e
car's other occupants had seen him as he lay curled up on the floor,
three-quarters hidden under the fallen rug. The luggage had been
arranged in the tonneau, before breakfast. And nobody had given a
second glance at it since then.

The sun was rising over a new-made world, alive with summer glory and
thrilling with bird-songs. The air, later in the day, would be warm.
But, at sunrise, it was sharp and bracing. The mystic wonder and the
hush of dawn were still brooding over the earth. The hard white road
stretched out, like a winding river, between banks of dew-gleaming
verdure. The mountain-tops were glowing with the touch of the sun. In
the deeper valleys floated a shimmering dusk.

The car sped swiftly along the empty highway; slowing down only as it
spun through half-awakened villages; or checked its pace to allow a
sleepy boy to drive a straggling bunch of cows across the road to
pasturage.

For an hour or more, Lad lay cuddled under the rug in contented
laziness. Then the recumbent posture tired him; and he sat up. As a
rule, one or the other of his deities was wont to turn around, at
intervals, and speak to him or pet him. Today, neither of them paid him
the slightest attention. Still, the ride was a joy. And the surrounding
country was new and interesting. So Lad had a good time, in spite of
human neglect. After another hour or so, he curled up again, among the
bags, and fell to drowsing.

A six-hour run, over good roads, brought the car to Kingston, at the
gateway to the Catskills. Here, at a hotel entrance, the machine came
to a standstill. The Master got out, and turned to help the Mistress to
alight. It was the place they had decided on for luncheon. Another
three hours, at most, would carry them to their destination.

A negro boy, loafing aimlessly at the street corner, had begun to
whistle industriously to himself as the car slowed down. And he had
wakened into active motion. Apparently, he remembered all at once an
important mission on the other side of the street. For he set off at a
swinging pace.

His course took him so near the back of the car that he had to turn
out, a step or so, to avoid collision with it. He accompanied this
turning-out maneuver by another which was less ostentatious, but more
purposeful. Timing his steps, so as to pass by the rear of the car just
as the Master was busy helping his wife to descend, the youth thrust an
arm over the side of the tonneau, with the speed of a