ust
hit knocked my hat off. The second one chucked me up so high I looked
back for the hat, and though we was a half mile away from it, it hadn't
had time to git to the ground. And all the while the horn was a-honkin',
and Billings was a-screechin, and the sand was a-flyin'. Sand! Why,
say! Do you see that extra bald place on the back of my head? Yes? Well,
there was a two-inch thatch of hair there afore that sand blast ground
it off.

"When I went up on the third jounce I noticed the Cut-through just
ahead. Billings see it, too, and--would you b'lieve it?--the lunatic
stood up, let go of the wheel with one hand, takes off his hat and waves
it, and we charge down across them wet tide flats like death on the
woolly horse, in Scriptur'.

"'Hi, yah! Yip!' whoops Billings. 'Come on in, fellers! The water's
fine! Yow! Y-e-e-e! Yip!'

"For a second it left off rainin' sand, and there was a typhoon of
mud and spray. I see a million of the prettiest rainbows--that is, I
cal'lated there was a million; it's awful hard to count when you're
bouncin' and prayin' and drowndin' all to once. Then we sizzed out of
the channel, over the flats on t'other side, and on toward Setuckit.

"Never mind the rest of the ride. 'Twas all a sort of constant changin'
sameness. I remember passin' a blurred life-savin' station, with
three--or maybe thirty--blurred men jumpin' and laughin' and hollerin'.
I found out afterwards that they'd been on the lookout for the bombshell
for half an hour. Billings had told around town what he was goin' to
do to me, and some kind friend had telephoned it to the station. So the
life-savers was full of anticipations. I hope they were satisfied. I
hadn't rehearsed my part of the show none, but I feel what the parson
calls a consciousness of havin' done my best.

"'Whoa, gal!' says Billings, calm and easy, puttin' the helm hard down.
The auto was standin' still at last. Part of me was hangin' over the lee
rail. I could see out of the part, so I knew 'twas my head. And there
alongside was my fish shanty at the P'int, goin' round and round in
circles.

"I undid the hatch of the cockpit and fell out on the sand. Then I
scrambled up and caught hold of the shanty as it went past me. That fool
shover watched me, seemin'ly interested.

"'Why, pard,' says he, 'what's the matter? Do you feel pale? Are you
nervous? It ain't possible that you're scared? Honest, now, pard, if it
weren't that I knew you were a genuine gold-