the Trailin' (1919)

by Max Brand

  Once more the quirt whirled in the air and fell with a resounding crack, but the stallion merely switched his tail and started forward at a clumsy stumbling trot. The thunder of the host was too hoarse for applause; they saw a victory and a defeat but what they had wanted was blood, and a death. They had had a promise and a taste; now they hungered for the reality.

  Woodbury slipped from the saddle and gave the reins to Werther. Already a crowd was growing about them of the curious who had sprung over the barriers and swarmed across the arena to see the conqueror, for had he not vindicated unanswerably the strength of the East as compared with that of the West? Boys shouted shrilly; men shouldered each other to slap him on the back; but Werther merely held forth the handful of greenbacks. The conqueror braced himself against the saddle with a trembling hand and shook his head.

  "Not for me," he said, "I ought to pay you--ten times that much for the sport--compared to this polo is nothing."

  "Ah," muttered those who overheard, "polo! That explains it!"

  "Then take the horse," said Werther, "because no one else could ride him."

  "And now any one can ride him, so I don't want him," answered Woodbury.

  And Werther grinned. "You're right, boy. I'll give him to the iceman."

  The big grey man, William Drew, loomed over the heads of the little crowd, and they gave way before him as water divides under the prow of a ship; it was as if he cast a shadow which they feared before him.

  "Help me through this mob," said Woodbury to Werther, "and back to my box. Devil take it, my overcoat won't cover that leg."

  Then on him also fell, as it seemed, the approaching shadow of the grey man and he looked up with something of a start into the keen eyes of Drew.

  "Son," said the big man, "you look sort of familiar to me. I'm asking your pardon, but who was your mother?"

  The eyes of young Woodbury narrowed and the two stood considering each other gravely for a long moment.

  "I never saw her," he said at last, and then turned with a frown to work his way through the crowd and back to his box.

  The tall man hesitated a moment and then started in pursuit, but the mob intervened. He turned back to Werther.

  "Did you get his name?" he asked.

  "Fine bit of riding he showed, eh?" cried the little man, "and turned down my thousand as cool as you please. I tell you, Drew, there's some flint in the Easterners after all!"

  "Damn the Easterners. What's his name?"

  "Woodbury. Anthony Woodbury."

  "Woodbury?"

  "What's wrong with that name?"

  "Nothing. Only I'm a bit surprised."

  And he frowned with a puzzled, wistful expression, staring straight ahead like a man striving to solve a great riddle.

  Chapter III

  SOCIAL SUICIDE

  At his box, Woodbury stopped only to huddle into his coat and overcoat and pull his hat down over his eyes. Then he hurried on toward an exit, but even this slight delay brought the reporters up with him. They had scented news as the eagle sights prey far below, and then swooped down on him. He continued his flight shaking off their harrying questions, but they kept up the running fight and at the door one of them reached his side with: "It's Mr. Woodbury of the Westfall Polo Club, son of Mr. John Woodbury of Anson Place?"

  Anthony Woodbury groaned with dismay and clutched the grinning reporter by the arm.

  "Come with me!"

  Prospects of a scoop of a sizable nature brightened the eyes of the reporter. He followed in all haste, and the other news-gatherers, in obedience to the exacting, unspoken laws of their craft, stood back and followed the flight with grumbling envy.

  On Twenty-Sixth Street, a little from the corner of Madison Avenue, stood a big touring car with the chauffeur waiting in the front seat. There were still some followers from the Garden.

  Woodbury jumped into the back seat, drew the reporter after him, and called: "Start ahead, Maclaren--drive anywhere, but get moving."

  "Now, sir," turning to the reporter as the engine commenced to hum, "what's your name?"

  "Bantry."

  "Bantry? Glad to know you."

  He shook hands.

  "You know me?"

  "Certainly. I cover sports all the way from polo to golf. Anthony Woodbury--Westfall Polo Club--then golf, tennis, trap shooting--"

  "Enough!" groaned the victim. "Now look here, Bantry, you have me dead to rights--got me with the goods, so to speak, haven't you?"

  "It was a great bit of work; ought to make a first-page story."

  And the other groaned again. "I know--son of millionaire rides unbroken horse in Wild West show--and all that sort of thing. But, good Lord, man, think what it will mean to me?"

  "Nothing to be ashamed of, is it? Your father'll be proud of you."

  Woodbury looked at him sharply.

  "How do you know that?"

  "Any man would be."

  "But the notoriety, man! It would kill me with a lot of people as thoroughly as if I'd put the muzzle of a gun in my mouth and pulled the trigger."

  "H-m!" muttered the reporter, "sort of social suicide, all right. But it's news, Mr. Woodbury, and the editor--"

  "Expects you to write as much as the rest of the papers print--and none of the other reporters know me."

  "One or two of them might have."

  "But my dear fellow--won't you take a chance?"

  Bantry made a wry face.

  "Madison Square Garden," went on Woodbury bitterly. "Ten thousand people looking on--gad, man, it's awful."

  "Why'd you do it, then?"

  "Couldn't help it, Bantry. By Jove, when that wicked devil of a horse came at my box and I caught a glimpse of the red demon in his eyes--why, man, I simply had to get down and try my luck. Ever play football?"

  "Yes, quite a while ago."

  "Then you know how it is when you're in the bleachers and the whistle blows for the game to begin. That's the way it was with me. I wanted to climb down into the field--and I did. Once started, I couldn't stop until I'd made a complete ass of myself in the most spectacular style. Now, Bantry, I appeal to you for the sake of your old football days, don't show me up--keep my name quiet."

  "I'd like to--damned if I wouldn't--but--a scoop--"

  Anthony Woodbury considered his companion with a strange yearning. It might have been to take him by the throat; it might have been some gentler motive, but his hand stole at last toward an inner coat pocket.

  He said: "I know times are a bit lean now and then in your game, Bantry. I wonder if you could use a bit of the long green? Just now I'm very flush, and--"

  He produced a thickly stuffed bill-fold, but Bantry smiled and touched Woodbury's arm.

  "Couldn't possibly, you know."

  He considered a moment and then, with a smile: "It's a bit awkward for both of us, isn't it? Suppose I keep your name under my hat and you give me a few little inside tips now and then on polo news, and that sort of thing?"

  "Here's my hand on it. You've no idea what a load you take off my mind."

  "We've circled about and are pretty close to the Garden again. Could you let me out here?"

  The car rolled to an easy stop and the reporter stepped out.

  "I'll forget everything you wish, Mr. Woodbury."

  "It's an honour to have met you, sir. Use me whenever you can. Goodnight."

  To the chauffeur he said: "Home, and make it fast."

  They passed up Lexington with Maclaren "making it fast," so that the big car was continually nosing its way around the machines in front with much honking of the horn. At Fifty-Ninth Street they turned across to the bridge and hummed softly across the black, shimmering waters of the East River; by the time they reached Brooklyn a fine mist was beginning to fall, blurring the wind-shield, and Maclaren slowed up perceptibly, so that before they passed the heart of the city, Woodbury leaned forward and said: "What's the matter, Maclaren?"

  "Wet streets--no chains--this wind-shield is pretty hard
to see through."

  "Stop her, then. I'll take the wheel the rest of the way. Want to travel a bit to-night."

  The chauffeur, as if this exchange were something he had been expecting, made no demur, and a moment later, with Woodbury at the wheel, the motor began to hum again in a gradually increasing crescendo. Two or three motor-police glanced after the car as it snapped about corners with an ominous skid and straightened out, whining, on the new street; but in each case, having made a comfortable number of arrests that day, they had little heart for the pursuit of the grey monster through that chill mist.

  Past Brooklyn, with a country road before them, Woodbury cut out the muffler and the car sprang forward with a roar. A gust of increasing wind whipped back to Maclaren, for the wind-shield had been opened so that the driver need not look through the dripping glass and mingling with the wet gale were snatches of singing.

  The chauffeur, partly in understanding and partly from anxiety, apparently, caught the side of the seat in a firm grip and leaned forward to break the jar when they struck rough places. Around an elbow turn they went with one warning scream of the Klaxon, skidded horribly at the sharp angle of the curve, and missed by inches a car from the opposite direction.

  They swept on with the startled yell of the other party ringing after them, drowned at once by the crackling of the exhaust. Maclaren raised a furtive hand to wipe from his forehead a moisture which was not altogether rain, but immediately grasped the side of the seat again. Straight ahead the road swung up to meet a bridge and dropped sharply away from it on the further side. Maclaren groaned but the sound was lost in the increasing roar of the exhaust.

  They barely touched that bridge and shot off into space on the other side like a hurdler clearing an obstacle. With a creak and a thud the big car landed, reeled drunkenly, and straightened out in earnest, Maclaren craned his head to see the speedometer, but had not the heart to look; he began to curse softly, steadily.

  When the muffler went on again and the motor was reduced to a loud, angry humming, Woodbury caught a few phrases of those solemn imprecations. He grinned into the black heart of the night, streaked with lines of grey where therein entered the halo of the headlights, and then swung the car through an open, iron gate. The motor fell to a drowsily contented murmur that blended with the cool swishing of the tires on wet gravel.

  "Maclaren," said the other, as he stopped in front of the garage, "if everyone was as good a passenger as you I'd enjoy motoring; but after all, a car can't act up like a horse." He concluded gloomily: "There's no fight in it."

  And he started toward the house, but Maclaren, staring after the departing figure, muttered: "There's only one sort that's worse than a damn fool, and that's a young one."

  It was through a door opening off the veranda that Anthony entered the house, stealthily as a burglar, and with the same nervous apprehension. Before him stretched a wide hall, dimly illumined by a single light which splashed on the Italian table and went glimmering across the floor. Across the hall was his destination--the broad balustraded staircase, which swept grandly up to the second floor. Toward this he tiptoed steadying himself with one hand against the wall. Almost to his goal, he heard a muffled footfall and shrank against the wall with a catlike agility, but, though the shadow fell steep and gloomy there, luck was against him.

  A middle-aged servant of solemn port, serene with the twofold dignity of double chin and bald head, paused at the table in his progress across the room, and swept the apartment with the judicial eye of one who knows that everything is as it should be but will not trust even the silence of night. So that bland blue eye struck first on the faintly shining top hat of Anthony, ran down his overcoat, and lingered in gloomy dismay on the telltale streak of white where the trouser leg should have been.

  What he thought not even another Oedipus could have conjectured. The young master very obviously did not wish to be observed, and in such times Peters at could be blinder than the bat noon-day and more secret than the River Styx. He turned away, unhurried, the fold of that double chin a little more pronounced over the severe correctness of his collar.

  A very sibilant whisper pursued him. He stopped again, still without haste, and turned not directly toward Anthony, but at a discreet angle, with his eyes fixed firmly upon the ceiling.

  Chapter IV

  A SESSION OF CHAT

  The whisper grew distinct in words.

  "Peters, you old numskull, come here!"

  The approach of Peters was something like the sidewise waddle of a very aged crab. He looked to the north, but his feet carried him to the east. That he was much moved was attested by the colour which had mounted even to the gleaming expanse of that nobly bald head.

  "Yes, Master Anthony--I mean Mr. Anthony?"

  He set his teeth at the _faux pas_.

  "Peters, look at me. Confound it, I haven't murdered any one. Are you busy?"

  It required whole seconds for the eyes to wheel round upon Anthony, and they were immediately debased from the telltale white of that leg to the floor.

  "No, sir."

  "Then come up with me and help me change. Quick!"

  He turned and fled noiselessly up the great stairs, with Peters panting behind. Anthony's overcoat was off before he had fairly entered his room and his coat and vest flopped through the air as Peters shut the door. Whatever the old servant lacked in agility he made up in certain knowledge; as he laid out a fresh tuxedo, Anthony changed with the speed of one pursued. The conversation was spasmodic to a degree.

  "Where's father? Waiting in the library?"

  "Yes. Reading, sir."

  "Had a mix-up--bully time, though--damn this collar! Peters, I wish you'd been there--where's those trousers? Rub some of the crease out of 'em--they must look a _little_ worn."

  He stood at last completely dressed while Peters looked on with a shining eye and a smile which in a younger man would have suggested many things.

  "How is it? Will I pass father this way?"

  "I hope so, sir."

  "But you don't think so?"

  "It's hard to deceive him."

  "Confound it! Don't I know? Well, here's for a try. Soft-foot it down stairs. I'll go after you and bang the door. Then you say good-evening in a loud voice and I'll go into the library. How's that?"

  "Very good--your coat over your arm--so! Just ruffle your hair a bit, sir--now you should do very nicely."

  At the door: "Go first, Peters--first, man, and hurry, but watch those big feet of yours. If you make a noise on the stairs I'm done with you."

  The noiselessness of the descending feet was safe enough, but not so safe was the chuckling of Peters for, though he fought against the threatening explosion, it rumbled like the roll of approaching thunder. In the hall below, Anthony opened and slammed the door.

  "Good-evening, Mr. Anthony," said Peters loudly, too loudly.

  "Evening, Peters. Where's father?"

  "In the library, sir. Shall I take your coat?"

  "I'll carry it up to my room when I go. That's all."

  He opened the door to the library and entered with a hope that his father would not be facing him, but he found that John Woodbury was not even reading. He sat by the big fire-place smoking a pipe which he now removed slowly from his teeth.

  "Hello, Anthony."

  "Good-evening, sir."

  He rose to shake hands with his son: they might have been friends meeting after a separation so long that they were compelled to be formal, and as Anthony turned to lay down his hat and coat he knew that the keen grey eyes studied him carefully from head to foot.

  "Take this chair."

  "Why, sir, wouldn't dream of disturbing you."

  "Not a bit. I want you to try it; just a trifle too narrow for me."

  John Woodbury rose and gestured his son to the chair he had been occupying. Anthony hesitated, but then, like one who obeys first and thinks afterward, seated himself as directed.

  "Mighty comfortable, sir."
r />   The big man stood with his hands clasped behind him, peering down under shaggy, iron-grey brows.

  "I thought it would be. I designed it myself for you and I had a pretty bad time getting it made."

  He stepped to one side.

  "Hits you pretty well under the knees, doesn't it? Yes, it's deeper than most."

  "A perfect fit, father, and mighty thoughtful of you."

  "H-m," rumbled John Woodbury, and looked about like one who has forgotten something. "What about a glass of Scotch?"

  "Nothing, thank you--I--in fact I'm not very strong for the stuff."

  The rough brows rose a trifle and fell.

  "No? But isn't it usual? Better have a go."

  Once more there was that slight touch of hesitancy, as if the son were not quite sure of the father and wished to make every concession.

  "Certainly, if it'll make you easier."

  There was an instant softening of the hard lines of the elder Woodbury's face, as though some favour of import had been done him. He touched a bell-cord and lowered himself with a little grunt of relaxation into a chair. The chair was stoutly built, but it groaned a little under the weight of the mighty frame it received. He leaned back and in his face was a light which came not altogether from the comfortable glow of the fire.

  And when the servant appeared the big man ordered: "Scotch and seltzer and one glass with a pitcher of ice."

  "Aren't you taking anything, sir?" asked Anthony.

  "Who, me? Yes, yes, of course. Why, let me see--bring me a pitcher of beer." He added as the servant disappeared: "Never could get a taste for Scotch, and rye doesn't seem to be--er--good form. Eh, Anthony?"

  "Nonsense," frowned the son, "haven't you a right to be comfortable in your own house?"

  "Come, come!" rumbled John Woodbury. "A young fellow in your position can't have a boor for a father, eh?"

  It was apparently an old argument between them, for Anthony stared gloomily at the fire, making no attempt to reply; and he glanced up in relief when the servant entered with the liquor. John Woodbury, however, returned to the charge as soon as they were left alone again, saying: "As a matter of fact, I'm about to set you up in an establishment of your own in New York." He made a vastly inclusive gesture. "Everything done up brown--old house--high-class interior decorator, to get you started with a splash."