The Scarlet Car

andemitted a feeble groan.

  "What you tryin' to do?" demanded the constable. "That's townproperty."

  In the light of the constable's lantern, Winthrop surveyed his cellwith extreme dissatisfaction.

  "I call this a cheap cell," he said.

  "It's good enough for a cheap sport," returned the constable. It wasso overwhelming a retort that after the constable had turned the key inthe padlock, and taken himself and his lantern to the floor above,Winthrop could hear him repeating it to the volunteer firemen. Theyreceived it with delighted howls.

  For an hour, on the three empty boxes that formed his bed, Winthropsat, with his chin on his fists, planning the nameless atrocities hewould inflict upon the village of Fairport. Compared to his tortures,those of Neuremberg were merely reprimands. Also he considered theparticular punishment he would mete out to Sam Forbes for his desertionof his sister, and to Fred. He could not understand Fred. It was notlike the chauffeur to think only of himself. Nevertheless, forabandoning Miss Forbes in the hour of need, Fred must be discharged.He had, with some regret, determined upon this discipline, when fromdirectly over his head the voice of Fred hailed him cautiously.

  "Mr. Winthrop," the voice called, "are you there?"

  To Winthrop the question seemed superfluous. He jumped to his feet,and peered up into the darkness.

  "Where are YOU?" he demanded.

  "At the window," came the answer. "We're in the back yard. Mr. Samwants to speak to you."

  On Miss Forbes's account, Winthrop gave a gasp of relief. On his own,one of savage satisfaction.

  "And _I_ want to speak to HIM!" he whispered.

  The moonlight, which had been faintly shining through the iron bars ofthe coal chute, was eclipsed by a head and shoulders. The comfortablevoice of Sam Forbes greeted him in a playful whisper.

  "Hullo, Billy! You down there?"

  "Where the devil did you think I was?" Winthrop answered at white heat."Let me tell you if I was not down here I'd be punching your head."

  "That's all right, Billy," Sam answered soothingly. "But I'll save youjust the same. It shall never be said of Sam Forbes he deserted acomrade----"

  "Stop that! Do you know," Winthrop demanded fiercely, "that yoursister is a prisoner upstairs?"

  "I do," replied the unfeeling brother, "but she won't be long. All thelow-comedy parts are out now arranging a rescue."

  "Who are? Todd and those boys?" demanded Winthrop. "They mustn't thinkof it! They'll only make it worse. It is impossible to get yoursister out of here with those drunken firemen in the building. Youmust wait till they've gone home. Do you hear me?"

  "Pardon ME!" returned Sam stiffly, "but this is MY relief expedition.I have sent two of the boys to hold the bridge, like Horatius, and twoto guard the motors, and the others are going to entice the firemenaway from the engine house."

  "Entice them? How?" demanded Winthrop. "They're drunk, and they won'tleave here till morning."

  Outside the engine house, suspended from a heavy cross-bar, was a steelrail borrowed from a railroad track, and bent into a hoop. When hitwith a sledge-hammer it proclaimed to Fairport that the "consumingelement" was at large.

  At the moment Winthrop asked his question, over the village of Fairportand over the bay and marshes, and far out across the Sound, the greatsteel bar sent forth a shuddering boom of warning.

  From the room above came a wild tumult of joyous yells.

  "Fire!" shrieked the vamps, "fire!"

  The two men crouching by the cellar window heard the rush of feet, theengine banging and bumping across the sidewalk, its brass bell clankingcrazily, the happy vamps shouting hoarse, incoherent orders.

  Through the window Sam lowered a bag of tools he had taken fromWinthrop's car.

  "Can you open the lock with any of these?" he asked.

  "I can kick it open!" yelled Winthrop joyfully. "Get to your sister,quick!"

  He threw his shoulder against the door, and the staples flying beforehim sent him sprawling in the coal-dust. When he reached the head ofthe stairs, Beatrice Forbes was descending from the clubroom, and infront of the door the two cars, with their lamps unlit and numbershidden, were panting to be free.

  And in the North, reaching to the sky, rose a roaring column of flame,shameless in the pale moonlight, dragging into naked day the sleepingvillage, the shingled houses, the clock-face in the church steeple.

  "What the devil have you done?" gasped Winthrop.

  Before he answered, Sam waited until the cars were rattling to safetyacross the bridge.

  "We have been protecting the face of nature," he shouted. "The onlyway to get that gang out of the engine house was to set fire tosomething. Tommy wanted to burn up the railroad station, because hedoesn't like the New York and New Haven, and Fred was for setting fireto Judge Allen's house, because he was rude to Beatrice. But wefinally formed the Village Improvement Society, organized to burn alladvertising signs. You know those that stood in the marshes, and hidthe view from the trains, so that you could not see the Sound. Wechopped them down and put them in a pile, and poured gasolene on them,and that fire is all that is left of the pickles, fly-screens, andpills."

  It was midnight when the cars drew up at the door of the house ofForbes. Anxiously waiting in the library were Mrs. Forbes and ErnestPeabody.

  "At last!" cried Mrs. Forbes, smiling her relief; "we thought maybe Samand you had decided to spend the night in New Haven."

  "No," said Miss Forbes, "there WAS some talk about spending the nightat Fairport, but we pushed right on."