would not make it. We knew Nyoda would make it if she possibly could do
so. Margery looked at her inquiringly, and Nyoda answered with a bright
reassuring smile. Once Nyoda and I caught each other looking behind at
the same moment and we each smiled faintly. The red roadster was
nowhere in sight. By making this detour to Decatur while it was delayed
on the road we had undoubtedly thrown it off the track.

We could not have been many miles from Decatur when a shot startled us.
We all looked around expecting to see Margery's uncle after us, but it
was only the bursting of a tire. Only the bursting of a tire! But to
this day I hold that that tire did not burst of its own accord. Fate
deliberately jabbed a pin into it. We carried an extra and with the
help of a farmer who was passing we jacked up the Glow-worm in a hurry
and put on its new gum shoe, Margery walked up and down the road
nervously during the process. I suppose the minutes seemed like hours
to her.

I beguiled the time by scribbling verses in my note-book to celebrate
the occasion:

"Tires, brand new tires, I know not what they mean,
Freshly inflated from the Free Air pump,
Giving no warning of their base designs,
Scatter in air with a terrific bang,
And all upon a sudden are no more.

"Sweeter it is than dreams of paradise
To ride with friends beside one in one's car,
O'er sunlit roads; past fields of waving grain.
Bitter it is as drops of greenest gall,