I. Markowitz steps over and lays his hand on my arm. His face is as serious as prohibition.
"Its only fair I should tell you," he whispers, "that she kicks a little!"
I give him a ungrateful look and grabs hold of the crank. After turnin" the thing ninety-four times without gettin" nothin" but a blister on my thumb, I quit.
"Nothin" stirrin"," I remarks to I. Markowitz.
"Believe me, that"s funny!" he tells me, shakin" his head like he had ball bearin"s in his neck.
"Ain"t it?" I says. "Are you positive they"s a motor inside there?"
He makes a funny little noise in his throat and not knowin" him long, I didn"t know what he meant. There"s a big husky in overalls walkin" by with plenty of medium oil on his face and a monkey wrench in his hand.
I. Markowitz hisses at him, and they exchange jokes in some foreign language for a minute and then the new-comer grabs hold of that crank like the idea was to see if he could upset the car in three twists. He gives it a turn, and I guess the Kid had got to monkeyin" around them little b.u.t.tons on the steerin" wheel because it went off like a cannon.
First, there was a great big bang! And then a cloud of smoke rolls out of the back of the car and the bird that had wound the thing up come to in an oil can, half way across the floor. The Kid fell off the seat and me and I. Markowitz busted the hundred yard record to the front door.
"That was a rotten trick, wasn"t it?" I asks him when we stopped.
"What do you talk tricks?" he pants.
"Why," I tells him, "puttin" that dynamite in the hood!"
"That wasn"t dynamite," he says. "She only backfired a little. I wouldn"t be surprised if it turned out there was, now, too much air in the carburetor. The only reason I ran out here is because I seen it pa.s.sin" a friend of mine and--"
"I know," I cuts him off. "I seen it too!"
We go back to the Kid and his play toy, and he"s leanin" up against the side of it rubbin" his shoulder and scowlin".
"What kind of stuff was that, eh?" he growls at I. Markowitz. "I liked to broke my neck!"
""Snothin"!" says he, pattin" the Kid on the back and smilin". "You could do that with a new car, you could take my word for it. It"s all, now, experience!" He looks around. "Herschel!" he hollers.
It turns out that Herschel is the guy that had wound the thing up, and he gets out of the oil can and comes over, mutterin" to himself and glarin" at all of us. He takes off the hood and stalls around it with a hammer and a monkey wrench for a minute, still mutterin" away, and you could see he wasn"t wishin" us no luck. Finally, he puts the hood on again and walks around to the crank.
"As soon as you could hear it buzz," he grunts at the Kid, "you should give her some gas."
I stood aside and picked out my exit, and I. Markowitz seen his friend pa.s.sin" again so he started for the door. The Kid says we"re both yellah and climbs gamely back into the seat. Herschel stops mutterin"
long enough to give the crank a turn, which same he did. This time there was no shots fired, but the thing begins the darndest racket I ever heard in my life. A boiler factory would have quit cold alongside of that motor and a cavalry charge would have gone unnoticed on the same floor. I asked I. Markowitz what broke, and he says nothin" but that the noise is caused by the motor bein" so powerful, fifty horse power, he claimed.
"You can"t tell me," I says, backin" away from the thing, "that no fifty horses could make that much noise, not even if they was crazy!
The guy that brought that in here must have tied a lot of machine guns together with a fuse and Stupid there set "em off when he turned the crank!"
He runs around to the side where the Kid is and shuts down the gas and I seen half of Frisco lookin" in the door, figurin" the j.a.ps had got started at last, or else somebody was puttin" on a dress rehearsal of the Civil War.
"Ain"t she a beauty?" screams I. Markowitz to the Kid, barely makin"
himself heard over the din. "Give a listen how that motor turns over--not a break or a miss and as smooth like gla.s.s! That"s. .h.i.ttin"
on six, all right!"
"I"m glad to hear that," I says. "I"m glad it"s only six, because the thing will have to quit pretty soon. There ain"t no six nothin"s could stand up under that hittin" much longer!"
I. Markowitz steps on the runnin" board and holds on with both hands.
He had to, because that motor had got the car doin" a muscle dance.
"Where d"ye want to go?" he yells to the Kid. "I"ll have Herschel take you out so he should show you everything."
"Tell him to wash his face instead!" the Kid hollers back. "I don"t need n.o.body to show me nothin" about a car. Come on!" he yells at me.
"All aboard for Film City!"
"Ha! Ha!" I sneers. "Rave on! I wouldn"t get in that thing for Rockefeller"s bankroll!"
I had to holler at the top of my voice to drown out that motor.
"C"mon!" yells the Kid. "Don"t be so yellah--you got everybody lookin"
at you. She"s all right now, and as soon as she gets warmed up she"ll be rollin" along in great shape!"
"Yes!" I says. "And so will I--in a day coach of the Sante Fe!"
Well, he coaxed, threatened and so-forthed me, until finally I took a chance and climbed in beside him. The populace at the doors give three cheers and wished us good luck as we banged and rattled through their midst. We went on down the street, attractin" no more attention than the German army would in London, and every time we turned a new corner people run out of their houses to see was there a parade comin". We pa.s.sed several sure enough automobiles and they sneered at us, and one of them little flivvers got so upset by the noise that it blowed out a tire as we went by. Finally, we come to the city line and the Kid says he figures it"s about time to see can the thing travel. He monkeys around them strange b.u.t.tons on the steerin" wheel, pulls a handle here and there and presses a lever with his foot. The minute he did that we got action! That disappearin" cannon in the back went off three times and I bet it blowed up all the buildin"s in the block. There was a horse and buggy pa.s.sin" at the time and the guy that was drivin" it don"t know what happened yet, because at the first bang, that horse started for the old country and it must have been Lou Dillon--believe me, it could run! I looked back and watched it. A big cloud of smoke rolls up from the back of the car, and I seen guys runnin" out of stores and wavin" to us with their fists and then a couple of brave and bold motorcycle cops jumps on their fiery steeds and falls in behind.
I guess the ex-owner of this bus was on the level at that about doin"
them forty-five thousand miles in a week, because this car could have beat a telegram across the country, "when she got warmed up!" as I.
Markowitz says. Every one of them six cylinders was in there trying and when they worked together like little pals and forgot whatever private quarrels they had, the result was _speed_, believe me! The Kid was hangin" on to the steerin" wheel and havin" the time of his young life and I was hangin" on to the seat and wishin" I had listened to that insurance agent in New York. We come to the top of a hill and as we start down the other side the prize b.o.o.b of the county is waterin"
the pavement around his real estate. When he hears us, he drops the hose which makes it all wet in front of us.
"Hold tight!" screams the Kid to me. "We"re gonna do a piece of skiddin". I forgot to get chains!"
Just about then we hit the damp spot and the Kid puts on the brakes.
Sweet Cookie! You should have seen that car! It must have got sore at the man with the hose and went crazy, because it made eight complete turns tryin" to get at him and the poor simp was too scared to run.
Finally the thing gives it up and shoots down to the bottom of the hill. We hit a log and I hit the one-man top. Then the motor calls it a day and stops dead. The Kid hops out and walks around to the crank.
He gives it a couple of turns and it turns right back at him. He grabs it again and it was short with a left hook to the jaw, and then the Kid shakes his head and takes off one side of the hood. He sticks his hand down inside and pulls out a little brown thing that looks like a cup with a cover on it.
"No wonder she stopped!" he says, holdin" it up. "Look what I just found in here."
I give it the once over.
"What d"ye think of that, eh?" he says. "It"s a wonder she run at all!
I"ll bet that b.o.o.b mechanic left that in there when he started us off at the garage." He throws the thing in a ditch and puts the hood on.
"Now," he says, "we"re off for Film City!"
He grabs hold of the crank and gives it about eleven whirls, but there ain"t a thing doin" and while we"re stuck there like that, along comes a guy in another car.
"Can I help you fellows out?" he hollers.
"Yes!" I yells back. "Have you got a rope?"
He comes over and looks at the thing.
"What seems to be the trouble?" he asks the Kid.