“I was in Las Vegas for our annual convention about six years ago.” He showed his wolfish grin. “What, you think curators should meet in Chicago? In February? Anyhow, I took an afternoon off from the doings and got lucky at the craps table. A fellow curator told me about the auction. He said there would be sports cars—he was going to bid on a Porsche 928S. I went along to see if he’d get it—he didn‘t—but right at the end, when most of the people had left, this Rolls Corniche came up. A cop with a great big grin bid five hundred dollars, so I bid eight, which surprised him. Then he bid a grand, and I bid twelve hundred, and we kept going up until I bid everything I’d won, which was eight thousand, two hundred dollars. Silence from the cop, who wasn’t grinning anymore. So I packed my bags and started driving for home, because you don’t want to be in a town where you’ve wiped the grin off a cop’s face. And you know how you hear about how crummy English cars are? Well, this one sure isn’t. It has never given me any trouble at all. It gets terrible mileage, of course, because it’s so heavy. But it’s like sitting on a leather couch and watching the road come at you on a big TV screen.”

“Nothing like being at the right place at the right time,” said Betsy. “I didn’t recognize this as a Rolls-Royce until I saw the grille. I remember seeing them in England back in the sixties, and they had kind of a roll of front fender that swooped down along the side to the back fender. Very distinctive.”

“I think someone around here has one of those,” said Hud. “But I’m glad this is a later model. Unless people notice the hood ornament, they think I drive an older American car.”

“If you don’t like the hood ornament, why don’t you take it off?”

“Because then it would be a Bentley, and that’s not quite the same thing.”

Hud laughed and Betsy joined in, because it was true, Bentleys are Rolls-Royces without the hood ornament. Once upon a time, Rolls dealerships would not sell a Rolls to just anyone. Rich commoners had to settle for Bentleys.

Interesting that Hud knew that, too.

Lake Minnetonka is big and has a complicated shoreline so the drive took a while. The lake showed itself in tree-lined bays, or in glimpses through evergreens, and even occasionally came boldly right up to the road.