When the desired result was somewhat attained, Gerard spoke with quiet seriousness.
"I've seen considerable motor racing, and I've been watching you this afternoon. With some really steady training and practice you could undoubtedly become one of our few fine drivers. You have the gift."
Rose caught his breath, his blue eyes flashed to meet the other man's with dazzled and dazzling ardor.
"But—you must not 'go off the handle.' Never. You must keep your nerve or quit the track."
"It isn't nerve, it's temper," amended Rose honestly.
Gerard's firm lip bent amusedly, his bronze-brown eyes glinted a fun as purely boyish as could the other's.
"That's quite different," he conceded. "Temper doesn't interfere with driving; on the contrary, some of the best drivers and most amiable men I know are very demons when they are racing."
"Gerard isn't. They say he is the quietest ever. Of course he's almost twenty-eight and used to it all."
The gentleman in question carefully unfastened his glove.
"Gerard seems to worry you," he commented.
"He does. I don't know just why, but he does."
"Well, don't let him. This is where you leave your machine?"
"Yes. I can't offer to take you wherever you are going, because I couldn't get back alone. I'm awfully obliged to you for coming in with me."
"Thanks for the ride." Gerard stepped out and offered his hand with a glance deliberately friendly. "Good-by; good luck for to-morrow and next day."
Rose dragged off his gauntlet and eagerly bent to give the clasp.
"Wait—you're not going like that?" he protested. "I'd like to see you again. You haven't told me your name."
"We will see each other again. That's a safe prediction, I assure you." He withdrew his hand, laughing a denial of explanation as he retreated. "I will tell you my name next time, if you ask me."
Already half a dozen people had collected around the pink racing car. Others were flocking from every direction, the group forming with a suddenness truly New Yorkese. Indifferent to all, Rose sprang out of his seat and ran through the curious men in pursuit of his late companion.
"Wait," he urged, overtaking him. "I want to ask—did you mean that? About my driving well, some day? I know I'll never get a chance to do it, but do you mean that I could?"
"I meant," confirmed Gerard, "just what I said. I usually do. Good-by."
The boy remained perfectly still in the midst of the crowd, standing in his rose-colored costume and looking after the straight, slender figure swinging down the street. When Gerard glanced back in turning the corner, Rose was still watching him.
It was some forty-five hours later that Gerard's prediction was verified, in the glare-streaked darkness of the Beach racetrack amid the medley of sounds from excited crowds, roaring cars, and noisily busy training camps. Under the swinging electric light before the hospital tent, the two drivers came face to face.
"Nothing wrong, I hope?" Gerard greeted, keen eyes sweeping the other.
A sparkle of animation lit Rose's exhaustion-drawn face to boyishness.
"I'm not hurt. I want to tell you that if I'd known who you were, yesterday, I'd never have asked you to ride with me," he answered, warmly impulsive.
"You'd have let me walk?"
"I'd have got into the mechanician's seat and let you drive. Do you suppose I'd have kept the wheel with you in the car? But what you said about my driving made it so no one could rattle me, Mr. Gerard; I am not going out of the race because of that, anyhow."
"Going out of the race? Why, you're running in third place!"
Rose shook his head, his mouth set, holding out two blistered hands and linen-wound arms.
"I've given out," he acknowledged bitterly. "There'll be no finish for my car. I can't hold my wheel without an hour to rest and get these into shape. Kid amateur, all right."
"Where's your alternate driver?"
"He slipped on a greasy bit of grass, ten minutes ago, and sprained his ankle. We're out of it, with third place ours and a perfect car to run."
Gerard looked down the row of illuminated tents to where the pink car stood, palpitating in an aura of its own light, and brought his eyes back to the other man.
"My machine went out of the race, two hours ago, with a broken crankshaft. If you like, I'll be your alternate," he offered.
Incredulous, breathless, Rose stared at him.
"You—you mean——"
"I will drive your car until you are ready to take it again for the finish. I've nothing else to do, to-night."
It was a time and a scene where over-tense nerves not infrequently snapped. But if Gerard was not surprised to see it, Rose certainly was both amazed and humiliated to feel his own eyes suddenly stinging like a girl's.
"If ever I can do anything for you," he stammered fervently.
"I'll give you the chance," promised Gerard, tactfully gay. "Now hurry up your men with the car while I find my mechanician."
The comrade aid had been given to Rose, without the least relation to Rose's sister. But nevertheless Gerard directed a curious look toward the teeming grand-stand, as he turned to make ready. Was she there, he wondered, the flower-like girl with the name of a flower, who had rested in his arms just so long as a blossom might flutter against one in passing? Would her gaze follow the pink racer, still?
II
CORRIE AND HIS OTHER FELLOW
The touring car rolled slowly through the October leaves rustling and swirling down the road in jovial wind-eddies, came up to a knoll beside the field, and stopped. The driver turned in his seat to face the two occupants of the tonneau, pushing his goggles up above the line of his fair hair.
"Look," he urged eagerly. "Look at the pitcher of our home team. There, just crossing the diamond—it's a new inning."
"It's not the first baseball game you've brought us out to see, Corrie," observed Mr. Thomas Rose, setting his own goggles on his cap above the line of his reddish-gray hair. "Is it, my girl?"
His daughter laughed, shaking her small head in its crimson hood and glancing roguishly at her brother.
"Nor the twenty-first, papa," she amplified.
"Well, but I haven't brought you to see the game, but the pitcher," the boy protested. "He's a new one; you never saw him before. Look."
"Why?"
"Because I want you to."
Flavia Rose obediently turned her gaze toward the players, and upon the indicated man it halted, arrested.
"Oh!" she exclaimed under her breath, and sat still.
The men were in their places, alert in poised expectation, the attention of the whole field concentrating upon the central figure of the pitcher at whom the young girl also looked. A slim, straight statue he stood during a full moment, then slowly raised his