“Won’t start!” exclaimed Ned. “Won’t start!” cried Dan. “She’s got to start!”
Kendall looked supremely grave. Gerald shrugged his shoulders:
“Well, come and help me put her in the shed and I’ll see if I can find the trouble.”
Then began a half hour of investigation by Gerald. The others held lanterns and offered suggestions. Ned was especially helpful.
“The trouble,” he explained airily, “is with your battery. It can’t bat.”
“I get a perfectly good spark,” replied Gerald with apparent irritation. “As far as I can see the trouble’s in the engine.”
“Let us take it to pieces,” said Ned.
“Don’t be a silly goat,” growled Dan. “There’s no use spending the night out here, anyway. Kick the old wagon in the shins, Gerald, and we’ll see if we can get a carriage to take us back.”
[270]
“We won’t get any carriage at this time of night,” said Ned. “Why, it’s long after nine! Fancy being out so late. It’s me for bed!”
“That’s sensible,” replied Gerald, closing the hood. “We might just as well stay here and go back early in the morning. We can get to school by half-past eight. I’ll get Mr. Collins on the telephone and tell him we’re broken down.”
Dan was silent a moment. Then, “All right,” he agreed, with a shrug of his shoulders. “But you’d better let me talk to Collins.”
“On the contrary, or, as I say so gracefully in French, au contraire, Gerald had better do it. You see it’s his car and his breakdown. Let him face the music.”
“All right,” said Dan again. He was much too sleepy to offer further objections. Even the prospect of having to retire without pajamas seemed of little moment. If only he could reach a bed! Gerald hid himself in the telephone booth for five minutes, and, judging from the mutterings that leaked out, talked to someone. Then he announced that everything was all right and they climbed the stairs to two big, low-ceilinged rooms on the front of the house. In one of them Dan went through the motions of undressing—it was the others who really performed the task for him—dabbed his face and hands in water, knelt by[271] the bed to say his prayers and promptly fell asleep there and was finally lifted between the sheets.
“Night,” he murmured. Then, waking for an instant, “Where’d I get these pajamas?” he asked.
“They go with the room,” said Ned soothingly.
“That’s—a lie,” sighed Dan. Then he slept.
The others gathered on the bed in the adjoining room and grinned.
“Easy!” said Ned. “We’re a very clever little band of conspirators, we are.”
“Poor old Dan,” said Gerald softly. “He was certainly sleepy! He hasn’t slept like that for nights and nights.”
“What about to-morrow?” asked Kendall. “Are you going to let him go back?”
Ned shrugged his shoulders. “It’s up to him, I guess. We can’t tie him. Maybe he will be reasonable. Think you can get your car started in time to take us back, Pennimore?”
Gerald smiled. “I think she will go all right when I put the connections back.”
“It was a lucky thing that Vinton didn’t know much about autos,” laughed Ned.
“It wouldn’t have mattered if he had. He was too sleepy to see anything. Well, let’s get to bed. I’m dog tired.”
[272]
“You’re no tog direder than I am,” responded Ned.
Dan slept without moving for nine hours. Then he awoke in a strange room that was flooded with sunlight. He stared at the white walls and the cracked ceiling and wondered where he was. Beside him Gerald was soundly slumbering. While he was still trying to make it out the floor creaked and Ned appeared. Then Dan remembered.
“Hello!” he said, still somewhat dazed with sleep. “What time is it?”
“Seven-thirty, sir. Will you have your tub now, sir?”
Dan was looking perplexedly at the pajamas he wore.
“Where’d I get these things? They look a whole lot like my own.”
“Why not? Don’t you usually wear your own pajamas?” asked Ned gravely. Gerald stirred and opened his eyes, sighed and closed them again.
“But how did they get here?” Dan persisted.
“Oh, that’s it? Well, you see, you never can tell when you start out in your friend’s car where you’ll end up. So we thought we’d better be on the safe side. You’ll find your toothbrush, hairbrush, comb, a change of linen and some other trifles on the bureau.”
[273]
Dan stared a moment, frowningly. Then,
“I see,” he grunted. “It was a put-up job.”
“A gentle and kindly conspiracy,” replied Ned. “Payson said you must get away and sleep. He came to me. Pennimore here was with him. We............