The tinfoil backing of the cape flashed in the sun as DOS Muertos swirled it.

Then there came the final, beeping notes.

The big door rolled upward and back into the walL He draped his cape over his arm and faced the gate- way.

The light above was red and from within the darkness there came the sound of an engine.

The light turned yellow, then green, and there was the sound of cautiously engaged gears.

The car moved slowly into the ring, paused, crept for- ward, paused again.

It was a red Pontiac, its hood stripped away, its en- gine like a nest of snakes, coiling and engendering be- hind the circular shimmer of its invisible fan. The wings

121.

of its aerial spun round and round, then fixed upon Man- olo and his cape.

He had chosen a heavy one for his first, slow on turn- ing, to give him a chance to limber up.

The drums of its brain, which had never before re- corded a man, were spinning.

Then the consciousness of its kind swept over it and it moved forward.

Manolo swirled his cape and kicked its fender as it roared past.

The door of the great garage closed.

When it reached the opposite side of the ring the car stopped, parked.

Cries of disgust, booing and hissing arose from the crowd.

Still the Pontiac remained parked.

Two pumpers, bearing buckets, emerged from behind me fence and threw mud upon its windshield.

It roared then and pursued the nearest, banging into the fence. Then it turned suddenly, sighted DOS Muertos and charged.

His veronica transformed him into a statue with a skirt of silver. The enthusiasm of the crowd was mighty.

It turned and charged once Jnore, and I wondered at Maoolo's skill, for it would seem that his buttons had scraped cherry paint from the side panels.

Then it paused, spun its wheels, ran in a circle about the ring.

The crowd roared as it moved past him and recircled.

Then it stopped again, perhaps fifty feet away.

Manolo turned his back upon it and waved to the crowd.

-Again, the cheering and the calling of his name.

He gestured to someone behind me fence.

A pumper emerged and bore to him, upon a velvet cushion, his chrome-plated monkey wrench.

He turned then again to the Pontiac and strode toward it

It stood there shivering and he knocked off its radiator cap.

A ]'et of steaming water shot into the air and the crowd bellowed. Then he struck the front of the radiator and banged upon each fender.

He turned his back upon it again and stood there.

122THE LAST DEFENDER OP CAMELOT.

When he heard the engagement of the gears he turned once more, and with one clean pass it was by him, but not before he had banged twice upon the trunk with his

wrench,

It moved to the other end of the ring and parked.

Manolo raised his hand to the pumper behind the

fence.

The man with the cushion emerged and bore to him

the long-handled screwdriver and the short cape. He took the monkey wrench away with him, as well as the

long cape.

Another silence came over the Plaza del Autos.

The Pontiac, as if sensing all this, turned once more

and blew its horn twice. Then it charged.

There were dark spots upon the sand from where

its radiator had leaked water. Its exhaust arose like

a ghost behind it. It bore down upon him at a terrible

speed.

DOS Muertos raised the cape before him and rested

me blade of the screwdriver upon his left forearm.

When it seemed he would surely be run down, bis hand shot forward, so fast the eye could barely follow it, and he stepped to the side as the engine began to cough.

Still the Pontiac continued on with a deadly momen- tum, turned sharply without braking, rolled over, slid into the fence, and began to bum. Its engine coughed