" As for the young inventor his grasp of the
steering wheel, and the manner in which he could brace himself
against the foot pedals, held him more firmly in place. On and
on they rushed, covering mile after mile, and approaching
Shopton where so much depended on their arrival.
Good and bad stretches of the road alternated, but now that Tom
had seen of what mettle his car was made, he did not spare it as
much as he had on the first trip. He saw that his machine would
stand hard knocks, and the way the battery and motor was behaving
was a joy to him. He knew that if he could make that eighty-mile
run in safety he stood a good chance of winning the prize, for no
harder test could have been devised.
But the race was still far from won. There was a particularly
unsafe stretch of road yet to be covered, and then would come a
smooth highway into Shopton.
"Ten miles more," observed Mr Damon, snapping shut his big
gold watch. "Ten miles more, and it's a quarter of two now. We
ought to be there at a quarter after, and that will be in good
time, eh, Tom?"
"I think so, but I don't know about this piece of road we're
coming to. It seems worse than when we passed over it this
morning.
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