The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1909-07-27
The driver gasped.


you see.' Maitland continued with
q courteous smile, 81 have two engage
ments-one at Sherry's, the other with
the 1920 train from Long Island City.
What would you, as man to man, ad-
wise me to do. cabby?"
Well. sir. seem as you put it to
me straight" returned the cabby with
engaging candor. I'D go home. sir. If
was you, afore got any worse"
Thank you grayely. Long Island
City depot. then. cabby."
Maitland extended himself languid-
ly upon the cushions. Surely" he
told the night, '.the driver knows best
-he and Bannerman"
The cab started of Jogging so Sc
dately up Madison avenue that Matt
land glanced at his watch and elevated
his brows obviously; then with his
stick poked open the trap in the roof.
'1f you really think it best for me
to go home, cabby, you'll have to drive
like hell" he suggested, mildly.
''YessirI"
A whip-lash cracked loudly over the
horses back, and the hanson, lurch-
ing into Thirty-fourth street on one
wheel, was presently jouncing eastward
over rough cobbles, at a regardless
pace which reused the gongs of the
surface cars to a claDgor of hysterical
expostulation. In trice the 81" ex-
tension was roaring overhead; and
little later the ferry gates were yawn-
ing before them. Again Maitland con-
suited his watch, commenting briefly:
In time
Yet he reckoned without the ferry,
enc of whose employees deliberately
and implacably swung to the gates in
the very face of the astonished cab
horse, which promptly rose upon its
hind legs and paved the air with ges-
lures of pardonable evaporation. To
no avail, however; the gates remained
closed, the cabby with language)
refined his steed back yard or two,
and Maitland, lighting cigarette,
composed himself to simulate patience.
/ Followed a wait of ten minutes or
so, in which a number Of vehicles
! Joined company with the cab; the pas
4 senger was vaguely aware of the jar
ring purr of a motor car, like that OF
some huge cat, in the immediate rear.
/ A circumstance which he had occasion
to recall ere long.
In the course of time the gates were
again opened The bridge cleared of
! incoming traffic AS the cabby drove
aboard the boat, with nice considera-
ton selecting the choicest stand of
all, well out upon the forward deck,
a motor car slid in, humming, on the
right of the hanson.
Maitland sat forward, resting his
forearms on the apron, and jerked his
cigarette out over the gates; the glow
ing stub described a fiery arc and took
the water with hiss. Warm whiffs
Of the rivers sweet and salty breath
famed his face gratefully, and he be
came aware that there was moon.
His gaze rowing at will. he nodded an
even-tempered appreciation of the
nights splendor-in the city a thing
unsupported.
Never, he thought, had he known
strong. Shadows of gates and posts
lay upon the forward deck like stencils
of Iampblack upon white marble Be
yond the boats bluntly rounded nose
the East river stretched its restless,
dark reaches, glossy black woven with
gorgeous ribbons of reflected light
streaming from pier head lamps on the
further shore Overhead, the sky,
pallid and luminous blue around the
Iow-swung moon, was shaded to pro
found depths of bluish-black toward
/ the horizon. Above Brooklyn rested
tenuous haze A revenue cutter. a
slim. pale shape. cut across the bows
like a hunted ghost. Farther out
homeward-bound excursion steamer,
tier upon tier of glittering lights,
drifted slowly toward its pier beneath
the new bridge, the blare of its band,
swelling and dying upon the night
breeze, mercifully tempered by dis
lance.
Presently Maitland's attention was
distracted and drawn. by the abrupt
cessation of its motors pulsing. to the
automobile on his right He lifted his
I chin sharply, narrowing his eyes,
whistled low; and thereafter had eyes
for nothing else.
The car, he saw with the expert
enced eye of connoisseur, was re
cent model of one of the most ex
pensiye and popular foreign makes;
built on lines that promised a deal in
the way of speed, and furnished with
engines that were pregnant with multi
piled horse power. All in all not the
style Of car one would expect to find
controlled by a solitary woman, es-
peeially after ten of summers night.
Nevertheless the lone occupant OF
this car was woman. And there was
that in her bearing, an indefinable
something -whether it lay in the car
riage of her head, which impressed
one as both spirited and independent,
or in an equally certain but less tan