CHAPTER IV.JESS AND ROY.
CHAPTER IV.
JESS AND ROY.
Roy flung back some sort of answer and hastened out of the office. As he made his way up the sunny street outside, however, he could not get out of his mind the words of Simon Harding. After all, they were true; “what could he do?” Mentally, as he walked along, Roy ran over the list of his accomplishments. He came to the conclusion that aeroplane building and flying was where his greatest strength lay. But how was he to proceed to make money with his knowledge?
At this point in his meditations, when, unnoticed, he had almost reached the end of the elm-shaded village street, a loud “Honk! Honk!” suddenly startled him.
He looked up, and his gloom vanished like a summer cloud as he saw smiling down on himfrom the driver’s seat of the big auto which had just rolled up beside him, the sunny countenance of Jess Prescott. She was in automobile attire and looked unusually attractive.
“Oh, I am so glad I’ve run across you,” she exclaimed.
“You almost did,” laughed Roy.
“Did what?”
“Run across me, of course,” was the response. “But what are you doing in town? And driving your own car, too. Where is Jimsy?”
“Oh, he had to do an errand for father.”
“And so you are acting as chauffeur?”
“Yes, don’t I make a nice one?”
“You certainly do,” rejoined the lad with a great deal of emphasis.
“Well, that being the case, you are commanded to jump in by me at once. I’ve got an errand or two to do and then I’m driving home. We’ll go by your place and I can drop you there.”
“That’s very good of you––” began Roy, but Jess cut him short.
“It’s really selfish,” she exclaimed. “I was looking for an escort. I really need one. You haven’t got a revolver with you, have you?”
“Good gracious,” exclaimed the astonished boy as he climbed into the big car; “no, of course not. Whatever do you want one for?”
“Why,” confided Jess, as they sped along, “I’m on my way to the bank. Mother is going to a big dinner party to-night and I volunteered to fetch out her jewels for her from the safe deposit vault where she keeps them.”
“And you were afraid of robbers holding you up?”
“Of course not,” laughed the girl, skillfully dodging a vagrant dog that sped across the road in front of the big car; “but just the same, I’m glad to have a nice big boy like you with me. You see, some of the jewels are very valuable, and one never knows what might happen.”
“No,” agreed Roy; “but in broad daylight, on the road between Sandy Bay and your home, there could hardly be any risk. For instance, who would know that you had valuables in the car?”
“Nobody, except some of the servants at home probably,” responded Jess. “But here’s the bank.”
As she spoke she skillfully manipulated her levers and pedals and brought the car to a stop against the curb as neatly as any driver could have accomplished it.
The car had hardly come to a stop before the bank door flew open and Fanning Harding emerged, his features drawn up into what he meant to be a pleasing smile, but which more resembled a smirk.
Jess, ignoring his proffered hand, leaped lightly to the sidewalk and, responding somewhat frigidly to his pleasantries, made her way into the bank. A cold nod was all that had passed between Fanning and Roy, though young Hardinghad looked astonished at beholding the other in Jess’s car. Before long the girl tripped out of the building once more. But this time she carried with her a black leather case. Fanning was once more at her side and insisted on helping her into the car, holding her arm rather tightly as he did so.
“I wish I could accompany you,” he said. “Ten thousand dollars’ worth of jewels is a rather risky thing to carry about.”
“Oh, I have a splendid escort, thank you,” spoke up Jess, frigidly. She drew on her gauntlets and began fumbling with the levers. Roy was already out of the car and cranking up.
“It would be the pleasure of the ride,” said Fanning, in a low voice. “If I were with you I could almost wish somebody would try to hold us up so that I could show you what I could do in your defence.”
“Just as you did that day at school when poor little Henry Willis was being beaten by that big bully Hank Jones?” asked Jess, quietly. Fanning’sglances, and the emphasis he threw into what he said, were very distasteful to her, and she took what proved an effectual means of squelching him.
“You know I had a sore wrist that day and couldn’t get into a fight with Hank,” said Fanning, but his eyes were downcast and he had not much more to say. Presently the auto chugged off, leaving the disgruntled youth standing on the sidewalk following it with his eyes.
“So you’re trying to win out Jess Bancroft, are you?” the over-dressed lad thought to himself. “Well, Roy Prescott, I guess that settles you. I’ve never liked you, and now that I’ve a chance to get the upper hand of you I’m going to use it. You’ll regret this auto ride to-day in days to come, or I’m very much mistaken.”
He turned and reëntered the bank, but presently emerged again in a leather coat of black material, black leggings and black cap and goggles. Hauling out his motor-cycle from a rack in front of the bank he wheeled it into the street,and with an admiring crowd of small boys looking on, started the swift, four-cylindered machine. In a cloud of dust he vanished in the same direction as had Jess Bancroft’s car.
Jess, once the confines of the village were past, “let the car out.” They sped along, chatting merrily. The roads about Sandy Bay were ideal for automobiling, and perhaps neither of the young occupants of the car noticed how fast they were going when the vehicle topped a small rise and began descending a long steep grade at the bottom of which the railroad, which approached on a curve, was visible in two shining parallel streaks of metal.
Suddenly there came a shrill, long drawn whistle.
“Hullo, a train!” exclaimed Roy. “Must be a freight; there’s no regular passenger scheduled to run at this time of day.”
“That’s right,” agreed Jess. “I guess I’ll slow down a bit till we see how close it is to the crossing.”
She pressed her foot on the brake pedal and shoved hard.
But to her astonishment there was no diminution in the speed of the car. It plunged forward down the hill, gaining impetus every second.
“Better slow up, Jess,” warned Roy, who had not noticed the girl grow white and faint, as the possibility of what might occur if she could not control the car flashed before her.
“I—I can’t!” she gasped.
“The emergency brake!” almost shouted Roy. Below them he had seen a swiftly moving column of white smoke. It was the approaching train. Now it whistled once more. That meant it was close upon the crossing toward which the car was racing at terrific speed.
“I’ve—I’ve tried it. It’s jammed or something! Oh, Roy! the train!”
Before she could say any more Roy had risen from his seat, and gently, but firmly, removed the girl’s trembling hands from the steering wheel. With might and main he tried to checkthe car. But all he did was in vain. Drops of perspiration stood out upon his forehead. Jess, utterly unnerved, sank back in her seat and hid her face with her gloved hands.
Above the roar of the on-dashing car could be heard the sharp puffing of the approaching locomotive. Roy tugged as if he would tear his muscle out at the brake lever, but it refused to budge. A sort of desperate coolness came over him. But Jess, who had uncovered her eyes for an instant, gave a sudden shrill scream.
“Oh, we’ll be killed! Look,—the train! We’ll crash into it!”
“Sit down, Jess,” ordered Roy, sternly, for the excited girl had seemed to be on the point of jumping from the car as it swayed and bumped toward what seemed certain annihilation, at a terrific rate.
Roy glanced desperately about him. The hill was enclosed by steepish banks with hedgerows at the top. But at one point he thought he saw a chance of escape.
As he despairingly changed the direction of the car two figures sprang from behind the hedge and gazed in amazement at the runaway auto.
“They’ll be killed to a certainty!” cried one.
Indeed it seemed so. With Jess in a dead faint and Roy looking straight into the dark face of danger the uncontrolled car tore onward toward the train. The engineer saw it now and blew his whistle shrilly.