“I—don’t—know,” confessed the boy.
He tried the starter and got a few feeble turns out of the engine.
“Nothing doing,” he grunted.
“Is it something about the wiring?” murmured Agnes.
“Can it be the carburetor?” asked Ruth.
“Maybe something is out of gear underneath the car,” suggested Mrs. Heard, briskly. “Don’t they always have to get under the car to repair it?”
“Oh, yes!” groaned Neale. “‘Get out and get under.’ That’s the auto-driver’s motto.” He pulled off his coat preparatory to doing exactly what Mrs. Heard had suggested.
Tess observed gravely:
“Well! this isn’t something Neale can whisper to and make go when it balks.”
To punctuate the laugh that followed this perfectly serious statement on the part of Tess, Agnes cried: