“At first I din' notice we'd stopped.”

A pause. Then, taking a long breath and straightening his shoulders he remarked in a determined voice:

“Wonder'ff tell me where there's a gas'line station?”

At least a dozen men, some of them little better off than he was, explained to him that wheel and car were no longer joined by any physical bond.

“Back out,” he suggested after a moment. “Put her in reverse.”

“But the wheel's off!”

He hesitated.

“No harm in trying,” he said.

The caterwauling horns had reached a