“Marty says you have to go away to-night?” suggested Janice.
“I’m due to go on the boat; but unless you help me I can’t catch it,” said Frank.
“Put your wheel in the car and hop in yourself, Mr. Bowman,” said Janice briskly. “I’ll get you to the dock, all right.”
She did as she promised, although there were none too many minutes to spare when they came down to the Polktown dock. The councilmen, without any knowledge of what it meant in wear and tear on a motor-car engine, had long since made an ordinance ordering motorists to travel within the town limits at a speed not exceeding eight miles an hour; and Janice really tried to conform to the law.
Janice knew that the town constable had timed her doubtfully on several occasions; but all he had was an old silver watch as big as the nickel star on his bosom, the second hand of which was broken, and before he had the Kremlin’s speed computed, Janice was usually out of sight.
The constable was not in evidence on this occasion as the car came down to the wharf. But Nelson Haley was. Janice did not see the school teacher, and as the Constance Colfax was already blowing her whistle at the dock, Frank had little observation for anybody. He leaped out of the car, lifted down the broken bicycle, left it in Walky Dexter’s care, and then turned to bid Janice good-bye.
“I’m a thousand times obliged to you, Janice Day,” he said, shaking hands with the girl warmly. “You are a friend in need. I do believe that car of yours helps more people than we realize. It is a regular institution—Polktown could not get along without it.”
Janice laughed, and waved her hand to him as he ran to cross the gangplank. The steamer pulled out at once and the girl turned her car carefully upon the dock, and went back up the hill.
It was then that she saw Nelson standing at the corner of the freight shed. She was about to slow down, and she nodded to the school teacher and smiled. Nelson responded very stiffly, and turned away. He did not offer to speak to her, and Janice drove the Kremlin up the hill with a new feeling of despondency.
She could not hope to see the young school teacher very frequently thereafter, for his work began on Monday morning. The Polktown school had increased in membership until Haley had to have two assistants. Pupils remained for higher studies than had been the custom in the old school, and fewer Polktown boys and girls went to the Middletown business college and academy.