In connection with the automobile ride suggested and arranged for the following Sunday by Hegglund throughhis chauffeur friend, a change of plan was announced. The car--an expensive Packard, no less--could not be hadfor that day, but must be used by this Thursday or Friday, or not at all. For, as had been previously explained toall, but not with the strictest adherence to the truth, the car belonged to a certain Mr. Kimbark, an elderly andvery wealthy man who at the time was traveling in Asia. Also, what was not true was that this particular youthwas not Mr. Kimbark's chauffeur at all, but rather the rakish, ne'er-do-well son of Sparser, the superintendent ofone of Mr. Kimbark's stock farms. This son being anxious to pose as something more than the son of asuperintendent of a farm, and as an occasional watchman, having access to the cars, had decided to take the veryfinest of them and ride in it.
It was Hegglund who proposed that he and his hotel friends be included on some interesting trip. But since thegeneral invitation had been given, word had come that within the next few weeks Mr. Kimbark was likely toreturn. And because of this, Willard Sparser had decided at once that it might be best not to use the car any more.
He might be taken unawares, perhaps, by Mr. Kimbark's unexpected arrival. Laying this difficulty beforeHegglund, who was eager for the trip, the latter had scouted the idea. Why not use it once more anyhow? He hadstirred up the interest of all of his friends in this and now hated to disappoint them. The following Friday,between noon and six o'clock, was fixed upon as the day. And since Hortense had changed in her plans she nowdecided to accompany Clyde, who had been invited, of course.
But as Hegglund had explained to Ratterer and Higby since it was being used without the owner's consent, theymust meet rather far out--the men in one of the quiet streets near Seventeenth and West Prospect, from whichpoint they could proceed to a meeting place more convenient for the girls, namely, Twentieth and Washington.
From thence they would speed via the west Parkway and the Hannibal Bridge north and east to Harlem, NorthKansas City, Minaville and so through Liberty and Moseby to Excelsior Springs. Their chief objective there wasa little inn--the Wigwam--a mile or two this side of Excelsior which was open the year around. It was really acombination of restaurant and dancing parlor and hotel. A Victrola and Wurlitzer player-piano furnished thenecessary music. Such groups as this were not infrequent, and Hegglund as well as Higby, who had been thereon several occasions, described it as dandy. The food was good and the road to it excellent. There was a littleriver just below it where in the summer time at least there was rowing and fishing. In winter some people skatedwhen there was ice. To be sure, at this time--January--the road was heavily packed with snow, but easy to get over, and the scenery fine. There was a little lake, not so far from Excelsior, at this time of year also frozen over,and according to Hegglund, who was always unduly imaginative and high-spirited, they might go there andskate.
"Will you listen to who's talkin' about skatin' on a trip like this?" commented Ratterer, rather cynically, for to hisway of thinking this was no occasion for any such side athletics, but for love-making exclusively.
"Aw, hell, can't a fellow have a funny idea even widout bein' roasted for it?" retorted the author of the idea.
The only one, apart from Sparser, who suffered any qualms in connection with all this was Clyde himself. For tohim, from the first, the fact that the car to be used did not belong to Sparser, but to his employer, was disturbing,almost irritatingly so. He did not like the idea of taking anything that belonged to any one else, even fortemporary use. Something might happen. They might be found out.
"Don't you think it's dangerous for us to be going out in this car?" he asked of Ratterer a few days before the tripand when he fully understood the nature of the source of the car.
"Oh, I don't know," replied Ratterer, who being accustomed to such ideas and devices as this was not muchdisturbed by them. "I'm not taking the car and you're not, are you? If he wants to take it, that's his lookout, ain'tit? If he wants me to go, I'll go. Why wouldn't I? All I want is to be brought back here on time. That's the onlything that would ever worry me."And Higby, coming up at the moment, had voiced exactly the same sentiments. Yet Clyde remained troubled. Itmight not work out right; he might lose his job through a thing like this. But so fascinated was he by the thoughtof riding in such a fine car with Hortense and with all these other girls and boys that he could not resist thetemptation to go.
Immediately after noon on the Friday of this particular week the several participants of the outing were gatheredat the points agreed upon. Hegglund, Ratterer, Higby and Clyde at Eighteenth and West Prospect near therailroad yards. Maida Axelrod, Hegglund's girl, Lucille Nickolas, a friend of Ratterer's, and Tina Kogel, a friendof Higby's, also Laura Sipe, another girl who was brought by Tina Kogel to be introduced to Sparser for theoccasion, at Twentieth and Washington. Only since Hortense had sent word at the last moment to Clyde that shehad to go out to her house for something, and that they were to run out to Forty-ninth and Genesee, where shelived, they did so, but not without grumbling.
The day, a late January one, was inclined to be smoky with lowering clouds, especially within the environs ofKansas City. It even threatened snow at times--a most interesting and picturesque prospect to those within. Theyliked it.
"Oh, gee, I hope it does," Tina Kogel exclaimed when some one commented on the possibility, and LucilleNickolas added: "Oh, I just love to see it snow at times." Along the West Bluff Road, Washington and SecondStreets, they finally made their way across the Hannibal Bridge to Harlem, and from thence along the windingand hill-sentineled river road to Randolph Heights and Minaville. And beyond that came Moseby and Liberty, toand through which the road bed was better, with interesting glimpses of small homesteads and the bleak snow covered hills of January.
Clyde, who for all his years in Kansas City had never ventured much beyond Kansas City, Kansas, on the west orthe primitive and natural woods of Swope Park on the east, nor farther along the Kansas or Missouri Rivers thanArgentine on the one side and Randolph Heights on the other, was quite fascinated by the idea of travel whichappeared to be suggested by all this--distant travel. It was all so different from his ordinary routine. And on thisoccasion Hortense was inclined to be very genial and friendly. She snuggled down beside him on the seat, andwhen he, noting that the others had already drawn their girls to them in affectionate embraces, put his arm abouther and drew her to him, she made no particular protest. Instead she looked up and said: "I'll have to take my hatoff, I guess." The others laughed. There was something about her quick, crisp way which was amusing at times.
Besides she had done her hair in a new way which made her look decidedly prettier, and she was anxious to havethe others see it.
"Can we dance anywhere out here?" she called to the others, without looking around.
"Surest thing you know," said Higby, who by now had persuaded Tina Kogel to take her hat off and was holdingher close. "They got a player-piano and a Victrola out there. If I'd 'a' thought, I'd 'a' brought my cornet. I can playDixie on that."The car was speeding at breakneck pace over a snowy white road and between white fields. In fact, Sparser,considering himself a master of car manipulation as well as the real owner of it for the moment, was attemptingto see how fast he could go on such a road.
Dark vignettes of wood went by to right and left. Fields away, sentinel hills rose and fell like waves. A wide-armed scarecrow fluttering in the wind, its tall decayed hat awry, stood near at hand in one place. And from nearit a flock of crows rose and winged direct toward a distant wood lightly penciled against a foreground of snow.
In the front seat sat Sparser, guiding the car beside Laura Sipe with the air of one to whom such a magnificentcar was a commonplace thing. He was really more interested in Hortense, yet felt it incumbent on him, for thetime being, anyhow, to show some attention to Laura Sipe. And not to be outdone in gallantry by the others, henow put one arm about Laura Sipe while he guided the car with the other, a feat which troubled Clyde, who wasstill dubious about the wisdom of taking the car at all. They might all be wrecked by such fast driving. Hortensewas only interested by the fact that Sparser had obviously manifested his interest in her; that he had to pay someattention to Laura Sipe whether he wanted to or not. And when she saw him pull her to him and asked hergrandly if she had done much automobiling about Kansas City, she merely smiled to herself.
But Ratterer, noting the move, nudged Lucille Nickolas, and she in turn nudged Higby, in order to attract hisattention to the affectional development ahead.
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