Tish | Page 5

sulky at being left, it is absurd for her to assume an air of
virtue over what followed that day. Aggie was only like a lot of
people--good because she was not tempted; for it was at the garage that
we met Mr. Ellis.
We had stopped the engine and Tish was quarreling with the man about
the price of gasoline when I saw him--a nice-looking young man in a
black-and-white checked suit and a Panama hat. He came over and
stood looking at Tish's machine.
"Nice lines to that car," he said. "Built for speed, isn't she? What do
you get out of her?"
Tish heard him and turned. "Get out of her?" she said. "Bills mostly."
"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 an 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