章节正文
THE SCARLET CAR
BY
RICHARD HARDING DAVIS
TO
NED STONE
CONTENTS
THE JAIL-BREAKERS
THE TRESPASSERS
THE KIDNAPPERS
THE SCARLET CAR
I
THE JAIL-BREAKERS
For a long time it had been arranged they all should go
to the Harvard and Yale game in Winthrop's car. It was
perfectly well understood. Even Peabody, who pictured himself
and Miss Forbes in the back of the car, with her brother and
Winthrop in front, condescended to approve. It was necessary
to invite Peabody because it was his great good fortune to be
engaged to Miss Forbes. Her brother Sam had been invited, not
only because he could act as chaperon for his sister, but
because since they were at St. Paul's, Winthrop and he, either
as participants or spectators, had never missed going together
to the Yale-Harvard game. And Beatrice Forbes herself had
been invited because she was herself.
When at nine o'clock on the morning of the game, Winthrop
stopped the car in front of her door, he was in love with all
the world. In the November air there was a sting like
frost-bitten cider, in the sky there was a brilliant,
beautiful sun, in the wind was the tingling touch of three
ice-chilled rivers. And in the big house facing Central Park,
outside of which his prancing steed of brass and scarlet
chugged and protested and trembled with impatience, was the
most wonderful girl in all the world. It was true she was
engaged to be married, and not to him. But she was not yet
married. And to-day it would be his privilege to carry her
through the State of New York and the State of Connecticut,
and he would snatch glimpses of her profile rising from the
rough fur collar, of her wind-blown hair, of the long, lovely
lashes under the gray veil.
"`Shall be together, breathe and ride, so, one day more am I
deified;'" whispered the young man in the Scarlet Car; "`who
knows but the world may end to-night?'"
As he waited at the curb, other great touring-cars, of every
speed and shape, in the mad race for the Boston Post Road, and
the town of New Haven, swept up Fifth Avenue. Some rolled and
puffed like tugboats in a heavy seaway, others glided by
noiseless and proud as private yachts. But each flew the
colors of blue or crimson.
Winthrop's car, because her brother had gone to one college,
and he had played right end for the other, was draped
impartially. And so every other car mocked or cheered it, and
in one a bare-headed youth stood up, and shouted to his
fellows: "Look! there's Billy Winthrop! Three times three
for old Billy Winthrop!" And they lashed the air with flags,
and sent his name echoing over Central Park.
Winthrop grinned in embarrassment, and waved his hand. A
bicycle cop, and Fred, the chauffeur, were equally impressed.
"Was they the Harvoids, sir?" asked Fred.
"They was," said Winthrop.
Her brother Sam came down the steps carrying sweaters and
steamer-rugs. But he wore no holidaycountenance.
"What do you think?" he demanded indignantly. "Ernest
Peabody's inside making trouble. His sister has a Pullman on
one of the special trains, and he wants Beatrice to go with
her."
In spite of his furs, the young man in the car turned quite
cold. "Not with us?" he gasped.
Miss Forbes appeared at the house door, followed by Ernest
Peabody. He wore an expression of disturbed dignity; she one
of distressed amusement. That she also wore her automobile
coat caused the heart of Winthrop to leap hopefully.
"Winthrop," said Peabody, "I am in rather an embarrassing
position. My sister, Mrs. Taylor Holbrooke"--he spoke the
name as though he were announcing it at the door of a
drawing-room--"desires Miss Forbes to go with her. She feels
accidents are apt to occur with motor cars--and there are no
other ladies in your party--and the crowds----"
Winthrop carefully avoided looking at Miss Forbes.
"I should be very sorry," he murmured.
"Ernest!" said Miss Forbes, "I explained it was impossible for
me to go with your sister. We would be extremely rude to Mr.
Winthrop. How do you wish us to sit?" she asked.
She mounted to the rear seat, and made room opposite her for
Peabody.
"Do I understand, Beatrice," began Peabody in a tone that
instantly made every one extremelyuncomfortable, "that I am
to tell my sister you are not coming?"
"Ernest!" begged Miss Forbes.
Winthrop bent hastily over the oil valves. He read the
speedometer, which was, as usual, out of order, with
fascinated interest.
"Ernest," pleaded Miss Forbes,
"Mr. Winthrop and Sam planned this trip for us a long time
ago--to give us a little pleasure----"
"Then," said Peabody in a hollow voice, "you have decided?"
"Ernest," cried Miss Forbes, "don't look at me as though you
meant to hurl the curse of Rome. I have. Jump in. Please!"
"I will bid you good-by," said Peabody; "I have only just time
to catch our train."
Miss Forbes rose and moved to the door of the car.
"I had better not go with any one," she said in a low voice.
"You will go with me," commanded her brother. "Come on,
Ernest."
"Thank you, no," replied Peabody. "I have promised my sister."
"All right, then," exclaimed Sam briskly, "see you at the game.
Section H. Don't forget. Let her out, Billy."
With a troubled countenance Winthrop bent forward and clasped
the clutch.
"Better come, Peabody," he said.
"I thank you, no," repeated Peabody. "I must go with my
sister."
As the car glided forward Brother Sam sighed heavily.
"My! but he's got a mean disposition," he said. "He has quite
spoiled MY day."
He chuckled wickedly, but Winthrop pretended not to hear, and
his sister maintained an expression of utter dejection.
But to maintain an expression of utter dejection is very
difficult when the sun is shining, when you are flying at the
rate of forty miles an hour, and when in the cars you pass
foolish youths wave Yale flags at you, and take advantage of
the day to cry: "Three cheers for the girl in the blue hat!"
And to entirely remove the last trace of the gloom that
Peabody had forced upon them, it was necessary only for a tire
to burst. Of course for this effort, the tire chose the
coldest and most fiercely windswept portion of the Pelham
Road, where from the broad waters of the Sound pneumonia and
the grip raced rampant, and where to the touch a steel wrench
was not to be distinguished from a piece of ice. But before
the wheels had ceased to complain, Winthrop and Fred were out
of their fur coats, down on their knees, and jacking up the
axle.
"On an expedition of this sort," said Brother Sam, "whatever
happens, take it as a joke. Fortunately," he explained, "I
don't understand fixing inner tubes, so I will get out and
smoke. I have noticed that when a car breaks down, there is
always one man who paces up and down the road and smokes. His
hope is to fool passing cars into thinking that the people in
his car stopped to admire the view."
Recognizing the annual football match as intended solely to
replenish the town coffers, the thrifty townsfolk of Rye, with
bicycles and red flags, were, as usual, and regardless of the
speed at which it moved, levying tribute on every second car
that entered their hospitable boundaries. But before the
Scarlet Car reached Rye, small boys of the town, possessed of
a sporting spirit, or of an inherited instinct for graft, were
waiting to give a noisy notice of the ambush. And so,
fore-warned, the Scarlet Car crawled up the main street of Rye
as demurely as a baby-carriage, and then, having safely
reached a point directly in front of the police station, with
a loud and ostentatious report, blew up another tire.
"Well," said Sam crossly, "they can't arrest US for
speeding."
"Whatever happens," said his sister, "take it as a joke."
Two miles outside of Stamford, Brother Sam burst into open
mutiny.
"Every car in the United States has passed us," he declared.
"We won't get there, at this rate, till the end of the first
half. Hit her up, can't you, Billy?"
"She seems to have an illness," said Winthrop unhappily. "I
think I'd save time if I stopped now and fixed her."
Shamefacedly Fred and he hid themselves under the body of the
car, and a sound of hammering and stentorian breathing
followed. Of them all that was visible was four feet beating
a tattoo on the road. Miss Forbes got out Winthrop's camera,
and took a snap-shot of the scene.
"I will call it," she said, "The Idle Rich."
Brother Sam gazed morosely in the direction of New Haven.
They had halted within fifty yards of the railroad tracks, and
as each special train, loaded with happy enthusiasts, raced
past them he groaned.
"The only one of us that showed any common sense was Ernest,"
he declared, "and you turned him down. I am going to take a
trolley to Stamford, and the first train to New Haven."
"You are not," said his sister; "I will not desert Mr.
Winthrop, and you 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 time for next year's game?"
The car limped into Stamford, and while it went into drydock
at the garage, Brother Sam fled to the railroad station, where
he learned that for the next two hours no train that
recognized New Haven spoke to Stamford.
"That being so," said Winthrop, "while we are waiting for the
car, we had 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 of Bridgeport the Scarlet Car came to a slow and
sullen stop, and once more the owner and the chauffeur hid
their shame beneath it, and attacked its vitals. Twenty
minutes later, while they still were at work, there approached
from Bridgeport a young man in a buggy. When he saw the mass
of college colors on the Scarlet Car, he pulled his horse down
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 we start 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
BY
RICHARD HARDING DAVIS
TO
NED STONE
CONTENTS
THE JAIL-BREAKERS
THE TRESPASSERS
THE KIDNAPPERS
THE SCARLET CAR
I
THE JAIL-BREAKERS
For a long time it had been arranged they all should go
to the Harvard and Yale game in Winthrop's car. It was
perfectly well understood. Even Peabody, who pictured himself
and Miss Forbes in the back of the car, with her brother and
Winthrop in front, condescended to approve. It was necessary
to invite Peabody because it was his great good fortune to be
engaged to Miss Forbes. Her brother Sam had been invited, not
only because he could act as chaperon for his sister, but
because since they were at St. Paul's, Winthrop and he, either
as participants or spectators, had never missed going together
to the Yale-Harvard game. And Beatrice Forbes herself had
been invited because she was herself.
When at nine o'clock on the morning of the game, Winthrop
stopped the car in front of her door, he was in love with all
the world. In the November air there was a sting like
frost-bitten cider, in the sky there was a brilliant,
beautiful sun, in the wind was the tingling touch of three
ice-chilled rivers. And in the big house facing Central Park,
outside of which his prancing steed of brass and scarlet
chugged and protested and trembled with impatience, was the
most wonderful girl in all the world. It was true she was
engaged to be married, and not to him. But she was not yet
married. And to-day it would be his privilege to carry her
through the State of New York and the State of Connecticut,
and he would snatch glimpses of her profile rising from the
rough fur collar, of her wind-blown hair, of the long, lovely
lashes under the gray veil.
"`Shall be together, breathe and ride, so, one day more am I
deified;'" whispered the young man in the Scarlet Car; "`who
knows but the world may end to-night?'"
As he waited at the curb, other great touring-cars, of every
speed and shape, in the mad race for the Boston Post Road, and
the town of New Haven, swept up Fifth Avenue. Some rolled and
puffed like tugboats in a heavy seaway, others glided by
noiseless and proud as private yachts. But each flew the
colors of blue or crimson.
Winthrop's car, because her brother had gone to one college,
and he had played right end for the other, was draped
impartially. And so every other car mocked or cheered it, and
in one a bare-headed youth stood up, and shouted to his
fellows: "Look! there's Billy Winthrop! Three times three
for old Billy Winthrop!" And they lashed the air with flags,
and sent his name echoing over Central Park.
Winthrop grinned in embarrassment, and waved his hand. A
bicycle cop, and Fred, the chauffeur, were equally impressed.
"Was they the Harvoids, sir?" asked Fred.
"They was," said Winthrop.
Her brother Sam came down the steps carrying sweaters and
steamer-rugs. But he wore no holidaycountenance.
"What do you think?" he demanded indignantly. "Ernest
Peabody's inside making trouble. His sister has a Pullman on
one of the special trains, and he wants Beatrice to go with
her."
In spite of his furs, the young man in the car turned quite
cold. "Not with us?" he gasped.
Miss Forbes appeared at the house door, followed by Ernest
Peabody. He wore an expression of disturbed dignity; she one
of distressed amusement. That she also wore her automobile
coat caused the heart of Winthrop to leap hopefully.
"Winthrop," said Peabody, "I am in rather an embarrassing
position. My sister, Mrs. Taylor Holbrooke"--he spoke the
name as though he were announcing it at the door of a
drawing-room--"desires Miss Forbes to go with her. She feels
accidents are apt to occur with motor cars--and there are no
other ladies in your party--and the crowds----"
Winthrop carefully avoided looking at Miss Forbes.
"I should be very sorry," he murmured.
"Ernest!" said Miss Forbes, "I explained it was impossible for
me to go with your sister. We would be extremely rude to Mr.
Winthrop. How do you wish us to sit?" she asked.
She mounted to the rear seat, and made room opposite her for
Peabody.
"Do I understand, Beatrice," began Peabody in a tone that
instantly made every one extremelyuncomfortable, "that I am
to tell my sister you are not coming?"
"Ernest!" begged Miss Forbes.
Winthrop bent hastily over the oil valves. He read the
speedometer, which was, as usual, out of order, with
fascinated interest.
"Ernest," pleaded Miss Forbes,
"Mr. Winthrop and Sam planned this trip for us a long time
ago--to give us a little pleasure----"
"Then," said Peabody in a hollow voice, "you have decided?"
"Ernest," cried Miss Forbes, "don't look at me as though you
meant to hurl the curse of Rome. I have. Jump in. Please!"
"I will bid you good-by," said Peabody; "I have only just time
to catch our train."
Miss Forbes rose and moved to the door of the car.
"I had better not go with any one," she said in a low voice.
"You will go with me," commanded her brother. "Come on,
Ernest."
"Thank you, no," replied Peabody. "I have promised my sister."
"All right, then," exclaimed Sam briskly, "see you at the game.
Section H. Don't forget. Let her out, Billy."
With a troubled countenance Winthrop bent forward and clasped
the clutch.
"Better come, Peabody," he said.
"I thank you, no," repeated Peabody. "I must go with my
sister."
As the car glided forward Brother Sam sighed heavily.
"My! but he's got a mean disposition," he said. "He has quite
spoiled MY day."
He chuckled wickedly, but Winthrop pretended not to hear, and
his sister maintained an expression of utter dejection.
But to maintain an expression of utter dejection is very
difficult when the sun is shining, when you are flying at the
rate of forty miles an hour, and when in the cars you pass
foolish youths wave Yale flags at you, and take advantage of
the day to cry: "Three cheers for the girl in the blue hat!"
And to entirely remove the last trace of the gloom that
Peabody had forced upon them, it was necessary only for a tire
to burst. Of course for this effort, the tire chose the
coldest and most fiercely windswept portion of the Pelham
Road, where from the broad waters of the Sound pneumonia and
the grip raced rampant, and where to the touch a steel wrench
was not to be distinguished from a piece of ice. But before
the wheels had ceased to complain, Winthrop and Fred were out
of their fur coats, down on their knees, and jacking up the
axle.
"On an expedition of this sort," said Brother Sam, "whatever
happens, take it as a joke. Fortunately," he explained, "I
don't understand fixing inner tubes, so I will get out and
smoke. I have noticed that when a car breaks down, there is
always one man who paces up and down the road and smokes. His
hope is to fool passing cars into thinking that the people in
his car stopped to admire the view."
Recognizing the annual football match as intended solely to
replenish the town coffers, the thrifty townsfolk of Rye, with
bicycles and red flags, were, as usual, and regardless of the
speed at which it moved, levying tribute on every second car
that entered their hospitable boundaries. But before the
Scarlet Car reached Rye, small boys of the town, possessed of
a sporting spirit, or of an inherited instinct for graft, were
waiting to give a noisy notice of the ambush. And so,
fore-warned, the Scarlet Car crawled up the main street of Rye
as demurely as a baby-carriage, and then, having safely
reached a point directly in front of the police station, with
a loud and ostentatious report, blew up another tire.
"Well," said Sam crossly, "they can't arrest US for
speeding."
"Whatever happens," said his sister, "take it as a joke."
Two miles outside of Stamford, Brother Sam burst into open
mutiny.
"Every car in the United States has passed us," he declared.
"We won't get there, at this rate, till the end of the first
half. Hit her up, can't you, Billy?"
"She seems to have an illness," said Winthrop unhappily. "I
think I'd save time if I stopped now and fixed her."
Shamefacedly Fred and he hid themselves under the body of the
car, and a sound of hammering and stentorian breathing
followed. Of them all that was visible was four feet beating
a tattoo on the road. Miss Forbes got out Winthrop's camera,
and took a snap-shot of the scene.
"I will call it," she said, "The Idle Rich."
Brother Sam gazed morosely in the direction of New Haven.
They had halted within fifty yards of the railroad tracks, and
as each special train, loaded with happy enthusiasts, raced
past them he groaned.
"The only one of us that showed any common sense was Ernest,"
he declared, "and you turned him down. I am going to take a
trolley to Stamford, and the first train to New Haven."
"You are not," said his sister; "I will not desert Mr.
Winthrop, and you 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 time for next year's game?"
The car limped into Stamford, and while it went into drydock
at the garage, Brother Sam fled to the railroad station, where
he learned that for the next two hours no train that
recognized New Haven spoke to Stamford.
"That being so," said Winthrop, "while we are waiting for the
car, we had 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 of Bridgeport the Scarlet Car came to a slow and
sullen stop, and once more the owner and the chauffeur hid
their shame beneath it, and attacked its vitals. Twenty
minutes later, while they still were at work, there approached
from Bridgeport a young man in a buggy. When he saw the mass
of college colors on the Scarlet Car, he pulled his horse down
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 we start 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
- scarlet [´skɑ:lit]
n.猩红色 a.猩红的 (初中英语单词) - approve [ə´pru:v] v.赞成；同意；批准 (初中英语单词)
- privilege [´privilidʒ] n.特权 vt.给....特权 (初中英语单词)
- snatch [snætʃ] v.&n.抢，夺取，抓住 (初中英语单词)
- collar [´kɔlə] n.衣领；(狗等的)项圈 (初中英语单词)
- equally [´i:kwəli] ad.相等地；平等地 (初中英语单词)
- holiday [´hɔlidi] n.假日，假期，节日 (初中英语单词)
- dignity [´digniti] n.尊严，尊贵；高官显贵 (初中英语单词)
- amusement [ə´mju:zmənt] n.娱乐；文娱设施 (初中英语单词)
- extremely [ik´stri:mli] ad.极端地；非常地 (初中英语单词)
- hastily [´heistili] ad.急速地；草率地 (初中英语单词)
- countenance [´kauntinəns] n.面部表情；脸色；面容 (初中英语单词)
- maintain [mein´tein] vt.维持；保持；继续 (初中英语单词)
- advantage [əd´vɑ:ntidʒ] n.优势；利益 (初中英语单词)
- fiercely [´fiəsli] ad.凶猛地，残忍地 (初中英语单词)
- portion [´pɔ:ʃən] n.嫁妆；命运 vt.分配 (初中英语单词)
- complain [kəm´plein] vi.抱怨，叫屈；控诉 (初中英语单词)
- expedition [,ekspi´diʃən] n.远征；探险；迅速 (初中英语单词)
- annual [´ænjuəl] a.每年的 n.年刊 (初中英语单词)
- tribute [´tribju:t] n.贡物；献礼；颂词 (初中英语单词)
- instinct [´instiŋkt] n.本能；直觉；天资 (初中英语单词)
- arrest [ə´rest] vt.逮捕 n.逮捕；停止 (初中英语单词)
- visible [´vizəbəl] a.可见的；明显的 (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- harvard [´hɑ:vəd] n.哈佛大学 (高中英语单词)
- uncomfortable [ʌn´kʌmftəbəl] a.不舒服的，不自在的 (高中英语单词)
- repeated [ri´pi:tid] a.反复的；重复的 (高中英语单词)
- distinguished [di´stiŋgwiʃt] a.卓越的，著名的 (高中英语单词)
- solely [´səulli] ad.唯一；单独；完全 (高中英语单词)
- regardless [ri´gɑ:dləs] a.不留心的；不关心的 (高中英语单词)
- garage [´gærɑ:ʒ] n.汽车房；汽车修理厂 (高中英语单词)
- learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
- impatience [im´peiʃəns] n.不耐烦，急躁 (英语四级单词)
- embarrassment [im´bærəsmənt] n.窘迫；困惑；为难 (英语四级单词)
- chauffeur [´ʃəufə,ʃeu´fə:] n.(汽车)司机 (英语四级单词)
- briskly [´briskli] ad.轻快地；活泼地 (英语四级单词)
- hospitable [´hɔspitəbəl] a.好客的；招待周到的 (英语四级单词)
- ambush [´æmbuʃ] n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵 (英语四级单词)
- profile [´prəufail] n.侧面 vt.画...侧面 (英语六级单词)
- indignantly [in´dignəntli] ad.愤慨地，义愤地 (英语六级单词)
- pneumonia [nju:´məuniə] n.肺炎 (英语六级单词)
- thrifty [´θrifti] a.节俭的；兴旺的 (英语六级单词)
- darkly [´dɑ:kli] adv.暗，黑；暗中 (英语六级单词)
- propriety [prə´praiəti] n.正当；合适；礼貌 (英语六级单词)
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