Architects -- Fiction; City and town life -- Fiction; Fathers and sons -- Fiction; Love stories; Middle West -- Fiction
Shep and Whitford won the foursome against Bruce and Carroll, a result
due to Whitford’s superior drives and Carroll’s bad putting. They were
all in high humor when they returned to the clubhouse, chaffing one
another about their skill as they dressed. Shep made a tour of the
verandas, greeting his friends, answering questions as to Connie’s
health. The four men were going in at once and Shep, who had driven
Carroll out, suggested that he and Bruce change partners for the drive
home.
“There are a few little points about the game I want to discuss with
George,” he explained as they walked toward the parking sheds.
“All right,” Bruce assented cheerfully. “You birds needn’t be so set
up; next week Carroll and I will give you the trimming of your young
lives!”
“Ah, the next time!” Shep replied ironically, and drove away with
Whitford beside him....
“Shep’s coming on; he’s matured a lot since he went into the trust
company,” remarked Carroll, as he and Bruce followed Shep’s car.
“Good stuff in him,” said Bruce. “One of those natures that develops
slowly. I never saw him quite as gay as he was this afternoon.”
“He was always a shy boy, but he’s coming out of that. I think his
father was wise in taking him out of the battery plant.”
“No doubt,” Bruce agreed, his attention fixed on Shep’s car.
Shep had set a pace that Bruce was finding it difficult to maintain.
Carroll presently commented upon the wild flight of the car ahead,
which was cutting the turns in the road with reckless abandon, leaving
a gray cloud behind.
“The honor of my car is at stake!” said Bruce grimly, closing his
windshield against the dust.
“By George! If Shep wasn’t so abstemious you’d think he’d mixed alcohol
with his gas,” Carroll replied. “What the devil’s got into him!”
“Maybe he wants a race,” Bruce answered uneasily, remembering Shep’s
wild drive the night of their talk on the river. “There’s a bad turn at
the creek just ahead--he can’t make it at that speed!”
Bruce stopped, thinking Shep might check his flight if he found he
wasn’t pursued; but the car sped steadily on.
“Shep’s gone nutty or he’s trying to scare George,” said Carroll. “Go
ahead!”
Bruce started his car at full speed, expecting that at any minute Shep
would stop and explain that it was all a joke of some kind. The flying
car was again in sight, careening crazily as it struck depressions in
the roadbed.
“Oh, God!” cried Carroll, half-rising in his seat. Shep had passed
a lumbering truck by a hair’s breadth, and still no abatement in
his speed. Bruce heard a howl of rage as he swung his own car past
the truck. A danger sign at the roadside gave warning of the short
curve that led upward to the bridge, and Bruce clapped on his brakes.
Carroll, on the running board, peering ahead through the dust, yelled,
and as Bruce leaped out a crash ahead announced disaster. A second
sound, the sound of a heavy body falling, greeted the two men as they
ran toward the scene....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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