Burt L. Standish

“ Nathan Wiggin did not jump. He was not greatly alarmed at first. The thing had barely started; it was not running away. He had broken and trained vicious horses that other men could do nothing with, some of them veritable man-killers, and surely he could stop an inanimate contrivance like a motor car, especially when it was not under power. Possibly he was restrained also by a conviction that he could not abandon the car with dignity, and by the knowledge that to abandon it at all under such circumstances would possibly make him an object of ridicule. ”

“ Never since its foundation had the sleepy town of Greenbush beheld such a spectacle. Never in its history had there been such tremendous excitement within its boundaries. The end of all things terrestrial could scarcely have created a greater hullabaloo in that torpid community.
The young man on the bicycle was not able to overtake the runaway motor car before it reached the bridge, but he was not far behind it. When the automobile smashed through the railing and leaped into the river, he jumped from the bicycle and followed it without the slightest hesitation. ”

“ Thrown into gear, the moving car cranked itself, and the engine leaped to life with a sudden vibrating hum. For in shifting the tiny lever on the dash Judge Wiggin had made connections with the magneto. The surprised man gasped as the machine gave a sudden forward lunge, like a horse beneath the stinging cut of a whip. ”

“ The car made a jump that seemed to take all four wheels off the ground. Judge Wiggin's hat flew off, his sparse gray hair stood on end, his eyes bularger|ed; but between his parted, drawn-back lips his teeth were set. Behind him he heard the horrified shouts of the crowd, through which Hitchens had vainly tried to plow a path in time to board the machine before it could get beyond his reach. Realizing he had failed, Hitchens stopped and flung up his arms in despair.
"The old fool!" he groaned. "He'll smash the car! He'll be killed!" ”

“ When they reached Wiggin's front door, George, a bandage tied round his head, was just coming out, followed by the judge, who seemed to be highly disturbed and indignant.
"I'm all right now, governor," called the young man reassuringly. "A disagreeable bull helped me over a fence, and I sort of collapsed after walking into town."
"Governor," said Nathan Wiggin grimly, "as near as I can find out, your shuffer climbed a tree to git away from a toothless, half-blind old shepherd dog, and run like the devil when Libby's bull took after him. ”

“ He stopped short, staring across at the road, down which a touring car containing two men was speeding toward the village.
"Great Cæsar!" he cried. "There goes the governor! Hitchens must have got the engine running somehow. They'll expect to find me in town."
With all the strength of a good pair of lungs, he shouted, waving his hands above his head. The automobile sped on. Its occupants neither saw nor heard him.
"I guess I'm left for the time being," he said. "They'll go ripping straight through to catch that train at Albion."
"They won't rip through very far," Miss Wiggin flung at him. ”

“ Something like a faint smile began to play around the corners of the governor's mouth. "How many times. have you ridden in an automobile, Judge Wiggin?" he asked.
"Jest about as many times as you've rid on the tail of a comet, governor. A good, fast-steppin' hoss suits me."
"Exactly. And you've driven some fast steppers in your time. No doubt you've driven them through the streets of this town at a much greater speed than eight miles an hour, thus endangering the lives of pedestrians and others upon the highways." ”

“ He grabbed the bicycle, uttering a ringing shout for everybody to get out of the way.
Through the scattered crowd he dashed, leaping to the saddle and catching the pedals with his nimble feet. Bending over the handlebars, he started in pursuit of the automobile, which, by this time, was halfway down the hill, with the wailing siren in full blast.
Continuing to jabber and shout, the crowd followed, stringing out in a straggling line. Boys and younger men were in the lead. Middle-aged, bewhiskered, bald-headed men came next. The rear guard was made up of the aged and decrepit ”

“ Around another curve careened the car, and struck the straight, gentle incline running down into the village. Out from behind the sumacs dashed the constables, Jeremiah Small planting himself in the very center of the highway, one hand upflung authoritatively while the other flipped back his coat and revealed the badge pinned to his left suspender. Silas Buzzell backed him up, but with a shade more discretion about blocking the path of the speeding motor car.
"Stop!" shouted Constable Small. "In the name of the law I command you!" ”

“ He did not recognize Nathan Wiggin in the egg-bespattered wild man who seemed to be guiding the humming mechanism of disaster, but he knew that, in about four seconds, unless a miracle intervened, horses, motor car, hay, and human beings were going to be mixed in a spectacular and tragic smash. ”

“ Jump—quick! Run! Do something!"
He certainly was doing something; in fact, he was an extremely busy person just then. Again and again he appeared to avoid the rushes of the bull barely by a hair's breadth. Each time this happened the girl's heart seemed ready to burst with terror. It could not last long. The snorting, bellowing beast would get him at last. A slight miscalculation, the slightest slip, and it would all be over.
Bessie Wiggin grasped a stake of the fence, and tried desperately to tear it loose, intending to return to the assistance of the stranger with this weapon. ”

“ A wise fool is about as safe to have round as a stick of dynamite bakin' in the oven of a red-hot stove. If he don't damage nobody else, he's pretty likely to blow up and bust himself."
The governor and his secretary, followed by a few others, came hurrying to the spot. Seeing them approach, the judge got upon his feet, dripping tiny rivulets.
"Governor," he observed, "there's no great loss without some small gain. You'll save the price of a wash for that there automobile. Whatever damage or expense may accrue I ca'late I'll have to sustain. ”

“ THE shouts of the startled crowd in front of Turner's grocery had brought those within the store rushing out to learn the cause of alarm. The governor came with them, followed a second later by the young man who had been tossed by Libby's bull. They beheld the motor car well under way, and the judge struggling frantically and ineffectually to restrain it.
"Great guns!" groaned the governor, turning pale. "Wiggin's started the demonstration on his own hook. He'll smash a four-thousand-dollar car and his neck at the same time!" ”

“ I know how to guide 'em and how to stop 'em."
"Still you may not realize that an expert driver of a motor car has far more perfect control over his machine than the driver of a spirited horse can possibly have over the animal. Likewise, an auto moving at the same relative speed as a horse attached to a carriage may be stopped more quickly than the horse. Therefore the machine, properly handled, is a smaller menace to human safety than a horse-drawn carriage."
"Governor," said Nathan P. Wiggin, "politeness forbids me to tell you jest what I think of that statement. ”

“ The governor laughed. "There may be an excuse for the young man," he said. "He was bitten by a vicious dog when very young, but I don't think bulls could scare him much." He put his arm across the shoulders of the young man. "Are you sure you're not hurt much, George?"
"Well, not on the head," was the reply. "But that girl came pretty near finishing me. She's a perfect witch, and I——"
"Such a statement concerning my darter is slanderous, considering the fuss she made over him," said Judge Wiggin in deep resentment. ”

“ I think Nathan Wiggin's turned Greenbush into a graveyard by finin' ev'rybody ketched goin' faster'n eight miles in the town limits. He's give the place a black eye and set people to dodgin' it. He ain't progressive, that's all I got to say. ”

“ The faster you drive, the higher you'll bounce when you hit the bumps. Come on, Silas! Deputty Newberry'll have that gay pair collared in two shakes of a lamb's tail."
If the defiant autoists fancied they were to escape the clutches of the speed regulators in that easy manner, they soon realized their error. Farther on toward the village, running the full width of the road, were a series of artfully arranged ridges and hollows calculated to give a severe shaking up to the passengers of any motor car proceeding at a speed exceeding four or five miles an hour. ”

“ Automobiles aren't popular in Greenbush. Peter Beedy is the only citizen who owns one. He's been arrested and fined four times for exceeding the speed limit of eight miles an hour. The last time that happened he was so mad he swore he'd never start the machine again, and he had it towed to his barn and stored away. ”

“ But if Jedge Wiggin can't win, I'll bet you a twenty-cent plug of War Hoss he turns his strength ag'inst Ephraim Glover, of Palmyra, and throws the nomination to Crockett. This deestrict is the keystone, and if the party loses it, they'll most likely lose the whole county. I understand the governor himself is ruther fretted over the situation, with the primaries comin' on next week."
"I don't keer much about politics nohow," declared Buzzell, wiping his eyes again. "One party's bad as t'other, and there ain't neither of 'em done nothing for me. ”

“ THE governor and Hitchens made inquiry of the crowd regarding their missing driver, but no one present seemed to have seen the man. Presently the governor turned to his secretary.
"You don't imagine," he asked in a low tone, "that the young man who is injured in Judge Wiggin's house can be George?" ”

“ And discretion being the better part of valor, let me suggest that you bottle up further seething criticism until we both get outside, where, as man to man, we can tell each other jest what we think, without mincin' words. ”

“ Beedy's domicile."
"As long as you're so completely lacking in sand," said she, "I'll collar Shep and hold him until you get a fair start. But let me warn you that if you succeed in getting Beedy's auto you'll certainly be pinched and fined if you're caught driving faster than eight miles an hour anywhere within the town limits."
"It's always necessary," was his retort, "first to catch your hare. ”

“ A dollar-sixty a day ain't no livin' pay for a hard-workin' man, and that's all we git outside commissions on the fines the jedge imposes, and the deputty sheruff gits the biggest whack at them. We have to be pacified with what comes outer the little end o' the horn. Yistidday my share was thutty-two cents, and so fur to-day we ain't nabbed only one motor-cycle feller who come through by accident, havin' got off the road to Damascus. ”

“ Then he follered my darter home, and walked right into the house arter her. Whuther or not he was shammin' when he flopped on the sofy with his eyes shet, Bessie was upsot and made a touse over him. She's a ruther emotional girl. My sister's lookin' after her now, and I've told her what I think of shuffers in gen'ral and young men that climb trees to get away from dogs without teeth enough to dent a biscuit. ”