o be tied up here!" he heard Doris complain.

"I know it, daughter, and I am as sorry as you are," responded her
father patiently. "In fact, probably, I am more sorry, since it is
through my own carelessness that we are stranded."

Again the impulse to blurt out the truth and take the blame that
belonged to him took possession of Stephen; but with resolution he
forced it back. Nervously he fingered the road map. If he had only
spoken at the beginning! It was harder now. He should have made a clean
breast of the whole affair when his father got home from New York. Then
was the time to have done it. But since he had let that opportunity pass
it was awkward, almost absurd, to make confession now. He would much
better keep still.

In the meanwhile a gradual depression fell upon the occupants of the
car. Mrs. Tolman did not speak; Doris subsided into hushed annoyance;
and Mr. Tolman began to pace back and forth at the side of the road and
anxiously scan the stretch of macadam that narrowed away between the
avenue of trees bordering the highway. Presently he uttered an
exclamation of relief.

"Here comes a truck!" he cried. "We will tip the driver and persuade him
to let you ride on to Torrington with him, Steve. This is great luck!"

Stepping into the pathway of the approaching car he held up his hand and
the passer-by came to a stop beside him.

Stephen looked up expectantly; then a thrill of foreboding seized him
and he quickly turned his head aside. It needed no second glance to
assure him that the man whom his father was addressing was none other
than the workman in the brown jeans who had rescued him from his former
plight. He bent lower over the road map, trying to conceal his face and
decide what to do. In another moment the teamster would probably
recognize him, recall the incident of their former meeting, and hailing
him as an old acquaintance, relate the entire story. The possibility was
appalling, but terrible as it was it did not equal the disquietude he
experienced when he heard his father ejaculate with sudden surprise:

"Why, if it isn't O'Malley! I did not recognize you, Jake. You are just
in time to extricate us from a most inconvenient situation. We are
headed for Northampton and find ourselves without gasoline. If you can
take my son along to Torrington with you so he can hunt up a garage and
ride back with some one on a service car I shall be very grateful to
you."

"I'd be glad to go myself, sir