The young man on the bicycle was not able to overtake the runaway motor car before it reached the bridge, but he was not far behind it. When the automobile smashed through the railing and leaped into the river, he jumped from the bicycle and followed it without the slightest hesitation.

He was an excellent swimmer, and, rising from the plunge, he saw the head of Nathan Wiggin bob to the surface within reach of his arm. Immediately he fastened a hand on the man’s collar.

“Keep still! Stop thrashing,” he said, “and I’ll get you out.”

The somewhat difficult task of rescuing Judge Wiggin from drowning was accomplished, while the panting throng that had reached the bridge looked on and cheered. Reaching shallow water, the young man assisted the judge to his feet, and both waded forth to dry land.

Arriving on shore, the older man immediately sat down facing the river, beneath the sluggish surface of which Governor Bradley’s automobile lay immersed. After a few choking gulps, he began to speak in accents and words of the utmost self-contempt.

“Nate Wiggin,” he said, addressing himself, “you’ve lived to be fifty-four year old, and arrived at the conclusion that there wasn’t anything that traveled on legs or wheels that you couldn’t handle. Which goes to show that when a man thinks he knows all there is to know about anything a shrinkage has set in about half an inch beneath the roots of his hair. A wise fool is about as safe to have round as a stick of dynamite bakin’ in the oven of a red-hot stove. If he don’t damage nobody else, he’s pretty likely to blow up and bust himself.”

The governor and his secretary, followed by a few others, came hurrying to the spot. Seeing them approach, the judge got upon his feet, dripping tiny rivulets.

“Governor,” he observed, “there’s no great loss without some small gain. You’ll save the price of a wash for that there automobile. Whatever damage or expense may accrue I ca’late I’ll have to sustain. I guess we can find a way to get her out.”

“I’m thankful,” said Governor Bradley, “that you were not killed.”

“I don’t see why that should choke you with joy. In your place I’d prob’ly be so blazin’ mad I’d start in to murder somebody.”

His eyes streaming and his nose snuffling, Weeping Buzzell broke in: “Obadiah Cobb has come along with his hoss and 

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