“‘The next one’s in Bayport,’ says I, ’and that’s ten mile ahead if it’s a foot.’

“However, there wa’n’t nothin’ else for it, so toward Bayport we put.  Bradbury groaned once in a while, and Mrs. Bassett got nervous.

“‘We’ll never get there at this rate,’ says she.  ’Go faster, Jonadab.  Faster!  Press down on—­on that thing he told you to.  Please! for my sake.’

“‘Don’t you—­’ I begun; but ’twas too late.  He pressed, and away we went.  We was eatin’ up the road now, I tell you, and though I was expectin’ every minute to be my next, I couldn’t help admirin’ the way the Cap’n steered.  And, as for him, he was gettin’ more and more set up and confident.

“‘She handles like a yacht, Barzilla,’ he grunts, between his teeth.  ‘See me put her around the next buoy ahead there.  Hey! how’s that?’

“The next ‘buoy’ was a curve in the road, and we went around it beautiful.  So with the next and the next and the next.  Bayport wa’n’t so very fur ahead.  All to once another dreadful thought struck me.

“‘Look here!’ I yells.  ‘How in time are we goin’ to stop when we—­Ow!’

“The Bassett woman had pinched my arm somethin’ savage.  I looked at her, and she was scowlin’ and shakin’ her head.

“‘S-sh-sh!’ she whispers.  ‘Don’t disturb him.  He’ll be frightened and—­’

“’Frightened!  Good heavens to Betsy!  I cal’late he won’t be the only one that’s fri—­’

“But she looked so ugly that I shut up prompt, though I done a heap of thinkin’.  On we went and, as we turned the next ‘buoy,’ there, ahead of us, was another auto, somethin’ like ours, with only one person in it, a man, and goin’ in the same direction we was, though not quite so fast.

“Then I was scart.  ‘Hi, Jonadab!’ I sings out.  ’Heave to!  Come about!  Shorten sail!  Do you want to run him down?  Look out!’

“I might as well have saved my breath.  Heavin’ to and the rest of it wa’n’t included in our pilot’s education.  On we went, same as ever.  I don’t know what might have happened if the widow hadn’t kept her head.  She leaned over the for’ard rail of the after cockpit and squeezed a rubber bag that was close to Jonadab’s starboard arm.  It was j’ined to the fog whistle, I cal’late, ’cause from under our bows sounded a beller like a bull afoul of a barb-wire fence.

“The feller in t’other car turned his head and looked.  Then he commenced to sheer off to wind’ard so’s to let us pass.  But all the time he kept lookin’ back and starin’ and, as we got nigher, and I could see him plainer through the dust, he looked more and more familiar.  ’Twas somebody I knew.

“Then I heard a little grunt, or gasp, from Cap’n Jonadab.  He was leanin’ for’ard over the wheel, starin’ at the man in the other auto.  The nigher we got, the harder he stared; and the man in front was actin’ similar in regards to him.  And, all to once, the head car stopped swingin’ off to wind’ard, turned back toward the middle of the road, and begun to go like smoke.  The next instant I felt our machine fairly jump beneath me.  I looked at Jonadab’s foot.  ’Twas pressed hard down on the speed lever.