“The way she answered showed pretty plain that she didn't believe him. 'Really?' she says. 'Do you think so? Good night, Jonadab.' “I could hear her walkin' off acrost the piazza. He went after her. 'Hettie,' he says, 'you answer me one thing. Are you engaged to Tobe Loveland?' “She laughed again, sort of teasin' and slow. 'Really,' says she, 'you are--Why, no, I'm not.' “That was all, but it set me to thinkin' hard. She wa'n't engaged to Loveland; she said so, herself. And yet, if she wanted Jonadab, she was actin' mighty funny. I ain't had no experience, but it seemed to me that then was the time to bag him and she'd put him off on purpose. She was ages too ancient to be a flirt for the fun of it. What was her game?” CHAPTER X CAPTAIN JONADAB GOES Mr. Wingate stopped and roared a greeting to Captain Hiram Baker, who was passing the open door of the waiting room. “Hello, there, Hime!” he shouted. “Come up in here! What, are you too proud to speak to common folks?” Captain Hiram entered. “Hello!” he said. “You look like a busy gang, for sure. What you doin'--seatin' chairs?” “Just now we're automobilin',” observed Captain Sol. “Set down, Hiram.” “Automobilin'?” repeated the new arrival, evidently puzzled. “Sartin. Barzilla's takin' us out. Go on, Barzilla.” Mr. Wingate smiled broadly. “Well,” he began, “we HAVE just about reached the part where I went autoin'. The widow and me and Jonadab.” “Jonadab!” shouted Stitt. “I thought you said--” “I know what I said. But we went auto ridin' just the same. “'Twas Henry G. Bradbury that took us out, him and his bran-new big tourin' car. You see, he landed to board with us the next day after Henrietta come--this Henry G. did--and he was so quiet and easy spoken and run his car so slow that even a pizen auto hater like Jonadab couldn't take much offense at him. He wa'n't very well, he said, subject to some kind of heart attacks, and had come to the Old Home for rest. “Him and the Cap'n had great arguments about the sins of automobilin'. Jonadab was sot on the idee that nine folks out of ten hadn't machine sense enough to run a car. Bradbury, he declared that that was a fact with the majority of autos, but not with his. 'Why, a child could run it,' says he. 'Look here, Cap'n: To start it you just do this. To stop it you do so and so. To make her go slow you haul back on this lever. To make her go faster you shove down this one. And as for steerin'--well, a man that's handled the wheels of as many catboats as you have would simply have a picnic. I'm in entire sympathy with your feelin's against speeders and such--I'd be a constable if I was in your shoes--but this is a gentleman's car and runs like one.'