When they had finished breakfast, he even allowed his companion to hire an automobile and driver for him.

They shook hands finally, the best of friends.

Mallow wished him good luck and gravely voiced the hope that he would have fewer diamonds when he returned.
Gray warmly thanked his companion for his many courtesies and declared they would soon meet again.
Thus far the trip had worked out much as Gray had expected.

Now, as his service car left the town and joined the dusty procession of vehicles moving country-ward, he covertly studied its driver and was gratified to note that the fellow bore all the ear-marks of a thorough scoundrel.
What conversation the man indulged in strengthened that impression.
The Briskow farm, it appeared, lay about twenty miles out, but twenty miles over oil-field roads proved to be quite a journey.

During the muddy season the driver declared, it might well take a whole day to make that distance; now that the roads were dry, they could probably cover it in two or three hours, if the car held together.