaven's sake, what's the matternow?" he cried anxiously, staring at a point behind her.Involuntarily she turned and looked in the same direction.
The greater part of the crowd had scattered and fled far down thelong hill; only a few groups of the most hardy and venturesomeamong the villagers remained at varying distances from the desertedtent. The most important of these groups now fell apart slightly,disclosing as its centre a large and writhing human figure, proneon the grass. The light box coat, the great goggles, proclaimedthis figure the ill-fated mechanician. Even as he sprawled andtwisted, the men who surrounded him turned and looked atAntony and his companion, and there was an unpleasant fixity, anunmistakable threatening, in their regard that chilled the younggentleman slightly, though he was utterly at a loss as to itsimport. Presently one of the men caught his eye and beckonedcommandingly.
"They seem to want me over there," he said to the girl, with anattempt at unconcern, "perhaps I'd better step over a moment--I'llreturn immediately. You don't object?"
She looked at him with a curious vague smile, then shook her headslowly. This he took for acquiescence to his request, and as shesaid nothing, he left her and joined the group about the prostrateforeigner. She stared idly at him, but appeared littleimpressed by his irritated and repeated pantomimic denials of whatwas, to judge from the faces of the men, a grave charge of somesort. Even when he threw off a hand on his arm and hastened angrilyback to her, his countenance dark with angry concern, she did notalter that vague smile, and this vexed him still further, as hebegan to explain their situation.
"I am very, very sorry Miss--Miss Nette," he began, his voicefairly trembling with irritation, "but a most absurd and disgustingcomplication has arisen. This French fellow swears he has beenbitten, and they think he is accusing you of hissing at the snake.I don't think he is really such a cad as all that, but he ispractically hysterical, and now I don't believe he knows what he issaying. There is certainly some mark on his wrist and one of themen says that he saw the snake's head touch him, and they havefilled him so thoroughly with whisky that he really is notresponsible for what he says. I think,"--he marvelled at her lackof fright or emotion of any kind--"indeed, I am sure, that they havemerely misunderstood his broken French, but these people are soidiotically obstinate, you know. They've sent for a doctor,and they insist that they hold--me responsible, and that if wedon't stay here quietly they'll--in short, I don't see what to do.I'm dreadfully sorry."
He paused, ready for reproaches, for tears, for rebellion. But noneof these was apparent.
"How silly!" said Nette carelessly, glancing a moment at the groupof men.
Antony felt slightly relieved, but only slightly.
"I'm afraid that it can be made quite disagreeable, however," heexplained gently, "though it is silly. The fellow deserved to bebitten--if he is, which I'm not at all certain of," he interjectedhastily, "and it's none of our business and all his fault; but I'vetried everything--bribing and bullying--and we seem to be caughthere. I regret it so much--as soon as we can get to my uncle, itwill be all right, of course, but nobody here will take a messagefor me and--and I think perhaps it will make less publicity andfuss, you know, if we go quietly with--with whoever they ask us toand . . ."
He ground his teeth--if only he had been alone! He saw himself thebutt of the whole college, nick-named for eternity, blamed by hisuncle, that bulwark of convention, self-disgraced by reason ofutter, crude failure in this, the greatest social crisis of hislife. It was maddening, humiliating--and this thick-skinned,feather-headed girl by his side seemed absolutely indifferent toher (to say the least) embarrassing situation. Stealing a glance ather he perceived that she was still smiling. Nay, more, she nowdirected the smile straight at him, and though its warm brightnesscheered him irrationally for a moment, it was for a moment only,and the gloom of their plight shut round him again as he caught theeye of the leader of the hostile group beyond.
Suddenly he felt a tug at his coat, turned to see the gleaming redhead of the author of all his woes, and seized him by the arm witha confused idea of vengeance.
"The doctor's coming, mister, he's nearly got here!" panted thisunconscious instrument of Fate, "and I'll bet that foreign mandies! I'll bet he does! He got a terrible bite! Did you see it?"
Antony throttled the boy hastily and looked apprehensively at hiscompanion; he had hoped to spare her this. To his surprise sheturned to the child and laughed lightly.
"Oh, dear, no!" she said, "he won't die, little boy. Chauffeursdon't die--they explode!"
Antony had a sense of moral shock. This passed frivolity. Really,the girl was scarcely human; sympathy was waste
d on her.
"Did you know the sheriff was coming?" the freckled-faced imppursued, after a mildly contemptuous stare at his patron'sincomprehensible friend. "I wouldn't go with him, if I was you. Myuncle says he's got no right to make you."
"Of course he's got no right," Antony exclaimed angrily, "but whatcan I do about it? I can't fight eight or ten men, can I? I'drather go than be carried."
"Why don't you jump into that automobile?" the boy asked abruptly."I would. She goes easy--I saw him start her up before. She'llwhizz off, I'll bet you!"
The girl turned abruptly. "That's it!" she cried; "let's do that,Mr. Tony!"
In a flash he caught the practical possibility of the scheme. Onceat his uncle's and the affair was finished. But common sense gavepause.
"I can't run the thing," he admitted with vexation, "I don't knowthe first thing about them."
"Oh, that's nothing--they run themselves!" she said competently,"I'm used to them. Hurry--here comes a man, now!"
It was indeed the fact that a burly, self-satisfied creature wasadvancing towards them, and Antony's blood boiled at the pompousrustic's meaning glance.
"Come, come, Mr. Tony!" she urged excitedly.
"Can you run?" he muttered desperately, "it's no good if you can't,you know."
"Of course I can," she replied, and he noted how different thetones of her voice had grown, how much richer and more alluring. "Ican beat you to the car! Come!"
The freckled boy plucked at his coat urgingly, and in a moment, asone flees in dreams, he was dashing down the slight slope that ledto the little tableland at the head of the steeper hill where thehuge car stood, pointed towards freedom.
A hoarse, suety cry issued from the constable, answered by thefarther group; a number of men rushed hastily in their direction,but no one seemed to realise the object of their flight and the waywas left clear. The red-headed boy bounded beside them,whooping madly; Nette's pale skirt flashed valiantly a trifle aheadof them; the loose stones rolled under their flying feet.
With a light bound the girl dropped on the wide leather seat, andAntony tumbled in after her, an agile village boy almost at hisheels. Even as it was, this boy would have seized him had not thefreckled arbiter of their destinies dexterously tripped him,grinning derisively at his downfall as he dashed to the side of thecar and panted:
"Let her go, mister, let her go!"
Mechanically Antony grasped the steering wheel as he had seenothers grasp it and turned to his companion. But she had toppledbreathless against his shoulder and huddled there motionless. Hestared helplessly at the approaching pursuit--his head whirled.
"Here, I'll pull it!" cried the red-headed urchin and fumbledmysteriously at Antony's feet. A low, raucous buzzing beganforthwith, and as three men dashed up to them triumphantly, thegreat car shuddered a moment and lurched down the hill, gatheringspeed with every quarter-second.
There flashed before Antony's eyes a quick panorama of the extendedFrenchman, the kneeling doctor, the threatening men; his earsresounded with the gleeful cackle of that freckled Fate who hadlaunched them, and then he faced an empty country road, silent butfor the whirring of their chariot. He turned his face to the girl,unconsciously moving the simple steering apparatus so as to keepthe car in the middle of the road, while he spoke.
"May I trouble you to take this now?" he said politely. "Yourknowledge of this business has undoubtedly saved you a great dealof mortifying bother and delay."
She stiffened sensibly beside him, and in her voice he caught nohint of the momentary rich abandon that he had noticed at thebeginning of their flight, for she spoke with the cool and airydryness of their first meeting.
"My knowledge?" she repeated, with an obviously sincere surprise,"my knowledge? What do you mean? Why should I take it? I neverhandled a car in my life!"
Antony's fingers stiffened and grew damp against the wheel. For afew sick seconds he sat utterly silent, stunned and incredulous,not knowing what he did, while his hands, with a strange muscularmemory all their own of the days when he had propelled alittle mechanical velocipede steered by a wheel, kept the whirringvehicle in the centre of the long, empty road.
"Good heavens!" he muttered at last, "I thought you told me--youcertainly said--I understood you--oh, the devil!"
"Put your foot on something!" Nette cried feverishly; "that's theway they do! It can't be hard to stop it for just a moment. Putyour foot----"
With that she stamped her little white shoe on a round metal discprojecting like a toadstool from the floor in front of her, andimmediately, whether from that cause alone, or because Antonyunwittingly complicated the manoeuvre by some untoward pressure ofknee or wrist, the car, with a tremendous jerk, began to revolvebackward upon itself in a dizzy swoop. A moment more had seen themin the deep ditch beside the road, had not Antony dislodged herfoot with an ungraceful but timely kick and allowed the mechanismto right itself and lumber into its course again.
"For God's sake, sit still!" he shouted hoarsely. "Is it possibleyou do not understand you are in danger? Do you wish to kill ormaim us both before it is necessary? I order you to sit perfectlyquiet until I tell you to jump!"
"Very well," she replied meekly, with a short, frightened intake ofthe breath, and they sped along.
THE FLIGHT
An Idyll of All Fools' Day Page 1
