“Well, I was nearly to the car when, all at once, a man stepped out into the road and held up his hand. I thought sure it was a hold-up and, as I stopped the car, I reached my hand into my pocket for my gun. But before I had time to pull it, the man, in a pleasant voice, explained that something was the matter with his engine and would I see if I could make it go. From the sound of his voice I decided that I had judged him wrong and, of course, I jumped out to see if I could help him out. He jostled me once or twice while I was leaning over the engine, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time.” “I was only a few minutes finding out what was wrong. A bit of dirt under the needle valve, and soon his engine was running all right again. He thanked me very profusely, almost too much so, I thought at the time. I had barely got started when I felt for my watch, to see how late it was, and it was gone. Believe me, I was mad. It was a hold-up after all I thought, and the stalled engine was a put-up job. Well, I resolved then and there to have that watch or to know the reason why. So I turned, as quickly as possible, and, believe me, I burned the road going back. I saw him ahead of me, after running about three miles, and, as soon as possible, I drove up alongside of him, and motioned for him to stop. He was not going very fast and at once obeyed my signal. I got out of my car and came to the side of his, and the next minute, pointing my gun full in his face, I demanded: “Hand over that watch, now, and be quick about it.” “He didn’t say a word but handed me the watch. Whether or not he recognized me as the man who had helped him out a few minutes before I don’t know. Well, I dropped the watch in my pocket and he drove on. I turned again and, a half hour later, was home.” “Mother was in the living room as I let myself in the house. She had been out somewhere and had just come in. I told her about my hold-up and explained I had gotten the watch back. I noticed that she was looking at me kinder funny, but she didn’t say anything till I had finished; then, with a puzzled look on her face, she told me that I had left my watch in the bath-room that evening and that she had put it in my room. You can believe that I wasn’t very long in pulling that watch out of my pocket. It was almost exactly like mine, but it only needed a glance to show that it wasn’t my watch at all. “‘Great Scott,’ I groaned, as I sank down in a chair. ‘I held that man up at the point of a gun and robbed him of his watch.’ You can, perhaps, imagine about how I felt. I was a sure enough highwayman, and a successful one at that. Just then Father came in, and of course I had to tell him all about it. I thought he’d die laughing at first, but in a moment the serious side of it occurred to him and he sobered up mighty quick.” “What in the world did you do?” Bob laughed, as Rex paused.