Tom threw out his clutch lever, set his brake, and descended. There was still a good hour before breakfast time, but he was fully two miles and a half from home, and whatever was to be done had better be done quickly. The trouble, however, was to find out what. He raised one side of the hood and ran his eye over the engine. Everything seemed all right there. The wires were all connected. He looked over the carburetor side with similar results. The cock on the gasoline inlet pipe was open, and everything else seemed satisfactory. So he tried to start the engine again; tried first on the battery, and then on the magneto, spinning the wheel valiantly, but with no results. The engine seemed as dead as a door-nail! After that he went over everything again. And, after that, he sat down on the running-board to wipe the perspiration from his face and get his breath back, meanwhile trying to remember what he had done in former similar quandaries. Finally, what should have occurred to him long before came to him, and he dragged off the front seat cushion and, unscrewing the cap of the gasoline tank, peered in. It was as dry as a bone! Luckily Jimmy had provided for just such a contingency by placing an old one-gallon varnish can filled with gasoline under the rear seat, and soon Tom was on his way again, and in another quarter of an hour ran The Ark triumphantly into the garage, having learned one more thing that would doubtless stand him in good stead. Finally, three days later, to be exact, on the twelfth day of July, the great moment arrived. The Benton & Morris Transportation Company began business! CHAPTER IX “CAB, SIR?” The company started with a cash balance of four dollars on hand. Jimmy had been paid, although he had expressed his entire willingness to wait a couple of weeks for half of his money. Mr. Saunders had received his first installment, a new shoe and two new inner tubes had been bought and they had also purchased already fifteen gallons of gasoline, much of which had been used in trying the engine out in the garage. A license for the car had cost ten dollars and an operator’s license two more. They had also been obliged to buy a number of unthought of things, such as the rubber mat and brass polish and kerosene for the lamps and a new set of spark plugs. Paint, varnish, brushes, cylinder oil, cup grease and graphite had been anticipated but footed up higher than expected. Willard had put seventy-five dollars more into the business, which, with the fifty dollars loaned by Mr. Benton, represented a capitalization of one hundred and seventy-five dollars. Willard’s loan and Mr. Benton’s were to be paid back from the net profits of the enterprise.