and was drawing her toward him, gently, but with an exceeding firmness, while the dancing dark eyes continued to laugh into hers. “There, see what you’ve done!”

The big car had given a most unwieldy lurch, wedged a tire in a rut, bounced a couple of times, and stopped—providentially—on the edge of the deep gully that fringed the road.

“It is nothing,” declared the young man, a bit stunned by the suddenness of the affair. The car, however, refusing to back, gave him the lie. Polly tore herself from his detaining arm and was out in the road.

“If you had an electric torch I could tell you what it is,” she said, trying to control both nerves and temper, 58 for she was both frightened and angry. “Have you?”

58

“I think so,” replied Pachuca, a little stiffly. “But, please, dear lady, do not get down in the dirt! I beg of you!”

“I don’t mind. I know every little pain an engine can have. I drove an emergency car at home during the war,” said Polly, curtly.

“Indeed?” Juan Pachuca’s voice was cool. The young lady was business-like—too business-like to flirt with—and yet——

“No, it’s not that.” Polly shook the curls out of her eyes and slammed the cover of the radiator. “Where do you think it is? You ought to know something about this car; you’ve been driving it.”

Pachuca’s eyes danced. What was the use of being stiff with an American? They were all alike—the men after money, and the women after what they called independence!

“I think,” he said, demurely, “that it must be attacked from underneath, if you will hold the torch.”

“All right.” Polly smiled. “Go ahead. If you can’t find it, I’ll try.”

Thus it was that Marc Scott’s first acquaintance with Polly Street came as he pulled the excited team to its haunches within a few feet of the automobile, and she, holding Juan Pachuca’s torch, jumped to her feet and faced him.

“Oh!” she cried, eagerly, “is that you, Bob?” Then, seeing more clearly, “I beg your pardon! 59 We’ve had trouble with the car, but we’ve fixed it and we’ll be out of the way in a moment.”

59

“I’m not Bob Street, but I’m from Athens, and I’m 

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