ear of Major Stephen Douglas Prouty told him that he was
getting a hot axle. The hard dry squeak from the rear wheel of the
"democrat" had but one meaning--he had forgotten to grease it. This
would seem an inexcusable oversight in a man who expected to make forty
miles before sunset, but in this instance there was an extenuating
circumstance. Immediately after breakfast there had been a certain look
in his hostess's eye which had warned him that if he lingered he would
be asked to assist with the churning. Upon observing it he had started
for the barn to harness with a celerity that approached a trot.

Long years of riding the grub-line had developed in the Major a gift for
recognizing the exact psychological moment when he had worn out his
welcome as company and was about to be treated as one of the family and
sicced on the woodpile, that was like a sixth sense. It seldom failed
him, but in the rare instances when it had, he had bought his freedom
with a couple of boxes of White Badger Salve--unfailing for cuts, burns,
scalds and all irritations of the skin--good also, as it proved, for dry
axles, since he had neglected to replenish his box of axle grease from
that of his host at the last stopping place.

He leaned from under the edge of the large cotton umbrella which shaded
him amply, and squinted at the sun. He judged that it was noon exactly.
His intention seemed to be communicated to his horses by telepathy, for
they both stopped with a suddenness which made him lurch forward.

"It's time to eat, anyhow," he said aloud as he recovered his balance
with the aid of the dashboard, disentangled his feet from the long
skirts of his linen duster and sprang over the wheel with the alacrity
of a man who took a keen interest in food.

Unhooking the traces, he led the team to one side of the road, slipped
off the bridles and replaced them with nose bags containing each horse's
allotment of oats--extracted from the bin of his most recent host. Then
he searched in the bottom of the wagon until he found a monkey-wrench
which he applied to the nut and twirled dextrously. Canting the wheel,
he moistened his finger tip and touched the exposed axle.

"Red hot!"

He left it to cool and reached under the seat for a pasteboard shoe-box
and bore it to the side of the road, where he saw a convenient rock.
Both the eagerness of hunger and curiosity was depicted on his face as
he untied the twine which secured it. He was wondering i