Part 3 (1/2)
A lone figure remained standing in front of Anderson Crow's gate--a tall, lank figure without coat or hat, one suspender supporting a pair of blue trousers, the other hanging limp and useless. He wore a red unders.h.i.+rt and carried in his left hand the trumpet of a fire-fighting chieftain.
”Well, I'll be dog-goned!” issued from his lips as the last of the cars rattled away. Then he started off bravely on foot in the wake of the noisy cavalcade. ”Now, all of 'em are breakin' the speed laws; an' it's goin' to cost 'em somethin', consarn 'em, when I yank 'em up 'fore Justice Robb tomorrow, sure as my name's Anderson Crow.”
Presently he heard a car approaching from behind. It was very dark in the outskirts of the town, and the lonely highway that reached down into the valley was a thing of the imagination rather than of the vision.
Profiting by the catastrophes that attended the pa.s.sing of the big touring-car Anderson hastily leaped to the side of the road. A couple of small headlights veered around a curve in the road and came down the slight grade, followed naturally and somewhat haltingly by an automobile whose timorous brakes were half set. There was a single occupant.
Anderson levelled his trumpet at the driver and shouted:
”Halt!”
”Oh-h!” came in a shrill, agitated voice from the car, but the machine gave no sign of halting.
”Hey! Halt, I say!”
”I--I don't know how!” moaned the voice. ”How do you stop it?”
”Good gracious sakes alive! Is--is it _you_, Eva?”
”Oh, Anderson! Thank goodness! I thought you was a highwayman. Oh, dear--oh, dear! Ain't there any way to stop this thing?”
”Shut off the power, an' it'll stop when you start up the grade.”
Anderson was trotting along behind, tugging at one of the mud-guards.
”How do you shut it off?”
”The same way you turned it on.”
”Goodness, what a fool way to do things!”
The little car came to a stop on the rise of the grade, and Anderson side-stepped just in time to avoid being b.u.mped into as it started back again, released.
”It's Deacon Rank's car,” explained Mrs. Crow in response to a series of bewildered, rapid-fire questions from her husband. ”He offered to sell it to me for fifty dollars, and I've been learnin' how to run it for two whole days--out in Peters' Mill lane.”
”How does it happen I never knowed anything about this, Eva?” demanded he, regaining in some measure his tone of authority.
”I wanted to surprise you.”
”Well, by gosh, you have!”
”Deacon Rank's been giving me lessons every afternoon. I know how to start it and steer it, goin' slow-like--but of course I've got a lot to learn.”
”Well, you just turn that car around an' skedaddle for home, Eva Crow,”
was his command. ”What business have you got runnin' around the country like this in the dead o' night, all alone--”
”Ain't I the Marshal of Tinkletown?” she broke in crossly. ”What right have all you men to be going off without me in this--”
”The only official thing you've done, madam, since you got to be marshal, was to resign while you was in bed not more'n an hour ago. I accepted your resignation, so now you go home as quick as that blamed old rattletrap will take you.”
”Besides, I saw the ornery fools go off an' leave you behind, Anderson, and that made me mad. I run over to Deacon Rank's and got the car. Now, you hop right in, and I'll take you wherever you want to go. Get in, I say. I hereby officially withdraw my resignation. I'm still marshal of this town, and if you don't do as I tell you, I'll discharge you as deputy.”