“It’ll seem more cheerful when we get some supper under our belts,” Jack laughed, as he filled the coffee pot with snow and placed it on the fire.
“Who said anything about not being cheerful?” Rex demanded.
Supper was finally ready and cheerfulness was certainly prominent as they squatted about the fire, drinking coffee and eating flapjacks.
“Speaking about adventures,” Rex said, after they had cleaned up, “I had a funny one a few weeks ago, although I don’t know as it was so funny after all, but it was certainly strange.”
“All right, spring it,” Jack said, as he snuggled into his sleeping bag.
“Well, it has been said that truth is stranger than fiction, but I have never believed it until after I had this adventure, but now I know that it can be, at least sometimes. There have been a lot of hold-ups in Philly and the country round about, and as I have to do a lot of driving by night I got a permit from the chief of police to carry a revolver for self protection. Well, one night, about the first of last February, I was driving home along from West Chester where I had been to attend a meeting. It was about half-past eleven and I was about three miles from the city when I saw a car standing by the side of the road. I slowed down, as I always do when passing a standing car. You never can tell when some one is going to dart out from behind the other car and start to cross the road without looking.
“Well, I was nearly to the car when, all at once, a man stepped out into the road and held up his hand. I thought sure it was a hold-up and, as I stopped the car, I reached my hand into my pocket for my gun. But before I had time to pull it, the man, in a pleasant voice, explained that something was the matter with his engine and would I see if I could make it go. From the sound of his voice I decided that I had judged him wrong and, of course, I jumped out to see if I could help him out. He jostled me once or twice while I was leaning over the engine, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time.”
“I was only a few minutes finding out what was wrong. A bit of dirt under the needle valve, and soon his engine was running all right again. He thanked me very profusely, almost too much so, I thought at the time. I had barely got started when I felt for my watch, to see how late it was, and it was gone. Believe me, I was mad. It was a hold-up after all I thought, and the stalled engine was a put-up job. Well, I resolved then and there to have that watch or to know the reason why. So I turned, as quickly as possible, and, believe me, I burned the road going back. I saw him ahead of me, after running about three miles, and, as soon as possible, I drove up alongside of him, and motioned for him to stop. He was not going very fast and at once obeyed my signal. I got out of my car and came to the side of his, and the next minute, pointing my gun full in his face, I demanded:
“Hand over that watch, now, and be quick about it.”
“He didn’t say a word but handed me the watch. Whether or not he recognized me as the man who had helped him out a few minutes before I don’t know. Well, I dropped the watch in my pocket and he drove on. I turned again and, a half hour later, was home.”