“No, no! I finally found this for sale. I can’t believe the price. Wait till you see it!”

“See it?” asked Jill, handing back the papers. “What do you mean, what have you bought?”

Lars thrust the papers back at her. “In there, look at the picture of it!”

Betsy, curious, came to look around Jill’s shoulder.

“You want to buy this?” said Jill, having sifted through the papers until she found the eight-by-ten color photo again. “Why?”

But Betsy, glancing at the printing on the margin of the photo, said, “Oh, my God, it’s a Stanley Steamer! Is it for real? Does it run? Where is it?”

“Yes, it’s real, a 1911 touring car. It’s in Albuquerque. And yes, it runs, or he’s pretty sure it will, after it has a little work done on it. He had an accident with it a few years ago and it’s been just sitting under a tarp in his back yard. But he says they’re harder to kill than a rattlesnake. What I can’t believe is the price. Only wants seventeen thousand for it!”

“Dollars?” said Jill. “For an old, old car that’s been in a wreck and it will maybe run after you’ve done, oh yeah, a little work on it?”

“You’re really going to bring it up here?” asked Betsy eagerly.

“Of course he isn’t!” barked Jill. “Steam?” she said to Lars. “Like a locomotive?”

“Yeah, just like a locomotive, except it’s a car. Isn’t that great? It’s got the original boiler in it!”

“From 1911? A ninety-year-old boiler sounds dangerous to me.”

“The boiler on a Stanley never blows. Ever. And there are lots of them still out there on the road. There’s a whole organization of people who drive them. And there’s all kinds of places that make parts for it, tires and windshields and all. The owner is an old guy, a doctor, who can’t work on it himself anymore, he’s got heart problems.” He shifted his ardent gaze to Betsy, whose expression was much more receptive than his girlfriend’s. “I found this old book by a guy who got a hold of a Stanley and got it running. He tells some stories in that book that about had me rolling on the floor.” Thinking about the stories in the book made his blue eyes twinkle and the corners of his mouth turn up. Lars was a good-looking man, and when amused and enthusiastic, he was irresistible.