n them all the way. He wished he dared--But they
were coming back, as if they would not trust him too long alone with
that bag. He bent again to the tire, and when they climbed back into
the curtained car he was getting the pump tubing out to pump up that
particular tire a few pounds.

They did not pay much attention to him. They seemed preoccupied and not
too friendly with each other, Bud thought. Their general air of gloom
he could of course lay to the weather and the fact that they had been
traveling for about fourteen hours without any rest; but there was
something more than that in the atmosphere. He thought they had
disagreed, and that he was the subject of their disagreement.

He screwed down the valve cap, coiled the pump tube and stowed it away
in the tool box, opened the gas tank, and looked in--and right there he
did something else; something that would have spelled disaster if either
of them had seen him do it. He spilled a handful of little round white
objects like marbles into the tank before he screwed on the cap, and
from his pocket he pulled a little paper box, crushed it in his hand,
and threw it as far as he could into the bushes. Then, whistling just
above his breath, which was a habit with Bud when his work was going
along pleasantly, he scraped the mud off his feet, climbed in, and drove
on down the road.

The big car picked up speed on the down grade, racing along as though
the short rest had given it a fresh enthusiasm for the long road that
wound in and out and up and down and seemed to have no end. As though he
joyed in putting her over the miles, Bud drove. Came a hill, he sent her
up it with a devil-may-care confidence, swinging around curves with a
squall of the powerful horn that made cattle feeding half a mile away on
the slopes lift their startled heads and look.

"How much longer are you good for, Bud?" Foster leaned forward to ask,
his tone flattering with the praise that was in it.

"Me? As long as this old boat will travel," Bud flung back gleefully,
giving her a little more speed as they rocked over a culvert and sped
away to the next hill. He chuckled, but Foster had settled back again
satisfied, and did not notice.

Halfway up the next hill the car slowed suddenly, gave a snort, gasped
twice as Bud retarded the spark to help her out, and, died. She was
a heavy car to hold on that stiff grade, and in spite of the full
emergency brake helped out with the service brake, she inch