From the Car Behind   By: Eleanor M. Ingram (1886-1921)

Second Edition

[Illustration: THE PEOPLE BURST OUT OVER THE COURSE AND OVERWHELMED THE VICTORS Page 293 ]

FROM THE CAR BEHIND

by

ELEANOR M. INGRAM

Author of "The Flying Mercury," "The Game or the Candle," Etc.

With Illustrations in Color by James Montgomery Flagg

Philadelphia & London J. B. Lippincott Company 1912

Copyright, 1911, by J. B. Lippincott Company Copyright, 1912, by J. B. Lippincott Company

Published, February, 1912 Published, February 15, 1912 Second Printing February 20, 1912

Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company At the Washington Square Press Philadelphia, U.S.A.

To My Dear and Gracious Mother

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE I. The Kid Amateur 11 II. Corrie and his Other Fellow 25 III. The Household of Roses 42 IV. Isabel 73 V. The Vase of Al Mansor 91 VI. Wreck 117 VII. "The Greatest of These" 137 VIII. Aftermath 152 IX. The House at the Turn 162 X. Sentence of Error 171 XI. Gerard's Man 188 XII. The Making Good 201 XIII. The Titan's Driver 212 XIV. Val de Rosas 233 XV. The Strength of Ten 250 XVI. The White Road of Honor 267 XVII. The End of the Road 300

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE The People Burst Out Over the Course and Overwhelmed the Victors Frontispiece

Giddy, She Willingly Suffered His Support, then Drew Back, Her Color Returning Vividly 14

"Wipe It Off," She Requested Resignedly, "Wipe It Off and Never Tell" 78

I

THE KID AMATEUR

Gerard paused on the steps of the cement plateau overlooking the racetrack, his eyebrows lifting in the wave of humor glinting across his face like sunlight over quiet water.

"What?" he wondered. "Who "

The grinning mechanician who had just come across from the row of training camps opposite supplied the information.

"Oh, that's Rose's rose. Ain't he awful tweet?" he mocked.

Gerard continued to smile, but his clear amber eyes grew keenly appraising as they followed the flight of the rose colored racing car around the circular track.

"He can drive," he gave laconic verdict.

"Sure," assented the mechanician. "But he'll be the last rose of summer, all right, when the race comes off. He'll not last twenty four hours a kid amateur. If you ain't coming over, I'll lead myself back to my job."

"You never can tell," warned Gerard, tolerantly. "No, I'm not coming over, Rupert; run along."

He moved over to one of the grand stand seats, as he spoke, and sat down, leaning on the rail with an easy movement of his supple figure. That was the first characteristic strangers usually noted in him: an exquisite Hellenic grace of strength and faultless proportion. He was a man's beauty, as distinguished from a beauty man; other men were given to admiring him extravagantly and unresentfully. Unresentfully, because of his utter practicality and matter of fact atmosphere.