Mr. Granton didn’t want to, but she made him do it. We rolled up to the porte-cochère, but master was going to have his own way in something, and when she wanted to take Beanie in, he wouldn’t let her.
So Louis and I and Beanie were instructed to take a little spin down the road, and come back in twenty minutes.
Just after we left the red brick house, we came to a long, level bit of road, and Louis was speeding up a bit when I pulled his sleeve. Off on our right was a sheet of water, with a man in it, yelling his head off for help.
Louis was out of the machine like a shot, and I after him. Beanie sat blinking. I can see him now, the silly ass.
The little French chauffeur danced about at the edge of the water, like a monkey on hot bricks. Before I came to New York, there had been quite a time of sharp weather, and ice had formed. This foolish fellow in the water had taken his skates and gone off to have a little fun by himself. Now he was splashing about, postponing his final going under as long as possible.
“Hold on, hold on,” called Louis; “I’m coming,” but instead of coming, he went smashing through the thin ice just as often as he stepped on it.
I learned afterward, that he was a fine swimmer, and quite an athlete, but what could he do when he couldn’t get to the man?
He had thrown his cap and coat on the ground, and seizing his hair by both hands, he whirled round and round in the road, in his uncertainty. Not a soul was in sight. Fortunately his desperate eyes fell on the extra tire at the back of the car.
In a twinkling, he had it off, and lashed to it a rope that Mr. Granton always has him carry in the car. The marvellous thing was, that he hadn’t thought of the rope at first. Master would have, if he’d been there. Well, it wasn’t too late now, and didn’t he hurl that tire at the poor drowning man who had just enough strength left to cling to it. Then Louis, playing the man as one would a salmon, tried to haul him in.
He is as slight as a girl, and couldn’t do it. He tugged and panted, and groaned, and called out, but no one came, and I suppose we had passed thousands of cars that afternoon.