Of course I bounded off him at last and the earth hit me a hard upper-cut, but the bull had been a highly successful shock absorber. In a second or so I was able to get up and look around. The buggy had gone over, and the horse was on his hind legs trying to climb out of the dust-cloud.

“Harry stopped his car and began to back up.

“‘That’ll do for me,’ I said. ‘I don’t sit in your padded cell any longer.’

9

“I had lived a whole three-volume novel in the last forty minutes. The Panama Canal had been finished and England had become a republic. It was too much.

“We found two men––one at the head of the frightened horse, the other lying beside the wrecked buggy with a broken leg.

“And Harry had an engagement to play bridge!

“I took the horse’s head. The well man pulled a stake off the fence and chased Harry around the motor-car. He didn’t intend to ‘charge it.’ Wanted cash down. I got hold of his arm and succeeded in calming him.

“Harry apologized and assured them that he was willing to pay the damage. We picked up the injured man and took him to his home. On the way Harry explained that they should keep track of all expenses and:

“‘Charge it.’

“In a few minutes Harry roared off in 10 the direction of Pointview to get a doctor and the 6.03 express.

10

“‘It might be a little late,’ he said, as he left us.

“The next day Harry was arrested as a public enemy for criminal carelessness. He had injured three men on the highways of Connecticut, to say nothing of dogs and poultry. Almost everybody had something charged against Harry. He was highly unpopular, but a good fellow at heart.

“I got the judge to release him on his promise to abandon motoring for three years.

“Thus he rushed out of the motor-car stage of his career into that of the drag and tandem.

“He had had more narrow escapes and suffered greater perils than Rob Roy.

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