THE VOICE OF THE TAIL-LIGHT
One night after dark, Pepsy and Pee-wee were sitting in their little
roadside pavilion because they preferred it to the lamp-lighted kitchen
smelling of kerosene where Uncle Ebenezer read the _American Farm
Journal_, his arms spread on the red covered table.
A cheery little cricket chirped somewhere in this scene of impending
failure; nearby a katydid was grinding out her old familiar song as if
it were the latest popular air. In the barn across the yard the
discordant sound of the horses kicking the echoing boards sounded clear
in the still night and seemed a part of the homely music of the
countryside.
Suddenly a speeding auto, containing perhaps its load of merry, heedless
joy riders, went rattling over the old bridge along the highway and the
loose planks called out across the interval of woodland to the little
red-headed girl in this remote shack along the obscure by-road.
“You have to go back,
You have to go back,
You have to go back.”
Little did those speeding riders know of the voice they had called up to
terrify this unknown child. The rattling, warning voice ceased as
suddenly as it had begun as the unseen car rolled noiselessly along the
smooth highway.
“Don’t you be scared of it,” Pee-wee said. “You’re as bad as Licorice
Stick. Those old boards don’t know what they’re talking about. I
wouldn’t be scared of what anything said unless it was alive, that’s
sure.”
“They voted not to build a new bridge for two years because they’ve got
to build a new school-house,” said Pepsy. “That’s because this county
hasn’t got much money. I’ll be glad when they build it; the floor’s
going to be made out of stone, like.”
“You mean the bridge?”
“Yes, and I wish they’d hurry up. Every night I hear that and I know
boards tell the truth, because if a door squeaks that means you’re going
to get married.”
“All you need is an oil can to keep from getting married then,” said
Pee-wee, “because if you oil a door it won’t squeak. So there; let’s
hear you answer that argument.”
There was no answer to that argument; keeping single was just a matter
of lubrication; but just the same that appalling sentence which had
become fixed in Pepsy’s mind, haunted her, especially when she lay on
her feather mattress in the yellow painted bed up in her little room.
She was just about to go in when they were aroused by a sound in the
distance. Pee-wee thought it was an auto and he made ready to deliver
his usual verbal assault to the travelers. Louder and louder grew the
sound and suddenly a motorcycle with no headlight went whizzing past in
the darkness. It was followed by another, also without any headlight,
but this second rider stopped a little distance beyond the shack and got
off his machine.
Something, he knew not what, dissuaded Pee-wee from making his customary
announcements and he stood in the darkness watching this second speeder
who seemed to be delayed by some trouble with his machine. The traveler
was certainly too hurried and preoccupied to think of doughnuts.
Meanwhile, the first cyclist had covered perhaps fifty yards and was
still going. The little red tail-light of his machine shone brightly.
Pee-wee was just wondering why these travelers used no headlights and
whether the first cyclist would return to assist his friend, when he
beheld something which caught and held his gaze in rapt concentration.
The little red tail-light went out and on four times in quick
succession. There followed an appreciable pause, then two quick flashes.
Pee-wee watched the tiny light, spellbound. It appeared for a couple of
seconds, then flashed twice with lightning rapidity.
“Hide,” Pee-wee repeated to himself and motioned with his hand for Pepsy
not to move.
Now, in such rapid succession that Pee-wee could hardly follow them, the
flashes appeared, tinier as the cyclist sped further away.
“_Hide Kelly’s barn_,” Pee-wee breathed.
Presently the second cyclist was on his machine again, speeding through
the darkness. Either the first cyclist knew that his friend’s trouble
was not serious, or time was so precious that he could not pause in any
case. Indeed, their flight must have been urgent to speed on such a road
without headlights. The whole thing had a rather sinister look. Pee-wee
wondered who Kelly was and where his barn was located.