It was all over, then. Dan turned the car about and came easily back before his excited friends reached the corner. M’Kim lay still, the paroxysm past. Dan ran the car in toward the curb and halted.
“Dan! you dear fellow, you!” shouted Burton Poole, first to seize his hand. “I suppose I’m selfish to not think more of M’Kim—but the car! You saved it for us.”
“You’re all right, Dannie,” cried his brother, pumping away at his other hand.
Jim and Fisher Greene raised a more or less familiar chant:
“Dan! Dan! He’s the man! Dan! Dan! Dan Speedwell!”
They were all shouting the chant in a moment—all but Chance Avery. Chance looked the car over to make sure that it was not injured. But he never gave the lad who had saved it a word of thanks. Friends of M’Kim cared for the unfortunate youth.
The pleasant day by the lake passed without incident after that. They rode home in the evening, a merry party indeed. Mildred Kent elected to sit beside Dan in the front seat. There was a new moon riding above the tree-tops, and the stars were brilliant.
“Dannie,” said the girl, laying her friendly hand upon his jacket sleeve, “I want to tell you how proud I am that you stopped that car and saved it from going over the wall. I know Chance Avery has treated you meanly, and it must have taken some effort on your part to jump in and save the car he has boasted is going to beat yours for the golden cup. It was real noble of you—you heaped coals of fire on Avery’s head.”
But Dan and Billy both had occasion to think a good deal about Burton Poole’s automobile before Thanksgiving week came around. Chance Avery allowed no opportunity to pass wherein he could belittle the Speedwells’ drab car, or cast doubt upon the possibility of our heroes getting a hundred miles on the trail laid out by Mr. Briggs for the endurance test.
The circulars containing the rules of the road and other information were studied more than the school text books those final few days before the Thanksgiving vacation. Even Dan, who was particularly faithful to his studies, found it hard to keep up to the mark.