"He has the gear in now!" cried Betty.
She was running diagonally across the lawn, trying to intercept the car.
In her mind it was plain what had happened.
Paul had, with the impishness of childhood, climbed up in the auto. It
was a simple matter to even blunder on pushing the button that would set
the self-starter in operation. The car had been left standing on a level
bit of road, but, just ahead of it, was a rather steep slope. Mollie had
neglected to leave the emergency brake set, and when the motor started
there was vibration enough to send the car over the little space that
separated it from the slope. Then it simply rolled down. That was what
had happened first.
But now had entered a new complication.
It seemed that Paul had a tricycle, worked by foot pedals and hand
levers, and he was quite expert in its use. He had now put into
practice what had been told him about his toy, and had added his
observations of Mollie's operation of her car.
After starting the motor Paul had somehow managed to slip in the low
gear, and the marvel of it was that he knew enough to disengage the
clutch while he did this. Afterward he told how he had heard the
demonstrator impress many times on Mollie the need of doing so.
"Oh, we'll never get him now!" cried Mollie, as she realized that the
auto was moving under power now, and not merely by momentum.
Pages:
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51