The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-02

runabout switch into the main road and
 haul up before the wreck. A portly gen.
 tleman with white mustache and ifn-
 perial held the rens, and 1 marked him
 instantly for the enemy.
 "Give her everything you've got. Jack,
 I urged "The old gentleman's holding
 post-morten on the buggy right now
 She's wide open' said Carpenter, ie-
 signedly Cant do any bettef."
 Miss Carton observed my interested
 glances and looked back herself.
 "Oh-h-hv she gasped. "Theres da6dy.
 Oh. Edward."
 Evidently daddy recognized his recreant
 daughter at the same instant, for with
 flick of the whip across the flank Of Betty
 Bell he left off speculation on the wreck
 and applied himself to the chase with
 determination which boded i'll for Edward.
 With a vital sigh of relief the Cough
 Drop clawed over the brow of the hill and started down a long, easy descent, which stretched away for a mile or more, straight as though laid with Il rule. Hang on to your hats yelled Carpen- ter, there's where we jolt the speed ordi- nance"
 We tucked over the edge Of the hill
 and the Cough Drop gathered momentum. l have forgotten the law which governs
 in the field of mechanics, but out accel- eration seemed to double abou. once
 every ten feet. It became like dropping In a parachute that declines to open. It be- came like falling down a coal mine. Going like wild, unbrolSen asteroid, we shot out on the level took a broad, easy
 curve with jar and slide, and began to forget the law of gravltation and
 come down to decency once more. For some time we ran along slowly with nothing to break the nonotony but
 the blissful inanites from the back seat
 Cant you hit it up bit again?' asked the boy finally.
 We were tooling evenly along at sec
 ond speed, that being the Cough Drops present maximum, and after the recent lawless violation 1t did seem iinposslby slow.
 Sorry" said Carpenter. 'She can't do any more than this till she's been to the blacksmith's or hits another hlll." ] 'Have you license?" I asked. "License" said the boy. "Do we need
 one?"
 "1t's all right" I said. "castletons the county seat.'
 Here comes daddy" said Miss Carton :, in a resigned tone.
 "For Gods sake, hit 1t up!" urged the | boy. we must be nearly there." Before us the road took sharp turn | to the left and rose abruptly in a steep grade. Bravely the Cough Drop butted | into the rise, sleeper dnu sleeper SrtW I the grade, slowly and more slowly the | wheels went round Case O shove" growled Carpenter. l Lively now. You stay In, Miss Carton. We'll make it, I think Bgelow and I obediently applied our l shoulders to the tonneau and our toes to
 the gravel.
 "Oh, shove, you cripples." admonished Carpenter unkindly from his place at the l wheel. Put some push in it." 1 So we showed and sweated, and the 1 Cough Drop coughed and threatened to | drop. and the hill was interminable, and directly Miss Carton, leaning over behind, | squealed deliriously within an inch of my l ear
 1 l dared not pause in my grievous labor l long enough to look behind lest the car | roll backward and annihilate me, but 1 knew what it meant. Between the shorts | of the machine I could hear the "clippity, 1 clippity, cnppity" of the horse on the
 gravel. Evidently daddy had rounded the l turn and, with the prey in sight, was bent on closing the gap. l Almost there" shouted Carpenter l cheerfully Shove her over now.' | Bigelow was showing like a madman. I
 was almost all in, my wind being affected. i That last ten yards left my knees stiff for a week, but suddenly she went more easily, and then shot ahead of her own ! over.
 l "Al rightr shouted Carpenter Pile in 1 now"
 "Hey, you young fools." came from be- ] hind as Bigelow and I fell into the car. Daddy was in no genial mood. I dropped i back limp and exhausted on the leather. Beneath us lay Castleton at the foot of | another long hill.
 l Here goes for the finish" cried Carpen- | ter, and we slid over the brow and gath | cred way as we struck the grade. Half dazed, I listened to Bgelow playing the | undaunted lover on the back seat. | Cant make 1t in time. can we?" asked of Carpenter, but his answer was drowned in the sudden rush of air as the | Cough Drop fell down the hill like a runaway freight car. The road reeled in | beneath us; the nearer landscape was a greenish blur; the background the outer rim of swirling vortex. | Ahead the road forlxed the right branch running into the town, the left away, we knew not whither. a tongue of woods dividing them. Carpenter gave the wheel twitch and We shot to the left, struck the level and began to slow down. "Wrong road" shouted in his ear. "Got to make time to get the license. Sorry, but got to do it, he yelled back.