CHAPTER IX.


AN UNFORTUNATE OUTING.


Fortunately for the unhappy Felix the horse walked away from the hotel
in an orderly fashion, and soon they gained the highway leading to the
resort the party wished to visit.

Had the dude left the horse alone all might have gone well. But he
deemed it necessary to pull on first one line and then the other, which
kept the carriage in a meandering course.

"I don't think, Mr. Gussing, that you can be much used to driving," said
one of the young ladies, presently.

"That's a fact," answered the dude.

"Why don't you keep to the right of the road?"

"Well,--er--the fact is, this horse is a very difficult one to drive. I
don't believe I ever drove one which was more so."

As this was the first horse Mr. Gussing had ever driven, this assertion
was true in every particular.

"Oh, I can't travel so slow!" cried one of the young ladies, and seized