So Angelo resigned himself to the inevitable, and fell to work, not with
good will, but with efficiency. And when the room was ready, while the
man and boy were carrying the extra furniture out to the garage for
storage, Eveley hastily prepared a light supper for the three of them. It
was eaten in utter silence. Eveley was excited almost to the point of
suffocation, and the others were immersed in their own thoughts. She
hastily cleared the dishes from the table, and put on her heavy coat and
a small hat.
"Where do you go to get your Spanish queen?" demanded Angelo.
"Oh, a long way out in the country," said Eveley nervously. "We must
hurry, Angelo. It is getting late."
"Are you going in your car?" he persisted.
"Yes. Now, please, Angelo, I hate to rush you off, but we must go."
"Take me along, Miss Eveley. Please--you've got plenty of room. Won't you
take me?"
"Nothing doing," cut in Amos Hiltze shortly. "We've got to keep the girl
quiet, and you would let out some rudeness that would spoil everything."
"Honest I won't, Miss Eveley. G'wan, be a sport. You promised to take me
for a night ride, and you never have. I won't say a word to the
Grea--lady, honest I won't. Be a sport, Miss Eveley, sure I can go
along."
"Let's take him," said Eveley. "He can sit in front with me coming back,
and you can ride with Marie. He won't say a word, will you, Angelo?"
Mr. Hiltze seemed not altogether satisfied, but Angelo was already
half-way down the rustic stairs and headed for the garage, so he
contented himself with one final word of warning.
"Just keep quiet," he said to Angelo. "Do not even look at her. There
must be no fuss or confusion, or she will be afraid to come."
There was a heavy fog rolling up through the canyons, and Eveley, in her
state of excitement, found the car prone to leap wildly through the misty
white darkness. There was a great ringing in her ears, and her pulses
were pounding. Hiltze at her side was silent and preoccupied, and Angelo
in the rear sat huddled in a corner, in the rug which Eveley had tucked
about him.
"We do not want any frozen passengers to bring home," she had said, with
a smile.
They spun swiftly along University, slowing for East San Diego where
there were officers with bad reputations among speeders, through La Mesa,
the cross on Mt. Helix showing faintly in the pale moonlight, through El
Capon, out beyond Flynn Springs where the pavement left off.
"Are you tired?" asked the man, stirring closer to Eveley's side.
"No," she said, with a laugh that was really a sob. "But I am so out of
breath, and thrilled, and--all stirred up, like a silly little
schoolgirl. I believe I am frightened."
"Do not be frightened, Miss Eveley," said Angelo suddenly, reassuringly.
"I'll look after you. If we do not like the little Greaser, we'll just
ditch her."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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