Somewhere in Red Gap | Page 8

the little scoundrel.'

"And sure enough, in a minute he edged out again with Alonzo firmly
fastened to him in some way. Lon hadn't wanted to come and didn't
want to stay now, but he simply couldn't move. Say, that Ben Sutton
would make an awful grand anchor for a captive balloon. Alonzo wiped
his eyes until he could see who I was. Then I rebuked him, reminding
him of his sacred duties as a prominent citizen, a husband, and the
secretary of the Red Gap Chamber of Commerce. 'Of course it's all
right to take a drink now and then,' I says.
"Alonzo brightened at this. 'Good!' says he; 'now it's now and pretty
soon it will be then. Let's go into a saloon or something like that!'
"'You'll come with me,' I says firmly. And I marched 'em down to the
United States Grill, where I ordered tea and toast for 'em. Ben was
sensible enough, but Alonzo was horrified at the thought of tea. 'It's tea
or nice cold water for yours,' I says, and that set him off again. 'Water!'
he sobs. 'Water! Water! Maybe you don't know that some dear cousins
of mine have just lost their all in the Dayton flood--twenty years'
gathering went in a minute, just like that!' and he tried to snap his
fingers. All the same I got some hot tea into him and sent for Eddie
Pierce to be out in front with his hack. While we was waiting for Eddie
it occurs to Alonzo to telephone his wife. He come back very solemn
and says: 'I told her I wouldn't be home to dinner because I was hungry
and there probably wouldn't be enough meat, what with a vegetarian
poet in the house. I told her I should sink to the level of a brute in the
night life of our gay little city. I said I was a wayward child of Nature
myself if you come right down to it.'
"'Good for you,' I says, having got word that Eddie is outside with his
hack. 'And now for the open road!' 'Fine!' says Alonzo. 'My spirit is
certainly feeling very untamed, like some poet's!' So I hustled 'em out
and into the four wheeler. Then I give Eddie Pierce private instructions.
'Get 'em out into the hills about four miles,' I says, 'out past the Catholic
burying ground, then make an excuse that your hack has broke down,
and as soon as they set foot to the ground have them skates of yours run
away. Pay no attention whatever to their pleadings or their profane
threats, only yelling to 'em that you'll be back as soon as possible. But

don't go back. They'll wait an hour or so, then walk. And they need to
walk.'
"'You said something there,' says Eddie, glancing back at 'em. Ben
Sutton was trying to cheer Alonzo up by reminding him of the
Christmas night they went to sleep in the steam room of the Turkish
bath at Nome, and the man forgot 'em and shut off the steam and they
froze to the benches and had to be chiselled off. And Eddie trotted off
with his load. You'd ought to seen the way the hack sagged down on
Ben's side. And I felt that I had done a good work, so I hurried home to
get a bite to eat and dress and make the party, which I still felt would
be a good party even if the husband of our hostess was among the
killed or missing.
"I reached the clubhouse at eight o'clock of that beautiful June evening,
to find the party already well assembled on the piazza and the front
steps or strolling about the lawn, about eight or ten of our prominent
society matrons and near as many husbands. And mebbe those dames
hadn't lingered before their mirrors for final touches! Mrs. Martingale
had on all her rings and the jade bracelet and the art-craft necklace with
amethysts, and Mrs. Judge Ballard had done her hair a new way, and
Beryl Mae Macomber, there with her aunt, not only had a new scarf
with silver stars over her frail young shoulders and a band of cherry
coloured velvet across her forehead, but she was wearing the first ankle
watch ever seen in Red Gap. I couldn't begin to tell you the fussy
improvements them ladies had made in themselves--and all, mind you,
for the passing child of Nature who had never paid a bill for 'em in his
life.
"Oh, it was a gay, careless throng with the mad light of pleasure in its
eyes, and all of 'em milling round Wilfred Lennox, who was eating it
up. Some bantered him roguishly and some spoke in chest tones of