Night Bus

     After her father forbids her from dating King Westley, rich and spoiled Elspeth Andrews sneaks out of the house and boards a bus headed from Miami to New York to marry him. On the bus she meets Peter Warne, a friendly and kind man who, seeing she is out of her element, decides to help Elspeth on her journey despite her arrogance towards him.

    At their first stop on the journey Elspeth runs to a fancy hotel to take a bath and misses the bus' departure. She then spends the majority of her money on large meals and two movies while she waits for the next bus that evening. This prompts Peter to take control of her funds. One way he rations the money is by signing them into motels as Mr and Mrs which allows them to pay for one room instead of two.

    A storm has hung over the trip, causing flooding and washing out roads. The bus gets delayed several days during which time fellow passenger Oscar Shapely hears a radio broadcast announcing the disappearance of Elspeth Andrews as well as a hefty reward for information leading to her return. Recognizing the outfit she is reported to be wearing Oscar confronts Peter and offers to split the reward. Peter tells him he is mistaken but knows Oscar is not fooled.

    Not wanting to upset Elspeth, Peter tells her that Shapely, suspecting the two aren't really married, is trying to blackmail him with the Mann Act and therefore they must continue their journey immediately. Peter steals and repairs a broken boat to get past the flood waters and the two continue on foot. At first opportunity Peter writes to Mr. Andrews saying he is traveling to New York with Elspeth and not to give the reward money to anyone who tries to claim it. He also pawns Elspeth's clothing for something unrecognizable much to her distress.

    Good fortune seems to shine on them when they are picked up by a friendly driver named Thaddeus Banker but he turns out to be a highway bandit who picks up hitchhikers just to drop them somewhere and take off with their luggage. When he tries doing this to the couple Peter jumps onto the car and after being driven out to an isolated area he beats up Thaddeus and drives back to Elspeth. Multiple license plates and drivers licenses inside the vehicle lead Peter to believe the car is stolen and that no harm will be done if he uses it for a few more days to finish their journey.

    Soon the two are driving into New York and Peter is depositing Elspeth in front of her house where her father is waiting. She tells her father she is in love with Peter but when she learns he had written to Mr. Andrews she wrongfully believes he was after the reward money the whole time.

    The following day Peter is brought into the man's office where he presents him with an itemized bill totaling $18.56 and refuses anything more than this. Realizing Peter was not using her, Elspeth goes to his home to find him packing to leave for South America. She insists on going with him and travelling legitimately as husband and wife this time.

- A big difference between the book and the movie is that in the movie Peter is a newspaper reporter desperate for a story. In the movie Peter helps Elspeth (or "Ellie" as she is named) because it also helps himself. However in the book he does it just because he is caring and sees how bad Elspeth is struggling on her own.

- There is a large age gap between Peter and Elspeth although an exact number is not given. At first Peter believes Elspeth is underage until she tells him she is 21. This makes the romance between them a little disturbing. Peter is even uncomfortable having romantic interest in someone so much younger than himself but that doesn't end up stopping him. 

- Elspeth is not very likeable. She is a complete brat, selfish, and demanding. At one point she throws herself onto Peter while he is asleep and kisses him. Before he wakes up and realizes what is happening he kisses her back. Once he is conscious he immediately stops and clarifies boundaries between the two. Elspeth is upset by this but she is also upset that Peter kissed her back at first, which is absolutely ridiculous considering he was unconscious and as he had not shown any romantic interest in her this was kind of sexual assault on her part.

    Overall this was a good read. Before seeing this book for sale I had no idea the movie was based on anything. Because I have seen the movie several times it is hard to judge the source material on it's own. I don't think I would have read this and thought "this would make a great movie" but I guess it was a pretty unique concept for it's time. Also it's fun reading this knowing it basically caused the creation of Bugs Bunny.