“You old goose, how can I back her when she keeps on going for’ard?”
Anderson was silent for a moment.
“Well, if I may be so bold as to ask, madam, where are you going?” he asked, with deep sarcasm in his voice.
“You leave it to me, Anderson Crow. I know what I am doing.”
They went on for about a quarter of a mile before she spoke again.
“There’s only one way to turn around, and I’m taking it. How far is it to Fisher’s lane?”
“You can’t turn her around in Fisher’s lane, Eva. It’s all a good-sized dog c’n do to turn around in that road.”
“I asked you how far is it?”
“’Bout a mile an’ a half.”
“I ain’t going to turn around in Fisher’s lane, Anderson. I’m going to foller it straight to the Britton toll-road, and then I’m going to turn into that and head for Tinkletown. That’s how I’m going to turn this plagued car around.”
“Well, of all the—why, geminently, Eva, it’s—it’s nigh onto nine mile. You shorely can’t be such a fool as to—”
“I’m going to turn this car around if it takes twenty miles,” she said firmly.
There was another long, intense silence.
“I wonder if the boys have got that fire out yet?” mumbled Anderson. “Course, there ain’t no use worryin’ about them robbers. They got away. If I’d been along with that posse, we’d ‘a’ had ’em sure by this time, but—oh, well, there ain’t no use cryin’ over spilt milk.”
In due time they came to Fisher’s lane. Mrs. Crow made a very sharp but triumphant turn, and the second leg of the course was before them. Half an hour later the valiant machine sneaked out of the narrow byway into the Britton pike and pointed its nose homeward.
“Let her out a little, Eva,” said Anderson, taking a long breath. “It’s four mile to town, an’—”
“Oh, goodness!” squeaked the driver, giving the wheel a perilous twist. “Look! There comes a car behind us. Help! They’ll run into us! They’ll—”
“Pull off to the side of the road—no, this side! Gosh! Hurry up, Eva. They’re comin’ like greased lightnin’! Look out! Not too fer over! There’s a ditch alongside—”
The remainder of the sentence was lost in the wild shriek of a siren, shriek after shriek succeeding each other as a big car, with far-reaching acetylene lamps, roared down upon them. Like a mighty whirlwind it swept by them, careening perilously on the sloping edge of the road. Suddenly the grinding of brakes assailed the ears of the thanksgiving Crows, and to their astonishment the big machine came to a standstill a hundred yards or more down the road. Mrs. Crow promptly “put on” the accelerator, and but for a vehement warning from her husband would have gone full tilt into the rear end of the mighty stranger. She managed to stop the little car when its faithful nose was not more than two yards from the little red light ahead.
“Hey, Ford!” called out a man who had arisen in the tonneau of the big car and was looking back at them.
“Hey, yourself!” responded Anderson.
“Is this the road to Albany?”
“No, it ain’t.”
“We’ve lost our way. Where does this road take us?”
“Into the city of Tinkletown.”
Three or four voices in the car were guilty of saying things in the presence of a lady.
“Well, where in hell are we?” demanded the spokesman.
“You ain’t in hell yet, but you will be pretty soon if you keep up that reckless driving, lemme tell you that.”
“Where do we get the Albany road?” called out another voice from the car.
“The quickest way is to go into Tinkletown an’ take the first turn to the left after—”
“But we don’t want to go to Tinkletown, you damned old hayseed. We—”
“Shut up, Joe!” cried one of the men. “He’s excited, Mister. His wife’s sick, and we’re trying to get him home before she—before she croaks.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” cried Mrs. Crow before Anderson could speak. She also kicked him violently on the ankle-bone. “The quickest way to get to the Albany road,” she went on, “is by cuttin’ through back of Cole’s sawmill an’ crossin’ the river at Goose’s Ferry. That’s about seven miles from here. Take the first lane to your left, half a mile further on.”
“Much obliged, ma’am.”
“You’re entirely welcome,” said she, this time poking her elbow into Anderson’s ribs. He grunted.
“Is the road pretty good all the way?”
“It’s a good dirt road.”
“We’re in a great hurry, ma’am. Is it safe to hit it up a little on the dirt-road? His wife specially wanted to see him before she died.”
“Perfectly safe, as long as you keep in it.”
“Nightie!” called the spokesman, and the big car leaped forward as if suddenly unchained.
“Well, of all the—” began Anderson wrathfully.
“Get out and crank this car, Anderson,” she broke in excitedly.
“You know as well as I do that that dirt road ends at Heffner’s farm. It don’t go nowheres near the river. What ails you, Eva Crow? That poor feller’s wife—”
“Crank, I tell you!”
He got out and cranked the car, grumbling all the while. As he got back in the seat beside her, he exploded:
“An’ what’s more, there’s that soldiers’ camp at Green Ridge. They won’t be allowed to go through it without a pass. There must be a thousand men there. They’re marchin’ to some’eres in America, the feller told me this mornin’ when he come in at Jackson’s to get some smokin’ terbaccer. Camp at Green Ridge fer two days, he says, an’ then—Hey! Don’t drive so blamed reckless, Eva! Can’t you get her under control? Put on your brakes, woman! She’ll—”
“Hush up, Anderson. You let me alone.”
The little old car was sailing along at a speed that caused every joint to rattle with joy unconfined. To Anderson’s amazement, and to a certain extent consternation, Mrs. Crow swung into the dirt-road over which the big car was now whizzing a mile or so ahead.
“Here! Where you going?” barked Anderson, arising from the seat.
“There’s going to be hell to pay before you know it, Anderson Crow,” said she, her voice high and squeaky.
“Wha-what was that you said?” gasped her husband, flopping back in the seat. He couldn’t believe his ears.
“I learned that from my predecessor in office,” she replied somewhat guiltily. “I’ve heard you say it a million times.”
“But I ain’t no woman. I—”
“Set still! Do you want to fall out and break your neck?”
And Anderson sat still, dazed and helpless in the direful presence of a woman who, to his utter horror, had gone violently insane. He began silently but urgently to pray that the gasoline would give out, when he would find himself in a position to reason with her, gently or forcibly as the situation demanded. He broke into a profuse and chilly perspiration. His wife crazy! His wife of forty years! His old comrade!
He was aroused from these horrifying, sickening reflections by a hoarse but imperative word coming from nowhere out of the darkness of the road ahead.
“Halt!”
Mrs. Crow put on the brakes.
“Who goes there?”
“Friends!” faltered Mrs. Crow.
“The marshal of Tinkletown,” added Anderson, vastly relieved by her singularly intelligent answer.
“Advance and give the countersign!”
“All right. What is it?” inquired Mrs. Crow.
A couple of non-commissioned officers joined the sentry at this moment. They were but half dressed.
“What the devil’s the meaning of all this?” exclaimed one of them, planting himself beside the car and flashing a light in Mrs. Crow’s face. “Don’t you hayseeds know any better than to bust into a military camp—”
His companion interrupted him. “Keep your shirt on, Bill
. Didn’t I hear the man say he was the marshal of Tinkletown?”
“No, sir, you didn’t! I said we are the marshal of Tinkletown. I—”
“All right, all right. Do you happen to be chasin’ a gang of joy-riders?”
“We do—we are!” cried Mrs. Crow.
“They zipped through this camp like a rifle-shot about ten minutes ago. They’ve raised a lovely row. Officer of the day bawlin’ everybody out, and—Here, hold on!”
“We’ve just got to catch them men,” pleaded Mrs. Crow.
“One of ‘em’s got a sick wife,” added Anderson, “an’ we’ve got to tell him he’s on the wrong road.”
“Well, you just sit right where you are,” spoke the top sergeant. “They’ll be back this way in a few minutes. This road ends about a mile above here, and they’ll have to come back. The sentries say they went through here so fast they couldn’t see anything but wind.”
“Are you going to stop them?” cried Mrs. Crow eagerly.
“We sure are,” said the other non-com. “See that bunch of men forming over there? Well, they’ve got real guns and real bullets, and they’re mad, Mrs. Marshal. You can’t blame ’em.”
Off at one side of the road a little distance away a company of soldiers was lining up. The sharp command of an officer rang out.
“Thank goodness!” cried Mrs. Crow.
“Look here, Eva,” said Anderson nervously. “I guess you’d better pull off to one side of the road, just in case them soldiers don’t stop ’em. We’re right smack in their way, an’ gosh only knows where we’d land if they smashed into us. It’d take a week to find us, we’d be so scattered about.”
“Don’t be uneasy,” said the top sergeant. “They’ll stop, all right, all right.”
“Let me whisper something to you, Mr. Officer,” said Mrs. Crow. “It’s very important.”
He obligingly held up an ear, and she leaned down and spoke rapidly, earnestly into it.
“You don’t say so!” he cried out. “Excuse me!” And off he dashed, calling out to his companion to follow.
A minute later the most extraordinary activity affected the group of soldiers over the way. Commands were now issued in lowered tones, and men marched rapidly away, dividing into squads.
“What did you say to that feller?” demanded Anderson.
“I told him who those men are, Anderson Crow.”
“You couldn’t. They’re perfect strangers. If they wasn’t, how’d they happen to miss the road?”
“They are the very men I’m looking for,” said she. “They’re the robbers,—and the men who set fire to Smock’s warehouse, I’ll bet you—and everything else!”
“Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat!”
An officer rushed up.
“Turn that flivver around in the middle of the road and jump out quick. That will stop them. Let ’em smash it up if necessary. It isn’t worth more than ten dollars.”
While a half-dozen men were dragging the car into position as a barricade, Mrs. Crow exclaimed to her husband:
“That old skinflint! He said it was cheap at fifty dollars. Thank goodness, I—”
But Anderson was hustling her out of the car. In the distance the headlights of the bandits’ car burst into view as it swung around a bend in the road.
Soldiers everywhere! They seemed to have sprung out of the ground. On came the big car, thundering into the trap. Bugle-calls sounded; a couple of guns blazed into the air as the car flew past the outposts, lights flared suddenly in the path of bewildered occupants, and loud imperative commands rang out on the air.
Into the gantlet of guns the big car rushed. The man at the wheel bent low and took the reckless chance of getting through.
Then, a hundred feet ahead, his lights fell upon the dauntless abandoned flivver. He jerked frantically at the brakes.
“Halt!” shouted Anderson Crow from the top of the roadside bank. “Surrender in the name of the Law!”
He spoke just in time.
Crash! They halted!
Deacon Rank’s little car died a glorious, spectacular death. (Harry Squires, in his account, placed it all alone in the list of “unidentified dead.”)
Three minutes after the collision, brawny soldiers were bending over the stretched-out figures of five unconscious men.
Mr. and Mrs. Crow stood on the edge of the group, awe-struck and silent.
“They’re coming around, all right,” said some one at Anderson’s elbow. “He was slowing down when they struck. But there’s no hope for the poor old flivver.”
Anderson found his voice—a quavering, uncertain voice—and exclaimed:
“Stand aside, men! I am the marshal of Tinkletown, an’ them scoundrels are my prisoners.”
His progress was barred by a couple of soldiers. An officer approached.
“Easy, Mr. Marshal—easy, now. This is our affair, you know. I guess you’d better come with me to the colonel. Don’t be alarmed. They shan’t escape.”
“They’re mighty desperit characters—” began Anderson.
“Step this way, please,” said the other shortly.
* * * *
It was four o’clock in the morning when Mr. and Mrs. Crow were deposited at their front door by the colonel’s automobile. The robbers, under heavy guard, remained in the camp, pending action on the part of the civic authorities. They were very much alive and kicking when Anderson left them, after a pompous harangue on the futility of crime in that neck of the woods.
“Yes, sir, Colonel,” he said, turning to the camp commander, “a crook ain’t got any more chance than a snowball in—you know—when he tries to pull the wool over my eyes. I’ve been ketchin’ thieves and bandits an’ the Lord knows what-all for forty years er more, an’ so forth. I want to thank you, sir, an’ your brave soldier boys—an’ the United States Government also—fer the assistance you have given me tonight. I doubt very much whether I could ‘a’ took ’em single-handed—handicapped as I was by havin’ a woman along. An’ when you git over to France with these brave troops of yours, I c’n tell you one thing: the Kaiser’ll know it, you bet! Never mind about the old car. It’s seen its best days. An’ it ain’t mine, anyhow. I’ll be out here bright and early tomorrow morning with my posse, an’ we’ll take them fellers off’m your hands. If you’ll excuse me now, I guess I’ll be movin’ along to’ards home. I’ve still got a fire to put out, an’ a lot of other things to do besides. I’ve got to let the bank know I have recovered their money an’ left it in good hands, an’ I’ve got to send a posse out to see if they c’n locate George Brubaker’s safe along the road anywheres. An’ what’s more, I’ve got to repair the jail, and officially notify Deacon Rank he’s had an accident to his car.”
Mrs. Crow had little to say until she was snugly in bed. Her husband was getting into his official garments.
“I think you’re foolish to go out again, Anderson,” she said. “It’s not daylight yet. There won’t be anybody around, this time of day, to listen to how you captured those robbers,—and—”
“Don’t you believe it,” said he. “I bet you fifty cents you are the only person in Tinkletown that’s in bed at this minute. They’re all afraid to go to bed, Eva, an’ you can’t blame ’em. Nobody knows I’ve got them desperadoes bound hand and foot and guarded by a whole regiment of U. S. troops, specially deputized for the occasion.”
“YOU ARE INVITED TO BE PRESENT”
Anderson Crow sat on the porch of the post-office, ruminating over the epidemic that had assailed Tinkletown with singular virulence, and, in a sense, enthusiasm. Not that there was anything sinister or loathsome about the plague. Far from it, he reflected, because it had broken out so soon after his bitter comments on the prolonged absence of the slightest symptom, or indication that a case was even remotely probable. And here he was, holding in his hand four fresh and unmistakable signs that the contagion was spreading. In short, he had just received and opened four envelopes addressed to Mr. and Mrs. A. Crow, and each con
tained an invitation to a wedding.
Alf Reesling, commonly known as the town drunkard, sat on the top step, whittling.
“No law against gittin’ married, is there, constable?” he inquired.
“I don’t know much about this new eugenric law,” mused Mr. Crow, gingerly pulling at his whiskers. “So fer as I know, it ain’t been violated up here.”
“What’s the harm, anyway? You was sayin’ yourself only the other day that it’s a crime the way the young fellers in this town never git married. Just set around the parlour stoves all winter holdin’ hands, and on the front steps all summer——”
“Like as not the gosh-derned cowards heard what I said and got up spunk enough to tackle matrimony,” interrupted the venerable town marshal. “June seems to be a good month fer weddin’s everywhere else in the world except right here in Tinkletown. The last one we had was in December, and that was two years ago. Annie Bliss and Joe Hodges. Now we’re goin’ to have ’em so thick and fast there won’t be an unmarried man in the place, first thing you know. Up to date, me and Mrs. Crow have had seventeen printed invitations, and I don’t know how many by word o’ mouth. Fellers that never even done any courtin’, so fer as I know, are gittin’ married to girls that ain’t had a beau since the Methodist revival in nineteen-ten. They all got religion then, male and female, and there’s nothin’ like religion to make people think they ought to have somebody to share their repentance with.”
“George Hoover’s been goin’ with Bessie Slayback ever sence McKinley beat Bryan in ‘ninety-six. Swore he’d never git married till we had another democratic president. We’ve had one fer more’n four years and now he says he never dreamed there’d be another one, so he didn’t think it was worth while to save up enough to git married on. You don’t happen to have a bid there fer his weddin’, have you, Anderson? That would be too much to expect, I guess.”
“How old do you make out Bessie is, Alf?” asked Mr. Crow, shuffling the envelopes until he found the one he wanted. He removed the card, printed neatly by the Tinkletown Banner Press, and squinted at it through his spectacles.
“Forty-nine,” said Alf, promptly. “Twenty-sixth of last January.”
The George Barr McCutcheon Megapack: 25 Classic Novels and Stories Page 263