rive on the wrong side of the street, go ahead and do it. Are
you ready to start, Gerard?"

Gerard, who had come up in time to hear enough, had interpretation been
necessary, put an additional argument into the man's hand before
entering the car.

"My fault, Johnston," he stated, with the quiet serenity of one certain
of his ground. "You know I am not a law-breaker, I fancy; this was a
case of necessity."

"It was your friend, Mr. Gerard----"

Corrie reached for a lever, smiling ingenuously across as he interrupted
to reply.

"The rule says to keep to the right, officer?"

"Sure."

"Well, I am left-handed, that's all. Now look at this."

This was the execution of a movement that sent the automobile rolling
backwards.

"You see, I go north on the east side," the driver called, while the
machine slid away. "All right, yes? Nothing in the rules about which end
first you drive your car? No? I thought not. Good-by."

The car was at the corner, rounded it, and darted away in the customary
method of straightforward progression.

"But if this had been New York, I would be in jail," Corrie added placid
commentary, when security was attained. "I know all about it; I was
arrested in Manhattan, once, for driving without a license number
displayed. The cords must have broken and have let the number-plate fall
off. Much that policeman listened to me. He ordered Dean into the
tonneau with Flavia, stepped up into the seat beside me and ordered me
to drive to the nearest police station."

"What did you do?"

"I drove. It cost me twenty-five dollars, a week later, and I had to
'phone for the family lawyer with bail to keep me from spending that
night in a cell. Father----"

The stop was full. Gerard turned his attention to the street traffic,
giving his companion liberty to evade continuing the theme. The evasion
was not made.

"Father," Corrie resumed, clearly and steadily, "gave me this diamond I
wear, when I told him, so that I might always have something with me to
give as a bond for reappearance instead of having to be locked up until
I got help. He said one might be caught without one's pocketbook along,
but not without one's ring. I have never taken it off since."

There was a change in his tone that Gerard had heard before, and never
had succeeded in analyzing; not the change from gayety to gravity,
although that was present, but some more subtle alteration that stirred
the hearer to a strange, illogical sen