“I shall never forget this, Copley,” said Maxwell, grasping his hand once more in the kind of a grip a real man gives to another. “I’ll talk about it later when I’ve taken these people to the train. Meantime accept my thanks for yourself and your friend. You’re both princes, and I’ll see that everybody knows it.” “Forget it!” chanted Carey, and swung himself like a thistledown to the running-board of Brand’s car as he swept slowly, scrutinizingly up. “Got her all right, didn’t you, old man?” said Brand admiringly. “Any scratches? You had a mighty close shave!” “Yep! She’s all right. Well, so-long Maxwell; we gotta beat it back to work,” and with a great whizzing and banging of joyful celebration the racer shot its way back uphill, and the two jumped out quite casually as if they had been off to get a soda and come back to work again. Cornelia, white, and trembling from the horror of the thing, tried to praise, to question, to exclaim; but, failing to make an impression on the two indifferent workers, went upstairs, fell on her knees, and cried. Somewhere in the midst of her tears her crying turned into a prayer of thanksgiving, and she came down with an uplifted look on her face. Now and then as she went about her duties she stole to the front window, and looked out on the two sturdy workers. She could have hugged them both she was so proud of them—they were so cool, so capable, and so indifferent! Just regular boys! Maxwell came back that evening. She had somehow known he would. He was filled with gratitude to the two who had so gallantly saved him from a catastrophe which would have shadowed his whole life. He still shuddered over the thought of what might have happened. “I will never again leave a child alone in an automobile,” he declared. “That girl was a little terror. I never saw one so spoiled and disagreeable in my life. She was determined to be allowed to run the car from the minute she got in, and she annoyed me constantly by playing with the electric buttons and getting her hands constantly on the wheel. I never dreamed she would have the strength to start the car, although she is large and strong for her age. But she has all kinds of nerve and impudence, and I might have known better than to stop here at all when I had such a passenger. Her grandmother is a nervous wreck; but she doesn’t blame me, fortunately, although I blame myself decidedly. It is my business to know men, and I should have known that child well enough to realize it was a risk to leave her.” “Kid ought to be spanked!” declared Carey gruffly. “Know what she did? When she saw she was going to run into that car, she lost every bit of nerve, and began climbing over the back of the seat. Some kid that! Just bad all through. Any nervy kid I know would have stuck it out and tried to steer her somehow, but that kid had a yellow streak.”