Casey Ryan, hunched behind the wheel of a large, dark blue touring car with a kinked front fender and the glass gone from the left-headlight, slid out from the halted traffic, shied sharply away from a hysterically clanging street car, crossed the path of a huge red truck coming in from his right, missed it with two inches to spare and was halfway down the block before the traffic officer overtook him.
The traffic officer was Irish too, and bigger than Casey, and madder. For all that, Casey offered to lick the livin' tar outa him before accepting a pale, expensive ticket which he crumbled and put into his pocket without looking at it.
"What I know about these here fancy city rules ain't sufficient to give a horn-toad a headache--but it's a darn sight more'n I care," Casey declaimed hotly.-"I never was asked what I thought of them tin signs you stick up on the end of a telegraft pole, to tell folks when to go an' when to quit goin'.-Mebby it's all right fer these here city drivers--"
"This'll mean thirty days for you," spluttered the officer.-"I ought to call the patrol right now--"
"Get the undertaker on the line first!"-Casey advised him ominously.
Traffic was piling up behind them, and horns were honking a blatant chorus that extended two blocks up the street.-The traffic officer glanced into the troubled gray eyes of the Little Woman beside Casey and took his foot off the running board.
"Better go put up your bail and then forfeit it," he advised in a milder tone.-"The judge will probably remember you; I do, and my memory ain't the best in the world.-Twice you've been hooked for speeding through traffic; and parking by fire-plugs and in front of the No Park signs and after four, seems to be your big outdoor sport.-Forfeit your bail, old boy--or it's thirty days for you, sure."
Casey Ryan made bitter retort, but the traffic cop had gone to untangle two furious Fords from a horse-drawn mail wagon, so he did not hear.-Which was good luck for Casey.
"Why do you persist in making trouble for yourself?" the Little Woman beside him exclaimed. "It can't be so hard to obey the rules; other drivers do.-I know that I have driven this car all over town without any trouble whatever."
Casey hogged the next safety-zone line to the deep disgust of a young movie star in a cream-and-silver racer, and pulled in to the curb just where he could not be passed.
"All right, ma'am.-You can drive, then."-He slid out of the driver's seat to the pavement, his face a deeper shade of red than usual.
"For pity's sake, Casey!-Don't be silly," his wife cried sharply, a bit of panic in her voice.
"You was in a hurry to git home," Casey pointed out to her with that mildness of manner which is not mild.-"I was hurryin', wasn't I?"
"You aren't hurrying now--you're delaying the traffic again.-Do be reasonable!-You know it costs money to argue with the police."
"Police be damned!-I'm tryin' to please a woman, an' I'm up agin a hard proposition.-You can ask anybody if I'm the unreasonable one. You hustled me out of the show soon as the huggin' commenced.-You wouldn't even let me stay to see the first of Mutt and Jeff.-You said you was in a hurry.-I leaves the show without seein' the best part, gits the car an' drills through the traffic tryin' to git yuh home quick.-Now you're kickin' because I did hurry."
"Hey!-Whadda yuh mean, blockin' the traffic?" a domineering voice behind him bellowed.-"This ain't any reception hall, and it ain't no free auto park neither."
Another traffic officer with another pencil and another pad of tickets such as drivers dread to see began to write down the number of Casey's car.-This man did not argue.-He finished his work briskly, presented another notice which advised Casey Ryan to report immediately to police headquarters, waved Casey peremptorily to proceed, and returned to his little square platform to the chorus of blatting automobile horns.
"The cops in this town hands out tickets like they was Free Excursion peddlers!" snorted Casey, his eyes a pale glitter behind his half-closed lids.-"They can go around me, or they can honk and be darned to 'em. Git behind the wheel, ma'am--Casey Ryan's drove the last inch he'll ever drive in this darned town.
If they pinch me again, it'll have to be fer walkin'."
The Little Woman looked at him, pressed her lips together and moved behind the wheel.-She did not say a word all the way out to the white apartment house on Vermont which held the four rooms they called home.-She parked the car dexterously in front and led the way to their apartment (ground floor, front) before she looked at me.
"It's coming to a show-down, Jack," she said then with a faint smile.-"He's on probation already for disobeying traffic rules of one sort and other, and his fines cost more than the entire upkeep of the car. I think he really will have to go to jail this time.-It just isn't in Casey Ryan to take orders from any one, especially when his own personal habits of driving a car are concerned."
"Town life is getting on his nerves," I tried to defend Casey, and at the same time to comfort the Little Woman.-"I didn't think it would work, his coming here to live, with nothing to do but spend money.-This is the inevitable result of too much money and too much leisure."
"It sounds much better, putting it that way," murmured Mrs.
Casey. "I think you're right--though he did behave back there as if it were too much matrimony.-Jack, he's been looking forward to your visit.-I'm sorry this has happened to spoil it."
"It isn't spoiled," I grinned. "Casey Ryan is, always and ever shall be Casey Ryan.-He's running true to form, though tamer than one would expect.-When do you think he'll show up?"
Mrs. Casey did not know.-She ventured a guess or two, but there was no conviction in her tone.-With two nominal arrests in five minutes chalked against him, and with his first rebellion against the Little Woman to rankle in his conscience and memory, she owned herself at a loss.