“That’s so. Eighteen a week, then; and we might make a lot more some weeks, mightn’t we? And four times eighteen is seventy-two. We’d make seventy-two dollars a month! And, out of that, we’d have to pay Saunders twenty, and buy gasoline and oil and things, and maybe repairs; although, if Brennan made a good job of it, it doesn’t seem as though we’d have many repairs for a good while. Hold on, though, Tom! What about tires?” Tom looked blank. “I’d forgotten those,” he muttered. “And they say tires cost an awful lot. And the tires on the car now don’t look as though they’d last a minute!” “You bet they don’t. That means we might have to buy four new ones right away. Thunder, I wish automobiles had only two wheels! How much do you suppose they cost, Tom?” Tom shook his head helplessly. “About――oh, maybe fifteen dollars apiece; maybe twenty!” “Golly!” Willard frowned a moment in silence. Then, “Well, let’s suppose we have to buy two new tires right away at twenty each. That makes forty more. Put it down, Tom. How much now?” “A hundred and fifty-eight dollars and twenty cents.” “H-m; and we’ll have a hundred only. Guess I’ll have to put in another fifty, Tom.” “If――if the tires that are on the car now proved to be all right for a while,” answered Tom, “we could get by with a hundred, couldn’t we? That is, pretty nearly.” “Yes. If we could get along until the end of the first month we’d be all right. Because we’d have to pay out of the seventy-two only twenty dollars to Saunders――――” “With interest.” “That wouldn’t be much――only about”――Willard calculated mentally――“only about thirty cents. Then there’d be, say, ten dollars more, for gasoline and such things. That would leave us with a profit of forty-two dollars, Tom. And with that we could buy two tires. I suppose we’d better make up our minds to putting most of our profits back into the business for a month or two.” Tom nodded. “I think so. Gee, but I wish I knew now what Brennan is going to tell us to-morrow. I――I’d be awfully disappointed, if he told us the car wasn’t worth fixing, Will.” “So would I be. I’ve sort of set my heart on the scheme now. Well, we’ll just hope for the best, Tom. Now I must be getting along. Coming up to the library?” “Yes, I’ll go and get that book. It won’t hurt to know something about automobiles, even if――if we don’t get this one, Will.” CHAPTER IV JIMMY BRENNAN REPORTS If you will look at your map of Rhode Island you will discover that the northern portion of that small but important state consists of the county of Providence, which, unlike most New England counties, is surprisingly square in form. In the southeast corner the Providence river has wedged its way in, and seemingly pushed the boundary a few miles into the state of Massachusetts, but otherwise Providence county is beautifully symmetrical, a thing of rectangles and equal sides――if you haven’t too true an eye!