RU'S GOOD BARGAIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22195, 23 August 1935, Page 5

RU'S GOOD BARGAIN

TE MIHARO

Ru was eyeing his latest acquisition with both pride and joy. He did not think of it as perhaps the oldest car on wheels; rather as a good bargain. In dire straits, the last owner had asked £25. Ru, in what ho considered a most business-like manner, had beaten him down to £ls. In the pride of ownership he reckoned that o\en .it £SO it would still have boon a bargain. A shadow took shape besides him and Pat's bantering voice was heard. " Hallo, Ru. Whoso is the old rattletrap?" Ru's first glow of welcome cooled somewhat. " This here," ho reproved coldly, " is my noo car." Pat raised his brows, emulating Ru's habit of clucking loudly; which noise, strangely enough, Ru found distinctly annoying. " An' I paid tho fifty pound for her," ho lied strongly, feeling tho need of loyalty to his now possession. Pat's bantering , manner him, even his good-natured grin faded. " Not really, Ru?" ho asked in consternation " Well, w'y not?" Ru wanted to know aggressively. " Because this very contraption was offered in at Wallace's Garage as junk for tin quid spot cash!" " W'at?" Ru howled in dismay. " The ton quid?" Pat nodded. " I was an eye witness," ho said. Ru waved clenched fists. " An' tho knavo wan'od the twentyfive," he elucidated bittorly. " An' 1 paid him tho fifteen for her." Pat grew cold in his turn. "Fifteen?" he asked scathingly. " Soon 1 shall find it was a parting gift!" Ru squirmed a bit, but stood his ground. " I reckon fthe's worth tho fifty," he began. His face brightening, he continued: "I bet it was another car wa't you see at Wallace's, Pat. W'y, look at them wheels, I reckon they worth the twenty quid?" " Wouldn't give a fiver for them," Pat said cruelly. Ru was a little crestfallen. " Still, she a good bargain at the fifteen quid?" ho asked hopefully. Pat shrugged his shoulders. " Don't you believe it!" he said. " That chap wa't' sold it to me," Ru began threateningly. " If he done me in the eyes he better look out!" Pat grinned, to be eyed haughtily by Ru.

" By cripes, Pat," he said on sudden inspiration. " The insurance bloke he toi : me she worth the £65. He insure her for tho £45." " No! Honest, Ru?" Pat sounded incredulous, as well he might. " W'en 1 toll you lies," Ru began, but catching Pat's eye, hastily changed the subject. "I got her insured all right," he said, " an' hero's the bill. The bloke gave it me this morning." He flipped the envelope open extracting the bill. Immediately his benign look left him. " The thievin' shark," he howled bitterly. " Look' Vat he charge me." " Well, what did you expect him to charge you?" Pat wanted to know. " He insure the furniture for less than the quid; he means the eight bob?" he suggested hopefully. " Don't you believe it," Pat returned. "And are you aware that when you made your declaration you committed perjury?" • . "Oh, that!" said Ru loftily dismissing any such unpleasantness. " The car is worth the sixty-five pound. The chap w'at sold it wanted the money so he could get to Sydney, _ an' he gaye me the receipt for £SO, so I could score ofl that Hongi. lhen that insurance bloke, he came along ap offer the forty-five quid on her; but w'en I si gnu the papers, he don' tell me w'at the charge." Pat stared at him m admiration. " 1 alwavsi knew you were a rogue," he said. But it's the first time I've known an insurance agent to get done in the eye " Ru's expression was one ot sturiiea weariness. ... " It's my day off," he said, an I jus' going for a drive. Wan' to come along':"' . . Pat eved him suspiciously. " Who," he wanted to know, "taught you how to drive?" " jjtle, I don' need the teaching," Ru said. " The man that sold the car, he tell me w'at to do, an' I get in an' do it." " Not with me," Pat answered. Ru shrugged his shoulders, then laboriously cranked up and climbed in behind the steering wheel; with a lurch of the car and a careless wave of the hand he was off. Pat watched him steer an erratic course down the road, stood petrified as a pedestrian barely escaped with his life, then looked down at the insurance account, wondering how Rn had got away with it. "It should bo paid at that, he said to himself, " and Ru's neck should bo insured as well!" And because he found Ru, in spite of all his duplicity, a likeable fellow, and because he had more money than he knew what to do with, Pat went in search of the insurance agent. A week later, Ru, again stood by his car; but he was surveying the doctor's garden, which was fresh and green after the rains, and he was well pleased with his handiwork; for Ru was the doctor's gardener, and he never forgot that it was through the doctor's wife and her brother Pat, that he had obtained tho coveted position. He was so lost in silent admiration that when a soft, drawling voice spoke beside him, his diminutive brows shot up over his deep brown eyes. " Is this tho doctor's house?" Ru surveyed that lovely vision in some trepidation. Well ho remembered her, for in, those far-off days when Pat had had his own business in the city, he had once brought her homo to the bosom of his family. But lator, when it was rumoured Pat had lost his money she had changed her mind regarding him. "Why, you aren't Ru, are you?" she asked sweetly. " W'.v, yes,'' Ru answered, wondering what ill wind had blown her to Poverty Bay. Wondering too, what he could do to prevent any further interest on Pat's part. For Pat, heart free, was a good fellow. When his aunt had left him all that money hadn't ho started a banking account for young Rewi, and wasn't ho always buying Beatrice something ? Ru frowned heavily. Now, marriage might well change a fellow like Pat! The vision of loveliness was beginning to eye him doubtfully; hastily Ru pulled himself together. " The doctor an' his wife, they both away," lie explained; and although he considered himself no lady's man, he was pleased he had dressed himself behind Beatrice's back, because, from bitter experience he knew that when he was most pleased with himself, then would Beatrice most likely pull him to pieces. "Oh! When will they be back?"

A NEW ZEALAND STORY

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Ru wished ho could .say they weren t returning, but thought hotter of it and reluctantly spoke the truth. " The doctor, he down at the mill huts, and his wife, she with old Mrs. Martin w'at is dying." Miss Polling looked sympathetic. " The doctor is hard worked, isn t he!- 1 " she remarked. " W'y, yes," Ifu answered bitterly. "And al! the old ones and the poor dyin' oil like Hies, an' leaving no one to pav their bills! W y, here's me ami the doctor so busy as can he, and losin money!" "That is too bad!" said Miss Polling. Ru warmed a little to her, put out 0110 yellow-clad foot, hoping she would notice his bright, new boots. "1 really wanted to get to the farm, Miss Polling explained, and Ru withdrew his foot, heavily suspicious again, not considering her at all the suitable wife for Pat. He was about to tell her she could take a taxi out, but decided he had' better keep an eye to business, so gave up his half day in a good cause. "P'raps I could drive you out?" ho asked. Miss Polling lokcd doubtfully at his car, but accepted his offer. " That would bo good of you," she said. But as they clugged along, Ru was not so sure about his goodness; his one idea was to stop this woman from ensnaring Pat, and ho felt his task was a difficult one. " They got the very bad sickness 'long at." the mill huts." ho began conversationally. .Miss Polling considered a moment, looking distinctly disturbed. " What kind of sickness?" she asked. " Slowly Bii's eyes slid around to watch her. " Oh, they always go-t something," he explained arily. " W'en it isn't the scarlet fever, it's the —" He paused on measles, substituting " plague," for after all, he excused himself, the measles wore very severe and the doctor had had to send for nurses. " Plague?" Miss Polling took him up quickly. "Oh, well," Ru answered," the children are breaking out in red spots, and the doctor he send for the load of nurses." "The mill huts are quite close to tho farm, aren't they?" Miss Pelling asked presently. "Oli yes," Ru answered, trying not to sound too eager, "mostly, we get w'at they got at the mill huts, w'or. I work at the farm." Miss Pelling did not look as if she were enjoying herself. Doubtfully she opened up another lino of conversation. "1 expect Pat was very pleased when ho came into his aunt's fortune?" Again Ru's brows shot up, as in the stress of tho moment his car shot forward alarmingly and he missed tho turning into the private road to tho farm. "Still it don' matter," he thought. "If she don' turn back I'll dump her along with tho measles!" Miss Pelling was eyeing him inquiringly, and his usually musical laugh was a very hollow affair as he answered, lying in what he considered a good cause: "Oh no, he don' get the money. The old girl, she left tho money to another nephew." . The soft voice was noither soft nor sweet as Miss Polling demanded: "What? Didn't Pat get her money?" Again Ru laughed hollowly. They were ascending the long winding hill around the gorge, and far up on the summit he saw men with picks and shovels. They were men from the mill who had been hastily removing a slip caused by tho rains to enable the bus load of nurses to N get through with no delay. But Miss Pelling did not know this'and Ru was ever quick to action.

"W'y, Pat, he belong with that road gang, an' if he had any money he would have left, wouldn' he?" His passenger, wore a horrified expression. "Pat working on the roads?" she almost squeaked, all pretence of sweetness swept away. "W'y yes." Ru hadn't enjoyed himself so* much tor a long time. "That his gang all right. P'raps we see him w'en we reach the top." "You drive straight on," Miss Pelling hissed. "Do you hear me, you drive straight, on!" Ru was only too willing. There was a song in his heart because Pat was saved. Drunkenlv the rattle-trap swept along, with a final kick and chug it made the grade, and there to Ru's delirious joy, was Pat, dirty, tired, his shorts caked with clay; his amazed eyes on the vision beside the driver. Ru forgot the hissed instructions.. Ho pulled tip with a scream of brakes, the back wheels skidding perilously, to stop at right-angles on the very brink of the cliff.

Miss Pelling screamed; but Ru, who bore a charmed life, remained haughtily calm. "Wat did I tell you?" he exulted. "There is Pat." Miss Pelling was not interested. Hastily she left the car. shuddering when she saw how near she had been to destruction. Ru, who was in happy ignorance of this fact sat on in state; but he began to grow a little anxious as Pat come forward.

Good-natured Pat, of the hard fist and the straight eye, advanced with the still expression of a small boy coming to a spanking. ' M iss Pelling was coldly offhand; a little superior.

"Why, hello Pat," she drawled. "I am afraid I am a little out of my way." Turning she fixed Ru with a hostile eye. ''Could you possibly turn and get me back?" she asked. "W'y yes," Ru answered hastily, seeing danger if she wero allowed to talk for long with Fat. Hastily his foot sprang to the self-starter, which for tho first time in years worked; but Ru was in such a flurry, ho forgot to comment on it, for things wore happening. Tho back wheels slid in the slippery clay and even he was alarmed as he felt them balancing on the edge of tho road. "Pull 'er forward! Pull 'er forward !" he shouted, waving his arms frantically. The men were too fascinated to move; but Pat gave him some sound advice. "She is safe for the moment," ho said. "Hop out." Ru did not wait to argue, he hopped out, loudly lamenting as ho saw tho worst. "Help me pull her up, Pat!" ho pleaded. Pat looked at him in surprise. "Push the old rattle-trap over," ho advised; but Ru howled in dismay at tho sacrilege. "By eripes Pat, you help me?" he said, and valiantly tried to pull the car to safety; only to howl loudly and hide his eyes, rushing hack and forth, as it rocked precariously. When he calmed down to find it still intact, ho made a Inst desperate appeal. "Come an' help me—•" but Pat had moved off with Miss Pelling and was helping her into n passing car. Like a drowning man Ru dashed forward. "By eripes, pull my car out of this," lie begged. "Sorry, no time." the driver replied cruelly, moving off. "Don' you bump her," Ru yelled, seeing the little room available, and unable to stand still cantered around wildly. "Keep still you crazy loon," Pat reproved. "You would be better off if the old rattle-trap did go over I"

The car passed successfully, and Ru, spying Hongi, grasped him as a last hope. , "By cripcs, Hongi, you goot. fellow. You help me now. Wo got to get her up!" Hongi advanced eagerly, but in time Ru remembered all past misdeeds; foi beneath wary exteriors, these two were bitter enemies! 4< Bv oripes, Hongi, no. 1 don t think you better," he began;-but Hongi had already laid rude hands on it and the rocking and groaning commenced again. Ru tore his hair and went with clenched fists for Hongi, who hastilj retreated "Look out," one of the men shouted warninglv. "Here comes the bus with the nurses." "Oil eripes," Ku cried in anguish, seeing the ruin of his good bargain. "Yon help me, Pat." , "What's the good?" Pat asked, puzzled, as well he might be, at Ru's attitude. "I should think £45 would be more to the point." Ru squirmed, remembering the unpaid bill and did not have the heart to tell about it. Instead ho clutched a red Hag. nearby, and started to trot forward, waving it high in the air. Hongi guffawed. "Tliev mos' likely think you the mad dog an! shoot you!' he said. Pat caught him firml.v as he passed. "Let me go," Ru roared. "That bus, she knock mine over." "The driver will most likely go over if he sees you like this," Pat reproved, "or else he will think tho measles are really hydrophobia, and turn tail with the nurses." Tho service car swept on nearer. No one moved, the only danger was to Ru's car and, as tho nurses flashed by, the worst happened, and Ru hid his face on nn indignant Pat, groaning loudly, as his car slid to destruction. When the din died down ho walked dejectedly to the edge and looked over. He was both crestfallen and snd. Flo could never a'fford another car, and down there lay his good bargain, a shattered mass of glass and iron. "My firs' car," he said to Pat, who joined him as the men from tho mill moved away. "Well, you can buy a better one now," Pat replied, but Ru shrugged unhappily. j "You don' understand," he said. "That car, she grown the good friend to me. I didn't know, Pat, you woulda' let me down like that." "Cheer up," Pat said. "I don't mind adding a few quid to the insurance so you can buy a decent one. Hang it all, Ru, you couldn't have grown attached to tlio old junk, and after all you did me a good turn to-day; but you didn't know it." Ru propped his chin with hishand; even too disheartened to look virtuous as the occasion demanded. "1 don' wan' the noo car," he said sadly. "That one down there she were the good frien' to me." Pat shrugged his shoulders tolerantly. "Get her mended then," he said. "You may be able to do it for £45." "P'raps you are mistaken, Pat," Ru said hopefully. "P'raps I get her done for the few quid." "Then tho insurance company will get it done if that's the case. Save them paying out." Ru shifted his feet. "That's all I'd ask for," ho said miserably. "Jus 1 to have the old bus mended." There was silence for awhile till, miserably, he confessed. "Matter of fact, Pat, that ! I don' pay her." ! Long and hard Pat looked at him, I then gave way to wild, and to Ru'b ' way of thinking, misplaced laughter. "I don' call it tho joke," he said bitterly. "Look at my car down there w'at I've grown attached to, an' nothin' to be done for her." Pat searched in his coat pockets and | produced a slip of paper which he i handed across. .Ru eyed it suspiciously; then pounced I upon it. "W'y, w'at's this?" he demanded, his spirits once more soaring, his hands trembling in his excitement. "By cripcs, Pat, you pay that insurance, hey? By eripes, you the good fellow alf right. You drive me to that bloke's house, w'ilc I collect." "Not so fast," Pat objected. "You will have to wait till the office opens in tho morning." Ru clutched his head in frantic calculation. He gave up. "How many hours is that, Pat?" he inquired hopefully. "The 45 quid! By eripes, w'y didn'.you tell me before. All this time 1 wasted. 1 could havn been looking over them noo cars at Wallace's " "What about your attachment for the old rattle-trap?" Pat demanded coldly. "Oh, that!" Ru said, airily waving all sentiment aside, his vivid imagination picturing his new car. A nice. ! bright, yellow one, that's what he would i get! Then a bad thought struck him. i"Supposing this insurance bloke,' he J get her mended?" Pat grinned. "I understood that was | the idea,' he said as ho turned on his heel for home. a But Ru remartied, his mind full of I dark thoughts. Then slowly ho smiled ,as he remembered the doctor's new ■ rock garden. "By eripes," he exulted I inwardly, as he set off for home. "I | still have the two sticks of dynamite in them working pants of mine"!"