So they set bravely to work with varnish pots and brushes and, by keeping at it until dinner time and then putting in another three hours in the afternoon, they completed the body and got the first coat on the chassis. Three days later the car was ready and Tom took his first lesson in running it. Jimmy took the wheel until they had reached a nice stretch of open road some two miles from town in the direction of Graywich and then he mounted the running board on the driving side and put Tom through his paces. Willard went along, seated in the tonneau, and showed signs of nervousness when Tom moved over to the driver’s seat and took the wheel.
Jimmy showed Tom how to throw out the clutch with his left foot and pull the lever back to first speed and they went trundling slowly and cautiously down the road, Tom holding the wheel desperately and staring fixedly ahead. Presently—after Tom had wobbled the car from one side of the road to the other for several hundred feet—Jimmy said:
“All right. Now when we get to that next telegraph pole, Tom, stop her!”
Tom took his eyes off the road ahead long enough to glance at the pole in question and the car headed promptly toward the stone wall, and Willard set up a howl. The Ark was brought back into the path, and Tom, frowning terrifically, released his clutch, threw forward the lever and jammed down on his foot brake. The car came to a sudden stop some fifteen feet short of the post.
“Don’t be so sharp with your brake,” advised Jimmy. “All right. Now start her forward again and stop right at the post.”
This time Tom made a simply superb stop.
“Good. Now back her,” directed Jimmy.
Tom looked vacantly at the levers, forgot to release his clutch and made a horrible noise by trying to throw the lever into the reverse. At last, however, the car began going backward, Willard leaning fearsomely out and shouting constant warnings, and Tom toiling mightily at the wheel. Then Jimmy ordered him to stop and start ahead again. A hundred yards further on Jimmy said suddenly,
“Stop her quick!”
Tom jammed on the foot brake, forgetting to release his clutch again.