e owner of a village garage who was stubbornly hostile to
the idea of leaving his bed to provide a lunatic with gasoline. Archie's
vociferous oratory had the pleasing effect of filling all the windows in
the neighborhood with unsympathetic hearers and the village policeman
appeared and made careful note of car and contents.

"I guess you're used to getting what you go after in this world," said
Sally as they resumed their journey. "You certainly told that man where
to get off."

"Just a little firmness will go a long way with such a chap," Archie
answered, marveling at his newly discovered command of the unattainable.
A week earlier he would have been incapable of threatening a whole
village with frightful reprisals unless it responded to his demands.

"I didn't like that cop poking round the car," Abijah complained. "He
took your number all right."

"Don't you worry about policemen," Archie answered scornfully. "If they
fool with me I'll knock their blocks off!"

"I'll say you would!" cried Sally in a tone of conviction that made him
regret that no policeman's head was in reach that he might demonstrate
his valor on the spot.

Sally and Abijah were eager to leave Bennington as soon as possible.

"Don't think we're not appreciating what you've done for us," said
Abijah, "but Sally and I had better shake you and that machine right
here. Sally's folks'll be sure to be after us and they'll just about
argue we came this way."

Archie laid to his soul the flattering unction that Abijah was jealous.
Justification of this suspicion was supported by the bridegroom's sudden
anxiety to depart out of Vermont with the utmost expedition. Archie had
every intention of ordering as gorgeous a breakfast as Bennington's best
hotel could provide, but Abijah promptly vetoed this suggestion and they
ate at a lunch counter, which Archie found a most disagreeable
proceeding. Abijah left Sally and Archie eating scrambled eggs while he
set forth to acquire information about trains. He returned while they
were still at the counter to report that a train was almost immediately
available. His haste annoyed Archie, who hated being hurried at his
meals. At the station Abijah hung about the baggage-room, where he had
no business whatever, as though trying to create the impression that he
was traveling alone. When the train came along he climbed into the
smoker with his own bag, leaving Archie to assist Sally into the chair
car.

"Abijah's