The Argosy, April 1916 — page 107: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A LADY IN Barry and his car. Even if she had not wished to do so, Bernice had to stop the machine to keep from running over the tall blond, who had stepped far enough out into the middle of the road to block it. “Excuse me.” She spoke in a voice which went nicely with the dress, being high-pitched and a trifle too loud. “But I’m in a really terrible fix. My husband and I spent last night at a friend’s house in Yonkers. And now he’s got suddenly ill and can’t drive the,car. He has these spells, but not very often. I—”’ Bernice was eying the woman eritically. It was natural for Barry to observe this be- fore doing any thinking of his own. Ber- nice was ready for the situation before it was even all there. “You want us to telephone for a doctor or someone at the next pay station?’ she suggested, interrupting the other woman. “Oh, no.” The blond lady seemed almost startled at the offer. ‘“‘No,” she added in a tone of near-anguish, “‘I must get him home —immediately. Our own doctor knows ex- actly what to do in these cases. Oh, I must get him home.”’ Her way of saying it was tragic. “T must get someone to drive the car back.” She eyed Barry too earnestly for any possible escape from the hint. But again Bernice spoke first: ‘‘We'll send a man from the next garage,” she said. The woman looked grieved. “Those garage fellows are so slow,” she objected. ‘‘Couldn’t you run us down?” she now asked, with a certain desperate di- rectness, of Barry. Barry squirmed uncomfortably. Bernice had made him about as useless in his own car as a fifth wheel on the ground. Also, it seemed to him, she was allowing her distaste for overdressed people to carry her into the limits of real hardness in refusing a request so obviously dictated by genuine distress. z “I’m afraid—” Bernice began again. For once Barry determined to assert him- self. Incidentally he would show his fiancée whether he could drive a car or not; though, on this point the powerful runabout caused him some tremors. “Of course I could,” he broke in. ‘“‘Ber- nice, you can drive the car on down to the Settlement. J’ll get down there and bring you home in it.” 7 DISTRESS. 97 He stepped out as he spoke. “Can you drive that car?” Bernice asked him a bit stiffly. ‘“T can try. Good heavens! the lady’s in distress. I can’t do any less than the best I can.” His tone showed her how little he approved her, attitude. ‘Very well.” Bernice’s tone showed what she thought of his attitude. Somehow it and the look with which she swept the big runabout, the big blond lady, and her own husband-to-be indicated a low estimate of the whole outfit. Barry clamped his jaw because he felt too angry to risk leaving it open. Only the fact that Bernice stayed to see him start gave him nerve to face the outfit of controls on the big runabout’s dashboard and at his hand. So weighty a matter was the undertaking that he noticed no more of the sick husband than that the man seemed to be breathing heavily in a very sound sleep. “You turn that switch over and press that pedal to get the starter going,” the blond lady explained hurriedly, as she squeezed herself between Barry and the man in a stupor. The foot with which he pedaled grew cold as he saw the other pedals, the two levers, the huge steering-wheel, and grasped the difference between sliding and planetary transmissions as a running proposition. Still, being of a reading turn, he knew the difference in theory. He managed to recall something about shifting the gears without putting in the clutch first, which saved the gears, no doubt. Anyhow, he found the combination that started the heavy machine. Having done this, he discovered another combination that could be worked and sent the car on faster. Thereupon Bernice shot the little old Ford ahead. ‘There is another speed or two,” the blond lady mentioned, when he seemed in- clined to stay with the results of his second experiment. And Barry tried a third. It frightened him so that-he instantly pulled back the throttle and spark. The blond lady watched him until he showed a little better form, having recovered slightly from the inward feeling that he had forgot- ten to eat his breakfast. “Your lady-friend didn’t seem to fall for me much,” the blond lady suddenly inti- mated in a tone entirely different from that which she had used before. comiclboook< C@