the road ahead. For days now he had run the car himself, and he had been
given official assurance that he was quite capable of handling it; yet
here he was on his first ride with Diantha almost making a failure of
the whole thing at the start. Was he to be beaten--beaten by a senseless
motor car and Colonel Smith? At the thought Phineas lifted his chin and
put on more power.

"Oh, my! How f-fast we're goin'!" cried Diantha, close to his ear.

Phineas nodded.

"Who wants ter crawl?" he shouted; and the car leaped again at the touch
of his hand.

They were out of the town now, on a wide road that had few turns.
Occasionally they met a carriage or a wagon, but the frightened horses
and the no less frightened drivers gave the automobile a wide berth--
which was well; for the parallel tracks behind Phineas showed that the
car still had its moments of indecision as to the course to pursue.

The town was four miles behind them when Diantha, who had been for some
time vainly clutching at the flying ends of her veil, called to Phineas
to stop.

The request took Phineas by surprise. For one awful moment his mind was
a blank--he had forgotten how to stop! In frantic haste he turned and
twisted and shoved and pulled, ending with so sudden an application of
the brakes that Diantha nearly shot head first out of the car as it
stopped.