New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1923-08-30

The manifold powers of circum
stance were in conspiracy against
Ned Cornet this late August afternoon.
No detail was important in itself. 1t
had been drizzling slowly and mourn
fully but drizze Is not uncommon in
Seattle. Ned Cornet had been pass
ing the time pleasantly in the Totem
club, on Fourth street, doing nothing
In particular, nothing exceedingly bad
or good or even unusually diverting:
but such was quite customary prac-
tice with him. Finally, Comets
special friend, Rodney Coburn, had
just returned from one of his hundred
sojourns in far places-this time from
an especially attractive salmon stream
in Canada.
The two young men had met in
Coburn's room at the Totem club, and
the steward had gone thither with
tall glasses and ice. Coburn had not
returned empty-handed from Canada.
Partly in celebration of his return,
and partly because of the superior
quality of the goods that had accom-
panied him, his friend Ned raised his
afternoon limit from two powerful
Freedmen cocktails to no less than
four richly amber whiskies-a and -sodas.
Thus their meeting was suspicious,
and on leaving the club. about Z, it
came about that Ned Cornet met the
rain.
1t was not enough to bother him,
He didn't even think about it. 1t
was only a lazy, smoky drizEle that
deepened the shadows of falling twi-
light and blurred the lights in the
street Ned Cornet had fire within
that more or less occupied his
thoughts.
In a space of time SO short that it
resembled some half-glimpsed Incl
dent in a dream, Ned found himself,
still at his wheel, the car crosswise
in the street and the front wheels al
most touching the curb, a terrible
and CHASTITY sobriety upon him.
Something had happened. He had
gone into a perilous skid at the corner
of Fourth and Madison, the car had
slid sickeningly out of his control,
and at the wrong instant dark
shape, all too plainly another auto
mobile, had lurched out of the murk
of the rain.
bis command long before it was safe
for him to have his hands on them, |
When cold sober he drove rather too
fast, none too carefully, but had an
almost Incredible mastery over his car
He knew how to pick his wheel tracks
over bumpy roads, and he knew the |
exact curve that car could take with
safety in rounding corner. Even |
now, in the crisis that had just been,
he had handled his car like the
veteran he was. The wonder was
not that he had hit the other car, but
rather, considering the speed with
which he had come, that 1t should T
continue to remain before his sight,
but little damaged, instead OF being
shattered into kindling and dust.
Nevertheless it was not yet time to
receive congratulations from specta-
tors. There had been serious conse-
quences enough. He was suddenly
face to face with the fact that In his
haste to get home for dinner he had
very likely obliterated human life.
There was curious, huddled heap
on the dim pavement Just beyond the
small car he had struck. 1t was a
girl, she lay very Stlil, anu the ldCe
half covered by the arm seemed very
while and lifeless. And blasted by a
terror such as was never known in all
his wasted years. Ned leaped, raced,
and fell to his knees at her side.
The car he had struck was one of
the thousands Of "jitneys" of which
he rad SO often spoke with contempt.
The girl was a shopgirl or factory
worker, on her way home. Shaken
with horror, but still swift and strong
from the stimulus of the crisis he
lifted her head and shoulders in his
arms
Then the girl smiled in his face. !
"Pm not hurt" he heard her say,
seemingly in answer to some sense
less query of his. She shook her
head at the same time, and she smiled
as she did it. II know what I'm
saying" she went on. I'm not hurt
The little drama. as If hurled in an
instant from the void, was already