“There, there, Tom,” he said kindly, “don’t mind me, and don’t feel annoyed because I seemed for a minute to think more of that box than of your cousin. I tell you what we’ll do,” he went on; “there’s nothing like a good spin along a country road to clear one’s head and enable one to do some stiff thinking. Suppose we take a little run out of town?”
“I think that’s a good idea, sir,” agreed Tom, and soon the Flying Road Racer was spinning through the suburbs, and then out upon a country road which ran through a charming landscape, dotted here and there by farmhouses surrounded by woods and fields. The lawyer appeared to be thinking deeply, and Tom did not interrupt him. Instead, he attended strictly to his driving, keeping his eyes on the road ahead. They took a spin of twenty-five miles or so, and then on Mr. Bowler’s suggestion they turned back.
They ran back toward the city at a fair speed; but they had not gone more than a few miles before Tom, his eyes fixed on the road, became aware of an astonishing thing. The thoroughfare was straight and level, and out of a cloud of dust ahead there suddenly emerged an automobile. It was coming toward them at a slow gait.
There was nothing very astonishing in this, of course, and in itself it formed no reason for Tom’s startled exclamation. The surprising thing about the approaching car, that Tom first noticed, was that nobody was driving, or occupied its seats, and the next amazing feature of the oncoming car was its color. It was a bright yellow—and we know that Tom had a peculiar interest in yellow touring cars just then.
“Look, sir! Look,” he cried to Mr. Bowler, “if that isn’t the same car those fellows used it’s the twin of it, and more astonishing still, it has no driver.”
“Bless my soul, nor has it! There’s some mystery here.”
Tom slowed down the Flying Road Racer and began to climb out on the running board. At length he brought his machine to a standstill, operating the controls with one hand. He had caused the machine to halt so that it was at one side of the road, offering no obstacle to the driverless car which was slowly approaching them.
“What are you going to do?” demanded the lawyer, as Tom, holding on with one hand, leaned far out from the running board of the Flying Road Racer.
“Find out what this all means, sir,” was Tom’s rejoinder.
Hardly were the words out of his mouth when the driverless car passed them. As it did so Tom made a flying leap for its running board. He landed safely, clinging on to the side of the machine. Then, while the lawyer watched with astonished eyes, the boy clambered into the vacant driver’s seat and, shutting off the power, applied the footbrake, bringing the car to an abrupt stop.