II
Tish was down early to breakfast that morning and her manner forbade anymention of the night before. Aggie, however, noticed that she ate hercereal with her left hand and used her right arm only when absolutelynecessary. Once before Tish had almost broken an arm cranking a car andhad been driven to arnica compresses for a week; but this time we darednot suggest anything.
Shortly after breakfast she came down to the porch where Aggie and Iwere knitting.
"I've hurt my arm, Lizzie," she said. "I wish you'd come out and crankthe car."
"You'd better stay at home with an arm like that," I replied stiffly.
"Very well, I'll crank it myself."
"Where are you going?"
"To the drug store for arnica."
Bettina was not there, so I turned on Tish sharply. "I'll go, ofcourse," I said; "but I'll not go without speaking my mind, LetitiaCarberry. By and large, I've stood by you for twenty-five years, andnow in the weakness of your age I'm not going to leave you. But I warnyou, Tish, if you touch that racing-car again, I'll send for CharlieSands."
"I haven't any intention of touching it again," said Tish, meeklyenough. "But I wish I could buy a second-hand racer cheap."
"What for?" Aggie demanded.
Tish looked at her with scorn. "To hold flowers on the dining-table,"she snapped.
It being necessary, of course, to leave a chaperon with Bettina, becauseof the Jasper person's habit of coming over at any hour of the day, weleft Aggie with instructions to watch them both.
Tish and I drove to the drug store together, and from there to a garagefor gasoline. I have never learned to say "gas" for gasoline. It seemsto me as absurd as if I were to say "but" for butter. Considering thatAggie was quite sulky at being left, it is absurd for her to assume anair of virtue over what followed that day. Aggie was only like a lot ofpeople--good because she was not tempted; for it was at the garage thatwe met Mr. Ellis.
We had stopped the engine and Tish was quarreling with the man aboutthe price of gasoline when I saw him--a nice-looking young man in ablack-and-white checked suit and a Panama hat. He came over and stoodlooking at Tish's machine.
"Nice lines to that car," he said. "Built for speed, isn't she? What doyou get out of her?"
Tish heard him and turned. "Get out of her?" she said. "Bills mostly."
"Well, that's the way with most of them," he remarked, looking steadilyat Tish. "A machine's a rich man's toy. The only way to own one is tohave it endowed like a university. But I meant speed. What can youmake?"
"Never had a chance to find out," Tish said grimly. "Between nervouswomen in the machine and constables outside I have the twelve-miles-an-hour habit. I'm going to exchange the speedometer for a vacuum bottle."
He smiled. "I don't think you're fair to yourself. Mostly--if you'llforgive me--I can tell a woman's driving as far off as I can see themachine; but you are a very fine driver. The way you brought that carin here impressed me considerably."
"She need not pretend she crawls along the road," I said with somesarcasm. "The bills she complains of are mostly fines for speeding."
"No!" said the young man, delighted. "Good! I'm glad to hear it. So aremine!"
After that we got along famously. He had his car there--a low gray thingthat looked like an armored cruiser.
"I'd like you ladies to try her," he said. "She can move, but she is asgentle as a lamb. A lady friend of mine once threaded a needle as anexperiment while going sixty-five miles an hour."
"In this car?"
"In this car."
Looking back, I do not recall just how the thing started. I believe Tishexpressed a desire to see the car go, and Mr. Ellis said he couldn't lether out on the roads, but that the race-track at the fair-ground wasopen and if we cared to drive down there in Tish's car he would show usher paces, as he called it.
From that to going to the race-track, and from that to Tish's getting inbeside him on the mechanician's seat and going round once or twice, wasnatural. I refused; I didn't like the look of the thing.
Tish came back with a cinder in her eye and full of enthusiasm. "It wasmagnificent, Lizzie," she said. "The only word for it is sublime. Yousee nothing. There is just the rush of the wind and the roar of theengine and a wonderful feeling of flying. Here! See if you can find thiscinder."
"Won't you try it, Miss--er--Lizzie?"
"No, thanks," I replied. "I can get all the roar and rush of wind I wantin front of an electric fan, and no danger."
He stood by, looking out over the oval track while I took three cindersfrom Tish's eye.
"Great track!" he said. "It's a horse-track, of course, but it's inbully shape--the county fair is held there and these fellows make a bigfeature of their horse-races. I came up here to persuade them to hold anautomobile meet, but they've got cold feet an the proposition."
"What was the proposition?" asked Tish.
"Well," he said, "it was something like this. I've been turning thetrick all over the country and it works like a charm. The town's aheadin money and business, for an automobile race always brings a big crowd;the track owners make the gate money and the racing-cars get the prizes.Everybody's ahead. It's a clean sport too."
"I don't approve of racing for money," Tish said decidedly.
But Mr. Ellis shrugged his shoulders. "It's really hardly racing formoney," he explained. "The prizes cover the expenses of the racing-cars,which are heavy naturally. The cars alone cost a young fortune."
"I see," said Tish. "I hadn't thought of it in that light. Well, whydidn't Morris Valley jump at the chance?"
He hesitated a moment before he answered. "It was my fault really," hesaid. "They were willing enough to have the races, but it was a matterof money. I made them a proposition to duplicate whatever prize moneythey offered, and in return I was to have half the gate receipts and thebetting privileges."
Tish quite stiffened. "Clean sport!" she said sarcastically. "Withbetting privileges!"
"You don't quite understand, dear lady," he explained. "Even in thecleanest sport we cannot prevent a man's having an opinion and backingit with his own money. What I intended to do was to regulate it.Regulate it."
Tish was quite mollified. "Well, of course," she said, "I suppose sinceit must be, it is better--er,--regulated. But why haven't yousucceeded?"
"An unfortunate thing happened just as I had the deal about to close,"he replied, and drew a long breath. "The town had raised twenty-fivehundred. I was to duplicate the amount. But just at that time a--a youngbrother of mine in the West got into difficulties, and I--but why gointo family matters? It would have been easy enough for me to pay mypart of the purse out of my share of the gate money; but the committeedemands cash on the table. I haven't got it."
Tish stood up in her car and looked out over the track.
"Twenty-five hundred dollars is a lot of money, young man."
"Not so much when you realize that the gate money will probably amountto twelve thousand."
Tish turned and surveyed the grandstand.
"That thing doesn't seat twelve hundred."
"Two thousand people in the grandstand--that's four thousand dollars.Four thousand standing inside the ropes at a dollar each, four thousandmore. And say eight hundred machines parked in the oval there at fivedollars a car, four thousand more. That's twelve thousand for the gatemoney alone. Then there are the concessions to sell peanuts, toyballoons, lemonade and palm-leaf fans, the lunch-stands, merry-go-roundand moving-picture permits. It's a bonanza! Fourteen thousand anyhow."
"Half of fourteen thousand is seven," said Tish dreamily. "Seventhousand less twenty-five hundred is thirty-five hundred dollarsprofit."
"Forty-five hundred, dear lady," corrected Mr. Ellis, watching her."Forty-five hundred dollars profit to be made in two weeks, and nothingto do to get it but sit still and watch it coming!"
I can read Tish like a book and I saw what was in her mind. "LetitiaCarberry!" I said sternly. "You take my warning and keep clear
of thisfoolishness. If money comes as easy as that it ain't honest."
"Why not?" demanded Mr. Ellis. "We give them their money's worth,don't we? They'd pay two dollars for a theater seat without halfthe thrills--no chances of seeing a car turn turtle or break itssteering-knuckle and dash into the side-lines. Two dollars' worth?It's twenty!"
But Tish had had a moment to consider, and the turning-turtle businesssettled it. She shook her head. "I'm not interested, Mr. Ellis," shesaid coldly. "I couldn't sleep at night if I thought I'd been the causeof anything turning turtle or dashing into the side-lines."
"Dear lady!" he said, shocked; "I had no idea of asking you to helpme out of my difficulties. Anyhow, while matters are at a standstillprobably some shrewd money-maker here will come forward before long andmake a nice profit on a small investment."
As we drove away from the fair grounds Tish was very silent; but just aswe reached the Bailey place, with Bettina and young Jasper McCutcheonbatting a ball about on the tennis court, Tish turned to me.
"You needn't look like that, Lizzie," she said. "I'm not even thinkingof backing an automobile race--although I don't see why I shouldn't, sofar as that goes. But it's curious, isn't it, that I've got twenty-fivehundred dollars from Cousin Angeline's estate not even earning four percent?"
I got out grimly and jerked at my bonnet-strings.
"You put it in a mortgage, Tish," I advised her with severity in everytone. "It may not be so fast as an automobile race or so likely to turnturtle or break its steering-knuckle, but it's safe."
"Huh!" said Tish, reaching for the gear lever. "And about as exciting asa cold pork chop."
"And furthermore," I interjected, "if you go into this thing now thatyour eyes are open, I'll send for Charlie Sands!"
"You and Charlie Sands," said Tish viciously, jamming at her gears,"ought to go and live in an old ladies' home away from this cruelworld."
Aggie was sitting under a sunshade in the broiling sun at the tenniscourt. She said she had not left Bettina and Jasper for a moment, andthat they had evidently quarreled, although she did not know when,having listened to every word they said. For the last half-hour, shesaid, they had not spoken at all.
"Young people in love are very foolish," she said, rising stiffly. "Theyshould be happy in the present. Who knows what the future may hold?"
I knew she was thinking of Mr. Wiggins and the icy roof, so I patted hershoulder and sent her up to put cold cloths on her head for fear ofsunstroke. Then I sat down in the broiling sun and chaperoned Bettinauntil luncheon.