"A right smart lot of letters wanting me to buy things came
along about that time. I hadn't got any use for an auto then. Now I have.
And I want a good one, for touring. The best there is."

"Any make you fancy?"

"I don't know much more about motors than elephants," Nick confessed. "No
use pretendin' to be an expert, but I'm going to learn the whole game from
A to Z."

"I've got a machine here now," said the man of the garage, "that might
suit you if you want something first-rate. Belongs to a millionaire who
went broke before he'd had his auto a week. Best American on the market,
and better than new. She's found herself. Come and have a look at her."
Nick went. "She" was a beauty, inside and out a pale primrose yellow.

"Almost the colour of _her_ hair," he thought.

"I must have a shuvver to overhaul the machine, until I've been put wise,"
he said, when, after some discussion, he had agreed to buy the yellow car
if it were satisfactory. "But I want to learn to drive right away. I'd
sure be on pins and needles, sittin' like a duke, in behind, with somebody
else at the helm. How long will it take me? I'm pretty quick at pickin' up
new things."

"Can you drive a horse?" the man inquired.

Nick laughed. "I can worry along some."

Few men in California knew more about horses than he.

"Well, then, you'll get the trick of steering sooner. Six or seven lessons
might do you."

"Lessons of an hour or two?"

"Well, yes. That's about it."

"Suppose I pay extra, and practise extra? If I keep at it all day and
every day, will I be warranted safe and kind after, say, four lessons? I
can have several men to teach me maybe, if I tire one out."

"But you're only one man. Keeping at it like that you'd feel a strain."

"No, I wouldn't," said Nick. "I'd have a doze or two and a sandwich or two
in between spins. No harder work than a round-up."

"All right, then. In four days like that you'll be a dandy driver, I
promise you, Mr. Hilliard," said the man of the garage.

"Fit to drive--ladies?"

"Fit to drive a queen."

"That's what I want to do," mumbled Nick under his breath.

X

WHEN ANGELA WENT SIGHTSEEING

The next five days Angela spent in seeing the country her father had
helped to create, and in breaking down in the blue motor-car at brief and
inconvenient intervals. At first they were unexpected intervals; but soon
they were taken for granted; for the more she knew of Mr. Sealman's
invention the