TWO IN AN AUTO

Dunstan Times, Issue 2336, 18 June 1906, Page 2

TWO IN AN AUTO

By William Parry Brown.

(Ooprrtsbt isos, hr abUiom tmOmtt.) VOLTAIRE having gone lame at the hurdles the day before, his mas* ter was taking a morning walk instead of a ride, when he met Miss Hearst in an auto. He raised his hat and evinced a disposition to stop, whereupon the lad3 r gave the steering gear suoh a vigorous twist that the machine seemed determined to chase Eskridga off the sidewalk and over the fence. "Stop me I” she called, but before he could move she had accomplished the feat herself with a suddenness that nearly sent her over the dashboard and into his ready arms. “The thing seems tender mouthed,” said he. "you’re too hard on tha bit." “It’s my first trip alone,” she «■ turning the auto in a jerky, 4 way, aa the power was • nei vu.iajy applied or shut off, until a iuon. "Great fun, though, this "Motoring," (suggested Eskridge, tentatively. “Motoring!” Helen’s glance was j pitying, though her accent hinted at j scorn. “Does it look like a street car? To mobe is now the correct form, so j Mr. Crandall says.” i “I suppose he has put you on to this new electric fad,” said Eskridge, eye* Ing the spick and spaa automobile as if it were a personal enemy. “Put me on!" Helen’s glance as well as tone were harmoniously contemptuous now. “How slangy you grow." Then in assumed surprise: “You seem to be walking. Where is Voltaire 7“ “Where I suppose Rosamond Is, In the paddock.” Rosamond was Miss Hearst’s favorite riding pony. “While you and Crandall ’mobe’ in your horseless, 1 suppose 1 may be allowed to mope on foot.” Helen looked up and down the avenue, at the vacant seat by her, then at the gloomy young man on the sidewalk. “Mr. Crandall Is la the eMy," she responded, demurely enough, “He may be ’motoring’ there for what X know —George I” Eskridge, interpreting Helen’s manner rather than her words, had seated himself beside her with a celerity that nearly took her breath away. “Hang Crandall.” he exclaimed, briskly. "You aro not to be trusted in one of these things alone. Start up, Nelly.” But Helen had recovered her dignity as well as composure, and her tone became correspondingly ohilly. “Don’t crowd, Mr. Eskridge. One needs room to work these levers satisfactorily, as you ought to know.” “I don’t know that 1 ought to know anything—” "Yet you presume to advise me, who have been taking lessons two week*.” “Under Crandall,” George could set help interpolating. “Under Mr. Crandall, whom you seem to wish to sea hung." “I don’t want to me him, hung ar unhung; or hear of him, either,” and George was about to add, “unless he is hung,” but he nipped his undsrHp just in time. By this they were spinning down the avenue and into a road leading to the wide stretsh of ocean beach that ribbed the seaward side of Loon Isi land, not unlike a section of some Brobdingnagian race course, with a chorus of summer surges instead of shouting crowds as the asturai environment. Helen, reading jealousy under all this anti-Crandall surliness, grew tenderly self-complacent as she endeavored to slow down to a more conversational gait. Then a perturbed look came into her ayes as she fumbled at toe levers. “What can be the mattes na«f ” toe began. “What shapely hands you have, Nelly!” interrupted Eskridge, rather irrelevantly, and seemingly oblivious of the fact that they were tearing along towards the ocean at a runaway pace. “Oh, dear!” she complained. “Why won’t the odious thing turn?” They were leaving lbs road and ploughing right on over the low sand dunes that lined the beaoh. "Suoh a foot!” continued George, diverting a dreamy eye to where one of Helen’s small strapped driving slippers was vainly pressing at something which she supposed would contowl toe applies tin* si to* assim ,

power to the wheel*. ”K«uyhe *ualenly exclaimed, ”1 low you!” fie leized one of her hands and pressed it rapturously. “I can no longer— *” “Mr. Eskridge!” she cried. “Don't you see where we are going?" "II Crandall wins, I don’t core whore we go. Ah, Nolly, Nelly.Well—“ “Let me go! Are you going stark, (taring mad?" “Then It is Crandall,” groaned George, dropping hand and hope apparently together. “Crandall and this infernal auto. I with he was in it and we were out of it and it was taking him where we seem to be going.” Be gazed apathetically at the sen while Mis* Bearet, seriously alarmed, watched their progress toward* tha hissing wavelets crawling up the tends. Bight and left the broad beach opened grandly out, with; here ' and there a cottage along the dunes and a distant hotel fronting a long iron pier outlined against the hoiiaon. There were sundry satis far out at sea; a few bathers and an occasional prom* enader dotted the sands here and there.

“Why OonH you Mp M*f* wged Helen, imploringly. “What’e tbt we* Cflti M CMo* «*U”

“If be were ber» be would help. Something must be wrong.” “Everything ie wrong.” Thid fIOCTR* ily. “If Crandall really way* baraßtilH —■would you—mt—“

“No, I wouldn't. £MpD«tOKSp(f»

pl-s-ft~«-e aol" The last low sand ridge had tan passed and they were gliding ovsr the smooth, hard, wet beaah toward ttC water. Eskridge furtively did tome* thing with his foot, unseen by Kaltßfe and the auto stopped.

“Hare I really no hopat” R» lugubriously, as she sighed la relief, “After all my months of devotion—** “Monthsl” Her rosy lips curled IB* credulously, “Six weeks age 1 hardly knew you—oh, George I—why don't If turn ae well ae atop ?” “Perhaps it needs Crandall, Crandall maehins.”

“You’re just dreadful to-flayl” BtK «n, indignant, was about to leap OUt when Eskridge again mads a furtive move and the auto again started (OK* ward like a thing of life. She was thrown book Into his awns and her ayes sparkled angrily; but fear once mors beoams dominant* for the machine sped toward the sea as If determined to drown them both.

“I—l’m going to jump," aha nriill nervously.

“And break your pretty seek I fljg| let’s drown. It’s easier," Eskridge folded his arms as If fd await the inevitable. “CrendaK Still hypnotize another girl, and—" “I wish he was hers to msnsgß |hli auto.’*

“I don’t. If you won’* have me* fOO shall not have him.” The hiss of tbfl Incoming tide mingled with his tone*. “We will die together.” Miss Hearst shuddered; yet, bad She been afoot, elad in her latest low of a bathing gown, she might have enjoyed toe liquid swirl that now liokfed the pneumatic tires. Why she did not boldly leap out she hardly knew. Did fear restrain her—or George T As toe water deepened the mobile moved more slowly, yet it neitoti i stopped nor turned. An Incoming wave, curling upward In a greenish, graceful, menacing way, made her breathe quickly and aha looked at Eskridge. Ye gods! Be woe. Or seemed to be, preparing to light a cigarette. Was this dsspair, idiocy or shaer bravado t Handsome he totainly was, though she had hardly considered him so before. Perhaps his indomitable composure at sueh a crisis forced a sudden admiration > upon her and banished toe image of Crandall forever.

At any rate, ae the whitening roarer' In front poised Itself over the dashboard, Helen uttered a faint shriek and threw her arms around Ouorge, scattering his cigarettes. “Save met" she implored. “Then you do love me, aria Ufoqgh I don’t nc an auto?" "Y-ye-si" Tha shower bath was da* mcendtng and too closed her eyes. “Ugh—owl” "And you deal ears for CWnttalir pursued floor** Inexorably. » “No-oh! Isn’t this horrible?*

"H’a bMsifol, ecstatic. One kl|| flair. Bow open yanr eyes.” ■fee auto waa turning, tha wava WM raoadlng, and Bekridge, with hand and float daftly employed, waa guiding hai back to dry land and safety. “Why—you do knew how?* too earasmed, whereat the impudent deg actually grinned; yet aha aouid not again grow angry, try aa aha might.

George- somehow, teemed better in spite of It all, though they were halfdrenched and had doubtless shocked more than one distant onlooker by these proceeding*. Ae they scorched bach up too avenue, whom should they ■ea but Orandal himself on his way from tha railroad depot, George looked at her Inquiringly. "Don’t atop,” aba whispered. *t know Fm a sight to behold." "I baMeva you ware expaating him," said Bekridge, aa Grandali looked after them dubiously. rnm ptoahafl hid M Ml B*f Mb toUdrw teflflh

r MM HW PW> OomK—Mi - CIM «i Mm young wonta connect* M Hull House troi recently Showing fl> eollection of photographs of olas steal pictures to a street urebio, pod when she came to a copy of Mia "fiisttoa Madonna" she asked * BpO yatt know what that repreflfttar* "Tea,” said the boy, “that is Jttm and His mother.” “Did you notice," continued the teacher, “how beautiful their faces are? You canset find such beauty of expression in •sy otbev picture." “But it is the fine around their heads, ma’am, that fleet ths» sway,” interrupted Sags a^uhtnm