"If I can rent Bergstrom's place next door when their lease is up I'll
knock down the partition and put in auto supplies. There's big money in
'em.... Guess if it keeps on warm like this we can plant the garden next
week.... That was swell cake Ma had for supper.... What's that in the
road! What's!--"

Jammed down the foot-brake. Jerked back the emergency. A girl standing
in the road. A dark mass in the ditch by the road-side. He was out of
his car. He recognized her as the Weld girl.

"'S'matter?"

"In the ditch. She's hurt. Quick!"

"Whose car?" Chug was scrambling down the banks.

"Hatton's. Angie Hatton's."

"Gosh!"

Over by the fence, where she had been flung, Angie Hatton was found
sitting up, dizzily, and saying, "Betty! Betty!" in what she supposed
was a loud cry but which was really a whisper.

"I'm all right, dear. I'm all right. Oh, Angie, are you--"

She was cut and bruised, and her wrist had been broken. The two girls
clung to each other, wordlessly. The thing was miraculous, in view of
the car that lay perilously tipped on its fender.

"You're a lucky bunch," said Chug. "Who was driving?"

"I was," said Angie Hatton.

"It wasn't her fault," the Weld girl put in, quickly. "We were coming
from Winnebago. She's a wonderful driver. We met a farm-wagon coming
toward us. One of those big ones. The middle of the road. Perhaps he was
asleep. He didn't turn out. We thought he would, of course. At the last
minute we had to try for the ditch. It was too steep."

"Anyway, you're nervy kids, both of you. I'll have you both home in
twenty minutes. We'll have to leave five thousand dollars' worth of car
in the road till morning. It'll be all right."

He did get them home in twenty minutes and the five thousand dollars'
worth of car was still lying repentantly in the ditch when morning came.
Old Man Hatton himself came into the garage to thank Chug the following
day. Chug met him in overalls, smudge-faced as he was. Old Man Hatton
put out his hand. Chug grinned and looked at his own grease-grimed paw.

"That's all right," said Old Man Hatton, and grasped it firmly. "Want to
thank you."

"That's all right," said Chug. "Didn't do a thing."

"No business driving alone that hour of the night. Girls nowadays--" He
looked around the garage. "Work here, I suppose?"

"Yessir."

"If there's anything I can do for you? Over at the mill."

"Guess not," said Chug.

"Treat you right here, do they?"

"Fine.