Miss Campbell took out her purse and gave the mother of the boy some money.  Being still quite ignorant of Japanese coinage she did not pause to make any laborious calculations, but poured all the money in the purse into the woman’s outstretched hand.  It must have been an undreamed-of sum, for the mother’s face was wreathed in delighted smiles.  She bowed until her forehead almost touched the ground, as did the witnesses of this princely generosity.

“It’s all over now,” said Mme. Fontaine, stepping down from the seat and smiling at Billie.  “You had a bad quarter of an hour, though, I fear.”

“I don’t know how we can ever thank you,” exclaimed Billie.  “You not only saved the car from destruction, but you may have saved us, too.  There’s no telling how far they would have gone once they got started.”

“No, no, they would not have harmed you, but they might have injured the car.  They are a good deal like children, but they are not butchers.  I think they admired your courage, too, for not deserting the sinking ship.”

Miss Campbell now approached and held out her hand gratefully.

“You are heaping coals of fire on my head, Mme. Fontaine,” she said.  “Yesterday I refused to grant you a favor and to-day you are placing us everlastingly in your debt.”

“No, no, you must not put it that way,” said the other woman, with a graceful movement of protest.  “You were quite right not to be interviewed if you did not wish it.  Some Americans do not object to publicity, you know.  One can never tell.  But what I did just now any other person who spoke both languages would have been glad to do.”

The end of the episode was that Mme. Fontaine waited with Miss Campbell and the three girls, while Billie, in the center of a curious circle of onlookers and with the help of Komatsu, put on a new tire.

“Are you in a ’riksha?” asked Miss Campbell of their deliverer.  “We would be glad if you would let us take you back to Tokyo in the car.  My young cousin is a careful and experienced chauffeur.  This is the only accident of the sort we have ever had and I think it was entirely the fault of the child.”

“Oh, I am not in the least timid in motor cars and I accept with pleasure,” answered Mme. Fontaine quickly.

Some twenty minutes later, with Komatsu running ahead to clear the road, the “Comet” threaded his way at a snail’s pace along the Arakawa Ridge.  No doubt his mechanical organism, which Billie had endowed with a soul, heaved a sigh of relief when they took the road home.

“Who were the young men with the knives and sword canes, Mme. Fontaine?” asked Mary on the way back.