“I’ll try, anyway,” declared Jimsy.

The man led the way into a dingy sort of shed.  On a shelf in a dusty corner was a box.

“You can hunt through that,” said the man wearily; “if you find what you want wake me up.”

“Wake you up?”

“Yes, I always take a sleep at this time of day.  You woke me up when you came in.  Now I’m going to doze off again.”

So saying he sank into a chair, closed his eyes and presently was snoring.

“Dead to the world!” gasped Jimsy; “well, that’s the quickest thing in the sleep line I ever saw!”

As it was no use to waste further time the boy began rummaging in the box.  It contained all sorts of odds and ends, among them several plugs.

“I’ll bet there isn’t one here that will fit my engine!” grumbled Jimsy; “I don’t—­what!  Yes!  By Jiminy!  Eureka!  Hurray, I’ve found one!”

The man woke up with a start.

“What’s the matter?” he demanded drowsily.

“Nothing!  That is, everything!” cried Jimsy.  “I’ve found just what I want.”

“All right.  Leave the money on that shelf there.  It’s a dollar.”

So saying, off he went to sleep again, while Jimsy, overjoyed, hastily peeled a dollar from his “roll” and departed.  The last sound he heard was the steady snoring of the garage man.

“Well, there’s one fellow that money can’t keep awake, even if it does talk,” said Jimsy laughingly to himself as, with a cry of triumph, he rejoined the party, waving the plug like a banner or an emblem of victory.

No time was lost in starting the auto up again and they whirled back through Millbrook in a cloud of dust.  Passing through the village they retraced their way along the road by which they had come.

“Just half an hour before that altitude flight,” remarked Jimsy to Roy, who was driving, as they sped through the town.

“Fine; we’ll make it all right,” was the rejoinder.  Roy turned on more power and the auto shot ahead like some scared wild thing.

“We’ll only hit the high spots this trip,” declared Roy, as the machine plunged and rolled along at top speed.

All at once, as they turned a corner, they received a sudden check.  Right ahead of them a man was driving some cows.  Roy jammed down the emergency brake, causing them all to hold on for dear life to avoid being pitched out by the sudden change of speed.

“Wow! what a jolt!” exclaimed Jimsy; “it sure did——­”

The sentence was never completed.  The auto gave a pitch sideways and then plunged into a pit that had been dug across the road and covered with leaves and dust placed on a framework of branches.  Down into this pit crashed the machine with a sickening jolt.  The girls screamed aloud in fear.  It appeared as if the machine would be a total wreck.

But that was not the worst of it.  In the sudden fall into the pit Roy had been pitched out and now lay quite still at the roadside.  Jimsy had saved himself from being thrown by clutching tight hold of the seat.