death, with the wheel in his hand
and a song on his lips, and now wind and storm were tempting him to
ride with the devil.

So, dashing wildly through the whirl of dirt and wind, heavy with the
odor of burnt oil, he bent to the wheel, every nerve alert and leaping.
As the great car jumped to its limit of speed, he fell to singing an
elaborate sketch of opera in an insolent, dare-devil voice of splendid
timbre, the exhaust, unmuffled, pounding forth an obligato.

The lightning flared. It glittered wickedly upon the unlighted lamps
of a car rolling rapidly toward him. With a squirt of mud and a
scatter of flying pebbles, Carl swung far to the side of the road and
slammed on his brakes, skidding dangerously. The other car, heading
wildly to the left, went crashing headlong into a ditch from which a
man crawled, cursing viciously in a foreign tongue.

"You damned fool!" thundered Carl in a flash of temper. "Where are
your lights?"

The man did not reply.

Carl, whose normal instincts were friendly, sprang solicitously from
the car.

"I beg your pardon," said he carelessly. "Are you hurt?"

"No," said the other curtly.

"French," decided Carl, marking the European intonation. "Badly shaken
up, poor devil!--and not sure of his English. That accounts for his
peculiar silence. Monsieur," said he civilly in French. "I am not
prepared to deliver a homily upon wild driving, but it's well to drive
with lights when roads are dark and storm abroad."

"I have driven so few times," said the other coldly in excellent
English, "and the storm and erratic manner of your approach were
disquieting."

"_Touche_!" admitted Carl indifferently. "You have me there. Your
choice of a practice night, however," he added dryly, "was unique, to
say the least."

He crossed the road, frowned curiously down at the wrecked machine and
struck a match.

"_Voila_!" he exclaimed, staring aghast at the bent and splintered
mass, "_c'est magnifique, Monsieur_!'"

A sheet of flame shot suddenly from the match downward and wrapped the
wreck in fire. Conscious now of the fumes of leaking gasoline, Carl
leaped back.

"Monsieur," said he ruefully, and turned. The reflection of the
burning oil revealed Monsieur some feet away, running rapidly. Angered
by the man's unaccountable indifference, Carl leaped after him. He was
much the better runner of the two and presently swung his prisoner
about in a brutal grip and marched him savagely