"I'm going to Hunter's Island Inn," called the young man, "and I've
lost my way. You get in here and guide me. That'll be doing me a good
turn."
On either side of the road, blotting out the landscape, giant hands
picked out in electric-light bulbs pointed the way to Hunter's Island
Inn. Jimmie grinned and nodded toward them.
"Much obliged," he called. "I got ter walk." Turning his back upon
temptation, he waddled forward into the flickering heat waves.
The young man did not attempt to pursue. At the side of the road,
under the shade of a giant elm, he had brought the car to a halt and
with his arms crossed upon the wheel sat motionless, following with
frowning eyes the retreating figure of Jimmie. But the narrow-chested
and knock-kneed boy staggering over the sun-baked asphalt no longer
concerned him. It was not Jimmie, but the code preached by Jimmie, and
not only preached but before his eyes put into practice, that
interested him. The young man with white hair had been running away
from temptation. At forty miles an hour he had been running away from
the temptation to do a fellow mortal "a good turn." That morning, to
the appeal of a drowning Caesar to "Help me, Cassius, or I sink," he
had answered: "Sink!" That answer he had no wish to reconsider. That
he might not reconsider he had sought to escape. It was his experience
that a sixty-horse-power racing-machine is a jealous mistress. For
retrospective, sentimental, or philanthropic thoughts she grants no
leave of absence. But he had not escaped. Jimmie had halted him,
tripped him by the heels, and set him again to thinking. Within the
half-hour that followed those who rolled past saw at the side of the
road a car with her engine running, and leaning upon the wheel, as
unconscious of his surroundings as though he sat at his own fireplace,
a young man who frowned and stared at nothing. The half-hour passed
and the young man swung his car back toward the city. But at the first
road-house that showed a blue-and-white telephone sign he left it, and
into the iron box at the end of the bar dropped a nickel. He wished to
communicate with Mr. Carroll, of Carroll and Hastings; and when he
learned Mr. Carroll had just issued orders that he must not be
disturbed, the young man gave his name.
The effect upon the barkeeper was instantaneous. With the aggrieved
air of one who feels he is the victim of a jest he laughed scornfully.
"What are you putting over?" he demanded.
The young man smiled reassuringly. He had begun to speak and, though
apparently engaged with the beer-glass he was polishing, the barkeeper
listened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account