Part 45 (1/2)
sameness. I remember pa.s.sin' a blurred life-savin' station, with three--or maybe thirty--blurred men jumpin' and laughin' and hollerin'.
I found out afterwards that they'd been on the lookout for the bombsh.e.l.l for half an hour. Billings had told around town what he was goin' to do to me, and some kind friend had telephoned it to the station. So the life-savers was full of antic.i.p.ations. I hope they were satisfied. I hadn't rehea.r.s.ed my part of the show none, but I feel what the parson calls a consciousness of havin' done my best.
”'Whoa, gal!' says Billings, calm and easy, puttin' the helm hard down.
The auto was standin' still at last. Part of me was hangin' over the lee rail. I could see out of the part, so I knew 'twas my head. And there alongside was my fish shanty at the P'int, goin' round and round in circles.
”I undid the hatch of the c.o.c.kpit and fell out on the sand. Then I scrambled up and caught hold of the shanty as it went past me. That fool shover watched me, seemin'ly interested.
”'Why, pard,' says he, 'what's the matter? Do you feel pale? Are you nervous? It ain't possible that you're scared? Honest, now, pard, if it weren't that I knew you were a genuine gold-mounted hero I'd sure think you was a scared man.'
”I never said nothin'. The scenery and me was just turnin' the mark buoy on our fourth lap.
”'Dear me, pard!' continues Billings. 'I sure hope I ain't scared you none. We come down a little slow this evenin', but to-morrow night, when I take you back home, I'll let the old girl out a little.'
”I sensed some of that. And as the shanty had about come to anchor, I answered and spoke my mind.
”'When you take me back home!' I says. 'When you do! Why, you crack-brained, murderin' lunatic, I wouldn't cruise in that h.e.l.l wagon of yours again for the skipper's wages on a Cunarder. No, nor the mate's hove in!'
”And that shover he put his head back and laughed and laughed and laughed.”
CHAPTER XVI
THE CRUISE OF THE RED CAR
”I don't wonder he laughed,” observed Wingate, who seemed to enjoy irritating his friend. ”You must have been good as a circus.”
”Humph!” grunted the depot master. ”If I remember right you said YOU wa'n't any ten-cent side show under similar circ.u.mstances, Barzilla.
Heave ahead, Bailey!”
Captain St.i.tt, unruffled, resumed:
”I tell you, I had to take it that evenin',” he said. ”All the time I was cookin' and while he was eatin' supper, Billings was rubbin' it into me about my bein' scared. Called me all the salt.w.a.ter-hero names he could think of--'Hobson' and 'Dewey' and the like of that, usin' em sarcastic, of course. Finally, he said he remembered readin' in school, when he was little, about a girl hero, name of Grace Darlin'. Said he cal'lated, if I didn't mind, he'd call me Grace, 'cause it was heroic and yet kind of fitted in with my partic'lar brand of bravery. I didn't answer much; he had me down, and I knew it. Likewise I judged he was more or less out of his head; no sane man would yell the way he done aboard that automobile.
”Then he commenced to spin yarns about himself and his doin's, and pretty soon it come out that he'd been a cowboy afore young Stumpton give up ranchin' and took to automobilin'. That cleared the sky line some, of course; I'd read consider'ble about cowboys in the ten-cent books my nephew fetched home when he was away to school. I see right off that Billings was the livin' image of Deadwood d.i.c.k and Wild Bill and the rest in them books; they yelled and howled and hadn't no regard for life and property any more'n he had. No, sir! He wa'n't no crazier'n they was; it was in the breed, I judged.
”'I sure wish I had you on the ranch, Grace,' says he. 'Why don't you come West some day? That's where a hero like you would show up strong.'
”'G.o.dfrey mighty!' I sings out. 'I wouldn't come nigh such a nest of crazy murderers as that fur no money! I'd sooner ride in that automobile of yours, and St. Peter himself couldn't coax me into THAT again, not if 'twas fur a cruise plumb up the middle of the golden street!'
”I meant it, too, and the next afternoon when it come time to start for home he found out that I meant it. We'd shot a lot of ducks, and Billings was havin' such a good time that I had to coax and tease him as if he was a young one afore he'd think of quittin'. It was quarter of six when he backed the gas cart out of the shed. I was uneasy, 'cause 'twas past low-water time, and there was fog comin' on.
”'Brace up, Dewey!' says he. 'Get in.'
”'No, Mr. Billings,' says I. 'I ain't goin' to get in. You take that craft of yourn home, and I'll sail up alongside in my dory.'
”'In your which?' says he.
”'In my dory,' I says. 'That's her hauled up on the beach abreast the shanty.'
”He looked at the dory and then at me.