Kitabı oku: «Patty's Motor Car», sayfa 10
CHAPTER XIX
PHILIP’S PICNIC
On Patty’s return she found the veranda almost deserted. Christine and Mr. Hepworth, Elise and Mr. Van Reypen had gone down to the beach. Mr. Fairfield had gone to the city, and Nan was chatting with Kenneth.
“Ducky stepmother of mine,” said Patty, as she wound her arm around Nan’s neck, “if you don’t want to monopolise this young man, I’d like to borrow him for a short time.”
“You may take him, Patty,” said Nan, with a resigned sigh. “But I suppose you know you will leave me alone in a cold world! Your father has gone to New York.”
“But, Nan, you ought to have some time to yourself. Solitude is an awfully good thing once in a while. Don’t you sort of feel the need of it now?”
“Yes, I think I do,” said Nan, laughing; “so you may have Kenneth for a while. What are you going to do with him?”
“Take him for a spin,” said Patty, “Come on, Ken.”
Kenneth hesitated for a moment. “Don’t you want to go spinning with Patty, Mrs. Fairfield?” he said.
“No, thank you; I have some household matters to attend to. One can’t have a house party without occasionally having an eye on domestic affairs. So, good-bye. Be home in time for luncheon.”
Soon Patty and Kenneth were flying along the beach road, and the Swift Camilla was living up to her highest reputation. Patty was driving, and Kenneth was polite and amiable, but not merry.
After a time, Patty slowed down speed a little.
“Kenneth,” she said, abruptly, “I’ve something to say to you, and I’m going to say it right straight out. You know what Elise told you that I said about you, or rather about the locket you gave me?”
“Yes, I know; and, by the way, it seems that just about everybody else knows, too.”
“Never mind that,” said Patty, knowing that the boy was annoyed because Mona had interfered in the matter. “The point is, Ken, that what Elise told you I said wasn’t entirely true.”
“Not entirely true? How much of it was true? Since you seem to know all about her conversation with me, I suppose she told you.”
“No, she didn’t. Now listen, Ken; I hate, awfully, to talk against Elise, but I’ve simply got to stand up for my own rights in this thing. I did tell her that I only wore that locket once or twice, but I didn’t tell her that I didn’t care anything about it. For I do. I care a great deal about it.”
“Then, why don’t you wear it oftener?”
“I’ll be perfectly frank with you, Ken. It’s just because that locket with your picture in it was too, – well, too personal a sort of present for you to give me, or for me to wear.”
“You took it!”
“Yes; after I’d asked father, and he told me I might, but you know I went away with Elise then, to Paris, and every time she saw it she pretended that it meant a great deal more than it did. Of course, it was only a token of our boy and girl friendship, but she chose to pretend it meant romance and sentiment and all those things.”
“But since it meant and still means our boy and girl friendship, I think you might wear it sometimes.”
“I see I’ll have to tell you the whole story,” said Patty, with a little sigh. “Well, last Christmas Elise bought a seal ring for Roger, and then, at the last minute, she decided she’d like to give it to you, and she asked my advice about it. I told her it was too personal a present for a girl to give a young man, and I didn’t think she ought to do it. It wasn’t that I didn’t want her to give you a nice present, but I didn’t think it looked right for her to give you that kind of a one. I told her to get you books, or something like that.”
“What’s all this got to do with the locket?”
“Why, Elise said that I needn’t talk about personal presents, after I had accepted from you a locket with your picture in it. And so I told her that that was very different, as we were old friends, and, anyhow, I had only worn it once or twice. But I didn’t say I didn’t care anything for it.”
Kenneth’s face cleared, and he turned toward Patty with an honest, beaming smile.
“It’s all right, Patty; I see through it now. Elise did try to make me think you had said something mean, but you didn’t, and I felt sure you hadn’t.”
“You didn’t feel quite sure, Ken.”
“No, I’m ashamed to say I didn’t, at first, but that was because I was so hurt at what I was told you had said. But it’s all right now, and I know you’ll forgive me, like the trump you are. I’d grasp your strong right hand, if I weren’t afraid that would make you steer us both into the ocean.”
“I’ll consider it grasped. And I’m downright glad that we’re good chums again, for I hate to have squabbles with anybody, and I almost never do.”
“I know it, Patty; you’re a sweet-tempered little thing, and I was a mean-spirited coward to believe for a minute that you’d say anything unkind about any of your friends.”
“Especially you, Ken;” and Patty flashed him a glance of comradeship. “But it was Mona who fixed this thing up for us.”
“Isn’t she a queer girl? She’s so blunt, and yet very few girls could have done what she did for you, Patty.”
“I know it; and I do appreciate it, and I shall always love her for it. But, Ken, what can I say to Elise?”
“Don’t say anything, Patty; that’s the best way.”
“And, if she ever tries again to lower me in your esteem, what then?”
“She won’t succeed! I’ve had my little lesson.”
“Good for you, Ken! If you ever have reason to think that I said anything mean about you, you come and ask me about it, – because Mona may not be around next time.”
“I will, indeed, Patty.”
And then, peace being thoroughly established, the trouble passed out of their minds forever, and the old chummy relations were resumed. They had a beautiful drive along the coast, and, when they got back to “The Pebbles,” it was nearly lunch time. They found the whole crowd assembled on the veranda, and Mr. Van Reypen seemed to be spokesman at a very important conference.
“It’ll be the most fun of anything you ever saw!” he declared. “A real old-fashioned picnic! None of your modern country-club affairs. But a tablecloth spread on the ground, and sandwiches and devilled eggs, and a campfire to boil the coffee, and lemonade, and hopper-grasses hopping in the pie, and everything just as it should be! Oh, gorgeous!”
“Why sit on the ground?” asked Christine. “Aren’t there any benches in the picnic place?”
“We’re not going to a picnic grounds, little girl,” Mr. Van Reypen informed her; “we’re going to a real, live woods; to the darksome depths of a dingley dell.”
“Tell us all about it!” cried Patty, as she and Kenneth joined the group.
“Entirely my own invention!” cried Philip; “it’s a picnic I’m arranging for to-morrow, and I’d be honoured if you two would deign to attend.”
“We will that!” exclaimed Patty; “but I heard something about grasshoppers. Do we have to have those?”
“No; if you prefer, you can have ants or spiders. But you can’t have a real picnic without some such attachments. Now listen to what I’ve planned! It’s just too lovely! I’ve engaged three runabouts from the amiable garage man over forninst. Camilla will make four, and, if Mr. and Mrs. Fairfield will lead the parade in their own car, we’ll have an imposing procession.”
“Not I!” cried Nan, gaily. “If you young people want to go on this entomological picnic, I’ve not the slightest objection. And I’ll see that you have enough sandwiches and devilled eggs to feed both yourselves and the grasshoppers, but I’ll have to ask you to excuse my husband and myself from attending.”
“The only regrets I’ve had so far,” said Philip; “anybody else who don’t want to go?”
But the others all declared that the plan was perfect, and they wouldn’t miss the picnic for anything.
“Now, I’ll run the whole show,” went on Philip. “You understand it’s my picnic entirely, and I’m host, and master of ceremonies, and chief engineer. I shall provide the entire luncheon, and, with due respects and thanks to Mrs. Fairfield for her offer of hard-boiled eggs, I must decline it, as I shall get all those things from the pleasant-faced and generously proportioned lady who is queen of the kitchen over at my hotel.”
They all professed themselves satisfied to let Mr. Van Reypen take full charge of his own picnic, and all expressed perfect willingness to be merely passengers. Mona was present, as usual, and was of course included in the invitation. She was enthusiastic in her delight at the prospect, and, quite forgetting to go home to luncheon, she accepted Nan’s invitation to lunch at “The Pebbles.”
The next day proved an ideal one for Philip’s picnic. They were to start about ten o’clock, for he informed them the particular dingley dell he had in mind was a fairly long distance off.
So, promptly at ten o’clock, he came over to “The Pebbles” in a runabout, accompanied by a chauffeur. He was followed by two other runabouts, each in charge of a chauffeur.
The picnic party stood on the veranda, not quite sure what the arrangements were to be, but laughingly declaring they were ready to follow orders.
“First,” said Mr. Van Reypen, “I’ll load up this car;” and into the first runabout he assisted Miss Galbraith, and bade Roger Farrington get in beside her. Needless to say, these two were well satisfied, and went spinning off down the road.
Next, turning to Mr. Hepworth, he asked him if he could drive a car.
“An electric? Yes,” said Mr. Hepworth.
“Because, if you don’t want to drive it, this car will hold three, and you can take a chauffeur,” said Philip, who had provided for every emergency.
“No, I prefer to drive,” said Mr. Hepworth, quietly, and then Philip said: “All right; and I give you Miss Farley for a companion. Don’t quarrel on the way.”
And so, with Christine, Mr. Hepworth drove away, and Philip turned to the others.
“I hardly know how to divide up the rest of us,” he said, stroking his chin, thoughtfully, “but I’ll try it this way. Harper, will you take Miss Farrington in this very pretty-looking new runabout?”
It was an awkward situation, though Philip didn’t know it. Elise was delighted with the plan, and beamed all over her face as she took the seat indicated. Kenneth was not at all pleased, and it was really with difficulty that he refrained from showing it. But Patty gave him a pleading look, as if begging him to make the best of the situation, and so, with what was apparently hearty good-will, he took his seat beside Elise, saying, “All right, here goes for a fine ride!”
Kenneth was fond of driving a car, and, not owning one himself, he rarely had the opportunity; so Patty felt sure he would enjoy the trip quite irrespective of who might be beside him. And, as Patty realised, there was no other way to arrange the couples from Mr. Van Reypen’s viewpoint, for she knew from the beginning that he intended to ride with her.
“I declare, I’m a car short!” exclaimed Philip, as Kenneth and Elise drove away. “I should have ordered four cars, and I only engaged three! We’ll have to stay at home! Shall you mind?”
“No,” said Patty, mischievously, “I don’t mind. I’ll read aloud to you, if you like.”
“It seems too bad for me not to go when it’s my own picnic,” said Philip, musingly. “You don’t happen to know of any little motor car we could use, do you?”
“We might take Camilla,” suggested Patty, in a dubious tone.
“Just the thing! Say we do? How clever of you to think of that!” and, as Patty broke into peals of laughter at his foolishness, Philip flew down the steps and around to the garage, returning in a moment with Camilla, which Miller was impatiently holding in readiness.
“I’m going to drive,” Philip announced, calmly.
“All right, I don’t care; but, then, you must let me drive coming home. I declare, with a house party, I almost never get a chance to drive my own car!”
“Never mind! Your horrid old house party will soon be going, and then you can drive all you like.”
“It isn’t a horrid old house party! It’s a lovely, sweet, delicious house party, and I wish it would stay forever!”
“This part of it will, if you give him the slightest encouragement.”
“Oh, I don’t want part of it unless I have it all! I had no idea house parties were such fun. I think we’re having beautiful times, don’t you?”
“Yes; since you’ve made up with young Harper;” and Philip’s eyes twinkled.
“Why, what do you mean?” exclaimed Patty, blushing pink. “How did you know anything about it?”
“I didn’t, and I don’t, and I don’t want to! But when I see my little hostess going around with a sad and forlorn expression on her face, and one of her guests looking as if he’d lost his last friend, and then they both go for a motor ride and come back jubilantly chummy, – why, then, – I Sherlock it out that they’ve had a squabble and a make-up! Am I altogether wrong?”
“Not altogether,” said Patty, demurely.
CHAPTER XX
A NARROW ESCAPE
The picnic was the real thing. That is, it was the real old-fashioned sort of a picnic, and it was therefore a novelty to most of its participants.
Patty had been on many motor picnics, where elaborate luncheons were served by white-garbed waiters, with the same appointments of silver, glass, and china that she would use at home. But not since her Vernondale days had she attended this sort of picnic. There were no servants. The simple but appetising luncheon was spread on a tablecloth laid on the grass, and, true to tradition, a grasshopper now and then leaped in among the viands, or an audacious spider attempted to approach the feast. But these were few and easily vanquished by the brave and valiant men of the party.
The men, too, proved themselves capable in the arts of fire-building and coffee-making, so that Patty, who was a born cook and loved it, found no use for her talent. So she and the other girls set the table as daintily as they could with the primitive means at their command, and decorated it prettily with wild flowers.
“As a rule,” said Elise, as she sat with a sandwich in one hand and a glass of lemonade in the other, “I like silver forks and china plates at a picnic, but, for once, I do think these wooden butter plates and paper napkins are rather fun. What do you think, Patty?”
“Far be it from me to cast reflections on the goods my host provides, but, generally speaking, I confess I like my table a few feet above the over-attentive population of Mother Earth.”
“Oh, pshaw, Patty!” exclaimed Philip. “You’re no kind of a sport! You’re a pampered darling of luxurious modernity.”
“Gracious! What an awful thing to be!” cried Patty, in mock dismay.
“And, anyway, Patty,” said the blunt Mona, “if you hadn’t put all those old weedy flowers on the tablecloth, there wouldn’t be any ants and things. They’ve mostly come out of your decorations.”
“I believe you’re right,” said Patty, laughing. “So the picnic is a success after all, and it’s only our decorations that made any trouble.”
Then they all ate heartily of the feast, and there was much laughter and merriment, and afterward they sat round the fire and told stories and sang songs, and they all declared it was the very nicest picnic ever was, and they were sorry when it was time to go home.
“But we must be going,” Patty said, “for I promised Nan we’d be home in ample time to dress for dinner, and it’s a fairly long ride.”
“Do we go back the same way we came?” asked Elise, looking at Philip with an arch air of enquiry.
“Go back any way you please, fair lady,” he replied. “The way we came is the shortest, but there is a longer way round, if you prefer it.”
“I don’t mean that,” said Elise. “I mean do we go with the same partners?”
“I do,” declared Philip, “and Miss Fairfield does. The rest of you may do just as you choose.”
“Then I think we’ll go as we came,” said Elise, with an air of satisfaction.
The simplicity of Philip’s picnic made it an easy matter to pack up to go home, as there was little beside the tablecloth to take with them, and so they were soon ready for the homeward trip.
As host, Philip sent off the other cars first, and, after they were all started, he stepped into the Swift Camilla, beside Patty, who was already in the driving seat.
“I’m going to drive home, you know,” she said. “I’m simply dying to get hold of this steering bar once more.”
“All right; you may drive, but let’s go round the other route; it’s only a little bit longer.”
“How much longer?”
“Not more than a mile or two, – two at the most.”
“Are you sure of that?”
“Positive!”
“All right; then we’ve time enough. Where do we turn off?”
“At this next turn to the left. That takes us around past Berry Hill, and so on around by Blue Lake.”
“Oh, yes, I know the way after we reach Blue Lake. Here we go, then!”
Patty took the turn Philip had indicated, and, as she did so, she caught the last glimpse of the other three cars disappearing in the distance as they went home by the same road they came.
The road she had turned into was far more picturesque and beautiful, and, as this portion of it was new to her, she was delighted to see it.
“What high hills!” she exclaimed. “Why, they’re almost mountains!”
“Hardly that; but they are fairly high hills, to be so near the seashore. Don’t you want me to drive, Patty? This road has sharp corners, and around these hills it’s hard to see anybody coming.”
“No, I’ll drive and you keep a watch out. We haven’t met a car yet.”
“No, and I wonder at it. Usually there are lots of racers and touring cars along here. But, of course, it’s early in the season for them.”
“How is that you are so familiar with this locality? You seem to know all about it.”
“I spent a summer down here some years ago. That’s how I knew where that picnic ground is. Look out, there’s a bad place in the road!”
But Patty had already seen it, and was skilfully steering so as to avoid it.
“You see everything,” said Philip, admiringly; “you’re a wonderful little motorist! I never saw anybody drive better than you do; and so easily, too. Merciful Heavens!”
Patty gave a jump at Philip’s excited exclamation, and saw, straight in front of her, an immense red car at full speed. It had swung around a sharp angle, and could not possibly have been seen by them until it burst on their vision not twenty yards away. They had heard no signal, which was culpable carelessness on the part of the driver of the big car, and perhaps Patty was equally culpable in not having sounded her own horn.
But this was no time to think of such matters, for they were really in perilous danger. The driver of the big car did nothing to avert disaster. It could not be he was indifferent to the awful situation; he looked more as if he were stunned by the sudden realisation of it.
Patty was absolutely paralysed with fear. She realised fully their plight, she knew that nothing could save them from instant and terrible collision, and her muscles were absolutely powerless to move.
The short distance between the two cars diminished like lightning, and neither car had swerved from a straight line leading to the other.
Patty tried to shriek, but her stiffened tongue gave forth no sound.
At sight of the big car, Philip Van Reypen was stunned also. But, in an instant, he recovered his senses, and, in another instant, he had shot out his right hand and, seizing the controller handle, pushed it backward with a force that nearly crushed Patty’s hand that held it. Then, grasping the steering bar with his other hand, he swerved the car over to the right, blindly trying to find the reverse lever with his foot.
Then happened what Philip knew would happen. The Camilla banged into a sheer cliff of rock, but took it sideways. He grasped Patty as the car stopped, and they were both jolted backward.
By presence of mind and quick action, he had run the car into the cliff, causing thereby a minor smash-up, instead of meeting the big red car in a head-on collision, which would surely have meant fatality.
Patty was very white, but she did not faint. The shock restored her numbed senses, and she turned to Philip with a glance of perfect understanding of what he had done.
“Oh, Patty,” he whispered, in a tense voice, “thank Heaven you’re safe!”
“It was a miracle, Philip; but you did it yourself! I knew it at the time, my brain worked perfectly, but my muscles were paralysed by fear. Oh, suppose yours had been, too!”
“I could have done better if I could have sensed the thing an instant sooner. For a second my brain wouldn’t work, and then I saw my way clear, like a flash, but it was too late! I hadn’t time to back or to get across in front of the car. It was either to run into this cliff, or have that immense machine run into us.”
“It was splendid!” said Patty, the tears coming to her eyes; and then the reaction from the shock came, and she burst into violent sobbing.
“Don’t, Patty; don’t do that,” said Philip, in a pained voice, and Patty looked up, smiling through her tears.
“I’m not really crying,” she said; “it’s just a foolish reaction, and I can’t help it. I’m sorry to be so silly, but I’m just a little hysterical from, – from joy, you know.”
“You behaved splendidly, Patty! If you had moved hand or foot, we would have been dashed to pieces. It was only because I could get full command of the controller and the steering bar that I could manage at all. If you had given a convulsive push the other way, – well, never mind that! But I expect I crushed your hand when I grasped the controller. I had to, to make sure that you didn’t jerk it the other way unintentionally.”
“I guess you did hurt my hand;” and Patty held it up to see. Sure enough, black and blue bruises already appeared on fingers and palm.
“Poor little hand,” said Philip, taking it in his own. “I’m so sorry, Patty.”
“Don’t talk to me like that!” exclaimed Patty, “as if I were a molly-coddle! I’m glad you smashed my hand, as that was the only way to save us from – ”
“From certain death,” said Philip, gravely.
And then they heard a motor coming behind them, and, looking up, found a good-sized touring car, which was about to pass them, but had stopped at their side.
“Want help?” called out a cheery voice, and Philip answered, “Indeed, we do!”
The stranger jumped out of his car, and came over to inspect the Camilla.
“I ought to get out,” whispered Philip. “Are you brave enough to sit here alone, Patty?”
“Of course; Camilla can’t run away now!”
Philip and the other man looked about to see what had really happened to Patty’s car. There was not so much damage as it seemed at first, for, with the exception of a smashed mudguard, and some dents and bruises, nothing was broken, except the shaft drive axle. But this, of course, rendered the car helpless as to her motor, though her running gear was all right.
“I’ll give you a tow,” said the stranger heartily. “Where do you want to go?”
“To Spring Beach,” answered Philip. “Are you going that way?”
“I can go that way as well as not, and, when people come as near death and destruction as you people did, I think it’s only human to take you home. Perfect marvel, though, how you escaped with so little injury to the car!”
“Perfect marvel how we escaped at all!” said Philip. “I did what I could, but, when I see the narrow margin we had on either side, I wonder we weren’t smashed to bits, anyway.”
“It is a wonder!” said the stranger. “Most marvellous thing I ever saw, – and I’ve seen lots of motor accidents. My name’s Hampton, – Henry Hampton, – and now, if you’ll help me rig up the tow, I’ll pull you home.”
And so, after a short time, Philip and Patty, still seated in the damaged Camilla, went swiftly along, towed by kind-hearted Henry Hampton’s powerful car.
Of course, when they reached “The Pebbles,” an anxious crowd awaited them.
“It’s getting to be sort of a habit, our getting home late, with an accident to report,” said Philip, as they turned in the gate, and Patty couldn’t help smiling, though her nerves were still tingling from the recent shock, and from the realisation of their wonderful escape.
The laughing crowd on the veranda grew suddenly still as they saw a strange motor enter the gate with the Camilla in tow.
“What has happened?” cried Nan, as they came within hearing distance.
“We’re all right, father!” called out Patty, anxious to allay the look of fear and consternation on her father’s face.
“Patty, dear child, what is it?” exclaimed Mr. Fairfield, as he lifted Patty, still white and trembling, out of the car.
“An accident, father, – an awful accident! And Philip was the hero this time; he saved my life, and he did it in a most wonderful way! I’ll tell you about it sometime, but I can’t now;” and Patty fell limply into her father’s arms.
“Never mind, darling, it’s all right,” said Mr. Fairfield, soothingly, as he kissed the pale brow, and carried Patty up the steps and into the house. He laid her on a couch, and, under Nan’s gentle ministrations, she soon revived.
Meantime, Henry Hampton was telling the tale as he had understood it.
“Mighty slick piece of work!” he said. “Never saw anything like it in my life! That young fellow ought to have medals pinned all over him.”
“There, there, Mr. Hampton, that’ll be about all,” said Philip, trying to shut off the tide of compliments from the stranger.
“No, ’taint about all!” declared Mr. Hampton, wagging his head, “but I guess the little lady can tell you the story, once she feels like herself again. I must be gettin’ along now, but I just want to remark, edgewise, that I’ve seen lots of pluck and bravery in my day, but for hair-trigger intellect, coolheadedness, pluck, and plumb bravery, I never saw such an exhibition as this here chap put up to-day! Good-afternoon, all;” and, with a wave of his hand, Mr. Hampton went away.
Philip was the hero of the hour, but he would not admit that he had done anything praiseworthy or unusual.
“There was only one thing to do,” he said; “only one possible chance to take, and of course I took it; and almost by a miracle it went through all right, and we smashed the car, but saved our lives.”
“Don’t you listen to him!” called out Patty. “You people come in here, and I’ll tell you all about it! I was driving, and it was next to impossible for Philip to get hold of the bars, across me. But he did it! and he did it in time! and he did it exactly right! And I just sat there paralysed with fear, and unable to move. But I suppose you don’t expect a girl to be very brave, – and I sort of collapsed, I know. But Philip is a hero, and I want him appreciated as such.”
“He is, Patty dear,” said her father; “and, though he’s awfully modest himself about his brave deed, he has the honour and respect and gratitude of all of us for his wonderful quickness of brain and hand that saved his own life, – and that of my little girl.”
Mr. Fairfield’s voice broke as he folded Patty in his arms, and he kissed her with all of a father’s love for the treasure he had so nearly lost.
