lesson 39

   The rough road across the plain soon
became so bad that we tried to get Bruce
to drive back to the village we had come
from. Even though the road was littered
with boulders and pitted with holes,
Bruce was not in the least perturbed.
Glancing at his map, he informed us that
the next village was a mere twenty miles
away. It was not that Bruce always under-
estimated difficulties. He simply had no
sense of danger at all. No matter what the
conditions were, he believed that a car
should be driven as fast as it could
possibly go.
As we bumped over the dusty track,
we swerved to avoid large boulders.The
wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. We felt
sure that sooner or later a stone would rip a hole in our petrol tank or damage the
engine. Because of this, we kept looking back, wondering if we were leaving a
trail of oil and petrol behind us.
What a relief it was when the boulders suddenly disappeared, giving way to a
stretch of plain where the only obstacles were clumps of bushes. But there was
worse to come. Just ahead of us there was a huge fissure. In response to renewed
pleadings, Bruce stopped. Though we all got out to examine the fissure, he
remained in the car. We informed him that the fissure extended for fifty yards
and was two feet wide and four feet deep. Even this had no effect. Bruce engaged
low gear and drove at a terrifying speed, keeping the front wheels astride the
crack as he followed its zig-zag course. Before we had time to worry about what
might happen, we were back on the plain again. Bruce consulted the map once
more and told us that the village was now only fifteen miles away. Our next
obstacle was a shallow pool of water about half a mile across. Bruce charged at it,
but in the middle, the car came to a grinding halt. A yellow light on the dash-
board flashed angrily and Bruce cheerfully announced that there was no oil in
the engine!