"Dot's me!" guffawed Carl. "Id iss easy to be jeerful ven luck is comin' your vay, aber you bed you it takes a pooty goot feller to be jeerful ven it ain't. So dot's vy I laff mit meinseluf. I peen more jeerful now, schust pecause I vas blayin' in der vorst luck vat efer habbened, und I bed you someding for nodding it ain't eferypody vat could do dot. Now, oof I——"
Carl never finished his remark. The boys had been walking in the center of the road, and Matt suddenly heard a sound behind them and almost on their heels.
"Look out!" he yelled, grabbing Carl by the arm and giving him a jerk toward the roadside.
[CHAPTER II.]
THE RUNAWAY AUTO.
"Vat's der madder?" gasped Carl, as he came to a staggering halt.
"Look!" cried Matt, pointing.
An automobile—a big, red touring-car—rolled past the boys. If they had not jumped just when they did it would have run them down. It had come without warning, other than the muffled noise caused by its machinery, and Matt had been so taken up with the talk of his new acquaintance that he had not heard the car's approach until the last moment.
"Vy didn't he honk?" sputtered Carl.