But, as it happened, they did not stay at a hotel. The automobile was driven along until it came out of the wooded road and was speeding along a highway that led past a pleasant farm, with its big white house and green shutters and barns and outhouses clustered near it.
Just as they were passing the house Mr. Martin looked at the motormeter, or thermometer, on the radiator of the car, and exclaimed:
“Something’s wrong!”
“It is overheating,” said Mrs. Martin. “Are you out of water?” For sometimes when there is not enough water in the radiator of an automobile, what little there is boils and turns to steam, and this heat makes the red column of alcohol on the tube go nearly to the top. It was almost there now.
“I have plenty of water and oil,” said Mr. Martin. “It must be something else.”
He stopped the car and got out to raise the hood. Ted also got out, for he knew a little about cars and once or twice he had seen things that needed fixing almost as soon as had his father.
But this time it was Mr. Martin who saw what was wrong.
“The fan belt is broken,” he said. “The fan stopped whirling and that let the water get very hot.”
“Have you a new belt?” asked Ted.
“Yes, but it will take some little time to put it on.”