Adventure Magazine, Mid-September 1917 — page 158: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

156 so much on the trip inland failed to excite any curlosity now. Only when an auto- mobile raced with the train for a few mo- ments along the perfect roadway which paralleled the track, and then gradually fell back out of sight, did he seem to be inter- ested. As he continued to look out of the window another car turned into the main road from a side highway and refused to be shaken off. Persistently it kept up and held its place about midway of the train. There were two figures in the machine, both in long en- veloping coats and huge goggles, and from the observation car their backs were to Danny. Nevertheless his eyes twinkled with satisfaction, and he settled himself on that side of the train to watch the race. Just then the train came to a long stretch of straight track, and its speed increased, while the road wound and turned through several small villages. The automobile began to lose ground, and Danny grew nervous again. Moving to the back plat- form of the observation car he caught a last glimpse of the machine and its occupants as it slued around a corner and vanished in a cloud of dust behind an orange grove. ““How far is it to the next stop?” he asked the brakeman. ‘“‘Ten miles,” answered the man in uni- form, consulting his watch. ‘‘And how long do we stay there?” “Five minutes.” The next few minutes were long ones to Danny Wallace, and as the road beside the railroad track became straight and smooth again, he looked hopefully back along its shimmering surface for the pursuing car. Not until the train whistled and began to check its speed for the station ahead did he catch sight of it, leaping and swaying and dodging around slower cars, as it sped toward the slowing train. As the train stopped, despite the protests of the brake- man, Danny Wallace climbed over the rail of the observation platform and leaped to the ground. “You'll get left, boss,”’ yelled the porter P) Adventure after him, as he ran half a block to where the road came into town. Two minutes later the dust-covered, smoking machine stopped with a shrill cry of grinding brakes, and throwing off the coat and goggles, Bud Cantril put an arm around his companion and kissed her, then jumped over the wheel to the ground and came running to Danny Wallace. He was dressed in a neat-fitting Navy uniform. “Good-by, Danny,” called Ruth Hurley and Danny Wallace took time to wave his flat cap before he and Bud made a sprint for the train. “IT knew last night after you left I was going to do it,” said Bud, when they were settled on the train. “I’m going to finish up with an honorable discharge, and come back to them.” Danny patted the boy affectionately on the shoulder. “T knew you had it in you, Bud,” he said thankfully, “but I was a little afraid your stubbornness would make you hold out too long.”’ Bud looked out of the window a while before he answered. “Danny,” he said finally, “I guess you know what has happened, from what you saw in the car, but I want to tell you some- thing else. This morning I told Ruth what I had decided to do—go back, you know— and then I asked her to marry me. She ‘said ‘Yes,’ Danny, and then she told me, too, that if I had not decided to go back, her answer would have been ‘No.’ She knows, as well as you do, that salt water and gasoline won’t mix, and we’ve got to keep them separate.”’ ‘“‘Whose idea was it, Bud,” asked Danny, “‘to take the car and overhaul us?”’ ‘‘Hers,”’ answered the boy happily. “I was going to take a later train, but she sug- gested this better way. We busted every speed law in the State.” ‘“Well,”? chuckled, Danny Wallace, “I guess it’s true that salt water and gasoline won’t mix, but they certainly are stirrin’ things when you take ’em separately.”’ COmicloo C©