“Oh, look out!” screamed Mrs. Martin.
“Whoa there!” yelled the farmer, seeing the danger. “What you trying to do?” he asked, rather angrily.
Mr. Martin did not try to answer then. He was putting on both foot and hand brakes with all his power. And luckily he stopped right in front of the horses of the hay wagon. There never would have been room for the automobile to have passed the hay wagon on the bridge. Two automobiles, or an ordinary wagon and an automobile could have passed easily. But the hay stuck out so much on either side that it took up most of the roadway.
“Didn’t you hear me call to you, asking you to keep off the bridge until I had crossed it?” asked Mr. Martin.
“Wa’al, no, I didn’t,” answered the farmer, and he smiled a little. Evidently he was not going to get angry after all.
“I did call to you,” said Mr. Martin. “I would have stopped my car before reaching the bridge, but I couldn’t, coming downhill as I was.”
“No, I calculate ’twould be pretty middlin’ hard,” admitted the farmer. “I’m sorry I didn’t hear you. Now if you’ll wait a minute I’ll try to back up.”
“No, you’d better let me do that,” suggested Mr. Martin. “I can back off easier than you can. I’ll get out and take a look at things.”
The bridge was rather narrow, and the road on either side leading to it was also narrow. It was not an easy matter for either the hay wagon or the automobile to back up. But one or the other must do it, for they could not pass.
“I think I can back up all right,” said Mr. Martin, after looking the ground over carefully.