"Come on!" Her eyes were bright with excitement. "We--oh, dear--the old train's started again."
"No matter--I'll stop it!" Minot reached for the bell cord.
"But do you dare--can't you be arrested?"
"Too late--I've done it. Let me help you with those magazines. Quick! This way."
On the platform they met an irate conductor, red and puffing.
"Say--who stopped this train?" he bellowed.
"I don't know--who usually stops it?" Minot replied, and he and the girl slid by the uniform to the safety of Sunbeam.
The lean, lank, weary native who lolled beside the passé automobile was startled speechless for a moment by the sight of two such attractive visitors in his unattractive town. Then he remembered.
"Want a taxi, mister?" he inquired. "Take you up to the Sunbeam House for a quarter apiece--"
"To San Marco," cried the girl breathlessly. "Can you get us there by one o'clock?"
"To--to--say, lady," stammered the rustic chauffeur. "That train you just got off of is going to San Marco."
"Oh, no, it isn't," Minot explained. "We know better. It's going out into the country to lie down under a shade tree and rest."
"The train is too slow," said the girl. "I must be in San Marco before one o'clock. Can you get me--us--there by then? Speak quickly, please."
The effect of this request on the chauffeur was to induce even greater confusion.
"T--to--to San Marco," he stumbled. "W--well, say, that's a new one on me. Never had this car out o' Sunbeam yet."
"Lady," said the chauffeur, "I'd do anything I could, within reason--"
"Can you get us to San Marco by one o'clock?" she demanded.
"I ain't no prophet, lady." A humorous gleam came into his eye. "But ever since I got this car I been feelin' sort o' reckless. If you say so, I'll bid all my family and friends good-by, and we'll take a chance on San Marco together."
"That's the spirit," laughed Minot. "But forget the family and friends."
He placed his baggage in the front of the car, and helped the girl into the tonneau. With a show of speed, the countryman went around to the front of the car and began to crank.
He continued to crank with agonized face. In the course of a few minutes, sounds of a terrific disturbance came from inside the car. Still, like a hurdy-gurdy musician, the man cranked.