Page:Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car.djvu/57

Rh "It doesn't seem to be going very fast," panted Betty, as she kept on beside Grace.

"He hasn't thrown in the gear—that's one good thing," exclaimed Grace. "He doesn't know how"

She paused, for from the car came a laugh of childish delight, and a change in the sound of the motor told that something new had occurred.

"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