ight then. What reason had he to
suppose a mishap would befall him when they were not by? It was
infernally hard luck!

Goodness only knew what was the matter with the thing. Probably
something was smashed, something that might require days or even weeks
to repair, and would cost a lot of money. Here was a pretty dilemma!

How angry his father would be!

The family were going to use the automobile Saturday to take Doris back
to Northampton for the opening of college and had planned to make quite
a holiday of the trip. Now it would all have to be given up and
everybody would blame him for the disappointment. A wretched hole he was
in!

The boys had not given him much sympathy, either. They had been ready
enough to egg him on into wrong-doing and had made of the adventure the
jolliest lark imaginable; but the moment fun had been transformed into
calamity they had deserted him with incredible speed, climbing out of
the spacious tonneau and trooping jauntily off on foot to see the town.
It was easy enough for them to wash their hands of the affair and leave
him to the solitude of the roadside; the automobile was not theirs and
when they got home they would not be confronted by irate parents.

How persuasively, reflected Stephen, they had urged him on.

"Oh, be a sport, Steve!" Jack Curtis had coaxed. "Who's going to be the
wiser if you do take the car? Anyhow, you have run it before, haven't
you? I don't believe your father will mind."

"Take a chance, Stevie," his chum, Bud Taylor, pleaded. "What's the good
of being such a boob? Do you think if my father had a car and it was
standing idle in the garage when a bunch of kids needed it to go to a
school game I would hesitate? You bet I wouldn't!"

"It isn't likely your Dad would balk at your using the car if he knew
the circumstances," piped another boy. "We have got that match to play
off, and now that the electric cars are held up by the strike how are we
to get to Torrington? Don't be a ninny, Steve."

Thus they had ridiculed, cajoled, and wheedled Steve until his
conscience had been overpowered and, yielding to their arguments, he had
set forth for the adjoining village with the triumphant throng of
tempters. At first all had gone well. The fourteen miles had slipped
past with such smoothness and rapidity that Stephen, proudly enthroned
at the wheel, had almost forgotten that any shadow rested on the
hilarity of the day. He had been dubbed a good fellow, a true