Tom scowled at the car. “Something must be wrong,” he muttered, fiddling with the spark and throttle and then swinging the switch on and off knowingly. “I’ll try her again.” He did, while Willard backed further away, and for some unknown reason the engine sputtered once or twice and then settled down into a steady, rhythmic song. Tom, wiping the perspiration from his forehead, smiled triumphantly across at his chum. Willard gathered courage and drew near. “Why doesn’t it go?” he demanded. “Go? It is going!” “I mean move――run――――” “Because the clutch isn’t in,” explained Tom. “The engine is running idle; there’s no load on it; see? If I pushed down on this thing and drew this lever toward me it would start and go right through the back of the stable, I guess!” Willard begged him nervously to take his hand away from the lever in question. “I don’t think,” he said――they were almost shouting to make each other hear――“that it makes much noise, Tom!” “Of course it doesn’t!” bawled Tom emphatically. “You see, Jimmy’s so used to――to high-priced cars that he doesn’t appreciate this one.” “How much more is there to do?” asked Willard. “Just varnish her and put a new tube in that shoe over there. Jimmy says the rest of the tires will last for months, maybe. He says, though, we’d ought to have an extra tire on hand. There’s a place at the back where you can strap it on. Then we’d be prepared in case we had a blow-out. I’ve made a list of things we ought to have, Will. There――there are a good many of them.” “I suppose so,” Willard agreed. “And we mustn’t forget that we’ve got to make another payment to Saunders in a few days. I sort of thought we’d have the car going and be earning some money before we had to pay him any more.” “We would have if they hadn’t held us up at the factory for those new parts. Anyway, we’ll have her on the street in two or three days now; that is, if we can get the varnish on.” So they set bravely to work with varnish pots and brushes and, by keeping at it until dinner time and then putting in another three hours in the afternoon, they completed the body and got the first coat on the chassis. Three days later the car was ready and Tom took his first lesson in running it. Jimmy took the wheel until they had reached a nice stretch of open road some two miles from town in the direction of Graywich and then he mounted the running board on the driving side and put Tom through his paces. Willard went along, seated in the tonneau, and showed signs of nervousness when Tom moved over to the driver’s seat and took the wheel. Jimmy showed Tom how to throw out the clutch with his left foot and pull the lever back to first speed and they went trundling slowly and cautiously down the road, Tom holding the wheel desperately and staring fixedly ahead. Presently――after Tom had wobbled the car from one side of the road to the other for several hundred feet――Jimmy said: