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diff --git a/37911.txt b/37911.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9363f68 --- /dev/null +++ b/37911.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6648 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Motor Girls at Lookout Beach, by Margaret Penrose + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Motor Girls at Lookout Beach + In Quest of the Runaways + +Author: Margaret Penrose + +Release Date: November 2, 2011 [EBook #37911] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOTOR GIRLS AT LOOKOUT BEACH *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +THE MOTOR GIRLS AT LOOKOUT BEACH + +OR + +IN QUEST OF THE RUNAWAYS + +Margaret Penrose + +1911 + + + + +CONTENTS: + CHAPTER I--SUMMER PLANS + CHAPTER II--AT THE STRAWBERRY PATCH + CHAPTER III--THE STRIKE + CHAPTER IV--ARBITRATION + CHAPTER V--TOO CONFIDENT + CHAPTER VI--CORA'S QUEER PLIGHT + CHAPTER VII--THE CLUE AT THE SPRING HOUSE + CHAPTER VIII--A STARTLING DISCOVERY + CHAPTER IX--COMPLICATIONS + CHAPTER X--ALMOST--BUT NOT QUITE + CHAPTER XI--ANDY'S WARNING + CHAPTER XII--THE "UNPLANNED" PLANS + CHAPTER XIII--GOING AND COMING + CHAPTER XIV--LOST ON THE ROAD + CHAPTER XV--BOYS TO THE RESCUE + CHAPTER XVI--THE SHADOW IN THE HEDGE + CHAPTER XVII--AT WAYSIDE INN + CHAPTER XVIII--LOOKOUT BEACH + CHAPTER XIX--THE MOVING PICTURE "MOVED" + CHAPTER XX--THE GAIETY OF GOING + CHAPTER XXI--BOYS AND GIRLS + CHAPTER XXII--A STRUGGLE WITH THE WAVES + CHAPTER XXIII--THE EXCURSION + CHAPTER XXIV--THE TWO ORPHANS + CHAPTER XXV--THE TRUTH! THE WHOLE TRUTH! + + + + +CHAPTER I + +SUMMER PLANS + + +Bess Robinson was so filled with enthusiasm that her sister Belle +declared there was serious danger of "blowing-up," unless there was +some repression. Belle herself might be equally enthusiastic, but she +had a way of restraining herself, while Bess just delighted in the +"utmost" of everything. The two sisters were talking on the side porch +of their handsome home in Chelton, a New England town, located on the +Chelton river. It was a beautiful day, late in spring. + +"Well, have you sufficiently quieted down, Bess?" asked Belle, after a +pause, which succeeded the more quiet girl's attempt to curb her +sister's enthusiasm--a pause that was filled with just the hint of +pique. + +"Quieted down? I should think any one would quiet down after such a +call-down as you gave me, if you will allow the use of such slang in +your presence, Miss Prim," retorted Bess, with a little tilt to her +stubby nose. + +"Oh, come now, Bess----" + +"Well, don't be so fussy, then. We have always wanted to go to a real +watering place, and now, when we are really to go, Belle Robinson, you +take it as solemnly as if it were a message from boarding-school, +summoning us back to class. Why don't you warm up a bit? I--I feel as +if I could--yell! There, that's out, and I don't care! I wish I was a +boy, and then--then I could do something when I felt happy, besides +sitting down, and looking pleased. Boys have a way of showing their +feelings. I know what I'm going to do. I'm just going to get out the +car, and run over to Cora Kimball's. She'll know how to rejoice with +me about going to Lookout Beach. Oh, Belle, isn't it just +perfectly--too lovely for anything! There, I was going to say +scrumbunctious, but I won't in your presence--Miss Prim!" + +"Why, Bess--you silly," retorted her sister. "Of course I'm glad, too. +But I don't have to go into kinks to show it. We will have a glorious +time, I'm sure, for they say Lookout Beach is a perfectly ideal +place." + +"'Ideal'! Oh, there you go!" and Bess made a grimace of her pretty +face. "'Ideal'! Belle, why don't you take a private room somewhere, +just off the earth, so you can be just as perfectly proper as you +wish. 'Ideal!' Whoop! Why not sweet? Oh, I say--Burr-r-r-r! It's going +to be immense! Now there, and you can get mad if you want to," and +with this parting shot Bess hurried off to the little garage in the +rear of the house. + +"Is the car ready to take out, Patrick?" she asked the man of all work +about the Robinson place. + +"Yes, miss. I poured the gasolene in the little hole under the seat +where you showed me, and I filled up the oil tank, and I give it a +drink. I put in ice-water, Miss." + +"Ice-water? Why, Patrick?" for Patrick was a new acquisition, and what +he didn't know about automobiles would have made two large books of +instructions to beginners. "Why ice water, Patrick?" and Bess raised +her pretty eyebrows. + +"Well, sure, an' Miss Belle said the other day, as how the water +b'iled on her, miss--that is, not exactly b'iled _on_ her, but b'iled +in the tea kettle--I mean that thing punched full of holes--in the front +of the car." + +"The radiator," suggested Bess, trying not to laugh. + +"Yes, that's it, miss, though why they calls it a radiator, when they +want it to kape cool, is beyond me. Howsomever----" + +"About the ice water, Patrick." + +"Yes, miss, I'm comin' to that. You see when Miss Belle said as how it +b'iled over the other day, I thinks to myself that sure ice-water will +never boil, so I filled the radiator with some as cold as I could bear +me fist in it. Arrah, an' it's no b'ilin' water ye'll have th' day, +when ye takes this car out, Miss Bess." + +"Oh, Patrick, how kind of you!" exclaimed the girl. "And what a novel +idea. I'm sure it will be all right," and she placed her hand on the +radiator. It was as cold as a pump handle on a frosty morning. + +"I blew up the tires, too, miss," went on the man, "an' here's a four +leaf clover I found. Take it along." + +"What for?" asked Bess, as she accepted the emblem. + +"Sure, fer good luck. Maybe ye'll not git a puncture now. Clovers is +good luck." + +"Oh, thank you," said Bess earnestly, as she cranked up, for Patrick +had not yet advanced this far in his auto-education. + +Then the girl, most becomingly attired in auto hood and coat, backed +the pretty little silver-colored runabout, _Flyaway_, owned by herself +and her sister, "the Robinson twins," out of the garage, and turned it +on the broad drive. + +"Would ye mind that now!" exclaimed Patrick, admiringly. "It's as--as +slick as a pig's whistle, miss, savin' yer presence." + +Bess laughed merrily. + +"I'm glad to see that some one besides myself uses a bit of--I mean an +expression that means something--once in a while, Patrick," she said, +as she threw in the clutch, after adjusting the lever to low speed. + +"Yis, miss," answered the man, as he looked with admiration at the +trim and pretty figure in the little car. "Now I wonder what did she +mane?" he asked himself, when Bess was out on the road. "Sure them is +two great gurls--Miss Isabel and Miss Elizabeth--great gurls!" and +Patrick went to curry the horses kept by Mr. Robinson, this being work +that the genial and faithful Irishman understood perfectly well. + +Isabel, meanwhile, continued to sun her splendid hair over the railing +of the side porch, in spite of the almost constant danger that it +might become entangled in the honeysuckle vine, or be mistaken by a +wandering bee or humming bird for some nest or hive in which to +nestle. + +Isabel was always the "dreamer." She had "nerves," and she loved +everything aesthetic. Bess, on the contrary, was always "on the spot," +as her boy friends declared, and, while she might be a trifle +over-enthusiastic at times, there was this consolation, that she was +never glum, as her personal supply of good-nature never seemed to be +lacking. Not that Isabel was moody, save at such times when she was +alone, and thought of many things--for, in company, she entered into +the fun with a zest equal to almost anyone's save her more volatile +sister. So the Robinson twins were an interesting study--so different +in disposition--so unlike in taste--but so well matched on two +points--their love for motoring and a good time during vacation, and +their love for their chum and companion, Cora Kimball. + +While her sister was lazily dreaming away amid the honeysuckle vines, +letting the gentle breeze riffle through, and dry her hair, Bess was +skimming along the fine Chelton roads, her mind intent on the good +times in prospect when she, with her mother and sister, were to go to +a cottage at Lookout Beach. + +"Oh, I just know it will be perfectly bang-up!" exclaimed Bess, half +aloud, and smiling at the chance to use words that meant something, +without shocking Belle. "We will have no end of good times. My! It +makes me want to go fast to think about it," and, suiting the action +to the word, she pressed her foot on the accelerator pedal, and the +car shot forward, while the hand on the dial of the speedometer +trembled around the twenty-five miles an hour mark. + +"I don't care!" thought Bess, as she kept her foot on the pedal. "I'm +going to speed for once. Belle never will let me." + +As she suddenly swung around a turn in the road she was made aware of +how fast the pace was, for the car skidded a bit dangerously, and, a +moment later, without a warning blast of the horn, another auto, +moving in the opposite direction, shot into view. + +By a quick twist of the steering wheel, nearly sending the car into +the ditch at the roadside, Bess avoided a collision. + +"Why didn't you blow your horn?" she shot indignantly at the occupant +of the car--a young man, who had also turned out quickly. + +"Why didn't you blow your own?" he wanted to know, and then he smiled, +for he, too, had slowed down. "I guess it's horse and horse," he +added, good-naturedly, if slangily. "I was thinking of something +else." + +"So was I," admitted Bess with a half smile, and then, having slowed +down too much to allow going ahead on high speed, she had to throw out +the clutch just as she was about to proceed, and change back to low +gear. Quickly she threw into second, as a preliminary to third, but +she was not quick enough. The motor stalled, and the car came to a +stop, amid a grinding of the gears. + +"Can I help you?" asked the young man, jamming on his emergency brake. + +"No, thank you," answered Bess coolly and quickly. "I can manage," +and, before he could reach her car, for he had alighted from his own, +she had gotten out, cranked up, and was in her seat again. Then she +hurried off down the road, leaving a rather crestfallen young chap +standing in the dusty highway. + +"Remarkably pretty girl--that," he said, aloud. "I wish I could have +helped her. But she was cool, all of a sudden. Maybe she didn't like +my slang--I wish I could break myself of using it--hang the luck--there I +go again," and, with a shake of his head he went back to his car. + +"Adventure number one," mused Bess, as she swung along, not so fast +this time. "I wonder what will come next? I guess I am getting a +little too high-spirited. I must calm down. But I can't, when I think +of Lookout Beach." + +She had not gone a hundred rods farther when a flock of chickens +crossed the road, just ahead of the machine. + +"Shoo!" cried Bess. "Shoo! Scat! Get out!" and she blew the horn +vigorously. "I wonder why someone doesn't invent a horn or something +to scare dogs and chickens?" she went on, as the fowls showed little +disposition to do more than run, fluttering and squawking, right ahead +of the car. Then they darted to one side--all but one unfortunate, and +the big rubber tires passed over one leg, crippling it. + +"Hi, you! Stop!" commanded a woman's harsh voice, and Bess, who was +running slowly now, saw an unlovely personage rushing from the yard of +a dilapidated house, toward the machine. "I've got your license +number," went on the woman, "and I'll make a complaint if you don't +pay for my chicken. You automobile folks is allers running over 'em, +and cripplin' 'em so they ain't fit fer nothing." + +"This is the first time I ever ran over anything," retorted Bess +indignantly. "I guess I know how to drive a car!" + +"Well, it won't be the last time you run over somethin' if you scoot +along like I seen you just now," went on the owner of the limping +fowl. "I want pay for my chicken, or I'll have th' law on ye," and she +planted herself determinedly in front of the now stationary car. + +"Very well," answered Bess, not wishing to argue with such a +character. "Here is fifty cents. The chicken is a small one, and +that's all it's worth. Besides it is hardly hurt at all." + +"It's wuth seventy-five cents, ef it ain't a dollar!" stormed the +woman, as she accepted the coin that the girl handed her. "I've a good +notion to----" + +But her further words were lost, for Bess turned on the power, threw +in the clutch, shifted the gear lever, and was off down the road. + +"Adventure number two," she remarked grimly. "I hope it isn't three +times and out. Patrick's clover works by opposite, I guess," but she +drove along, her high spirits not a whit repressed by what had +happened. + +For Bess was not a girl easily daunted, as those of you who have read +the previous volumes of this series know. She was almost the equal of +her chum, Cora Kimball, was Bess Robinson. In my first book, entitled +"The Motor Girls," Cora Kimball, the tall, handsome, dark-haired +daughter of Mrs. Grace Kimball, and, likewise, the well-beloved sister +of Jack Kimball, had first secured her auto. It was a four cylinder, +touring machine, capable of good speed, and the color was Cora's +special choosing--a handsome maroon. The story dealt with a mystery of +the road, and told how Cora successfully solved it, in spite of the +efforts of Ida Giles and Sid Wilcox to make trouble. As her guests +Cora had, on many runs of her car, the Robinson twins, Walter +Pennington, Jack's college chum, and Ed Foster. The latter was one of +the chief figures in the road mystery, for one day he suddenly missed +his wallet, containing money and negotiable securities to the amount +of twenty thousand dollars. A little later the pocketbook, with the +money missing, was found in the tool box of Cora's car. + +Then there followed a "whirlwind" of excitement, which did not end +until those responsible for the taking of the money had been +discovered and the cash and papers returned. Among other troubles Cora +and her friends had to contend with the meanness of Sid Wilcox and the +jealousy of Ida Giles. + +In the second volume of the series, called "The Motor Girls on a Tour; +or, Keeping a Strange Promise," there was related how Cora and her +friends were instrumental, after making a strange promise, in +restoring to a little cripple a long-lost table, containing a will. +How the hunt for the strange piece of furniture, with a secret drawer, +was made, while the girls were on a tour, how the Robinson twins +managed their car, which they had secured in the meanwhile, and how +Jack Kimball also succeeded in getting a runabout--all this is set down +in the book. Paul Hastings, a young chauffeur, and his pretty sister +Hazel, also had their parts to play, and well they did. + +Now it was coming on summer again, and, after much planning and +discussing, the Robinson twins and their mother had decided on a +seashore cottage. They hoped that Cora Kimball could be induced to go +with them, and, if Cora did go, why, of course, it meant that Jack +would come down, occasionally, or, perhaps, oftener. And Ed and Walter +might also happen to drop in--which would be very pleasant. + +"Oh, it's just glorious," thought Bess, as she continued to skim +along. "I hope the season will be miles long and years old. We will +have a gay time." + +Bess turned the _Flyaway_ into the gravel road that wound up to the +handsome and stately Kimball homestead. A toot of the horn brought +Cora out of doors quickly, while Bess jammed on the brake and threw +out the clutch, and then, as the car came to a squeaking standstill, +she shoved over the spark and gasolene levers, with a ripping sound +along the ratchets, and turned off the sparking device. + +"Come on in and cool off," invited Cora. "It's very warm. Summer has +almost arrived. I'm delighted to see you, Bess." + +"And I you. Indeed I am coming in. Such news--you'll never guess in +your whole life, Cora." + +"You're going to get a new machine!" + +"No, not yet, though I think we will next season. Papa is sort of +softening toward a six cylinder. No, but it's almost as good as that." + +"What is it, dear?" and Cora placed her arm around the waist of Bess, +as they mounted the broad steps. + +"Cora Kimball, we're going to take a cottage at Lookout Beach! Such a +delightful place--and Cora dear," she panted on, "can you come? _Will_ +you come?" + +"Shall I come? Should I come," went on Cora, teasingly. "Why, my +dear," she went on, "do sit down, and catch your breath before it +escapes further. The boys are around here somewhere, and they are +always on the still hunt for----" + +"Cora Kimball! I'm not one bit out of breath," panted Bess, "but I am +just dying to tell you----" + +"Oh, that is it! Well, let me make you comfortable so that the +death----" She stopped, and swung back a porch chair for Bess. The +latter threw aside her motor bonnet and "ripped off" her gloves. + +"No, but seriously, Cora," Bess said. "Will you go with us? We have +taken a cottage, and we are, of course, going to take our car, and we +do so want to take you!" + +"You dear!" exclaimed Cora. "I haven't planned for summer yet, but I +do think mother is going abroad, and I honestly feared I would have to +tag along. I just hate to think of Europe, so maybe I could induce +mother to let me go with you. She has such confidence in Mrs. Perry +Robinson." + +"Mother would take all sorts of care of you. I can assure you and your +mother of that," declared Bess. "And we have almost decided, without +ever asking you, that you shall come along. What fun would we have +motoring without you?" + +"Without me, or without Jack?" teased Cora. "Well, never mind, Bess, +perhaps we can take turns. I am sure I would rather go to Lookout +Beach and camp than to go to Europe and tramp--there I have made a +rhyme, and will see my beau before nine. Pray, Bess, come indoors with +me while I complexion. I have been motoring all morning, in this stiff +breeze, and I feel as if my face will crack if I don't hurry to cream +it. And then, that I am to see my beau----" + +The splendid color in Cora's cheeks belied her words. Nevertheless the +girls went indoors, and, while Cora removed a surprising amount of +grit on each piece of cotton she daubed her cheeks with, Bess had a +better chance to talk over the plans for the summer at the seaside. + +Following her cream-wash Cora turned on her face the tiny spray of +tepid water from her own little silver faucet in the corner, and then +"feeling clean," as she expressed it, she just touched her cheeks and +nose with another piece of cotton "to pat off the shine." + +"You know I have to go out again this afternoon, and I do find that it +pays to keep in order. I suppose Belle would think this sort of fixing +up not half thorough enough?" + +"Oh, she takes a regular Turkish when she has been out in a dusty +wind," declared Bess. "But, for my part, I prefer a thick veil, in +front of a cream setting. Then I catch all the dirt in the cream and +only have to wash it off instead of----" + +"Washing it on. A good idea, Bess. But I can't breathe back of cream. +It makes my lungs sticky," and Cora put a last touch to her heavy dark +hair, just as her brother's voice was heard in the lower hallway. + +"There's Jack!" exclaimed both girls at once. + +"Let's tell him," suggested Bess, who was not always able to conceal +her interest in Cora's handsome brother. + +"Oh, no, don't," whispered Cora, as Jack was almost at the door of the +sitting room. "It will be a joke to plan it all out, and surprise the +boys!" + +But Jack was actually tumbling into the room before he saw Bess. He, +too, was evidently "too full of good news to keep!" + +"Oh, sis!" he yelled, still unconscious of the presence of Bess, "take +my hand and squeeze it, or I shall 'bust.' It's too good to be true, +and too good not to be true. We are going----" + +Then his eye fell upon Cora's visitor. Instantly and in a boy's +inimitable way he "pulled himself together" and finished: "We are +going down to the post-office this evening!" + +"Oh, is that all you were going to say?" asked Bess, in some +disappointment, for it was evident that Jack had some news. + +"Well, not quite all," he replied with an air of mystery, "only I +happened to hear certain peculiar whispers and admonitions as I was +coming in, and I guess girls aren't the only ones who can keep a +secret. I'll tell if you'll tell," he added. + +"We've nothing to tell; have we, Cora?" and Bess looked as innocent as +possible. + +"How could you ever imagine such a thing, Jack?" inquired his sister. + +"Well, that's neither here nor there, then," was the young man's cool +answer. "But if you're going after the stuff to make jam tarts with +this winter, Cora, you'd better start," and at this somewhat +enigmatical remark, Jack began whistling a tantalizing air, while Bess +winked at her chum. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +AT THE STRAWBERRY PATCH + + +"Yes, I promised mother I would go for a crate of strawberries," Cora +said, by way of explanation. "Would you like to come along, Bess? It +is a lovely ride to the berry patch." + +"Then, I think I will run back for Belle, and we, too, may fetch home +a crate. Mother will be delighted to get them fresh from the pickers." + +"Suppose we meet in an hour at Smith's Crossing?" suggested Cora. "I +have some little things to attend to, and that will just about give +you time to get Belle, and her belongings." + +This was agreed upon, and the girls parted for the short time. Jack +insisted upon keeping his wonderful good news secret, for, try as he +did, he could not coax Cora to divulge the news which he knew Bess +must have brought. + +"I could see it in her cheeks," Jack insisted, "and I can almost read +that signal code you two have arranged." + +"Well, when it is all settled I may--tell you," replied his sister. +"But you boys imagine that girls cannot keep anything to themselves----" + +"Wrong there, sis," he answered, picking up his cap. "We all know +perfectly well that you all can keep to yourselves exactly what we +want to know," and in leaving the room he tossed a sofa cushion at +Cora's head, hitting her squarely, and knocking her hair awry. She +retaliated, however, with a floor cushion over the banister, which +Jack failed to dodge. + +At the appointed time, three o'clock, on a lovely June afternoon, Cora +and Bess met as arranged with their autos at the cross-roads, Belle +dainty as ever in her flimsy veils and airy silk coat, Bess, with her +hand on the wheel, her eyes on the road ahead, and her jolly self done +up simply in pongee, while Cora, correct as ever, and equally +distinctive in her true green auto hood, and cloak that matched, made +up a very attractive trio of auto maids. + +"It's only six miles out," called Cora, "and this road runs straight +into Squaton. They have quite a big strawberry farm out there." + +"Yes," called back Bess, turning on more gasolene and throwing in +third speed, "mother was just delighted when I told her we were going +there for berries." + +Over the smooth, shaded road the cars sped, the _Whirlwind_, Cora's +machine, exactly attuned to the hum of the _Flyaway_, the car occupied +by the twins. Just as two clocks, placed side by side, will soon tick +in harmony, so two good engines may match each other in the hum of +speed. + +"I can smell the berries," exclaimed Belle, as they neared a group of +tall elms. + +"We are almost there," remarked Cora, "and I think I, too, smell +something good." + +Under the trees by the roadside they espied some boys eating from a +pail of berries. + +"There," said Bess, "that was what you scented. Those youngsters have +been picking, I suppose, and that is their own personal allowance." + +"Berries! Five cents a quart!" called out one of the urchins, who at +the same time stepped out into the road close to the slackened autos. + +"Not to-day," replied Cora, as she passed on, followed by the +_Flyaway_. + +"Wouldn't you think they would want to take those home," said Bess. "I +should think they would be satisfied with their earnings at the +patch." + +"Maybe they have not been picking--except for their own use," responded +Cora. "But here we are. Get out now, and we will walk over to the +shanty where they crate the fruit." + +"What an ocean of green!" exclaimed Belle, the aesthetic one, looking +over the strawberry patch. + +"An ocean of dust, I think," said Bess, as from the afternoon sun and +breeze the grind of the picker's feet in the dusty rows between the +countless lines of green vines just reached her eyes. + +"There are plenty of them," remarked Cora, wending her way along the +narrow path, toward the shanty. + +"And so many people picking," added Belle. "Just look at those boys! +They are as brown as--their clothes. And see that poor old woman!" + +"Yes, her back must ache," replied Cora. "What a shame for her to be +out in this sun." + +"She looks as if she could never bend again if she should straighten +up," said Bess. "See how she stares at us from under her own arms." + +This peculiar remark caused the other girls to smile, but Bess meant +exactly what she said--that the old woman was looking up from an angle +lower than her elbows. + +Just then the autoists faced two of the pickers--two girls. + +Both stopped their work and looked up almost insolently. Then they +spoke under their breath to each other and "tittered" audibly. + +"They're rude," said Belle to Bess, picking her skirts as she stepped +by. + +"Oh, that's just their way," exclaimed Cora. "I am going to speak to +them." + +So saying she turned in between the rows. + +"Is it hard work?" she asked pleasantly. + +"No cinch," replied the older-looking of the girls, with a toss of a +very good head of auburn hair. + +"Have you been out long?" persisted Cora. + +"Oh, we're always out," said the younger girl with a sneer. Her voice +said plainly that she had "no use" for talking with the motor girls. + +"Do you work all day?" asked Bess, a little timidly. Bess was always +ready to admit that she could talk to boys, but that she was afraid of +strange girls. + +"All day, and all night," replied the younger girl. She had hair just +a tint lighter than the other, and it was evident that the pair were +sisters. + +"But you cannot see to work at night," Belle deigned to say. + +"We have lamps--indoors," said the girl, "and Aunt Delia keeps +boarders." + +"Oh, you help with the housework too?" said Cora. "I should think----" +then she checked herself. Why should she say what she thought--just +then? + +Perhaps it was the unmistakable kindness shown so plainly in the +manner of the motor girls, that convinced the two little berry-pickers +that the visitors would be friends--if they might. At any rate, both +girls dropped the vines they were overhauling, and stood straight up, +with evident stiffness of their young muscles. + +"But we are not going to do this all our lives," declared the older +girl. "Aunt Delia has made enough out of us." + +"Have you no parents?" ventured Cora. + +"No, we're orphans," replied the girl, and, as she spoke the word +"orphans," the ring of sadness touched the hearts of the older girls. +Cora instantly decided to know more about the girls. Their youthful +faces were already serious with cares, and they each assumed that +aggressive manner peculiar to those who have been oppressed. They +seemed, as they looked up, and squarely faced Cora, like girls capable +of better work than that in which they were engaged, and they gave the +impression of belonging to the distinctive middle class--those "who +have not had a chance." + +"Can't you come over in the shade and rest awhile?" asked Cora. "You +must have picked almost enough for to-day." + +"Oh, to-day won't count, anyway," said the younger girl, with hidden +meaning. + +"Nellie!" called her sister, in angry tones. "What are you talking +about!" + +"Well, I'm not afraid to tell," she replied. + +"You had better be," snapped the other. + +"Oh, Rose, you're a coward," and Nellie laughed, as she kicked aside +the vines. "I'm not going to work another minute, and you can go and +tell Aunt Delia Ramsy if you've a mind to." + +At that moment a figure emerged from the shed at the end of the long +line of green rows. + +"There she is now, Nellie," said Rose. "You can tell her yourself if +you like." + +Without another word the girls both again began the task so lately +left off, and berry after berry fell into the little baskets. Rose had +almost filled her tray, and Nellie had hers about half full of the +quart boxes. + +"Rose!" called the woman's shrill voice, from under the big blue +sunbonnet. "Come up here and count these tally sticks. Some of those +kids are snibbying." + +With a sigh Rose picked up her tray, and made her way through the +narrow paths. Cora saw that the woman had noticed her talking to Bess +and Belle, and while wishing for a chance to talk to Nellie alone, she +beckoned to her companions to go along up to the shed. + +"Maybe I'll see you soon again," almost whispered Nellie, in the way +which so plainly betrays the hope of youth. + +"I am sure you will," replied Cora, smiling reassuringly. + +"What strange girls," remarked Belle. + +"Aren't they?" added Bess, turning back to get another look at little +Nellie in her big-brimmed hat. + +"They are surely going to do something desperate," declared Cora, "and +I think now that we have found them, as the boys would say, 'it is up +to us' to keep track of them." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE STRIKE + + +"Oh, mercy!" exclaimed Bess, as they neared the shed, "did you ever +see such a hateful old woman!" + +"Hush!" whispered Belle. "Do you want us to go back to Chelton without +our berries?" + +"If she ever looks at them they will sour--they couldn't keep," went on +Bess, recklessly, but in lowered tones. + +"We would like two crates of berries," Cora was saying to the woman, +who stood, hands on her hips, framed in the narrow doorway of the +sorting shed. + +"Yes," answered the woman. "Step inside and pick 'em out. They are all +fresh picked to-day. Rose, don't you know enough to make room for the +young lady?" and the woman glared at the girl who had hurried in from +the patch. + +"Oh, I have plenty of room," Cora said with a smile to Rose. "What are +those little sticks for?" + +"Them's the tally-sticks," answered the woman. "They get one for every +quart they pick, and then they cash 'em in. Here!" and she snapped a +bunch from the trembling hands of the girl who was counting and tying +up in bunches the wooden counters, "let me show 'em to the young +lady." + +"Oh, I can see them," declared Cora, without trying to hide her +distaste for the woman's rudeness to Rose. "How many tally-sticks did +you get to-day?" she asked the girl. + +"Oh, she don't get any," spoke the woman. Rose never raised her eyes. +"Them two girls have me robbed with their eatin' and drinkin' and +airs. I have to take care of them--they're me own sister's children," +and she raised the hem of her dirty apron to her eyes. + +"But they help you," insisted Cora. "They pick berries all day, do +they not?" + +"Help me?" came with a sneer. "I would like to see how! There's shoes +to be bought, clothes and all sich. Then, butter is high, and them +girls must have butter on their bread." + +"When we don't get anything else," spoke up Rose, boldly. + +"What!" called the aunt, her eyes flashing angrily. "That's the way +I'm thanked! Go up to the house, and wash them dishes, and don't you +leave the house till--I've talked with you," she commanded. "It's a +hard job to bring up somebody else's children," and she tried to sigh, +"but I am bound to do my best by 'em." + +Bess and Belle seemed actually frightened. They did not venture under +the roof of the shack, but stood at the door with eyes staring. Rose +passed out, and, as she did so, she winked at Belle. Belle gave a +friendly little tug at the brown apron as it passed, and then Bess +went inside, at Cora's request, to select her crate. + +Four very small boys slouched up the path to the shed. Their crates +were full and they seemed ready to drop down from exhaustion. One, +with fiery red hair, pushed his way ahead of the others and presented +his tray to the woman. She surveyed it critically, then said: + +"Andy, did you swipe a bunch of tallies this morning?" + +"I did not!" replied the little fellow indignantly. + +"How many you got?" she demanded. + +He dug his dirty, brown hands down deep into his trousers pockets. +Then he brought up three bunches of the tally-sticks. + +"Humph! I thought so," said the woman. "Do you mean to tell me a +monkey like you can pick ten an hour?" + +"He's the best picker on the patch," spoke up another lad, "and I was +with him when he brought each tray in!" + +The girls stood back, deeply interested. The woman took the tray from +Andy and turned away without offering the ten little sticks which +represented the gathering of ten quarts of berries. + +"Where's my tallies?" he demanded. + +"You--jest--w-a-i-t," drawled the woman. + +The other boys stepped back. Evidently they were going to "stick by +Andy." + +"I'll give you your crates, and let you go, young ladies," said the +woman to Cora. "These little rowdies ain't no fit company for +customers in automobiles." + +"Oh, indeed we are enjoying looking around," declared Cora. "Do give +the boys their checks, and let them go back to the patch. They are +wasting time." + +Thus cornered, the woman was obliged to go on settling with the +pickers. + +"Well," she said, "I'll give you credit, Andy, until I get a chance to +look it up. Here, Narrow (to a very tall boy), gi'me yourn." + +"Nope!" replied the tall boy. "We waits fer Andy." + +"Well, I'm blowed!" exclaimed the woman. "If you kids ain't got a +cheek! I've a good mind to chase every one of yer." + +Andy stepped back to where she had deposited the box. + +"Here!" she called, entirely forgetting the presence of the motor +girls. "Git out of here!" and at that she struck the little fellow a +blow on the head that caused him to reel, and then fall backward into +an open crate of fresh berries! + +"Now you've done it!" yelled the woman. "You have mashed every one of +them! There!" and she dragged him to his little, bruised feet. "Do you +think I can sell stuff like that! Mush! Every red berry of 'em!" + +"Oh, make her stop!" pleaded Bess to Cora. "She may strike him again." + +"What will you do with that crate of berries?" asked Cora, pushing her +way between the angry woman and the frightened boy. + +"Make him pay fer 'em, of course," shouted the tyrant. "And serves him +right, too, for his imperdence!" + +Big heavy tears plowed their way through the dirty little spots on the +boy's cheeks. To pay for the crate would take all his week's earnings. + +"You did it yourself!" declared a boy who boldly faced the woman, "and +Andy's not goin' to stand fer it, or we all strike; don't we, +fellers?" + +"Sure, we do!" came a chorus, not only from those who had been +waiting, but from a second group that had come up in the meantime. + +"Strike, eh?" cried the woman. "Well, you kin all clear out! Do you +hear! Every dirty one of ye! Git off the place or--I'll let the dogs +loose!" + +"Oh, goodness me!" exclaimed Bess, clutching Cora's sleeve. "Do come +away! There will be--bloodshed!" + +"We must wait," replied Cora calmly. "I guess she is not so anxious to +have her berries rot on the vines, and most of the good pickers seem +to be with Andy." + +Belle was nervously walking down the path toward the autos. + +The boys stood defiantly, waiting for the woman to produce Andy's +tallies. + +"Give him his sticks," called one of them, "or we'll smash every berry +in the patch!" + +"You will, eh!" yelled the woman. "I'll show you!" + +"Oh, Cora!" cried Bess, but Cora was too much interested in the boys +to heed. + +The woman left the shed and ran toward the house. + +"She's after the dogs!" shouted one boy. + +"Come ahead, fellers!" called another, and at that a dozen or more +lads ran wildly through the patch; crushing the ripe luscious fruit as +they went. Nellie, who was still picking berries, jumped up from her +work. She saw the savage dogs tear away from their kennels, their +chains rattling as the woman snapped them from the collars. + +Bess and Belle ran to Cora within the shed. + +"Here, Nero! Nero!" suddenly called Nellie. "Here Tige! Here Tige!" + +Wonder of animal instinct! Those two dogs forgot the commands of the +woman to "Sic 'em!" and eagerly they ran to Nellie. To Nellie to be +patted, and caressed. To Nellie who fed them! What did they care about +the woman who would strike them? Nellie was their friend and now they +were hers! The woman, having let loose the dogs, ran on toward the +house, some distance from the berry shed. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +ARBITRATION + + +Like a heroine in a drama Nellie stood there, one sunburned hand +thrust through the collar of each panting dog. + +The boys saw their advantage and ran like Indians through the patch of +berries, tramping the ripe fruit under foot in their unreasoning +anger. + +"Hey! Stop that!" shouted Nellie, "or I'll let them go!" + +Instantly every boy stood still. + +"Come on," called Cora to the other two girls, "we must help Nellie." + +As quickly as they could trudge along the rough pathway, Cora, Bess +and Belle hurried to where Nellie stood with the dogs. + +"Call the boys back to the shed," shouted the girl, "then I can take +the dogs to their kennels." + +"Come here, boys!" called Cora. "Come back to the shed, and we will +see fair play!" + +The words "fair play" had a magical effect on the strikers. They now +jumped between the rows, and it would be safe to say that not one of +them, in the return, stepped on a single berry. + +"All right, miss," answered the lad called Narrow. "We goes back to +the field, if Andy gets his tally-sticks." + +"Does this woman own the patch?" asked Cora. + +"Never!" replied one of the boys. "She's only the manager. The boss +comes up every night to pay us our coin." + +"Then we should see him, I suppose," said Cora, as Nellie walked past +with the dogs close beside her, each animal wagging his appreciation +for the girl that led them on. + +"Aunt Delia scares easy," whispered Nellie, almost in Cora's ear. +"Just chuck a big bluff and she wilts." + +Cora smiled. She was happily versed in the ways and manners of those +who "had not had a chance." + +"I am so afraid she will--hurt Rose," sighed Belle. "Oh dear me! What a +place!" + +"But I think it rather fortunate we were here," replied Cora. "These +youngsters can scarcely take their own part--prudently." + +Andy hung back near the shed. He was still trying to choke down the +tears. How could he ever pay three dollars and seventy-five cents for +that crate of crushed berries? And it had not been his fault. + +The strikers stood around Cora, each little fellow displaying his +preference for "a good honest strike" to that of hard work, in the +sun, on a berry patch. + +"Narrow speaks fer us," announced a sturdy little German lad. "Eh, +Narrow?" + +"We all goes back, if Andy gets his sticks," spoke Narrow, who was +evidently the strike leader. + +"Well, come along," ordered Cora, feeling very much like a strike +breaker, "and we will see what Mrs. Ramsy says." + +Led by the motor girls the procession wended its way back to the shed. + +"Never mind, Andy," said a boy called Skip, who really did seem to +skip rather than walk, "we will see you 'faired.'" + +Andy rubbed his eyes more vigorously than before. Cora was in the +shed, and Nellie hurried away with the dogs, promising to send Mrs. +Ramsy down from the house. Meanwhile Cora had ample opportunity to get +acquainted with her little band of strikers. They were very eager to +talk, in fact all seemed anxious to talk at once. And their grievance +against the woman "who ran the patch" seemed to have begun long before +her present difficulty with Andy. + +"She's as mean as dirt to them two girls," said one urchin, "and +anybody kin see that them girls is all right." + +"They pick out here from the break of day until the moon is lit," said +another, "and after that they has to work in the house. There's a +couple of boarders there and the girls keeps the rooms slick." + +"Boarders?" asked Bess. + +"Yep, and one old dame is a peach," continued the boy, not coarsely +but with eager enthusiasm. + +"The one with the sparklers," added another. "Hasn't she got 'em +though?" and he smacked his lips as if to relish the fact. + +"There comes Ramsy," whispered a third. "Whew! But she looks all het +up!" + +The woman did look that way. Her face was as red as the berries in the +trays and her eyes were almost dancing out of their sockets. + +Cora spoke before anyone else had a chance to do so. + +"The boys are willing to arbitrate," she said. Then she felt foolish +for using that word. "They have come for terms," she said, more +plainly. + +"Terms!" repeated the woman scornfully. "My terms is the same now as +they was first. Andy Murry pays for that crate!" + +"If the crate is paid for will it belong to him?" asked Cora. + +The woman stopped, as if afraid of falling into some trap. "I don't +care who owns 'em, when he pays for 'em. But he sneaked out one bunch +of tallies----" + +"He did not!" shouted a chorus. "He earned every one he's got and the +ten that you've got!" + +"And it was you who spoiled the berries by pushing him into them," +shouted some others, "and we are here to see him faired." + +Cora was perplexed. She wanted to save more trouble, yet she did not +feel it "fair" to give in to the woman. + +"Your berries are spoiling in the fields now," she suggested. "Why +don't you give in, and let the boys go back to work?" + +"Me give in to a pack of kids!" shouted the enraged woman. + +"She is always sour on Andy because his mother won't do her dirty +washing," explained the German boy. + +"My mother is sick--and she can't wash," sobbed the unfortunate Andy. + +"Yep, and that money of his'n was for her, too," put in Skip. + +At this point another figure sauntered down from the house. + +"There comes Mrs. Blazes!" put in Narrow. "She couldn't miss the +show." + +The woman who came down the path sent on before her the rather +overpowering odor of badly mixed perfumes. + +"Look at her sparklers," whispered a boy to Cora, "that's why we call +her 'Blazes.'" + +A black lace scarf was over the woman's head and now the "sparklers," +or diamonds that she wore, in evident flashy taste, could be seen at +her throat, and on her fingers. Bess smiled to Belle, and Cora turned +to the boys. + +"We must finish up this business," she said. "It is getting late, and +we have to go to Chelton." + +"Go ahead!" called the urchins. + +"Fork out Andy's sticks," shouted some others. + +"What is the crate worth?" asked Cora. + +"It was worth three dollars and seventy-five cents," said the woman, +"before that scamp deliberately set in it." + +Cora did not intend to argue. "Then if the berries are bought you will +give the boy his tallies?" she pressed. + +"Of course," drawled the woman, beginning to see Cora's intentions. + +"He's not goin' to pay fer them!" interrupted Narrow. "What does she +take us for?" + +"Hush!" commanded Cora. "Just give the boy his sticks, Mrs. Ramsy, and +I'll attend to the rest." + +"What'll I give him the tallies for when he owes me more than they're +worth?" + +"To satisfy the boys," demanded Cora. "I will take that crate of +berries. They will suit me as well as any others." + +Seeing herself beaten, the farm woman handed the tally-sticks to Cora, +who put out her hand to take them. + +"Now, you boys carry that crate down to the big machine in the +roadway," she said, "and I will pay Mrs. Ramsy!" + +A wild shout went up from the boys! The woman had been beaten! She had +not sold but the one crate of berries! And that was the one she +demanded Andy should pay for! + +Cora winked at Bess and Belle and the girls understood perfectly what +she meant. + +"Don't the other young ladies want any?" asked the woman. "You said +two crates!" + +"But we haven't time now to stop longer," said Cora. "We can come +again, when the sun will not be so hot. Then we may have a better +choice." + +It was Andy who helped Narrow carry the crate to the _Whirlwind_. +"Thank you, miss," he said, "I was almost sick. And mother expected +the money to-night." + +"Yes and she gets it," declared his companion, handing up the crate to +Cora, who stood in the car. "Whew! Ain't this a good one though!" and +he looked at the splendid maroon auto. "Must have cost a lot." + +"Quite a good deal," said Cora. "Some day, when I come again, perhaps +I will give you a nice ride in it!" + +"There's Nellie," called Bess. "She wants to speak with us, I guess." + +The girl, who had put the dogs back on their chains, was hurrying down +the path. + +"Good-bye," she said, "I don't think we will be here when you come +to-morrow." + +"Where are you going?" asked Cora. + +"Don't speak so loud," cautioned Nellie. "That old Lady Blazes is just +as bad on us as Aunt Delia. And worse, for she puts her up to +everything." + +"Nellie! Nellie!" shrieked the one termed "Blazes." "Your aunt wants +you right away up at the house!" + +Nellie turned with a nod to Bess and Belle. + +"Ain't that a shame!" said Skip. "We will strike fer them girls next." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +TOO CONFIDENT + + +"Mother will be so disappointed not to get her berries," remarked +Bess, as she and Belle, in their little _Flyaway_, got out on the +road, following Cora. + +"But Cora did wonderfully well, I think," replied the sister, "to get +the better of that horrid woman. She was going to sell two crates, and +she only actually sold the crate which she insisted Andy should pay +for. It takes Cora--she is a born leader." + +"It certainly was diplomatic," agreed Bess, "and I suppose we can come +out to-morrow for the others. Mother was not particular about having +them done up at once. But weren't those girls queer? And how +stage-like little Nellie looked with those fierce dogs at her side, +and the boys standing around her? I declare I think that would make a +play." + +"Better try your hand at it," suggested Belle. "I always thought you +had some hidden talent. It may now be discovered." + +"And do you think the girls are going to do something desperate?" +asked Bess, throwing in more speed, and brushing along at a lively +rate over the broad country road. + +"I am sure they are going to do something very unusual, but whether it +may be desperate, or simply foolish, would be impossible to surmise +with any degree of certainty," replied the judicious Belle. "I fancy +they intend to--leave the strawberry patch, at least." + +Cora turned, and called to Bess to look out for the "Thank-you-ma'ams" +that were so plentifully scattered over the hill they had just come +upon. Some were deep and long, she said, and with the ever-increasing +grade might stall an overworked engine. Following the advice, Bess +changed to low gear, and crawled up and down the hills, after the pace +set by Cora. + +One very steep hill confronted them. The engines of both cars were +fairly "gasping for breath," and Cora, knowing that the hot radiators +could cook anything from cabbage to pork and beans, realized that it +was not wise to start up the hill until the engines had been cooled +off. Consequently the cars stopped near a spring house at the +roadside, and the girls alighted to get a refreshing drink. The door +was unlocked, and a clear, clean glass stood on a small shelf, just +inside the low building. + +"Did you ever see anything so delightful?" exclaimed Belle, while Cora +dipped the glass in the square, cement-lined pool, and brought it up +filled with the coolest, and most sparkling water imaginable. + +"And was it just built for--roadsters?" asked Bess, taking the +proffered drink. + +"Oh, no indeed," said Cora with a laugh. "These spring houses are the +farm refrigerators. In this, every evening, I suppose many, many +quarts of milk are put to cool for the creamery. I have often seen a +spring house just filled with the big milk cans." + +"Oh," answered Bess, intelligently. "That's a good idea. Just think +how much money we could save on ice if we had a spring house." + +"Maybe if we had one, you would be able to cool off sometimes," +remarked her sister teasingly. "You look as if you needed a dip this +very minute." + +The red cheeks of Bess certainly did look overheated, and the way she +plied her handkerchief betrayed her discomfort. + +"An internal dip will do nicely, thank you," answered the girl. "I +don't see that I am any warmer than the rest of you." + +"Here comes a girl from the house," said Cora, as down the path a +girl, in generous sunbonnet, and overgenerous apron, was seen to +approach. + +"Do they wear their sunbonnets to bed?" asked Belle. "I am sure there +is no sun now." + +"Father will be down in a minute with the team," called out the girl, +much to the surprise of the motor girls. + +"Mercy!" exclaimed Belle, "are we going to be arrested?" + +"I think not," replied Cora; "however, we are trespassing, though I +did think farmer folks very--liberal, especially with their spring +water." + +"The girl is smiling like a 'basket of chips,'" said Bess, almost in a +whisper. "It is not likely that she is angry with us at all." + +"Did you get a nice drink?" asked the strange girl, with unmistakable +friendliness. + +"Oh, yes, thank you very much," spoke up Cora, "but I am afraid we are +trespassing." + +"Not at all," said the girl. "My name is Hope--Hope Stevens," she said, +in the most delightfully simple manner. "I always like to introduce +myself--'specially to young girls." + +"We are very glad to know you, Hope," said Cora. "This is Miss Bess +Robinson, this Miss Belle Robinson, and I am Cora Kimball." + +"Oh, I know who you are now," declared Hope. "They call you the Motor +Girls." + +"I am afraid they do," agreed Bess. "But then we are just plain girls +as well--our motors do not make us--we try to make them--go!" + +"That is what father said when he saw you come over yonder hill, when +he left the field to get the team. Do you know he makes more money +hauling folks with automobiles up this hill, than he does on the farm? +He always stops his work and gets the team ready when he sees an auto +stuck out here." + +"Oh, that is what he intended to do," said Cora. "Well, it was very +good of him to be so prompt, but we are always able to make our own +hills--I don't really think we will need him." + +"Lots of folks think that way," said Hope. "But, of course, you ought +to know--best. Do you think you can get up the hill?" + +"Yes. You see these are practically new machines," explained Cora, +"and we have been taught to run them carefully." + +"Pa says that girls are more careful than men," added Hope, and Belle +kept her eyes on the pretty face beneath the bonnet. She thought she +had never seen such dimples, and such splendidly marked brows. + +"There comes pa now," went on the girl. "He will be----" + +"Disappointed, of course. It was too bad for him to leave the fields," +said Cora. + +"Well, the rest won't hurt his poor back," ventured Hope. "Pa works +harder than any of the hired men, and these are very bad hills to +farm." + +"Are you ready, young ladies?" called the man from the road, as he +backed the sturdy team of horses up close to the _Whirlwind_. "I guess +this little machine can hitch behind t'other." + +"Really, we do not think we will need any help," said Cora, rather +confused. "We always take hills without trouble." + +"Never been up this one though," declared the farmer, with a shake of +his broad-brimmed hat. "I reckon you'll not be able to fly over the +top." + +"It's awfully good of you," put in Bess. "But suppose we try? You see +we do not want to break our records." + +"Plucky, all right," the man commented. "Well, go ahead, and I'll stop +to chat with Hope. If you get stuck just give me five quick toots, and +I'll be there." + +The girls thanked him profusely, and after cranking up both the +_Flyaway_ and the _Whirlwind_, said good-bye to Hope and her father, +and started off, both machines on low gear. + +"It is steep," remarked Belle to Bess. "Perhaps it would have been +well to have taken his offer." + +"All right?" asked Cora from ahead, as she looked back. + +"Thus far," replied Bess, clutching the wheel with nervous energy, and +slightly retarding the spark. + +Suddenly the _Whirlwind_ stopped--but only for an instant, for directly +the big four-cylinder car began to back down the steep grade, while +Bess and Belle shouted in terror for Cora to turn into the gutter! + +Not knowing how deep and dangerous this gutter was, Cora directed the +runaway machine well into the side, vainly trying to make the brakes +hold. + +The next moment there was a crash! + +The _Whirlwind_, with Cora in the car, was ditched--turned over on its +side! + +Bess tooted the horn of the _Flyaway_ frantically! + +Then she was able to bring her car to a standstill, and run to Cora's +assistance. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CORA'S QUEER PLIGHT + + +Springing to the back of one of the big field horses, Farmer Stevens +responded to the frantic summons of the auto horn, and started with +the pair up the hill to the assistance of Cora, and the righting of +her car, that almost swung between the narrow ledge of land, and the +great gulf of mountainous space that lay just beneath the banked up +highway. + +"Oh, I am so afraid that Cora is hurt," wailed Belle. "We can't see +her, and she must have been tossed over into the tonneau of the car." + +"She was on the right hand forward seat," gasped Bess, as both girls +ran along to the spot where the _Whirlwind_ was ditched, "but she may +have sprung out to avoid being thrown down the gully." + +Although Bess was but a short distance behind Cora when the latter's +car met with the mishap, it now seemed a long space of roadway that +lay between them. Of course Bess had to bring her car to a safe place, +at the side of the thoroughfare, and Belle had to help some, so that +it had taken a minute or two to do this, before they could run to +Cora. In the meantime Mr. Stevens came along with his horses, and +Hope, signalled by the tooting of the horn of the _Flyaway_, had +called two of his hired men from the fields, so that the ditched auto +and the danger to its driver met with ready assistance. + +"Oh, if Cora should be----" Then Belle checked herself. She had an +unfortunate habit of predicting trouble. + +Mr. Stevens left his horses by the rail fence through which the +_Whirlwind_ had passed without hesitation, and Bess was beside him +just as he reached the big car. + +"Oh, where is she!" wailed the girl, unable longer to restrain her +fears. + +There was the car, partly overturned but seemingly not damaged. +Neither within nor without was there a sign of Cora! + +"She must have been thrown down the embankment," said the man +anxiously. "She surely is not with the machine." + +Bess now joined Belle and ran to the edge of the cliff. Almost afraid +to look, they peered over the brink. + +"Where can she be?" breathed Belle, her hands clasped nervously. + +"Cora! Cora, dear!" called Bess. "Where are you?" + +"Here!" came what seemed to be a very faint reply. + +"Where?" shouted the girls, now making their way down, step by step, +over the perilous cliffs. + +Farmer Stevens knew every inch of that hill. He often had to rescue +from its uncertainties either a sheep or a young cow. He also knew +that precisely where the machine was ditched, the hill shelved to a +perfectly straight bank, so that instead of an incline the wall of +earth actually seemed to run under the surface. + +"If she went over there," he told himself, "she never stopped +until--she landed." + +"Oh, Cora!" called the girls again, "can't you tell us where you are?" + +"Look out there, young ladies," cautioned Mr. Stevens, "or you may go +down--double quick!" + +Hope was scaling the rocks like a wild creature. The two hired men +were almost jumping from cliff to cliff making straight for the clump +of hemlock trees at the very edge of the stream, that, in its quiet +way, defied the great hill above it. + +"Here she is!" called Hope. "Here in the--bed of hemlock!" + +To Bess and Belle, not acquainted with the peculiarities of the +flat-branched evergreen, finding Cora in "a bed of hemlock" was rather +a startling discovery, but to Hope--what nest could have been safer! +Cora had fallen over the cliff into the soft branches of a tree that +jutted out from the shelving earth. + +"Are you hurt?" asked the girl from the farm, looking up into the +branch of the big green tree. + +"I don't know--I don't think so, but I feel queer. I must get down," +Cora managed to say. + +By this time the others had reached the spot. Bess and Belle were +almost hysterical lest Cora should lose her hold and again fall to a +more dangerous landing. But the hired men stationed themselves under +the tree, and, with their strong arms netted beneath the giant +evergreen, they waited for Mr. Stevens to give an order. + +"All ready?" asked Mr. Stevens. + +"Yes, sir," replied the men. + +"Young lady, can you get free of the branches?" he called to Cora. + +"I am directly over a great hole," she answered timidly, "and I am +afraid I cannot hold on another minute." + +"Then drop," said the farmer. "We will catch you. Don't be afraid. You +can't escape the arms of Sam and Frank!" + +"Oh, if she should go to the bottom," wailed Belle, covering her face +with her trembling hands and uttering sighs and sobs. Bess was more +courageous, but equally frightened. + +Sam and Frank stood like human statues. Clasped hand to wrist, their +sunburned arms looked strong and secure. + +Presently there was a fluttering in the leaves--a slide through the +branches and Cora dropped--down on the human net of arms, safe, and +seemingly sound, but too weak to recover herself at once from the +strange position. + +Gently as could a woman, these farm hands lowered their burden to the +soft bed of moss at their feet. Belle and Bess leaned over the quiet +form, while Hope hurried to the stream below for some water, which she +quickly brought in the strong cup improvised from her stiffened +sunbonnet. + +"This is spring water," she said. "Swallow a few mouthsfull." + +Cora opened her lips and sipped from the strange cup. Then she turned +and tried to rise, growing stronger each instant, and determined to +"pull herself together." + +"Wasn't it silly?" she asked, finally. + +"Wasn't it awful! Are you much hurt?" inquired Belle, fanning Cora +with her motor hood. + +"Not a bit--that I can tell," she answered. "That natural--hammock--was a +miracle." + +She attempted to rise, but fell back rather suddenly. + +"I've got a twist somewhere," she said. "I think my shoulder is +sprained." + +Without waiting to be asked to do so Frank, the younger of the farm +hands, put his arm about Cora's waist, and brought her to her feet. + +"Oh, thank you," she stammered rather shyly. "I am sure you have +helped me wonderfully. I don't know how to thank you--all." + +"You can stand, eh?" asked Mr. Stevens, satisfaction showing in his +voice, and ruddy face. + +"I suppose you feel--that I should have taken your offer for the +horses?" she remarked with confusion. + +"Well, there is always a first time," he replied, "but since you are +no worse off you must not complain. Guess the boys had better lift you +to the road. Then we will see if you can run your car." + +Again, in that straightforward way, peculiar to those who know when +they're right and then go ahead, the "boys" simply picked Cora up, she +putting her arms over their shoulders, and while the three other girls +wended their way over the cliff, Cora was carried safely back to the +spot where still lay the helpless _Whirlwind_. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE CLUE AT THE SPRING HOUSE + + +Just how Cora did manage to run her car into Chelton, with a stiffened +wrist and a twisted shoulder, she was not able to explain afterward to +the anxious ones at home. Belle rode with her, and was sufficiently +familiar with the machine to take a hand at the wheel now and then, +but it was Cora who drove the _Whirlwind_, in spite of that. + +It was now two days since the eventful afternoon at the strawberry +patch, and the girls were ready again to make the trip to Squaton, in +quest of the crate of berries promised to Mrs. Robinson. + +Jack argued that his sister was not strong enough to run her car with +ease, so he insisted on going along. Then, when his friends, Ed Foster +and Walter Pennington, heard of this they declared it was a trick of +Jack's to "do them out of a run with the motor girls," and they +promptly arranged to go along also. + +Ed rode with Walter, in the latter's runabout, and the twins were, of +course, together in the _Flyaway_, while Cora was beside Jack in the +_Whirlwind_, for, although the girls were speedily turning into the +years that would make them young ladies, they still maintained the +decorum of riding "girls with girls" and "boys with boys," except on +very rare occasions. + +As they rode along, an old stone house, set far back from the highway, +attracted Jack's attention. + +"Let's stop here," he suggested, "and look over the place. I'll bet it +has an open fire place with a crane and fixings, for cooking." + +Word was passed to those in the other cars, and all were glad to stop, +for the afternoon was delightful, and the ride to Squaton rather +short. + +As no path marked the grass that led to the old house it was evident +that no one had lately occupied it. The boys ran on ahead to make sure +that no ghosts or other "demons" might be lurking within the moldy +place, while Cora, Bess and Belle stopped to pick some particularly +pretty forget-me-nots, from near the spring that trickled along +through the neglected place. + +Just back of the house, over the spring, the boys discovered the +inevitable house for cooling milk, and here they delayed to drink from +their pocket cups. + +"What's in the other side?" asked Walter, peering through the broken +boards into a second room or shed, for the shack was divided into two +parts. + +"More spring, I suppose," replied Jack, taking his third drink from +the small cup. + +Walter and Ed had finished drinking just as the girls came up, and +Jack attended to their various degrees of thirst for pure spring +water. + +"What a quaint old place," remarked Belle. "What's in the other little +house?" + +"We are just about to find out," said Jack. "The other fellows +couldn't wait, and are in there now." + +Hurrying out, they all entered, through the battered door, into the +"other side." + +"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Ed. "What does this mean?" + +"I also declare, 'what does this mean?'" added Jack, picking up from a +queer sort of wooden platform in the place, the unmistakable blue +bonnet of a child or young girl. + +"And this!" exclaimed Cora, picking up a hat. "This is--Nellie's hat! +Nellie from the strawberry patch!" + +"They have run away!" gasped Bess, without further investigation, "and +here are the remains of their lunch!" The fragments of a very meager +meal--some crusts of dry bread--and an empty strawberry box, told the +story. "Surely this had been the lunch of the runaways." + +"They must have slept here," went on Cora. "Poor little dears! What a +shame! How frightened they must have been to sleep in such a place." + +"When you young ladies get through with the allegory, I hope you will +give us the libretto," interrupted Jack. "Who may be the fair maids +who have slept in this shack, and eaten the bread of freedom?" + +"Why, the girls from the strawberry patch, of course," said Bess, as +if that explained everything. + +"Why 'of course,'" said Jack mockingly. + +"Certainly, of course," put in Ed, in the same tone of voice. + +"And, to be sure, of course," went on Walter, provokingly. + +"Why, we didn't tell you, did we?" spoke Cora finally. Then she did +tell as much as she thought it wise to divulge about Nellie and Rose. + +This information "caused a stir," (as Jack put it) among the boys. +Instantly they began up-turning stones, pulling down boards, and doing +all sorts of foolish things searching for the runaways. But no other +evidences were unearthed of the stay of the two girls in the spring +house. + +"I hope they hear us," called Jack, finally, raising his voice almost +to a shout. "I must find Rose," he called. "Rose is all the world to +me! My own little garden flower without a thorn----" + +Walter interrupted with: "I must see Nellie home! Nellie! Nellie! +Pretty little Nellie!" + +"Do be quiet," begged Cora, "you will arouse the ghosts in the old +house." + +"Let's," suggested Walter. "Haven't seen a ghost in an age, and a +ghost would be just pie for us in this place." + +"Please don't," almost sobbed Belle. "I am really awfully creepy in +here." + +Seeing that she was actually nervous, the girls went outside, but the +boys were not yet satisfied with their investigations. + +"What on earth is this rig-a-my-gig for?" asked Walter, indicating the +big sloping circular platform which occupied nearly all the space in +the shack. It was on a pivot and could be turned around. + +"Why, that's--let me see, that's----" but Jack couldn't just say what it +was. + +"I know," exclaimed Ed, suddenly. "That's a treadmill." + +"A thread mill?" asked Walter. + +"No, a treadmill--a mill that was treaded. They used to make butter in +olden times by having a sheep or a dog travel around on that sort of +wheel, which was geared to a churn." + +"See page one hundred and eight Encyclopedia Fosteria," put in Jack, +with a good natured slap on Ed's broad shoulders. "When you don't see +what you want--ask Ed," he finished. + +Feeling that they had actually solved the mystery of the circular +platform, the boys spent some time in examining the strange machine. +Meanwhile the girls were peering in the broken windows of the old +house, for Bess insisted that Nellie and Rose might have fallen ill +after their long tramp from the strawberry patch, and that they might +actually be lying within the tottering mass of mortar, beams and +stones. But, of course, the fears of Bess were soon proved unfounded, +and, at the urgent order of Cora, the party started again on the road +to Squaton to get that "much delayed" crate of berries for Mrs. Perry +Robinson. + +"Keep a lookout along the road for the girls," Cora directed, as they +started off. "We might spy them resting under a tree." + +"You will never spy them," insisted Jack. "I am going to find Rose--my +Rose, and Walter has his heart set on Nellie--_the_ Nellie. So you +girls may go to sleep, if you wish, for all the good your looking will +do." + +Only a joke--but many a jest begets a truth! + +So the motor girls thought, in their long search for the unfortunate +runaways. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A STARTLING DISCOVERY + + +All was confusion at the strawberry patch. The two orphan girls, Rose +and Nellie Catron, had disappeared the night before, it was said, and +not until shortly before the arrival of our friends in the +automobiles, was another loss discovered--that of a pair of very +valuable diamond earrings, the property of Miss Hanna Schenk, +otherwise known among the pickers as "Mrs. Blazes." + +So it was that the Chelton young folks, as Jack said, "struck a +hornet's nest," for Mrs. Ramsy, somehow, seemed to be of the opinion +that Cora could tell, if she would, something about the runaways. + +"What could give you that idea, Mrs. Ramsy?" demanded Cora +indignantly. "I only saw your nieces while I was here the other day, +and I am sure I would have advised them to stay where they were, had +they ever mentioned to me their intentions of leaving." + +"That's all very well, young lady," growled the woman, "but I noticed +how them girls edged up to you, and your friends, and I warn you, if I +find that you have helped them off I'll have the law on _you_." + +At this the young men came up to the shed where the unpleasant +conversation was in progress. Jack, of course, was indignant, and, not +only did he oblige Cora to leave the place at once, but, while doing +so, he expressed his opinion directly to Mrs. Ramsy as to his personal +measure of her character. + +The whole affair was rather awkward, and the Robinson girls were +obliged to leave the patch once more without their crate of berries. + +Just outside the wire fence, and when the girls were about to step +into the cars, they were hailed by Andy--the small boy whom Cora had so +favored by buying the damaged crate of berries. + +"Wait a minute, miss," he called. "I've got something fer you," and, +so saying, he stepped up to the _Whirlwind_ and, very cautiously, +handed Cora a slip of paper. She took it and read these scrawled +lines: + + "Miss: We are going away, but we think we will see you again some + day. You will find your crate of berries under the tree where Andy + will show you. They belonged to us and we paid for them. + + Rose Catron and Nellie Catron." + +Cora looked down at Andy for a further explanation. + +"They had to go away, miss," he said; "they couldn't stand it another +minute. I will show you where the berries are." + +"But how did the girls get the berries? They had no money," argued +Cora. + +"No, but their Aunt Delia took from them a ring that belonged to their +own mother, and they took the crate to get even," declared Andy, his +voice and manner showing his high regard for the "getting even" part. + +Cora told the girls and boys about the matter, and they decided to go +after the berries. Consequently Cora insisted that Andy ride in her +car to the old willow tree, somewhat down the road, and as each tenth +of a mile was marked in red on the speedometer dial the little +fellow's face threatened more and more to catch fire from the auburn +curls that fell in joyous affright about his temples. + +Jack thought he had never known what it was to really enjoy a ride +before, and he whispered to Cora that he very much wished he might +take Andy home "for a paper weight, or a watch charm." + +"Right over there," directed Andy, after about a mile's ride, "under +the big willow." + +Turning the car in that direction, Jack drove across a shallow ditch, +and was soon under the tree, while the other machines waited on the +safer roadway. + +Andy scrambled out, and Jack, leaving the wheel, went after him, +followed by Cora. + +"Here," said the boy, pulling aside a thick clump of berry vines. +"Here's the crate." + +Sure enough, there was the new crate, filled with berries, safe and +untouched. + +"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Cora. "I really did not expect to find +them." + +"Very thoughtful of my Rose-bud," declared Jack, lifting the lid of +the box. "What's this?" he went on, picking up a small object. +"Something else for Cora, I wonder?" + +At that moment, fortunately, Andy was occupied with a particularly +attractive branch of red raspberries, and he did not see Jack lift out +the article. Cora, so quick to apprehend any possible danger for +others, was beside Jack instantly. + +"Hush!" she whispered. "Don't tell the rest! It is an empty jewel +box--earrings have been in it!" + +"You don't mean to say that the--girls have gone off with the old +lady's earrings!" exclaimed Jack. "And left the empty box in this +crate to get you into trouble!" + +"Indeed I do not mean to say anything of the kind," hastily answered +Cora. "I have always found that the most suspicious circumstance may +turn out to be the most innocent matter, and, in this case, I have not +the slightest doubt that we will find my rule to work true. In the +meantime," she continued, slipping the little case within her blouse, +"I will take care of the--evidence." + +It was not without a rather nervous fluttering of her usually reliable +nerves, that Cora finally did secrete the jewel box, and in spite of +her firm declaration to Jack, she could not just convince herself that +it was altogether right for whoever had put the empty earring case in +the crate, to have done so without making some sort of explanation. + +For a moment she thought of asking little Andy if he could tell her +anything of the strange affair, then she quickly concluded to await +developments. + +"Jack," she said, "we will take the crate of berries in our car. We +have more room than the others, and perhaps Andy would like a ride in +town with us. He can take a trolley car back." + +This pleased the youngster immensely, and so, when the famous crate of +berries was at last loaded on the _Whirlwind_, and the word had been +given to the others, the party started off on a merry run towards +Chelton. On the way Cora had a chance to find out from the boy that +the girls, Rose and Nellie, had walked away from their aunt's place +after nightfall. Also that he, and some other boys, had helped them +carry their things, which, as far as the willow tree, included the +crate of berries. Cora also learned that the girls had started out "to +see the world," and this last piece of information did not add to her +peace of mind concerning the two orphans, who knew so little of this +world, and its consequent dangers. + +Jack was greatly taken with Andy, and promised to pick him up for a +ride every time the _Whirlwind_ came out Squaton way. + +"Maybe you could get me a job," said the little fellow, glancing up +with unstinted admiration at Cora's handsome brother. + +"Believe I could," replied Jack. "Let me see, what is your +specialty--what can you do?" + +"I am a caddy," replied Andy proudly. "They say I'm just as quick as +any of them to trace a ball." + +"Well now, that's fine!" declared Jack. "We play golf out Chelton way. +Suppose you just take a trolley ride in next Saturday, and we will see +what we can do. Here is your car-fare. Be sure not to lose it, for +trolley fellows are no respecters of persons." + +Meanwhile Bess and Belle were racing with Walter and Ed, and the +afternoon was to them a time of that sort of enjoyment that comes +unbidden, unplanned, and therefor proof against disappointment. Of +course Cora was not by any means miserable, for no companion was to +her more her chum than was Jack; then little Andy lent his novel +personality to her surroundings, but still the thought that two young +girls, Rose and Nellie, had deliberately run away, that they were +practically accused of having taken a pair of diamond earrings valued +at two hundred and fifty dollars, and that the case in which these +stones seemed to have formerly reposed was actually found by Cora in +the berry crate--was it any wonder that she did not laugh as lightly as +did Bess Robinson? Or that she refused Ed Foster's pressing invitation +to go into Snow's for an ice cream drink? + +At the drug store Jack stopped the _Whirlwind_ to allow little Andy to +board a trolley car back to Squaton, but, as he left, Cora warned him +to be very careful what he said about the runaways. + +"Oh, don't you never fear, miss," he answered, crowding his negatives +to make one good big "no." "Rose and Nellie are my friends, and I know +how to stick by 'em." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +COMPLICATIONS + + +"Isn't it strange, Jack," almost whispered Cora to her brother, as, +later that evening, the two sat on the veranda of their home, and +talked over the day's proceedings, "I cannot believe--they--took them. +But it does look very----" + +"Well, sis," began the young man, "we have had other experiences with +things that _looked_ strange, and you will remember that strange looks +are not to be depended upon for absolute facts." + +"Oh, I don't mean to say that those two poor, strange girls could be +so dishonest," she hurried to say, "but the trouble is, that Mrs. +Ramsy is angry with them for leaving her, and of course she will do +all she can to make trouble for them. Then she even threatened me." + +"She did, eh?" exclaimed Jack. "Well, she had better go slow. I don't +call a person ignorant just because they happen to be illiterate, for +I always find they know more than I do on some subject, but this +woman--she is the--limit." + +"You see," faltered Cora, hardly knowing just how to tell her brother, +"the girls, it seems, had their mother's wedding ring, and she took it +from them. To make up for that they took the crate of berries, then +finding the earring-box in it----" + +"I know exactly what you are afraid to surmise, sis," said Jack, "but, +as I said before, it may all be wrong. I, of course, have never seen +the girls, and cannot confess to so lively an interest in them as you +have worked up, but I must say, I would like to see the old lady get +what's coming to her." + +The brother and sister sat in silence for a few moments, then a step +on the path attracted their attention. + +"Here comes Belle," exclaimed Cora. "Whatever brought her out alone, +so near to nightfall? She is usually so timid." + +Belle was actually trembling, as she took a chair on the porch. "Oh +dear!" she began, "I am all out of breath. I was just scared to death +coming over." + +"Why didn't you 'phone?" asked Jack, "and I would have gone over after +you." + +"Cora," went on Belle, ignoring Jack's remark, "I am afraid--there is a +strange detective in--Chelton!" + +"Well, what of that?" asked Cora, with a laugh. "Detectives are not +really dangerous; are they?" + +"Now don't joke," begged the girl. "I came over to warn you!" + +"To warn me!" + +"Yes, I heard that they are looking for----" + +"Detectives looking for Cora!" almost yelled Jack, leaping up from his +chair, as if some hidden spring had thrown him to his feet. "This is +some of that woman's work! Tell me quickly, Belle, all you have +heard--all you know." + +"Bess and I were at the post-office when two strange men alighted from +a runabout," went on Belle. "They came inside--and at the stamp window +asked where Cora Kimball lived. Then Bess became alarmed, declared +that they were detectives, and she wanted to come straight over and +tell you, but father drove up at that very moment, and Bess had to go +in town with him. Then I was on my way over when Tillie, our maid, met +me and told me that mother had company from the West, and I was to +hurry back home. Oh dear me, I did think I would never get here! Such +complications!" + +"Now, dear," said Cora soothingly, "don't you be the least bit +alarmed. Of course, it is quite natural that Mrs. Ramsy should try to +find her nieces, and quite right, too, so there is no harm whatever in +her directing any one to me, to make inquiries. She evidently thinks I +know more about the girls than I do." + +"But there is a note in the evening paper telling all about the whole +thing," declared Belle, "and it mentions that one hundred dollars +reward will be paid for the return of the diamond earrings." + +"Which looks," said Jack, "as if they are more anxious about the +stones than they are about the girls. Well, we will have to await +developments. I was going down to bowl to-night, but I guess I had +better hang around now." + +"Why, don't be foolish, Jack. You may just as well go out as not. Even +if a strange man does come up, I am sure I will be able to talk to +him. I have--ahem!--met strange men before," declared Cora. + +"All the same, I guess I'll stay. I want to take Belle home, at any +rate, and I am not particularly interested in the bowling game +to-night, though Ed wanted me to be on hand." + +A shout from the road, however, reminded Jack that it was time to +start. The voice was at once recognized as that of Ed Foster, and Cora +begged her brother to run along, and have no fears on her account. + +"And father and Bess will stop for me later," declared Belle. "They +have been taking the Western folks out for a run. Bess has the car and +papa the carriage, so there is no danger but that I shall fit in +somewhere." + +It was, nevertheless, much against the better judgment of Jack Kimball +that he left his sister and Belle, and joined his companions bound for +the bowling alleys. He did not mention to either Ed or Walter his +fears for the comfort of Cora, should she be visited by the detective, +but they both noticed that he was not quite his jolly self, and that +he seemed to take little interest in their conversation or the sport +at the alleys. + +It was now almost nine o'clock, and, as Belle and Cora sat on the +porch, enjoying the moonlight, in spite of their disturbed state of +mind, they began to feel that the detective scare had been unfounded. + +"I can't see why they would ask where you lived," said Belle, "if they +did not intend to call on you." + +At that moment a runabout turned into the driveway. Startled, the +girls sprang from their seats and hurried forward to see who might be +coming. Belle clutched Cora's arm. + +"Oh, it is the detectives," she gasped. "I know their machine! Oh, why +did we let Jack go away?" + +"Don't be nervous," commanded Cora. "If they really are detectives +they will have reason to suspect us, if they find us frightened." +Then, at a sudden thought, she added: "Belle, I believe you had better +run indoors. You are nervous, and you might say something that would +be better unsaid. I am sorry that the maids are both out, and that +mother is not at home--it does seem as if we should have kept Jack." + +There was no time for further comment, for as Cora opened the French +window to allow Belle to enter the house without being noticed, the +two men were seen coming up the path. + +Cora had been in unpleasant predicaments before, each time the +circumstance being a matter of protecting some friend, and this time +she felt "keyed up" to almost any emergency. Also her past experience +had taught her valuable lessons, so that she had no idea now of saying +one word that might in any way compromise the two helpless Catron +girls. + +But even so wise a girl as Cora Kimball may be careless in some +matter, that, in itself, may seem unimportant, but upon which may hang +the very thread of fate. + +"Is this Miss Kimball?" asked the shorter of the two gentlemen who +approached her. + +"Yes," she replied with unconcern. She stepped directly under the +electric light that illumined the porch. + +"We are sorry to disturb you, especially as it is rather late," said +the other man with unmistakable politeness, "but being in town we +thought to cover this end of our business without making a second trip +to Chelton. Is your brother, or mother at home?" + +"No," replied Cora, "but, if it is necessary, I can call for my +brother, over the telephone." + +"Well, our business is a little unpleasant," went on the man, "and we +would prefer to speak with you--before your brother. Yet, as he is not +at home, I believe we had best call again. We really only need to make +sure that you are not going out of town at once. We have heard that +you intend going to the seashore, and as we are detectives, looking +for the two Catron girls, we felt you might be able to give us some +clue as to their whereabouts. However," and he turned to go down the +steps, "we will come again to-morrow--if we may now make an appointment +for an interview with you." + +Cora was much impressed with the man's manners. She moved to the edge +of the steps. + +"Certainly, I shall be at home to-morrow," she said, "and I will have +my brother here with me. I will answer any questions, but really I +know absolutely nothing of the whereabouts of the girls." + +The men were on the steps. The light from the porch lamp cast a +shadow, and Cora raised her hand to turn the switch that would light +the lower steps. As she did so, something dropped from her blouse. + +The detective stooped to hand it to her. + +It was the empty jewel case! + + + + +CHAPTER X + +ALMOST--BUT NOT QUITE + + +"Certainly take it," said Cora, "if it is of any use to you. I found +it--out near the strawberry patch." + +She was speaking to the surprised detective. He was examining the +empty jewel case, and she had no idea of denying how she had come by +it. From the description furnished to them the men were, of course, +easily able to identify the tell-tale box. + +But in spite of their consideration, and good manners, the detectives +felt that they had stumbled on a very important piece of evidence. +Certainly, this was the box that Miss Schenk had described as that in +which her earrings usually were placed. True, she could not specify +just when she had last put them in this box, but that this was _the_ +box was an important discovery. + +"I cannot believe that the girls took the gems," said Cora, as the men +at last turned to go, "for they seemed really such innocent young +girls. The only thing unusual about them, that I noticed, was that +they had been overworked, and were consequently rather----" + +"Revengeful," finished one of the men. "That is the suspicious +point--even good young girls may be driven to desperation. However, +Miss Kimball, with your permission, we will call to-morrow at four," +and they raised their hats, and went down the walk. + +Cora was stunned--that she should have placed into the very hands of +the detectives so important a clue! + +"And I meant to hide that box safely in my room," she reflected. "That +was why I kept it in my blouse,--so as not to forget it." + +The long window opened and Belle almost fell into Cora's arms. + +"Oh, have they gone at last?" she gasped. "What dreadful thing +happened?" + +"Why, nothing happened," replied Cora, making up her mind instantly +that the fewer persons who knew about the jewel box the better. "I +thought them very polite officers." + +"But when I saw you step to turn on the light I thought something +happened--I saw you start." + +"Belle, my dear, you are too romantic," said Cora, evasively. "I am +afraid I shall have to disappoint you this time, however, for my +callers scarcely said a single word that was new. They are just +looking for our runaways. And I do wonder where the poor, dear, lost, +little things may be to-night!" + +"Isn't it dreadful to think about it! I have read of such things, but +to think that we really--know the girls." + +There was a catch in Belle's voice when she said "know the girls." +Plainly she had her doubts about the desirability of their +acquaintance. + +A whistle on the path told of Jack's return. + +"Dear me," exclaimed Cora, "whoever would think it is almost ten +o'clock!" + +"And what can have become of papa and the others!" pondered Belle. +"They were to call for me----" + +The familiar toot of the _Flyaway's_ horn interrupted her. + +"There they are now," declared Cora. "My! what a full evening we have +had. I feel almost too flustrated to meet your Western friends," and +she smoothed out various discrepancies in her toilette. + +"Come on, Belle," called Bess from the machine. "We can't come up. +It's too late, Cora!" she continued to call, "come here a moment. I +want to tell you something." + +At this Cora and Belle went down to the roadway. Bess was in the +_Flyaway_ with her mother and a strange lady, while down near the +turn, at the corner, the lights of Mr. Robinson's carriage could be +seen flickering in the summer night's shadows. He had not gone on the +long road taken by the auto and in consequence, the two vehicles had +arrived at the same time. + +"Cora," began Bess, without introducing the stranger, "we have had the +strangest experience! Away out on the river road we thought we heard +the cry of a young girl! Yes, and we saw something white run across +the road, in such a lonely place!" + +"Mercy!" interrupted Belle. "I am glad I was not along." + +"Well, papa happened to meet us there and stopped, and the coachman +got out, and we looked all over the place with our lamps in hand, and +see what we found!" + +In the uncertain light Cora could not at once make out just what was +the object Bess held up for her inspection. + +"Don't you recognize it?" asked Bess. "Why, it's Nellie's gingham +dress; the very one she wore the other day." + +"Oh," gasped Belle, "do you suppose they have drowned themselves!" + +"Come, daughter," interrupted Mrs. Robinson, "we have already heard +too much of these two very--indiscreet young persons. Come, Belle, my +dear, we must get home. Cora, I would not advise you to waste too much +sympathy on the girls from that farm. Evidently they are quite capable +of looking after themselves." + +This was said with that authoritative manner used by older, and more +prudent persons, when trying to curb the enthusiasm of the +inexperienced. Mrs. Robinson was not unkind, but she did not think it +wise to let the girls' sympathy "run away with them," as her husband +put it. + +"All right, mamma dear," replied Belle meekly, really glad to climb +into the small seat at the back of the _Flyaway_ and start for home. +The detectives had furnished enough excitement, but now came this +strange news---- + +"Oh, I just want to tell Cora one thing more," said good-natured Bess. +"Cora, when we finally did give up the search, and had gone along a +little way, a trolley car passed, and it stopped just at that turn in +the road where there was an electric light." + +"And couldn't you see who boarded it?" asked Cora. + +"No, it was a park resort car, and just packed full of people, so we +didn't even have a chance to get a glimpse of those who either got on +or got off. Well, good night, dear," and Bess switched on the spark +and started the engine without cranking. "I will see you to-morrow. We +have got to finish up our plans--for--you know." + +It was the approach of Jack that stopped Bess in her remark. The young +man joked about it, and declared that he would soon discover the +secret, warning the girls that Cora could never keep good news away +from him, and that he felt it in his bones she would tell him about it +that very night. + +The girls retaliated with the assurance that this time, at least, Jack +was not to know their secret, then, when the _Flyaway_ had whirred +itself off, Cora and Jack, arm in arm, started back to the porch. + +Cora hardly knew how to tell her brother about the jewel box, but she +finally managed to explain the peculiar happening. + +"Well," said Jack, when she paused for his opinion, "there's no use +crying over spilled milk. The thing to do, I suppose, is to keep one's +hands off milk. Now, I reckon you will be subjected to a lot of +questions, when those fellows come to-morrow." + +"They were really very polite," Cora assured him, "and I haven't the +slightest dread about their questions. It seems to me, now, that we +all ought to do what we can to trace the girls. From what Bess just +told me I am afraid they are running about at night in lonely and +dangerous places. And bad as their lot might have been, with their +aunt, that was safer than these night escapades." + +"True--very true, little sister," said Jack with his usual good +spirits, "at the same time if they have committed--we will call it an +indiscretion, in trying earrings in their ears, it might be just as +well to give them a chance. No use running them into the very teeth of +the law." + +That was exactly how Cora felt about it. "Well," she said, as she +picked up her fan and other little belongings, preparatory to going +indoors, "we will see what comes of my official investigation. +Perhaps, when the detectives have finished questioning me, they will +be able to go to a telephone and call the girls home. I have always +heard that detectives do such wonderful things." + +"Well, this time, sis, I will be at home when they call, unless +something very unforeseen happens." + +Jack pushed the bolt on the heavy door, and Cora went over the first +floor of the house, attending to the duties, with which her mother, +upon her departure for the city, had entrusted her. + +Then, handing the silver to Jack, she put out the lights, and bade him +an affectionate good-night. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +ANDY'S WARNING + + +The parlor maid tapped at Cora's door. Gentle as was the touch, it +awakened the girl, who answered quickly. + +"Miss," said the maid, "there is a little boy downstairs who says he +must see you at once. He simply won't take no for an answer." + +"A little boy?" repeated Cora, sleepily. "Why, it's only six o'clock!" + +"Yes, I know that, miss," went on the girl, "but Mary says he was +outside on the step when she came down at five. He's a poor-looking +little boy, but he doesn't want anything to eat. He says he must speak +to you." + +Without the slightest idea who her caller might be, Cora hurried into +a robe and went down. + +"He's on the side porch, Miss Cora," said the maid. + +Cora went out through the opened French window. + +"Why, Andy!" she exclaimed, for her early visitor was none other than +the boy from the strawberry patch. "Whatever brought you into Chelton +so early?" + +"It's about the girls," he said under his breath, looking around +suspiciously. "And it's about that old Mrs. Blazes!" + +"No one will hear you," Cora assured him, taking a seat by his side. +"What about the girls, and Miss Schenk?" + +"Yes, and I was afraid I would not get here in time. She's comin' in +here--to scare you. I heard her tell Mrs. Ramsy so." + +"And you hurried in to warn me!" cried Cora, much amused at the lad's +simplicity. "I am sure I am very, very much obliged. But tell me, what +did she say?" + +Andy shifted about uneasily. Evidently the information he had was not +of the nature pleasant to impart. + +"It was awful late last night when I heard it," began the boy. "Mrs. +Ramsy owed mother for some washing, and she said if I went after the +money late, when she had time to--bother with me, she would give it to +me. Well, I waited until I saw she had slicked up the work the girls +used to do, and I was going to knock at the side door, when I saw two +strange men get out of an automobile, and make for Ramsy's front +door." + +Andy paused, evidently expecting some show of surprise at this +information. + +"Well, go on, Andy," urged Cora. "What did the strange men have to do +with it all?" + +"They asked for Miss Schenk, and I just guessed right. They were +detectives!" + +Andy's eyes opened and closed in nervous excitement. To talk of +detectives! To have seen them and to have heard _them_ talk! + +"Well," spoke Cora, almost smiling, "it was certainly right for Miss +Schenk to have detectives look for her valuables." + +"That's all right," assented the boy, "but wait till you hear! They +told her--them two big fellows, that you--had the empty earring box, and +that they got it from you!" + +For a moment Cora was quite as indignant as she rightly supposed Andy +to be. + +"Did they say they got it from me?" she questioned. + +"They said they were on the right track and would have the diamonds +back to Miss Schenk in one day. Then, when I heard them say your name, +and that they had got the box out here, I just rubbered fer fair, I +did." + +"Now, are you sure, Andy, that you understood just what they said?" +asked Cora, to whom the actual report of the detectives to Miss Schenk +meant so much. "Try to tell me word for word." + +"Oh, I heard them all right," replied the lad, "fer I crawled straight +under the window, and I was as close as if I was in the old rocking +chair under Mrs. Ramsy's arm. The thin fellow said he had found the +box. Mrs. Ramsy asked where, and I thought she would swallow her new +teeth the way she--gulped. Then the fellow said he had got them from a +young lady out in Chelton. This was like a firecracker to the women, +and they both went off at such a rate, that the fellows had to stop +until they cooled off. Then, when they had said about all they could +think of about girls in automobiles, and girls that came out makin' +believe to buy berries, and just to steal--then, the other fellow--he +has young whiskers--he said, that he couldn't say any more just then, +but he did have to say that he got the box from Miss Cora Kimball." + +This was a very long, and trying explanation for a boy like Andy, and +he showed how the effort affected him. He jabbed his hands into his +pockets, crossed and recrossed his sunburned legs, then at last, with +one final attempt at self-possession, he got up and deliberately +chased the cat off the porch. + +"Was that your cat?" he asked sheepishly, realizing that he had no +right to interfere even with a cat on another person's stoop. + +"Why, yes," replied Cora, "but it is too early for his breakfast, and +he knows he is not fed--here. So it's all right." + +Then Andy sat down again, a little shy from his error, for he suddenly +remembered a story his mother used to tell him of a rich young lady +and her pet cat. + +"But you were saying," Cora reminded him, her voice kinder if possible +than before, "that these detectives claimed I gave them the box. Or +did you say they claimed to have taken it from me?" + +Andy scratched his head, right at the left ear which always served as +a cue to the forgotten thing. + +"They didn't say neither one," he replied finally. "They--said--they got +the box in Chelton--off a young lady!" + +Cora never before realized what an error in speech might involve, but +she knew it was useless to question the boy further. + +"Well, don't worry about it," she said, "and I think now you ought to +be ready for breakfast. Come, I guess Mary has something ready." + +The boy stood up beside Cora, then, following an impulse that he +plainly could not resist, he stepped between her and the door to the +dining room. + +"I ain't hungry, miss," he said, "but I want to warn you. You better +git out of the state!" + +So sudden and so unexpected was this bit of advice that Cora almost +laughed, but looking into the earnest face before her she was +constrained to repress even a smile. + +"Why, Andy," she cried, "I am not afraid of any one. I don't have to +run away." + +"Well, you better be," he declared, his cheeks reddening to the very +tint of his hair. "You better be afraid of Ramsy and Schenk. They're a +hot team." + +"But what have I done?" continued Cora, for the boy's manner demanded +attention. + +"My uncle didn't do anything either when he got out of the state. And +if it hadn't been for that he would have been sent up. Fer nothin', +too." + +That there was more wisdom than eloquence in this was plain to Cora, +but, even at that, she failed to grasp the whole meaning of Andy's +warning. + +"Will you go to-day?" he almost begged. + +"Why, Andy?" + +"Yes, please do go. I would hate to see you git into that--mix-up." + +"Now, little boy, you must not worry about me. See what a big strong +girl I am, and you know what a strong man Jack is." + +"'Taint a matter of fists," Andy declared, clenching up his brown +hands, "but it's them womens' tongues. You don't know what sneaks they +are, and if you don't say you will go away to-day, before they git at +you, I think I had better tell your brother all about it." + +"Haven't you told _me_ all about it?" + +"Not quite," said Andy. "I don't suppose a girl ought--to know +everything about--scraps!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE "UNPLANNED" PLANS + + +Cora was always a pretty girl, but in her corn-colored, empire gown, +that morning at the breakfast table, even her own brother was forced +to express openly his admiration for her. + +"Whew, Cora!" he exclaimed, "but you do look like a--tea-rose in that +wrapper." + +"Jack, dear, this is not a wrapper, but the very best design in +empire," and she smoothed out the fullness that lay about her. + +"Well, it's all right, anyway," declared Jack. "Makes me think of rose +leaves, the way it clings about you." + +"What a pretty speech, brother. Now, if that had only been saved up +for Bess, or Belle or Hazel! By the way, we haven't seen Hazel this +summer. I suppose she is studying as hard as ever. What a pity a +bright girl like Hazel is not bright enough to save her health by +taking the regulation vacation." + +"Well, with Paul away I suppose Hazel thinks there is nothing left to +do but study. I never saw brother and sister more attached," remarked +Jack, taking his fruit from the dainty leaves in which, when Cora +"kept house," she always insisted that fruit be served. + +Paul and Hazel Hastings were indeed devoted brother and sister. Paul +was also a devotee of the motor, and more than the amateur chauffeur, +yet not quite the professional. He had an interesting part to play in +the story "The Motor Girls On a Tour." But Cora had just remarked, +Hazel had not been with them during the summer in which this story +took place, and, as Jack further explained, this was due to the fact +that Paul Hastings, after a severe illness, had taken a position to +operate a car abroad, Mr. Robinson having arranged the "business end," +in recognition of Paul's heroic work for Mr. Robinson in a mysterious +robbery. + +"But Belle had a letter from Hazel," said Jack, after some thought, +the trick of which was not lost on Cora. "Yes, she said Hazel might go +away with them. And now, sis, where are they going, anyway? Come, +haven't I waited long enough for that secret?" + +"It really isn't any secret, Jack, but the girls have a baby way of +wanting to keep things to themselves until all the preparations are +made. I find it convenient to--keep my affairs to myself, so you see, +dear, I have a selfish motive in humoring the others." + +Cora's cheeks lighted under the cascade of shadows that fell from her +splendid black hair. Jack saw, too, that his "little sister" was +growing up, and even in her summer plans there were things other than +flounces and frills to be considered. + +The lighter vein of their conversation had been taken up after Cora +had told her brother all that she felt it was prudent to tell about +Andy's early morning call. And now---- + +"Well, I suppose you are determined to see the detective fellows," +said Jack, moving Cora's chair out so that she might more easily leave +the table. + +"What else can I do?" she asked, and answered at once, with her +decisive tone of voice. + +"I think with Andy--you ought to 'git away,'" and Jack smiled in +imitating the earnest youngster. + +"And make matters look as if I were more deeply involved than I really +am? Now, Jack, dear, that is not like you." + +"No matter what you make matters look like, so long as you don't make +them look like themselves," replied the boy. "That's my brand of logic +in a case like this. Don't you see, sis, you may throw them off the +track, and by getting a chance to talk with you, they are bound to +find out something, or lose their badges." + +Cora's face was bent in the roses that stood on the serving table. +"But what could I do?" she asked, this time with less decision. + +"Anything. Just take a run to--the beach--or anywhere. Leave me to see +the officers." + +The rapid tooting of horn of the _Flyaway_ interrupted them. + +"My!" exclaimed Cora, "more early morning callers? There's Bess!" + +And, true enough, there was Bess, guiding her car up the drive, her +veil flying in the breeze, and her cheeks like the very roses that +outlined the path. + +"Why the where-for-ness?" demanded Jack. "I am startled--collapsed--I +might say, by the suddenness of this--pleasure----" + +"Now, Jack," and Bess had alighted from her car, "you are not to make +jokes, we haven't time. I am almost dead from hurrying. Mother +decided, about midnight last night, that we should go to----" + +Then she stopped. How silly it would be to blurt out in one mouthful +all the story of their secret planning! + +"Oh, go ahead," said Jack with a light laugh. "I am deaf and dumb, +also blind and halt. I have no idea where you are going. A trip over +the Rockies----" + +"Come in, Bess dear," said Cora, "and leave the boy to himself. You +are certainly out of breath, and----" + +Cora drew the arm of her friend within her own, and with all sorts of +glances at Jack, who was actually seated in the _Flyaway_ to make sure +that the girls would not get away without his knowledge, Bess and Cora +passed into the house. + +"We are going to-day," went on Bess. "Mother wants our Western friends +to have an outing at the beach--they have never been to salt water--and, +as they must start back in a few days, we have to go to-day. Can you +come?" + +"How could I--go, this very day?" + +"Why, we won't start until afternoon. And you have everything ready," +urged Bess. "It will be fun. We'll stop over night at a hotel and +reach the shore next day." + +It seemed to Cora that all the powers were conspiring to get her out +of Chelton that day, and it also seemed as if it might be rash to +oppose such a force. True, she did have everything ready, and her +household matters were always in such shape she could leave the +servants on an hour's warning. Bess saw that Cora was uncertain, and +she hurried to take advantage of the possible favorable opportunity. + +"Oh, Cora, do come! What a perfectly stupid time we would have on that +long run with just mama and the others. We wanted to go in the +_Flyaway_ and let them go by train, but, of course, mama would not +hear to that. So now papa has hired a big machine and a chauffeur from +the garage and Belle and I will go in our '_Bird_,' while the others +travel near us in the hired car. Don't you see, if you go along with +the _Whirlwind_ what a splendid time we shall have?" + +"Let's tell Jack--or ask him," said Cora finally. "He knows we are +getting ready for some trip, and I guess we can trust him not to tell +the other boys." + +"Don't you want the other boys to know?" asked Bess, a tone of +disappointment in her voice. + +"Do you?" asked Cora, mischievously. + +"Oh, I suppose they will find it out. And besides, Cora, honestly, +don't you think we would be--lonely without--the boys?" + +Cora burst into a merry laugh. "There, Bess, my dear, you have broken +the watchword--you are to be responsible for the boys. We pledged +ourselves, as we always do, to 'keep them out' this time." + +When Jack heard the news he hugged Cora in the very presence of Bess. +The sister knew what he meant (it was getting away from the +detectives), although Bess was somewhat embarrassed at the extravagant +show of affection. Then Jack did what a boy does "when in doubt," he +started a series of somersaults and sofa pillow turns, until Cora +declared he quite forgot that he was in the company of ladies. + +With profuse apologies he assumed an unwonted show of dignity, and +without another word went upstairs and called up first Ed and then +Walter on the telephone, telling each all he knew, and all he could +guess about the trip to Lookout Beach, and fairly begged the boys to +go along! + +"I am afraid the girls will have to spoil their trip if we don't go," +he said to Ed, who had made a half excuse, "for they really couldn't +travel along that road without us!" + +And this in the very face of the fact that the elders were going +along, and that the girls had declared that no boys _could_ go! + +"Won't there be high jinks!" Jack asked, and he told himself, with a +jolly chuckle, as he hung up the receiver and went down to the girls, +that if any "jinks" were lacking, it would not be his fault. + +"Too bad we fellows can't take you out a little way," he said, +innocently, as he came downstairs, "but the fact is, we have made +plans--our plans are still secret!" and Jack ran down the walk like the +big boy that he was in spite of his few years of good record at +college. + +Turning as he reached the street, he shouted: + +"Oh you--secrets!" then Cora and Bess were left alone. + +"Well, I suppose I can go," said Cora, finally, "although it does seem +strange to leave town in such haste. But after all, if I remain +longer, I shall only find more things to be attended to, and I will be +just as well off to--escape from them." + +Bess was delighted, of course. She knew Cora so well, and she had +grave fears that the methodical young girl would not run away at such +short notice, but, now that she had gained her chum's consent, Bess +had need to hurry back and finish up her own preparations. + +Jack was on his way to the post-office, when he saw the now familiar +figure of little Andy. He hailed him pleasantly, and the boy lost no +time in hurrying up to the tall young man who waited for him. + +"Now, Andy," began Jack, "suppose you tell me about those women--those +who are after my sister. When did they say they were coming to +Chelton?" + +"I heard them tell the--the men that they would come in on the two +o'clock trolley," said Andy, "and that was the reason I thought it +would be better fer your sister to be--out of town. Is she goin'?" + +"I guess she is," replied Jack, much amused at the boy's earnestness. +"But she has no reason, you know, to want to avoid any one." + +Andy hung his head. Then he thrust his hands into his pockets. This +latter gesture Jack knew was equivalent to preparing for a sudden shot +of information. + +"It looks bad," said the boy, timidly. + +"What looks bad?" demanded Jack. + +"Well," said Andy, "maybe you won't believe me, but it was just this +way. I was under the window listening, when all of a sudden old Ramsy +took out of her pocketbook a slip of paper. She handed it to the man, +and said that she had found it in the girls' room, and that she was +sure that your sister gave it to Rose, for she saw her slip something +into her hand as Rose went out from the shed. The man read what was on +the paper and then put it on the window sill. A nice little breeze +came along----" + +"And blew it right out to you," finished Jack, not attempting to hide +his surprise at the boy's astuteness. + +"Yep, and I've got it right here," Andy declared, jabbing his hand +into his torn blouse, and then from the depths of what might have been +a handkerchief, had it not been beyond identification, he produced a +card. + +"That's my sister's card," said Jack, still showing surprise. Then he +turned to the reverse side. He read the words, written in pencil: +Clover Cottage--Lookout Beach. "That's nothing," he added, "that's the +cottage where my sister is going to spend the summer. She wrote it on +the card for a memorandum, I suppose, and forgot about it." + +"But Nellie and Rose had it in their room," persisted Andy. + +"Perhaps my sister asked them to write to her," went on Jack, +wondering why he bothered so much with the idle chat of an ignorant +urchin. + +"Well, Mrs. Ramsy said if she could get hold of the girl that gave +that card to her girls, she would not wait for judge or justice but +she would--well, she said she would do lots of things." + +Jack laughed outright. "Now, see here," he went on, finally, "you had +better take this car back to Squaton, Andy. You have been away from +home for a long time, and the first thing you know they will have +detectives looking for you. Or, maybe, they will say--you ran after the +girls!" + +It was not like Jack to joke in that strain, but the lad looked so +comical, and he said such serious things in contrast to his +appearance, that for the life of him, Jack could not resist the +temptation to tease him. + +"Nope. I'm not goin' home," declared Andy. "Mom knows where I am, and +I am goin' to stay in town till the two o'clock trolley comes in." + +"To meet the Ram and the Schenk?" asked Jack, laughing. "Then at least +take this change, and look the town over. Buy some ice cream and--a +brick bat or two to have ready when----" + +"There's a fellow I know," interrupted Andy, and taking the proffered +coin, he was soon lost to Jack, and to the business of detecting the +detectives. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +GOING AND COMING + + +The weather was uncertain--it might rain, but there were cobwebs on the +grass, which meant "clear." But the sun did not come out, and it was +past noon. + +These unfavorable conditions were unusual on a day when the motor +girls were to make a run, but Bess, Belle and Cora were almost too +busy with their preparations to pay much heed to the possibility of +rain while en route. + +The start was to be made at two o'clock, and the chimes on the dining +room mantel of the Kimball home had just warned Cora that half the +hour between one and two had gone by. + +"We take no note of time but from its flight," quoted Cora to herself, +hurrying through the room to crowd a last few things into her motor +trunk. "I wonder where Jack is?" + +At that very moment Jack's inevitable whistle was heard, and the next, +the boy was in the room, looking as deliciously lazy as ever, in that +way so peculiar to boys who have a great deal to do at the time; the +science of which studied indifference is absolutely impossible for a +girl to fathom. + +"Why this fluttering fluster, sis?" he asked, crumbling deeper in the +leather-cushioned chair. "You will positively get overheated and +ruin--your--complex--ion!" This last was drawled out with the most +aggravating yawn. + +"Why, Jack, I have to be in my car at ten minutes to two, and do you +see the time?" + +"No, but I hear it. I wonder who on earth put a clock to ticking. Bad +enough to hear the hours knock, but this constant tick----" + +"Jack, whatever you have to say to me please say it," interrupted the +sister. "I know perfectly well that this preamble is portentous." + +"No, it's merely pretentious," answered Jack, drawing from his pocket +the card that Andy had turned over to him. "Do you happen to remember +where you dropped this?" + +It was a simple guess, but Jack tried it. + +"Dropped that?" repeated Cora, taking the card from his hand. "Why, I +declare! I have looked everywhere for that. I wanted it last night. I +had actually forgotten the name of the cottage, and I wanted to give +it to you for your note book. Where did you find it?" + +"Didn't find it, it found me. Andy gave it to me." + +"Andy!" and Cora's eyes showed her surprise. + +"Yes. He said the old lady, Ramsy, found it in your strawberry girls' +room." + +"Whatever are you talking about, Jack?" demanded Cora with some +impatience. "Don't you know I have to hurry, and you are teasing me +this way?" + +Jack went over to his sister, and put his bare brown arm around her +neck. She looked up from the folding of her trinkets, and smiled into +his face. + +"Now, see here, sis," he said, "I am telling you the exact truth, and +when I say exact, I mean exact. Andy told me he caught this card on a +fly as it flew out the Ramsy window, when they were letting fly their +opinions about the motor girls. Andy caught the card on the first +bounce, stuck it in his pocket--no, let me see! He carried it against +his heart, between his second and third ribs----" + +"Oh, I know!" interrupted Cora. "I dropped that in the shed when I +opened my purse to pay for the berries. I thought I felt something +slip from my hand." + +"There," and Jack made a comical effort to pat himself on the back. +"Jack, my boy, you are a wonder! If you don't know what you want just +guess it." + +"And they said I gave that card to the girls? To give them a place to +run away to, I suppose." + +"That was it," replied her brother. "You see, old lady Ramsy has an +idea you want to abduct those girls. But it was a lucky breeze that +blew the card to Andy. Otherwise you might expect an early call at +Clover Cottage from the honorable Mrs. R of the Strawberry Patch." + +"As if there was anything strange about me dropping my own personal +card," mused Cora aloud. "And what difference did it make who might +pick it up?" + +The clock gave the alarm that the hour was about to strike. Cora +jumped up and slipped into her coat and bonnet. + +"It seemed foolish for the Robinsons to hire a car to take their +friends down when I am riding alone," she said, "but the girls made me +promise not to offer my car, but to carry the bags in the tonneau--Bess +and Belle expect to get as far as possible from the--chaperone +conveyance. Well, Jack dear, I am rather a naughty sister to run away, +and leave you thus, when mother specially intrusted you to my +safekeeping. But you have compelled me to go, haven't you?" + +"Forced you to," admitted Jack, picking up the bag and following her +to the door. + +The maids were in the hall waiting to assist Cora, and to bid her +good-bye. A word of kind instruction to each, and Cora jumped into the +car. Jack, having cranked up, took his place beside her. + +"I will go as far as the trolley line," he said. "I want to see if +Andy takes that two o'clock car when it turns back." + +There were many little things to be spoken of between brother and +sister, and, as they drove along, Cora referred more than once to the +visit of the detectives. Jack assured her that he would attend to them +and then, reaching the turnpike, where the trolley line ended, he bade +her good-bye, jumped out, and, for a moment, watched the pretty car, +and its prettier driver, fly down the avenue. + +The next moment a trolley car stopped at the switch. From the rear +platform two elderly ladies alighted rather awkwardly. They were +queerly dressed, and the larger, she in the gingham gown, with the +brown shirred bonnet, almost yanked the other from the steps to the +ground, in attempting to assist her. + +"The Ramsy and the Schenk!" Jack told himself. "Cora did not get away +any too soon!" + +The women turned to the other side of the road. As they did, Jack felt +a tug at his coat. + +"That's them," said Andy, almost in a whisper, "and there come the two +detectives! If you like you can stay away from your house, and I will +lay around, and find out what happens!" + +"Why, they will want to see me!" declared Jack, in some surprise at +the suggestion. + +"Suppose they do? Let them want," answered the urchin. "If I was you +I'd just lay low. My mother always says 'the least said is the easiest +mended,' and she knows." + +The advice, after all, was not unwise, Jack thought. He had other +things to attend to besides talking to a pair of foolish women, and +answering the questions of a pair of well-paid detectives. + +"Maybe you're right, Andy," he said. "I believe I am busy this +afternoon. But take care that you don't get in the scrap. They will be +bound to have revenge on some one." + +Andy sprang back of the car to avoid being observed by the women, as +they turned to see which way they should go. Jack was not afraid of +being noticed by the women, and he was a stranger to the detectives. +The latter directed the women to walk over to the avenue, and then +they followed at a "respectful distance." + +Andy slunk out from his corner, darted off in the opposite direction, +and Jack knew he would be at the Kimball homestead considerable in +advance of the others. + +"The Imp of the Strawberry Patch," thought Jack, in his usual way of +making a story from a title. "He's a queer little chap, but not so +slow, after all. How very much more reasonable it is for me to turn in +and talk with Ed and Walter, than to go back home and jab answers at +that quartette." + +Then the thought of Cora's word (that she would see the detectives) +crossed his mind. For a moment he almost changed his resolution. Then +he decided: + +"All's fair in love and war, and if this isn't war, it's a first-class +sham battle." + +Andy was out of sight. The last "rays" of the two country skirts could +just be made out, as their owners trudged along the avenue, and Jack +Kimball took up his tune, where he had left it off, thrust his hands +into his pockets, and sauntered off in the direction of the town +garage. + +As he anticipated, both Ed and Walter were there, putting Walter's +machine in ship-shape for the run after the girls. + +"Are you sure, Jack Kimball," demanded Ed, "that the young ladies will +be in no way put out by our rudeness? I have a particular desire to +please the ladies." + +"Oh, you'll please them, all right," replied Jack, taking a seat on +the step of a handsome car, just in front of the one his friends were +busy at. "There is nothing on earth pleases a girl so much as to run +after her, when she distinctly says you shall not go." + +"Hear ye! The expert!" called out Walter, as he rubbed the chamois +over the brass lamps at the front of his runabout. "Jack happens to +know all about the game. Don't you remember the success of our +hay-mobile run last year, when we went after the girls on their tour? +Well, take it from me, the event this year will be equally +disastrous--only more so," and Walter gave a last flourish to the +lamp-polisher, then did a few fancy steps, in front of the car, to see +that the reflection was correct. + +"What time do we start?" asked Ed. + +"Soon as we are ready," replied Jack. "The girls have already gone on, +and I promised Mr. Robinson that we would keep just near enough to be +within call, should they need us, but far enough away to be out of +danger of their--Walter, what do you call it when a girl declares she +can't bear a thing, and she just loves it?" + +"Oh, that's--that's good taste," replied Walter, running his hands +through his hair with the doubtful purpose of removing from them some +of their lately acquired gasoline and polishing paste. + +"Then, according to Walt, we must keep at a respectful distance from +their good taste," finished Jack. + +"You are sure--the ghost works all right?" asked Walter. "There is +nothing more disgusting than a ghost that refuses to work." + +"Oh, my ghost is a regular union man--eight hours and all that," +replied Ed. "I've tried it on the chickens, and they almost turned +into pot-pie from actual fright." + +"And what time are we counting on getting to a putting-up place?" +Walter asked further. "If we leave here about three, will we get +anywhere in time to--have breakfast, for instance?" + +"Well, my machine is in fine shape," declared Jack, "and I just count +on the _Get There_ beating your little _Comet_ if yours is a newer +machine. With this calculation we should get to the Wayside by eight +o'clock. The motor girls are going to put up there for the night, and +we may be able to put _down_ there, if it appears out of good style +for us to put _up_ there." + +"Why didn't they go right on--start in time to reach the beach +to-night?" inquired Ed. + +"Oh, just a whim. Girls want all that's coming to them, and a night at +a Wayside they count among their required experiences, don't you know. +And the old folks being along made it particularly all right," +declared Jack. + +"But they'll beat us by an hour now," almost sighed Walter, who was +becoming famous among his chums for his keen interest in the girls and +their doings. + +"Not much," answered Jack. "They are going the long way 'round. Do you +suppose they would go over the new road? Why, the dust would blind +Cora if she made a single mile of that grind and grit." + +"Well, after my beauty bath, I'll be about ready," observed Walter. +"Ed, don't put too much witch-hazel on your locks. Makes me think of +the day after fourth of July, when I went to grandmama's." + +"Not half as bad as your new gloves. They give me a regular spell of +the pig skin fever. I'll bet they're made out of junk, and you got +stuck. Three dollars for a pair of gloves to save your lily-white +hands--your lily-white hands!" and he ended in the strain of the +familiar college song. + +"Well, I'll be going," said Jack. "See to it that neither of you +fellows do so much primping that we miss our--guess," and with that the +three young men parted, each going his own way to make ready for the +run after the motor girls. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +LOST ON THE ROAD + + +"Look out there, Walter. Do you want the _Comet_ to run into the +_Whirlwind_?" + +"We are getting pretty close," answered Walter, shutting off the power +and coasting with the emergency brake partly on, for he found he was +covering a hill too quickly. "I guess we can run alongside here. It's +a good enough road." + +Jack brought the _Get There_ in line with the other runabout. "My, but +that shower is coming up quickly. I'll bet the girls are about scared +to death," he said. "Cora isn't particularly afraid of thunder +showers, but I know Belle is." + +"Then, they will have to put up somewhere before they get to Wayside," +remarked Ed. "That thunder is not far away." + +As he said this a blinding flash of lightning confirmed the statement. + +"I wonder if that chauffeur Mr. Robinson hired, knows any place to put +up at?" asked Jack, his voice showing some anxiety. + +"Well, there doesn't happen to be any place on this road," replied Ed. +"I came along here last week, and the only thing like a hotel I could +find, was an old roadhouse over on a back lane." + +"My, but that's sharp lightning!" exclaimed Walter. "Guess I had +better get ahead, Jack. It's safer now." + +For a mile or so the runabouts went along, "between the flashes," as +Ed put it. Then the rain came, pelting and with a tempestuous wind. + +"Where's the turn, Ed?" asked Jack. "We'd better hurry on and overtake +the girls now. I don't feel like risking it in this downpour. That +fellow from the garage may not know more than he has to, and I +promised Mr. Robinson I'd sort of look after the girls." + +"Listen!" exclaimed Walter. "I don't hear the cars, do you?" + +Both runabouts slowed up, and their occupants did not speak for some +seconds. + +"But where could they have gone to?" questioned Jack, as their +strained ears failed to catch the familiar sound of a machine that had +been running on ahead. + +All the joy of the stolen ride instantly vanished. Jack Kimball, Ed +Foster, and Walter Pennington were no longer the jolly, laughing +youths, chasing the motor girls. They were three very much frightened +young men, for the girls, and the car in which the other members of +the Robinson family had been riding, could neither be seen nor heard! + +Through the pouring rain the boys dashed on. The rays of light from +the search-lamps revealed nothing but a stretch of mud that, every +moment, became deeper and more treacherous! + +Then came a fork in the road, and beside the turn, a lane offered a +possible clue to the sudden departure of the girls from the main +highway. + +"We've got to get out and look for their tracks," said Jack. "I +suppose they put on all kinds of speed to get away from the rain." + +But although the other cars must have passed over that place +somewhere, and not more than half an hour before, not a mark of the +heavy wheels could be discerned in the deep, dark mud, though Jack +took off one of the oil lamps and flashed it across the road. + +"Golly!" exclaimed Ed, in earnest despair. + +"Which way?" asked Walter, deferring now to the much-alarmed brother +of Cora Kimball. + +"I wish I knew," replied he, with a sigh. + +"Suppose we make straight for the Wayside?" suggested Ed. "They may +have known of the roadhouse." + +"How far to Wayside?" asked Jack. + +"Five miles from this turn. See, there it is on the signpost," and he +flashed his lamp on the board that marked the fork in the road. + +"Then we had better put on speed and make that," declared Jack, "and +if we do not find them there, we will have to turn back, that's all." + +"Didn't Cora have any idea you were going to follow?" asked Walter, as +he got back in his car and then shot ahead close to the already moving +_Get There_. + +"Not the least," replied Jack. "That comes of our foolish way of doing +school-boy tricks. It seems to me the joke is turned on us this time." + +"Hope it is," declared Walter warmly. "I, for one, am now quite +willing to go in the kindergarten, if that's all we have to do to make +amends." + +"I can't see where we missed them," almost shouted Jack, for the noise +of the thunder and rain added to the distance of sound between the +cars. + +"Right at the spot where you told me to slow up," answered Walter. "I +heard them then, but not after that." + +Each driver now put on all possible speed. It was a perilous ride. The +mud splashed up in the very faces of the young men, the lights that +flashed on the road were misleading, because of the almost continuous +flashes of lightning, and the danger of "skidding" increased with +every mile of the race. + +"Who were in the hired car?" called Walter. + +"Mrs. Robinson and her guest from the West, and the driver. I wish now +I had gone over and fixed it, so that they had the right man at the +wheel," yelled Jack. "I don't know a thing about this fellow." + +"What's his name?" asked Ed. + +"Bindle or something like that," was Jack's answer. + +Ed gave Walter a tug at the sleeve. "Don't say anything to Jack," he +said, quietly, "but that's the very fellow who drove the Wakleys when +they went over into the ditch." + +The shrill whistle of a train startled them. + +"Any other danger likely to crop up?" asked Jack. "This will surely +give the girls all the experience they want, I'm afraid!" + +But a few more miles and they must reach the inn. + +If only they would find the party there safe and sound! + +None of the boys was what might be called nervous, but when it came to +possible danger for the motor girls--Jack's sister, his friends and his +chum's friends--somehow a fear seized each of the three young men; a +fear to which they had thought themselves almost immune. + +"There's the lights from the Wayside," announced Jack, a little later, +and then they turned their cars into the broad, private roadway. + +Jack was first to reach the hotel office, but Ed and Walter were +almost at his heels. + +"Has a party of automobile folks come in here since eight o'clock?" he +asked of the man at the desk. + +"Yes," replied the clerk, turning over one page of the big book. + +The boys' hearts gave a sort of jerk--it must be their girls, of +course. + +"Have they registered?" went on Jack. "Were there three cars, and a +number of girls?" + +The man looked down the list of names. + +"Here they are," he said, indicating some fresh writing on the page. + +Jack scanned it eagerly. + +Then he looked at Ed and Walter. + +"Not them!" he almost gasped. "We have got to turn back!" + +"Make sure they have not come in, and are on some porch," said Ed. +"They may not have had a chance to get into the office." + +But all inquiries failed to give any clue to the lost party, and, +without waiting for any refreshments, the almost exhausted young men +cranked up their muddy cars, and started off again over the very road +they had just succeeded in safely covering. + +"We've got to have more spunk if we intend to find them," said Ed, for +Jack seemed too overcome to speak. "Why, they may be snug by some +farm-house fire, actually enjoying the situation." + +"I hope so," faltered Jack. "But next time I'll _go along_--not after +them," and he threw in high gear, advanced the spark and then they +fairly flew over the turnpike, back to the fork that must have hidden +the secret of the turn in the road. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +BOYS TO THE RESCUE + + +Never had a ride seemed so treacherous. Sharp turns threatened to +overturn the cars and the brakes, on slippery hills, were of little +use. Fortunately the engines of both machines were in perfect running +order and in spite of the bad conditions of the roads the _Comet_ and +the _Get There_ pegged along, through mud and slush, sometimes sinking +deep in the former, and ploughing madly through the latter. + +"I thought I saw a light," said Ed to Walter, after a period of hard +driving. + +"Where?" asked the pilot of the _Comet_. + +"To the left--what place can that be?" + +Jack's attention was called to a distant but faint gleam, and, +presently, the runabouts had left the main road, and were chugging +through the heaviest track they had yet encountered. They turned in +between what seemed to be tall gate-posts. + +"Why--this is--a graveyard!" exclaimed Jack, as the headlight fell on a +shaft across a tall monument. + +"Well that's--something, over there," declared Ed. "And I--see it--move!" +He slackened the speed of the car. + +"Now for real ghosts!" Walter could not refrain from remarking, +although the situation was far from reassuring. + +"This is a cemetery, all right," went on Jack. "What's the use of us +ploughing over--graves? Let's get out. We took the wrong turn, I +guess." + +"Let's give a call," suggested Walter, at the same moment squeezing +two or three loud "honk-honks" on his horn. + +"Hark!" + +"Honk! Honk! Honk--honk--honk!" + +"That's Cora's signal," shouted Jack. "Hurry on ahead, Walter. They +are some place in this cemetery." + +But it was not so easy to hurry over the gruesome driveway, for it was +narrow and uncertain, and the heavy rains had washed out so many +holes, that the boys felt an uncanny fear that a sudden turn might +precipitate them into some strange grave. + +"Where are you!" yelled Jack at the top of his voice. "Turn on your +lights!" pleaded Walter, without waiting for a possible answer. "We +can't tell where you are!" + +As quickly as it could have been possible to do so, the strong +searchlight of a car (surely it was Cora's) gleamed over the shafts of +stone, and marble, that now seemed like so many pyramids, erected to +confuse the way of the alarmed young men. + +"We can't cut over the headstones," almost growled Ed. "What on earth +do folks want those things sticking up for?" + +The absurdity of the remark was lost on the others. + +"If the girls are around they must have been blown in here," declared +Jack, making a sudden turn, and jamming the foot-brake to keep the +machine on its wheels, while he released the clutch. + +"Here! Here!" came the unmistakable voice of Cora. + +"Which way?" Jack called back. + +"Look out for the lake! Turn in from the vault!" came the voice again, +and none too soon, for without the drivers having any idea of being +near a body of water, both runabouts a moment later, were actually on +the very brink of a dangerous-looking lake. + +"Gosh!" exclaimed Walter. "We nearly got ours that time. I'm going to +get out and walk." + +"Great idea," agreed Ed, and at the same time Jack also left his car. + +More shouting and more answers soon put the searchers on the right +track, and, although they were obliged to run over graves, and +otherwise forget the sacredness of their surroundings, the trio soon +brought up back of the vault, where the lamps of the _Whirlwind_ and +of the _Flyaway_ told the first part of the strange story. + +"Oh, boys!" gasped Belle and Bess in one breath. + +"Jack!" exclaimed Cora. + +"Thank fortune!" came the fervent words from Mrs. Robinson. + +Jack had Cora in his arms before he could say a word, Walter and Ed +divided themselves among the frightened group as best they could. +Belle really fell into some one's arms, and Bess had difficulty in +clinging to her trembling, little mother. + +"Another moment in this dreadful place, and I should have died!" +wailed Mrs. Robinson. + +"And to think that it was all my fault, that you came out just to let +me--see the--ocean," cried the visitor, Miss Steel of Chicago. "I +shouldn't have consented----" + +"Nonsense!" interrupted Bess. "You had nothing to do with the +accident. It was all the fault of that--disgraceful--man. He is no more +a chauffeur--than----" + +"I knew he would do something dreadful!" put in Belle, who was sobbing +hysterically, while Walter tried to comfort her. + +For some moments the scene was one of confusion, punctuated with such +remarks as would spring from the frightened lips unbidden by brain or +effort. Then the storm seemed to suddenly clear away, and with the +passing of the rain went the black blankets that had hidden the lights +from the sky. + +It seemed almost uncanny that the stars and moon should flash so +suddenly over the heads of the party in the cemetery, and reveal to +them the marble shafts, and granite headstones glaring in ghostly +whiteness. + +"Let's get out of here," spoke Jack, giving his terrified sister a +reassuring hug. "Cora, you are drenched through!" he exclaimed. + +"Well, I tried to be on the lookout," she stammered, "and so I could +not keep under shelter." + +"What on earth happened?" asked Ed, following Jack's example, and +assisting Mrs. Robinson and Miss Steel over the rough mounds into the +pathway. + +"Suppose we delay investigations," suggested Walter. "The ladies have +certainly had a most unpleasant experience." + +"Unpleasant!" repeated Bess. "It was simply dreadful!" + +"How long have you been here?" asked Jack. + +"A life time!" ejaculated Belle. + +"And we were just approaching the re-incarnate state," added Cora, +with a desperate attempt at frivolity. + +"Did you see any ghosts?" asked Ed, almost lifting the little Miss +Steel over a rough spot. + +"Did we!" mocked Belle. + +"Oh, I mean the kind that--shine," explained Ed. "Not the mental +species." + +"Belle had a regular series of apparitions," declared Bess, now +running from the terror state into one of extreme hilarity, the +natural reaction from her awful experience. + +"But we have to wait for that--chauffeur," wailed Mrs. Robinson. + +"Why should we wait for him?" asked Jack. + +"He has gone for something,--Cora knows," concluded the woman +helplessly. + +"Why, when I found my starting system was out of commission he said it +was best for him to go and get new batteries. So he hurried off in his +car, to go to the shop we passed out on the turnpike. It was then we +discovered we were in the graveyard. He had turned in here by the +merest accident. It was so dreadfully dark." + +"He mistook this road for the one to Wayside," interrupted Belle. + +"And ran off and left you in a cemetery," said Ed with a sneer. + +"But we couldn't go on without the _Whirlwind_," argued Cora. "Had it +been one of the smaller cars that failed we might have managed." + +"And he didn't try to fix your batteries?" inquired Walter. + +"Why, he said he--couldn't," answered Cora in a tone of voice that +betrayed her own suspicions. + +"We really cannot go on without him," declared Mrs. Robinson, feeling +that it was due to her matronly reputation to stand firm for the +chauffeur. + +"We really _must_ go on without him," declared Jack. "Are we to catch +our deaths of cold here, waiting for the return of a man, who should +never have gone away? I have an idea that the fellow was simply +scared, and so left his post----" + +"Oh, indeed!" interrupted Belle, "he did everything he could to fix +the _Whirlwind_, but Cora declared it would not spark, and so he said +he had to go for batteries. You see we could not possibly go on +without the big car." + +"Well, we will start off. If we should meet him on the road we +might--speak to him," said Jack with a sort of growl, "but personally I +don't think the fellow worth that much consideration." + +"There will be plenty of room in all the good cars now," added Ed, +"and we can come out to-morrow and get the _Whirlwind_." + +"But I cannot go, and leave my car behind," objected Cora. "I have +never left it--on the road yet!" + +"Let's look it over," suggested Jack, who knew very well that it would +be next to impossible to induce Cora to go on without her machine. + +Feeling secure now, the entire party set to the task of looking over +the _Whirlwind_, even the ladies taking part by holding the lights, +and otherwise assisting the young men, who went to work to put the +ignition system back into commission. + +It did not take the boys long to discover what was the trouble, and in +a short time there was enough spark to start the _Whirlwind_. The car +was cranked up, Jack was at the wheel, while Ed had put the _Get +There_ in a position to go ahead, and assumed control of the runabout. + +It was not, however, so simple a matter to get the cars out of the +cemetery, so the boys directed the girls and ladies to walk to the +road, while the youths managed, by much twisting and turning, to run +the machines to an open space. This finally accomplished, Mrs. +Robinson got in the _Whirlwind_, while Miss Steel took her place with +Ed in the _Get There_. + +What a beautifully clear night had emerged from the folds of that +storm! + +And what a delightful thing it was to ride in safety after the +dreadful experience of being "shipwrecked" in a graveyard! + +"I wish we had invited you to come," said Belle to Walter and Jack, as +the _Flyaway_ glided on near the other cars. + +"I wish we had come without being invited," amended Jack. + +"Next time we will not try to keep secrets," declared Bess. + +"Next time we will not let you have any to keep," insisted Jack, +"especially if there is a road ride in the combination." + +"What time is it?" asked Cora. "I haven't dared look at my watch." + +"The magical hour," replied Ed. "It was a pity to leave the graveyard +just then. It is exactly midnight." + +"And there is a light by the road over there," went on Cora. "What +ever could have induced that man to leave the road and drive down into +the cemetery? He _must_ have known." + +"He's--well, wait until I get back to Chelton," threatened Jack. "I +guess we will have some fun with that fellow's license." + +"Had we better stop at that house, and get some refreshment for you?" +asked Walter. "Or would you rather go right on to the Wayside, where +you can remove your wet clothing?" + +This last suggestion was considered the more practical, and very soon +the _Whirlwind_, the _Comet_, the _Flyaway_ and the _Get There_ were +gliding as smoothly over the wet and muddy roads, as if the machines +had never put their occupants into the panic of fear and terror that +had furnished the motor girls such a very thrilling experience. + +"There are the Wayside lights!" announced Jack. + +"Thank goodness!" said Mrs. Robinson, fervently. "I, for one, have had +enough of night auto rides!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE SHADOW IN THE HEDGE + + +One hour later the motor party had put up safely at the Wayside, a +comfortable, home-like place. + +Of course the girls were disappointed that they could not enjoy any of +the inn attractions that night, for a hop was in progress, but Mrs. +Robinson insisted, and the young men reluctantly agreed with her, that +it was not only wisest, but actually imperative that each one of the +girls go directly to her room, take a warm bath and then a hot drink, +and "get right into bed." + +Cora and Jack, however, had a short talk over their tea cups, Cora +insisting upon knowing just what was the matter with the ignition +system of her car, for she declared, since it was so simple a matter +for the young men to fix, it surely could not have been difficult for +her to have understood and set it right. As the trouble was really +nothing more than the short circuiting of a wire, along with weak +batteries, it was easy enough for Jack to explain it to her and how to +remedy it. + +On her part Cora had to tell her brother of the accident to the +_Whirlwind_, and the sudden precipitation into the "City of the Dead," +then the "escape" of the chauffeur, and the fright of all the party +when "just girls and women" found themselves helpless and deserted in +that lonely place. + +Jack could not find words to express his indignation for the behavior +of the man who was hired to take the party to the Wayside Inn. The +ride from Chelton was one that might have been made safely under +almost any road conditions, and from the Wayside to Lookout Beach the +two ladies were to go by rail on the following morning. + +"But suppose," ventured Cora, when, after a turn about the big porch, +she was about to say good night to her brother, "that man goes back to +that graveyard, and spends the night searching for us? We should have +left a note, and a light at the door of the big vault." + +"It would do that fellow all sorts of good to spend a night in a +graveyard," returned Jack, "and, for my part, I would like to have the +chance to slide a vault door shut on him, and give him an hour or so +of silent meditation." + +"You haven't told me about the detectives," said Cora, who was +standing at the door, reluctant to leave her brother. "What did they +actually say, Jack?" + +"The detectives!" he repeated vaguely. Then he recalled all about his +positive engagement with the two officers--his engagement made to take +Cora's place in the interview. And he had broken his word with Cora! + +"Can't you tell me something they said?" she urged. "I know it is +awfully late, and you can give me the details to-morrow, but I am so +anxious to hear--just a word or two." + +"Why, I didn't see them," he blurted out, finally. + +"Didn't they come?" + +"Not while I was--home." + +"Then they must have been delayed--the trolleys from Squaton are so +unreliable," said Cora. "I suppose they got to the house after you had +started out? But I am not sorry you didn't wait for them," she added +with a sigh, "else we might still be in the graveyard." + +"Oh, yes," Jack put in quickly. "It was a mighty good thing we found +you, but the mean part of it was that we lost you. I had no idea of +letting you get out of my sight, after we started." + +He laughed strangely. But it was the thought of the detectives with +the two odd women from the strawberry patch that occasioned the mirth. + +"You must not laugh at us, Jack. It really was not a bit funny." + +Jack put his arm about his sister. For one brief moment they stood +there in the clear moonlight. + +"Well, I must retire," said Cora, "although I feel more like sitting +the night out. Good-night, Jack dear. We must be up with----" + +She stopped. "What was that?" asked the young man, as a slight figure +seemed to glide over the path at the very edge of the steps they stood +facing. + +"It--looked like a boy,--no, a girl," replied Cora, instinctively +clutching her brother's arm. + +"There it goes," Jack indicated, as the figure almost disappeared in +the thick hedge. "I thought at first the boys might be up to some +prank, but that 'ghost' walks too firmly to be a spirit." + +"Queer for a girl to be out at this hour," reflected Cora. "I wonder +who it can be, and what does she want, prowling about after midnight?" + +"Want me to investigate?" + +"What; run after it?" + +"Or--whistle," he said jestingly. + +Cora walked down the stone steps. She hesitated and listened. There +was not a sound amid the leaves, through which the figure had just +disappeared. + +"I declare!" she said, "I feel creepy. I guess I had better go to bed. +I have had enough of ghosts for one night." + +Jack went with her up the stairs and left her at the door of the room +she was to occupy. But he did not go farther down the hall, to the big +room in the alcove, where he and his chums were to sleep, although he +noticed that blades of light were escaping under the door which meant, +of course, that Ed and Walter were waiting up for him. + +"I'll just take another look for that specter," he told himself, going +down the stairs noiselessly. "I rather think he, she, or it, had +something to say either to me or Cora." + +It was a curious thought, and Jack could not account for it, but he +actually did make directly for the hedge where the streaks of +moonlight fell, like silvery showers on the dark green foliage. A +narrow path was outlined by a low hedge. He walked down this dark +aisle, peering into the banks of green at either side. + +"Who's that?" he asked, as he distinctly heard a rustle, and at the +same time saw the branches move. + +No answer. + +"Is there any one there?" he demanded, this time more emphatically. + +Still no answer came. + +Following the direction whence the movement and rustle came, Jack +slipped under the hedge. As he did so a figure glided out, darted +across the path, and ran toward the roadway. + +As quickly as he could disengage himself from the tangled brush, Jack, +too, ran down the path after the fast-disappearing shadow. + +Again the figure made for the hedge. + +Jack hesitated. If he followed in, the unknown one could slip out on +the other side, and get away without the possibility of being +overtaken. + +Jack waited. + +There was not a sound, or a movement. + +Evidently the substance of the shadow was waiting for him to cross the +hedge. + +At this juncture he wished he had called the boys to aid him in the +search. But it was too late to regret that omission now. + +It seemed fully five minutes before either he, outside the hedge, or +the figure within the green, moved. It was a silent challenge. Jack +was determined now not to take the initiative. + +"I can stand here until morning," he told himself. "But I will not get +out of range of that person by any false move." + +A full minute passed. + +"Guess it has gone to sleep," he thought, at the same moment trying to +suppress a distinct yawn. + +Then he thought he saw something move. He stepped cautiously up to the +trembling leaves. Like a shiver that swept through the silent +darkness, the branches barely swayed. + +"It's creeping along," he surmised. "Now, I have to move along with +it." + +With his steps quite as noiseless as those within the hedge, Jack did +move toward the roadway. There the hedge would end, and something had +to happen. + +"Queer race," he was thinking, when all of a sudden, without any +warning, the shadow sprang out of the branches, darted across the path +not five feet from where Jack stood spellbound, and dashed on back to +the hotel. + +"Good-bye," called Jack lightly, realizing now that the apparition was +nothing more or less than a girl. "Think you might have let me take +you, though." + +He knew now that further watching would be useless, as the broad +piazzas of the hotel, with endless basement steps, afforded such +seclusion that he would find it impossible to penetrate, so he, too, +turned back, and crossed the other side of the hedge, as he had done +in coming down. Something in the bushes caught his eye, even in the +shadows. It was a bundle of some sort. He stooped and touched it. Then +he rolled it over. It was very light, and a small package. + +"Guess it won't bite," he thought. "I may as well take it along," and +with this he very cautiously picked up the package, and walked back to +the hotel. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +AT WAYSIDE INN + + +The light still gleamed under the door of the alcove room. Jack was +not sorry that he would have company in his bundle investigation. + +"But Walter and Ed will blame me for not giving them the tip," he told +himself. "We surely could have bagged that wild bird, if there only +had been some one on the other side of the hedge." + +Ed opened the door before Jack had time to knock. + +"Where in the world have you been?" demanded the young man, who stood +within the room, clothed in the splendor of a real athlete. "We had +just about given you up. Who is she?" + +"Search me?" replied Jack, laughing at the fitness of the slang and at +the same time apologizing for its vulgarity. "If I only knew who she +was I'd feel better." + +"If he only knew who she was," repeated Walter, between a howl and a +grunt. + +"Oh, if he only knew," added Ed, dragging Jack into the room, and +closing the door after him. + +Then they saw the package. Walter grabbed it from Jack's hands. "Did +she send it to us?" he asked, placing it comically on the washstand +and making queer "passes" in front of it. + +"It's for me," insisted Ed. "She promised to send me just that very +bundle," and he yanked it from the stand and placed it on the mantel. + +"Oh, for goodness sake, open it," interrupted Jack, glad of a good +chance to get some one other than himself to attempt that uncertain +proceeding. + +"It's light," commented Ed, giving the ends of the package an undoing +twist. + +Walter and Jack leaned over very close. Ed stretched out his arms to +keep them off. + +Then the paper spread open and the contents were in full sight. + +A mass of light-brown hair! + +"Oh, you--murderer!" exclaimed Ed, as loudly as the hour would politely +admit. "To scalp her!" + +But Jack was more surprised than were his friends. + +"A girl's hair!" he exclaimed. + +"_Her_ hair!" corrected Ed. "Oh, if he only knew who _she_ was!" and +his voice mocked the words Jack had uttered when he entered the room. + +"Jack Kimball!" ejaculated Walter. "This is the 'unkindest cut of +all.'" + +"We denounce you!" added Ed. "This is outrageous!" + +Jack looked closely at the severed locks. "A pretty color," he mused. +"Sort of burnished gold!" + +This attempt at the poetical brought the unrestrained wrath of his +companions on his head, for both Walter and Ed simply "fell to," and +pounded Jack "good and proper." + +He begged for mercy. Then they did let him go. + +"Now, honest Injun," started Walter, "tell us about it." + +But the strange race through the hedge was really too unusual to be +comprehended or believed at once. Still Jack insisted upon every +detail of the affair, and his friends finally did believe a part of +it, at least. + +"And whose locks do you suppose they are?" asked Ed when the +opportunity for that question arrived. + +"If I--only--knew!" reiterated Jack. + +"Let me see!" murmured the prudent Walter. "What was the shade of hair +worn by the runaways of the strawberry patch? If I mistake not----" + +"You win!" interrupted Jack. "They were strawberry blondes!" + +"And it's as clear as the nose on your face that they had to cut the +locks off--that they are here in the hotel at this very moment----" + +He was actually jumping into his outer clothes. + +"Where are you going?" demanded Jack. + +"To find Rose," insisted Ed. "My Rose--or was she your Rose--and is she +my Nellie?" + +"For goodness sake, man!" wailed Jack, "don't make any further fuss +around here to-night. The ladies and the girls will be scared to death +if you start chasing my--shadow. We have got to-morrow to investigate. +If the runaways are here to-night they will be here to-morrow." + +"That sounds like good advice," assented Walter. "And if I don't get a +little rest there will be great ugly dark rings under my eyes, and my +complexion will simply be ruined." + +"And his hair won't stay up," added Ed, taking up the girlish tone +Walter had assumed. "Well, if you beauties must sleep suppose you go +at it. I could snore looking at the floor," and Ed suited his actions +to the words, for very shortly, neither Walter nor Jack could compel +him to answer a single question with so much as an intelligent grunt. + +It seemed scarcely possible that daylight had come, when a tapping at +the door awoke Jack. + +"Jack," called Cora, "I must speak with you. Come out as soon as you +can." + +"Now what's up?" asked Ed with a yawn. + +"We've got to get up," replied Walter, "and since you managed to get +to sleep first, we will give you first whack at the wash basin." + +"Thanks, but help yourself, Wallie," said Ed, turning over on his +single bed, three of which sort were stretched out across the long +old-fashioned room. "This is a fine day for sleeping." + +But in spite of the young man's determination to "prolong," he was +compelled, by his companions, to join them in a quick washing and +dressing act, and then take breakfast with the motor party on the +broad side-porch. + +Mrs. Robinson was ill--that was the important piece of information that +Cora wished to disclose to Jack. + +"We must stay here to-day," insisted Belle, "for mamma could never +bear to travel with one of her bad headaches. Of course she could not +avoid one after the awful experience of last night." + +"Well, this place isn't half bad," declared Jack, showing his positive +regard for the breakfast before him. "We might all do worse than spend +a day at the Wayside." + +He was thinking of the advantage that the stay would give him in +making a search for the girl who had lost her package of newly-cut +hair. He had not as yet had an opportunity to consult with Cora; in +fact, there seemed plenty to do at the Wayside, and it would all +require time. + +Mrs. Robinson insisted that the young folks enjoy themselves, and go +wherever they wished, as she declared, she would be better and quieter +with her friend Miss Steel. Miss Steel herself felt none too good +after the experience and wetting of the past night, so the two ladies +were not annoyed by unnecessary fussing, and unneeded attention. + +"Isn't this a wonderful old place, though?" commented Walter, as he, +with the others had finished the meal, and all were about to go out +exploring. "Did you see the fireplace in the dining room?" + +Thereupon all hands repaired again to the great big old-fashioned +dining room, where a few rather delicate-looking persons were still +lingering over their coffee. + +A waitress, in cap and apron, flitted about the apartment. A second +girl brought some extra fruit to a little man, who sat against the +wall in the corner, and as the two girls met at the buffet Jack heard +the remark: + +"Wasn't it mean for them to leave without notice? It will give _us_ a +good day's work." + +"Yes," replied the second girl, "and napkin day, too. Weren't they in +a hurry to get away, though? You'd think some one was after them!" + +A titter from the older girl was interpreted to mean that no one could +possibly be after those spoken of. Then both girls picked up some odds +and ends from different tables, and left the room. + +Jack's heart sank--if a boy's heart ever does anything like that. At +least, his hope of finding the runaway girls was, for the time, +shattered. He was instantly convinced that the persons to whom the +waitresses referred, could be none other than those who were so +ardently sought by the motor girls. He was also just as thoroughly +convinced that the runaways had already started on a new trail, and +were beyond his reach. + +Cora, Bess and Belle were in ecstacies over the antique settings of +the big room, while Ed and Walter were doing what they could to +emphasize the glories of a "side walk," as they termed the broad +stones, in front of the fireplace. + +"Fine for fire crackers on a wet Fourth," said Walter foolishly. + +"Splendid for walnuts on a cold night," put in Ed with something like +common sense. + +Jack slipped out unnoticed. He went directly to the inn office. + +"If only the girls had not yet left the place," he was hoping. "And to +think that I should have let them slip through my fingers like that! +Cora will begin to lose faith in me," he reflected. "When she finds +out that I have not seen the detectives, and when she really +identifies the hair as that of----" + +At the office he was informed that all the servants of Wayside Inn +were in charge of the housekeeper, whose office he would find at the +rear, near the pergola. + +Thither Jack betook himself. He found the office without any +difficulty, but the housekeeper was very busy, and could not see him +at once. The wait was vexatious, but Jack amused himself with noting +the peculiar furnishings of the room, that served for an office. It +looked more like a big clothes closet for white aprons and gingham +aprons, while all sorts of towels were hung around in abundance. + +Maids came in and took white aprons, but the presence of a young man +evidently prevented them from arranging the swiss ties and sashes +there, so those who seemed in a hurry went out with freshly laundered +articles on their arms. + +Several remarks that Jack overheard seemed to relate to the girls who +had left recently, and although he was on the alert to gather any +possible definite information, none was forthcoming. + +Finally the little window back of a shelf was raised, and the head of +an elderly woman was framed therein. + +Jack stepped up to the "ticket office." "Are there two girls named +Catron employed here?" he asked. + +"I have never had any help of that name," the woman replied, promptly, +but politely. + +"Perhaps they have used some other name," ventured the young man, +feeling decidedly ill at ease. + +"Why?" asked the housekeeper who, Jack learned, was Miss Turner. + +"Well, the girls I am searching for--ran away from their home," he +blurted out. + +"Oh my!" exclaimed the woman. "I hope no such young ladies would +present themselves at the Wayside Inn." + +"They might," ventured Jack. "You see, the girls were not altogether +to blame. They were orphans, and did not have a good home." + +The woman looked puzzled. "I wonder if they could have been the two +girls who were here yesterday?" she said. "They left early this +morning, and I so much wanted them to stay to-day. Could you describe +them?" + +"Well, I am afraid not," said Jack, "but my sister is a guest here, +and it is she who is interested in these poor girls." Jack felt +infinitely better now that he had, in a measure, cleared himself of a +personal interest in the runaways. + +"If you will wait until I give a few dinner orders," said Miss Turner, +"I will go with you and talk with your sister. I am always willing, +and anxious, to assist needy young girls." + +This offer was accepted with thanks, and presently Jack conducted the +matron to the private parlor, where he knew he would be able to +arrange a quiet talk between her and Cora. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +LOOKOUT BEACH + + +"Isn't it perfectly dreadful!" + +"Simply awful!" + +"It surely isn't true!" + +"But it's there--every word of it!" + +These exclamations burst from the lips of Belle and Bess Robinson, as +the two sisters smoothed a newspaper out before their startled eyes. + +"And this paper was found at the Wayside," went on Bess. "No wonder +the poor girls ran away again!" + +"When we get to the cottage I am going to ask Cora all about it," +declared Belle. "It does not seem right that a newspaper should hint +at anything that is not plainly stated! That about the young ladies +from Chelton who rode in autos--every one will know means us." + +The girls were in the _Flyaway_, going along a sea cliff road, only a +few miles outside of the pretty summer resort of Lookout Beach. The +roaring of the ocean could be plainly heard now, the salt of the spray +was in the air, and the sun glinted on the white roads. Bess and +Belle, in their car, had gone on ahead, the others followed at a +distance. + +"Isn't the air glorious!" cried Bess. "I am sure we are going to have +a delightful time down here." + +"And wasn't it lovely of mamma to invite the boys?" added Belle. "Of +course she felt perfectly helpless with just us girls; and Jack is so +resourceful!" + +"Yes, I fancy it might have been rather lonely evenings without the +boys. Of course we will have to stay around the cottage evenings, and +with them we will have some opportunity for fun." + +"Ed says they are going to take a bungalow almost on the beach," +remarked Belle. "It will be fun to see how they keep house." + +The _Flyaway_ dropped back nearer the little procession of other autos +that now wended their way along the seaside boulevard to the peninsula +that looked out over the bay, across the great noisy ocean, and +out--out--it seemed almost to Eternity. + +It was here, on this point of land, that the cottages were grouped, +and it was this exceptional view that gave the pretty spot its +name--Lookout Beach. + +"Quite a pretty village," Cora remarked to Jack, as they drove through +the center of the place. + +"Plenty of fishing around here," said Ed to Walter, as the boys' car +slacked along the board sidewalk, and its occupants observed numbers +of men and boys slouching along, with baskets, evidently well filled +with the night's catch. + +The _Whirlwind_ stopped at the post-office, and Cora stepped out to +ask the exact direction to Clover Cottage. She glanced in the box, the +number of which Bess and Belle had given her as the one that "went +with" their cottage. Two pieces of mail had already arrived and these +were handed to Cora by the old man who made it his particular business +to welcome every "box holder" to Lookout Beach. + +"The first road to the left," the postmaster told her as she emerged +from the office, and the _Whirlwind_ again led the way to the cottage. + +The hanging sign "Clover" left no doubt as to which was the particular +cottage and here the four cars and their merry passengers pulled up, +and stopped. + +"Welcome to Clover!" exclaimed Bess and Belle in chorus. + +"Three cheers for the welcome!" replied Jack, in as loud a voice as +the proximity to other cottages would allow. + +"But the house is not open!" declared Bess, who was first to reach the +porch. "Nettie was to have come down yesterday." + +"Why, yes," added Belle. "Mother will be dreadfully put out if she +gets here and we have no maid----" + +"Oh, don't worry about that," Ed interrupted. "Since we have been +invited, we will attend nicely to any little thing like opening up +house, and setting up housekeeping," and without further ceremony he +undertook to explore each window on the broad veranda, and soon he had +one pair of shutters unfastened, and was opening a sash without the +slightest difficulty. + +"Was that window unlocked?" asked Belle. "Why, our things might have +been stolen!" + +"Just wait until I open the door," ordered Ed, "then you there--Walter +and Jack--you may take the job of portering." + +"I'd rather 'buttle,'" objected Walter. "There's more in it. First +shot at buttling!" + +It seemed jolly already. The door was thrown open, and Ed made all +sorts of bows and bends in inviting the ladies to enter. + +In the sitting room a paper dangled from the lamp that hung in the +center of the apartment. + +"Directions!" announced Jack. "Don't blow out the gas! Don't waste the +water! Don't break any dishes!" + +He had taken the paper down. The room was rather dark, and he stepped +to the door to read the penciled words. + +"It's for--Cora," he announced. "Now who on earth knew that Cora +Kimball was coming down to Clover!" + +They all stood spellbound! + +That a letter for Cora should hang there in a cottage closed +up--certainly the doors had not been opened! + +Cora took the folded paper from Jack's hand. + +"More--ghosts!" sighed Belle. "Somehow this whole trip has been----" + +"Ghost-bound!" interrupted Walter. "Well, what does this particular +ghost want, Cora?" + +"It's a note--from Rose and Nellie," she announced. "They have been +here--and--wait, let me read it." + + "Dear Miss Kimball," she read aloud. + + "We came to your cottage last night. I hope you will forgive us. We + did not sleep in any bed, but slept on the floor. We washed all the + dishes this morning, and cleaned down the pantry shelves to pay for + our night's lodging. We are dreadfully discouraged, and when you see + Aunt Delia will you just tell her we have drowned ourselves on + account of that piece she put in the paper about us. We did not take + Miss Schenk's earrings. + + Your true friends, + Rose and Nellie Catron." + +"Oh!" gasped Belle. "Isn't that perfectly dreadful!" + +"Do you really think--they have drowned themselves?" asked Bess. + +Jack was reading the letter over, and the other boys were helping him +decipher it. Cora waited their opinion. + +"Isn't it strange," she said, as Jack laid the paper on the table, +"every place we go they leave some clue, and yet they are just clever +enough to escape us." + +"But are they dead, do you think?" asked Belle, sobbing. + +"Not much," declared Ed firmly. "They only threw that in to put Ramsy +off their track. You know that account in the Chelton paper claimed +that Mrs. Ramsy said she would put the girls in the Reform School when +she found them. Now what girl is going to walk into that sort of +trap?" + +"Wasn't it good of the poor things to wash all the dishes," remarked +Bess, who was now looking at the clean porcelain on the closet +shelves. "If they had only waited we might have hired them, since, for +some unknown reason, Nettie has not arrived." + +"And we could have helped them keep out of sight, too," added Belle, +to whom any thought other than that of suicide was a welcome change. +"I do wish we could find them! Don't you think we ought to search, +before they get away--to the ocean?" + +"Now, my dear young ladies," began Ed, assuming a comical air, "since +I am to be head waiter, steward and all but butler here, I insist that +the thought of foreign affairs, tinged with suicide and desperation, +be tabooed from--our midst," and he actually opened the piano. "Please +get your partners for----" + +But the melody he struck up was not intended for a dance. It was the +old, familiar: "No Place Like Home!" + +In something between a wail and a howl, the three boys took up the +refrain, and kept at it until the girls begged them to stop. Then Ed +fell in a heap on Walter's neck, and the two foolish young men +pretended to cry, and moaned aloud without pretense. + +Jack found a big dishpan and he struck up a tattoo on that with a +carving knife and fork. Cora was not going to let the boys make all +the noise so she procured the dinner bell and rang it violently. + +When the din subsided, the boys suggested that the windows be opened, +and the place aired before the arrival of the train that was to bring +to Lookout Beach Mrs. Robinson and Miss Steel. + +What fun it was to be in actual possession of a house! + +True it was a very small house, compared with that occupied by the +Robinsons in Chelton, but then there were no maids, and there was no +formality. Just a perfect little cottage with everything in it for +real housekeeping! + +"A regular playhouse!" commented Cora. "I wish we could keep it all to +ourselves without Nettie, or any other maid." + +"You must come and see our house when we get set up," said Ed. "We are +going to do it all alone. Take turns at cooking, and, I suppose, take +turns at eating." + +Bess and Belle were busy making a room ready and comfortable for the +arrival of their mother, and her guest. + +"I am sure mamma will like this room best," said Bess, "for it looks +out over the bay and has such a lovely tree just on the east end, +where the sun might have been troublesome at daybreak." + +"Yes, what a perfectly delightful room," exclaimed Cora, assisting in +arranging the bed with the white coverlets, that had been placed +within reach, all ready for the first comers. + +"We never before had a furnished house," went on Belle, "and just see! +A cake of soap and box of matches in each room! Now that is what I +call _real_ furniture." + +And so they went on from room to room, the girls selecting and +arranging according to what seemed most practical, and most pleasing. +The fright of the "suicide note" was almost forgotten in the joys of +exploring and experimenting. + +Then the boys discovered that it was almost lunch time, and this was +the signal for "a raid" on the town stores. + +Ed and Jack jumped into the _Get There_, and were off before Bess or +Belle had a chance to tell them what might be "nice for lunch." + +"Oh, we may as well try our hand all alone this time," commented Jack, +"and if we fail in buying the right things, it will add to our general +knowledge in managing 'our bungalow.'" + +So they drove off, while Walter assisted in spreading rugs on the +porch, and putting up hammocks. + +"Wouldn't have missed this for anything," Walter declared, when Cora +asked him to help put the leaves in the dining-room table. "Isn't this +just playing house, though!" + +"And to think that we do not have to wash any old, dusty dishes," +remarked Cora. "Dear me! I wish we could get some tangible clue to the +actual whereabouts of those two lone, miserable, runaway girls!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE MOVING PICTURE "MOVED" + + +"Where shall we go first?" asked Bess, in a very fever of delight. +"There are so many places down here. I had no idea it was such a +lively place." + +"I vote for moving pictures," said Cora. "I have not seen a really +good motion picture show since last summer." + +"But we have to get down to our bungalow," objected Jack. "When +fellows rent a place they are expected to see that it doesn't burn +down or--blow away." + +"Oh, can't you put up some place else to-night?" asked Belle. "Mother +will not let us go out alone, and we are just dying to see some of the +seaside sights." + +"Well, seein' as it's you," he replied, "we might arrange to sit on +the beach all night. But otherwise we have got to get down to the +bungalow, and see if there is sleeping room in it, for we will +not--absolutely will not--go to a hotel." + +They were seated on the porch of Clover Cottage, having just had a +supper which the young ladies prepared, and which every one, including +Mrs. Robinson, declared was as good and tasty a supper as one could +desire. True, there was some difficulty about its preparation, as +there was no gas in the cottage, and the boys had considerable trouble +in procuring the sort of oil that is used in the sort of stove to be +found in the furnished house at the seashore. But all this, and much +more, was finally accomplished, and the meal that evolved from the +process did credit to the girls from Chelton. + +"I'm with Cora for the motion pictures," Ed declared, as he swung +himself out of the hammock, and onto his feet. "And I'm also in for a +quiet little spin thereto." + +"We can all pile in the _Whirlwind_," said Jack, "and with Walter at +the wheel we will all have a jolly good time and nothing to do but +admire the--curve of Wallie's ears." + +"Well, I guess not," objected Walter. "I went for the kerosene. It's +up to somebody else to do the chores this time." + +It was then decided that Ed should drive the car, and presently the +girls reappeared on the porch, each dressed in her regulation summer +garb: Bess in her dainty muslin princess, Belle in her faultless linen +outing suit, and Cora in her pretty blue sailor gown. The change from +motor attire was welcome, and the boys did not fail to pass their +compliments, and other remarks upon it. This last included the +criticism that Bess might do well to add another bow behind her other +ear, that Belle break off at least two yards of her single pond lily +stem, and that Cora might shift her tie two or three degrees farther +north; otherwise, the boys declared, the girls looked "very sweet." + +"We must put the steerage chairs in the tonneau," said Cora. "Belle, +we vote that you and Walter occupy these state chairs, as you will +take up the least room." + +"Go slow," said Jack, with better intent than grammar. "We want to +see--the pretty girls." + +"And we want to see--everything," added Bess. "Isn't this perfectly +delightful? I am sure we will have wonderful complexions after our +summer here. Why, the spray fairly washes one's face." + +"Nice of the spray," declared Walter, "and I fancy it will be very +useful to the bungaloafers, for we have to carry the house water from +the ocean. I can see myself washing in the atmosphere." + +Along the broad, ocean driveway the lights were already blinking and +sputtering in their regular nightly glow. Music could be heard from +many and various attractions, and altogether the scene was as merry as +the motor maids might have desired. + +"Let's stop here and walk on the boardwalk," suggested Jack. "We can +put the machine up at that garage." + +This hint was promptly acted upon, and as soon as Ed had delivered the +_Whirlwind_ to the man, who would charge outrageously for housing the +machine for a few hours, he joined his friends, who were all expectant +for the first night's pleasure at the seaside. + +Scarcely had they decided which way to go when a shout, in a familiar +voice, attracted their attention. + +"Hello there, Chelton!" came the call. "Where are you bound for?" + +"There are Paul and Hazel!" exclaimed Cora. "Isn't that fine! Now we +_will_ have a party!" + +And sure enough, along came Paul Hastings and his sister Hazel. Paul, +handsomer than ever, with the ocean tan just acquired in his return +trip from Europe, and Hazel as bright and fetching as possible, her +eyes always ready to "gleam," and her lips always ready to smile, for +Hazel had the reputation of being the sort of girl who is brilliant, +and knows how to "do all things well." + +"This _is_ luck," declared Jack. He was very fond of Hazel. + +"Isn't it though!" reiterated Cora. She never tried to hide her +admiration for Paul Hastings, who knew how to make his brains work for +his hands. + +"Where are you stopping?" asked Belle. + +"We intend to stop at the Spray," said Hazel, "but the fact is, we +only came down this afternoon and haven't stopped at all yet." + +"And how's Old Briney?" asked Ed. "Salty as ever?" + +"Just seasoned to taste," replied Paul. "I'm very fond of salt--taken +externally." + +"You look it," declared Walter. "I would mistake you any place for a +regular tar." + +With additional compliments from the girls, for indeed the sea tan was +very becoming to Paul, the party started off to the theatre where the +"barker" at the entrance announced the motion picture performance. + +They found the place crowded, so that the party were not able to +obtain seats together. Bess and Hazel went with Jack and Walter, while +Paul and Ed looked after Cora and Belle. + +The performance had begun. It was funny to hear a boy sing a comical +song that was intended to be pathetic, and to see the illustrative +pictures flashed on the big muslin. The song was all about a little +girl who wanted a mamma, and who said so to a lady who knew the +child's widowed father, and who finally took pity on the child and +married the parent, thus affording a ready-made mamma for the little +girl on the canvas. And then they were all so happy! + +The intensely amateurish effect put the number beyond criticism, and +the Chelton young folks applauded it vigorously. The small boy who +sang was very much surprised at the applause--and so were many others +in the playhouse. But the motor boys and girls kept it up, until the +little fellow was compelled to come out front and bow. Then they let +him go. + +A wonderful story of rustic love and its "terrible" consequences was +told in the regulation motion pictures, the motion of which seemed to +have a very bad spell of ague. Bess was compelled to clap her hand +over her eyes occasionally, but the others stood the strain +wonderfully, although Cora declared she hadn't a wink left for the +rest of her natural life. + +Another picture story was attempted when, suddenly, there was a loud +hissing sound that was followed by a roar! + +Instantly the place was in confusion! + +Women shouted and children cried! + +The lights went out, and with them seemed to go whatever amount of +common sense the audience might have been expected to have held in +reserve. + +"Keep your seats! Keep your seats!" shouted the manager. "There is +nothing at all the matter!" + +The frightened and panic-stricken assemblage would not listen to the +assurance, but, instead, fought their way toward the doors, until the +real danger, that of being crushed to death, was evident to those who +had not taken fright with the others. + +"Don't move!" Jack commanded his party, in the most emphatic tone. +"Keep your seats, and don't stir!" + +But Belle was almost fainting with fear, and she begged to be allowed +to get out. + +"What for?" asked Ed. "There is absolutely nothing the matter. The +lights have gone out and the motion picture machine went up, but what +harm is that? Stay where you are, Belle," and he grasped her firmly by +the arm. "I wouldn't risk my--new shoes in that mob." + +This quieted the girl, and she sank back against Cora, who was almost +laughing at the situation. + +Presently, the manager, realizing that he could not stop the crowd +with his voice, called for music and ordered the other part of the +performance to go on. + +"Work slow!" he commanded, and then the old rusty piano "took up" +something--just what it was would be hard to say. + +To the alleged tune a song was started. It was perfectly dark in the +place, no substitute lights having been provided, and when the voice +of a young girl trembled above the din and racket of the people +fighting for the open air, it seemed almost ridiculous. + +"For our special benefit," announced Walter. "I don't believe there is +another person seated in the place." + +But the girl sang on, each bar of her song of the times bringing her +voice out clearer, and fuller. + +"I would like to see her face," said Cora to Ed. "There is something +familiar about that voice." + +"Well, perhaps we can make a light," he replied. "I have as many as +two matches, and the other fellows may have a couple." + +Bess leaned over to Cora. "Doesn't that sound like Nellie?" she asked. +"I am sure she had just that queer lisp." + +"I was just saying the same thing," returned Cora. "Oh, if we only +could find them--here, and have no further worry about them and +their--foolish suicide note," for although Cora placed no credence in +the drowning threat, she did not like it, and would very much +preferred to have it put out of all possibility of occurring. + +Still the child sang on--all about the roses and the birds that seemed +to get in a most dangerous tangle, until the listeners found it +difficult to tell which was sweeter--the song of the birds, or the +color of the roses! + +The Chelton party was not far from the place where the footlights +ought to have been. + +"Suppose I go over there and strike a match," suggested Ed. "I can +hold it up near her face, and then you will be able to get a glimpse." + +Acting on this plan he felt his way through the dark and deserted +place, and did almost reach the stage. Then he struck a match! + +It went out. + +He lighted another--better luck this time, for it burned away while he +jumped to the stage and almost thrust the little wooden taper into the +face of the singer. + +The girl screamed, and seemed too frightened to move! + +The match went out, and, as the place was again black in darkness, the +figure on the platform passed behind the curtain and was gone! + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE GAIETY OF GOING + + +"Oh, Glorious gaiety!" + +"Oh, delightful dissipation!" + +"Oh, luscious loafing!" + +"Oh, wayside wanderings!" + +These remarks emanated from the exuberant spirits of Jack Kimball, +Paul Hastings, Ed Foster and Walter Pennington. + +It was a few evenings after the moving picture performance had ended +so abruptly, and the young men insisted that this time they would +"take in" some other attractions. The young ladies were almost equally +enthusiastic, and therefore it was decided that the beautiful June +evening be spent in the perfectly innocent sport of further +sight-seeing at the select summer colony centre. + +On the other evening when Ed thrust the light under the eyes of the +little singer, who was following the manager's instructions to "sing +for all she was worth, to catch the crowd," and the girl had darted +away, frightened at the rather daring act of attempt at recognition, +Cora insisted that the singer was none other than Rose Catron. + +But the darkness and confusion of the place made it impossible for +even the Chelton boys to make their way back of the stage and +investigate further. + +Jack did try it, but the tangle of boxes and heaps of stage fixings so +blocked his way that he was forced to give up before he reached what +ought to be the stage entrance. Ed and Walter searched for the manager +with equally unsatisfactory results, and so, for the time being, the +quest had to be abandoned; although Cora was keenly disappointed in +having to leave the place with no clue as to the real identity of the +little singer. + +That the girls had not drowned themselves was all the assurance that +Belle needed to restore her peace of mind on that subject, while Bess +insisted she would take the _Flyaway_ and run down to the place so +early next morning that if the performer should prove to be Rose, she +would scarcely have had time to pick up her things in daylight, and +again escape. Hazel was also interested when told of the girls' +strange story, and in her gentle yet decisive way, she offered to do +what she could while at the beach to discover the possible whereabouts +of Rose and Nellie. But the search was unavailing, as no one in +authority at the moving picture theatre would answer questions +satisfactorily. + +"To-night," said Walter, as they started out again, "let the girls +choose the attraction." + +They sauntered along the brilliantly-lighted boardwalk. All the style +available at the colony seemed to be on parade, and, as far as our +girl friends were concerned, they would really have preferred to +remain in the procession, but for the knowledge that the boys wanted +to see what was going on in the big building at the end of the pier. + +"The Human Washing Machine!" shouted Jack, after a glance at the sign. +"Now there is a practical attraction and I am willing to pay the bill +for 'doing up' every one in the crowd." + +To this novelty the party betook themselves. Outside the entrance were +people deliberating upon going in, but hesitating because the +billboards announced that "each person would be put through the most +novel and most complete process of washing to be obtained anywhere, at +the low cost of ten cents the person." + +But the Chelton folks were not afraid--they might have halted at the +ironing possibility, but nothing in the way of washing had any terrors +for the motor girls and their friends. + +"Oh, my!" exclaimed Belle. "I could never go in that!" + +"Why?" demanded Walter. "It looks perfectly tempting. Smell that soap +suds!" A whiff came out of the building to them. + +"And look at the blueing," cried Cora, pointing to a mass of blue +water flowing from a pipe outside the structure. "If we never had the +'blues' we will have them now--all ready-made." + +"If never you've been blue, prepare to be blue now," quoted Ed, with +semi-tragic effect. + +"Come along! Come right along!" shouted the "barker," or man who was +booming the attraction. "This way for the greatest sensation outside +of flying! Step this way--everybody! You pays your money and you gets a +good wash! Satisfaction guaranteed. The servant problem solved. Here +you are, young ladies and gentlemen--right this way!" and he looked at +our friends in a humorous manner. + +"Hear that?" called Jack. "He has us spotted, all right. He knows we +need it, maybe. I'm going in first." + +"That's the way to talk," commented the barker. "You'll never regret +it, my friend. Step this way to the ticket office. Remember, ladies +and gentlemen," he went on, in louder tones, "this is the only human +washing machine on the beach. There are washing machines run by human +beings but this is absolutely and without doubt the only +self-regulated, double acting, six cylinder, four speeds forward and +reverse machine, that washes human beings in the short space of ten +minutes--one sixth of an hour--six hundred seconds, and I say that +without fear of successful contradiction. This way--everybody!" + +"Here goes," went on Jack, as he purchased a number of tickets from a +roll unwound by a woman in a little cage of an office. "I'll try it +first, and if I survive the bleaching process the rest of you can come +in." + +"Oh!" cried Bess. "I'll never, never do it!" + +"Me, either," added Belle. + +"Wait until we see what it is," suggested Cora. "It may be great fun, +and, as long as it's not vulgar I'm going in, if Jack says it's all +right." + +"Come one, come all!" the barker could be heard droning. The party of +boys and girls went into the place, and found themselves in the midst +of an excited and jolly crowd. Some had been washed, others needed +washing, some wanted washing, and others desired it, but feared to +undertake the ordeal. + +"Good-bye!" called Jack, gaily, as he walked along a narrow passage, +protected by a railing on either side, for an attendant directed there +all who wanted to indulge in the new sensation. + +"Hold on!" cried Ed and Walter. "We're coming, too!" + +"Get a hustle on," ordered Jack. "The water is just right now." + +The girls stood where they could watch the process. Suddenly Jack and +his chums could be seen bobbing up and down, as if they were in a boat +on a choppy sea, and then the girls noticed that the lads were on a +sort of endless, moving sidewalk, that did all sorts of queer "stunts" +while, underneath, water rushed and bubbled along, seemingly all about +the boys, but never touching them. + +"You are now in the tub of soapy water," announced a man who was +evidently there for that purpose. "You are getting the first layer of +contamination off." + +Faster and faster went the moving, endless sidewalk. It surged up and +down, and from side to side. The boys were laughing and joking, and +they had to cling to the railing to maintain their footing. + +"This is great!" cried Jack. + +"All to the la-la!" added Ed. + +"It most----" began Walter, but, at that minute all three came to the +end of the first scrubbing process, and were precipitated upon a +highly polished slide--somewhat like the bamboo ones that are so +popular at summer resorts. It was like glass, and, as there were only +a few lights at this point, whereas the "tub" was brilliantly +illuminated, the boys went down in a heap, and slid along. + +"Part of the game," commented Jack, grimly. + +"You are now on the washing board," came from the announcer. "Keep +perfectly still--there is no danger." + +In front of, and behind, the boys came other persons--slipping, +sliding, shouting, yelling, laughing, gasping and struggling. + +"Wow!" yelled Ed. "Here comes another tub to go through!" + +They had reached the end of the "washboard" and once more the three +boys were tossed up and down, and from side to side, while rushing +water under them seemed to give the effect of being put through a +boiler of suds. + +"Look out! Here's something new!" yelled Ed, a moment later, and, sure +enough, they emerged, after a trip up and down, and around corners, +upon a scrubbing board, made of glass, under which water was rushing +with such effect that it seemed as if they were going to be soaked. + +"This is great!" cried Jack, as he reached it. "I thought I was in for +it that time, but it's all to the soap and starch; that's what!" + +His companions, and many others, followed, and, a moment later, they +were facing what looked like two rolls, such as collars and cuffs are +run through. + +"Do we go through them?" gasped Jack, halting a moment as he got on +his feet after the slide down the scrubbing board. + +"Sure--go ahead," said Walter. + +"Oh, mercy! He won't really go through those rolls, will he?" gasped +Belle. + +The rolls did look formidable, and they were whirling around at a +rapid rate. + +"Be a sport," called Ed. "When you've been rolled out you'll be all +right, Jack." + +"All right--you go ahead," retorted Jack, stepping back. "You can have +my place." + +"It's all right, fellows--go ahead," one of the attendants assured +them. Jack faced the revolving rolls. The attendant gave him a gentle +push, and, before Jack knew it he was swallowed up in the whirling +cylinders. + +"Oh!" screamed Bess. "He'll be killed!" + +But neither she nor the others could see what happened, for Jack +vanished, and, after him went Walter and Ed. + +Once through the rolls, they were tossed with considerable force into +a wringer ten times the size of the one through which they had just +passed. Like the first the rolls were upright, and not horizontal. +They seemed to be made of rubber, and were more real than the first. +Jack tried to hold back, but it was of no use. He had been tossed +fairly into the big wringer, and, a moment later, he found himself +being drawn through. To his surprise the rolls were of straw, covered +with cotton-batting, and they compressed sufficiently to allow him to +go through easily. + +"Come on, fellows!" Jack tried to call to his chums, but his mouth was +stopped for an instant by the soft rolls. Besides, there was no need +for his invitation, since Ed and Walter, whether they wanted to or +not, found themselves being drawn in with irresistible force. + +By this time the girls had run up, not without some little alarm, and +they saw the boys come through the rolls. + +"Oh--they--they're all--all right," gasped Belle, her hand on her heart. + +"Of course," cried Jack, with a laugh. "We're most done, ladies. Then +it will be your turn." + +"Never!" declared Cora. + +"Oh, you'll like it, ladies," the attendant assured them. "Next comes +the blueing water," and Jack and his friends, together with a number +of other persons who were undertaking the ordeal, were once more on a +moving sidewalk, sliding up and down, from side to side, and over a +mass of blue, rushing water, which, seen through the sections of the +walk, looked as if, every minute, it would surge up all about their +feet. But they were as dry as the proverbial bone. + +"Now if you will kindly step this way you will be hung out to dry," +called the attendant, and a door opened, and the boys with several +others were fairly shot out into a yard, where they saw what they +supposed were persons hanging over clothes lines. + +Jack recoiled at this. + +"Go ahead. Be a sport," urged Ed. + +Then Walter burst into a laugh. + +"Why, they're dummies!" he gasped. "Straw figures!" And so they +proved. + +"All over!" announced a man. "Have another wash. It will do you good." + +"Not for mine," declared Jack. "I'm clean enough to last a month." + +"I'm going to have some more," announced Walter. + +"So am I," declared Ed. "I'll go through with the girls this time." + +"And there's Paul yet to be initiated," added Walter. + +They hurried back to where they had left their friends. + +"The greatest ever!" declared Jack. "I wouldn't have missed it for +anything. Go ahead, girls. It's the greatest fun!" + +"But those wringers?" faltered Bess. "Aren't you pressed flat?" + +"Try it--and see," replied Jack, all unconscious of the joke he was +perpetrating at the expense of the plump girl. + +"Were they rubber?" asked Belle. + +"Go through and see," was all Jack would answer. + +"I'll try it," volunteered Paul. + +"So will I," added Cora bravely. + +"Oh, don't!" begged Belle. + +"Of course I will. I'm not afraid, after Ed, Walter and Jack have been +through it. Besides, look at all the other girls and ladies who +venture in." + +"That's the way to talk," said the attendant admiringly. "In you go, +young lady," and he assisted Cora upon the narrow footpath of the +first "tub." Cora went through it all, with Paul close behind her. It +was all perfectly proper, and not too rough, and the girl thoroughly +enjoyed it, even to the two rolling machines. She came back with her +cheeks flushed from the exercise and excitement. + +"Go ahead, girls!" urged Cora to her chums. "It is a most novel +experience." + +"I would, only for the wringers," agreed Bess. + +"And I would--only--only for the slide," declared Belle, and no amount +of urging could induce her or her sister to venture the novelty. But +they had lots of fun watching others get "washed," and even Hazel took +a trip, with Jack to keep her company, for he reconsidered his +determination not to take another "dip." + +Jack, his chums, the boys, and Cora and Hazel were such a merry party, +and attracted so much attention that the man in charge of the machine, +after they had each enjoyed two trips through it, came up, and said: + +"Say, go through again--for nothing." + +"Why?" inquired Jack. + +"Oh, because you're such a jolly bunch that you are drawing a big +crowd in here," was the explanation. "The man outside is turning 'em +away. That's good business for us. Have another dip or two for +nothing. Only keep up the laughing and shouting." + +"No, thank you," responded Cora, with a smile. "We are not human +advertisements, if we have gone through a human washing machine," and, +to the man's evident disappointment, they walked out of the place. + +Bess laughed so uproariously at the sight of a stout woman essaying a +trip through the machine, that the motor girl had to sit down on a box +to get her breath. + +"Oh, I never laughed so much in all my life," she said. + +"Laugh and grow fat," commented the attendant, meaning no harm. + +Bess stopped her mirth suddenly, and gave the man such a look, that, +as Jack said, if glances could kill, the poor chap would have been +"crippled for life." + +"I wish he was!" snapped Bess, who was very sensitive about her +weight. "I never heard of such a thing--just because I laughed a +little." + +"You should have gone through the rolls," ventured Cora. "Though they +looked hard, they were as soft as a feather pillow. Come on; there's +time yet." + +But even the inducement of "feather pillows," would not tempt Bess or +Belle to try the machine. + +"Well, what next?" asked Jack, as they stood out on the big pier, and +listened to the mournful swish of the incoming tide underneath. "What +do you say to another moving picture show, or the band concert, or +some salt-water taffy or even a lobster supper? I'm game." + +"I vote for lobsters," called Ed. + +"Because they're such friends of yours," retorted Walter. + +"Mighty good friends, at the prices they charge down here," commented +Paul. "I haven't dared look one in the face." + +"Silly--a lobster hasn't a face," said his sister. + +"Well, their eyes, then," amended Paul. + +"I think my sister and I must really go," came from Paul. "It is +getting late--for us." + +"Yes, it is too late for anything more to-night," was Cora's retort. +"If we don't get in on good time, you know, boys, our liberty on other +occasions may be restricted." + +"Well, have your way about it," answered Jack, good-naturedly. "There +are other nights coming." + +"Yes, let's go home," added Belle, and Bess tried to hide a sleepy +yawn, for they had traveled about considerable that day, and she was +tired. + +So Paul and Hazel said good-night, and the others, entering the autos, +turned into the ocean boulevard and started toward Clover Cottage. + +"We'll drive up, and put the machines away later," suggested Jack, +when they were near their home quarters. "We really have been quite a +long time away." + +They found Mrs. Robinson and Miss Steel waiting on the porch. + +"Why, mamma has not retired yet," exclaimed Bess. "I wonder at her +sitting out of doors in the damp." + +But the reason of this was soon made plain. Mrs. Robinson was too +frightened to go indoors! + +"Oh, we have had such a dreadful time," she sobbed. "I cannot see how +you could have gone and left us in this lonely place all this while." + +Bess instantly had her arms around the trembling little woman. Mrs. +Robinson had always been "babied" by the girls, and that she was very +nervous her whole family knew too well. + +"Mother dear," began Bess, "we did not think it too late. You said we +might stay until--after nine----" + +"But, daughter! How did I know we were to be frightened to death +by--burglars!" + +"Burglars!" chorused the boys. + +"Yes," put in Miss Steel, "we distinctly heard them in the dining +room, and when I had the courage to attempt to go in they--blew out the +lamp!" + +"Mercy!" exclaimed Belle, recoiling from the window she had been +leaning against. + +"It might have been--a draft of wind," suggested Walter. + +"But a draft could not knock over a chair," Miss Steel told him, +somewhat indignantly. "We would have gone over to the hotel if we +could have left any word for you, but, you see, we could not go +inside, even to write a note." + +A thought flashed through Cora's mind. The mention of "note" had +inspired it. She drew Bess and Belle aside. + +"I wouldn't wonder if these runaway girls came back," she whispered. +"We must go inside and see if they--left a note." + +"Go inside!" repeated Belle. "I guess not." + +"Come on, boys! Let's investigate," said Walter to the others, opening +the hall door and striking a match as he did so. He lighted the +hanging lamp in the little hall, while the women, with Bess and Belle, +actually left the porch and went out on the sidewalk to be at a safe +distance. + +Cora followed the boys. + +"Who's here?" asked Jack as he entered the dining room. + +"Light up!" commanded Ed. "We might step on somebody's fingers." + +The dining-room light was soon burning. Yes, a chair had been +overturned, and another! + +"The flower vase is broken!" exclaimed Cora, seeing the wreck in the +centre of the table. + +"And I gathered those posies!" said Ed. "Just my luck!" + +"Come right along, gentlemen," invited Walter to the invisible +intruders. "Come along! This way to the refrigerator!" + +"Be careful, Walter," cautioned Cora, for although she had undertaken +to follow the boys she had not counted on seeing things thus upset. + +"There are candles in the pantry," suggested Ed. "I know, because I +put them there, after I found the oil can in the cellar." + +Jack and Walter each lighted a candle. They then undertook a +systematic search. Closets, cupboards, corners and stairways were +ransacked, every door was opened and closed, to make sure no one swung +on the hinges. Then the searching party went upstairs. + +The same thoroughness was observed on the second floor, but no hint of +whom the intruders might be was brought to light. It took some time to +go over all the smaller rooms, and, when every nook had been finally +explored, Cora sat down for a moment on the hall seat. + +"Listen!" she whispered. + +A sound from the dining room had caught her attention. + +"It's the girls," said Walter, as he, too, heard something downstairs. + +"They would never come in until we assured them everything was all +right," objected Cora. + +"Let's go down," said Ed, at the same moment, almost falling over the +bannister in his haste to get down quickly. + +"There they go!" called Walter, who was just back of Jack, and, as he +said this, a figure darted out the rear door, and made away, before +the boys could get out of the house to follow. + +"This way!" shouted Jack to Ed, as they finally did reach the open +yard. "I saw them go over that fence." + +A light from the street at the rear of the cottage was now to be seen. + +"An auto!" yelled Ed. "They are ready to start! Quick, Walter! Head +them off at the corner!" + +But the first buzz of the strange machine was of that determined +quality that usually indicates great power, capable of spurting some +rods away with one great, grand whizz! The car was out of sight, and +out of sound, while Walter was struggling with the stickers of a +barbed wire fence. A dark stretch of road, that at once united and +separated two summer resorts, made the flight of the intruders' car +too simple to speculate upon. + +"If our garage was not so far away," complained Walter, returning from +the fence with bleeding fingers, "we'd have a race." + +"Hanged funny, isn't it?" commented Ed. + +"As if that--person--we saw get away was a robber! Why, that was a +girl--she crawled under the fence!" declared Walter. + +"She may have left me a bunch of violets," remarked Jack with a sigh, +as they all three went back to the cottage, where, at the steps, Cora +was waiting. "Say, sis," her brother went on, "let's go in and look +over things now. I have an idea that our visitor came to wash up more +dishes!" + +"And I also have an idea that the visitor--had been here before," +replied Cora. "They--he--she, or it--knew how to open that funny catch on +the screen door!" + +Re-entering the house the boys made all sorts of fun of each other, +for each and all of them allowing the "burglar" to escape. + +"But, joking aside," said Cora, "I know I heard the noise in the +dining room, and I'm going to look there first." + +"For my violets," whimpered Jack, with a sniffle. + +"June violets!" mocked Cora. + +"Well--daisies then. I saw daisies as we came out, and I'd just as soon +have daisies." + +Ed and Jack held their candles high above their heads as they tiptoed +into the dining room. + +A bit of paper fluttered from the hanging lamp! + +"More directions on 'How to Use This Cottage!'" roared Jack. "There, +didn't I tell you! This is the second note left this way. Must have +come by a homing-pigeon. Well, I'd just as soon have a dove as a +bouquet of violets." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +BOYS AND GIRLS + + +A half hour later the entire party at Clover Cottage sat in the cozy +dining room, engaged in earnest consultation. + +The frightened Mrs. Robinson, and the timid Miss Steel, had finally +consented to come indoors, after the situation had been described, +punctuated and emphasized to them, although they really did want to +put up at the hotel in the Circle. + +The subject under discussion was the note that was found dangling from +the hanging lamp. It was from Nellie Catron, and was not addressed to +any one in particular. + +Cora had read it, and was now re-reading it. + +"If you don't stop hounding us," she read, "we will surely drown +ourselves. We could get along if you would leave us alone, but we +think that balky-horse-trick played on us the other night is about the +limit." + +Cora stopped. "Now," she said, "it is perfectly plain that a girl +never wrote that note. In the first place, it is not a girl's writing, +and in the next, no girl would speak that way about putting a match +under her nose!" + +In spite of the seriousness of the matter every one was forced to +laugh at the remark. Certainly it did seem like the old-fashioned +trick used to start a balky horse--light a match under his nose. + +"Then who do you suppose did write it, if not one of the girls?" asked +Bess. + +"Why, perhaps the driver of the automobile," replied Cora. + +"I would not bother myself about those two foolish girls, longer," +said Mrs. Robinson. She was quite exhausted from the evening's +experience, and anxious to have her cottage put in its normal +condition. + +"Mother, dear," interceded Belle, "you are nervous and worried. Just +let me take you upstairs, and the others can settle it all to suit +themselves." + +This offer was promptly accepted, and presently the young folks were +left to decide whether or not they would further endeavor to find the +runaways. + +"It seems to me," said Cora, "that they need our help now, more than +ever. They may have gotten in with some unscrupulous persons--and who +can tell what may happen?" + +"Certainly working girls do not drive autos," put in Ed, "and I just +suspicion that the manager of that show wants to keep the girls for +the song business. They can sing a little, and talent is scarce just +now. That is, if they really were in the show." + +"Right!" exclaimed Walter. "He would have to look around considerable +to get girls to sing now, for all the schools are not closed, and the +season of fun has not really begun yet. Later, I suppose there will be +a regular drift this way." + +"That is why father thought we ought to come down early," put in Bess. +"He thinks it is so much pleasanter at the seaside late and early, +rather than in the regular season." + +"Of course," said Cora, "the girls are afraid of that robbery +business; otherwise they would not try to keep away from us, for I am +quite sure they know we would not turn them over to that aunt." + +"I wonder how they are making out on that robbery?" asked Walter. +"Wasn't there something doing the day we left Chelton?" + +"Something, and then some more," replied Jack, with a sly wink. "I +expect a report from 'headquarters' on it very soon." + +"And poor little Andy! I do wonder what became of him?" added Cora. + +"Ice cream became of him the last I saw him," retorted Jack, "and I +must say the brown part of the cone was really very becoming to him, +for it matched his complexion." + +"Then," went on Ed, "we will start on a regular search to-morrow. No +use letting them slip away, when you girls feel that it is really up +to you to find them. We will put up at the hotel to-night, and early +to-morrow start in bunga-loafing. Then, when we get things to +rights--we will be pleased--ahem--to--ahem--meet you at the pergola, +ladies!" + +"No, at the pavilion," replied Bess. "I am just dying to see all the +sights there. And then we will be directly in the centre of everything +to start out from there." + +This obtuse remark gave the boys no end of fun. It was so like Bess--a +regular "Bessie," they declared, and, to discover its meaning Jack, Ed +and Walter put their heads together literally, although Jack accused +Ed of doing all the knocking, and he had to withdraw from the +conference because of a rather too vigorous bump. + +Bess was so vexed that she ran upstairs, and left Cora alone to lock +the door after the young fellows. + +"You really must go, boys," Cora insisted. "Mrs. Robinson is going to +keep model hours, and I am only a guest here." + +This was taken as the ultimatum, and reluctantly the trio left with +the promise of a "big day" on the morrow. + +Cora and Bess chatted a while before retiring. They had many things to +talk of, but the lateness of the hour prevented a lengthy discourse. + +"Mother is so worried because our maid Nettie does not come," Bess +whispered. "She is always so reliable, and so prompt, we cannot +imagine what can have detained her." + +"She may be ill," suggested Cora. + +"Father would send a message in that case," replied Bess. + +"Perhaps you will get a message on the morning mail," continued Cora. +"At any rate, I would not worry about matters at home." + +With this hopeful assurance the girls said good-night, and soon closed +their eyes on that day's experience at Lookout Beach. + +The "morning dawned auspiciously," as Belle would say, but according +to the boys it was a "peach of a day." Either way the morning was +delightful, clear ocean air seeming to provide both eating and +drinking to those who breathed deep of its salt tanginess and ozone. + +And this was the day that our boy friends were to go housekeeping! + +Before any of the other patrons of the hotel were stirring Ed, Jack, +and Walter were roaming about the verandas, waiting for an early +breakfast. Nor did they depend upon waiting, alone, for they spoke +pleasantly to the dining-room maids, who were arranging linen and +flowers, and in response to entreaties the boys did get an early meal, +and of the very best there was in the hotel. + +The melons were exactly cold enough, the omelette was done to a turn, +and had the turn, the coffee was fragrant and strong, and the hot buns +"talked," Walter declared. + +Of course, in recognition of this special favor, the boys left some +tokens, in coin, at their plates, but their politeness and +pleasantries were even more appreciated by the young women, who must +take frowns and smiles day after day, and who must ever reply to these +variable conditions, with smiles and good nature. + +"And now for the bungalow!" called out Ed, as the three strolled off +toward the irresistible beach. "Gosh! but it was a lucky thing that we +trailed after the girls. Here we are, taking a vacation that can't be +beat, and yet we just flopped right, plumb into it." + +"You may have flopped," remarked Walter, "but it strikes me that some +of us have worked for this. I hired the bungalow." + +"And we paid the rent!" from Jack. + +"And us--us are going housekeeping!" added Walter. + +Each of the young men contributed his share to these expletive +exclamations. + +They were running along in the sand, stopping occasionally to write +their names, or leave an address for some mermaid. + +"Wah-hoo! Wah-hoo!" + +The call came from the rocks at the end of the water tongue. Presently +three sprites appeared. They might have been humans, but to the boys +they looked like nothing more or less than water sprites. All three +happened to be gowned in white, Bess, Cora and Belle, and as they +gamboled over the rocks, making their way to the water's edge, the +boys were compelled to draw in long breaths of admiration. + +"'Low there!" greeted Ed. "Wait till I become Ulysses. Hey there! +Circe! Not so fast else thy feet will have to follow thy heads!" + +"Ulysses!" mocked Walter. "More like Jupiter! Just watch him make the +water roll off of his head. He is going to dive!" + +Scarcely had Walter uttered the words than Ed plunged over the end of +the water tongue, and could not stop until he had actually splashed +into the shallow water. The tongue ran to a fine point, and the point +was not discernible from the viewpoint available to Ed. + +"Whew!" he spluttered. "Circe had me that time! Now, what do you think +of that for a new pair of shoes!" + +By this time the girls had reached the water's edge. + +"Better stick to plain Chelton and the motor girls," said Cora with a +hearty laugh, in which the other girls joined. "You will find that the +myths are dangerous brands of canned goods--won't keep a minute after +they are opened up for review!" + +Ed was running the water out of his shoes. They were thoroughly +soaked, and the salt effect was too well known to be speculated upon. +Jack stood on his head in the deep sand--he was exulting over Ed's +"downfall." + +"Wait! Wait!" prophesied the unfortunate one. "You are not back home +yet." + +"Oh, there's the bungalow!" suddenly called out Bess, who was some +paces in advance. "How I wish we girls could camp!" + +"Aren't you?" asked Walter. "What do you call that place where the +notes grow on the gas jets?" + +"Why, that's a regular up-to-date cottage, including----" + +"Mother and chaperone," added Belle. "I cannot see why the most +needful adjunct does not arrive in the person of Nettie, our star +maid. I had to dry dishes this morning," and she looked gloomily at +her white hands. + +"That's what is called camping," advised Jack. "I am going to do the +supper dishes, Ed will do the dinner dishes, his hands are nice and +soft for grease, and Walter will 'tend to the tea--things. Don't +forget, Wallie, the tea things for yours!" + +"It usually rains at night," Walter remarked. "I don't mind putting +the things in a dishpan outside." + +"And have them dried in the sunny dew! Oh, back to nature! You +wonderful back-to-nature faker!" cried Ed. + +"Nature must have an awful 'back-ache,'" finished Jack. "I would hate +to have her job these days." + +"Here we are!" announced Ed, as they reached the cabin on the beach. +"Isn't this the real thing?" + +"Oh, what a fine bungalow!" exclaimed Cora. + +"Isn't it splendid!" added Belle. + +"My, but it is----" + +"Sweet and low!" Jack interrupted Bess. "I like that tune for a +bungalow!" + +They were following Jack, who had the big, old-fashioned key, for the +lock had been constructed to add to the novelty of the hut. + +It took some time to open the low door, but it did finally yield to +the pressure of the three strong young men. + +"Enter!" called Jack, bowing low to the girls, "Pray enter, pretty +maidens. Are there any more at home like you?" + +"There are a few, and pretty, too," responded Cora, taking up the +strain of the familiar song. + +Then such antics! And such discoveries! What is more resourceful than +a strange house filled with strange things, strange corners and +strange--spider webs! + +"Don't open the trunk!" shrieked Belle. "There may be a----" + +"Note in it!" finished Walter. "Now, nixy on notes. I want the goods +or nothing, in our house." + +Boxes were being pulled from their salty corners, hammocks were +dragged out, lanterns were being "swung," and altogether it seemed +merely a question of who could upset the place most thoroughly. + +"Halt! Avaunt! Ship ahoy!" yelled Jack. "If you breaks the stuff you +pays fer it. This stock is inventoried." + +But the girls ran from one thing to another, regardless of dust or +dampness. + +"Oh, just look at the funny kettle!" exclaimed Belle. "I'm sure that +is for an outdoor fire." + +"Certainly it is," replied Ed, just as if he knew what he was talking +about. "That also has to rest on Nature's back." + +Something rumbled close to the cottage, then a shriek from outside +startled them. + +"What's that!" cried Cora. + +Ed pushed open the door. + +"An auto in the ocean!" he yelled, dashing out of the bungalow, while +the others followed as quickly as they could make after him. + +Ed threw off his coat as he ran. A few paces down the beach, in the +very face of the rollers, was a small runabout, the terrified +occupants of which were vainly struggling to get out, into a dangerous +depth of water. + +"Quick, boys!" shouted Ed. "The engine is still running! Maybe we can +back it up!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A STRUGGLE WITH THE WAVES + + +When Ed, Jack and Walter ran down the sandy beach, directly into the +water, and then attempted to rescue from the waves a lady and her +daughter, who were in the ocean-going auto, the girls were not afraid +to follow them--to the extent of walking into the water knee deep. + +The helpless woman was a cripple, and when she, with an exhausting +effort, managed to turn to one side and fall over the rim of the +runabout seat into the water, she dropped like a stone into the surf. +The daughter jumped, but in her frantic efforts to reach her mother, +she crawled under the car, and was in very great danger of being lost +herself. + +Suddenly the helpless form of the crippled woman rose to the surface. + +Jack threw his arms about the invalid, and, after shouting for Walter +to help him, as the force of the rollers threatened to take him off +his feet, the two young men managed to make their way safely to the +sand with the unconscious form. + +Meanwhile the anxious motor girls hastened to offer what assistance +they might be able to give. + +"Lay her down here," said Cora, as her brother escaped from the fury +of one great, dashing mountain of water, that broke into foam as it +spread out over the sand. + +"I think we will have to take her into the bungalow," he replied. "But +where is Ed? Look for Ed! He has not found the girl yet!" + +And indeed neither Ed nor the girl could be seen! + +Cora and Bess left Belle with Jack and Walter to attend to the woman, +while they again stepped forward as far into the water as it seemed +safe to go. + +"There is Ed!" shouted Cora, and without doing more than unclasping +the leather belt that confined her waist, she struck out boldly toward +a point considerably farther out than the spot where the stalled car +stood in the water. + +"Oh, you can't swim--that way, Cora!" called Bess. "Cora! Cora! come +back!" + +But with arms over her head Cora plowed her way through the waves, +stroke after stroke, until she was beside Ed, who was struggling to +beat back the rollers that fought for the very life of the girl he had +just brought up from under the heavy blanket of smothering water. + +"Mother! Mother!" wailed the girl. "Let me get--mother. She +is--down--down there!" + +"No--she is--safe!" gasped Cora. "Come! Let us help you--out!" + +"Oh is--she safe! I--I am all right! I--can swim!" + +"But you are too weak!" called Ed. "Let us help you!" + +A shriek--and the girl again disappeared. + +Ed went down after her, and while Cora kept in motion to sustain +herself, Ed came up with the girl again in his arms. + +"Take hold!" he gasped to Cora. "She is hurt and cannot swim." + +Cora, with one well trained arm, conquered the waves, while with the +other she helped support the form of the almost fainting girl, as Ed, +swimming in the same way, and almost carrying the girl with his free +arm, made for the shore. + +Forgetting everything but the danger to her friends, Bess, too, ran +into the waves to meet the swimmers. + +"Go back!" shouted Ed. "If you lose your footing we can't help you." + +Scarcely had he uttered the words than Bess stumbled and fell, head +foremost, into the roller that was rushing up on the shore! + +Fortunately the incoming water brought Bess in--fairly tumbling her out +on the sand. The same power assisted Ed and Cora to land with the +strange young girl. Meanwhile Jack and Walter had made their way to +the bungalow, assisting the crippled woman. + +"Oh!" shrieked Bess, scrambling to her feet. "Oh, I--am smothered!" + +"So are we!" Cora managed to say. "Come, Bess. Help us revive the +young lady." + +"Oh I--am--all--right now----" murmured the girl. "Only let me--get to +mother!" + +A sorry looking sight indeed were the motor girls--all four of them, +for the strange girl should be classed with Bess, Belle and Cora, as +she, too, owned a car and drove it. True she did allow it to get +beyond control, and, by a sudden wrong turn of the wheel, sent it in +the ocean. Still she was a motor girl for all her inexperience. + +"Where are you hurt?" asked Ed, as they all stood for a moment on the +beach. The strange girl was working her shoulder with evident painful +effort. + +"I must have injured my neck or shoulder blade when I dove under the +machine," she replied. "Something--is very stiff." + +"Let us get up to the bungalow," suggested Cora, for the strange girl +seemed like one dazed. "Your mother is there, and I hope by this time +she has revived." + +Even in their discomfiture our friends could not help noticing what a +pretty and pleasant mannered girl the stranger was. Every little +nicety of good breeding was perfectly evident in her gentle gratitude +to her rescuers, and in her earnest solicitation for her mother. + +Ed led the way to the camp, while the girls followed. Belle met them +at the door. + +"How is she?" asked Cora, knowing how anxious was the girl about her +invalid mother. + +"She is quite revived," replied Belle, "but she wants her daughter. I +am so glad you have come," hurried on Belle, without waiting for any +formality. "She seems greatly worried about--Beatrice." + +"Oh, let me see her," exclaimed the girl. "Dear, little, darling +mamma," and before the others could show the way Beatrice (for such +was her name) had the crippled form clasped lovingly in her arms. + +What a strange sight in the musty little bungalow! Belle was the only +person who was not dripping wet--and the girls were so far from Clover +Cottage, and from an auto to take them there, that there was a +prospect they might dry out before fresh garments could be secured. + +Beatrice looked up from the face of the trembling woman. "I wonder if +we can--use the car?" she ventured. "I must get mother back to the +hotel." + +"If we can get the machine out and the magneto is not short circuited +from the water," said Jack, "I don't see why you couldn't run it." + +"There are the life guards," exclaimed Cora, who stood by the open +door. "And they have a coil of rope." + +"Good!" declared Jack. "We will have something to pull with, and some +one to help us now. Come along, boys. Girls, you will find a basket of +provisions some place. There may be, in it, something of use," and +with this he ran out to the beach where like two bronzed figures the +life guards stood regarding the auto in the ocean. It did not take the +boys long to explain the situation, and to show what needed to be done +to haul out the ocean-going car. Fastening the heavy ropes about the +machine the three boys and the two men pulled--pulled--and pulled! + +At first the car would not budge. Then the soft sand, in which the +tires were buried, slid away some, under the urgent pressure, and +finally, when the car once moved, all hands at the ropes gave a +concerted pull, and the machine rolled slowly, but more and more +surely, toward the edge of the shelving beach. + +"Good!" exclaimed Ed. "Don't stop! Keep it up!" + +It was heavy work, but at last the auto was clear of the water. + +"There!" gasped Jack, almost breathless. "That's all to the gasolene! +Now to look her over." + +Half an hour of steady work and then Ed grasped the handle and started +to crank up. It was stiff at first but presently the familiar +whir-r-r-r--of the motor sounded, and Walter from the seat threw in the +clutch with the lever set at low speed. The magneto was all right. + +The little car swung out as gracefully as if it had "never tasted salt +water," as Jack put it. + +The girls were eagerly watching every move. + +How thankful they were, for the woman in the bungalow had need of +immediate medical attention. + +In less time than it would seem possible to accomplish so much, Jack +and Ed lifted the light form of the sick woman into the car, and, +while Beatrice supported her mother on the right, Jack took his place +at the wheel, and started off toward the hotel. + +"We will send the auto back for you young ladies," called Beatrice. +"It won't take any time to get to the hotel." + +The car once out of sight, Walter and Ed rushed into the bungalow, +smashed a couple of dry boxes, and thrust them into the little stone +fireplace, put a match to a bundle of paper, and then all four, who +had assisted in the rescue, stood before the blaze, while steam +sizzled up from the water that fell in puddles on the floor from the +soaked garments. + +"We _did_ get it," remarked Ed. "I never swam before--this way." + +"Is there anything wetter than wet clothes?" asked Cora. + +"Oh, yes," replied Bess. "I think the wettest thing I have ever found +is the--bottom of the sea! Mercy, but I did think I was gone!" + +"You were," replied Walter, swishing a few drops of the too plentiful +water in her eyes. "You were gone, but not forgotten, and you came +back like--the famous penny!" + +"Oh, you can joke!" retorted Bess. "But I tell you I was almost washed +out." + +"Worse than the laundry," teased Ed. "Well, Bess, you look a lot +better. I do believe you've gotten thin!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE EXCURSION + + +When Jack returned to the bungalow, with the rescued runabout, he was +all excitement over the discovery of pretty Beatrice Blakley. He even +went so far as to declare that she had confided in him the fact that +she was just about to get an electric runabout, that her father was a +very wealthy man, and that she was going to be at Lookout Beach all +summer! + +This information was detailed in such a way as to excite the +possibility of jealousy in the other motor girls, particularly in +Bess, who really looked upon Jack Kimball as quite a friend--one whom +she could depend upon to look out for her particular pleasure, and +give her all the little attentions that go to make up the sum total of +a good time for the summer girl. + +So the arrival upon the scene of Miss Beatrice was rather a +surprise--to say the least. + +"Come on, Cora," called Jack, after he had given a particularly +enthusiastic description of Beatrice's wonderful management of her +sick mother, "I promised you would go to the hotel this afternoon to +see how Mrs. Blakley is, and to find out if they need anything before +Mr. Blakley gets down from town." + +"Of course I'll go," replied Cora, with a sly smile. "Belle and I, or +Bess and I will call, certainly." + +"Well, get in the machine, you three, and we boys will get ourselves +dried out. You may keep the runabout at the Clover until you are ready +to go over in the afternoon. Then I'll drive you." + +This assertion caused every one to laugh at Jack. The idea of his +driving two motor girls! As if they couldn't manage a little car like +that! + +"Well, we will see," said Cora, as she, Bess, and Belle climbed into +the car, which held three comfortably. "Perhaps if you are very good +we may take you along. Or you may----" + +"I say, fellows!" interrupted Ed. "I thought we were going to see that +excursion come in from Chelton this afternoon. Some of our boys are +coming down." + +"Of course," added Walter. "Jack, you don't call on B---- this +afternoon. Make it some other time. We are going down to the pier to +see the folks from home, and in the meantime, we've got a lot to do to +get this camp pitched. And you are cook for the first week. Don't +forget that." + +"Oh, all right," assented Jack. "Of course, if you all insist. Perhaps +I can live!" and he sighed dramatically. + +Two hours later the motor girls and the boys, all refreshed in correct +summer garb, without any evidence of their morning's experience, +waited on the pier, while the big excursion boat Columbia sailed in, +her colors flying gaily, and the hands and hats of seemingly every +youth in Chelton, waving over the deck rails, as the annual summer +outing of Lincoln County put in to port at Lookout Beach. + +Hazel and Paul were with the Kimballs and Robinsons, so that all our +friends from Chelton united in welcoming the excursionists. + +"There's Fred!" called Jack, the first to discover a familiar face in +the big crowd. + +"And there's Ben," added Ed. "As if Fred Bennet could travel without +Ben Fredericks." + +"Clear the way there, please," ordered the boatman. "We must have room +for the gangplank--that's a big crowd." + +The girls left the inside aisle, and slipped under the rail to the +outer walk of the pier, but the boys held to their place. They +insisted upon seeing the people land, and it was no little fun to be +real sojourners at the popular watering place, when so many other boys +and girls have to be content to visit the beach for a single day. + +"Oh, there's little Nannette," called Cora. "Jack! Jack!" she shouted, +"bring Nannette over here. See! she is walking with that old man!" + +Jack ducked in and out of the crowd until he reached the girl called +Nannette. She was a very small creature, a cripple, and when seen by +Cora, the latter immediately essayed to look after the delicate child, +so that she might not suffer unnecessarily in the rush and crush of +the crowd. + +And Nannette was indeed glad to see Jack Kimball. The young man almost +carried her to Cora, for Nannette was a general favorite in the +village--one of those human buds that never blossom, but always stay in +the childhood of promise--unconscious of time and unmindful of method. + +"Oh, we are so glad you came down," exclaimed Cora, embracing the +child. "You will have a lovely day. Are you tired? Did you enjoy the +sail?" + +But before she could answer the other girls plied similar questions, +until the little one was fairly besieged with kind attention. + +"Hello there!" shouted some one. "Where are the boys?" + +"Brownson McLarin!" exclaimed Bess, with a slight blush. "I wonder----" + +"If Teddy is with him," finished Belle, with a meaning nod to Cora. +"Now, if Teddy is here, we may all depend upon Bess for a good time. +Teddy would rather spend money on Bess than eat a shore dinner." + +"Land o' Goshen!" shouted Jack. "Look--at--Andy!" + +The girls turned to see what he indicated. And sure enough, there was +little Andy from Squaton, but so dressed up and displaying such a +physical "shine," that his friends from Chelton would scarcely have +recognized him had not Jack pointed him out. + +"Fetch him over here," begged Cora. + +"Say, Cora," replied Jack, "would you like me to pull in the whole +crowd, and let you take your pick? Seems to me you want every one you +see," but at the same time he "reached" little Andy, and led him over +to the rail, behind which the motor girls were sequestered. + +Andy was delighted to see Cora. He was brimming over with news--but it +did not take him long to whisper that he had something "special" to +tell her, as soon as she could give him a few minutes all alone. + +"What's it about?" asked Cora eagerly. + +"About the 'sparklers,'" replied the lad. "We got them, and me mother +got the hundred!" + +"The diamond earrings have been found!" exclaimed Cora, startled at +such a surprising piece of news. + +"Yep, they're found, all right," replied Andy. "What do you think of +me suit? And I've got more home. We got the reward." + +"Who got it," demanded Cora. + +"Me--I--we," stammered Andy, somewhat confused in his grammar. + +"Where did you find them?" persisted Cora. + +"Hey, there, Andy!" yelled a boy in a very shabby outfit. "Where's all +that 'dough' you was telling us about? Come on. It's up to you," and, +before Cora could get an answer from the little redheaded boy, he was +gone. + +As he sauntered off, with his companions, Cora saw that he was +counting money--considerable money, too, it seemed to her. + +Bess and Belle were busy talking to Nannette. They had not noticed +Andy. The excursionists were now almost all landed. + +The news so suddenly divulged by Andy confused Cora. + +What did he mean by getting the reward? Of course the diamond earrings +must have been found--he said that distinctly enough, but had they been +hidden by the orphan girls, as was the case which contained the gems? + +"Cora," called Belle, "Nannette is hungry. Come up to the candy +kitchen, and we will show her how they make salt water taffy." + +"All right," replied Cora. "Of course you must be hungry, Nannette, +you had to leave home so early." + +It was difficult to make their way through the steady stream of people +that poured up the long pier. Cora walked ahead, while Bell and Bess, +on either side, protected the deformed child. + +"Oh, I can smell the taffy!" exclaimed the girl, as they neared the +candy kitchen. + +"Yes, so can I," agreed Cora. "It would almost make one hungry." + +They were now in front of the store with the big glass windows. +Through this glass could be seen the workers in the exhibition +kitchen. There were a few girls in white aprons, and high white caps, +doing up pieces of "taffy" in papers, and working beside them were two +men, also clad in white linen. The men were popping corn over a gas +stove. + +"Look," said Belle. "That is how they make it. Stand here a moment and +watch." + +The girls drew up in front of the window. As they stopped two men from +the excursion boat also paused to observe the candy makers. + +Cora turned and looked at the men. A remark one made about "runaways" +had attracted her attention. + +"Oh!" she suddenly gasped. Then she clutched Belle's arm. + +"Come on," she whispered. "I don't care to stand here." + +"What's the matter?" asked Bess, noting the change in Cora's face. + +"Those are--the detectives," she whispered. "I don't want to get in +conversation with them. Come on." + +But both men were looking directly at Cora. She felt it was too late +for her to try to escape their scrutiny. + +"Look! Look!" exclaimed Bess. "There are----" + +But at that instant two girls behind the glass window in the candy +kitchen came forward with their trays of freshly-made candy. Both +girls looked through the window--directly at Cora and at the others +with her. + +"Nellie and Rose!" exclaimed Belle. + +"Oh!" gasped Cora, "if I only could tell them the diamonds are found!" + +For a single instant the two girls in the caps and aprons stood like +statues. Then they evidently saw the two men who stood directly back +of Cora. + +With a scream that penetrated the distance and the glass windows, the +two unfortunate girls dropped their trays on the counter, and dashed +out of the store into the kitchen, showing fright and terror as they +ran. + +"They saw the detectives," declared Cora. "Oh, I must reach them! But +in this crowd!" + +Some one tapped Cora on the shoulder. + +It was one of the Squaton detectives. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE TWO ORPHANS + + +"Oh, Rose! I can't go another step! Let them catch us if they want to. +I think I--a--am going to--die!" + +"Nellie dear, try to keep up. We will be at the station soon. And you +know those were detectives from home! Oh, try to keep on!" + +"I--can't! I've got to stop!" + +The girl sank in the sand like the poor, tired, frightened little +thing that she was. Rose put her arms round her sister, and her tears +fell on the sunburned cheek that lay so helpless there, supported only +by an arm equally sunburned, and equally exhausted. + +"Oh, we will surely be caught," moaned Rose. "Don't you think, when +you rest awhile, you can go on, Nellie, dear? You were always so +brave, and so strong." + +"We have got to stop some time, Rose. Why should we go on like this? I +am almost dead for sleep, and I feel as if I could go to sleep right +here." + +Rose kissed the sad little face, and brushed back the rudely cropped +hair, that lay in ringlets on Nellie's head. "It has been awfully +hard, little sister," she said; "perhaps we had better give up and go +back!" + +The words seemed to startle the child, who lay on the sand. Instantly +she sat bolt upright. + +"Go back!" she repeated. "To that place! We might better die here!" + +"Then why should we not see the detectives, and tell them all about +it? Surely Aunt Delia will not be allowed----" + +"But she has been allowed," insisted Nellie. "Hasn't she treated us +badly for years? And who was there to stop her? Who is there to stop +her now?" + +"Perhaps those young ladies could help us," sobbed Rose. "We may have +done wrong to run away from them." + +"I did like that dark girl," assented Nellie, rubbing her aching eyes, +"and she did say she would see us again." + +The two sisters were on an isolated patch of the beach and had been +trying to make their way to the railroad station. In taking this sandy +walk they had avoided the regular traffic path, but the heavy +traveling had been too much for the younger one, who was plainly +beginning to feel, and show, the signs of her perilous adventure since +the day when she ran away from the strawberry patch of Squaton. It was +late in the afternoon, almost dusk, but the happy shouts of the +excursionists could be heard for a mile along the beach. Here and +there groups of boys who had left the crowds were to be seen digging +holes in the sand, and capering about with all their energy, to have +their very best fun in that one last hour allowed before the big boat +would sail away, and carry them off home again. + +"There come some boys," said Rose. "Try to stand up, they will be sure +to stop and gawk at us." + +Nellie sat up, but made no effort to stand. Presently the three boys +came romping along. + +As Rose had guessed, they did stop and look at the girls; stared at +them not rudely but in wonderment, for Nellie and Rose were too far +away from merrymakers to be mistaken for members of the excursion +party. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Nellie, catching sight of one of the boys. + +"Well, I never!" gasped the boy at the same moment. "If there ain't +Nellie and Rose!" + +"Oh, Andy!" cried Nellie, "do come and talk to us. We are not afraid +to trust you. Don't say who we are--don't mention our names!" + +The little fellow did not need to be cautioned. Neither did he wait +for the invitation to talk to the lonely girls. + +"Wherever have you been?" he asked. "Have you heard the news?" + +"We haven't heard any _good_ news," replied Rose sadly. + +"Then I've got some fer you," said the lad, shaking his manly little +head. "The diamonds is found and I got the boodle!" + +"Oh!" gasped Nellie. "Found! Then we--won't have to hide any more. +Where did you find them?" + +The whistle of the excursion boat checked the boy's eager talk. + +"Come on!" shouted the other lads to Andy. "If you don't hustle, +you'll get left!" + +"Well, then I _will_ get left," declared Andy. "I'm going to stay +right here with these girls--they're friends of mine." + +"Oh, no, Andy, don't," begged Rose. "Run along and catch the boat. We +wouldn't know what to do with you, if you got left. Besides your +mother would be scared to death. She would think you were drowned." + +Andy hesitated. + +"Do go," put in Nellie, jumping up and throwing her arms about the +boy. "I could just hug you to death, you have made us so happy. And +you--look--just fine!" + +"Run!" shouted the boys, as the whistle blew. "That's the last call!" + +"Run!" called Rose. + +"Yes, do run!" pleaded Nellie. + +Turning to give the girls a look so full of meaning that even Andy's +bright eyes seemed overtaxed with the responsibility, the boy did run +as fast as his legs could carry him. + +"I'm afraid they will miss it," murmured Rose, as the two sisters, now +so changed in expression, watched the boys make their way through the +sand. + +"Oh, Rose! Aren't you happy!" exclaimed Nellie. "Now we can do as we +please." + +"But Aunt Delia might send us to the reform school for running away," +mused the older girl. + +"Oh, I can't think she would do that!" + +"But think of all she has done! I am afraid to trust her." + +The tooting of the excursion boat could be heard as the vessel steamed +out. Wistfully the girls looked over the broad expanse of water, out +to the track made by the smoke from the _Columbia_. + +"We might have gone back home," sighed Nellie. + +"I would rather stay here--I feel we have some friends. Those girls----" + +"But why did they chase us about so?" + +"They wanted to find us--perhaps. That was nothing against them." + +"Do you think the man in the candy kitchen would take us back? The +detectives must have gone back on the boat, and we needn't be afraid +now." + +"Why, Nellie dear, perhaps the detectives are up at that store +watching for us. We can't go there unless we want to----" + +"Where can we go?" cried the child. "Oh, dear me! What a dreadful +thing it is--to be orphans!" and she began to cry. + +"There's no use crying," said Rose, although her own eyes were +brimful. "We have got to go somewhere for the night." + +"Let's go to the cottage--to the automobile girls' cottage." + +"I am able to work, and I want to work," insisted Rose stoutly. "They +need girls at every hotel, that young lady in the kitchen told me." + +"But I am so tired--so hungry--and so--sleepy! Rose, let us sleep right +here. We are not afraid of anything now." + +"Who are those people coming?" asked Rose as a number of figures could +be seen, outlined against the strip of sky that hung over the point of +land. + +"There's quite a crowd," said Nellie. "I guess we will have to walk +along." + +But running ahead of the others came a boy. He was waving his cap and +shouting something! + +"It's Andy!" murmured Rose. "Oh, he got left!" + +"And--look there!" cried Nellie. "Those are the detectives after us! We +must run! Maybe they don't know the diamonds are found and will arrest +us. I should die of shame then. We must run!" + +"We can't," replied Rose miserably. "Oh, yes, Nellie. They have us +this time," and sinking down in the sand she clasped her hands and +looked up. "Let us ask--mother in heaven--to take care of us!" she said +reverently. Then they waited until the detectives came along. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE TRUTH! THE WHOLE TRUTH! + + +"Rose! Nellie!" shouted Andy. "Get up! What's the matter?" + +The girls raised their eyes and saw before them not only the +detectives but Jack and Cora Kimball, also Ed Foster. + +"Come, girls," began the taller of the two officers from Squaton. "You +seem to be having a pretty hard time of it. What are you crying for?" + +"Oh, we didn't take the earrings!" sobbed Nellie. "And we don't +want--to go--to the reform school!" + +"Who said you did take them?" inquired the officer, as Cora put her +arm about Nellie, and assisted her to rise. "And who said you were to +go to the reform school?" + +"That piece in the paper," replied Rose. "It said we would be sent +there until----" + +"Oh, that was some of the old lady's work. Don't you worry about that. +Just come along with us. Don't you be afraid that any one is going to +hurt you," for he saw distrust in Rose's face. "You are among +friends--all friends!" + +"You bet!" cried Andy. "I got left from the boat just in time to tell +them where you were." + +"Come along," said Jack kindly. "You both look ready to--collapse." + +"I was just going to," declared Nellie, rubbing her hand over her +inflamed eyes. "I was going to jump into the water before Rose could +stop me, but when she called our mother to help us I--couldn't--then." + +"Nellie!" exclaimed Rose in surprise. + +"Now do come along," begged Cora. "You must need food and rest. I am +almost dead myself from running around----" + +"After us?" asked Nellie innocently. + +The officer and young men smiled. + +"Well, you see," began Jack, "we just caught Andy 'getting left,' as +he put it, and he told us where you were----" + +"But Andy's mother will be scared to death," insisted Nellie, +brightening up. + +"Oh, we have attended to that," said Jack. "We sent her a message. +Andy is going to visit us 'bungaloafers' for a few days. We just need +a boy like Andy to help us get in shape," and Jack patted the smiling +boy kindly. + +"Our cars are out on the road," said Cora, "and we are all to go to +the cottage. So, come on, girls. We are just dying to tell your odd +story to several people. Your friends in the candy kitchen have been +dreadfully worried since you left them so suddenly." + +"They thought you jumped in the ocean," blurted out Andy, who had no +regard for propriety in making such remarks. + +The orphans acted almost frightened--it seemed too strange to be true, +that they were going to get in an automobile, and be allowed to go to +a house without being hunted and chased--without hiding or sneaking! + +"Here we are," announced Ed, who cranked up one car into which Andy +"piled" without any ceremony whatever. + +Jack started up the _Whirlwind_, and into the big car Nellie and Rose +were assisted. Cora sat beside Jack, and the detective insisted upon +walking as he had "to meet a man" on the road and had scarcely time to +keep this appointment. + +Nellie was completely dazed. She sat bolt upright, as if afraid to +lean against the soft cushions of the car. + +Rose was more composed, but she also appeared ill at ease in the +luxurious surroundings. + +It was only a short ride to Clover Cottage. Bess and Belle were +outside as they drove up. They clapped their hands almost like +children when they saw who were in the cars. + +"Oh, you have found them!" exclaimed Belle. "Come right in. We have +tea all ready, and you are not to speak one word until you are +refreshed," and she grasped Nellie's hand, and gave Rose a most +welcome greeting. + +Andy was loath to leave the car. He wanted to start it, to stop it, +and to do all sorts of things with the interesting machine. Finally, +when Rose and Nellie had been refreshed, Bess and Belle provided seats +for all on the broad porch, just as the detective and a strange man +turned around the corner and they, too, joined the happy group. + +"This is a reporter for the daily paper," said the detective. "I +thought it best to have him come right down now, and get this thing +all straight. It will be best to tell the story from the start, and so +clear up the false impressions about the girls." + +The newspaper man took out a pad of paper and a pencil in the most +businesslike way, without presuming on any personal privilege, such as +an introduction, or a word of acknowledgment, for the detective's +rather flattering account of the scribe's ability. + +"Perhaps I had better ask you a few questions," the reporter began +simply, turning to Rose. "Why did you run away from Mrs. Ramsy's +house?" + +"Because she was unjust to us," replied Rose. "She had never treated +us decently, but when she took the very last thing we owned of our +dead mother's--her wedding ring--we just took the little case it had +been in, put it in a crate of berries we left under the tree for this +young lady, and then--we went away." + +"Where did you get that jewel case?" asked the tall detective, who +seemed to be doing the most of the talking. + +"We found it in Miss Schenk's scrap basket. She told us to throw out +everything in the basket, and so, when we found the little leather +case we decided it would be nice to keep mamma's ring in." + +"And that was how you got the case!" Cora could not help exclaiming. + +"Yes. Why?" asked Nellie in surprise. + +"Oh, nothing. Go on," said the detective. + +"Then I found the card with the address of this house," continued +Rose. "We intended to come down this way to work for the summer, and +we knew that this house was vacant. That is how we came to sleep here +one night." + +"That's the card I picked up under the window," interrupted Andy, to +whom the whole proceedings seemed as "thrilling as could be any +professional theatrical performance." + +"Then," Nellie helped out, "we slept one dreadful night in an old +stone house. And it was haunted." + +"That was the house by the spring," volunteered Jack, "where we found +the hat, and other things." + +"Yes," said Nellie, "we did leave some things there." + +"And I found your dress away out on the road one night, very late," +Bess put in, while the newspaper man smiled at the queer story with so +many "personal contributions." + +"Oh, yes! We were waiting for a trolley car, and we heard an +automobile coming. Then I had to throw away a bundle--I didn't want to +take it along with me. I thought Aunt Delia might describe our +clothes." + +"You got along pretty well for amateurs," remarked the detective with +a laugh. "Some experts might have done worse." + +"Then you came straight to Lookout Beach?" asked the reporter. + +"Oh, no," answered Nellie. "We had to work our way down. First we went +to work at the Wayside Inn." + +"Now, I want to speak," announced Jack with a comical gesture. "I +would like to know whose shadow it was I was chasing one night around +the Wayside? I never had such an illusionary race before in all my +life. I came near concluding that my mind was haunted." + +Nellie laughed outright. "Oh, wasn't that funny!" she exclaimed. "I +was trying to hide something, and you were trying to see who I was. I +thought I would never get away from you, but I did fool you, after +all." + +"That's right," admitted Jack. "But you left me a lock of your hair." + +Nellie blushed to her ear tips. Rose frowned, and shook her head to +call her sister's attention to the man who was taking notes. + +"Where does my story come in?" demanded Andy. "I had a part in this +show." + +"Oh, we are coming to you," replied the reporter. "Seems to me this +will make a serial. It's a first-rate story, all right." + +"Don't say anything about the graveyard," whispered Belle to Ed. "I +should hate to have that to get into print." + +"Oh, that's another story," replied the scribe. "We've got one end of +that. The chauffeur declares he went after you, and spent all night in +a cemetery--looking for the party he had left stalled there." + +Jack and Ed took a hand at story telling at this juncture, and it was +the orphans' turn to listen in surprise at the disclosures. Finally +the boys got back to the runaways' part in the happenings. + +"Then you came to Clover Cottage?" suggested Cora, smiling at the two +girls. + +"Yes, we came here the first night. After that we got work in the +motion picture show." + +"And was it your nose I almost burned off?" asked Ed. "I +beg--your--pardon," and he made a courtly bow to Nellie. + +"Yes. That was a great trick," said Rose. "We almost killed ourselves +trying to hide that night. We managed to walk right past you, though, +without your knowing us." + +"And were you the 'carrier pigeon?'" asked Belle. "It was you, of +course, who came up in the automobile, played ghost, and hung the note +on the lamp?" + +"Oh, yes. The manager of the show wanted us to stay on, and we felt so +dreadful that Nellie told him something about our trouble. Then he +said he would drive us out to the cottage if we wanted to leave a +message. He wrote the note for us, and Nellie crept in and hung it +where she said you would be sure to see it." + +"We saw it, all right," commented Jack, smiling broadly. + +"And so they thought we took the old earrings," spoke up Rose +indignantly. + +"Well, it did look bad," said the detective, "since you had thrown the +case away." + +"As if we would steal!" snapped Nellie, her pretty eyes flashing. + +"When we saw that story in the newspaper we had to run away again," +sighed Rose. "Oh, it was dreadful!" + +"But I was determined from the first that I would find you," said Jack +mischievously, "and you see--I did." + +"No, I did!" burst out Andy. + +"Hush there, boy! Didn't I find you?" asked Jack. + +"Well, we are found, anyhow," commented Nellie, "and I don't want to +be lost again. But who got the earrings?" + +"Me for the jig!" shouted Andy. "Now I come in. You see," and he +straightened up, and thrust his hands in his pockets as he always did +when he had anything important to divulge, "I gave the young lady the +card. I gave her the tip about the cops. I piped off old lady Schenk +and Ramsy, and say! You ought to see them tear around Chelton when +they found everybody in the game had cleared out!" + +Andy stopped to laugh. The others laughed without stopping. + +"And then--golly! If me mother didn't do the old lady's wash again just +because there was a strike at the patch. And--then----She finds the +sparklers tied up tight in an old rag of a handkerchief!" + +"Your mother found them!" all the girls present asked in accord. + +"Sure thing!" replied Andy. + +"And Andy knew enough to fetch them to me," said the detective. "That +is how he came to get the hundred dollars reward!" + +"Hundred dollars reward!" repeated Rose and Nellie. + +"Don't I look it?" demanded Andy, swinging around to show off to +advantage his new clothes. + +"You look a couple of hundred," replied Ed. "Say, I'd like to get one +like that." + +The reporter said something about not having a camera, but Andy did +not hear the remark. + +"And now," resumed the detective, "what are we to do with these young +ladies? We have sufficient evidence to keep them away from Mrs. Ramsy. +She is not a person capable of looking after children. She has all she +can do to look after the mighty dollar." + +"Oh, if you will only let us work," pleaded Rose. "I know a lot about +housework." + +"Why, we want some one right away," said Bess. "Our maid has nervous +prostration from the fright that those two dreadful Squaton women gave +her the day they visited our house after going to Cora's. Couldn't you +let Rose and Nellie stay right here, officer? We could give them both +something to do." + +"They certainly can wash dishes nicely," put in Cora, smilingly. + +"Why, I don't see what's the objection," said the detective. "Of +course we will have to have a guardian appointed. Until then they +could be placed in charge of your mother!" + +Nellie opened her eyes wider than ever. Rose bit her lip to hide her +confusion. + +"Wouldn't that be jolly?" said Cora. "I was sure we would be able to +manage it all right. Why, you girls will have a good time, after all, +at Lookout Beach!" + +"You bet they will," declared Andy. "I'm going to stay down here for a +few days, and I've got some money to spend!" + +The reporter arose to go. The detective followed his example. + +"We are greatly obliged," said the newspaper man. "I am sure this will +make a fine story." + +Down the steps of the cottage went the tall detective and the +reporter. + +"Don't poke fun at the poor girls," begged Cora of the newspaper man, +in a whisper. "They have suffered enough." + +"Indeed, and I intend to show up the woman responsible for them +running away, rather than to make a spread about the poor things," the +reporter assured her. "Never fear, leave it to me," and with a +pleasant smile he departed. + +Bess ran upstairs, where her mother was resting. So far, Mrs. Robinson +had heard nothing of the ending of the quest after the runaways. Bess +quickly told her the whole story, and broached her plan of having +Nellie and Rose do the housework at the cottage. + +"Indeed, my dear, they shall do nothing of the sort," instantly +decided Mrs. Robinson. "They shall learn some useful trade. I will see +to it myself." She felt rather flattered, than otherwise, that the +fate of the orphan girls rested, somewhat, with her; and she resolved +to make the most of her opportunity. The housework at Clover, she +said, could be done by any or all of the motor girls. + +Rose and Nellie gladly acquiesced in the plan, and thus their shadows +were turned to sunshine. Arrangements were made for their board at a +cottage where the crippled woman and her daughter, who had been +rescued from the surf, had spent a few days. The invalid, after paying +a formal call on Mrs. Robinson, to thank the young people for what +they had done, went back to her home. + +"Well, all's well that ends the way it ought to," spoke Jack Kimball +that night, as they were all gathered on the Clover porch. "But those +runaways certainly gave us a chase." + +"And to think how strangely it began, and how it unfolded bit by bit," +remarked Cora. + +"It's all to the----" began Bess. + +"Bess!" exclaimed Belle, and Bess subsided, but muttered something +under her breath that made Ed and Walter laugh. + +"Well, we certainly have had exciting times at Lookout Beach," spoke +Ed, after a pause. "May there be more of them." + +"Not quite so exciting, please," pleaded Cora. But the Motor Girls +were destined to have further adventures, as will be told of in the +next book of this series, to be called "The Motor Girls Through New +England, Or, Held by the Gypsies." In that volume we shall learn all +about a delightful tour and of a happening to Cora Kimball that was +far out of the ordinary. + +"Oh, I almost forgot!" suddenly exclaimed Jack, leaping to his feet, +and striking an attitude. + +"Forgot what?" demanded Bess. + +"The dance we are going to give at our bungalow night after to-morrow. +It will be great! Mrs. Robinson, will you come and bring the girls?" + +"Of course," assented the twins' mother. + +"Then hurrah for the first dance of the bungaloafers!" cried Ed and +Walter. "Long may it last, we will live in the future, and forget all +the past." + +"Oh, Jack--a dance!" cried Bess. "Tell me all about it," which Jack, +nothing loath, did with much wealth of detail. And there, on the porch +of Clover Cottage, while the silver moon shone over the sea, we will +say good-bye, for a time, to the Motor Girls and their friends. + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Motor Girls at Lookout Beach, by +Margaret Penrose + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOTOR GIRLS AT LOOKOUT BEACH *** + +***** This file should be named 37911.txt or 37911.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/9/1/37911/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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