There was, in truth, much reason for the man’s ebullient spirits.  The engine was switched off: there was little or no vibration; the yacht, as he afterwards declared, seemed to float along the road.  Even when she had a decided list to starboard, the near wheels leaving the ground, he laughed as he threw his long body to windward, hanging perilously over the roadway, while Eves with mouth grim-set kept the bounding craft on a broad reach.  It was soon apparent that she was more than holding her own with the long car ahead.  The cloud of smoke came nearer and nearer, floating across the road to leeward like the trail from the funnel of a tramp steamer.