lar jerks from the valve of this tire, making that low sound, now
hardly audible, now clearer and steadier, that escaping air will
sometimes cause when passing through a leaky valve. The darkness and
Pee-wee's own thumping heart had contributed to the horrible illusion
and he smiled in the utter relief which he experienced by the discovery.

But one other discovery he had made also which gave him an inspiration
and made him feel foolish that he had not had the inspiration before.
The little round thing that he had felt in about the center of the tire
was the red tail light of the car; he realized that now. And this
discovery reminded him that he could have all the light he wanted by the
mere touching of a switch.

"That shows how stupid I am," said Pee-wee. He was so relieved and
elated that he could afford to be generous with self accusations. "One
thing sure, it shows how when you hunt for a thing you find something
else, so if you're mistaken it's a good thing."

This was logical, surely, and he now proceeded to avail himself of the
benefit of his chance discovery. Presently this dank, mysterious, spooky
dungeon would be bathed in welcome light. Pee-wee climbed into the front
seat and moved his hand across the array of nickel dials and buttons on
the instrument board. There seemed to be a veritable multitude of little
handles and indicators for the control of the Hunkajunk super six
touring model. Not even a wireless apparatus, with which Pee-wee's
scouting experience had made him familiar, had such a variety of shiny
little odds and ends.

Having no knowledge of these things he moved his hand among them
cautiously, fearful lest some inadvertent touch might cause the car to
go careering into the board wall. He bent his head close to the
instrument board in search of printed words indicating the purpose of
the various buttons, but the darkness was too dense for him to see
anything but the shiny nickel. At the same time his wandering foot,
conducting an exploration of its own, came against a little knob.

Pee-wee never knew precisely what he did to cause the startling
occurrence which followed. There were two switch buttons, side by side,
and in one a small key had been left. Evidently he decided that this was
the lighting switch. He was just able to decipher the word IGNITION
above it. But alas, the word ignition means SPARK on an auto.

Whether he purposely, in curiosity, stepped on the button in the floor
he n