the action of her."

As I have said, barring the canopy, the thing appeared to be an ordinary
touring-car, and I was tired of lolling in the hammock. Without misgiving,
I climbed in beside Hawkins, and he turned back to the road.

The auto did run beautifully. I had never been in a machine that was so
totally indifferent to rough spots.

When we came to a hillock, we simply floated over it. If we reached an
uncomfortably sharp turn, the auto seemed to rise and cut it off with
hardly a swerve.

Once or twice I noticed that Hawkins deliberately steered out of the
road and into big rocks; but the auto, in the most peculiar manner,
just touched them and bounced over with never a jar.

In fact, after two miles of rather heavy going, I suddenly realized that
I hadn't experienced the slightest of jolts.

"Hawkins," I observed, "the man that made the springs under this thing
must have been a magician."

"Well, well!" said the inventor. "On to it at last that there is something
out of the ordinary about this auto, are you? But it's not the springs, my
dear boy, it's not the springs!"

"What is it?"

"Griggs," said Hawkins, beaming upon me, "you are riding in the first and