That was as far as he got. The forward end of his side of the car sank
to the ground. The car seemed trying to stand on its head.

Then it stopped, and all in it were hurled into the center of awful
disaster.




CHAPTER XIII

THE TRICK IS EASILY SEEN THROUGH


In the next instant all had settled.

There had been a brief moment in which the air around the wrecked auto
had seemed full of flying human beings.

Now, they lay by the road side in varying degrees of disaster.

The left front axle had broken, the wheel rolling some yards ere it
stopped.

Jacob Farnum, seated right over the axle, was hurled out, head first as
nearly as he could afterwards guess. How he avoided landing on his head
and sustaining a broken neck or shattered skull was one of those
miraculous things that no one can explain.