For the major portion of the return trip to Kansas City, there was nothing to mar the very agreeable illusion underwhich Clyde rested. He sat beside Hortense, who leaned her head against his shoulder. And although Sparser,who had waited for the others to step in before taking the wheel, had squeezed her arm and received ananswering and promising look, Clyde had not seen that.

　　But the hour being late and the admonitions of Hegglund, Ratterer and Higby being all for speed, and the moodof Sparser, because of the looks bestowed upon him by Hortense, being the gayest and most drunken, it was notlong before the outlying lamps of the environs began to show.

　　For the car was rushed along the road at break-neck speed. At one point, however, where one of the eastern trunklines approached the city, there was a long and unexpected and disturbing wait at a grade crossing where twofreight trains met and passed. Farther in, at North Kansas City, it began to snow, great soft slushy flakes,feathering down and coating the road surface with a slippery layer of mud which required more caution than hadbeen thus far displayed. It was then half past five. Ordinarily, an additional eight minutes at high speed wouldhave served to bring the car within a block or two of the hotel. But now, with another delay near Hannibal Bridgeowing to grade crossing, it was twenty minutes to six before the bridge was crossed and Wyandotte Streetreached. And already all four of these youths had lost all sense of the delight of the trip and the pleasure thecompanionship of these girls had given them. For already they were worrying as to the probability of theirreaching the hotel in time. The smug and martinetish figure of Mr. Squires loomed before them all.

　　"Gee, if we don't do better than this," observed Ratterer to Higby, who was nervously fumbling with his watch,"we're not goin' to make it. We'll hardly have time, as it is, to change."Clyde, hearing him, exclaimed: "Oh, crickets! I wish we could hurry a little. Gee, I wish now we hadn't come today.

　　It'll be tough if we don't get there on time."And Hortense, noting his sudden tenseness and unrest, added: "Don't you think you'll make it all right?""Not this way," he said. But Hegglund, who had been studying the flaked air outside, a world that seemed dottedwith falling bits of cotton, called: "Eh, dere Willard. We certainly gotta do better dan dis. It means de razoo forus if we don't get dere on time."And Higby, for once stirred out of a gambler-like effrontery and calm, added: "We'll walk the plank all rightunless we can put up some good yarn. Can't anybody think of anything?" As for Clyde, he merely sighednervously.

　　And then, as though to torture them the more, an unexpected crush of vehicles appeared at nearly everyintersection. And Sparser, who was irritated by this particular predicament, was contemplating with impatiencethe warning hand of a traffic policeman, which, at the intersection of Ninth and Wyandotte, had been raisedagainst him. "There goes his mit again," he exclaimed. "What can I do about that! I might turn over toWashington, but I don't know whether we'll save any time by going over there."A full minute passed before he was signaled to go forward. Then swiftly he swung the car to the right and threeblocks over into Washington Street.

　　But here the conditions were no better. Two heavy lines of traffic moved in opposite directions. And at eachsucceeding corner several precious moments were lost as the cross-traffic went by. Then the car would tear on tothe next corner, weaving its way in and out as best it could.

　　At Fifteenth and Washington, Clyde exclaimed to Ratterer: "How would it do if we got out at Seventeenth andwalked over?""You won't save any time if I can turn over there," called Sparser. "I can get over there quicker than you can."He crowded the other cars for every inch of available space. At Sixteenth and Washington, seeing what heconsidered a fairly clear block to the left, he turned the car and tore along that thoroughfare to as far asWyandotte once more. Just as he neared the corner and was about to turn at high speed, swinging in close to thecurb to do so, a little girl of about nine, who was running toward the crossing, jumped directly in front of themoving machine. And because there was no opportunity given him to turn and avoid her, she was struck anddragged a number of feet before the machine could be halted. At the same time, there arose piercing screamsfrom at least half a dozen women, and shouts from as many men who had witnessed the accident.

　　Instantly they all rushed toward the child, who had been thrown under and passed over by the wheels. AndSparser, looking out and seeing them gathering about the fallen figure, was seized with an uninterpretable mentalpanic which conjured up the police, jail, his father, the owner of the car, severe punishment in many forms. Andthough by now all the others in the car were up and giving vent to anguished exclamations such as "Oh, God! He hit a little girl"; "Oh, gee, he's killed a kid!" "Oh, mercy!" "Oh, Lord!" "Oh, heavens, what'll we do now?" heturned and exclaimed: "Jesus, the cops! I gotta get outa this with this car."And, without consulting the others, who were still half standing, but almost speechless with fear, he shot thelever into first, second and then high, and giving the engine all the gas it would endure, sped with it to the nextcorner beyond.

　　But there, as at the other corners in this vicinity, a policeman was stationed, and having already seen somecommotion at the corner west of him, had already started to leave his post in order to ascertain what it was. As hedid so, cries of "Stop that car"--"Stop that car"--reached his ears. And a man, running toward the sedan from thescene of the accident, pointed to it, and called: "Stop that car, stop that car. They've killed a child."Then gathering what was meant, he turned toward the car, putting his police whistle to his mouth as he did so.

　　But Sparser, having by this time heard the cries and seen the policeman leaving, dashed swiftly past him intoSeventeenth Street, along which he sped at almost forty miles an hour, grazing the hub of a truck in one instance,scraping the fender of an automobile in another, and missing by inches and quarter inches vehicles orpedestrians, while those behind him in the car were for the most part sitting bolt upright and tense, their eyeswide, their hands clenched, their faces and lips set--or, as in the case of Hortense and Lucille Nickolas and TinaKogel, giving voice to repeated, "Oh, Gods!" "Oh, what's going to happen now?"But the police and those who had started to pursue were not to be outdone so quickly. Unable to make out thelicense plate number and seeing from the first motions of the car that it had no intention of stopping, the officerblew a loud and long blast on his police whistle. And the policeman at the next corner seeing the car speed byand realizing what it meant, blew on his whistle, then stopped, and springing on the running board of a passingtouring car ordered it to give chase. And at this, seeing what was amiss or awind, three other cars, driven byadventurous spirits, joined in the chase, all honking loudly as they came.

　　But the Packard had far more speed in it than any of its pursuers, and although for the first few blocks of thepursuit there were cries of "Stop that car!" "Stop that car!" still, owing to the much greater speed of the car, thesesoon died away, giving place to the long wild shrieks of distant horns in full cry.

　　Sparser by now having won a fair lead and realizing that a straight course was the least baffling to pursue, turnedswiftly into McGee, a comparatively quiet thoroughfare along which he tore for a few blocks to the wide andwinding Gillham Parkway, whose course was southward. But having followed that at terrific speed for a shortdistance, he again--at Thirty-first--decided to turn--the houses in the distance confusing him and the suburbancountry to the north seeming to offer the best opportunity for evading his pursuers. And so now he swung the carto the left into that thoroughfare, his thought here being that amid these comparatively quiet streets it waspossible to wind in and out and so shake off pursuit--at least long enough to drop his passengers somewhere andreturn the car to the garage.

　　And this he would have been able to do had it not been for the fact that in turning into one of the more outlyingstreets of this region, where there were scarcely any houses and no pedestrians visible, he decided to turn off hislights, the better to conceal the whereabouts of the car. Then, still speeding east, north, and east and south byturns, he finally dashed into one street where, after a few hundred feet, the pavement suddenly ended. But because another cross street was visible a hundred feet or so further on, and he imagined that by turning into thathe might find a paved thoroughfare again, he sped on and then swung sharply to the left, only to crash roughlyinto a pile of paving stones left by a contractor who was preparing to pave the way. In the absence of lights hehad failed to distinguish this. And diagonally opposite to these, lengthwise of a prospective sidewalk, had beenlaid a pile of lumber for a house.

　　Striking the edge of the paving stones at high speed, he caromed, and all but upsetting the car, made directly forthe lumber pile opposite, into which he crashed. Only instead of striking it head on, the car struck one end,causing it to give way and spread out, but only sufficiently to permit the right wheels to mount high upon it andso throw the car completely over onto its left side in the grass and snow beyond the walk. Then there, amid acrash of glass and the impacts of their own bodies, the occupants were thrown down in a heap, forward and to theleft.

　　What happened afterwards is more or less of a mystery and a matter of confusion, not only to Clyde, but to allthe others. For Sparser and Laura Sipe, being in front, were dashed against the wind-shield and the roof andknocked senseless, Sparser, having his shoulder, hip and left knee wrenched in such a way as to make itnecessary to let him lie in the car as he was until an ambulance arrived. He could not possibly be lifted outthrough the door, which was in the roof as the car now lay. And in the second seat, Clyde, being nearest the doorto the left and next to him Hortense, Lucille Nickolas and Ratterer, was pinioned under and yet not crushed bytheir combined weights. For Hortense in falling had been thrown completely over him on her side against theroof, which was now the left wall. And Lucille, next above her, fell in such a way as to lie across Clyde'sshoulders only, while Ratterer, now topmost of the four, had, in falling, been thrown over the seat in front ofhim. But grasping the steering wheel in front of him as he fell, the same having been wrenched from Sparser'shands, he had broken his fall in part by clinging to it. But even so, his face and hands were cut and bruised andhis shoulder, arm and hip slightly wrenched, yet not sufficiently to prevent his being of assistance to the others.

　　For at once, realizing the plight of the others as well as his own, and stirred by their screams, Ratterer was movedto draw himself up and out through the top or side door which he now succeeded in opening, scrambling over th............