Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks, and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
THE FLYERS
BY GEORGE BARR MCCUTCHEON
Author of "Graustark" "Beverly of Graustark" etc.
CONTENTS
CHAP.
I. THE FARAWAY CLUB
II. THE FLYERS CATCH THE FLYER
III. THE MORNING AFTER
IV. MRS. VAN TRUDER INTRUDES
V. AS NIGHT APPROACHES
VI. THE ROAD TO PARADISE
ILLUSTRATIONS
Anne Courtenay ..... Frontispiece
Eleanor was still sitting. . . stiff and silent
Seated side by side. . . two miserable partners in the fiasco
Windomshire
"Hush, Joe, I LOVE it," she cried
CHAPTER I
THE FARAWAY CLUB
A cold, thick drizzle, blown by a biting wind that sent chills to the
marrow, marred the early spring night, and kept indoors the few hardy
members who had haunted the clubhouse since the season's opening a week
before. Not more than a dozen loyal devotees to the sports of the open
air lounged about the big clubhouse. Three or four rangy young women in
sweaters and jackets strove bravely to dispel the gloom of the night as
it settled down upon the growling masculine majority. The club steward
hovered near, anxiously directing the movements of a silent and as yet
undrilled corps of servants who flitted from group to group with
decanters and checks, taking and mistaking orders with the usual
abandon. A huge fireplace threw out heat sufficient to make the big
lounging room comfortable. Now and then a spiteful gust of wind swept
the rain against the western window-panes with a menace that set the
teeth on edge.
"Rotten night," reflected the big man who monopolised the roomiest
chair and the best position in front of the blazing logs. "Going to
town to-night?" The question was general: there were half a dozen
answers. Every one was going in by the last express. All of them had
dined well: they had been hungry and the club was a wealthy one; even
the most exclusive of appetites could be entertained at the Faraway
Country Club. The last 'bus was to leave the clubhouse at ten minutes
past ten, and it was then half-past eight. Ten minutes' drive from the
clubhouse on the edge of the little town to the railway station--then
thirty minutes to the heart of the big city in which the members lived
and died at great risk to themselves.
Each succeeding spring saw the formal opening of the Faraway Country
Club. The boards were pulled down from the windows and the door hinges
were oiled properly after a winter of discontent. May saw the
reopening, but it was not until June that crowds began to fill the
house and grounds. Only the more restless and hardy had the temerity to
test the pleasures of the raw spring days and nights. The M.F.H. was a
loyal, eager chap; he knew what was required of him in his official
capacity. With the first symptoms of softening soil he led his
followers through field and wood, promising the "real hunt" inside of a
month. Following a pack of overfed hounds was what every one at Faraway
Club called a "real hunt."
The night so meagrely described at the beginning of this tale followed
hard upon a grey, chill day. A few golfers had spent the afternoon upon
the course, inanely cursing the temporary tees and greens. A couple of
polo enthusiasts tried out their ponies, and several men and women took
their hunters over the course, that fairly bristled with spectres of
last year's anise-seed. Now they were comfortably ensconced in the
clubhouse, berating the unfortunate elements, and waiting for the last
express with a persistency which allowed three or four earlier trains
to come and go unnoticed. The cheerful highball was coming into its
own. A stern winter of bridge had not killed the ardour of certain
worshippers; continuous criticism of play arose from the table in the
corner where two men and two women were engaged with the cards.
The perennial bore, who noses into everything in order to sniff his own
wit, sauntered amiably from group to group, pouring out jests as murky
as the night itself. He saw none of the scowls nor heard the toe-taps;
he went blithely along his bridgeless way.
"I say, Brown, I saw your wife on the street yesterday, but she didn't
see me," he observed to the blase-looking man in corduroys.
"Ya-as," returned the other, calmly staring past him; "so she told me
last night." The bore and his blissful smile passed on to the next
group. There, two or three women were chatting with as many men,
yawning and puffing at their cigarettes, bored by the risque stories
the men were telling, but smiling as though they had not already heard
them from other men. Occasional remarks, dropped softly into the ears
of the women, may have brought faint blushes to their cheeks, but the
firelight was a fickle consort to such changes. The sly turn of a
sentence gave many a double meaning; the subtle glance of the eye
intended no harm. Dobson's new toast to "fair women" earned a roar of
laughter, but afterwards Dobson was called to account by a husband who
realised. A man over in the corner was thumping aimlessly on the piano;
a golf fanatic was vigorously contending that he had driven 243 yards
against the wind; a tennis enthusiast was lamenting the fact that the
courts were too soft to be used; there was a certain odour of
rain-soaked clothes in the huge room, ascendant even above the smell of
cigarettes. Altogether, it was a night that owed much to the weather.
Mrs. Scudaway, dashing horsewoman and exponent of the free rein, was
repeating the latest story concerning an intimate friend of every one
present--and, consequently, absent.
"She's just sailed for Europe, and that good-looking actor friend of
the family happened to go on the same steamer," she was saying with a
joyous smile.
"Accidents will happen," remarked some one, benevolently.
"Where's her husband? I haven't seen him with her in months," came from
one of the men.
"Oh, they have two children, you know," explained Mrs. Scudaway.
"Delicate, I hear," said Miss Ratliff.
"Naturally; he nurses them," said Mrs. Scudaway, blowing smoke half-way
across the room through her delicate nostrils.
"I say, Mrs. Scudaway," cried the rapt bore, "don't you ever do
anything but inhale?"
"Yes, I exhale occasionally. No, thanks," as he held forth an ash tray.
Then she flecked the ashes into the fireplace, ten feet away.
"Good Lord, it's a rotten night!" repeated the big man, returning
dismally from a visit to the window. "There's a beastly fog mixed in
with the rain."
"Better blow the fog horn for Henderson," said Ratliff, with a jerk of
his thumb. "He's half seas over already and shipping a lot of water."
Henderson, the convivial member, was on his third siphon.
"I don't care a whoop what McAlpine says," roared an irascible
gentleman on the opposite side of the fireplace; "a man ought to use a
midiron when he gets that kind of a lie. Nobody but an ass would take a
brassie. He's---"
"Just listen to that blethering idiot," said young Rolfe to the lady
beside him. "He ought to be choked."
"I like the way you speak of my husband," she responded gaily.
"Oh, I forgot. He is your husband, isn't he?" Then, after a moment's
easy contemplation of the pretty young woman and a scornful glance at
the golfer: "Lucky, but a very poor watchdog."
"He barks beautifully," resented the young wife, with a loyal grimace.
"That's why you're not afraid of him," he said quickly.
"Don't you think he'd bite?"
"They never do."
"Well, you just try him, that's all," remarked the young wife coldly,
rising and moving away, a touch of red in her cheeks.
"I will," he sang out genially, as he crossed his legs and stretched
his feet out to the fire. She looked back with a mirthless smile on her
lips.
The man at the piano struck up the insidious "La Mattchiche,"
suggestive of the Bal Tabarin and other Fourteenth of July devotions.
"Don't play that, Barkley," complained the big man, as every one began
beating time to the fascinating air. "I'm trying to forget Paris."
"Can you ever forget that night in Maxim's---" began Mrs. Scudaway.
"I recall the next day more vividly," he interrupted.
"Changing the subject," inserted the amiable bore, his moon-face
beaming, "I see that the Thursdales have opened their place across the
ravine. Isn't it rather early for them to leave town for the summer?"
"They come out every year about this time."
"Lot of people will be opening their places next week. I saw Mrs.
Gorgus to-day. She says they're putting her house in shape---"
"Impossible!" cried Mrs. Tanner. "It hasn't any shape."
"The only thing that could put the Gorgus house in shape is an
earthquake. Who was the architect of that abortion?" demanded Rolfe.
"Denison. He's an impressionist."
"The Thursdales have a new French car. Have you seen it? Eleanor ran
over here in it this afternoon with her Englishman. Showing off both of
her novelties at once, d'ye see?" said Carter, the tennis player.
"I understand the thing's a go--sure go," said the big man. "In the
fall some time. He's a rather decent chap, too."
"And, what's better, if his brother and his cousin should happen to
die, he'll be a duke."
"If they're as healthy as he seems to be, there'll be nothing doing for
him."
A good-looking young fellow, who had been staring at the fire all
evening, moved uneasily in his lounging chair. Several quick glances
were sent to where he sat moodily apart from the others, and then
surreptitious winks and nudges were exchanged.
"Joe is as crazy in love with her as ever, poor devil," whispered
Rolfe. Gradually the group of gossips came closer together over the
table top; the conversation was continued in more subdued tones.
"They're discussing me, damn 'em," said the moody young man to himself.
"I suppose they're pitying me. Damn cats! But I'll show 'em a thing or
two they're not looking for before long." He looked at his watch for
the twentieth time in an hour and scowled at the drenched window-panes
across the way. For some reason this exceedingly nice-looking young man
was in a state of extreme nervousness, a condition which, luckily for
him, he was able to keep within himself.
And this was what Mrs. Scudaway was saying in an urgent undertone to
the half dozen who leaned across the big table: "Joe is a mighty good
sort, and I'm sorry for him. He's been good enough for Eleanor
Thursdale ever since she came out two years ago, and I don't see why he
should cease being good enough for her now. This Englishman hasn't any
more money and he isn't half as good looking. He's English, that's all.
Her mother's crazy to have a look in at some of those London functions
she's read so much about. She's an awful ass, don't you think, Tommy?"
"Ya-as," said the blase man; "such as she is."
"Mighty hard lines, this thing of being an ordinary American," lamented
the placid bore.
"One might just as well be called Abraham or Isaac," reflected Carter.
"No romantic young lover would live through the first chapter with
either of those names," said pretty Miss Ratliff, who read every novel
that came out.
"Dauntless has been terribly out of humour for the past week or two,"
said Carter. "He's horribly cut up over the affair,--grouchy as blazes,
and flocks by himself all the time. That's not like him, either."
"He's the sweetest boy I know," commented little Mrs. Tanner, whose
husband had barked about the midiron.
"I've heard he's the only man you ever really loved," murmured Rolfe,
close to her ear.
"Nonsense! I've known him all my life," she replied, with quick and
suspicious resentment.
"Trite phrase," scoffed he. "I'll wager my head that every woman living
has uttered that same worn expression a hundred times. 'Known him all
my life!' Ha, ha! It's a stock apology, my dear. Women, good and bad,
trade under that flag. Please, to oblige me, get a fresh excuse."
"The most ignorant duffer in the world could lay you a stymie if---"
the loud-voiced golfer was complaining just at that instant. The man he
was addressing was nodding his head politely and at the same time
trying to hear what was being said at the round table.
"Joe Dauntless is good enough for anybody's daughter," vouchsafed the
blase man in corduroys.
"He's a ripping good fellow," again said Mrs. Scudaway.
"Mrs. Thursdale's got an English governess for her kids, an English
butler, an English bull terrier, and a new Cobden-Sanderson binding on
that antique History of England she talks so much about," observed
Carter.
"And she's beginning to wear her evening gowns on the street in the
morning. Besides, her shoes lob over at the heels," remarked the rangy
Mrs. Carter.
"Yes, she's getting to be thoroughly English. I've noticed a tendency
to chirp like a bird when she talks, too."
"That governess is a mighty stunning girl, by the way," said Rolfe.
"She's been over here a year, you know," said Mrs. Scudaway, with no
apparent relevancy.
"Have you heard when Eleanor's engagement is to be announced?" asked
Miss Ratliff.
"I'm not supposed to tell, but I have it on the best authority that it
will be announced next week, and the wedding will take place in
November. I suppose they'll ask Joe Dauntless to be an usher," said
Mrs. Carter.
"Hello! Joe's gone outside. He must have heard something we said," said
Rolfe, setting his highball glass down with a thump.
"Oh, if he had only been educated at Cambridge instead of in
Cambridge," mourned Mrs. Carter.
It was true that the tall, good-looking Mr. Dauntless had left the
room, but not because he had heard the comments of his friends. He was
standing on the wind-swept verandah, peering through the mist toward a
distant splash of light across the ravine to the right of the club
grounds. The fog and mist combined to run the many lights of the
Thursdale windows into a single smear of colour a few shades brighter
than the darkness from which it protruded. Dauntless's heart was inside
that vague, impressionistic circle of colour, but his brain was very
much in evidence on the distant outside. What were the workings of that
eager brain will soon be revealed--to the reader, at least, if not to
the occupants of the rain-bound clubhouse.
A word concerning Dauntless. He was the good-looking son of old banker
Dauntless, who died immediately after his cashier brought ruin to the
concern of which he was president. This blow fell when his son was in
his senior year at Harvard. He took his degree, and then, instead of
the promised trip around the world, he came home and went to work in
the offices of a big brokerage firm. Everybody knew and liked him. He
was a steady, earnest worker, and likewise a sportsman of the right
temperament. Big, fashionable Faraway looked upon him as its most
gallant member; no one cared to remember that he might have been very
rich; every one loved him because he had been rich and was worthy in
spite of that. It was common knowledge that he was desperately in love
with pretty Eleanor Thursdale, daughter of the eminently fashionable
and snobbishly aristocratic widow Thursdale, mistress of many millions
and leader of select hundreds. Moreover, it was now pretty well known
that Mrs. Thursdale had utterly lost sight of Dauntless in surveying
the field of desirable husbands for Eleanor. She could see nothing but
Englishmen, behind whom lurked the historic London drawing-rooms and
British estates. That is how and why young Windomshire, a most
delightful Londoner, with prospects and a peerage behind him, came to
be a guest in her city house, following close upon a long sojourn in
the Bermudas. HE had been chosen; the battle was over, so far as
Eleanor's hand was concerned. What matter if Dauntless had her heart?
The object of this indifference and scorn gazed long and hard at the
blob of light across the ravine. His heart was beating fast, and his
body tingled with a strange excitement, which made itself manifest in a
mixture of impatient frowns and prophetic smiles.
"If it wasn't such a beastly night," he was muttering in one breath,
and, "Still, it's just the sort of a night we want," in the next. He
was looking at his watch in the light from the window when an
automobile whizzed up the wet gravel drive and came to a stop in front
of the club steps. As Dauntless re-entered the house from the verandah,
a tall young man in a motor coat and goggles came in through the
opposite door. They paused and looked steadily at each other, then
nodded briefly. The crowd of loungers glanced at the two men with
instant curiosity and then breathed easily. The man who was going to
marry Miss Thursdale and the man who wanted to marry her were advancing
to shake hands--a trifle awkwardly, perhaps, but more or less frankly.
"Rough weather for motoring," remarked Dauntless, nervously.
Windomshire removed his cap and goggles.
"Beastly. I just ran over for something to warm the inside man. Won't
you join me?" His voice was pleasant to the ear, his manner easy and
appealing. He was not so good looking as Dauntless, true, but he had
the air of a thoroughbred in his make-up--from head to foot.
"Sit down here," called Mrs. Scudaway readily, creating a general shift
of chairs. The two men hesitated a moment, nervousness apparent in
both, and then sat down quickly. The Englishman was next Mrs. Scudaway.
"What were you doing out in the rain?" she asked after the order for
drinks had been taken.
"Hurrying to get out of it," he said with evasive good humour, "and
thinking how much nicer your fogs are than ours," he added quickly.
"Anybody come over with you?" asked the bore, agreeably.
"No, they're playing bridge over at Mrs. Thursdale's and that lets me
out. Beastly headache, too. Got out for a breath of air." The silence
that followed this observation seemed to call for further explanations.
"Miss Thursdale retired soon after dinner, wretchedly under the
weather. That rather left me adrift, don't you know. I'm not playing
bridge this year."
"You're not? Why not, pray?"
"Chiefly because of last year. My Mercedes came on from New York
yesterday and I got her out for a spin. Couldn't resist, don't you
know. She's working beautifully."
"There's one thing about a Mercedes that I don't like--and you don't
find it in a Panhard. I've got a Panhard and--" Dobson was saying with
all the arrogance of a motor fiend, when Mrs. Scudaway ruthlessly and
properly cut him off.
"We know all about your Panhard, Dobby. Don't bother. Is Eleanor really
ill, Mr. Windomshire?"
"I had it from her own lips, Mrs. Scudaway."
"Oh, you know what I mean. Is it likely to be serious?"
"Really, I can't say. I offered to go and fetch the doctor in my car,
but she assured me she'd be all right in the morning. What say, Mr.
Dauntless?"
"I didn't speak, Mr. Windomshire."
"I thought you did." More than one at the table had heard Joe's
involuntary chuckle.
"I say, Windomshire, what's the name of that pretty governess over at
Thursdale's?" asked the busy bore. "Saw her this morning."
The Englishman looked down and flecked the ashes from his cigarette
before answering.
"Miss Courtenay," he responded.
"She's a corking pretty girl." Windomshire went through the unnecessary
act of flecking ashes again, but said nothing in reply. "Are there any
more at home like her?" with a fine chuckle in behalf of his wit.
"She's of a very good family, I believe," said Windomshire, looking
about helplessly. Mrs. Scudaway caught the look in his eyes and
remembered that English gentlemen are not supposed to discuss women
outside of their own set.
"It must be time for the 'bus," she said. "We're all going in by the
10.10, Mr. Windomshire."
"Can't I take some of you over to the station in my car?"
"The 'bus is dryer, I think, thank you." She led the way, and the other
women followed her upstairs. "We'll be down in time," she called.
"I'll take some of you men over in Hardy's machine," volunteered
Dauntless. "I've got it out here this week, while he's east."
"Ain't you going in, Joe?" demanded Rolfe.
"Not to-night. I'm staying overnight with my uncle in Cobberly Road."
"The 'bus is good enough for me. I haven't forgotten how you ran off
the Peters Bridge last fall," said Carter.
"Hang it, man, he wasn't thinking about bridges that time," said the
cheerful bore. "There was a girl with him. Elea--Ahem! I say, old man,
what the devil time is it? Time for the confounded 'bus? Don't want to
miss the train." He had caught the scowl of warning from Carter and,
for a wonder, understood.
"By the way," said Windomshire, irrelevantly, "what was the disturbance
over in O'Brien's Lane this morning? Anybody hurt? I was driving the
car up Andrews' Hill when I saw the excitement. Couldn't make it out.
Were all of the horses running away?"
"Running away!" roared the blase man, forgetting his pose for the first
time. "Running away!" and he broke into a roar of laughter. "Why, that
was the advance guard of the Faraway Country Club. Good Lord, did you
see them coming in?"
"My word, they were coming in. But what was the rush? I came over
to-night to see if any of the women had been hurt. I could have sworn
the horses were absolutely unmanageable. They were tearing through
bushes and taking fences they'd never seen before. Egad, I give you my
word, one of the women took the fence at the south end of the golf
course, and she didn't turn out for the bunker at No. 7, either. She
took it like a bird, and straight across the course she flew on a dead
line for the home green. What the deuce---"
"Sh! Windomshire, it will cost you your life if she hears you. That was
Mrs. Scudaway. You don't know what happened, so I'll tell you. Half a
dozen of the women went out with us for a run over the usual course.
They are among our best and oldest hunters, too. Well, they were
keeping right up with the men and having a splendid hunt, when all of a
sudden a real, live fox dashed into view. By gad, sir, he started a
panic. They'd never seen one in their lives, and they set up a howl
that went clear to heaven. And they started for home--well, you saw 'em
on the stretch. It was great! There never has been such riding in
America. Mrs. Hooper lost her hat in the woods, and Mrs. Graves lost
part of her habit coming through that break in the hedge over there.
That skinny Miss Elperson, who never before has had nerve enough to
jump her horse over the lawn hose, cleared the wall that runs along
O'Brien's mill,--nobody's ever done it before,--and she came in hanging
to the horse's mane and yelling like a wild-cat. Gad, it was two hours
before we got 'em quiet and sent'em to town. They thought it was a
tiger, I understand, although some of them held out for the lion and
the hyena. Mrs. Scudaway was game enough to stay and enjoy the laugh."
"What became of the fox?" demanded the Englishman, his eyes glistening.
At that moment the women came trooping down stairs; the 'bus bell was
clanging sleepily.
"The fox? Oh--er--hanged if I know. I--er---"
"Were you riding?"
"Well--er--just a practice run, you know, old man. Er--I say, ladies,
the 'bus waits!"
Two minutes later the 'bus rolled away in the fog and drizzle, leaving
Dauntless and Windomshire alone on the steps.
"Good-night," said the Englishman, after an awkward silence.
"Good-night," was the response. Then, following a brief pause, both
started toward their cars. The next minute they were chugging away, in
the night and the lights in the clubhouse began to go out.
Two hours later a stealthy figure crept across the Thursdale lawn,
lurking behind the rose beds and lilac bushes, finally worming its way
to a dripping but secluded spot under the weather side of the house. It
was past twelve o'clock, but there were still lights in the front part
of the big summer-house. Quiet reigned there, however; the noise of
merry-making came from the servants' quarters overlooking the ravine. A
handful of gravel left an impatient hand and rattled against the
second-story window above. Almost instantaneously the window was raised
and a head came forth.
"Joe?" came a shrill whisper from above.
"What's the matter?" whispered the man below. "I've been waiting out
there for two hours--well, half an hour, at least. Aren't you coming,
dear?"
"I can't get out," came in a whispered wail. "I've had my hat on for
hours, but---"
"Why can't you get out? Good Lord, you just must!"
"They're playing bridge in the front part of the house and the servants
are having a reunion in the back. Oh, I've been nearly crazy. What are
we to do? Shall I jump?"
"Don't! Is there no way to sneak out?"
"I'm afraid of being seen. It would give everything away if any one saw
me in this automobile rigging at this time of night--and in a rain like
this, too. Oh, dear, dear, I know I shall go mad! You poor darling,
aren't you wet to the skin? I really couldn't help it. I just couldn't
be there at 11.30."
"We'll never make that train--never in the world," groaned Dauntless.
"It's ten miles, and the road's horrible all the way. By Jove, Nell,
you must get out some way. It's now or never. I've got everything
fixed."
"Oh, Joe--listen! Do you think you can get a ladder out from under the
verandah? The painters left them there this morning. Look out for
paint, dear. Don't make a noise--not a sound. Mr. Windomshire's room is
just over the porte cochere. For Heaven's sake, don't arouse him."
"Drop your bag down first, dear,--here! I'll catch it."
"I've got to put some things in it first. It isn't quite ready," she
gasped, darting away from the window.
"'T was ever thus," he muttered in despair. Cautiously he made his way
to the end of the verandah. A close listener might have heard him snarl
"damn" more than once as he tugged away at the painters' ladders, which
had been left there when the rain began. He was a good-natured chap,
but barking his knuckles, bumping his head, and banging his shins,
added to the misfortunes that had gone before, were enough to
demoralise a saint.
He imagined that he was making enough noise to rouse the neighbours for
blocks around. No time was to be lost in self-commiseration, however.
He hurriedly dragged out a ladder, which he managed to place against
the window-sill without accident.
"Here it is," she whispered excitedly. The next instant a heavy object
dropped at his feet with a crash. "Oh!" she exclaimed with horror, "my
perfume bottles!"
"Good Lord!" he gasped.
"I thought you were going to catch it. Oh, here's the ladder. Do you
think I'll fall? Oh, oh!"
"Don't be afraid. Climb out, dear--and hurry!"
She was brave enough in the crisis. While he held the bottom of the
ladder she scrambled through the window and hurried downward. Before
she reached the bottom he lifted her from the ladder in his strong arms
and held her close for a moment.
"Take the ladder down, dearest," she whispered between kisses. "I don't
want mother to know I left that way--not just yet,--nor Mr.
Windomshire, either."
"Come this way," he whispered, after replacing the ladder. "I left the
car just around the corner. Come on, darling, and we'll soon be safe.
Don't make a noise!"
"Goodness, isn't it dark! What a horrid night! Oh, what's that?"
"Gad, I thought I heard something over there in the croquet ground.
Sounded like some one mixing it up with a wicket. Quick! Out this way!"
He had her hand in his, and was rushing ruthlessly through flower-beds
toward the big gate, her travelling bag banging against his knee with
the insistence of a hundredweight.
Panting and gasping for breath, they finally floundered into the
roadway, and dashed off through the muddy surface toward the unseen
automobile.
She was half fainting with the panic of excitement as he started to
lift her into the tonneau of the car. "No, no! Please let me sit with
you in the front seat," she implored. She had her way, and a moment
later he was up beside her, both wrapped in the oil-cloths, the drizzle
blowing in their hot faces.
"We're off, thank God!" he whispered joyously, as the car leaped
forward under his hand.
"I wonder--oh, dear, how I wonder what mamma will say," she was crying
in his ear.
Dauntless grinned happily as the car shot onward through the blackness
of the night. Its lanterns were dark and cold, but he knew the road.