"Well, that's the way with most of them," he remarked, looking steadily
at Tish. "A machine's a rich man's toy. The only way to own one is to
have it endowed like a university. But I meant speed. What can you
make?"
"Never had a chance to find out," Tish said grimly. "Between nervous
women in the machine and constables outside I have the
twelve-miles-an-hour habit. I'm going to exchange the speedometer for
a vacuum bottle."
He smiled. "I don't think you're fair to yourself. Mostly--if you'll
forgive me--I can tell a woman's driving as far off as I can see the
machine; but you are a very fine driver. The way you brought that car
in here impressed me considerably."
"She need not pretend she crawls along the road," I said with some
sarcasm. "The bills she complains of are mostly fines for speeding."
"No!" said the young man, delighted. "Good! I'm glad to hear it. So are
mine!"
After that we got along famously. He had his car there--a low gray thing
that looked like an armored cruiser.
"I'd like you ladies to try her," he said. "She can move, but she is as
gentle as a lamb. A lady friend of mine once threaded a needle as an
experiment while going sixty-five miles an hour."
"In this car?"
"In this car."
Looking back, I do not recall just how the thing started. I believe Tish
expressed a desire to see the car go, and Mr. Ellis said he couldn't let
her out on the roads, but that the race-track at the fair-ground was
open and if we cared to drive down there in Tish's car he would show us
her paces, as he called it.
From that to going to the race-track, and from that to Tish's getting in
beside him on the mechanician's seat and going round once or twice, was
natural. I refused; I didn't like the look of the thing.
Tish came back with a cinder in her eye and full of enthusiasm. "It was
magnificent, Lizzie," she said. "The only word for it is sublime. You
see nothing. There is just the rush of the wind and the roar of the
engine and a wonderful feeling of flying. Here! See if you can find this
cinder."
"Won't you try it, Miss--er--Lizzie?"
"No, thanks," I replied. "I can get all the roar and rush of wind I want
in front of an electric fan, and no danger."
He stood by, looking out over the oval track while I took three cinders
from Tish's eye.
"Great track!" he said. "It's a horse-track, of course, but it's in
bully shape--the county fair is held there and these fellows make a big
feature of their horse-races. I came up here to persuade them to hold an
automobile meet, but they've got cold feet on the proposition."
"What was the proposition?" asked Tish.
"Well," he said, "it was something like this. I've been turning the
trick all over the country and it works like a charm. The town's ahead
in money and business, for an automobile race always brings a big crowd;
the track owners make the gate money and the racing-cars get the prizes.
Everybody's ahead. It's a clean sport too."
"I don't approve of racing for money," Tish said decidedly.
But Mr. Ellis shrugged his shoulders. "It's really hardly racing for
money," he explained. "The prizes cover the expenses of the racing-cars,
which are heavy naturally. The cars alone cost a young fortune."
"I see," said Tish. "I hadn't thought of it in that light. Well, why
didn't Morris Valley jump at the chance?"
He hesitated a moment before he answered. "It was my fault really," he
said. "They were willing enough to have the races, but it was a matter
of money. I made them a proposition to duplicate whatever prize money
they offered, and in return I was to have half the gate receipts and the
betting privileges."
Tish quite stiffened. "Clean sport!" she said sarcastically. "With
betting privileges!"
"You don't quite understand, dear lady," he explained. "Even in the
cleanest sport we cannot prevent a man's having an opinion and backing
it with his own money. What I intended to do was to regulate it.
Regulate it."
Tish was quite mollified. "Well, of course," she said, "I suppose since
it must be, it is better--er,--regulated. But why haven't you
succeeded?"
"An unfortunate thing happened just as I had the deal about to close,"
he replied, and drew a long breath. "The town had raised twenty-five
hundred. I was to duplicate the amount. But just at that time a--a young
brother of mine in the West got into difficulties, and I--but why go
into family matters? It would have been easy enough for me to pay my
part of the purse out of my share of the gate money; but the committee
demands cash on the table. I haven't got it."
Tish stood up in her car and looked out over the track.
"Twenty-five hundred dollars is a lot of money, young man."
"Not so much when you realize that the gate money will probably amount
to twelve thousand."
Tish turned and surveyed the grandstand.
"That thing doesn't seat twelve hundred."
"Two thousand people in the grandstand--that's four thousand dollars.
Four thousand standing inside the ropes at a dollar each, four thousand
more. And say eight hundred machines parked in the oval there at five
dollars a car, four thousand more. That's twelve thousand for the gate
money alone. Then there are the concessions to sell peanuts, toy
balloons, lemonade and palm-leaf fans, the lunch-stands, merry-go-round
and moving-picture permits. It's a bonanza! Fourteen thousand anyhow."
"Half of fourteen thousand is seven," said Tish dreamily. "Seven
thousand less twenty-five hundred is thirty-five hundred dollars
profit."
"Forty-five hundred, dear lady," corrected Mr. Ellis, watching her.
"Forty-five hundred dollars profit to be made in two weeks, and nothing
to do to get it but sit still and watch it coming!"
I can read Tish like a book and I saw what was in her mind. "Letitia
Carberry!" I said sternly. "You take my warning and keep clear of this
foolishness. If money comes as easy as that it ain't honest."
"Why not?" demanded Mr. Ellis. "We give them their money's worth,
don't we? They'd pay two dollars for a theater seat without half
the thrills--no chances of seeing a car turn turtle or break its
steering-knuckle and dash into the side-lines. Two dollars' worth?
It's twenty!"
But Tish had had a moment to consider, and the turning-turtle business
settled it. She shook her head. "I'm not interested, Mr. Ellis," she
said coldly. "I couldn't sleep at night if I thought I'd been the cause
of anything turning turtle or dashing into the side-lines."
"Dear lady!" he said, shocked; "I had no idea of asking you to help
me out of my difficulties. Anyhow, while matters are at a standstill
probably some shrewd money-maker here will come forward before long and
make a nice profit on a small investment."
As we drove away from the fair grounds Tish was very silent; but just as
we reached the Bailey place, with Bettina and young Jasper McCutcheon
batting a ball about on the tennis court, Tish turned to me.
"You needn't look like that, Lizzie," she said. "I'm not even thinking
of backing an automobile race--although I don't see why I shouldn't, so
far as that goes. But it's curious, isn't it, that I've got twenty-five
hundred dollars from Cousin Angeline's estate not even earning four per
cent?"