diff --git "a/data/train/2789.txt" "b/data/train/2789.txt"
new file mode 100644--- /dev/null
+++ "b/data/train/2789.txt"
@@ -0,0 +1,6322 @@
+
+
+
+
+Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MOTOR GIRLS SERIES
+
+by MARGARET PENROSE
+
+
+
+
+Author of the highly successful "Dorothy Dale Series" 12mo.
+Illustrated.  Price per volume, 75 cents, postpaid.
+
+Since the enormous success or our "Motor Boys Series," by Clarence
+Young, we have been asked to get out a similar series for girls. No one
+is better equipped to furnish these tales than Mrs. Penrose, who,
+besides being an able writer, is an expert automobilist.
+
+
+
+THE MOTOR GIRLS ON A TOUR
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+
+I      A SPOILED DINNER.
+
+II     THE WOODLAND CONFERENCE.
+
+III    "NO BOYS!"
+
+IV     THE STRANGE PROMISE.
+
+V      A LITTLE BROWN WREN
+
+VI     THE HOLD-UP
+
+VII    A CHANCE MEETING.
+
+VIII   JACK AND CLIP
+
+IX     THE MYSTERIOUS RIDE.
+
+X      "THEY'RE OFF!"
+
+XI     THOSE DREADFUL BOYS.
+
+XII    THE GIRL IN THE DITCH
+
+XIII   AT THE GROTTO
+
+XIV    THE PROMISE BOOK LOST
+
+XV     ROB ROLAND
+
+XVI    A STRANGE MESSAGE
+
+XVII   THE ROAD TO BREAKWATER
+
+XVIII  THE CLUE.
+
+XIX    PAUL AND HAZEL
+
+XX     AT THE MAHOGANY SHOP
+
+XXI    PERPLEXITIES
+
+XXII   THE CHILDREN'S COURT
+
+XXIII  THE MOTOR GIRLS ON THE WATCH.
+
+XXIV   CORA'S RESOLVE.
+
+XXV    A WILD RUN
+
+XXVI   LEGAL STRATEGY
+
+XXVII  AGAINST THE LAW
+
+XXVIII CONFIDENCES
+
+XXIX   MERRY MOTOR MAIDS
+
+XXX    THE PROMISE KEPT
+
+
+
+THE MOTOR GIRLS ON A TOUR
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A SPOILED DINNER
+
+
+The big maroon car glided along in such perfect rhythm that Cora
+Kimball, the fair driver of the Whirlwind, heard scarcely a sound of
+its mechanical workings.  To her the car went noiselessly--the
+perfection of its motion was akin to the very music of silence.
+
+Hazel Hastings was simply sumptuous in the tonneau--she had spread
+every available frill and flounce, but there was still plenty of
+unoccupied space on the luxuriously cushioned "throne."
+
+It seemed a pity to passers-by that two girls should ride alone on that
+splendid morning in the handsome machine--so many of those afoot would
+have been glad of a chance to occupy the empty seats.
+
+Directly following the Whirlwind came another car--the little silver
+Flyaway.  In this also were two girls, the Robinson twins, Elizabeth
+and Isabel, otherwise Belle and Bess.  Chelton folks were becoming
+accustomed to the sight of these girls in their cars, and a run of the
+motor girls was now looked upon as a daily occurrence.  Bess Robinson
+guided her car with unmistakable skill--Cora Kimball was considered an
+expert driver.
+
+Sputtering and chugging close to the Flyaway came a second runabout.
+In this were a girl and a boy, or, more properly speaking, a young lady
+and a young gentleman.  As they neared the motor girls Bess called back
+to Belle:
+
+"There come Sid and Ida.  I thought they were not on speaking terms."
+
+"They were not, but they are now," answered Belle with a light laugh.
+"Why should a girl turn her back on a young man with a brand new
+machine?"
+
+"It runs like a locomotive," murmured Bess, as, at that moment, the
+other car shot by, the occupants bowing indifferently to the Robinson
+girls as the machines came abreast.
+
+Cora turned and shook her head significantly when the third car had
+forged ahead.  She, too, seemed surprised that Ida Giles should be
+riding with Sid Wilcox.  Then Bess rolled up alongside the Whirlwind.
+
+"My, but they are going!" she called to Cora.  "I thought Ida said she
+would never ride with Sid again."
+
+"Why not?" flashed Cora merrily.  "Isn't Sid's car new and--yellow?"
+
+"Like a dandelion," put in Belle, who was noted for her aesthetic
+tendencies.  "And, precisely like a dandelion, I fancy that machine
+would collapse without rhyme or reason.  Did you every try a bunch of
+dandelions on the table?"
+
+The girls all laughed.  No one but Belle Robinson would ever try such
+an experiment.  Everybody knew the ingratitude of the yellow field
+flower.
+
+"I can never bear anything of that color since my valentine luncheon,"
+declared Belle bravely.  "That's why I predict disaster for Sid's new
+car."
+
+"They have dropped something!" exclaimed Hazel as she peered ahead at
+the disappearing runabout.
+
+Bess had taken the lead.
+
+"Let's put on speed," she suggested, and, pulling the lever, her car
+shot ahead, and was soon within close range of the yellow runabout.
+
+"Be careful!" called her sister.  "You will run over--"
+
+It was too late.  At that moment the Flyaway dashed over something--the
+pieces flew in all directions.
+
+"Their lunch-hamper!" exclaimed Belle.
+
+The runabout had turned to one side, and then stopped.  Bess jammed on
+the brakes and also came to a standstill.
+
+"Well!" growled Sid Wilcox, approaching the wreck in the road.
+
+"I--couldn't stop," faltered Bess remorsefully.
+
+"I guess you didn't try," snapped Ida Giles, her cheeks aflame almost
+to the tint of her fiery tresses.
+
+"I really did," declared Bess.  "I would not have spoiled your hamper
+for anything."
+
+"And your lunch was in it?" gasped Belle.  "We're awfully sorry!"
+
+Bent and crippled enameled dishes from the lately fine and completely
+equipped auto-hamper were scattered about in all directions.  Here and
+there a piece of pie could be identified, while the chicken sandwiches
+were mostly recognizable by the fact that a newly arrived yellow dog
+persistently gnawed at one or two particular mud spots.
+
+"Oh, we can go to a hotel for dinner," announced the young man, getting
+back into his car.
+
+"But they ought to pay for the hamper," grumbled Ida, loud enough for
+the Robinson girls to make sure of her remark.
+
+"We will, of course," called Bess, just as Cora and Hazel came up, and
+then the Wilcox runabout darted off again.
+
+"Table d'hote?" called Cora, laughing.
+
+"No, a la carte," replied Bess, picking up a piece of damaged celery,
+putting it on a slice of uninjured bread and proffering it to Hazel.
+
+"What a shame!" sighed Hazel.  "Their picnic will be spoiled."
+
+"But look at the picnic we've had," put in Belle.  "You should have
+seen Ida's face.  A veritable fireless cooker."
+
+"And Sid--he supplied the salt hay," declared Bess.  "I felt as if I
+were smothered in a ton of it."
+
+"And that was the peace-offering hamper," declared Cora, alighting from
+her car and closely viewing the wreck.  "Jack told me that Ida gave Sid
+a handsome hamper for the new car."
+
+"I told you that the yellow machine would turn--"
+
+"Dandelion," Hazel interrupted Belle.  "Well, I agree with you that was
+an ungrateful trick.  To demolish the lunch, of all other available
+things to do, on a day like this!"
+
+"Souvenirs?" suggested Cora, removing her glove to dig out of the mud a
+knife, and then a fork.
+
+"Oh, forget it!" exclaimed Bess.  "I am sure I want to.  Let's get
+going again, if we are to make the Woodbine Way in time to plan the
+tour.  I'm just crazy about the trip," and the enthusiastic girl
+expended some of her pent-up energies on the crank at the front of the
+Flyaway.
+
+Cora was also cranking up.  "Yes," she said, "we had best be on the
+road again.  We are due at the park at twelve.  I expect Maud will have
+the family tree along and urge us to stop overnight at every gnarl on
+the 'trunk.'"
+
+"We might have asked Ida and Sid," reflected Belle aloud,
+sympathetically.
+
+"Yes," Bess almost shouted, "and have them veto every single plan.
+Besides, there are to be no boys on this trip; Lady Isabel please take
+notice!"
+
+"As if I wanted boys!" sneered her sister.
+
+"As if you could have them if you did!" fired back Bess in that
+tantalizing way that only sisters understand, only sisters enjoy, and
+only sisters know how to operate successfully.
+
+"Peace!  peace!" called Cora.  "If Belle wants boys she may have them.
+I am chairman of the acting committee, and if boys do not act I would
+like to know exactly what they do."
+
+"No boys!" faltered Hazel, who, not owning a machine, had not as yet
+heard all the details of the proposed three-days' tour of the motor
+girls.
+
+"Nary a one!" returned Bess, now about to start.
+
+"If we had boys along," explained Cora, "they would claim the glory of
+every spill, every skid, every upset and every 'busted tire.'  We want
+some little glory ourselves," and at this she threw in the clutch, and,
+with a gentle effort, the Whirlwind rolled off, followed closely by the
+Flyaway.
+
+"I suppose Sid and Ida are licking their fingers just about now,"
+remarked the good-natured Bess.
+
+"Very likely," rejoined her sister, "for I fancy their meal was made up
+of buckwheat cakes and molasses, as Sid had to pay for it."
+
+"Oh, I meant sheer deliciousness," corrected her sister.  "I
+'fawncy'"--and she imitated the dainty tones used by Belle--"they have
+had--"
+
+"Backbiting and detraction," called Cora, who had been close enough to
+hear the sisters' remarks.   "I would not have been in your place at
+that table, Bess, for a great deal."
+
+Bess tossed her head about indifferently.  She evidently knew what to
+expect from Ida and Sid.
+
+"Now for a straight run!" announced Cora, throwing in third speed. "We
+must make the bridge by the quarter whistle or the Maud Morris family
+tree may have been consumed for luncheon.  I particularly want a peg at
+that tree."
+
+"We're off!" called Bess, following with additional speed.
+
+Then the Whirlwind and the Flyaway dashed off, over the country roads,
+past scurrying chicks and barking dogs, past old farmers who turned in
+to give "them blamed things" plenty of room, out along Woodbine to the
+pretty little park where the plans for the first official run of the
+motor girls were soon to be perfected.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE WOODLAND CONFERENCE
+
+
+In the first volume of this series, entitled "The Motor Girls; Or, A
+Mystery of the Road," we became acquainted with these vivacious young
+ladies.  Cora Kimball, the first to own her own motor-car, the
+Whirlwind, was the only daughter of Mrs. Grace Kimball, a wealthy widow
+of the little town of Chelton.  Jack Kimball, Cora's brother, a typical
+college boy, had plenty to do in unraveling the mystery of the road,
+while his chums, Walter Pennington and Edward Foster, were each such
+attractive young men that even to the end it was difficult to guess
+which one would carry off the highest honors socially--with Cora as
+judge, of course.
+
+It was Ed Foster who lost the money, a small fortune, and it was the
+rather unpleasant Sid Wilcox, and perhaps unfortunate Ida Giles, who
+finally cleared up the mystery, happily enough, all things considered,
+although in spite of the other girls' opportune intention it was not
+possible to reflect any degree of credit upon those responsible for the
+troubles and trials which that mystery involved.
+
+Speaking of the young men, Paul Hastings, a young chauffeur, should not
+be overlooked.  Paul was a very agreeable youth indeed, and his sister,
+Hazel, a most interesting young lady, with very special qualities of
+talent and learning.
+
+"Among those present" in the first volume were the attractive Robinson
+twins, Bess inclined to rather more weight than height, and Belle, the
+tall, graceful creature, who delighted in the aesthetic and reveled in
+"nerves."
+
+Mr. Perry Robinson, the girls' father, was a wealthy railroad magnate,
+devoted to carriage rides, and not caring for motors, but not too "set"
+to allow his daughters the entire ownership of the pretty new
+runabout--the Flyaway.
+
+Cora, Hazel, Bess and Belle were flying over the country roads in their
+cars, making for Woodbine Park, where they were to hold a preliminary
+meet to arrange for a tour on the road.
+
+Past the bridge at the appointed time, they reached the wooded park
+exactly at twelve--the hour set for the rest and luncheon, to be
+followed by the "business meeting."
+
+"There come Daisy and Maud," called Cora, as along the winding road she
+discerned another car approaching.
+
+"And there are Clip and Ray," added Belle, shutting off the gasoline
+and preparing to bring her machine to a standstill.
+
+"I think it a shame to call Cecilia Thayer Clip," objected Belle. "She
+is no more of a romp than--"
+
+"Any boy," interrupted Bess.  "Well, the boys call her Clip, and it's
+handy."
+
+By this time the new car was up in line with the others.
+
+"'Lo, there!" called Cecilia, jerking her machine to a stop in the
+manner deplored by skilled mechanicians.
+
+"Look out!" cautioned Cora.  "You'll 'bust' something."
+
+Cecilia had bounded out on the road.
+
+"Stiff as a stick!" she exclaimed with a rather becoming twist of her
+agile form.  "I never make that road without absorbing every bump on
+the thoroughfare."
+
+Cecilia was not altogether pretty, for she had the "accent on her
+nose," as Cora put it, but she was dashing, and, at a glance, one might
+easily guess why she had been called Clip.
+
+Rachel Stuart was a striking blonde, tall to a fault, pink and white to
+bisqueness and, withal, evidently conscious of her charms.  Even while
+motoring she affected the pastel tints, and this morning looked radiant
+in her immense blue scarf and her well-matched blue linen coat.
+
+"You look," said Cora to Cecilia, as the latter continued to shake
+herself out of the absorbed bumps, "like nothing so much as like a
+'strained' nurse--Jack's variety."
+
+"Exactly that!" admitted Cecilia.  "I have been searching high and low
+for a cheap and economical rig to drive in, and I have just hit upon
+this."  She pirouetted wonderfully.  "All ready made--the 'strained'
+nurse variety, sure enough.  How do you like it?"
+
+"Very becoming," decided Bess.
+
+"And very practical," announced Belle.
+
+"Sweet," declared Cora.
+
+"When you say a good thing, stop," ordered Cecilia, just as Ray was
+about to give her verdict.
+
+"And now to the woods," suggested Cora.  "We may as well put our
+machines up in the open near the grove.  We can see them there, and
+make sure that no one is tempted to investigate them."
+
+It was a level stretch over the field to the grove.  Cora led the way
+and the others followed.  Lunch baskets and boxes were quickly gathered
+up from the machines, and, with the keenness of appetite common to
+young and healthy, and "painful" to our fair motorists (for Cecilia
+declared her appetite "hurt"), the party scampered off to an
+appropriate spot where the lunch might be enjoyed.
+
+"And there are to be no boys?" asked Maud Morris, she with the
+"imploring look," as Cecilia put it, although Maud was familiarly known
+as a very sweet girl.
+
+"No boys!" echoed Bess, between uncertain mouthfuls.
+
+Daisy Bennet turned her head away in evident disapproval.
+
+"No boys," she repeated faintly.  Daisy did everything faintly. She was
+a perfectly healthy young girl, but a little affected otherwise--too
+fond of paper-covered books, and perhaps too fond of other sorts of
+romance.  But we must not condemn Daisy--her mother had the
+health-traveling habit, and what was Daisy to do with herself?
+
+Cora handed around some lettuce sandwiches.
+
+"I am just as keen on boys as any of you," she admitted, "but for a
+real motor girl tour it is apparent that boys will have to be tabooed."
+
+Bess grunted, Belle sighed, Cecilia bit her tongue, Ray raised her
+eyebrows, Hazel made a "minute" of the report.
+
+"And silence ensued," commented Cecilia, reaching back of Maud and
+securing a dainty morsel from the lunch-box of the latter.
+
+"Water?" called Bess.
+
+"Yes," chimed in Cecilia, "go and fetch some."
+
+"The spring is away down the other side of the hill," objected Bess.
+
+"You need the exercise," declared Cecilia.
+
+"Clip, you go fetch some," suggested Cora, "and I'll give you half my
+pie."
+
+Without another word Clip was on her feet, had upset Daisy's improvised
+table of sticks and paper napkins in her haste to secure the water
+bottle, and was now running over the hill toward the spring.
+
+Presently she stopped as if listening to something.  Then she turned
+and hurried back to the party on the grass.  Her face was white with
+alarm.
+
+"Oh!" she gasped.  "I heard the awfullest groans!  Some one must be
+either dying for a drink, or dying from a drink.  The groans were wet!"
+
+Cora jumped up, as did some of the others.
+
+"Come on," said Cora.  "I'm not afraid.  Some one may need help."
+
+"Oh, they do--I am sure," panted Cecilia.  "All kinds of help, I should
+say.  The moans were chromatic."
+
+"Listen!" commanded Cora, as the sounds came over the hill.  Low, then
+fierce growls and groans, tapering down to grunts and exclamation marks
+sounded through the grove.
+
+"Oh!" screamed Belle.
+
+"What can it be?" exclaimed Daisy.
+
+"Almost anything," suggested Cora.  "But we had best be specific," and
+she started in the direction of the mysterious sounds.
+
+Cecilia followed, as did Bess, while the others held off in evident
+fear.
+
+Although it was high noon, in the grove the heavy spruce and cedar
+trees darkened the place, and the farther the girls penetrated into the
+depths of the wood, the deeper did the shadows close in around them.
+Cora picked up a stout stick as she advanced.
+
+"Get me one," begged Cecilia.  "We may encounter a bear."
+
+"Human?" asked Cora with a laugh.
+
+"Preferably," answered Cecilia, keeping very close to Cora.
+
+The noises had ceased.  The girls halted, waiting for a sound to give
+them the clue of direction.
+
+"He's dead!" gasped Cecilia.  "It was the drink--he got the drink, and
+then died!"
+
+"As long as he got it," whispered Cora.  She was anxious to catch
+another "groan."
+
+"There!" exclaimed Bess, as a sound, faint but decisive, was heard from
+a hollow ahead.
+
+"Where?" asked Cora, purposely misunderstanding Bess.
+
+"Here!" called Cecilia, who, with sudden resolve, had snatched the
+stick from Cora's hand, and now darted forward.
+
+She went straight for the spring.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+"NO BOYS!"
+
+
+Such shouting and such laughing!
+
+There, hidden in the thicket near the spring, were discovered Jack
+Kimball and Walter Pennington, while the chuckles and other noises
+emerging from mysterious parts of the wood indicated the presence of
+human beings, although the sounds had a queer similarity to that made
+by furry beasts.
+
+"Oh, Clip!  Spare me!" called Jack, as Cecilia actually undertook to
+punish physically the offending young man.  "I really did not think you
+would be scared--in fact, I had an idea you were scare-immune."
+
+"I am," declared the girl; "but the idea of me wasting sympathy! I
+might have discovered the dead man of all my life-long dreams--had to
+appear in court, and all the other delightful consequences of finding a
+man under suspicious circumstances; and there you are not even sick.
+Jack Kimball, how could you?  You might at least have had the
+politeness to be deadly ill."
+
+Walter crawled out from the thicket.
+
+"I thought I smelled eating," he remarked, "and I suggested that we
+postpone the wild and woolly until we had investigated."
+
+"Oh, come on," called Cora.  "We may as well allow you to move on.--You
+have actually interrupted the plans for our first official run.'
+
+"Good!" exclaimed Ed Foster, who, with some other young chaps, had
+collected themselves from the various haunts.  "Any boys?"
+
+"Boys!" echoed Cora.
+
+"B-o-y-s!" drawled Maud, "chucking the imploring look," as Cecilia
+whispered to Cora.
+
+"We have been discussing the question," declared Bess, as they all
+started toward the lunch spread on the grass, "and we have now fully
+decided.  The answer is: No boys!"
+
+This verdict brought forth the expected chorus of groans from the young
+men.
+
+"Indeed, you may be glad to get a fellow when you find yourselves in a
+good and proper smashup," declared Jack, "and I predict a smash-up
+about every other mile."
+
+The sight of the tempting lunch and that of the other young ladies who
+had not undertaken the march to the spring, was the signal for a "grand
+rush"--and that was about all.
+
+When the boys extricated themselves from the "rush" there was not a
+crumb visible.
+
+"We had all we wished," faltered the circumspect Ray Stuart.  "You were
+entirely welcome--might have saved, at least, the dishes."
+
+"Oh," breathed Ed, "it is so much pleasanter to poach--don't spoil it."
+
+Ed cast a most appreciative glance at Ray.  She expected it, of course,
+and accepted it with a smile.
+
+Clip was talking earnestly to Jack, Cora was being entertained by
+Walter, who, at the same time, managed to keep up a running
+conversation with the group of girls now busy putting away the lunch
+things.
+
+"We had a dreadful accident coming out," said Belle.  "Bess ran over--"
+
+"A square meal in a square basket," interrupted Bess.  "I demolished
+the hamper that Ida Giles had bestowed on Sidney Wilcox.  It was a
+peace offering, I believe."
+
+"And you should have seen the kind of 'pieces' Bess made of it,"
+commented Hazel with a merry laugh.
+
+"Hush!" hissed Ed with his finger to his lips.
+
+"Something tells me that the demolished hamper forbodes evil.  You will
+regret the day, Miss Elizabeth, that you spilled Sid Wilcox's-"
+
+"Pumpkin pie," finished Cora.  "I never saw such pumpkiny pumpkin pie
+in my life.  I can smell it yet!"
+
+"Mrs. Giles' famous home-made," quoted Walter.  "Well, it might have
+been worse--they might have eaten that pie."
+
+"Say, fellows," said Jack suddenly, "this is all very pretty--the
+girls, I mean, of course--but does it smite any one of you young
+rustics that we have an engagement--ahem!  At three-thirty, wasn't it?"
+
+"Precisely," declared Ed.  "So much obliged for the feed; and do we
+make a party call?"
+
+"Of course," answered the pretty Ray, attempting to tie her huge scarf,
+without having any idea of doing so.  "We shall expect--"
+
+"The bunch?" interrupted Jack, knowing Ray's preference for the
+handsome Ed.
+
+"How--"
+
+"Naughty," simpered Cecilia.  "Jack, how can you use slang in the
+presence of ladies?" and she assumed the characteristic "tough" walk,
+which had always been one of Clip's most laughable capers.
+
+"Loidies!" echoed Jack, tilting his cap and striking an attitude
+appropriate to that assumed by Cecilia.  He slipped his arm within
+hers, and the pair "strutted off," in the fashion identified with the
+burlesque stage.
+
+"Here! here!" called more than one young lady.  "Come back here, Clip!
+There are to be no boys!"
+
+"This isn't a boy," called back Cecilia, keeping up the performance.
+"He's only a--"
+
+"Don't you dare!" threatened Jack.
+
+The girls began to gather the things up from the grass.
+
+"Now don't hurry," remarked Ed coolly.  "The fact is, we are not going
+your way."
+
+"Don't want us!" almost gasped Ray.
+
+"Shook!" groaned Bess.
+
+"Not at all," Walter hurried to add, "but the real truth is--well, let
+me see.  What's the real truth?"
+
+Jack was fetching Cecilia back.  At some secret sign the young men
+actually took to their heels, and ran away before the girls realized
+what was happening.  But from a distance they waved a cheerful adieu.
+
+"What do you think of that!" exclaimed Hazel.
+
+"Oh, they are just up to some frolic, and could not take us in," said
+Cora.  "If we were not so busy with our plans we might follow them.
+But I propose continuing the business meeting."
+
+With some reluctance, for the time had been greatly enlivened by the
+appearance of the young men on the scene, the girls once more got to
+discussing the details of their proposed three days' tour.
+
+As Cora had predicted, Maud wanted the stops along the way made at the
+homes of her various and varied relatives.  Daisy feared her mother
+would insist upon a chaperone, and this almost absorbed Daisy's chance
+of being eligible.  Ray thought the motors should flaunt flags--pretty
+light blue affairs--but Bess declared it would be infinitely more
+important to carry plenty of gasoline.
+
+So the girls planned and plotted, until, in the northwest, a great
+black cloud came stealing over the silent blue, gathering fury as it
+came, and coming very quickly at that.
+
+"A storm!" shouted Belle.  "Oh, I do hope it won't be the thundering
+kind!"
+
+There was a swirl of the leaves around them, and the wind gave a
+warning howl.  All ran for the cars.
+
+"A tornado, likely," said Hazel.  "And, oh, dear!  this is just about
+the time that Paul will be bringing the mail over.  I am so nervous
+since his firm undertook the mail route between New City and Cartown.
+This is such a lonely road for an auto in a storm--especially when
+every one knows Paul carries the mail."
+
+Hazel was greatly agitated, but the other girls endeavored to reassure
+her.
+
+"Why, Paul will be all right," declared Cora, surprised at Hazel's
+alarm.  "What could happen to him?  Why is a storm in the afternoon of
+such consequence?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," sighed Hazel; "but having to manage a car, and be
+personally responsible for the big mailbag--there is so much important
+mail between Cartown and New City--I have been nervous about it ever
+since Paul began carrying it."
+
+"But it makes him all the more important to his firm," said Cora
+convincingly, "and I am sure he will be all right."
+
+"You read too many wild-west stories," commented Bess, who was still
+alongside the Whirlwind with her Flyaway.  "There are no stagecoach
+hold-ups these days."
+
+"I hope not," returned Hazel with a forced laugh.
+
+Quickly the storm was gathering.  With some apprehension Cora directed
+the line of cars.
+
+"You lead, Daisy," she said, "as your clothes are most perishable."
+
+"Indeed," shouted Cecilia, "my 'strained' nurse suit will have to go to
+the laundry if it gets wet, and that adds to the price--reduces my
+bargain."
+
+"Well, hurry, at any rate," commanded Cora.  "I know of a barn we may
+be able to make."
+
+"We ought to meet Paul at the bridge," remarked Hazel, evidently unable
+to dismiss her concern for her brother.
+
+"Now, Hazel," exclaimed Cora, her voice carrying something of vexation,
+"one would think you suspected--"
+
+"You don't really think those boys would play a trick on him?"
+interrupted Hazel.  "Somehow I didn't like the way they looked--as if
+they were plotting something."
+
+Cora laughed heartily.  "Why, you precious baby!" she managed to say;
+"do you think boys of their caliber would tamper with the mail?  To say
+nothing of putting so nice a boy as Paul to inconvenience?"
+
+"Oh, of course; forgive me, Cora.  I should not have asked that. But
+you know what Paul and I are to each other!"
+
+"Yes, I know," said Cora with marked emphasis.  "You are each the
+other's little brother and sister.  But it's nice, Hazel, very nice,
+and I forgive you the fling at Jack."
+
+"And Ed?" asked Hazel mischievously.
+
+"And Walter," added Cora, ignoring the personal.
+
+"Oh, mercy!" yelled Belle.  "We're going to have another fire and
+brimstone thunderstorm!  Cora, make for that farmhouse!"
+
+"Yes," called Cora, "I guess it will be all wind, and it won't hurt the
+machines.  Turn for the cottage, girls!"
+
+Blinding and brutal, the wind and sand attacked the eyes and ears of
+the motor girls, in spite of all the hoods and goggles.  It was one of
+those tearing windstorms, that often come in summer, seemingly bent on
+raising everything on earth heavenward except the sand--that always
+sought refuge under eyelids--the average grain of sand would rather get
+in a girl's eye than help to make up a reputable mountain.
+
+The line of cars made straight for the little farmhouse.  It was
+sheltered in a clump of pines quite near the roadside.
+
+Bess drew up first.  Belle was out, and upon the steps of the porch.
+She had even struck the brass knocker before the others could bring
+their machines to a stop.
+
+"Belle is frightened," said Ray, taking her time to leave Cecilia's
+auto.
+
+"Well, we had a great storm one day--and Belle has the reflex action,"
+explained Cora, referring to an exciting incident told of in the first
+book of this series.
+
+The door of the cottage opened.
+
+"Come on, girls!" called Belle.  "We may come in--the lady says."
+
+"Now--now for an adventure!" whispered Cecilia.  "I can see it through
+the closed blinds!  I see it under the knocker.  I feel it in my
+gloves!  Yes, young ladies, there is going to be something doing inside
+that cottage!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE STRANGE PROMISE
+
+
+When the eight young ladies marched into the little cottage it must be
+admitted that each had her misgivings.  What would any one think of
+such a procession?
+
+But Belle, whether from actual fright of the storm, or from some
+intuitive knowledge of the circumstances, seemed to be assured that
+they were all welcome.
+
+A dark-eyed woman greeted them.
+
+"Why, come right in," she insisted.  "We haven't much room, but we are
+all glad to see you."
+
+"Careful," whispered the mischievous Clip to Cora.  "There's a trap
+door some place, I'll bet."
+
+"Hush!" commanded Cora under her breath.  "You will be suspected if not
+overheard."
+
+The woman gathered up some sewing from an old-fashioned sofa. Cora saw
+instantly that the piece of furniture was of the most desirable pattern
+and quality, an antique mahogany gem of the colonial style.
+
+"There will be room for most of us on your beautiful couch," said Cora,
+taking her place, and indicating that the others might follow.  "What a
+handsome piece of furniture!"
+
+"Yes," replied the woman with a sigh, "that is one of my family
+heirlooms.  We are very fond of old furniture."
+
+"Look out!" whispered the irrepressible Clip.  "Perhaps the trap is in
+the sofa!"
+
+Bess giggled helplessly.
+
+Belle, with her self-confidence, peculiar to this particular occasion,
+took her place over by the window in a huge, straight-back chair--the
+kind built with "storm doors at the back."
+
+The sad-eyed woman smiled with her lips, but her eyes "remained at half
+mast," as Clip put it.
+
+"It is so delightful to meet a lot of healthy young ladies," began the
+woman, betraying a certain culture and unmistakable education. "I have
+a little daughter, who is not healthy of body, but her mind is the joy
+of our lives in this isolated place.  She will ask to see you directly,
+and that is why I tell you of her infirmity. We never speak of it to
+her--she almost thinks herself in health. I am glad you came--for her
+sake."
+
+Without waiting for a reply the woman opened a small door and
+disappeared:
+
+"Now!" gasped Clip.  "Now be prepared!  We will be fed piece by piece,
+one by one, to the yellow dwarf--"
+
+"Will you hush!" insisted Belle.  "I am sure you ought to respect-"
+
+"Oh, I do, Belle, dear!  I respect your pretty self, and shall hate
+terribly to see you torn limb from--"
+
+The opening of the door cut short Clip's nonsense.
+
+The woman wheeled a child's invalid chair into the room.  Sitting in
+this chair the girls beheld a child--that sort of child which heaven in
+making a <DW36> of seems to hold some special claim on. The lines of
+some amateur poet flashed across the mind of Cora:
+
+  "Does heaven in sending such as these,
+   From Nature hold a claim?
+   To keep them nearer to The Gates,
+   To call them in again?"
+
+These lines had always appealed to Cora in spite of their faulty rhyme,
+and, in glancing at the little girl in the chair, she understood why.
+
+"This is my daughter Wren," said the woman, "and I should have
+introduced myself.  I am Mrs. Salvey Mrs. Ruth Salvey."
+
+The girls gracefully acknowledged the introductions.  Clip had
+surrendered--she was "all eyes on the little girl"; too absorbed to
+speak.  She had left her place on the sofa, and now stood beside the
+invalid's chair.
+
+"How do you do, Wren?" she managed to say finally, taking the small,
+white, slim hand within her own.  "Aren't you frightened of--this
+invasion?"
+
+"Oh, no, indeed," said the child sweetly.  "I am perfectly delighted.
+Mother has been telling me all day we would have some pleasant surprise
+before night.  I thought when I saw the storm coming that that was the
+surprise--I love storms, grandfather's kind--but now I know it is this."
+
+Every girl in the room instantly felt the charm of this child. She was
+almost bewitching.
+
+Her eyes had the same "unfathomable depths" that marked those of Mrs.
+Salvey, but the child did not otherwise resemble her mother. It was
+evident that the name Wren fitted her well--so small, so sweet, so
+timid, and with such a whispering voice!
+
+Then, her eyes were brown, her hair was brown and, in spite of
+ill-health, there was a gleam of color in her delicate cheeks.
+
+"What's this?" asked Cora, stepping over to the child and touching a
+book in her lap.
+
+"Oh, that--that is my story," replied Wren.  "I want to tell you all
+about it.  Will you have time to wait?" and she looked toward the
+window, through which could be seen the silent automobiles.
+
+"Indeed, we will," replied Cora.  "I am so anxious to hear all about
+it, and I am sure the others are.  Do tell us, Wren," and Cora found a
+chair quite close to the one on wheels.
+
+Cecilia was fairly "devouring the child."  The others were plainly much
+interested.  Belle, who evidently regarded the affair as her own
+particular "find," retained the slim hand of the invalid in that of her
+own healthy palm.  Mrs. Salvey was smiling now--even the great sad eyes
+were throwing out a light, although the light did come from dark and
+uncertain depths.
+
+Wren opened her book.
+
+"This is my promise book," she began.  "I have to tell you a long story
+about it.  Then I will ask each of you to make me a promise--it is a
+very strange promise," she intoned most seriously.  "But I know some
+day it will be kept.  Some day all these promises will unite in one
+grand, great demand.  Then Fate will have to answer."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A LITTLE BROWN WREN
+
+
+The girls were awestricken.
+
+Daisy, Maud, Hazel and Ray seemed to shrink closer together on the old
+mahogany sofa.  Cora and the Robinson girls with Cecilia were grouped
+closely about the sick child.
+
+"It's all about grandfather," she began.  "I had the dearest,
+darlingest grandfather, and since he went away I am so lonely. Only for
+mother," she added, with something like an apology.  "Of course, I am
+never really lonely with mother."
+
+Mrs. Salvey shook her head.  Then she picked up the discarded sewing.
+
+"You see," went on Wren, "we used to live with grandfather in a
+beautiful cottage right near the river.  He was a sea captain, and
+couldn't live away from the waves.  Then I was strong enough to play on
+the sands."
+
+Wren stopped.  At the mention of her infirmity a cloud covered her
+young face.  Presently she brightened up and resumed:
+
+"But I am going to be strong again.  When I find--"
+
+She tossed her head back and seemed to see something beyond.  For a
+moment no one spoke.  The silence was, akin to reverence.
+
+"Then," sighed the child, "when we lived by the ocean grandfather went
+out in a terrible storm--he said he had to go.  And he never came back."
+
+"Oh!" gasped Cora involuntarily.
+
+Cecilia bent so close to Wren that her breath stirred the brown
+ringlets over the child's ears.
+
+"But, of course," declared the child vehemently, "he will come back.
+If not here--in some other world."
+
+"Dear," said Mrs. Salvey, "you had better make your story a little
+short.  I am sure the young ladies will want to get over the roads
+before nightfall."
+
+"Oh, it is quite early yet," declared Cecilia falsely, for the mantel
+clock pointed to six.
+
+"I'll hurry," promised Wren.  "You see, this is the important part of
+it all.  When we lived with grandpa he made a beautiful table--I even
+helped him to make it.  There were tiny pieces of wood all inlaid with
+anchors, oars and sea emblems.  I used to dip them in the hot glue for
+grandpa.  Well, there were some secret drawers in that table, and
+grandpa told me that if anything should happen to him we must explore
+the table.  Well, we went away--it was the time of my own father's
+death--and when we came back the table was gone."
+
+"Who took it?" demanded Cecilia sharply.
+
+"Everything was sold--at auction--and no one could tell us anything
+about the table."
+
+"You see," said Mrs. Salvey, "Wren thinks if we can find that table we
+will come into our own.  Father was very fond of daughter, and the
+other relatives were so numerous that when the estate was equally
+divided it left very little for us.  We thought the table might contain
+a will--"
+
+"I know it did," declared Wren.  "Didn't grandpa show it to me once?
+And now I want you each to sign the promise in my book.  I shall read
+it over for you."
+
+The child drew herself up straight, and held the book high between her
+hands.  Then she read
+
+"'I, the undersigned, promise most sacredly to do all in my power to
+help discover the whereabouts of an antique inlaid table that has on
+either side carved a large anchor, and which has the initials cut on
+each end, W. S.  and R. S.'
+
+These were mine and grandpa's initials," she explained.  "I was called
+Wren because his name was Renton."  She resumed reading the promise:
+
+"'If ever I do discover this table I also promise to notify Wren Salvey
+immediately.'  Then you sign," she said.  "There are pen and ink.
+Mother always keeps them in the sitting-room for me."
+
+Belle took the book.  Pages were already filled with signatures.
+
+"You must have a great many callers," she remarked, taking up the pen
+to sign.
+
+"Oh, I take my book with me every time I go out," said Wren. "Sometimes
+mother takes me where there are a lot of people.  I love to talk to
+folks."
+
+"Of course you do," said Cora, filled with admiration for the mother
+who so humored the sick child.  "And with all those promises, as you
+say, they must some day become a great, grand call, and so be answered."
+
+"I hope you will hear the voice," said Wren fervently, and the day came
+when Cora remembered the child's prayer.
+
+The girls added their names to the long list.  Wren required that they
+repeat the promise individually, and, indeed, it became a most solemn
+proceeding.
+
+The storm had entirely subsided.  It was time to be on the road again,
+and Cora stood up first to take her leave.
+
+"We really must go," she said.  "We have had a most delightful hour.
+We shall never forget Wren, and, perhaps, some day we may return to
+fulfil our promise."
+
+"I really feel that you will," declared the child.  "I have never
+before met such--nice young ladies," and she blushed consciously. "I
+shall repeat your names many times--so that they will echo when I
+sleep."
+
+Cecilia put her lips to the child's forehead.  She did not dare trust
+herself to speak.
+
+"I am sure you will dream about us--we are such an army," said Daisy
+with a laugh.  "Try to forget that we are just girls--"
+
+"She's an angel," interrupted Cecilia.  "Don't get her mixed up with
+mere girls."
+
+Wren laughed--such a dainty little laugh.  She looked at Daisy.
+
+"You are all--lovely," she declared, "and I always like blue eyes!"
+
+Mrs. Salvey added her felicitations to those of her little daughter.
+"This has indeed been a most enjoyable visit," she said, "and I hope
+you will all try to keep your strange promise. I believe where one is
+so serious as is Wren something good is sure to result.  If we could
+find that table--"
+
+"Perhaps you will," said Cora pleasantly.  "We are about to start on a
+long trip.  We will make numbers of stops, and I assure you we will
+never forget to look for the table.  I am sure it will give us a very
+pleasant duty to keep our eyes open."
+
+"Indeed, it will," declared Cecilia warmly.  "I only hope I shall be
+the lucky one--for I feel a sort of premonition that some one in this
+party really will be the means of bringing little Wren the good news.
+I have a mental picture of the table.  I shall know it instantly."
+
+"It would be very easy to recognize it," said Mrs. Salvey, opening the
+door as her visitors filed out.  "The inlaid anchors are most
+conspicuous on the leaves."
+
+Outside Cecilia renewed her antics.  "Stick a hatpin in me--somebody
+do!" she exclaimed.  "But not yours, Ray.  I never could stand for that
+college, even in a stick."
+
+Ray smiled and hurried into her car.  The fair chauffeurs cranked up
+quickly, for it was almost dusk, and there was considerable road to
+cover between the place and Chelton.
+
+"We must make speed now," called Bess.  "I have a dinner date, be it
+known."
+
+"I'm in a hurry, too," shouted Maud.  "I have an engagement to be tried
+on--my new auto cloak.  I have to have that on time."
+
+The machines were speeding along merrily.  It was pleasant after the
+rain, and the twilight lent enchantment to the delights of motoring.
+
+"Why do you suppose Hazel was so anxious about Paul?" Bess asked Belle.
+"She could talk of nothing else, even when we were at the cottage."
+
+"Well," replied the prudent Belle, "Hazel knows.  There must be some
+danger or she would not talk of it.  Perhaps Paul has had some warning."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE HOLD-UP
+
+
+Dashing over the country roads, the motor girls sent their machines
+ahead at fast speed, unwilling to stop to light up, and anxious to make
+the town before the twilight faded into nightfall.
+
+Suddenly Cora, who was in the lead, grabbed the emergency brake and
+quickly shut off the power.
+
+"What's that?" she asked.  "Something straight ahead.  Don't you see
+it, Hazel?"
+
+Hazel stood up and peered into the gathering darkness.
+
+"Yes; it looks like an auto.  Perhaps some one got disabled, and had to
+leave the machine," she replied.
+
+"Perhaps," returned Cora, going along carefully.
+
+"It is an auto," declared Hazel presently, as they were almost upon the
+object in the roadway.
+
+"The auto stage!" exclaimed Cora.  "Don't be frightened, Hazel," she
+hurried to say.  "Paul is not in it.  He must have gone on with the
+mail."
+
+Hazel sank down in the cushions and covered her eyes.  Somehow she
+could not bear to look at the deserted auto stage.
+
+The other girls were coming along cautiously--they saw that something
+was the matter.
+
+The standing machine was directly in the road; it instantly struck Cora
+that this was strange.  Who could have been so careless as to leave an
+unlighted auto in the roadway, and night coming on?
+
+She turned her wheel to guide the Whirlwind to one side, and then
+stopped.  Bess was next, and she shut off the power from the Flyaway.
+
+"What is it?" asked Bess anxiously.  Belle did not venture to leave the
+machine, but Hazel had bounded out of the Whirlwind almost before Cora
+had time to stop it.
+
+"Oh," exclaimed Hazel, "there are Paul's gloves.  Where can he be?"
+
+"Perhaps playing a trick on us," suggested Cora, although she had
+little faith in the possibility.  "I am sure he would not go far off
+and leave this expensive machine here."
+
+By this time all the other girls had reached the spot, and were now
+deliberating upon the abandoned auto.  Suddenly a call--shrill and
+distinct--startled them.
+
+"That's Paul!" shrieked Hazel, turning instantly and dashing off in the
+direction from which the voice had come.  Cora, Bess, Maud and Cecilia
+followed her.  Over the wet fields, through briars and underbrush the
+girls ran, while the call was repeated; this time there being no
+possibility of mistake--it was Paul shouting.
+
+Breathless, the girls hurried on.  With a sister's instinct Hazel never
+stumbled, but seemed to get over every obstacle like some wood sprite
+called to duty.
+
+"Oh, I'm all right, girls!  Take your time!" came the voice in the
+woods.
+
+"All right!" repeated Hazel in uncertain tones.
+
+"Oh, look!" shrieked Cecilia.  "Didn't I tell you it was a joke? Look!"
+
+What a sight!  There, sitting on something like a stool, with a big
+cotton umbrella opened over his head, his eyes blinded with something
+dark, and his hands and feet made secure, was Paul Hastings, the
+chauffeur of the auto stage.
+
+"Whatever does this means?" asked Cora, hurrying to Hazel, who was now
+madly snatching the black silk handkerchief from her brother's eyes.
+
+"A prisoner of war," replied Paul rather unsteadily.  "Glad you came,
+girls--there, sis, in my back pocket, you will find a knife.  Just cut
+those carpet rags off my feet and hands."
+
+Cecilia found the pocket knife, and, more quickly than any boy might
+have done it, she severed the bonds, and Paul stretched out--free.
+
+"Well," he exclaimed, "this is about the limit!"
+
+"Did the boys do it?" asked Cora.
+
+"Boys!  Not a bit of it," replied Paul.  "It was a regular hold-up.
+And the mail!  I must get that, if they have left it on the road.  Did
+you see the car?  Is it all right?"
+
+"It appeared to be," said Cora.  "It was the car that brought us to a
+standstill.  It's in the middle of the road."
+
+Paul shook himself as if expecting to find some damage to limb or
+muscle.  Then he turned toward the open path.
+
+"Tell us about it," demanded Cecilia.  "Wasn't it a joke?"
+
+"Joke!" he reiterated.  "Well, I should say not!  Would you call it a
+joke to have two masked men jump in front of a running car, and flash
+something shiny?  Then to have them climb in, cover my eyes and tell me
+I would be all right, and not to worry!"
+
+"Oh," sighed Hazel, "I felt something would happen to you, Paul, dear.
+You must give up this position."
+
+"Well, we will see about that," he replied.  "Perhaps I won't have
+anything to say about it--if the mailpouch is gone."
+
+"Then they brought you out here?" asked Cecilia, determined to hear all
+the story.
+
+"Carried me like a baby," replied Paul, "and in sheer humane
+consideration they put me near the road, so that my call might be
+heard."
+
+"And the umbrella?" asked Cora.
+
+"Oh, they went to a barn for that.  It was raining, and my polite
+friends did not want me to take cold."
+
+His tone was bitterly cutting; taking cold would evidently have been of
+small account to him.
+
+"And they sat you upon that log?" put in Maud.
+
+"Like any ordinary bump," he rejoined.  "I never knew the misery of a
+bump on a log before."
+
+"And, you are not hurt?" Hazel pressed close to his side and looked up
+lovingly at the tall boy.
+
+"Not in the least--that is, physically.  But I am seriously hurt
+mentally."
+
+Cora could not but recognize how handsome Paul was.  The excitement
+seemed to fire his whole being, and throw some subtle human
+phosphorus--a light from his burning brain certainly brightened in his
+eyes and even in his cheeks.
+
+"Come along, girls," he said hurriedly.  "Never mind the paraphernalia.
+Some lonely goat might like the rags.  Let's get out on the road."
+
+His anxiety was of course for the mail.  That leather bag meant more to
+him than the mere transference of Uncle Sam's freight--it meant his
+honor--his position.
+
+Over the rough fields the girls followed him.  Hazel clung to his hand
+like a little sister indeed, while the others were content to keep as
+close as the uncertain footing would allow.
+
+Presently they reached the road, then the stage coach.  The other
+girls, who had not run to Paul's rescue, were standing around
+breathless.
+
+Paul jumped into the car--thrust his hand into the box under the floor,
+where he always put the government pouch.
+
+He brought up the mailbag.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A CHANCE MEETING
+
+
+Paul lost no time in reaching Cartown with the belated mail, and so was
+obliged to leave the girls an the road with scant ceremony, hardly
+pausing to discuss why he had been bound when no apparent robbery had
+been perpetrated.
+
+Hazel appeared so agitated that Cora insisted upon her returning to the
+Kimball home to dinner, and also had succeeded in getting a promise
+from Paul that he would come there as early in the evening as it would
+be possible for him to do so.
+
+Then, when the mail car was lost sight of, and the motor girls started
+again on their homeward way, Clip insisted upon leading.
+
+"I know the variety of bandit," she declared, "and I want to meet him
+personally.  He is sure to fall dead in love with me on the spot.  And,
+oh, girls!  Think of it!  Me and the bandit!"
+
+Even Hazel laughed.  The suggestion called up a picture of the
+disgraceful Clip in robber uniform, with the proverbial red
+handkerchief on her head, and all the rest of the disreputable
+accessories.  Clip would "look the part."
+
+But the Thayer machine was not noted for its beauty or service--it had
+the reputation of bolting always at the "psychological moment," and
+when Clip dashed forward to meet her fate, the fate of the Turtle (as
+her car was called) intercepted her.
+
+With a jerk the Turtle tossed up its head, bounced Clip off her seat,
+and then stopped.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed the girl.  "Isn't this the utmost!  And I about to meet
+my bandit!  Now I suppose I will have to leave Turtle here to afford
+the foe a means of escape.  I say, girls, isn't that the utmost?"
+
+She jumped out of the car and, with a superficial glance at the
+fractious machine, waited for Cora's car.
+
+"Come on, Ray," she said to her companion.  "No use sitting there. That
+car will never, move unless it is dragged.  I know her.  No use
+monkeying with tools.  When she stops, she stops, and we may as well
+make up our minds to it."
+
+"But," argued Ray, "you have not even attempted to find out what is the
+matter.  Perhaps we could fix it up--"
+
+"No use attempting.  I would find the whole thing the matter. Just
+feel," she suggested, putting her ungloved hand on the radiator.  "You
+could make beef stew on any of her lids.  Oh, I know this kind of hot
+box!  I've boiled the water, and the cylinders are stuck."
+
+By this time the other girls had come along.  Cora insisted upon
+looking over the disabled machine, and, while she did so, Clip
+deliberately made herself comfortable in the Whirlwind.
+
+"Get in with Daisy," she called to Ray.  "This will do me."
+
+"Can't we tow it?" asked Cora.  "Why should you leave your machine out
+here?  And it is almost dark!"
+
+"That's the reason," replied Clip.  "It is almost dark, and I prefer to
+leave the machine here as a little token of my love to the bandit.
+Suppose I want to be 'run in' for traveling without a glimmer'?"
+
+Cora saw that argument was useless.  Reluctantly she turned from the
+Turtle.  Ray climbed in with Daisy and Maud.  Bess and Belle were ready
+to start "from the seat," without cranking up.  Cora gave the Whirlwind
+a few turns.
+
+"I hope we get home without any further trouble," came from the folds
+of Ray's blue veil.  "I think we have had enough for one day."
+
+"Enough!" echoed Clip.  "Why, I could stand ten times that much! I love
+trouble--in the abstract."
+
+"Suppose you call this the abstract," almost sneered Daisy, who
+evidently did not relish being crowded.
+
+"Certainly I do," declared Clip.  "Just gaze on the abstracted Turtle!"
+
+"Who's that?" whispered Hazel nervously.  A step could be heard in the
+roadway.
+
+"My bandit!" breathed Clip.  "Oh, my darling, desperate bandit!"
+
+"Hush!" cautioned Cora, for she felt the possibility of Paul's captors
+being about still.  Then two figures appeared from the sharp turn in
+the road.  Cora wanted to start, but hesitated.  The figures came
+closer.  They were those of two well-dressed men; that was easily
+discernable.
+
+Clip put her hand over her heart.
+
+"Oh-h=h!" she groaned audibly.  "Isn't he handsome!"
+
+Hazel clutched at her sleeve.  "Do stop!" she begged.  "They may be--"
+
+"They are!" answered Clip, and, as the men halted beside the Turtle,
+she deliberately jumped out and approached them.
+
+The other girls were spellbound.  Cora, too, left her place--she knew
+Cecilia's recklessness and felt it her duty to stand by her.
+
+The two strange men looked first at the girls and then at the car.
+
+"Had an accident?" asked the taller of the two politely.
+
+"Oh, no, it's chronic," answered Clip flippantly, much to Cora's dismay.
+
+The men were evidently gentlemen.  They were well dressed, and had the
+mannerisms of culture.
+
+"Perhaps I can help you," suggested one, taking from his pocket a
+wrench.  "I always carry tools--meet so many 'chronics,'" and he
+laughed lightly.
+
+"Come on," called Hazel from the Whirlwind.  "You know, Paul will be
+waiting, Cora."
+
+At this the men both started.  He with the wrench ceased his attempt to
+open the motor hood.  The other looked toward Hazel.
+
+"Oh, I see," he said with affected ease.  "Your friend promised to meet
+you, and you are late."
+
+"My brother," said Hazel curtly.
+
+"Paul Hastings," said Cora quickly, before she knew why.
+
+"Oh!" almost whistled the taller man.  "I see; of the Whitehall
+Company?"
+
+"Do you know him?" demanded Cora rather sharply.
+
+"Slight-ly," drawled the stout man, he with the wrench.
+
+"Well, we had best not detain you, young ladies," said the other, "as
+you have so important an engagement," and with that they both turned
+off.
+
+"What do you think of that?" exclaimed Cora.
+
+"The utmost!" replied Clip, in her favorite way of expressing "the
+limit."
+
+"They knew Paul!" gasped Hazel.
+
+"Seemed to," answered Cora evasively.  She had her opinions and doubts
+as to who these gentlemen might be.
+
+"Just my luck," murmured Clip.  "I rather liked the tall fellow, but I
+noticed that the other carried a gold filigree fountain pen, had a
+perfectly dear watch charm, and he talked like a lawyer."
+
+"Oh, my!" exclaimed Cora.  "You did size him up.  I only noticed that
+he was a joint short on his right-hand thumb."
+
+"That, my dear, is termed a professional thumb-mark.  We will know him
+if we meet him in the dark," said Clip.
+
+Cora laughed.  She felt, however, more serious than she cared to have
+the others know.  "Well, let's be off this time," she said. "We will
+hardly make town before dark now."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+JACK AND CLIP
+
+
+"A deliberate trick of Cecilia's," murmured Daisy.
+
+"She pretends to be so off-hand," answered Maud.  "I have always
+noticed that that sort of girl is the greatest schemer."
+
+"To leave her car out on the road, and then boldly ask Jack Kimball to
+go with her to fetch it.  Who ever heard of such a thing?  I wonder
+Cora tolerates her."
+
+"Cora is what some people call 'easy,'" said Daisy with uncertain
+meaning.  "She takes her chances in choosing friends."
+
+"Did they fetch the car back?"
+
+"I saw it at the garage this morning.  I do hope it cannot be fixed.  I
+mean," Maud hurried to say, "I hope she will not hamper us with it on
+our tour.  It is only fit for the junkman."
+
+Daisy and Maud were walking toward the post office.  It was the morning
+after the adventure on the road, and the two girls had heard from Ray
+Stuart something of the news they were now discussing.  The hold-up of
+Paul Hastings was to them not so important as the fact that Cecilia
+Thayer had gone over to Kimball's and actually asked Jack Kimball to
+take her out Woodbine way to tow home the balky Turtle.
+
+But, precisely as her friend had said, Clip was a schemer.  In the
+first place, she had no idea of detaining her companions on the lonely
+road to "monkey with the machine," so soon after Paul's hold-up.  Next,
+she had no idea of leaving the car there at the mercy of fate.
+Instead, she deliberately went over to Kimball's after dinner, asked
+Jack to take her out Woodbine way, and incidentally suggested that he
+take along a gun.  Jack had two good friends, each opposite the other
+in type.  Bess Robinson was very much admired by him; and Cecilia
+Thayer, she who always played the tomboy to the extent of affording a
+good time for others when she could actually disguise a serious reason
+in the joke, she who affected the "strained" nurse costume for fun,
+when it was a real necessity--Jack Kimball liked Cecilia Thayer.  Her
+rather limited means often forced her to make sport of circumstances,
+but, in every case, Cecilia "won out."  She was, the boys said, "no
+knocker."
+
+So it happened as Daisy related.  Clip did ask Jack to go with her to
+fetch home the car.  It also happened that they encountered Sid Wilcox
+on the way.  He seemed to be returning alone in his auto from Cartown.
+Sid told Ida, Ida told Ray, Ray told Daisy and Daisy told Maud.
+
+Daisy and Maud were inseparable chums.  They agreed on everything--from
+admiration for Jack Kimball and Walter Pennington, to dislike for
+Cecilia Thayer, and something akin to jealousy for the Robinson girls.
+Cora was beyond criticism--they simply "regarded her."
+
+"And," spoke Daisy, as they turned into the green, "I do believe that
+the boys played that trick on Paul.  I thought when they hurried so to
+get away that they were up to something."
+
+"Queer joke," commented Maud.
+
+"Didn't you think those strange men acted suspiciously?" asked Daisy.
+
+"How could they do otherwise when Cecilia acted as she did?  I never
+saw a girl so forward."
+
+"I suppose she will have some boys tagging after us on our tour, if her
+car is fixable," went on Daisy in sarcastic tones.  "Likely she will
+find some excuse for stopping at hotels, and such places. Mother
+insisted I should not go to any public eating place unless we have some
+older person along.  But Cecilia--she is old or young, just as it suits
+her."
+
+"There's Bess and Belle!" exclaimed Maud, as the Robinson twins'
+runabout swerved into the avenue.
+
+"And there are Jack--and Cecilia!" Daisy fairly gasped the words.
+
+At that instant the two last named persons, in Jack's little car, came
+up to the turn.  Cecilia looked almost pretty--even her critics
+admitted that, secretly.  Of course, Jack was always handsome.
+
+"I wonder how Bess feels," remarked Daisy with scornfully curled lip.
+
+"She thinks a lot of Jack," replied Maud, as both bowed to the
+occupants of the runabout.
+
+"Where do you suppose they are going?" went on Daisy.
+
+"Oh, probably to see about having the old car fixed up.  Of course,
+when she got Jack to fetch it she will manage to have him attend to the
+rest."
+
+Bess and Belle were now abreast of the girls on the sidewalk.  The
+twins bowed pleasantly, while the others nodded in return.
+
+"I wish mother had not gone to town this morning," said Daisy.  "I
+would just like to see where they are all going."
+
+"Your mother took the car?"
+
+"Yes; and she won't be home until evening.  Well, I declare if there
+isn't Cora and--"
+
+"Walter Pennington," finished Maud.  "She is almost as changeable as
+her brother."
+
+"Isn't it too mean that we have to walk," complained Daisy.  "I have a
+mind to go over to the garage and ask for a car.  Father often gets
+one."
+
+"Oh, yes.  Doctors are always having breakdowns.  Do you suppose you
+could get one?"
+
+"Well, I am going to try, at any rate," and Daisy Bennet quickened her
+pace, while Maud Morris hurried along with her companion.  It was but a
+few minutes' walk to the garage, and when the girls reached the
+entrance they were surprised to find the three automobiles, Jack's,
+Cora's and the twins' pulled up outside.
+
+"Oh, I can't go in now," demurred Daisy.  "We will have to wait until
+they go.  Funny they should be taking a morning run, without asking us
+along."
+
+Paul Hastings was talking to the Robinson girls.  It was evident that
+he was much excited.  Cora was on the sidewalk, and Cecilia was beside
+her.  Jack stood off to one side with Walter.
+
+"Some important consultation," whispered Daisy.  "I'll wager it's about
+the hold-up."
+
+"Of course, father knows you had nothing to do with it," Bess was
+saying to Paul, "but he is positive the papers were in that mail. Corn,
+thought it best we should let you know right away."
+
+"Forewarned is forearmed," said Paul.  Then Daisy and Maud came up to
+the group.
+
+"My!" exclaimed Daisy.  "Quite a gathering."
+
+"Yes," answered Clip.  "We are glad you came.  Now our meeting is
+complete.  We want evidence.  Tell us all you know about the strange
+men.  You had a good chance to observe.  You were not in the little
+quadrille on the road."
+
+"Why," stammered Daisy, "I thought them very nice-looking men. They
+were well dressed, and--"
+
+"That's it," interrupted Jack.  "They were nice men, well dressed. What
+else do you expect young ladies to observe?  Clip, your suspicions are
+not borne out by facts.  Not a girl in the party but yourself saw--what
+was it?  The corner of the missing blue envelope in the upper
+right-hand pocket--"
+
+"Jack Kimball!  You know perfectly well I never said such a thing. I
+did see something blue, but it might have been--"
+
+"A captured shadow from Daisy's eyes," said Walter dryly.
+
+"What happened?" breathed Maud.  Then Walter realized what a girl's
+eyes may do in the matter of "imploring."  He deliberately stepped over
+to Maud's side.
+
+"Oh, some valuable papers were taken from the mailbag," volunteered
+Clip.  "And we thought the strange men might have found them."
+
+"You cheerful fibber," whispered Jack.  "Come on, if you expect to get
+to Cartown to-day."
+
+"How can we, now?" asked Clip in an undertone.
+
+"Just jump in and go," replied Jack.  "Why should we explain?"
+
+Jack cranked up his car, and in her usual deliberate way, Cecilia
+Thayer stepped into the runabout, pulled on her gloves, smoothed out
+the robe, and then said: "Good morning!"
+
+Jack and Clip left the others standing in surprise and, perhaps,
+disappointment.  Only Cora guessed where they were actually going.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE MYSTERIOUS RIDE
+
+
+The fact that Cecilia Thayer could be old or young, as had been
+remarked by one of her companions, was not a mere saying.  The Thayers
+were strangers in Chelton, and Cecilia was now only home from school on
+a vacation.  It was generally understood that the girl was not exactly
+a daughter of the small household, but perhaps a niece, or some
+relative, who made her home with the people.  She never invited her
+friends to her home, but this was not considered strange, as her means
+plainly were not equal to the circumstances of those with whom she
+associated.
+
+Not that Cecilia sought this class, because she was constantly sought
+by them--she was a brilliant, happy young girl, and, as such, was a
+most desirable adjunct to the Chelton younger set.
+
+It was, of course, Cora Kimball who "took her up," and that fact was
+sufficient to vouch for all.
+
+The girl and Jack were well on the road to Woodbine the morning of the
+little meeting by the garage, when, with a very different expression of
+countenance to that shown to the party by the roadside, Cecilia grasped
+at the arm of the young man beside her.
+
+"It's awfully good of you, Jack," she said, "and I suppose I am taking
+desperate chances."
+
+"Good!  The idea!  It's a privilege," he answered warmly.
+
+"You suspect, of course."
+
+"I have suspected," he said with a light laugh.
+
+"And if the girls find out?"
+
+"What of it?  Is it a disgrace to--"
+
+"Hush!  I haven't qualified yet, and when I do I'm going to spring it
+on them."  She tossed her head back defiantly.  "Won't some of them
+howl!"
+
+Jack laughed outright.  "You're a brick, Clip," he exclaimed. "You can
+count on Cora, too.  Does she know?"
+
+"I haven't told her, but I imagine she has guessed.  You are a great
+family at guessing."
+
+"Which way?" he inquired, nodding toward a fork in the road.
+
+"To the left.  Isn't it too mean that our old lumber wagon gave way?  I
+never had more need of it.  It's just splendid of you to help me out
+this way."
+
+"And good of you to let me," he replied with a keen glance at the
+girl's bright face.
+
+"Of course I had no idea of going on the girls' trip.  I only went in
+for the arrangements for the fun of the thing.  I seem to need an awful
+lot of fun," she finished with a sigh that ended like a groan.
+
+"Oh, we all do, more or less," spoke Jack.  "Only some of us are more
+upright than others in the way we acknowledge it."
+
+They were turning up to the Salvey cottage.  Cecilia pointed it out.
+
+"You must expect to sign the promise book," she said.  "That is a
+condition of admittance."
+
+"So Cora told me.  Well, I'll sign.  Can't tell which name may win the
+prize."
+
+"Of course I'll see Wren first.  But before we go she will insist upon
+seeing you.  And--don't mind her extravagances about me. You know, she
+sees so few people that she thinks I am just wonderful."
+
+"I agree with her.  But you can count upon my discretion, if that is
+what you want, Clip."
+
+"You're 'immense,' Jack!" exclaimed the girl, her smile apologizing for
+the vulgarity of the expression.  "If I had a brother like you--"
+
+"Hush!  Your brother!  Why, Clip!"
+
+"Here we are," she interrupted; and she prepared to get out as Jack
+stopped the car.  "Suppose you stay outside until I call you?"
+
+"Oh, if I must.  But be sure to call.  I've had Cora play that trick,
+and forget the cue."
+
+"Oh, she'll have to see you," and with that Cecilia jumped out of the
+car, and presently touched the brass knocker of the little cottage.
+
+Jack was left to his own thoughts.  Wasn't she a girl, though?  So like
+Cora in her impulses.  Well, a girl has to be impulsive to get
+ahead--she is so ridiculously hampered by conventionalities.
+
+It seemed a long time before Clip reappeared at the door, and beckoned
+him to come in.  Then the room he entered smelled strongly of
+antiseptics, and the crippled child sat in a chair made sweet and fresh
+with snowy pillows.  Wren had her promise book in her hands.  Briefly
+Cecilia introduced Jack, while the child eyed him keenly, as do those
+deprived of the usual means of making sure of their friends.
+
+"You know about my promise," she said shyly.  "Grandpa's will is lost
+in an old table, and will you promise to help find it?"
+
+"Indeed I will," said Jack warmly, taking the pen offered.  "I have a
+weakness for hunting old furniture, and I hope it will be my good
+fortune to find the table."
+
+"How much you are like your sister," said Wren, referring to Cora, "but
+not a bit like your cousin."
+
+This caused both Jack and Cecilia to laugh--she Jack's cousin!
+
+Mrs. Salvey patted the child's head.  "She is so much better lately,"
+she said, "since she has been friends with Miss Thayer."
+
+"Her friendship is wonderful," said Jack, handing back the book. "It
+does me all sorts of good."
+
+Cecilia was pulling on her gloves.  She picked up the small black
+satchel (her hand bag, she called it), and started for the door.
+
+"That hand bag smells like--"
+
+"Fresh eggs," she interrupted Jack.  "Understand, young man, I had to
+come out here to get one dozen of strictly fresh eggs."
+
+For a moment she looked intently at Jack, as if determined to put him
+on his honor without further explanation.  He took her hand and
+assisted her into the car.  As he did so she felt the assurance that
+Jack Kimball was her friend.
+
+Then they started back to Chelton.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+"THEY'RE OFF!"
+
+
+"Isn't it too mean?  I never thought that Cecilia would act so.  I
+think Jack knows why."
+
+Bess Robinson was talking to Cora.  Her voice betrayed something other
+than disappointment.  Bess now called Cecilia by her full name--the
+affectionate "Clip" had been laid aside.  Besides this she hesitated
+when Jack's name was needed in her conversation. The fact was perfectly
+evident.  Jack's attention to Cecilia, their runaway ride, and the
+consequent talk, had rather hurt Bess. Jack had always been a very good
+friend to her.
+
+"But Clip simply can't come," said Cora.  "Her machine is out of order,
+and, besides this, she is called away to look after some sick relative."
+
+"Cora Kimball!" exclaimed Bess.  "You're a perfect baby.  Sick
+relative!  Why, every one sickens a relative when they want to go away
+in a hurry.  It might be interesting to know who else has a made-up
+sick relative who demands, say, Jack's immediate attention."
+
+"Why, Bess!  I'm surprised that you should speak so bitterly.  You know
+perfectly well that Jack's going to the races.  You heard them make all
+the arrangements--Jack, Ed and Walter.  Besides--" Cora stopped.  She
+tossed back her pretty head as if too disgusted to speak.  She was
+packing the last of her touring things into the hampers of the
+Whirlwind.  She would have everything ready for the early start next
+morning.  Bess Robinson had run over for final instructions, when Cora
+announced that Cecilia Thayer could not go with them on the motor
+girls' tour.  This information drove all other details from the mind of
+Bess.  And now Cora was locking her boxes.
+
+"Oh, I suppose we will get along very well without her," said Bess
+finally.  "In fact, it may be better that she does not come, for she is
+bound to be doing things that are risky."
+
+"Well, we will miss her, I'm sure," said Cora, "for she is such good
+company.  But we will have to manage."
+
+"Has Belle all your tools packed?  Don't forget candles; they are so
+handy when anything happens after dark.  I always fetch them. They poke
+under little places so nicely."
+
+"Oh, I fancy Belle has managed to take along the candelabra.  At least,
+I think I can count on the glass candlesticks.  Poor Belle! I wonder
+will she ever leave off that sort of thing.  She cares more or an
+'effect' than for a good square meal," answered Bess.
+
+"Alt kinds make a world," replied Cora.  "Suppose she were as sensible
+as you or I?  Why, as well take away the flowers, and plant kindling
+wood."
+
+Bess laughed.  Cora turned up the path with her.  "I met Ray," said
+Bess, "buying a new veil, of course.  I would hate to be as pretty as
+Ray, and have so much trouble to keep up the reputation. That's the
+worst of pretty girls.  They really have to keep pretty."
+
+"And Daisy?  Was she buying a new novel to read en route?  They might
+both do better to 'chip in' and buy a new kit of tools," said Cora.
+
+At precisely eight forty-five o'clock the next morning the Whirlwind
+drew up in front of the post-office.  The start was to be made from
+that point, and Cora was first to arrive.  With her were Hazel
+Hastings, and Gertrude Adams, a school friend of Cora's.
+
+Two minutes later the Flyaway puffed into sight with the Robinson twins
+smiling serenely from her two-part seat.
+
+Scarcely had the occupants of the two car exchanged greetings than
+Daisy Bennet and Maud Morris drove up in the Bennet runabout, called
+the Breeze.  On account of the change of plan, Ray Stuart was to ride
+with Cora, instead of with Clip, as was at first proposed.  Ray met the
+girls at the post-office.  As predicted, she did look like a brand new
+bisque statue.  She wore a soft silk coat, of light green pongee, the
+same shade hood, over which "rested," one might say, a long white
+chiffon veil.  It reposed on the hood, where two secret pins held it,
+but otherwise the veil was mingled with Ray's expression and the
+surrounding atmosphere. The girls sighed as they beheld her.  She had
+been waiting for some minutes in the post-office, and needless to say
+there were others waiting, too--not altogether engrossed in reading the
+latest mail.
+
+Cora stepped out of the Whirlwind and opened the tonneau door for Ray.
+Hazel and she were to ride within the car, while Gertrude shared the
+seat with Cora.  Cora wore her regular motor togs.  The close-fitting
+pongee coat showed off well her perfect figure, and with the French
+bonnet, that nestled so snugly to her black tresses there was no
+semblance to the flaring, loose effect so common to motorists.  She
+looked more like a Paris model than a girl equipped for a tour.  But
+Cora had that way--she was always "classy," as the boys expressed it,
+or in perfect style, as the girls would admit.
+
+Hazel usually affected strong shades--she was dark and could wear reds
+and browns to good advantage.  It so happened that the motor girls
+afforded a peculiar variety, no two wearing similar outfits. Timid
+little Maud Morris was in white, and Daisy was in linen. The Robinson
+girls wore their regular uniform--Bess in Havana-brown and Belle in
+true-blue.  So it will be seen that such an array of beauty and clothes
+could not help but attract attention, to say nothing of the several
+automobiles that made up the procession in front of the post-office.
+
+At the last moment Belle had to run into a store to make some trifling
+purchases, while Daisy sent two extra postcards, and Ray needed
+something from the drug store.
+
+Finally all was ready.  It was just nine o'clock.
+
+"Ready!" called Cora.
+
+A blast on a bugle startled them.  Then--
+
+What was it?
+
+It looked like a hay wagon, but it came along at the speed of a fine
+auto.
+
+"The boys!" called the girls in one breath.
+
+Sure enough, there were Jack, Walter, Ed and some others of their
+chums, piled up on a veritable hay rack, and they wore all sorts of
+farmer clothes.  The hay rack evidently set upon the body of are
+automobile.
+
+And Jack on the "monkey seat," blowing that bugle!
+
+"Start!" called Cora.
+
+"They're off!" shouted the chorus from the hay wagon, and then Chelton
+folks were treated to a sight the like of which they had never before
+witnessed.
+
+It was the first official tour of the original motor girls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THOSE DREADFUL BOYS
+
+
+"No BOYS, eh?" shouted Ed from his "perch" in the hay.
+
+"Aren't they dreadful?" exclaimed Daisy with doubtful sincerity.
+
+"Hope mother doesn't hear of it," replied Maud.  "She would be sure to
+worry."
+
+Cora laughed, and Bess fairly panted.  Belle tossed something into the
+hay wagon as it passed--it made a practice of passing each machine in
+turn, and then doing it all over again.
+
+Every one in Chelton and the near-by places rushed out as the
+procession went along.  It was like a circus--many folks really did
+believe that a "railroad show" had come to town unannounced.
+
+The girls had planned to have dinner at a pretty little tea-house on
+the outskirts of Hollyville.  But the boys had no intention of turning
+back, it seemed, and imagine those boys in the tea-house, kept by a
+couple of enterprising college girls!
+
+"Hey there!" called Jack.  "When do we eat?  There's the noon whistles."
+
+"Yon don't eat," replied Cora.
+
+"Don't, eh?  Well, look out for your commissary department," answered
+Jack.  "We came prepared to fight."
+
+"Oh," sighed Daisy, "do you suppose they will spoil all our boxes?"
+
+"I'm sure I don't know," replied the noncommital Maud.
+
+But Hazel said: "What do you suppose they are up to?"
+
+"Trust them for fun," answered Cora.  "I will simply trounce Jack if he
+attempts to overhaul our stores."
+
+Hazel laughed merrily.  "If only Paul were along," she ventured. "And,
+Cora, do you know that mailbag business is not by any means settled?"
+she asked.
+
+"I know that, girlie," said Cora with polite seriousness, "but all
+troubles are tabooed on this ride, you know.  Gertrude," to the girl
+who had been looking and listening, "I appoint you monitor of this car.
+The first girl to bring in troubles is to be fined."
+
+"Very well," replied Gertrude, "I shall be glad to have something to
+do.  I feel like a stranger with those boys."
+
+"That's because you do not know them," ventured Ray.  "They are
+perfectly splendid boys."
+
+"Make a note of that," called Cora.  "Gertrude, that is one mark in
+favor of Ray."
+
+The procession was winding along a pretty country road.  Trees closed
+in from side to side, and deep gutters outlined the driveway from the
+footpath.
+
+The boys had actually ceased their antics for the time, and it occurred
+to more than one girl that this respite might have been more
+advantageous if it had been put into operation in the city streets--the
+decorum was wasted in the woods.  But boys have a queer reasoning
+code--where girls are concerned.
+
+"Don't you suppose they will turn back before we reach the Glen?"
+called Bess to Cora.  Their machines were running quite close together.
+
+"If they don't leave us we will drive past the teahouse, and come back
+later," said Cora.
+
+"But what will the college girls think?  They will be sure to have a
+nice lunch ready."
+
+"When Tillie sees Ed Foster she will cease to think.  She knows Ed,"
+and Cora laughed significantly.
+
+"Oh, look!" shouted Hazel.  "A flock of sheep.  And directly in the
+track.  The boys--"
+
+At that moment every one saw the sheep.  The hay wagon made a spurt and
+dashed straight through the frightened herd, scattering them right and
+left, like feathers blown by the wind.
+
+Daisy and Maud came next.  They had time to jam down the brakes, but it
+would have been wiser to have dashed through the flock without loss of
+time, for an angry ram turned as the car slacked speed, and when Daisy
+and Maud saw him jump toward them, they also jumped out into the
+gutter, deserting their car.
+
+A big, woolly ram leaped up from the midst of the flock, and actually
+landed in the runaway automobile.  The improvised hay wagon was quickly
+steered to one side, just as Daisy's car, with the horned beast at the
+wheel, plunged past.
+
+The machine, in charge of the queer mechanician, plunged straight
+ahead, and after a moment's hesitation on the part of their drivers,
+the other cars were quickly sent after it.
+
+The boys shouted lustily.  As if the frightened and angry ram cared for
+the harmony of a college quartet.  Wasn't it ridiculous to see the ram
+positively driving the car?
+
+By some strange instinct the animal had raised its fore legs to the rim
+of the steering wheel, standing upright on his hind ones, which were
+jamming the brake and clutch pedals.
+
+"Oh!" screamed the girls in a chorus.  "There comes a runabout! He'll
+collide with it!"
+
+A runabout, coming in the opposite direction, and headed straight for
+the ram, could be seen down the road.  The driver was a girl, that was
+evident, but she was so muffled in hood, veil and cloak that her
+features were not discernible.
+
+"Stop it!" screamed Gertrude.  "She'll be killed."
+
+The ram evidently saw the other car coming, and tried to leap out, but
+its fore feet had gone through the spaces between the spokes of the
+steering wheel.  The girl in the runabout was sending her car from side
+to side, in a frantic endeavor to avoid a collision. It seemed to be a
+choice with her, whether she should smash into the ram's car, or tilt
+into the roadside ditch.
+
+Suddenly the girl stood up.  The eyes of the motor girls and their boy
+companions were on her.  She gave a scream, and then--something
+happened.  From the rear cars came a scream.  Then--the Breeze was
+stopped--the ram was gone, and the runabout was ditched.
+
+Where and who was the unfortunate driver?
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE GIRL IN THE DITCH
+
+
+When all the machines had been stopped there was a wild rush to the
+rescue--Bess and Belle with Gertrude hurrying back to where Daisy and
+Maud had been left, while Cora, Ray and Hazel ran forward to the side
+of the strange runabout.  The boys divided themselves--some going in
+each direction.
+
+Presently Cora shouted
+
+"Jack!  Jack!  Hurry!  It's Clip!  And she is unconscious!"
+
+Jack was not far away, and at his sister's call he hurried to her. Ray
+had taken Cecilia's head in her lap, while Cora was trying to lift the
+unconscious girl from her bent-up posture in the narrow, roadside,
+grass-grown ditch.
+
+"Oh, the poor dear!" sighed Cora.  "To think that our sport should
+have--"
+
+Cecilia was opening her eyes.
+
+"Clip!  Clip, dear!" whispered Cora.  "Try to--wake up!"
+
+Cecilia did try--she put her hand to her dazed eyes.
+
+"Here!  Let me lift her," commanded Jack, slipping down on the other
+side into the deep grass and without any apparent effort lifting
+Cecilia up.  With one long step he reached the road.  Then for a moment
+he seemed uncertain--should he lay the girl down, or carry her to a
+machine?
+
+"Oh, I can stand," she said faintly.  "I am much better now.
+What--happened?"
+
+"You happened," answered Jack, so dismissing the question.  "Just keep
+still, and we will have you around directly.  This is where you beat
+the motor girls."  He was now helping her to her feet. "You may ride
+back with the motor boys."
+
+"Are you better?" asked Ray anxiously, stroking Cecilia's white hand,
+which had been divested of its glove.  "Wasn't it dreadful?"
+
+"Very," sighed Cecilia.  "And my poor little machine!  Jack, how can I
+ever--"
+
+"You can never," he insisted with a wink.  "I never saw such a
+rambunctious ram.  Didn't he ramify, though?"
+
+"What in the world was it?" asked Cecilia.  She was sitting on the
+grass and seemed almost prepared to laugh.  "I thought I must be seeing
+things.  Then I--"
+
+"Felt things," said Jack.  "That's the regular course of the disease.
+Here come the others.  Hello, Daisy has the veil tied up, and Maud is
+limping."
+
+"What happened to them?" asked Cecilia.
+
+"Same thing that happened to you," replied Jack.  "The ram.  That was
+the most happening thing I have seen in some time."
+
+Maud was limping, and had Ed's arm.  Daisy kept her hand to her face,
+and she clung to Walter.  Hazel flashed a meaning look to Cora.  The
+girls might not be very badly injured, but they needed help--that sort
+of help.
+
+"Well!" exclaimed Cora.  "You look as if something did happen."
+
+"Oh, I'm all scratched," fluttered Daisy.  "That is, my face feels like
+a grater."  She took her handkerchief from the abused face. A few
+harmless scratches were discernible.
+
+"Not so bad," said Jack.  "Just the correct lines, I believe, for--let
+me see--intellectuality."
+
+"Oh, you needn't joke," snapped Daisy.  "I suppose Cecelia--is--badly
+hurt!"
+
+She said this with the evident intention of drawing attention to Jack's
+attitude toward Cecilia.
+
+"Now, Daisy," said Jack good-naturedly, "if you want to dump in the
+ditch again, and will only give me the chance, I will be perfectly
+delighted to fish you out: I fancy I would get you first shot."
+
+"Oh, you need not bother," interrupted Walter.  "I can take care of
+Miss Bennet."
+
+At this he spread his handkerchief most carefully on the grass, and,
+with mock concern, assisted Daisy to the low seat.
+
+Ed followed suit, adding to the handkerchief cushion his cap--to make
+the grass softer for Maud.
+
+"But however did you happen along, Cecilia?" asked Belle, who now added
+her dainty self to the line of girls on the roadside.
+
+"Now, here!" called Jack.  "No more happenings!  I beg your pardon,
+Belle, but we have had such a surfeit of this happening business that
+we intend, in the language of the poets, to cut it out."
+
+Cecilia gave Jack a grateful glance.  Cora broke in promptly with a new
+thought--to divert attention.
+
+"And you are the girls who wanted 'No Boys!'" exclaimed Walter. "I
+should just like to know what you would have done without us?"
+
+"There!  Didn't I tell you?" said Cora.  "They are actually claiming
+the glory of the whole thing.  I suppose, Walter, you hired the ram to
+do the proper thing in initiating the motor girls in the art of
+touring?"
+
+"Wouldn't he make a hit, though, at some of our college affairs!"
+exclaimed Ed.  "I wonder if we could buy the beast?  Here comes the
+owner now."
+
+The girls looked alarmed.  Suppose the farmer should blame them for the
+disappearance of the ram!
+
+"I'll do the talking," suggested Walter.  "If you say anything, Jack,
+there might be a row."
+
+"Humph!" said Jack.  "I suppose you know just how to deal with ram
+owners."
+
+The farmer was quite up to them now.  He was not an ill-natured-looking
+man, and as he approached he touched his big straw hat.
+
+"No one hurt?" he asked, much to the girls' relief.
+
+"Oh, no, thank you," said Cora, before Walter could open his mouth.  "I
+hope you have not lost the sheep."
+
+"Lose him!  Couldn't do that if you chucked him in the mill-pond and
+let the dam loose on him.  Only yesterday the plagued thing went for my
+wife.  Yes, sir, and he 'most knocked her down.  When I seed your steam
+wagons comin' along I knowed there would be trouble.  He's that pesky!"
+
+The man looked at the disabled machine.
+
+"Busted?" he asked.
+
+"Some," replied Walter.  "But I guess we can manage.  Would you like to
+sell that ram?"
+
+"Sell him?  What for?  To kill folks as try to feed him?  I bought him
+from a fellow who always wore an overcoat, and, bless me, that ram got
+so used to it if I haven't had to put my ulster on the hottest days
+this summer to do down to the pasture where he was chewin'."
+
+The boys laughed heartily at this.  Walter seemed keener than ever now
+on making a bargain.
+
+"Well, you see," he said, "we might use the fellow for stunts--tricks.
+I think we might train him--"
+
+A scream from Belle startled them.
+
+"Oh!" she yelled.  "There he comes!  What shall we do?"
+
+Without waiting for instructions, however, Belle, with the other girls,
+jumped up and started for a little cottage not far from the roadside.
+The ram was coming over the fields straight for the autos.
+
+"Now wait," cautioned the farmer, as the boys made ready to confront
+the animal.  "Just keep back until he gets near that machine.  Then
+maybe we can git him."
+
+"He's game sport, all right," said Walter.  "He evidently hasn't had
+enough."
+
+The brush and low trees along the road made it possible for the young
+men to hide, while the excited animal dashed through the tall grass out
+into the road.
+
+He went straight for the hay wagon.  With a bound he was in the
+decorated auto, like a beast in a cage, with the rack and hay trimmings
+surrounding him.
+
+"Now we've got him," said the farmer; "that is, if we're careful."
+
+"How?" whispered Ed.
+
+"Someone must lasso him." The farmer held out the rope in his hand,
+making a loop ready to throw over the ram's head.
+
+The girls had reached the cottage, but were calling to the boys all
+sorts of warning and cautions.
+
+"When he gets at the hay," said the farmer, "I guess he'll eat. That
+run likely whet up his appetite."
+
+"More fun than a deer hunt," said Jack, laughing.  "I wonder what will
+turn up next on this motor girls' tour."
+
+"Get busy," said Ed, creeping toward the hay wagon.  "Now, Walter-- Oh,
+Glory be!  If he isn't at my four-dollar gloves!"
+
+Quick, like the well=trained athlete that he was, Ed grabbed the rope
+from the farmer, sprang to the hay rack and made a cast.
+
+It landed true on the animal's horns.
+
+"I've got him!" exclaimed the boy.  "Now, fellows, quick!  Make his
+legs fast."
+
+No need to say "quick," for the boys were up and busy making fast the
+beast before the surprised farmer had a chance to exclaim.
+
+"So you like the real thing in gloves?" asked Ed while pulling at the
+rope.  "Well, I fancy you will make something real--perhaps a robe--for
+the best record of this trip.  Oh, I say, fellows, let's buy the brute,
+have him done up properly, and offer his coat to the girl who comes
+home with a record."
+
+Shouts of glee followed this suggestion, and the girls, seeing that the
+animal was made safe, were now running back from the cottage to add
+their voices to the excitement.
+
+Clip insisted upon helping to tie the ram--she declared he had done his
+share toward making it uncomfortable for her--while Daisy, in her timid
+way, wanted to do something to the "saucy thing" for upsetting her, and
+Jack suggested that she "box his horrid ears."
+
+Cora glanced at her watch.
+
+"If it's all the same to the gentlemen," she said, "we will continue on
+our way.  We have lost a full hour already."
+
+"Lost!" repeated Walter meaningly.
+
+"She said 'lost,'" faltered Ed with similar intent.
+
+"Not actually lost," corrected Cora, "but at least dropped out of our
+itinerary."
+
+"We were due ten miles ahead now," sighed Maud in her wistful way.
+
+"Too bad, too bad," whimpered Jack, who was still pulling at the ram's
+rope.  "But it was not our fault, girls.  Now, Daisy, do you think you
+can run your machine without taking in any more circuses?  We have
+examined your car, and it is intact--not so much as a footprint did the
+naughty beast leave."
+
+Clip was looking over her runabout.  It was not damaged, it seemed, and
+for this she was most grateful.  Clip was not out for pleasure--you
+have guessed that--and it would have been highly inconvenient for that
+young lady to go back to town in the hay.
+
+Jack left off at the ram's horn, and came to crank up for her.
+
+"All right, Clip?" he asked with evident concern.  "I don't want you to
+go over that lonely road if you do not feel just like it. I can go with
+you."
+
+"You!" she exclaimed.  "Why, Jack Kimball, what are you thinking
+about?" and she laughed airily.  "If you want to finish the impression
+we started the other day, just take another ride with me.  No, Jack, my
+dear boy, I am very much all right, and very much obliged.  But I must
+hurry off.  Whatever will my little brown Wren think of me?"  She
+stepped into the car.  "Good-by, girls," she called.  "I am so sorry I
+delayed you, but so glad we met.  Take care of the ram, boys, and am I
+eligible for the trophy?  I am a motor girl, you know."
+
+"Of course you are," said Jack, before the others could speak. "All
+motor girls are eligible."
+
+"Ida Giles, too?" asked Bess.  The moment she had spoken she could have
+bitten her tongue.  Why could she never hide her feelings about Jack
+and Clip?
+
+"And, girls," called Cecilia, who was starting now, "don't forget about
+your promise.  Wren is counting on results."
+
+"What promise?" asked Ed.
+
+"Oh, don't you know?" replied Cora.  "Well, I am afraid Jack will have
+to tell you.  We really have not another moment.  Are you ready, girls?"
+
+"Why, our strange promise," put in Maud, who was glad to have a "real
+remark" to make to Ed.  "We promised a little girl we would find an old
+table for her and we have just ransacked the farmer's house, hoping to
+find it."
+
+Cora burst out laughing.  Such an explanation!
+
+"Why, I'll promise a 'little girl' that," said Ed, taking up Cora's
+laugh.  "Any qualifications?  Might it be a time-table?"
+
+Maud pouted.  She stepped into Cora's car, evidently disgusted with
+boys in general.
+
+Gertrude had something to say to Walter, and was obliged to stand up on
+the hay rack to do so, as the young man would not let go the rope that
+held the ram.
+
+There was a sudden hum of an auto, and Clip was gone.
+
+"Thought she had a sick relative," murmured Bess.
+
+"So she has," said Jack, who overheard the remark.  "But she came near
+neglecting her this morning.  That was a close call."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Bess with a curled lip.  "It seems to me everything
+Cecilia does is close."
+
+"Bess Robinson!" exclaimed Jack.  "Do you want me to hug you?  You have
+been treating me shamefully for weeks past.  Now, own up. What have I
+done?"
+
+Jack knew how to restore Bess to good humor, and his success this time
+was marked.
+
+"You ridiculous boy!" exclaimed Bess.  "You know perfectly well what I
+mean."
+
+And Jack did.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+AT THE GROTTO
+
+
+"We have dropped something," said Cora as the party started off again.
+
+"Yes," replied Gertrude, "I agree with Ray that the boys are jolly.  We
+miss them already."
+
+"Hush!" cautioned Cora.  "We are to have nothing to do with boys on
+this trip."
+
+She laughed at her own assertion.
+
+"Nothing more to do with them?" asked Belle.  Bess kept her machine
+within talking distance.
+
+"Till the next time," replied Cora, throwing in the second speed gear.
+"But we will certainly have to hurry now.  What on earth do you suppose
+Walter will do with that ram?"
+
+"What on earth do you think the ram will do with Walter?" replied Ray.
+
+"He paid the farmer three dollars for him, and the man declared he
+could have him for nothing," said Belle.  "Now, that three dollars--"
+
+"Would have bought orchids," interrupted Cora, teasing Belle for her
+sentimentality.
+
+"Cora," spoke Hazel suddenly, "did you hear what Ed said to Jack about
+Paul's hold-up?"
+
+"The forbidden topic," interrupted Gertrude.  "Hazel, you don't want to
+lose the sheepskin for insubordination, do you?"
+
+"But, Gertrude, please," begged Hazel quite seriously, "I really must
+speak to Cora.  I will promise not to be blue, but you know I am very
+anxious about Paul."
+
+"Then speak on, very briefly," replied Gertrude.  "I will allow you
+exactly five minutes."
+
+"Thanks," said Hazel.  "Cora," she began again, "Ed told Jack that the
+papers lost from the mail belonged to Mr. Robinson, and have to do with
+a very valuable patent.  Do you suppose the post-office will do
+anything to Paul?"
+
+"Oh, you precious baby!" exclaimed Cora.  "Don't you know that Paul has
+been entirely cleared?  The mystery is simply who took the papers and
+otherwise left the mailbag intact?"
+
+"Poor Paul!" sighed the sister.
+
+"Poor Hazel!" added Cora.  "A sister who is always worrying about a
+handsome brother is bound to lose him, eh, Gertrude?"
+
+Gertrude blushed.  She had only met Paul once, and at that time her
+remark was so positive that Cora had seized the opportunity of teasing
+the girl.  That she never noticed boys was Gertrude's claim at college,
+and now Cora was delighted to have a chance of reversing the claim.
+
+Daisy and Maud, who had been at some distance from the Whirlwind, now
+cut past Bess and Belle, making their way to the side of the big maroon
+car.
+
+"Cora," called Daisy, "I forgot to tell you.  I found this little
+satchel by the road where we stopped."
+
+Cora gazed at the black bag that Daisy held up for her inspection.
+
+"Why," faltered Cora, "that must belong to Clip.  Why didn't you ask to
+whom it did belong?"
+
+"I really never thought a word about it until Maud said just now it
+must be Clip's."
+
+"But why did you pick it up without asking?" insisted Cora, her voice
+somewhat indignant.
+
+"It was dropped on the road.  I thought of course it belonged to some
+of the girls, and just threw it in my car in a hurry when you called to
+us to hasten along," said Daisy, her voice sharp and eyes flashing.
+
+"I am sure it must belong to Clip," said Cora, calming down.  "I hope
+it will not inconvenience her."
+
+"I wish you would take the smelly thing," shouted Daisy.  "It smells
+like papa's office, and I hate drugs."
+
+"Clip was going to see some sick relative," went on Cora, "and of
+course the satchel--"
+
+"Must be filled with the sickness," and Daisy laughed sarcastically.
+"Well, papa's bag smells that way, but he has more than one 'sick
+relative.'"
+
+Cora frowned.  Gertrude looked surprised.  Hazel shook her head at
+Daisy.
+
+"Toss it here," called Cora.  "I just love disinfectants."
+
+Daisy threw the bag into the Whirlwind.  Then she put on speed and
+passed the big car.
+
+For a few miles the girls seemed very quiet, scarcely any conversation
+being held.
+
+It was but a short run to the Grotto, the little wayside tea-house.
+The party was a full hour late, but Cora knew she could depend upon
+generous excuses for the motor girls.
+
+So many things might happen by the way, and so many things did happen.
+
+"I suppose," murmured Ray, "the biscuit will be stony.  I do love hot
+biscuit."
+
+"Don't worry.  Tillie will keep things hot, if she possibly can do so.
+But I hear they have had some very busy days at the Grotto. I hope we
+have not hit upon the very busiest.  Gertrude, have I told you about
+the Grotto?  Did you know that Mathilde Herold and Adele Genung are
+keeping a tea-house this summer, to earn enough money for their senior
+year?  And they have done surprisingly well.  Yes, their folks have a
+summer place near the tea-house, so the girls go home nights, and of
+course the place must be very pretty--Tillie is an artist in
+decorating."
+
+"Splendid!" exclaimed Gertrude.  "Of course I know Tillie.  What girl
+at Springsley doesn't know her?  She has been decorating for every
+affair at the gym.  And she always helped with chapel.  Oh, yes,
+indeed, Cora, I agree with you, Tillie Herold is an artist."
+
+"Well, let us hope her talent is not confined to mere walls," said Ray.
+"Hot biscuit requires a different stroke, I believe."
+
+"In accepting us for to-day," said Cora.  "Tillie stipulated that we
+should dine table d'hote and no questions asked.  I hope, Ray, you will
+not be disappointed."
+
+"Oh, there they are!" exclaimed Hazel.  "I see some one waving her
+apron!"
+
+"That's Adele," replied Cora.  "She knows how to wave aprons. Don't you
+remember, Gertrude, the night she served the Welsh rarebit, when she
+made an apron of our best table-piece with a string through the middle?"
+
+Cora turned her auto to the roadside.  Then she called to the cars
+following:
+
+"Here we are, girls.  Get your machines well in from the road."
+
+"Oh, what a charming place!" exclaimed Belle, who was not slow to
+observe the attractions of the little Grotto.  It seemed all porch and
+vines, one of those picture places, ample for an eating house, but
+unsuited for anything else.
+
+"There!" gasped Daisy; "that's the sort of house to live in!"
+
+"To live out of, you mean," put in Maud.  "I can't see how one could
+live 'in' there."
+
+The cars were all motionless now.  Cora and Gertrude had already
+"escaped" from the college hug of Adele and Tillie.  When the Chelton
+girls had been introduced, the vine-covered porch was actually filled
+with the members of the motor party.
+
+"How splendid!" exclaimed Tillie, with that delightful German accent
+that defies letters and requires a pretty mouth to "exhale."
+
+"Darling!" went on Adele, with all the extravagance of schoolgirl
+enthusiasm.
+
+"You leave us no adjectives," remarked Cora.  "I never saw anything so
+sweet.  How ever did you get those vines to grow so promptly?"
+
+"Wild cucumber," said Adele with a laugh, "Why, you know, dear, wild
+cucumber can no more help growing than you can.  Isn't she tall,
+Tillie?  I do believe you have grown inches since school, Cora."
+
+"Yes, mother bemoans it.  My duds are all getting away from me."
+
+"And we have been waiting lunch for you ladies.  I did hope we would
+not have a single visitor to-day, so that we might entertain you
+properly," went on Adele, "but two horrid men called.  Wanted 'tea';
+but indeed I know what they wanted--just a quiet place to talk about
+their old patent papers."
+
+"Yes, and one broke a beautiful china cup," said Tillie.
+
+"But he had his thumb gone," Adele hurried to say.  "I saw him directly
+I went to pick up the pieces.  So I suppose we could not exactly blame
+the man for dropping Tillie's real German cup."
+
+"His thumb gone!" repeated Cora absently.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Hazel.  "The man we met after Paul's hold-up had lost a
+joint of his thumb."
+
+"And papa said the papers stolen were patent papers!" exclaimed Bess,
+all excitement.
+
+"Hush!" whispered Belle.  "Bess, you know father particularly said we
+were not to speak of that."
+
+If, as is claimed, the mature woman has the wonderful advantage of an
+instinct almost divine, then the growing girl has, undoubtedly, the
+advantage of intuitive shocks--flashes of wireless insight into
+threatening surroundings.
+
+Such a flash was distinctly felt now through the Grotto--even the two
+young proprietors, who were not supposed to be really concerned, felt
+distinctly that "something was doing somewhere."
+
+Cora sank down into a low wicker chair.  Bess and Belle managed to both
+get upon a very small divan, while Daisy, Maud and Ray, the "three
+graces," stood over in the corner, where an open window let in just
+enough honeysuckle to sift the very softest possible sunshine about the
+group.
+
+But Hazel lingered near the telephone.  She had confided to Cora that
+Paul was not at all well when he left home in the morning, and just now
+she was wondering if it would seem silly for her to call up the
+Whitehall Company and ask to speak with her brother.
+
+At that instant the telephone bell rang.
+
+It sent the expected shock through the little assemblage, and Cora
+jumped up as if she anticipated a message.
+
+Tillie took down the receiver.
+
+Presently she was saying "no" and "yes," and then she repeated Cora's
+name.
+
+She handed the receiver to Cora with a whispered word.
+
+Hazel's face went very white.
+
+"You little goose!" exclaimed Bess, who instantly noticed the change.
+"Is there no one here worth a telephone message but Hazel Hastings?"
+
+"Yes, Ed--Ed Foster," they heard Cora say.  Then she listened a long
+time.  Her face did not betray pleasure, and her words were plainly
+disguised.
+
+"All right, Ed," she said finally.  "I will attend to it at once. Oh,
+yes, a perfectly lovely time.  Thank you--we are just about to dine.
+Good-by."
+
+Cora was slow to hang up the receiver.  And when she turned around
+Hazel Hastings confronted her.
+
+"Oh, is it Paul?" asked Hazel.  "Tell me quickly.  What has happened to
+Paul?"
+
+"Hazel," said Cora, "you must have your lunch.  You are dreadfully
+excitable."
+
+But it was Cora Kimball who was distracted, who played with her lunch
+without apparent appetite, and it was she who could take but one cup of
+tea in the fascinating little tea-house, the college girls' Grotto.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE PROMISE BOOK LOST
+
+
+"Now, Cora, dear," began Gertrude, in her quiet, yet convincing way,
+"you may just as well tell us what you are waiting for.  We are
+guessing all sorts of things, and the truth cannot possibly be as bad."
+
+They were sitting on the porch of the Grotto, and although they were
+away behind scheduled time at that point, Cora insisted she wanted to
+rest a bit, and seemed loath to move.
+
+Cora Kimball tired after twenty-five miles!  As well accuse the
+Whirlwind of drinking its own gasoline.
+
+Hazel was almost feverish.  Cora had not divulged the purport of the
+telephone message, beyond admitting it was from Ed, which gave Ray the
+chance for her little joke on the combination of names--Cora and Ed,
+the "Co-Eds."
+
+"When the Co-Eds conspire," lisped Ray, "we may as well wait patiently.
+We will have to wait their pleasure, of course."
+
+Cora did not mind the sarcasm.  She was certainly not like herself.
+Bess and Belle were even anxious about her, and offered all sorts of
+remedies, from bicarbonate of soda to dry tea.
+
+"Now," said Cora finally, "it is two o'clock.  Do you really think we
+ought to make Breakwater tonight?"
+
+"Why not?" gasped Daisy.  "Won't Aunt May be waiting for us?  And it is
+only thirty miles."
+
+"Yes, but," faltered Cora, "suppose you should have a breakdown on that
+lonely road?  There is neither station nor house from here to the
+falls."
+
+"What should break down?" asked Daisy.  "This is papa's best machine,
+if you mean it is not trustworthy."
+
+"Oh, Daisy, dear, I had no idea of insinuating such a thing.  Your
+machine, of course, is just as trustworthy as any of the others. But I
+was thinking how delightful it would be to spend the night here.  I
+really must confess to being broken up by that ram accident," and Cora
+shivered slightly.
+
+The girls looked at her in astonishment.  Her words did not ring true;
+Cora Kimball was a poor actress.
+
+"If Cora wants to stay," said Tillie, "I should think you would all
+agree.  Cora is captain, is she not?"
+
+"But our trip will be spoiled," wailed Maud.  "I do wish I had never
+come."
+
+"Oh, if there is going to be real distress about it," said Cora,
+evidently trying hard to pull herself together, "I suppose we had best
+start.  But remember, I have warned you.  I have a premonition that we
+will 'run up against' something before night."
+
+"Then I am not going," declared Hazel.  "I won't stir one step. Cora,
+let the others go; you can overtake them with your fast car, and we
+will meet them in the morning."
+
+This brought on a veritable storm of protest and dissatisfaction. Cora
+left the girls on the porch, and went outside with Tillie.
+
+"Could you hear anything those men were saying?" she asked the pretty
+little German.  "Were they discussing a patent, do you think?"
+
+"Oh, no; it was not like that," replied Tillie.  "It was about--let me
+see.  Some Haster, no, like a name--like your friend's name, Hazel
+Hastings.  That was it, Hastings."
+
+"Did they say Hazel?" pressed Cora.
+
+"No, not that, of course," and Tillie laughed.
+
+"How should they know Hazel?  It was a similar name--just Hastings."
+
+"And they unfolded blueprints?  Like our campus maps, you know?"
+
+"Yes, they had blue maps; I saw them when I picked up my shattered
+cup.--It is all very well for Adele to blame his thumb; I blame him--he
+is too fat, and thinks himself very smart."
+
+Tillie pouted.  Evidently her caller had not been too polite, perhaps
+he had mistaken her for an ordinary waitress.
+
+A distant "honk-honk" startled the girls.  Cora rushed out to the road,
+and before the others knew what she was about she was in conversation
+with Ed Foster.  So quickly did he run up to the Grotto in Jack's car
+that no one but Cora realized who he was until the machine was stopped
+and he was out beside her.  There was a stranger with him--a
+business-like looking man.  He did not leave the car.
+
+"There!" exclaimed Ray.  "Didn't I tell you?  It was this Co-Ed
+business that kept her.  Cora can't fool me."
+
+"Hazel," said Cora, stepping up to the porch, "Ed thinks you had best
+not go on with us.  Paul is not well--he is not very sick, though--"
+
+Hazel turned white, and Cora put her arm around her.  "Now you must not
+be frightened.  It is nothing serious, and I will go back with you,"
+she said.
+
+"Indeed you shall not!" exclaimed Hazel, now calling up all her
+courage, and proving herself to be the girl she really could be in an
+emergency.  "I shall go back with Ed, if I may."
+
+The girls glanced from one to the other.  They understood this was an
+emergency, that Hazel had been called back to her sick brother, yet
+with girlish curiosity some of them, at least, showed surprise that
+Hazel should offer to ride back with Ed Foster.
+
+"But I am not going back," said Ed; "at least not until we--this
+gentleman and I--have followed the trail a little farther.  You see,
+girls, we are out on a 'bear hunt.'"
+
+But the girls did not see--only Cora looked as if she understood. She
+said to Hazel:
+
+"There is no hurry, dear.  You can go with them when they come back.
+They have to pass this way, don't you, Ed?"
+
+"Would you mind, Cora," said Ed suddenly, "if the gentleman outside
+asked you a few private questions?"
+
+"A reporter!" exclaimed Ray, all excitement.
+
+"Dear me!  I do hope he won't ask for our pictures.  Mother would never
+permit it."
+
+Ed smiled broadly.  He looked a sort of assent, but did not otherwise
+express it.
+
+Cora stepped up to the auto, whereat the man left his place, and, under
+pretext of walking along idly, and perhaps thus gaining Cora's "private
+ear," he was soon out of reach of those on the porch.
+
+"It is like a double robbery," he said after exchanging some
+preliminary remarks, "and the child is disconsolate.  Her mother is
+sure it was not stolen, but lost, while we feel otherwise.  It seems
+there is a handsome young man, a cousin of the child's, interested.
+His father is a lawyer--the lawyer who has the case against Mr.
+Robinson.  Now this book--the promise book--contained the names of
+those who visited the cottage on the day that the papers were taken out
+of the mailbag.  It is comparatively easy to guess the sequence."
+
+"You mean they might call on those whose names appear in the book?"
+asked Cora, beginning to see something of the complex situation.
+
+"Yes, and more than that.  They would obtain valuable information from
+that little book--a clear description of the missing table. If they can
+find it they will be able to keep the property where it is now--in the
+possession of Rob Roland, Wren Salvey's rival cousin."
+
+"Rob Roland!" exclaimed Cora.  "Why, he was in the party at Robinson's
+the other evening.  He was even attentive to a friend of ours."
+
+"To whom, may I ask?" inquired the detective politely.
+
+"A Miss Thayer, a young student," she replied.
+
+"Miss Thayer!  I heard her name mentioned in court this morning. Is she
+a friend of yours?"
+
+"Yes, indeed!" exclaimed Cora, now alarmed.  "What could be said of
+Cecilia Thayer?"
+
+"Why, she has been on very intimate terms with the Salvey child, and
+lawyers devise all sorts of schemes, you know, to meet their own ends.
+It was hinted that Miss Thayer might know where the missing promise
+book was."
+
+"Clip take that from Wren!  Impossible!" cried Cora.  "Oh, this is all
+a mistake!  I must go back.  I cannot go on and let Clip be blamed for
+stealing the promise book."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+ROB ROLAND
+
+
+"Cora Kimball!"
+
+Ed Foster stood up every inch of his height.  He was always tall, but
+now, facing the girl whose name he had so vehemently spoken, he seemed
+a veritable giant.  Cora wanted to be firm; she meant exactly what she
+said when she declared she would abandon the tour of the motor girls,
+and go back to Chelton to help Cecilia Thayer out of her difficulty.
+
+But, after all, Cora was only a girl, and Ed was a great, strong
+man--he ought to know.
+
+"If you cannot trust me, Cora, and allow me to help Clip, I really
+think you are not doing justice to Jack's friend."
+
+Cora laughed a little.  Ed put things so nicely.  He never presumed
+upon her own intimacy--it was always just "Jack's friend."
+
+"Besides," he pressed, seeing, in, Cora's eyes, his advantage, "I feel
+I can do more alone.  I have got to take Hazel back to her brother,
+then I promise you I shall not rest until I have found Clip, and made
+sure of her exact situation."
+
+"Oh, I know, Ed, you will do everything possible.  But it seems like
+treason for me to go on a pleasure trip and leave two very dear friends
+in such trouble.  Even Jack may be implicated."
+
+Ed turned away to hide his own tell-tale face.  He knew perfectly well
+that Jack was implicated, knew that Rob Roland had deliberately accused
+him of taking Cecilia Thayer out to the Salvey cottage for the purpose
+of gaining possession of the promise book.  For this very reason Ed
+wanted Cora to go on--to escape, if possible, the anxiety she must
+experience if she should have to know the real story.
+
+"Well," sighed Cora, "it is getting late.  I suppose it will be best,
+Ed, as you say.  Take Hazel back, and find Clip.  Have her 'phone me at
+Breakwater, tomorrow."
+
+"That's the girl!" exclaimed Ed, taking both her hands in his own
+strong clasp.  "See, the girls are looking at us.  They think you have
+accepted me."
+
+"I have," she answered, "accepted you, and your terms.  Good luck, Ed.
+It is so nice for Jack to have such a good friend."
+
+Hazel was soon tucked in the little runabout, the detective going on in
+another car that was sent out to him in answer to his call over the
+telephone.
+
+"Is your premonition all fulfilled, Cora?" asked Daisy, her voice far
+from merry.  "I suppose you were 'premonited' that Hazel should go off
+like that."
+
+"If we keep on losing," said Gertrude, "we will soon all fit in the
+Whirlwind."
+
+Cora stood gazing after the runabout--Jack's car.  Hazel's eyes had
+burned their look upon Cora's face--those deep, violet eyes always seem
+like live volcanoes, thought Cora.
+
+And Ed--his eyes had been searching, his look--well, it was convincing,
+that is all Cora would admit even to her own heart.
+
+She turned finally to those on the porch.
+
+"Well," exclaimed Belle, the sentimental one, "who is star-gazing, now?
+Cora, what did you forget in that runaway car?"
+
+Cora smiled.  She had been remiss, and she owed it to the girls to see
+that their trip was a success.  She would atone now.
+
+"Tillie," she said suddenly, "couldn't you and Adele shut up shop for a
+week and come with us?  You have been working hard all summer, and you
+have made up the required pennies.  Now, don't you think it would be
+perfectly splendid to take the run with us?"
+
+Every one instantly agreed that this would be the very thing, and in
+spite of the hesitation of Adele and Tillie, who argued that it might
+not be agreeable to bring strangers into the homes where others had
+been expected, it was finally settled that the party should wait until
+the next morning, when the tea-house girls would be ready to start off
+with them.
+
+Nor were the arrangements without a certain happy possibility--there
+were two other girls waiting to take up that same little Grotto--to
+earn college money, as had Tillie and Adele.
+
+"Rena and Margaret will be here first thing in the morning," announced
+Adele, after her telephone talk with Rena, "and they are perfectly
+delighted.  Oh, isn't it just splendid!"
+
+Then Cora had messages to send.  She called up Jack, but only got the
+maid in answer.  She called up Walter, and he also was out. Finally she
+called up Ed.  She waited until she felt he would be at his dinner
+quarters, and she was not disappointed in getting his own voice in
+reply.
+
+He told her that everything was all right--that Clip was with little
+Wren, who had been very ill since the loss of her book, and that Paul
+Hastings was no worse.  This last Cora considered evasive, but had to
+be content, for Ed would give no more definite information.
+
+Such demands as were made upon that little tea-house telephone that
+evening!  Every one of the girls called up her own home, besides
+calling up many relatives at the other end of the line, those with whom
+the tourists expected to visit during the trip.
+
+The Grotto was well situated for business, being about half way between
+two country seats, and the same distance between two large cities.
+
+"We will close exactly at sundown to-night," said Adele, when a lady
+from Bentley, who stopped every evening for a cup of tea on her way
+from the village, had been served.
+
+"Do let me keep shop for a while," begged Cora.  "I would just love to
+be in real business.  Mother declares I have a bent for trade.  Let me
+try, Tillie, while you and Adele go over to the cottage and get your
+things together."
+
+Thus it was that one hour later Cora Kimball was left the sole
+possessor of the Grotto; every other motor girl managed to either go
+for a walk, or go with some one who wanted to take a walk, but Cora was
+glad--she felt the need of rest which only solitude can give.
+
+She sat on the porch; the gentle evening breeze made incense through
+the honeysuckle.  It was delightfully resting; she could hear the
+voices of the girls in the meadow, after cowslips, buttercups, daisies
+and clover.  They would fetch back a huge bunch, Cora knew, and they
+would discard them at the steps of the Grotto, as most girls do--run
+wild for wild flowers, then toss them away when the run is over.
+
+"I hardly think I shall have any business," thought Cora, "although I
+would just love to wait on somebody."
+
+The rumble of an approaching automobile caught her ear.
+
+"There!" she thought; "the driver of that car may want a sip of Russian
+tea--I am glad it is not Turkish--that the girls serve here."
+
+The car was almost up to the sycamore tree, just at the side of the
+Grotto.
+
+Yes, the driver was stopping.
+
+Cora rocked nervously in the wicker chair.
+
+Who would it be?  The girls should not have gone so far away--
+
+A young man alighted from the runabout.  He stepped briskly up to the
+porch.
+
+It was Rob Roland.
+
+"Well!" he exclaimed, plainly as surprised to see Cora as she was to
+see him.  "If this isn't luck!  Miss Kimball!"
+
+Quick and keen as was his glance, making sure that Cora was alone, her
+own sharp wits were able to follow his.
+
+"Yes," she replied indifferently, "the girls have closed up the
+tea-room, and are just out in the meadow.  I felt more like sitting
+here."
+
+He drew up a chair and sat down uninvited.  Cora never did like Rob
+Roland, now she disliked him.
+
+"You are the very person I am most anxious to talk to," he began, "and
+this is an excellent opportunity."
+
+"About what, pray?" asked Cora.  "I must go with the girls very soon."
+
+"Oh, no, you must not," he replied, and, handsome though he was, there
+was that in his manner that deepened the very lines nature had done her
+best with, and his eyes were merely smoldering depths.
+
+Cora felt she should not betray the least nervousness, for, though Rob
+Roland was known to be a gentleman, he might take advantage of her
+helplessness to gain from her some information.  Ed had warned her to
+beware of him.
+
+"Of course you know all about Cissy Thayer," he began.  Cora resented
+his insolence, but dared not show it.  "You know how she has been
+getting around my little cousin, the <DW36>."
+
+Cora glared at him.  She felt that his cowardly attack was simply a
+display of weakness, and she knew a coward is easily overcome. She
+deliberately drew her chair closer to him.
+
+"Rob Roland," she said calmly, "my friend, Miss Thayer, is not only a
+lady, but she is also a student of human ills.  She has been interested
+in little Wren that she might be cured.  It appears that some of her
+relatives consider her incurable."
+
+"Cured!" he sneered.  "That misfit made right!  Why, she has only a few
+months to live.  Your friend is very foolish.  She should put her
+energy on something worth while.  And she should be careful how she
+handles their property.  That scrapbook, for instance."
+
+"How dare you, Rob Roland!" exclaimed Cora.  "Miss Thayer says the
+child has been ill-treated through alleged treatment, and it appears
+the man who has been treating her was paid by your father."
+
+"Oh, my!"  The fellow sank deeper into his linen coat.  "I had no idea
+of your dramatic powers, Miss Kimball.  I beg a thousand pardons.  I
+never dreamed that the Thayer girl was so close to you.  In fact, I
+rather thought you merely took her up out of charity.  Every one in
+Chelton knows that the Thayers are just poor working-people."
+
+That was too much for Cora.  She stepped to the door of the tea-room
+with dismissal in her manner.  He knew she intended him to leave at
+once.
+
+"But what I want to know," he said, deliberately following her, "is
+just who this Thayer girl is.  It is important that we should know, to
+go on with the--"
+
+"We!" interrupted Cora.  "Pray, who are 'we'?"
+
+"Why, my father's firm, the lawyers, you know," he stammered. "Some
+day, Miss Kimball, I expect to represent the firm of Roland, Reed &
+Company."
+
+Cora turned and looked at him.  It was on that very spot that she had
+turned to Ed--Ed was so like this young man, the same dark, handsome
+youth, and just about his age.
+
+But Ed was, after all, so different--so very different.
+
+Cora was gaining time as she strove to hold him by her magnetic glance.
+Any youth would accept it; he did not despise it.
+
+"Mr. Roland," she said, in her own inimitable velvet tones, "you are
+making a very great mistake.  If you really believe that Cecilia Thayer
+had anything to do with the loss of that child's book, you are wrong;
+if you think she had any other than humane motives in visiting the
+child, you are wrong again.  Cecilia Thayer--"
+
+"Oh, now come, Cora," he interrupted.  "You don't mind me calling you
+Cora?  I know the whole scheme.  Your brother Jack is--well, he is
+quite clever, but not clever enough to cover up his tracks." He grasped
+Cora's arm and actually dragged her to him.  "Don't you know that Cissy
+Thayer and Jack Kimball are suspected of abduction?  That Wren Salvey
+has been stolen-stolen, do you hear?"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A STRANGE MESSAGE
+
+
+Uproarious laughter from the girls with the wild flowers aroused Cora.
+Rob Roland was gone.
+
+Had she fainted?  Was that roaring in her ears just awakened nerves?
+
+"Cora!  Oh, Cora!  We had the most darling time," Bess was bubbling.
+"You should have been along.  Such a dear old farmer. He showed us the
+queerest tables.  And he had the nicest son. Cora--  What is the
+matter?"
+
+"Oh," lisped Ray, "another Co-Ed message over the telephone."
+
+"Cora, dear," exclaimed Gertrude, "we should not have left you all
+alone.  Are you ill?"
+
+"Cora!  Cora!" gasped Adele.
+
+"Cora, dear!" sighed Tillie.
+
+"Oh, Cora!" moaned Belle.  "What has happened?"
+
+"Cora, darling," cried Maud, "who has frightened you?"
+
+"Cora Kimball," called Daisy, "have you been drinking too much tea?"
+
+"Too little," murmured Cora.  "Will some of you girls leave off biting
+the air, and make a good cup of tea?"
+
+There was a wild rush for the alcohol lamp; every one wanted to make
+the good cup of tea.
+
+"I saw a runabout moving away as we came up," said Ray.  "I hope, Cora,
+your caller was not obnoxious."
+
+"Oh, just an autoist," replied Cora indifferently.  "I did not take the
+trouble to brew tea for one solitary man."  The color was coming back
+into her cheeks now, and with the return of animation her scattered
+senses attempted to seize upon the strange situation.
+
+Jack and Clip to be arrested for abduction!
+
+Could that fellow have known what he was saying?
+
+If only Jack would call her up on the telephone.  She had left word for
+him to do so, no matter how late the hour might be when he should
+return home.
+
+"Now drink every sip of this," commanded Adele, as she turned on the
+lights and fetched Cora a steaming cup of the very best Grotto Hyson.
+"There is nothing for shaken nerves better than perfectly fresh tea,
+and, you see, we make it without soaking the leaves."
+
+"It is delightful," said Cora, sipping the savory draught.  "I must
+learn how to make tea this way--it is so different from the home-brewed
+variety."
+
+Gertrude sat close to the reclining girl.  "Is there nothing I can do,
+Cora?" she asked.  "No message I can send?"
+
+"Yes," whispered Cora; "you can manage to get the girls out of here
+before you and I leave for the night.  I want to use the telephone
+privately."
+
+Gertrude understood.  She had not been a roommate with Cora Kimball for
+two years without knowing something of her temperament.  She pressed
+her friend's hand gently, then said loud enough for the others to hear:
+
+"We will soon have to get our machines under cover.  Tillie says her
+grandfather has all sorts of sheds over around his country place.  In
+fact, he has a regular shed-farm.  Cora, I am just dying to try running
+a motor.  Would you trust me to get the Whirlwind in the shed safely?"
+
+"Of course I would, Gertrude," and Cora jumped up from the wicker
+divan.  "I would suggest that some one go along, though--perhaps Ray.
+She has had some experience, and you know the Whirlwind."
+
+"Is not a prize-package machine," interrupted Gertrude.  "All right,
+Cora.  I will humbly take instructions.  Come along, girls. It will be
+dark directly, and then we might have to waste time lighting the lamps."
+
+"And grandfather's man has offered to look over every machine early in
+the morning," said Tillie.  "He is quite expert; we will be sure that
+every nut and bolt is in perfect order."
+
+This was good news to the motor girls, especially to Daisy, who had her
+own secret doubts about her father's best car--she was accustomed to
+running the substitute.
+
+Presently all except Cora and Adele were attending to the cars. Cora
+was just about to call up her own house when the tinkle of the
+telephone bell startled her.  She picked up the receiver and was not
+surprised to find the party inquired for was herself.
+
+"This is Jack," came the welcome voice.  "Is that you, sis?"
+
+"Oh, yes, Jack, dear!" she replied.  Adele had gone out to fetch the
+chairs in from the porch.  "I have been almost frantic.  Where are you?
+Where is Clip?  Where is Wren?"
+
+"Oh, easy there, now, sis," and Cora thought she had never before
+appreciated the value of a real brother.  "I can't answer everything at
+once, although I can come pretty near it.  First, I am here--at home.
+Next, Clip is here--at our home, and third, the other party--I won't
+mention names--is here also."
+
+"All at our house?" exclaimed Cora.
+
+And the answer came: "Exactly that.  But you mustn't say a word to any
+one.  You know, there has been a sort of rumpus.  Do you want to speak
+with C.?  She is here."
+
+"Hello, Cora," came Cecilia's voice.  "How are you?  Not getting on
+with your trip very fast, I guess."
+
+"Oh, Clip!" said Cora.  "I cannot understand it--"
+
+"You are not supposed to," replied the other.  "We are all right, you
+are all right, and what more do you ask?"
+
+"How is Paul?"
+
+"Well, he did have quite a time, but is improving.  Say, Cora," and the
+voice was subdued, "don't call us up until you hear from me.  I can't
+explain now.  But where shall I write--say in two days' time?"
+
+"Two days!" repeated Cora.  "Do you expect me to exist that long and
+not know--"
+
+"I am afraid you will have to.  We are being watched"--this was barely
+breathed--"and a break would spoil it all.  Surely you can trust me."
+
+The girls were coming back-were actually on the porch.  Cora was
+obliged to say a few disconnected words, and then she hung up the
+receiver.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE ROAD TO BREAKWATER
+
+
+"What a delightful morning!" exclaimed Maud.  "The wait was certainly
+worth while.  I do believe there is something inspiring about the
+morning air."
+
+"Yes," rejoined Daisy, throwing in the second speed, "it always makes
+me feel like a human rain-barrel.  I want to go out in a great, big
+field, and sit down in a lump.  Then I want to throw back my head and
+open my mouth very wide.  That is my idea of drinking in the fresh
+morning air."
+
+"Well, never mind the dewy morning business," called Cora.  "Just get
+your machines well under way.  You know, we must make twenty-five miles
+by noon."
+
+Cora was, as usual, in the lead.  Daisy and Maud came next, then Bess
+and Belle lined up the rear, as Cora thought it best that the two big
+machines should lead and trail.
+
+Cora tried her best to be cheerful.  She had definite ideas about a
+friend's duty to a friend, and no one could say she failed in that
+duty.  Why should she think of Jack and Clip and Wren when she was
+captain of the Motor Girls' Club, and they expected a good time on
+their initial run?
+
+"Oh, I am so glad everything happened!" exclaimed Tillie, who was in
+the Whirlwind; "for if everything did not happen we never could have
+come along."
+
+"And we never could have had all our camping things," put in Gertrude.
+"I am just dying to get out on the grass and light up under the
+kettles.  That was a very bright idea of Adele's to fetch along part of
+the tea-house outfit."
+
+"Won't it be jolly to build miniature caves to keep the wind from the
+lamp?" suggested Cora.  "I tell you, after all, the motor girls were
+poor housekeepers--we had to take lessons from our business friends."
+
+This pleased Tillie immensely.  She was the sort of girl who is glad to
+prove a theory, and in keeping the tea-house she had proven that
+girls--mere girls--are not always sawdust dolls.
+
+Daisy was speeding up her machine to speak with Cora.
+
+"There's Cedar Grove over there!" she shouted; "and Aunt May's is only
+four miles from the turn in the road."
+
+"But we are going to lunch on the road," replied Cora.  "The girls are
+bent on camping out."
+
+A cloud fell over Daisy's sensitive face.  "I must telephone to papa
+that I am all right," she remarked.  "Aunt May expected us last night,
+and if you girls do not want to come, Maud and I will go.  We can meet
+you farther on."
+
+"Oh, of course," Cora hurried to say, "we must go on, since we are
+expected.  We can have the camping out to-morrow.  I had actually lost
+track of our plans in the mix-up."
+
+"Isn't it too bad that Hazel had to turn back?" said Ray.  "I do hope
+her brother is not seriously ill."
+
+"I heard last night that he was very much better," replied Cora. "It
+seems that robbery unnerved him.  Ridiculous as the situation appeared,
+it was no fun to Paul.  I don't wonder he broke down."
+
+Bess, Belle and Adele were in the Flyaway, and they, like the others,
+seemed to take new pleasure in flying over the roads since they had
+realized what it meant to have to stand still.
+
+Adele was all enthusiasm.  She had not often been privileged to enjoy
+automobile sport, and the prospect of the trip seemed like an unopened
+wonder book to her--every mile revealed new delights.
+
+Along the shady byways, through the Numberland Hills, past the famous
+springs, where everybody stopped to drink and make a wish, the motor
+girls took their way.
+
+"Let me lead now, Cora?" asked Daisy.  "I am just dying for Aunt May to
+see us come up.  And say, girls, I've got the dearest, darlingest
+cousin--a young doctor!"
+
+A scream went up from every throat.  Daisy had not told of her
+attractive cousin until the party were within very sight of him.
+
+"Me first!" shouted Belle.  "I have been a perfect angel ever since we
+left Chelton; didn't even speak to the nice man with the short
+thumb--Clip's friend."
+
+At that moment an auto dashed by.  Tillie seized Cora's arm.
+
+"That's the man who talked about Hastings!" she exclaimed.  "The man
+who took tea in our house yesterday."
+
+"And that's the very man we met on the road the day Paul was help up,"
+Cora declared.  "Oh, now I see the coincidence.  Of course they heard
+of the hold-up, they being on the road about the time it happened, and
+when they were at your house they might have been discussing the latest
+account of the affair--there was something in the daily paper about it,
+you know."
+
+Cora was not sure she believed herself, but at the moment she decided
+it would be best for the happiness of the party to think lightly of the
+meeting with the strange men.  Rob Roland's voice still rang in her
+ears like a threat, and while she was no coward neither did she invite
+trouble.
+
+There seemed now to be clearly some connection between the missing
+papers from the mailbag and the missing promise book, but of the two
+Cora's girlish heart considered the loss of the book the more serious.
+
+"Did you ever see such old-fashioned houses in all your born days?"
+asked Bess.  "Look at that one over there.  If our table is not in that
+house, then we had better abandon the antique and look in some new,
+first-class hotel."
+
+"That house over there is my aunt's!" shouted Daisy, laughing at Bess
+for making the blunder, "and I am going to tell Duncan exactly what you
+have said about it."
+
+Bess begged off, and made all sorts of apologies, but Daisy insisted
+that her cousin, the doctor, should hear what Bess thought of one of
+the finest old mansions in Breakwater.
+
+"Here we are!" called Daisy, pulling up on the gravel drive.  "And
+there are Duncan and Aunt May."
+
+Out on the broad veranda stood a young man--plainly a professional, for
+while at a glance a girl might decide that Duncan Bennet was "up to
+date," still there was about him that disregard for conventionality
+that betokens high thinking, with no room for the consideration of
+trifling details of every-day life.
+
+Cora instantly said: "There!  He's fine!"
+
+Ray was thinking: "How unpolished!"
+
+Bess whispered to Belle: "I see trouble ahead.  Gertrude will want to
+take him along."
+
+Maud was "adjusting her eyes."  She could not forget her famous
+"imploring look."
+
+But Duncan Bennet, with one bound, left the veranda, clearing the steps
+without touching them, and he was in front of Daisy's car dangerously
+soon.
+
+"Look out, Duncan!" called Daisy.  "Do you want to spatter yourself all
+over my nice clean machine?"
+
+"Not exactly," he replied, "but I felt I should do something definite
+to welcome you.  I suppose I may extend the kiss of peace?"
+
+"Oh!" gasped Maud.  "Will he really kiss us?"
+
+"Without a doubt," replied his cousin, laughing.  "Duncan Bennet is
+famous for his hospitality, and quite demonstrative.  Don't worry,
+dear.  He is an awfully nice fellow."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE CLUE
+
+
+Jack Kimball sat in his study, with his hands laced in his thick, dark
+hair.  He was thinking--Jack claimed the happy faculty of being able to
+think of one thing at a time, and to do that thoroughly.
+
+Suddenly he jumped up, and, whistling a tune that only a happy youth
+knows how to originate, he dashed up the polished stairs, three steps
+at a time, and finally reached the third floor of his home.
+
+He was met in the hall by a matronly woman with a tray in her hands,
+and at his approach she stepped back to allow him to enter a room, the
+door of which was swung open.
+
+"Morning, Miss Brown," he said.  "How's the baby?"
+
+"Doing splendidly, thank you," replied the woman, "and she is very
+anxious to see you.  Won't you step in?"
+
+"Sure thing," answered Jack.  "That's just what I came up for.  I want
+to chat with her myself."
+
+He stepped lightly into the apartment.  It was plainly furnished, with
+a keen appreciation of what was needed in a sick room, and what should
+be left out of it.  Jack sank into a steamer chair beside the white bed.
+
+"How are things, Wren?" he asked, stroking the delicate hand that was
+put out to greet him.  "Are you almost strong enough to--play football?"
+
+The child smiled, and turned her head away.  She had never known any
+one in all her life like Jack Kimball, so big and strong, and yet so
+kind.  He almost made her feel timid and shy.
+
+"I'm better every minute," she managed to say.  "But, of course, I
+ought to be."
+
+She glanced at her nurse, Miss Brown, who was bringing the morning's
+beef tea.
+
+"She is really doing splendidly," put in the nurse.  "But she is a
+model patient--never wants what is not good for her."
+
+"Is Clip coming to-day?" asked Wren, hesitating as she said "Clip."
+
+"I hope so," replied Jack, "but you know she is very busy, and may not
+get here.  But if she does not"--noting the child's
+disappointment--"she will surely come to-morrow.  She telephoned so
+last night."
+
+"Did she say anything about the book?" queried the little one.
+
+"That's exactly what I want to talk about," he replied with nice
+evasion.  "I wonder are you well enough to try to remember about that
+book.  Where did you last have it?"
+
+"Out in my chair, with mother.  I asked a little boy along the road to
+hand me some flowers, the book slipped back of me, and, as mother
+wheeled me along, I could feel that it was all right.  When we got home
+it was gone."
+
+"And you didn't speak with any other persons than this boy?" Jack
+continued.
+
+"Oh, there were a lot of people out to see the firemen's parade, and
+lots of them spoke to me."
+
+"But did any one walk along with you to talk with you?"
+
+"Yes," she said with hesitation, trying to recall that day's momentous
+happenings; "there were two people.  They were strangers.  I think they
+had been in an automobile, for the girl was dressed like a motor girl,
+and the young man wore a long duster."
+
+Jack stopped and made a mental note of this remark.  He had evidently
+expected this intelligence.
+
+"What did they look like--I mean personally?"
+
+"The girl had red hair--I particularly noticed that," replied the
+child; "but I have no idea what the man looked like, for he walked back
+of my chair."
+
+"I'm not tiring her, am I, Miss Brown?" asked Jack, turning to the
+nurse.  "I can wait for the other details."
+
+"Go right on," assented the woman, who was dressed in the garb of a
+nurse.  "I think the talk will do her good; she has been so anxious
+about it all."
+
+"And these two people talked with you?" pursued Jack.
+
+"Why, yes.  The girl sat down on the roadside, and mother stopped my
+chair.  Let me see; I think mother went into the little candy shop and
+left them with me.  They were very pleasant.  I am sure they would
+never touch my book."
+
+"Did you tell them what it was?"
+
+"I did, of course.  I always told everybody what my precious book was.
+I asked them to sign my promise, and they both did so."
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Jack, whistling his punctuation.  "They did sign, did
+they?"
+
+"Why, I thought you knew that," replied Wren.  "But I did not see the
+book after they signed, so I do not know their names.  You see, mother
+was in a hurry, and they just gave me the book and--Oh, what could have
+become of my precious book!" she broke off, her voice like a cry from
+her very heart.
+
+"Well, now there!" soothed Jack.  "I knew I should not have distressed
+you about it.  But, you see, I had to know, else I could not find it.
+Now I feel I shall have it back to you in jig time.  Brace up, little
+girl"; and he tried to impart both courage and hope by his manner.
+"Don't you know you are sure to get some wonderful blessing for having
+to stand this loss?  That's Cora's pet theory.  She almost drives a
+fellow after trouble declaring he will find joy at his heels."
+
+Wren was sighing.  Her book had been to her so much.  More, perhaps,
+than some animal pet is to the average <DW36>, both companion and
+distraction.
+
+Miss Brown brought the bottle of alcohol, and bathed the child's
+temples.
+
+"Do you know, Mr. Kimball," she said, "we have a secret for you. Wren
+stood up yesterday!"
+
+"Bully for the legs!" cried Jack, with an absolute disregard of the way
+he was expressing his joy.  The remark brought the color bark to Wren's
+cheeks.
+
+"Yes," breathed Wren; "but they--my feet--are awfully full of pins and
+needles."
+
+"Save them, save them," went on Jack.  "I can never find a pin in this
+house.  Cora fainted one day, and the doctor said it was pins.  He had
+to take out twenty pins to give her back her breath."
+
+"I wish your sister were home," said Wren, looking wistfully out of the
+low window beside the bed.  "She is so like Clip--and Clip can't be
+here."
+
+"She'll be home soon, all right," replied Jack, who was now standing at
+the door, "and when she does come we will all know it. Cora Kimball is
+a brass and a lawn mower, rolled into one piece. You should be glad she
+is away," he finished, his words actually accusing himself of falsehood.
+
+"Fetch her, and let me see," spoke Wren, trying to appear as cheerful
+as she, had been when her visitor entered her room.
+
+"Well, I'll fetch something next time," he replied.  "If I can't get
+Cora or Clip I'll get--ice cream."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+PAUL AND HAZEL
+
+
+Meanwhile, at another bed of sickness sat a girl pale and wan from
+nights and days of anxiety.  Hazel Hastings had left the motor girls'
+tour and hurried to her sick brother with more apprehension stirring
+her heart than the report of his actual condition warranted.  Paul had
+always been subject to peculiar spells--shocks they were termed--but
+Hazel knew what collapse meant, or what it might mean, unless--
+
+Brother and sister were to each other what the whole world might be to
+others.  Paul had kept up well under the strain of the hold-up, but
+when suspicion was pointed at him he collapsed.
+
+Who could be at the back of the defaming scheme to spread the report?
+Who could have dared to say that he was in league with whoever took
+those papers from the mailbag?
+
+"Are you better, Paul?" murmured the girl.  "You had a lovely sleep."
+
+"Oh, yes," he sighed.  "I feel almost good.  If only my head would stop
+throbbing.  What time is it?"
+
+"Almost noon, dear, and Clip will soon be here."
+
+"Will she fetch the morning papers?  I must see how the thing is going
+on.  They were to go to court this morning."
+
+"Now you must not think of that, you know, Paul," commanded the girl
+gently.  "If you are to grow strong enough to go and take your own part
+you will have to leave the others alone.  There is nothing new, or I
+should have told you."
+
+"But Mr. Robinson called--I heard you talking to him last night."
+
+"Yes, you did, dear.  But he came to inquire for you.  He is very
+anxious about you."
+
+Hazel Hastings went to the dresser and slipped under the cover a piece
+of yellow paper.  Paul was getting better, and he should not see Mr.
+Robinson's check for money, which that gentleman had insisted upon
+leaving for the sick boy's expenses.  They were not poor, neither were
+they rich, but Paul Hastings should not want for anything through his
+sister's pride.
+
+"He was so glad to hear you were improving," she went on, "and
+particularly said you were not to worry about the papers.  It seems
+they have some important clue, and feel positive of recovering them."
+
+"If they only could," sighed Paul.  "To think that I should have lost
+them!  And they meant a small fortune to the Robinsons.  What if they
+should become poor, and through me!"
+
+"Oh, you silly boy!  Stop that nonsense this moment.  There!  I heard
+Clip coming.  I am glad, for she knows better than I how to control
+you."
+
+It was Clip who entered the room, but what with her buoyant, happy way,
+and the great bunch of flowers she carried, one could hardly be certain
+it was only a girl--it might have been some fairy of sunshine.
+
+"Well!" she exclaimed, glancing from Paul to Hazel.  "You are better,
+Paul.  Has Hazel been treating you again with some of her magic
+suggestion business?  At any rate, I cannot deny its power." She
+flittered over to the bed and playfully buried Paul's face in the
+bouquet.  "There!  Aren't they splendid?  And you would never guess who
+sent them.  Guess, Hazel."
+
+"Ed," hazarded the girl.
+
+"No, indeed.  You try, Paul."
+
+"Walter Pennington," replied Paul, smiling.
+
+"Indeed, Walter probably has forgotten my very existence."
+
+"Then it was--"
+
+"Oh, you would never guess.  It--was--Rob Roland!"
+
+A dark look stole over the face of the young man on the bed.  "I don't
+like him, Clip," he said.
+
+"Neither do I," she replied promptly.  "That is precisely why I am so
+nice to him.  I have to keep friends with him just now.  And I have not
+the slightest doubt his motive is identical with my own." She paused to
+laugh indifferently, then she tossed aside her dust coat and stood
+revealed in spotless white linen.  "How do you like me?" she asked,
+straightened up to her short height.  "Am I not a full-fledged
+'strained' nurse, now?  You know I am summoned to court this afternoon,
+and all the papers will describe me."
+
+Her brightness seemed infectious.  Paul leaned upon his elbow, and
+Hazel was actually interested in Clip's new costume.
+
+"Yes," she went on.  "You see, Mrs. Salvey has been called to account
+for Wren--did you ever hear of anything so ridiculous? Those lawyer
+relatives of hers pretend to believe that Wren is being neglected
+because we have taken her away from the supposed care of that absurd
+doctor.  Well, I just told Mrs. Salvey to answer the summons and go to
+court.  It will be the best thing that ever happened to have her get
+her real story before the public."
+
+"But what about yourself?" asked Hazel.  "They will ask you how old
+you are, and what is your occupation?"
+
+"And my friends will all fall dead." Cecilia did not appear worried at
+the prospect.  "Well, I shall say I am not as old as some girls, and
+that I am engaged in being a member of the Motor Girls' Club."
+
+"That is precisely where your trouble will begin," said Paul. "The
+motor girls will never stand for a 'strained'--"
+
+"Indeed, I am not the least bit afraid that I shall lose the friendship
+of Cora and her brother.  Even Walter and Ed will think it jolly to
+have kept up the joke.  Of course"--and she hesitated--"some of the
+others--"
+
+"Well, you can count on us," declared Paul warmly.  "And if ever I get
+out of this trouble, and am well again, I am going to take Hazel for a
+long tour.  You might--"
+
+"Oh, you silly!  I might go along?  Where on earth would I get
+seventy-five cents to go to Europe with?"
+
+She placed the bouquet on the small table near the window. "There; I
+guess the flowers will not contaminate us.  But when he gave them to
+me--or, rather, sent them, there was a note in the box," she added.
+
+Both Hazel and Paul looked their question.
+
+"Yes," replied Clip.  "Would you like to hear the note?"  She took from
+her pocket a slip of paper.  "It always strikes me as odd that people
+who try hardest to do one thing, and mean another, fail utterly to hide
+the intention.  Now this gentleman, who writes with such solicitation
+about Wren, says he really misses seeing her, declares frankly that
+Jack Kimball and I were seen to smuggle her off in Jack's auto, and
+then-- But let me read the finish.  I am spoiling the effect:
+
+"'Of course you have the child safe,'" she read, "'and no one questions
+your ability to care for her.  All the little clandestine trips which
+you and your friend made to the Salvey cottage happened to have been
+observed.'  Just hear the boy! Happened to have been observed, when I
+knew he was watching--saw him on more than one occasion."  She turned
+over the page of business letter paper, and continued:
+
+"'But the fact that I, her own cousin, am denied the privilege of
+seeing her makes the thing look odd.'
+
+"Now do you see what that means?" asked the girl.  "He is trying to
+make me feel that it would be better to produce Wren than to keep her
+away from the lawyers, because it looks 'odd.'  Well, I'll take my
+chances on the odds," she said with a laugh; "and Wren Salvey will be
+'produced' when I am sure that the motor girls' strange promise will be
+kept.  We have those smart men just where we want them now, and if they
+want Wren they must give us that table."
+
+"You think they know where the table is?" asked Hazel.
+
+"I am not so sure of that," responded Clip, putting away the paper and
+preparing to place upon the center table some of the contents of her
+satchel.  "But I do know that this man, Reed, is Mrs. Salvey's second
+cousin.  She told me he was always interfering between Wren and the
+popular grandfather.  Now, if the table contained the will, as Wren
+declares, and if that same table was sold at auction, by this man,
+Reed, or through his management, it seems more than likely that he
+could trace it."
+
+"But if he could find it, why would he not do so, and destroy the
+document?" asked Paul.
+
+"Bright boy!" declared the girl.  "That only goes to show, Hazel, that
+when a girl gets a thought she stops.  When a boy gets one he looks for
+another.  I think now that perhaps the old table is safe in some
+unthought-of place, and that perhaps--"
+
+"That is why they wanted to get the promise book, to find if any clue
+to its whereabouts might be within its pages," put in Hazel. "Well, I
+know that Cora Kimball will find that table if it is in any house
+around here.  She vowed when she started out she would either bring
+back the table or acknowledge herself beaten.  The latter possibility
+is actually beyond serious attention."
+
+"Whew!" Paul almost whistled.  "But our little sister is progressing.
+Talk about professions, Clip.  I rather fancy there will be more than
+one to report at the final meeting of the Motor Girls' Club."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+AT THE MAHOGANY SHOP
+
+
+It was Duncan Bennet who suggested the auto meet.  The town of
+Breakwater had never gone beyond the annual dog show, and this
+progressive young man confided to his cousin Daisy that on a certain
+day next week he expected several of his friends from out of town, who
+were sure to come in autos, and:
+
+"Why not tell them to 'slick up' their machines, and you girls could do
+the same?  Then, oh, then!" he exclaimed, "we could run a real
+up-to-date auto meet.  I can round up fifteen machines at least.  And
+the girls!  Why, the fame of the motor girls will then be assured.  You
+will actually have to appoint a press agent."
+
+The cousins were strolling through the splendid gardens of Bennet
+Blade, as Duncan called the long, narrow strip of family property that,
+for years, had been famous for its splendid gardens, not flower beds,
+but patches of things to eat.
+
+"I think it would be perfectly splendid," declared Daisy, her eyes full
+of admiration for her good-looking cousin.  "And I know the girls will
+like it."
+
+That settled it.  Duncan Bennet went straight to his room, scribbled
+off a number of notes, threw himself astride his horse Mercury (called
+Ivy for short), and was on his way to the post-office before Daisy had
+time to stop the exclamation gaps in the girls' faces with the correct
+answers to their varied questions.
+
+Some days lay between the proposition and the fete, and this time was
+to be spent on the road, as the girls had yet some miles to cover
+before they would turn back toward Chelton.
+
+There was a visit to be made at a ruins in Clayton; this was an
+underlined note of Ray's on the itinerary.  Then Maud wanted so much to
+see a real watering place in full swing.  This was put down as
+Ebbinflow, and would take up at least an entire afternoon. Tillie had a
+craze for antiques, and there was a noted shop only twenty miles from
+Breakwater.  So when Cora facetiously suggested that the party start
+out from a given point, go their separate ways and get back to Chelton
+for the auto meet, the girls realized that they would have to "boil
+down their plans" to fit the time allotted for the tour.
+
+The trip to the Clayton ruins occupied a whole day.  The girls started
+early and took their lunch, which Bess said would be eaten in a
+crumbling, moss-covered and ivy-entwined tower.  The ruins fully came
+up to expectations, and the girls, leaving their machines at the
+roadside, began their explorations.
+
+"Isn't it just perfect!" exclaimed Ray.  "I wish I had my sketch book
+along."
+
+"She wants to outdo Washington Irving," called Cora, poising on a
+tottering stone.
+
+"Look out!" suddenly called Bess.  "That stone, Cora--"
+
+A scream from Cora interrupted her, for the stone began to roll over,
+and Cora only saved herself by a little jump, while the piece of
+masonry toppled down upon a pile of bricks and mortar.
+
+"My!  That was a narrow escape!" gasped Maud.  "You might have sprained
+your ankle."
+
+"Which would have been all the more romantic," added Cora, smiling
+faintly.  "It would have been material for Ray's sketchbook."
+
+"Never, Cora!" cried Ray.  "But come on.  Let's go to some less
+dangerous part of this ruin.  You know they say this was once a church,
+but was made into a sort of castle by an eccentric individual--"
+
+"Who did dark and bloody deeds and whose spirit now haunts the place,"
+interrupted Maud.
+
+"Oh, don't!" begged Ray.  "It's not quite as bad as that, but I heard
+some one say that on certain dark nights that--"
+
+"Stop it!" commanded Cora.  "My nerves are all right, but I'm still
+shaky from that stone.  Let's see if--"
+
+"Oh!" cried Bess suddenly.  "There's something there, girls," and, with
+dramatic gesture, she pointed to a pile of leaves in one corner.
+"Something moved there, I'm sure of it!"
+
+They looked, and all started as the leaves actually did move.
+
+"Come on!" cried Ray.  They gathered up their skirts and were hurrying
+from the old room into which they had penetrated when the leaves
+rustled still more, and from them came a tiny snake.  There was a
+chorus of screams and Cora found herself alone in the ruined chamber.
+She was pale but resolute as she followed her companions sedately.
+
+"Weren't you awfully frightened?" asked Ray as Cora joined them.
+
+"No indeed," she answered.  "I prefer a live and seeable snake to some
+haunting, unseeable rumor that only appears on dark nights. But let's
+get out into the sunlight and admire the ruins from a better
+perspective.  Besides it's getting near lunch time."
+
+It was more reassuring out of doors, they all admitted, and after
+admiring the picturesque remains of what might have been either a
+church or fort as far as appearances now went, they got the hampers
+from the cars and feasted.  Then, sitting in the shade, they discussed
+many things until lengthening shadows warned them that it was time to
+go.
+
+"Now for a jolly day to-morrow," remarked Maud as they neared their
+stopping place that night.  "If only we have good weather."
+
+She had her desire.  Never was weather more perfect, never were better
+country roads discovered and never could there have been a more jolly
+party of girls.
+
+Maud was enchanted with Ebbinflow.  She declared the watering place was
+a perfect fairyland, but some of her companions hinted that it was the
+style of the gowns that attracted her.  Still they spent the best part
+of a day there, enjoying the bathing and coming back in the cool of the
+evening much refreshed.
+
+"Now, Bess, it's your choice for our destination to-morrow," announced
+Cora at a little luncheon just before retiring time. "But please don't
+choose ruins or a watering place."
+
+"The woods for mine," announced Bess.  "I heard of a lovely grove about
+twenty-five miles from here--"
+
+"Twenty-five miles to find an ordinary grove," said Maud.
+
+"Oh, but it's not an ordinary one," declared Bess.  "It is quite
+extraordinary."
+
+A delightful fancy dress ball was given that evening at the girls'
+club, where our friends stopped, and this made a pleasant break in the
+tour and a welcome relief from spark plugs, carburetors and the
+cranking of motors, much as the girls had come to care for their cars.
+
+Two days more were spent in visiting well-known places of interest, and
+on one trip Maud and Bess, who managed to slip away from their
+companions, went through several old farmhouses in search of the table.
+Once they had hopes that they were on the track, as an elderly woman
+declared she had just what they were looking for, but it proved to be
+far from it, though she was anxious to sell it to them.
+
+"Oh, dear, I hoped we could find it," said Bess as they came out.
+
+Next morning Tillie declared it was her turn to say where the trip
+should be, and she picked out an exclusive antique shop, about twenty
+miles from Breakwater, in which direction the cars were soon speeding.
+
+"I'll get a warming pan if there is one in the place," announced
+Tillie, whose love for the old copper pan with the long and awkward
+handle was almost a joke with her friends.
+
+"Well, I do hope if you can't get a pan that you'll not load us up with
+lead pipe and such stuff," said Cora with a laugh.  "I remember very
+well that last day at school when you came back from Beverly.  My, what
+a sight you were!  What did you ever do with the junk?"
+
+"Indeed, it was not junk," objected Tillie, "but a lot of the very
+handsomest glass knobs and brass candlesticks, and my samovar."
+
+"You surely did not carry a samovar!" exclaimed Maud.
+
+"Indeed I did," replied the little German, "else I should not have
+gotten it in the morning.  I know those antique men.  They are like a
+thermometer--go up and down with simple possibilities."
+
+Ray was as pretty as ever, Maude just as sweet and Daisy just as
+gentle, while Cora and Gertrude had added new summer tints to their
+coloring.  Adele and Tillie were still bubbling over with enthusiasm,
+the twins were exceptionally happy, the morning mail having brought
+good news--so that all were "fine and fit" when they started on the
+ride to the antique shop.
+
+The day was of that sort that comes in between summer and fall, when
+one time period borrows from the other with the result of making an
+absolutely perfect "blend."
+
+Ray had changed places with Belle Robinson, so that Belle was in the
+Whirlwind and Ray in the Flyaway, and when the procession was moving it
+attracted the usual public attention.
+
+But the motor girls were now accustomed to being stared at; in fact,
+they would have missed the attention had they been deprived of it, for
+it was something to have a run with all girls--and such attractive
+girls.
+
+"What if we should find the table at the antique shop!" suddenly said
+Belle to Ray.  "Somehow I have a feeling--"
+
+"Let me right out of your machine, Bess Robinson," joked Ray.  "I have
+had all I want of 'feelings' since we started on this trip. I rather
+think the one where the goat or sheep or whatever it was did the actual
+'feeling' was about the 'utmost,' as Clip would say.  Poor Clip!  I
+wonder what she is about just now."
+
+"About as frisky as ever, I'll wager," said Belle.  "I never could
+understand that girl."
+
+"Well," objected Bess, "it would be hard to understand any one who is
+only in Chelton two months at summer.  If you were at school all year
+and came home for new clothes, I fancy I would scarcely understand my
+own twin sister."
+
+"Strange," went on Ray, "that boys always so well understand a girl of
+that type.  Now I do not mean that in sarcasm," she hurried to add,
+noting the impression her remark had made, "but I have always noticed
+that the girls whom girls think queer boys think just right."
+
+"Pure contrariness," declared Bess.  "I don't suppose a boy like Jack
+Kimball thinks more of a girl just because she keeps her home
+surroundings so mysteriously secret."
+
+As usual, Bess had blundered.  She never could speak of Jack Kimball
+and Clip Thayer without "showing her teeth," as Belle expressed it.
+
+The machines were running along with remarkable smoothness.  The
+Flyaway seemed to be singing with the Whirlwind, while Daisy's car had
+ceased to grunt, thanks to the efforts of the workman at her aunt's
+place.
+
+"What will the antique man think of three autos stopping at his door?"
+inquired Adele of Cora.
+
+"Think?  Why, it will be the best advertisement he ever had. Likely he
+will pay us to come again," replied Cora.
+
+The street upon which "the mahogany shop" was situated was narrow and
+dingy enough--the sort of place usually chosen to add to the "old and
+odd" effect of the things in the dusty window.
+
+The proprietor was outside on a feeble-looking sofa.  As Cora
+predicted, he evidently was honored with the trio of cars that pulled
+up to the narrow sidewalk.  Tillie, with the air of a connoisseur,
+stepped into the shop before the little man with the ragged whiskers
+had time to recover from his surprise.
+
+"Have you a warming pan?" she inquired straightaway, whereat, as was
+expected, the man produced almost every other imaginable sort of old
+piece save, of course, that asked for.
+
+But Tillie liked to look at all the stuff, and was already running the
+risk of blood poison, as Cora whispered to Gertrude, with her delving
+into green brasses and dirty coppers.
+
+With the same thought uppermost in their minds, Bess, Belle and Cora
+were soon busy examining the old furniture.  There were many curious
+and really valuable pieces among the collection, for this man's shop
+was famous for many a mile.
+
+"Tables!" whispered Belle.  "Did you ever think there were so many
+kinds?"
+
+Cora approached the owner.  "Have you an inlaid table--a card table or
+one that could be used for one?  I would fancy something in unpolished
+wood."
+
+"I know just what you mean," answered the man, "and I expect to have
+one in a few days.  In fact, I already have an order for one--with
+anchors and oars inlaid."
+
+Cora did not start.  She winked at Bess, who was always apt to "bubble
+over."
+
+"Anchors?" repeated Cora.  "Set in on the sides, I suppose?  Well, that
+would be odd.  But where can you get such a piece as that?"
+
+Cora did not mean to ask outright where the piece might be obtained;
+what she meant was: "That will surely be a difficult thing to find."
+
+"Oh, there is one--some place," replied the man, little dreaming what a
+tumult his words were creating in the brains of the anxious motor
+girls.  "And when I get an order I always get the article. I shall have
+a warming pan for this young lady by to-morrow noon."
+
+"Then suppose I order a table, like the one with the oars and anchors?"
+ventured Cora.  "Could I get that?"
+
+"Oh, no, miss," and he shook his head with importance.  "You do not
+understand the trade.  That would be a duplicate, and in furniture we
+guarantee to give you an original--I can only get one seaman's card
+table, and that is ordered."
+
+Cora smiled and walked off a little to gain time, and to think. Her
+manner told the girls plainly not to mention the matter.  She would act
+as wisely as she was capable of doing.  She overhauled some blue plates
+and selected a pair of "Baronials."
+
+The man went into ecstasies, describing "every crack in the dishes,"
+Maud said to Daisy, but Cora bought the plates, and paid him his price
+without question.
+
+Adele and Tillie had piled up quite a heap of brass and copper, and,
+unlike Cora, they argued some about the cost, but finally compromised,
+and put the entire heap into an old Chinese basket which the man "threw
+in."
+
+"Then I cannot get a table," said Cora, purposely displaying a roll of
+bills which she was replacing in her purse.
+
+"Not exactly that kind," answered the man.  "But something very much
+handsomer, I assure you.  If you will call in a day or two I will show
+you something unmatched in all the country.  A house has just sold out,
+and I have bought all the mahogany."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+PERPLEXITIES
+
+
+When Cecilia Thayer in her own little runabout, the Turtle, went over
+the road to Mrs. Salvey's cottage, after the visit to the Hastings, her
+alert mind was occupied with many questions.
+
+She had advised the mother to go to court to account for her own child,
+a most peculiar proceeding, but one insisted upon by a well-meaning
+organization, the special duty of which was to care for children.  What
+sort of story Mrs. Salvey's relative may have told to bring such a
+course about, neither she nor Cecilia knew. But at any rate a private
+hearing was arranged for, and now Cecilia was on her way to fetch the
+widow to town.
+
+Driving leisurely along, for the Turtle could not be trusted to hurry,
+Cecilia had ample time to plan her own course of action, should the
+judge insist upon having Wren shown in court.  This Cecilia felt sure
+would be dangerous to the extremely nervous condition of the child, and
+it was such a move she most dreaded.
+
+"I will call Dr. Collins," thought Cecilia, "and have him state the
+facts, if necessary.  But then I would have to give an account of my
+own part," came the thought, "and that would mean so much to me just
+now."
+
+The "burr r-rr-r" of an approaching automobile startled her.  She
+turned and confronted Rob Roland.
+
+"Well," he exclaimed, his pleasure too evident, "this is luck. Were you
+going to Aunt Salvey's?"
+
+Cecilia was annoyed.  But she had no other course than to reply that
+she was going to the cottage.
+
+"So am I," replied the young man, "and very likely our business is of
+the same nature."
+
+"I am going to fetch her into town to the hearing," spoke up Cecilia,
+"and I have to hurry along."
+
+"And I, too, was going to fetch her.  She is quite in demand, it
+seems," and he stretched his thin lips over his particularly fine teeth
+in something like a sneer.  "I wish I had known you were coming out; I
+should have invited you to ride with me."
+
+"Thanks," said Cecilia indifferently.  "But I could hardly have
+accepted.  I had some calls to, make as I came along."
+
+"Yes, I saw your machine at Hastings.  How's the chap getting on?"
+
+"Paul is almost better," replied Cecilia, making an effort to get out
+of talking distance.  But he knew exactly why she sent her machine
+ahead, and while too diplomatic to actually bar her way, he, too,
+opened the throttle to increase the speed of his car.
+
+It was very aggravating.  Cecilia had expected to have an important
+talk alone with Mrs. Salvey.
+
+Without a doubt this was also the very thing Rob Roland intended to do.
+If only she could get Mrs. Salvey into her car.  But if she should
+prefer to ride with her nephew.
+
+For some short distance Cecilia rode along without attempting
+conversation with the young man who was driving as close to her car as
+it was possible for him to do.  Finally he spoke:
+
+"Have you ever been in a courtroom?" he asked.
+
+"No," she replied curtly.
+
+"Then you are sure to make a hit.  Bet your picture will be in the
+paper to-morrow."
+
+"What!" gasped Cecilia.  "I understood this was to be a private
+hearing."
+
+"Nothing's private from the newspaper chaps.  They make more of chamber
+hearings than the open affairs.  Always sure to be something behind the
+doors, you know."
+
+The thought flashed through the girl's mind that he was trying to
+frighten her--to keep her away from the hearing.
+
+"Well, I hope they have decent cameras," she managed to say
+indifferently.
+
+He glanced at her with a look that meant she would make a picture. And
+in this, at least, he was honest, for the girl was certainly attractive
+in her linen coat, her turn-over collar and her simple Panama hat.  She
+looked almost boyish.
+
+"Better let me call Aunt Salvey," he said as they neared the cottage.
+"But there she is--waiting for us."
+
+Cecilia urged the Turtle slightly ahead, then stopped suddenly. She was
+almost nervous with suppressed excitement.
+
+"All ready?" she asked as Mrs. Salvey greeted first her, then the young
+man.
+
+"Yes.  I wanted to be on time," replied the woman, stepping down from
+the porch.
+
+"Well, you cannot ride in two cars," called young Roland, "and this
+is--if I must be impolite--the best machine, Aunt Salvey."
+
+"But you had an appointment with me," pressed Cecilia, pretending to
+joke.  "I would not trust even Mr. Roland to get you there on time, so
+I came myself."
+
+"Of course," replied the widow, puzzled at the situation, "it was good
+of you to come, Rob, but I must go with Miss Thayer.  I had arranged to
+do so."
+
+"Just as you like," he said, tossing his head back defiantly, "but you
+know it would look better.  Oh, we know perfectly well where Wren is,"
+he sneered, "and if you go to see her this afternoon I am going, too."
+
+So this was his scheme--he would follow them to find the child's hiding
+place.
+
+Mrs. Salvey stepped into Cecilia's car.  Her face was whiter than the
+widow's ruche she wore in her black bonnet.  She trembled as Cecilia
+took her hand.  What if she were making a mistake in trusting so much
+to this young girl, and so defying her antagonistic relatives!  What if
+they should attempt to prove that she was not properly caring for her
+child!  And if they should take Wren from her!
+
+"Perhaps I ought not to anger him," she whispered to the girl. "Do you
+think I had best go with him?"
+
+"After I have had a chance to say a word or two, you may get out if you
+like," replied Cecilia hastily.  "But I must caution you not to mention
+where Wren is, no matter how they press you.  If they insist upon
+knowing I shall call Dr. Collins.  That is the most important thing.
+Next, don't tell who were the last persons who signed the promise book.
+Now, you may get out and make a joke of it.  I will trust to luck for
+the rest."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE CHILDREN'S COURT
+
+
+Judge Cowles was a gentleman of what is called the "old-fashioned"
+type.  He was always gentle, in spite of the difficult human questions
+he was constantly called upon to decide, and which necessarily could
+not always be decided to suit both parties involved in the legal
+dispute.  But when Mrs. Salvey walked into his room and took a seat
+beside Cecilia Thayer he started up in surprise.  He had known Mrs.
+Salvey long ago, when she lived by the sea with her father-in-law,
+Captain Salvey.  Many a time had judge Cowles ridden in the little boat
+that the captain took such pride in demonstrating, for the boat was
+rigged up in an original way, and the captain was choice about his
+companions.
+
+"Why, Mrs. Salvey!" he exclaimed, with the most cordial voice.  "I am
+surprised to see you!"
+
+Mrs. Salvey bowed, but did not trust herself to speak.  She felt
+humiliated, wronged, and was now conscious of that deeper pang--stifled
+justice.  Judge Cowles would be fair--and she would be brave.
+
+Cecilia, young and inexperienced as she was, felt a glad surprise in
+the words of the judge; if he knew Mrs. Salvey he must know her to be a
+good mother.
+
+A man of extremely nervous type, who continually rattled and fussed
+with the typewritten pages he held in his hand, represented the
+Children's Society.  Evidently he had prepared quite an argument,
+Cecilia thought.  Close to him sat Rob Roland, and the stout man whom
+the motor girls had met on the road after the robbery of the mailbag.
+Cecilia recognized him at once, and he had the audacity to bow slightly
+to her.
+
+There were one or two young fellows down in the corner of the room,
+sitting so idly and so flagrantly unconcerned that Cecilia knew they
+must be newspaper men--time enough for them to show interest when
+anything interesting occurred.
+
+The case just disposed of--that of a small boy who had been accused of
+violating the curfew law--was settled with a reprimand; and as the
+crestfallen little chap slouched past Cecilia, she could not resist the
+temptation of putting out her hand and tugging pleasantly at his coat
+sleeve.
+
+"You'll be a good boy now," she said, with her most powerful smile.
+But the agent of the Children's Society, he with the threatening papers
+in his hand, called to the boy to sit down, and the tone of voice hurt
+Cecilia more than the insolent look turned fully upon her by Rob Roland.
+
+The judge was ready for the next case--it was that of the Children's
+Society against Mrs. Salvey.  Cecilia could hear the hum from the
+newspaper corner cease, she saw Mr. Reed, he of Roland, Reed & Company,
+and the same man who had just bowed to her, take some papers from his
+pocket.
+
+Then the judge announced that he was ready to hear the case.
+
+"This woman, your honor," began the nervous man, "is charged with
+wilfully neglecting her child in the matter of withholding the child
+from relatives who have for years been both supporting and rendering to
+the child necessary medical aid."
+
+Mrs. Salvey's face flushed scarlet.  Cecilia was almost upon her feet.
+But the others seemed to take the matter as the most ordinary
+occurrence, and seemed scarcely interested.
+
+"This child," went on the agent, "is a <DW36>"--again Cecilia wanted
+to shout--"and mentally deficient."
+
+"That is false!" cried Mrs. Salvey.  "She is mentally brilliant."
+
+"One minute, madam," said the judge gently.
+
+"To prove that the child has hallucinations," pursued the man, reading
+from his papers, "I would like to state that for some years she has
+kept a book--called a promise book.  In this she collected the names of
+all the persons she could induce to put them down, claiming that when
+the right person should sign she would recover some old, imaginary
+piece of furniture, which, she claimed, held the spirit of her departed
+grandfather."
+
+The man stopped to smile at his own wit.  Cecilia and Mrs. Salvey were
+too surprised to breathe--they both wanted to "swallow" every breath of
+air in the room at one gulp.
+
+"And the specific charge?" asked the judge, showing some impatience.
+
+"Well, your honor, we contend that a mother who will wilfully take such
+a child away from medical care, and hide her away from those who are
+qualified to care for her, must be criminally negligent."
+
+The judge raised his head in that careful manner characteristic of
+serious thought.
+
+"And what do you ask?" he inquired.
+
+Cecilia thought she or Mrs. Salvey would never get a chance to
+speak--to deny those dreadful accusations.
+
+"We ask, your honor," and the man's voice betrayed confidence, "that
+this child be turned over to the Children's Society.  We will report to
+the court, and make any desired arrangements to satisfy the mother."
+
+Turn Wren over to a public society!  This, then, was the motive--those
+Rolands wanted to get the little one away from her own mother.
+
+"Mrs. Salvey," called the judge, and the white-faced woman stood up.
+As she did so, Mr. Reed, the lawyer, advanced to a seat quite close to
+that occupied by the judge.  Rob Roland shifted about with
+poorly--hidden anxiety.
+
+"You have heard the charge," said the judge very slowly.  "We will be
+pleased to hear your answer."
+
+"One minute, your honor," interrupted Lawyer Reed.  "We wish to add
+that on the day that our doctor had decided upon a hospital operation
+for the child, the child was secretly smuggled off in an automobile by
+a young girl, and a young sporting character of this town."
+
+Had Cecilia Thayer ever been in a courtroom before, she might have
+known that lawyers resort to all sorts of tricks to confuse and even
+anger witnesses.  But, as it was, she only felt that something had hit
+her--a blow that strikes the heart and threatens some dreadful thing.
+The next moment the blood rushed to her cheeks, relieved that pressure,
+and she was ready--even for such an insulting charge.
+
+Mrs. Salvey was again called, and this time she was not interrupted.
+She told in a straight-forward manner of the illness of her little
+girl, of her own difficulty in obtaining sufficient money to have the
+child treated medically, and of how her husband's cousin, Wilbur
+Roland, senior member of the firm of Roland, Reed & Company, had come
+forward and offered her assistance.
+
+"Then why," asked the judge, "did you take the child away?"
+
+Mrs. Salvey looked at Cecilia.  Lawyer Reed was on his feet and ready
+to interrupt, but the judge motioned him to silence.
+
+"I took her away because I feared the treatment was not what she
+needed, and I had others offered," replied Mrs. Salvey.
+
+"Other medical treatment?" asked the judge.
+
+"Yes," answered the mother.
+
+"Then she is being cared for?" and judge Cowles looked sharply at the
+children's agent.
+
+"Most decidedly," answered Mrs. Salvey with emphasis.  "And not only is
+she better, but can now stand--she has not been able to do that in ten
+years."
+
+"It's a lie!" shouted Rob Roland, so angered as to forget himself
+entirely.  "She is a hopeless <DW36>."
+
+"Have you any witness?" asked the attorney of Mrs. Salvey, while the
+judge frowned at Rob and warned him to be careful or he might be fined
+for contempt of court.
+
+The mother turned to Cecilia.  "This young girl can corroborate my
+statement," she answered.
+
+As Cecilia stood up the reporters actually left their places and very
+quietly glided up to seats near the trembling girl.
+
+"Would they make a scandal of it?" she was thinking.  "That lawyer's
+remark about Jack Kimball?"
+
+"Your name?" asked the judge.
+
+She replied in a steady voice.
+
+"And your occupation?"
+
+Cecilia hesitated.  She was not yet ready to make public the ambition
+she had so earnestly worked for.
+
+"A student," she replied finally.
+
+"Of what?" asked Rob Roland.
+
+"Young man," said the judge sternly, "I am hearing this case, and any
+further discourtesy from you will be considered as contempt."
+
+The youth smiled ironically.  He was already accustomed to such usage,
+and did not mind it in the least if only he could gain his point, but
+this time he had failed.
+
+"You know the child--Wren Salvey?" asked the judge.
+
+"Yes.  I have been in close attendance upon her for some weeks,"
+replied Cecilia.
+
+"And you can state that she is improved in health since leaving her
+mother's house?"
+
+"Very much improved.  If she had not lost a very dear treasure, over
+which she grieves, I believe she would be almost well soon."
+
+Cecilia looked very young and very pretty.  She spoke with the
+conviction of candor that counts so much to honest minds, and judge
+Cowles encouraged her with a most pleasant manner.  The newspaper men
+were scribbling notes rapidly.  Rob Roland was looking steadily at the
+chandelier at the risk of injury to his neck--so awkward was his
+position.
+
+"You are the young lady who removed the child?" questioned the
+magistrate.
+
+"Yes," replied Cecilia.
+
+"And her accomplice?" shouted Rob Roland questioningly.
+
+"Leave the room!" ordered the judge.  "I think there is a different
+case behind this than the one we are hearing.  I shall inquire into it,
+and, for the good of the child and her wronged mother, I shall order a
+thorough investigation.  What motive have those who brought up this
+alleged case?  There is absolutely no grounds for this action.  The
+case is dismissed."
+
+So suddenly did the relief come to Cecilia that she almost collapsed.
+She looked at Mrs. Salvey, who was pressing her handkerchief to her
+eyes.
+
+"It is all right," whispered Cecilia.  "Oh, I am so glad!"
+
+A stir in the room attracted their attention.  Cecilia turned and faced
+Jack Kimball.
+
+Jack was hurrying up to the judge's chair, and scarcely stopped to
+greet Cecilia.
+
+"Mr. Robinson wishes you to detain these gentlemen a few minutes," said
+Jack to judge Cowles.  "He is on his way here."
+
+A messenger was sent to the corridor after Rob Roland.  The other
+lawyers were discussing some papers, and in no hurry to leave.
+
+Presently Mr. Robinson and two other gentlemen entered.  The face of
+the twins' father was flushed, and he was plainly much excited.
+
+"I have just heard from my daughters," he began, "who are away on a
+motor tour.  They state that the day my papers were taken from the
+mailbag they met on the road a man answering the description of this
+gentleman," indicating Mr. Reed.  "They described him exactly, his
+disfigured thumb being easily remembered.  Now the young fellow who was
+'held-up' that day, and who has been sick since in consequence, also
+says he felt, while blindfolded, that same one-jointed thumb.  Further
+than that," and Mr. Robinson was actually panting for breath, "my girls
+can state, and prove, that this same man was at a tea-house near
+Breakwater discussing papers, which the young girls who conduct the
+tea-house plainly saw.  The papers were stamped with the seals of my
+patent lawyers."
+
+Rob Roland was clutching the back of the seat he stood near.  The
+lawyer accused, Mr. Reed, had turned a sickly pallor.
+
+Jack Kimball stepped up.  "There is present," he said, "one of the
+motor girls who was on the road at that time.  She may be able to
+identify this man."
+
+What followed was always like a dream to Clip--for, leaving off
+legalities, we may again call her by that significant name.  She faced
+the man to whom she had talked on the road, he who had wanted to help
+her with her runabout when she was unable to manage it herself.  It was
+directly after Paul Hastings left them, and within a short time of the
+happening which had meant so much to Hazel's brother.  Clip told this,
+and, strange to say, the lawyer made no attempt to deny any part of her
+statement.
+
+"We are prepared to answer when the case is called," he said. "But it
+seems to me, Robinson, you went a long way for detectives. Did not the
+motor girls also tell you that they met me on the road to Breakwater
+two days ago?"
+
+"Judge, I demand those papers!" called Mr. Robinson.  "This fellow does
+not deny he took them."
+
+"When the ladies leave the room," said the judge quietly, with that
+courteous manner that made Clip want to run up to him and throw her
+arms about his neck, "we may discuss this further.  We are indebted to
+the young motor girl for her identification."
+
+When Clip took Mrs. Salvey out they went directly to the Kimball home,
+nor were they now afraid of being followed by the threatening and
+insulting Rob Roland.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE MOTOR GIRLS ON THE WATCH
+
+
+Cora Kimball was turning away from the antique shop as indifferently as
+if nothing there interested her.  The other girls looked at her aghast.
+
+Bess could scarcely be motioned to silence, for the "little mahogany
+man" came to close the door of the tonneau, incidentally to look over
+his customers.
+
+"If you come again in a day or so," he said to Cora, "I will have
+tables," and he rolled his eyes as if the tables were to come from no
+less a place than heaven itself.  "Oh, such tables!"
+
+"I may," replied Cora vaguely.  "But I fancy I may have a seaman's
+table made.  I would not be particular about an original."
+
+"Wait, wait!" exclaimed the man.  "If you do not care for an original I
+could make a copy.  The one I am to get is something very, very
+original, and I will have it here.  There is no law against making one
+like it."
+
+"Well," said Cora, "I will be in Breakwater for a few days, and I may
+call in again.  There," as he handed in her blue plates, "these are
+splendid.  Mother has a collection of Baronials."
+
+Then they started off.
+
+Bess drove up to the Whirlwind.
+
+"Why in the world didn't you ask who had ordered the table?" she almost
+gasped.  "If you knew that you could easily have traced it."
+
+"Wait, wait!" exclaimed Cora, in tones so like those of the shop
+proprietor that the girls all laughed heartily.  "I will go to the shop
+again, and then I will see.  Perhaps I will get the original--and
+then--well, wait--just wait."
+
+"You are a natural born clue hunter!" declared Daisy, "and I am just
+dying to get back to Aunt May's to tell Duncan."
+
+"Now see here, girls," called Cora very seriously, so that all in-the
+different machines might hear her, "this is a matter that must not be
+mentioned to any one.  It would spoil all my plans if the merest hint
+leaked out.  Now remember!" and Cora spoke with unusual firmness; "I
+must have absolute secrecy."
+
+Every girl of them promised.  What is dearer to the real girl than a
+real secret--when the keeping of it involves further delights in its
+development?
+
+Once back at Bennet Blade the girls whispered and whispered, until Cora
+declared they would all, forsooth, be attacked with laryngitis, if they
+did not cease "hissing," and she called upon Doctor Bennet to bear out
+her statement.
+
+Duncan was going to Chelton, and of course he took the trouble to ask
+what he might do there for the Chelton girls.
+
+What he might do?  Was there anything he might not do?  The Robinson
+girls declared that their mail had not been forwarded, and they could
+not trust to mails, anyhow, since their father's papers had been lost.
+Would it be too much trouble for him just to call?  To tell their
+mother what a perfectly delightful time they were having, and so on.
+
+And Maud Morris hated to bother him, but could he just stop at
+Clearman's and get her magazine?  She was reading a serial, and simply
+could not sleep nights waiting for the last instalment.
+
+Of course he would go to see his uncle, Dr. Bennet, Sr.  In fact, it
+was with Dr. Bennet he had the appointment; and when Daisy started to
+entrust him with her messages to her father, he insisted that she write
+them down--no normal brain could hold such a list, he declared.
+
+Ray was what Bess termed "foxy."  She did not ask him to do a single
+thing.  "She thinks he will fetch her a box of candy, or a bottle of
+perfume.  That's Ray," declared Bess to Belle.
+
+Cora certainly wanted to send many messages, with the opportunity of
+having them go first-hand.  It did seem such a long time since she had
+seen Jack; then there was Hazel, poor child, penned up with a sick
+brother.  And Wren and Clip.  Why couldn't Cora just run in to Chelton
+herself with Duncan?
+
+The thought was all-conquering.  It swayed every other impulse in
+Cora's generous nature.  Why should she stop at the thought of
+propriety?  Was it not all right for her to ride with Doctor Bennet, to
+reach Chelton by noon and return before night?
+
+She must go.  She would go if every motor girl went along with her.
+
+Mrs. Bennet was one of those dear women who seem to take girls right to
+her heart.  As I have said, she was small and rosy, with that
+never-fading bloom that sometimes accompanies the rosy-cheeked,
+curly-headed girl far into her womanhood.  Cora would go directly to
+her, and tell her.  She would abide by her judgment.
+
+Mrs. Bennet simply said yes, of course.  And then she added that Cora
+might start off without letting the girls know anything about it.  That
+would save a lot of explanation.
+
+How Cora's heart did thump!  Duncan was going in his machine, and, like
+all doctors, he always preferred to have a man drive--his chauffeur was
+most skilful--doctors, even when young in their profession, do not
+willingly risk being stalled.
+
+But in spite of Cora's one guiding rule--"When you make up your mind
+stick to it"--she had many misgivings between that evening when her
+plans were made, and the next morning when she was to start off with
+Duncan Bennet.  The other girls had gone out to an evening play in
+Forest Park, one of the real attractions of Breakwater, and at the last
+moment Cora excused herself upon some available pretense so that she
+was able to get her things together and see that her machine was safely
+put up, and then be ready to start off in the morning before the other
+girls had time to realize she was going.
+
+"It does seem," she reflected, "that I am always getting runaway
+rides."  Then she recalled how Sid Wilcox actually did run away with
+her once, as related in the "Motor Girls."  "And," she told herself, "I
+seem to like running away with boys."
+
+This was exactly what worried Cora; she knew that others would be apt
+to make this remark.  "But I cannot help it this time," she sighed.  "I
+have to go to Chelton, or--"
+
+Cora was looking very pretty.  Excitement seems to put the match to the
+flickering taper of beauty, hidden behind the self-control of healthy
+maidenhood.  Her cheeks were aflame and her eyes sparkled so like
+Jack's when he was sure of winning a hard contest.
+
+"Dear old Jack!" she thought.  "Won't he be surprised to see me! That
+will be the best part of it.  They will all be so surprised."
+
+She went down to the study, where she was sure to find Duncan.
+
+"I suppose your mother has told you of my mad impulse," she began
+rather awkwardly.  "Do you think the folks will be glad to see me?"
+
+What a stupid remark!  She had no more idea of saying that than of
+saying: "Do you think it will snow?"  But, somehow, when he put up his
+book and looked at her so seriously, she could not help blundering.
+
+"They ought to be," he said simply.  Then she saw that he was
+preoccupied--scarcely aware that she was present.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said directly, "but I was very busy thinking,
+just then."
+
+"Oh, I should not have disturbed you," she faltered.  "I will go away
+at once.  I just wanted to be sure that you would wait for me--not run
+off and leave me."
+
+"Oh, do sit down," he urged.  "My brain is stiff, and I've got to quit
+for to-night.  I haven't told you what takes me to Chelton--in fact, I
+haven't told mother.  You see, she thinks I am such a baby that I find
+it better not to let her know when I am on a case.  But the fact is, I
+am just baby enough to want to tell some one."
+
+He arranged the cushions in the big willow chair, and Cora sat down
+quite obediently.  She liked Duncan--there was something akin to
+bravery behind his careless manner.  "What he wouldn't do for a
+friend!" she thought.
+
+"Your case?" asked Cora.  "I am very ignorant on medical matters, but I
+should love to hear about the Chelton case.  I fancy I know every one
+in Chelton."
+
+"Well, you know Uncle Bennet, Daisy's father, is quite a surgeon, and
+he has been called in this case by Dr. Collins.  It is a remarkable
+case, and he has asked me to come in also."
+
+"It is that of a child who has been a <DW36> for some years, and who
+now is making such progress under the physical-training system that she
+promises to be cured entirely.
+
+"A child?" asked Cora, her heart fluttering.
+
+"Yes; and I rather suspect that you know her."  He seemed about to
+laugh.  "Uncle mentioned your brother's name in his invitation for me
+to go in on the case."
+
+"Oh, tell me," begged Cora, "is it Wren?"
+
+"Just let me see," and he looked over some letters.  "It seems to me it
+was some such fantastical name--yes, here it is.  Her name is Wren
+Salvey."
+
+"Oh, my little Wren!  And Clip is doing all this!  Oh, I must go! Is
+she going to be operated upon?"
+
+"Seems to me, little girl," and the young doctor put his hand over hers
+as would an elderly physician, "that you are over excitable. I will
+have to be giving you a sedative if you do not at once quiet down.  The
+child is not to be operated upon, as I understand it.  It is simply
+what we call an observation case."
+
+"But she is at our house--she has been there since I came away. Why,
+however can all that be going on at home and no one there but the
+housekeeper--"
+
+"The child was at your house, but is now in a private sanitarium," he
+said quickly.  "I have had the pleasure of being in close
+correspondence with your friend Clip."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+CORA 'S RESOLVE
+
+
+For a moment Cora was dumfounded.  Duncan Bennet a close friend of Clip!
+
+The next moment the riddle was solved.
+
+"Why, of course you know Clip," she said.  "She goes to your college."
+
+"Yes," and he ran his white fingers through his "fractious" hair. "The
+fact is, Cora, I am quite as anxious to see Clip as to go in on the
+case.  Haven't seen her since school closed."
+
+"I'll likely have some trouble in finding her," he added presently.
+"Never can find her when I particularly want to, but if she is in
+Chelton I'm going to hunt her up."
+
+"Won't she be at the sanitarium?" asked Cora, and she wondered why her
+own voice sounded so strained.
+
+"I think not," he replied.  "Clip is a poster-girl, in our parlance,
+and we don't let them in on real cases."
+
+"Poster?" asked Cora.
+
+"Yes; it means she has had her picture in the college paper, with
+'Next' under it.  I don't mind saying that I cut out that particular
+picture."
+
+"It must be lots of fun to be in such affairs," said Cora.  "I have
+often thought that the simple life of society is a mere bubble compared
+to what goes on where girls think."
+
+"Well, I am going early," he said pleasantly.  "I suppose you don't
+mind running away before breakfast."
+
+"No, indeed," she answered.  "I rather fancy the idea.  If I ever
+trusted myself to meet the girls I would surely 'default.'"
+
+"All right.  My man is always on time.  Mother will see that we are not
+hungry--I've got the greatest mother in the world for looking after
+meals."
+
+Cora laughed, and arose to go.
+
+"I've told you a lot," he said rather awkwardly, "but somehow I felt
+like telling you."
+
+"You may trust me," replied Cora lightly.  "I have such a lot of
+secrets, that I just know how to manage them--they are filed away, you
+know, each in its place."
+
+"Thanks," he said.  "You know, we don't, as a rule, speak about our
+professional friends.  Don't say anything to Daisy about Clip. I think
+she would die if she knew I fancied her."
+
+He said this just like a girl, imitating Daisy.
+
+"Why, she likes Clip," declared Cora.  "We all do."
+
+"Wait," he said, and he raised a prophetic finger, "wait until Clip
+sails under her own colors.  Then take note of her friends. This is the
+thorn in her side, as it were.  She speaks of it often."
+
+How Cora's head throbbed!  Perhaps, as Duncan had said, she was over
+excited.  But just now there seemed so many things to think about.
+
+If she went to Chelton she might hear something that would give her a
+clue to Wren's book.  Jack insinuated that he had a clue when he spoke
+to her over the 'phone.  What if she should be able to trace both the
+book and the table!  And bring Wren into her own!
+
+As if divining a change in the girl's mind, Duncan Bennet said:
+
+"Now, you won't disappoint me?  I am counting on your company."
+
+"Well, I shall have to dream over it," replied Cora.  "Mother says it
+is always safest to let our ambitions cool overnight."
+
+"'Think not ambition wise, because 'tis brave?'" he quoted.  But he did
+not guess how well that quotation fitted Cora's case.
+
+It seemed scarcely any time before the girls were back from the park,
+just bubbling over in girlish enthusiasm about the wonderful woodland
+performance.  And that Cora should have missed it!  Even Gertrude, the
+staid and steady, could not understand it.
+
+The Bennets' home was a very large country house, but with all the
+motor girls scattered over it the house seemed comparatively small.
+Chocolate and knickknacks were always served before bedtime, and Daisy
+had reason to be proud of her part in the entertainment of the girls.
+
+"And to-morrow," said Adele, between mouthfuls of morsels, "we shall
+have to decorate for the fete.  I am going to do the Whirlwind all my
+own way, am I not, Cora?"
+
+"You certainly may," replied Cora vaguely.  "I am the poorest hand at
+decorating.  I prefer driving."
+
+And they all wondered why she took so little interest in the
+preparations for the fete.
+
+"I know," whispered Bess.  "You are thinking of that little mahogany
+man.  And so am I.  I can't just wait to see the table."
+
+Bright and early, the next morning the girls were astir.  They had need
+to be "up with the lark," for the gathering of stuffs with which to
+decorate cars is quite a task, and they planned to make the fete a
+memorable affair, as Belle put it.
+
+"Wait till Cora comes down," said Tillie.  "Won't she be surprised that
+I have already been over the meadow, and gotten so many beautiful, tall
+grasses!"
+
+Mrs. Bennet appeared at that moment.
+
+"My dears," she began, "I have a surprise for you.  Cora has taken a
+run home--she really had to go, but she will be back by nightfall.
+Now, there," to Daisy, "you must not pout.  Cora has been a faithful
+little captain, and, from what I understand, there have been a great
+many things to demand her attention at home.  Go right on with your
+plans, and make her car the very prettiest, and when she gets back she
+will have some reason to be proud of her allies.  I have arranged to be
+at home all day, and to do whatever I can to assist you, in Cora's
+place."
+
+The girls were utterly surprised, but what could they say?  Show
+displeasure to so affable a hostess?  Never!
+
+What they thought was, of course, a matter of their own personal
+business.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+A WILD RUN'
+
+
+"Speed her up, Tom," ordered Dr. Duncan Bennet to his chauffeur, as he
+and Cora started out that bright, beautiful morning.  "We will have all
+we can do to cover the ground and make home by nightfall."
+
+"Without a single stop," remarked Cora, "I calculated we could do it.
+Do you think there is any possibility of us failing to get back?"
+
+"Tom knows no end of short cuts," said Duncan, settling himself down
+comfortably.  "We take quite a different route to that which you girls
+came over."
+
+"Oh, yes, of course.  We could never get to Chelton and back in one day
+over the roads which we came by," replied Cora.
+
+"The one controlling thought is," said the young physician, "that an
+automobile is not a camel.  No telling when its thirst will demand
+impossible quenching.  But this is a first-rate car," he went on, "and
+it has never gone back on me yet."
+
+"It rides beautifully," agreed Cora, as the machine was speeding over
+the roads like the very wind.  "After all, I do believe that an
+experienced chauffeur is a positive luxury."
+
+"Now, now!" exclaimed Duncan.  "Don't go back on your constitution.
+You will have to report, I suppose.  What do you imagine our little
+girls are thinking and doing about now?"
+
+Cora laughed.  Duncan seemed amused at the idea of "stealing" the
+captain of the club--he liked nothing better than a "row" with girls.
+
+"Well, I suppose," said Cora cautiously, "that they are scouring
+Breakwater for things to decorate the machines with.  I am glad that I
+entrusted the Whirlwind to Tillie--she is so artistically practical
+that she will be sure to avoid making holes in the car to stick
+bouquets in."
+
+"The fellows will be up to-night.  They have taken rooms at the Beacon.
+There'll be no end of a rumpus if they strike Breakwater, and I am not
+there to pilot them."
+
+"Likely our girls would attempt to put them to rights," said Cora,
+joking.  "Just fancy a crowd of students, and those silly girls."
+
+"It is well that they can't hear you," remarked Duncan.  "Of course,
+you are very--very sensible."
+
+"You mean--I should not have come?" she said, her face flushing.
+
+"Oh, indeed, I meant nothing of the sort," he hurried to explain. "In
+fact, I never could have carried out my plan if you had not come along.
+I am going to bring Clip out for the meet."
+
+"Oh, wouldn't that be splendid!" exclaimed Cora.  "If only we can
+manage it.  But she is always so busy--"
+
+"Then I intend to make her stop work for a few days at least.  I want
+my brother to meet her, and this--well, quite an opportunity."
+
+Cora looked at the earnest young man beside her.  "Clip is worth
+knowing," she said simply.  Then she added: "I wonder if we could
+arrange it to have Hazel come?  It would be just glorious to have the
+club complete after all our little drawbacks.  If her brother is better
+I will not take 'no' for an answer.  I shall simply insist upon Hazel
+coming."
+
+Cora was aglow with the prospects--if only everything would go along
+smoothly and no other "drawback" should occur.
+
+"Your friends are from Exmouth, aren't they?" asked Duncan.  "I ought
+to know some of them; we played their team last year."
+
+"Oh, do you know Ed Foster?  And Walter Pennington?" asked Cora.
+
+"I happen to remember their names," said Duncan.  "I would be glad if
+we could manage to have them come out to the show.  Let me see. How
+could we fix it up?"
+
+"Jack has a car, and so has Walter," replied Cora, while the chauffeur
+looked at his speedometer and noted that they were doing twenty-five
+miles an hour.
+
+"Then," said Duncan, "if we can fix it--But that observation case will
+take quite a little time."
+
+"You can attend to your case, and get Clip," said Cora with a
+mischievous smile, "and I will attend to the boys."
+
+"Oh, my!" exclaimed Duncan.  "You are ready and willing to make the
+'round up.'  Well," and the car gave an unexpected bump that almost
+threw Cora over into her companion's arms, "I would like first rate to
+have them all come to Breakwater, and our fellows would count it the
+best part of their vacation to have an auto run of that kind.  If we
+find everything all right out in Chelton we will call a special meeting
+of the motor girls, the girls being you, and the motor boys being me,
+and then we will come to the quickest decision on record."
+
+Cora was arranging her goggles and veil.  The speed of the car was
+playing sad havoc with her costume, and she was not too independent to
+want to look well when she got into her home-town.
+
+"Look out, Tom!" called Duncan to his man.  "Here is about where they
+enforce the speed laws, isn't it?"
+
+"We have to take chances," replied the man, "if we expect to cover the
+ground."
+
+"Mercy!" exclaimed Cora.  "Please do not take any chances with speed
+laws.  I have a perfect horror of that sort of thing."
+
+"What's she doing?" asked the doctor.
+
+"Only twenty miles, sir," replied the chauffeur, "and they allow us
+fifteen."
+
+"Couldn't we just as well conform to the regulation speed?" asked Cora
+anxiously.  It was rather unusual for her to show such timidity.
+
+"Leave it to Tom," replied the young doctor.  "Chauffeurs are like
+house-maids--they must not be interfered with."
+
+Up to this time Cora had really not noticed the speed.  Her
+conversation with Duncan had been altogether engrossing.  But now she
+began to appreciate the situation, and this precluded all other
+considerations, even the thoughts of Chelton.
+
+Duncan Bennet had no sister, and, consequently, was not versed in the
+art of "fidgets."  He only knew the ailment when it took definite form.
+But Cora was getting it--in fact, she now felt positively nervous.
+
+How that machine did go!  The speed delighted Duncan.  Tom was like an
+eagle bending over his prey--he urged the car on with such
+determination.  Once or twice Cora felt bound to exclaim, but Duncan
+only shook his head.  It was going, that was all he seemed to care for.
+Near the station they were obliged to slow up some to look for trains.
+As they did so Cora saw another car dash by, and in she recognized the
+man now known to her as Mr. Reed, Rob Roland's cousin.
+
+She made no remark to Duncan; he seemed so occupied with his own
+thoughts.  But when, after a few minutes, the same car passed them
+again, having made a circuit on a crossroad, and the same man stared at
+Cora as if to make sure it was she, she felt a queer uneasiness.
+
+This time the other car shot ahead at such a wild pace that even
+Duncan's machine was not speeding compared with that.
+
+"Talk about going!" commented the physician; "just look at that fellow.
+If he can use up that much gasoline and escape the law, no need for us
+to worry."
+
+The chauffeur was simply intent upon speed--he seemed to have gone
+speed crazy, Cora thought.
+
+They were traveling over a perfectly straight road, and Duncan Bennet
+took out his field glasses.
+
+"Here," he said to Cora, "I often find these interesting when on a long
+journey.  Take a peek."
+
+Cora adjusted the glasses and peered ahead.
+
+"That man," she said, "has stopped at a small shed--"
+
+"That's the constable's hang-out," remarked Duncan.  "I had to stop
+there once--just once," and the thought was evidently funny, for he
+laughed boyishly.
+
+"Yes," went on Cora, "there is some one talking to him.  Oh, Duncan,"
+and she clutched his arm nervously, "do tell Tom to drive slowly past
+there, for I think I know that man."
+
+"Go slow, Tom," called Duncan carelessly.  "We might be held up. Just
+let me take the glasses, Cora."
+
+He peered through the strong lenses.  "The other car has gone on," he
+said.  "Perhaps the cop is a friend of your friend's"; and again he
+laughed, much to Cora's discomfort.
+
+On and on the machine flew.  Finally they were within a few rods of the
+little shed by the roadside.  A man on a motor-cycle was waiting.  As
+the Bennet car came up he shot out into the center of the road.
+
+Duncan did not mistake his intention.  Tom turned his head and gave the
+other a meaning look.  Then the chauffeur slowed down--slower and
+slower.
+
+"Stop!" called the man on the motor-cycle, at the same moment
+dismounting from his wheel.
+
+Tom almost stopped.  Cora thought he had turned off the gasoline, but
+the next moment he had shot past the surprised officer, and was going
+at a madder pace than ever.
+
+Cora was frightened.  Some motor-cycles can beat ordinary automobiles;
+she knew that.  But Duncan was laughing.  If only that man, Reed, was
+not on the same road just then.
+
+"Can you make it?" asked Duncan, calling into the chauffeur's ear.
+
+"Don't know," replied the man.  "But we may as well get as far out of
+the woods as possible."
+
+"Don't worry, little girl," said Duncan to Cora with that
+self-confidence peculiar to those who are accustomed to being obeyed.
+"We are all right.  It is only a fine, at any rate, and I always carry
+small change."
+
+"Stop!" yelled the man at the rear.  "You cannot cross the line, and if
+you don't stop soon you will find your tires winded."
+
+A revolver shot sounded.
+
+Tom drew up instantly.  "I don't fancy putting on new tires," he said
+coolly, "so we may as well surrender."
+
+Duncan looked at the officer in a perfectly friendly way.
+
+"Well, what's up?" he asked indifferently.
+
+"You ought to know," replied the man, scowling angrily.  "If I hadn't
+stopped you land knows but you would have been over the falls.  What's
+the matter with you fellows, anyhow?  Can't you take a joy ride without
+committing murder and suicide?"
+
+"You're mistaken," replied Duncan.  "I'm a doctor on a hurry call--"
+
+"Yes, you are!  You look it!" and the officer sneered at Cora. "Tell
+that to the marines!"
+
+"Well, what's the price?" demanded Duncan with some impatience. "I'm in
+a hurry."
+
+"Wait till your hurry cools off," said the officer, who from his own
+wild chase was now plainly uncomfortably warm.  "You made the
+marked-off distance in the shortest time on record, from post to post
+in one minute."
+
+"How do you know?" asked the chauffeur sharply.
+
+"What's that to you?" replied the officer.  "Didn't I see you?"
+
+"You did not!" shouted Tom.  "Some one 'squealed,' and you have no
+proof of what you are saying."
+
+The man hesitated.  Then he blurted out: "Well, what if a friend did
+tip me off?  Wasn't he in as much danger from your runaway machine as
+the next one?"
+
+"That man!" whispered Cora to Duncan.  "He stopped and told him to
+arrest us."
+
+"Well, the price?" called Duncan, with his hand in his pocket.  "I tell
+you I am a doctor, and I am in a hurry to get to Chelton. Can't you
+make it something reasonable--and then something for your own trouble?"
+
+The man eyed Duncan sharply.  "I was told you would say just that," he
+said with a curious laugh.
+
+"And that is just what the other fellow said to you," spoke Tom. "Now
+look here, Hanna.  I know how much you have got out of this already,
+and I happen to know the sort of coin that that sneak, Reed, carries.
+He has offered me some--at times.  He travels out here quite some of
+late.  Take my advice and be square.  It is all bound to come out in
+the wash."
+
+Cora gazed at Duncan in astonishment.  "I told you," said the latter,
+"that it is best to leave a good man alone.  Like a good cook, they
+usually know their own business."
+
+But the officer was not so sure.  He hesitated, then said: "Well, I see
+judge Brown over in the meadow.  He can settle it.  Come along."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+LEGAL STRATEGY
+
+
+Cora was in despair.  To be thus detained when there was not an hour to
+spare!  Tom drew the machine well to the roadside.  Duncan leisurely
+climbed out and then asked the girl if she would remain in the car.
+
+"That's the mean part of this business," remarked Duncan; "they don't
+want money--they want time--good, honest time."
+
+Then, of a sudden, with that boyishness that Cora had so greatly
+admired in so thoughtful a young man, he sprang off on a run toward the
+meadow, where the constable had indicated the judge could be found.
+
+"Come on, friend," he called good-naturedly to the officer on the
+wheel.  "When a thing's to be done, may as well do it.  The sooner the
+quicker," he joked, while Cora wondered more and more how so wronged a
+person could be so good-humored.
+
+Tom fussed about the machine, looking to see that the official bullet
+had not struck through a tire.  Evidently the constable did not expect
+Duncan to take him at his word, and go after the squire, for it took
+him some time to put his wheel against a tree and prepare to follow on
+foot.
+
+"You can't go that way," he shouted to Duncan.  "That's all swamp."
+
+"Won't hurt me," replied the irrepressible Duncan.  "I am taking the
+water cure."
+
+Soon Duncan was talking to the farmer--and the constable was still
+"picking his steps" toward the spot where the two stood.
+
+"I am sure Duncan will win him," thought Cora, "and perhaps we will not
+be so long delayed, after all."
+
+But Tom could not stand the suspense.  He asked Cora if she would mind
+being left alone for a few minutes, and soon he, too, was hurrying over
+the meadow.
+
+Cora had great faith in Tom's judgment now, and was rather glad that he
+had gone to Duncan's help.  She stepped out of the car to gather a few
+wild flowers, and was just about to step in again when the rumble of an
+approaching machine attracted her attention.
+
+She turned and saw coming toward her that man Reed.  With assumed
+indifference she stepped back to the road to get another flower. This
+took her just a bit farther from his path than she would have been in
+the car, but as he came up she heard him slacken, then stop.
+
+Her heart seemed to stand still.  In an instant she realized what it
+meant for a girl to be alone on a road--she should not have left
+Breakwater, and the doctor and Tom should not have left her.
+
+"Miss Kimball," called a voice from the other car.  "I am sorry to see
+you in this predicament.  I am Mr. Reed, of Roland, Reed & Company,"
+and he said this with all possible courtesy.  "I believe we have met
+before, and I came back to see if I might be of any assistance to you.
+This speeding business is rather troublesome, and I ventured to guess
+that you are most anxious to be in Chelton to-day, as there are so many
+interesting things going on there."
+
+For an instant Cora felt that she had wronged this man.  Perhaps, after
+all, he was a perfect gentleman, and had nothing to do with their being
+detained.  If only Duncan or Tom was there!
+
+"Yes, I am in a hurry to get home," admitted Cora.  "But I think we
+will soon be off again."
+
+"Not very likely," went on the other.  "That old judge seems to delight
+in keeping folks away from their business.  He has the most roundabout
+way possible of transacting matters.  I was about to suggest that if
+you really are anxious to get to Chelton I would go over there and
+speak with your friend, and, as we are not so far away from the home
+town, it might be wise for you to ride with me.  It is very awkward for
+a lady to be in this position. Sometimes a newspaper fellow comes
+along, and, as they say, 'gets a story' out of it."
+
+"Oh, I thank you very much," she said hurriedly and not without showing
+her confusion, "but I will wait until Dr. Bennet comes.  I am sure he
+will not be detained long.  They should have some consideration for
+physicians."
+
+"Dr.  Bennet?  Oh, I see.  He is in a hurry, too, to get to Chelton."
+(If Cora could have seen the flash that shot through the lawyer's brain
+at that moment.)  "Well, of course, he ought to be allowed to
+go--although we all have to keep within the speed limit."
+
+"They are coming now," said Cora joyously, for the interview was
+anything but pleasant.  "I will tell Dr. Bennet of your kindness."
+
+The man cranked up instantly, excusing his haste with a glance at his
+watch.  "Well," he said, "I have a noon appointment, so I may as well
+hurry on.  Good morning, Miss Kimball.  I suppose we shall see each
+other again in Chelton, as we both are interested, I believe, in the
+same affair--finding the promise book and finding the lost table."
+
+Then he was off.
+
+Duncan, Tom and the two officers were up to the car before Cora had
+quite recovered herself.
+
+"That was Reed, miss, wasn't it?" asked Tom sharply.
+
+"Yes," replied Cora.
+
+"Well, he's a cool one," went on Tom, while Duncan looked after the
+receding car.  "Do you know him, if I may ask?"
+
+"Yes, and no," said Cora nervously, for the constable and justice were
+looking at her with some impertinence.
+
+"I thought so.  His usual game.  He makes himself known.  Now see
+here," said Tom, in a manner that made Cora think of Paul--perhaps Tom
+loved machines as did Paul, and was more than an ordinary
+chauffeur--"that man is a keen lawyer, Dr. Bennet, and he has some
+purpose in delaying you."
+
+"Delaying me!" echoed Duncan.
+
+"No," interrupted Cora.  "It is in me he seems to have the interest,
+for he asked me to ride back to Chelton with him.  Oh, I know!" she
+exclaimed.  "It is in Wren!  He is the lawyer who has to do with Mrs.
+Salvey's case, and he is trying to keep Dr. Bennet away from Chelton
+to-day.  He must have heard that you were on the case," declared Cora,
+as the whole strange proceeding seemed to flash before her excited mind.
+
+"That's bad!" groaned Duncan.
+
+The officials were talking at one side of the road.
+
+"Look here, squire," called Tom, "this is all a putup game.  You have
+no proof that we were going faster than the law allows.  That sneak
+Reed simply told you so.  Now own up, Hanna.  Am I not right?"
+
+"He sure said so," grumbled Hanna.
+
+"And you had only his word?" asked the old justice angrily.
+
+"I saw the smoke from that car, and--"
+
+"Well, I'm goin' to let you go," asserted the judge.  "I don't like
+this here kind of business, Hanna, and I want you after this to have
+all your charges first hand.  Don't take no tips from nobody, d'ye
+hear?"
+
+Hanna smiled.  He had his hand in his pocket, and it may as well be
+told that there was also in the pocket something which resigned him to
+letting the automobilists go.  Reed had attended to the compensation.
+
+"Just as you say, judge," remarked the constable.
+
+Duncan put his hand out to the old squire.  "Here, squire," he said.
+"I do this openly.  I want you to take this, not as a bribe, but as a
+personal gift, which I have a perfect right to offer you.  You are
+doing me a kindness, and also this young lady a kindness, and the one
+most concerned is a helpless little creature who waits until I reach
+Chelton to know whether or not she is to be made perfectly well, so to
+speak.  Not that I am the one to say that, but because a noted
+specialist will wait for all the other doctors.  It's a long stony, but
+I will let you know how we make out if I beat that sharper into
+Chelton."
+
+Cora couldn't speak.  She, too, put out her hand to the old squire, who
+was wiping his eyes and shaking his head against Duncan's gift.
+Finally the young doctor prevailed upon him, and then once more they
+started on their mad run for Chelton.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+AGAINST THE LAW
+
+
+Two hours later Cora almost fell into the arms of her brother--so
+overstrained were her nerves after the exciting ride.
+
+"Oh, Jack," she exclaimed, "I had the awfullest time!  It is very well
+to be a girl and imitate boys in the matter of risking; but I say,
+Jack, it is always risky."
+
+"Well, I am glad you have found that out, little girl," answered the
+brother, putting her comfortably down in the big armchair. "What's the
+particular risk now?  No more stolen girls?"
+
+"Oh, that was your part," she said, laughing.  "And, by the way, I hear
+you are quite a successful kidnaper."
+
+"Not so bad.  But you should have seen the time we had to get Wren to
+the sanitarium.  She didn't want to leave here, and had a mortal fear
+of a hospital.  But how are you?" and he looked into her flushed face.
+"I declare it seems moons since I've seen you."
+
+"And all the other planets since I saw you, Jack.  I wonder will I ever
+have the courage to tell you all about it?"
+
+"Wouldn't the courage just naturally come on my side?  I would have to
+listen--"
+
+"Oh, no.  You don't have to--"
+
+"There you go!  Home ten minutes and picking a fight--"
+
+"Jack Kimball!"
+
+"Cora Kimball!"
+
+Then they both laughed.  It was jolly even to play at quarreling, and
+be real brother and sister again.
+
+"Well, I have so little time, Jack, I must be serious.  You know we
+have to get back to Breakwater to-night.  We are to fetch you, and Ed
+and Walter and Clip--"
+
+"Oh, you don't say!  In a suit case or a la hamper?  Ed is literally
+cut up about all the girls being out of town at once. He would fit in
+the shirt box, I fancy.  But Wallie--he seems to have expanded.  I
+doubt if you could manage him--"
+
+"Oh, you ridiculous boy!  Come on.  Run after me while I get through
+the house.  I must see dear old Margaret.  How is she treating you?"
+
+"First-rate, for Margaret.  She only starved me out of the midnight
+rations twice--"
+
+"You should not eat after ten, Jack.  But come along.  I must look over
+the place, and talk at the same time," and with that intention Cora
+started on her tour of home inspection, while Jack made all the noise
+he possibly could make (which was not a little), running through the
+house after her.
+
+Margaret, of course, knew what the tumult was about.  She always
+declared that boys went to college to learn how to make unearthly
+noises.
+
+Cora found little out of place.  Margaret was an old and trusted
+servant, and, in the absence of her mistress, could always be depended
+upon to look after the "children."
+
+"And now I must go and get the folks together," remarked Cora. "Can you
+come, Jack?"
+
+"And help you pick up the humans?  Well, guess I may as well, as I am
+to be in the collection.  But what is it all about?"
+
+In a girl's way Cora told of the plans for the auto fete, and of Dr.
+Bennet wishing to have the Chelton boys meet his student friends.
+
+"First rate!" responded Jack, when Cora paused for breath.  "I rather
+fancy the idea of going after some of the girls.  I cannot help but
+agree with Ed that all the girls should not leave town at once--you
+should take turns."
+
+"But how about Clip?  The others imagine that she makes up for quite a
+number--with you and Walter."
+
+"There you go again, picking a fight," and he laughed honestly. "Now,
+Cora, Clip is just Clip, no more and not one whit less, but she has
+been so busy--oh, so tremendously busy!"  He was getting into his motor
+togs, and Cora was already equipped for her ride about Chelton.  "Say,
+sis," he added, "did I tell you I have my suspicions about the loss of
+Wren's book?  Did she describe to you the pair who last signed the
+contract?"
+
+"No," answered Cora, now fully interested.
+
+"Well, she told me it was a fellow with bent shoulders, and a girl with
+red hair.  Now, who does that fit?"
+
+Cora thought for a moment.  Then her face showed quicker than her words
+that she guessed who might answer those descriptions.
+
+"Sid Wilcox and Ida Giles!" she exclaimed.  "But what motive could they
+have?"
+
+"Sid Wilcox and Rob Roland are termed the Heavenly Twins, they are so
+often together.  Now, Rob Roland has been the paragraph and the period,
+so to speak, in this story," said Jack meaningly.
+
+"But why should Ida stoop to such a thing?"
+
+"Didn't you run over her dining-car one day early this summer?" Jack
+reminded her.  "Or was it Bess?  No matter just who, it was one of the
+motor girls.  And, besides, you did not ask her to go on the run."
+
+"If I thought Ida Giles knew anything about that book I would go
+directly to her house and demand an explanation," said Cora, flushing.
+"Ida is too apt to be influenced by Sid Wilcox.  I thought she had seen
+enough of the consequences of such folly."
+
+"Oh, Ida is ambitious in that line," replied the cool, deliberate Jack.
+
+"Well, let us start," suggested Cora.  "I have quite some ground to
+cover.  Dr. Bennet has agreed to find and fetch Clip."
+
+"Has, eh?  Smart fellow, Doc Bennet!  I tried all afternoon yesterday
+to locate the lithersome Clip.  Took a coy little jaunt of two miles
+afoot--some one said she had a friend out Bentley way, but I did not
+locate her.  Hope Doc has better luck."
+
+Jack said this in a way that opposed his words to their own meaning.
+He evidently meant he hoped Dr. Bennet would not have better luck.
+
+"I am so anxious about the report on Wren," commented Cora, as they
+finally started off in Jack's runabout.  "It will mean so much to her
+mother, and to her, of course."
+
+"Well, if Clip has had any influence, I should say Wren would turn out
+an artist's model, physically.  Clip has just about lived with the
+child since you went away.  Of course, we had Miss Brown, and if she
+isn't Brown by nature as well as by name.  I wouldn't say so.  I never
+got one single smile to cut across her map."
+
+"Shall we look for Ed first?" and Cora could not control a most
+provoking flush that threatened her cheeks.
+
+"Just as you say, lady.  But I have not told you--let the last moment
+be the hardest.  Ed has taken to the ram.  He is training the ram.
+Can't get him away from the ram.  Mary's little lamb is a 'bucking
+bronco' to it."
+
+"Oh, I have been wondering about that," said Cora.  "I thought I was to
+wear the ram's fleece as a sort of real baby-lamb coat next winter."
+
+"Nothing of the sort, girl.  Ed's ramifications are the talk of the
+town.  He is to give an exhibition at college when we get back.  A
+clear case of the lamb and Mary's school days."
+
+"Well, where shall we hope to find him?" and she glanced at her watch.
+"I must find some one soon."
+
+"Come along.  I'll hunt him up.  He is likely at this very moment
+giving Minus his morning ablutions.  He called the ram Minus because
+the animal takes away so much of his time.  Joke, eh?"
+
+Jack directed his machine toward the same little creek that figured in
+my first story of the motor girls, when Ed rescued them from a sorry
+plight, the Whirlwind having run into a mudhole.
+
+"Now, I'll bet we find him by the brookside with Minus chewing daisies
+and, incidentally, Ed's stray clothing," declared Jack.
+
+Along the way people appeared surprised to see Cora, and their
+greetings were a mixture of query and astonishment.
+
+"There's Ida!" suddenly exclaimed Jack.  "Don't let on you see her.  I
+don't want to stop here to talk to her."
+
+"Why?" asked Cora curiously.
+
+"Because in about one minute you will see her trailer, the insufferable
+Sid, and I am not in Sid's humor.
+
+"I would like to speak with Ida," objected Cora.  "I really wanted to
+ask her something."
+
+"Save it," commanded the ungovernable brother.  "A thing like that gets
+better with time."
+
+So they passed along, Cora having to be content with a bow and a smile
+to Ida Giles, who returned both promptly.
+
+"Jack," said Cora, when they were also up to the hill behind which they
+hoped to find the idler by the brook, "do you know I think I have an
+actual clue to Wren's table.  An antique man out Breakwater way has an
+order for one.  I am watching that order."
+
+"That's easy.  When you know that Reed has been in and out of the place
+for some days.  That's the best of being a girl.  You can trace around
+after the most important clues and no one would ever suspect you of
+knowing what you are after.  Now, I rather think when the fete is
+'pulled off,' if I may use the term," and he laughed his apology, "then
+there will be some doin's.  I just want to see rocky Rob rumpled."
+
+"Let us not delay talking long with Ed," proposed Cora, "for I must be
+at Hazel's at one--I am so anxious about Paul."
+
+"About Paul?  Why, he's all right.  He's out and has been to the
+office," was the brother's surprising answer.  "Didn't you hear about
+Mr. Robinson wanting to send him away for his health? Robinson has
+taken a great fancy to Paul.  The stolen document business is also near
+a climax.  I had a fine time trying to keep Clip's name out of the
+paper, the day they had the hearing about Wren.  You see, I--the great
+first person--ran into the courtroom just as the judge was dismissing
+the absurd case set up against Mrs. Salvey.  Of course, that was
+nothing more or less than a trick to get information for the other
+side.  Well, Mr. Robinson was hurrying to court and he has passed his
+running days creditably, I believe when he met me.  I took up his run
+at a moment's notice, reached the courtroom, waved my hands wildly in
+the air--"
+
+"Oh, Jack!" interrupted Cora; "don't be so absurd.  You know I am just
+dying to hear what happened."
+
+"Then don't die until you do hear," and he slowed up at the hill. "The
+fact is, I just caught the whole City News force red-handed with a
+great story about Clip.  The reporters had called her the modern Clara,
+and all that, but I got it away from them.  I know one of the best of
+them, and he agreed, so they all had to.  It was a good little story,
+for the lawyers were matched against a motor girl.  That made it
+interesting from a newspaper viewpoint. Hello!  Didn't I tell you?
+Say, there, Mr. Foster!  Chain up the ram, Ed.  We want to approach."
+
+Just as they rounded the hill, Ed could plainly be seen as Jack had
+foretold--idling by the brook with the ram in the same picture, but at
+a polite distance from its owner.
+
+"I thought Walter wanted the ram," remarked Cora as they neared the
+spot where Ed was "getting himself together."
+
+"Oh, he did.  But do you remember what the man said about having to put
+his overcoat on to feed that animal?  Well, he wouldn't even stand for
+Walter, with or without the ulster.  He tried his best raincoat and
+all, but the ram just went for him.  But look how he purrs around
+Ed--tame as a kitten."
+
+"I am not going to trust him, though," decided Cora.  "One experience
+with Mr. Minus is enough for me.  Shout to Ed to come over.  I must
+hurry."
+
+Cora's invitation to go to Breakwater came almost as a shock, Ed
+declared, but coming from Cora he would accept.  Consequently he
+hurried the ram to its quarters, and, agreeing to look up Walter, the
+girl was left to pay her visit to Hazel.
+
+"We fellows will start from here about daybreak," Jack decided, "and we
+will reach Breakwater about ten o'clock.  That's the time Doc Bennet
+gave me for the official gun to go off."
+
+It happened that Ed knew the young doctor slightly, so that he took
+Jack's urgent "appeal" as coming from the actual host.
+
+"I told you he would be glad to join the Motor Girls' Club," remarked
+Jack, while Ed was exchanging civilities with Cora. "He's just been
+pining around here like a lost--"
+
+"Now, Jack, be square," interrupted the handsome young man, whom Cora
+thought had actually grown handsomer in the days since she had last
+seen him.  "I never pine.  I growl--just plain growl."
+
+"You take me over to Hazel's, Jack?" asked Cora.  "Then you may go
+along and help look for Walter.  I must meet Dr. Bennet at two-thirty.
+And then, I wonder, will we be able to get back to Breakwater by six."
+
+She was thinking of her experience coming out to Chelton; also she kept
+on the lookout for Mr. Reed.  He had hinted that there were interesting
+things developing in Chelton just then.  He had said openly that his
+interest and Cora's were mutual.  Would he again molest her?
+
+With this thought she determined not to get too far away from Jack.
+She would have him call at the Hastings' house for her.
+
+And the Roland, Reed & Company lawyers knew that Cora Kimball was a
+leader among the motor girls the club that had avowed its purpose of
+finding the book, as well as the table.
+
+All this was complicated and involved, but to the shrewd lawyers, Cora
+knew the working out of the details was merely a matter of opportunity.
+
+Having failed to prove Wren a subject for some "shut-in" institution,
+these same lawyers were now engaged on another scheme, that of trying
+to show that the child was detained against her will, and was actually
+in the possession of Cora Kimball.
+
+Jack had told Cora all this, trying to make it a matter of small
+importance, and laughing at Rob Roland's initial performance, as Jack
+put it; but Cora felt that it was no laughing matter, and that at least
+the happiness of two persons--Mrs. Salvey and her delicate little
+daughter--was involved.
+
+Cora and Jack were on the road, and Jack had cranked up.  Ed, having
+made the ram secure in the field, was about to walk to his own
+lodgings.  Suddenly a flash of red swept across the streak of brown
+highway.  Cora recognized it instantly as Dr. Bennet's car.
+
+He was coming at such a pace that in drawing up the gears and brakes of
+his machine protested with unpleasant, grinding sounds.
+
+Dr. Bennet seemed flushed and excited.  He began, without any
+preliminaries, to tell Cora that she must get into his car, and hurry
+back to Breakwater.
+
+"I have been on the wildest hunt," he said, smiling an acknowledgment
+to Cora's introduction to Ed, and bowing to Jack, whom he had met
+earlier in the day.  "I have been all over Chelton, but of course did
+not expect to locate you out here."
+
+Duncan Bennet possessed that manner which is at once persuasive and at
+the same time courteous combination of the doctor and the man.
+
+"You see," he continued, "I happened to overhear that you are to be
+subpoenaed in that Robinson patent case.  In fact, I heard Reed say he
+would have you in an hour, so I determined to beat him back home--get
+you over the State line before he can serve the papers. Now, you had
+best jump right in.  Clip is waiting for us at Wiltons'.  We will pick
+her up and then fly."
+
+"Oh!" gasped Cora, seizing at Jack's arm.  "I am not going to run away.
+I will stay right at home--with my brother."  Cora was as near crying
+as any young lady with the reputation of strength of character might
+safely venture.  But Jack knew more of the case than he had confided to
+her, and he instantly agreed with Dr. Bennet.
+
+"Run along, sis," he advised, with the jollity that makes a brave boy
+ever a girl's hero.  "I'll be after you with the others, and it will be
+no end of fun.  Clip's going, and I'll try to have Paul and Hazel
+join--if Paul is fit.  Then with Ed and Walter-- Say, we will have the
+time of our young lives!  Get in with Dr. Bennet, and I'll turn back
+and stop in front of the ice cream place.  Of course, Reed or Roland
+will come along that way, and of course you will be inside eating
+frapped subpoenas."
+
+Cora was now climbing in beside Dr. Bennet.
+
+"And that is why that horrid man tried to get me to ride in town with
+him!" cried Cora.  "He wanted to make me take those papers--"
+
+"Certainly," interrupted Duncan.  "But we have fooled him thus far.  Be
+sure to come to the show, boys," this to Ed and Jack. "My crowd will be
+out there to-night, but I suppose we will not see the Chelton throng
+until to-morrow.  Excuse haste--and a bad pen," he added, laughing,
+while Tom gave a signal on the horn. "This is the time we make a run
+against the law."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+CONFIDENCES
+
+
+"Now, Tom," called Duncan Bennet to his chauffeur, after Clip had
+joined Cora, "you had better slow up some.  The young ladies may want
+to find out whether or not they still wear hats."  They had ridden fast
+and far.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Clip, "I never had such a delightful ride.  I suppose
+that is what you call being motor mad--going and going until you cannot
+go fast enough.  They say it is a disease, isn't it, doctor?"
+
+"I believe it is so defined," answered Duncan with mock dignity. "But
+we are not to talk disease, if you please, young lady," and he smiled a
+command which might easily be interpreted to mean: "You must rest from
+that sort of thing for a while."
+
+Cora turned to look back over the dusty road.  Her face, usually alive
+to every mood, was strangely set--as if too anxious to venture a change
+of expression.  Duncan from the front seat saw her look.
+
+"Oh, he is not coming," he said.  "No need to worry now.  We are across
+the State line."
+
+"I never was so frightened in my life," admitted Cora.  "Not that I was
+afraid of going to court, but I was mortally afraid we would not be
+able to make the run in time.  I should have known better, however, for
+Tom had qualified before to-day."
+
+"Tom knows just how fast this machine ought to go," added Duncan. "I
+don't mind Tom hearing it, either."
+
+The chauffeur smiled in acknowledgment to the compliment.  It had been
+a hard run, and the Chelton lawyer had only turned back at the last
+mile post.
+
+"Wonder where that motor-cycle officer is now?" remarked Cora.  "I mean
+Constable Hanna."
+
+"Oh, he's out having a good time on what he earned this morning,"
+answered Duncan.  "One hold-up in a day is plenty for Hanna."
+
+"I have scarcely had a chance to speak to you, Clip," Cora began, as
+her nervousness vanished.  "I am so glad to see you."
+
+"Well, you have been looking whole vocabularies at me, Cora, in many
+and various languages," said Clip in her own inimitable way. "I have
+been wondering whether you had turned into a Sphynx or just Liberty."
+
+"But, Clip, I did have a fright.  Suppose I should have had to give up
+the run, and go to that stuffy old courtroom!"
+
+"Well, I am glad you didn't," answered Clip sincerely.  "I do think
+that a courtroom is about the meanest place I have ever visited--and I
+have been in a lot of queer places.  And the girls," went on Clip.
+"Whatever will they say to you two runaways?"
+
+"What won't they say?" replied Duncan.  "I am not to blame, of course.
+Miss Cora simply inveigled me into allowing her to ride with me--"
+
+"I saw Reed pass over the back country road a moment ago," interrupted
+Tom.  "I might guess where he is going."
+
+"Where?" asked the trio in a breath.
+
+"To that junk shop on the turnpike," replied Tom.  "He seems to think
+the shop is haunted with a valuable ghost.  He goes out there almost
+daily."
+
+"You mean the antique shop?" asked Cora.  "Oh, I know.  He is after a
+table.  I am sure it is he who has given the order--" She stopped--her
+finger on her lip.  Tom seemed to know so much--what if he should know
+about the missing table?  "Have you any idea what he is after?" asked
+Cora directly.
+
+"Well, I ought to know," replied Tom, "for he has made no secret of it.
+He has searched every attic from Breakwater to Moreland. I caught an
+old junk dealer in our barn the other morning, and while I watched him
+get down the road I saw Reed come along.  Of course, he had hired the
+man to search where he himself could not go.  He is after some sort of
+ancient rustic table, I believe."
+
+Clip and Cora exchanged meaning looks.  Cora had not for a moment
+forgotten about the antique man's promise to have the original table in
+a few days.  She was to see this and then--
+
+"We are not out of the woods yet," remarked Clip.  "I am thinking,
+Duncan, that you have undertaken a large contract.  You have positively
+agreed to have me back in Chelton by to-morrow afternoon at four
+o'clock."
+
+"Oh, we will see about that," replied the physician with a sly look at
+Cora.  "There is a telephone in Breakwater--"
+
+"Duncan Bennet!  If I thought I should be late for the 'clearing-up'
+to-morrow I would start right now," declared Clip most emphatically.
+
+"Oh, you won't be.  We will fix it so the 'clearing-up' will be late
+for you.  I suppose you think everything that ever happened is going to
+repeat itself to-morrow afternoon, just because one Miss Cecilia Thayer
+is going--"
+
+"Hush, Duncan!  Cora does not know one word about it.  She may have
+guessed, but that is not knowing, is it, Cora?"
+
+"I confess to a keen curiosity," answered Cora, "but as a matter of
+fact I expect to be very much busy myself to-morrow.  Just now I cannot
+see how it is all going to be managed."
+
+"Well, when the Chelton boys arrive I guess the girls will not be so
+particular about their time," said Duncan.  "I fancy even the captain
+will have to show somebody the beauties of Breakwater. But hark!
+Wasn't that Daisy?  I just heard a breath.  We are only about ten miles
+from home--Daisy can easily breathe that long when she is excited.  Oh,
+I am just aching to hear what they will say, Cora," and he laughed.
+"I'll wager Ray will be the aggrieved one.  She will likely manage to
+keep out of the work, don't you think so?"
+
+Cora did not reply in so many words, but she looked acquiescence.
+Certainly those who knew Ray appreciated her ability to take care of
+her own personal self at the risk of all other matters.  But Cora was
+thinking of something else--of Wren and the medical report.  She knew
+better than to ask Duncan outright what might have been the result of
+their inquiry.  Nevertheless, she could not refrain from "begging the
+question."
+
+"Is little Wren happy?" she asked, without apology for the sudden turn
+in their conversation.
+
+"Well, just now," replied Duncan very seriously, "she can scarcely be
+expected to realize either happiness or unhappiness, for we had to give
+her a powerful anesthetic."
+
+"For an operation?" Cora could not refrain from asking.  Clip showed no
+curiosity, and Cora knew at once that she was acquainted with the
+circumstances.
+
+"Something of that kind," answered Duncan vaguely.  "But put your mind
+at rest--the child has every chance of ultimate recovery. The trouble
+was the wrong treatment.  We use purely physical training for that sort
+of thing."
+
+"Could the neglect have been intentional?" asked Cora further. She had
+in mind the "quack" doctor so long sent to Salveys' by the Roland
+branch of the family.
+
+"Oh, I wouldn't like to venture an opinion on that," replied Duncan,
+"but ignorance is closely allied to criminal negligence."
+
+Clip set her deep dark eyes in a tense, strained expression.  Then they
+all fell to thinking, and for a time conversation ceased.
+
+"Ten more telegraph poles and we run into Breakwater," announced
+Duncan, while Tom eyed his speedometer.  "Then for our reception!"
+
+It seemed but two minutes, at most, from that announcement that
+Duncan's machine turned into the Bennet estate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+MERRY MOTOR MAIDS
+
+The runaways were forgiven, finally, although between four "enraged"
+young medical students, and the sextette of motor girls, Cora and
+Duncan had some difficulty in making it perfectly clear that the trip
+to Chelton was entirely unavoidable.  It was a merry party that
+gathered in Mrs. Bennet's long drawing-room that evening to make
+arrangements for the run over Breakwater roads in the morning.  The
+girls at first refused to allow Cora a sight of the decorated cars
+until they should be in line, but Tillie was so proud of her
+achievement with the Whirlwind that all finally consented, and directly
+after tea the cars in the garage and in the big barn were admired and
+inspected.  Certainly the machines did credit to the fair decorators.
+The Whirlwind was transformed into a moving garden, the sides being
+first wound with strong twine, and into this were thrust all sorts of
+flowers in great, loose bunches.  Only the softest foliage, in
+branches, was utilized, as Tillie felt responsible for the luster of
+the "piano" polish, for which the Whirlwind was remarkable.  The top of
+the car was like a roof garden, the effect being quite simply managed,
+for Tillie was resourceful.  She had stretched across the roof of the
+car a strong sheet of pasteboard.  Into this she placed a great variety
+of wild flowers, banking the stalks, which stood into holes made in the
+board, with soft grasses and such ferns as might be depended upon not
+to "slink" in the sun.
+
+"Wonderful!" exclaimed Cora with unfeigned delight.  "But what an awful
+lot of trouble, Tillie!"
+
+"It is for you," said the German girl sincerely, "and you have gone to
+an awful lot of trouble for me.  Besides," she added, "you will look so
+queenly in that throne of flowers."
+
+The compliment was rather overwhelming--especially as the strange young
+men were there, they with Duncan adding a new line of adjectives to the
+admiration party.
+
+"You may look at our car, Cora," assented Bess, "although you were so
+indifferent, going away without even offering a suggestion as to what
+we might do."
+
+"As if I could anticipate Belle's talent," said Cora with a laugh. "I
+feel I ought to answer to 'which hand' when I open my eyes on her
+creation."
+
+"Oh-h-h-h!"
+
+The boys all joined in with Cora and Clip in the expressions of
+delight, for there was the pretty little runabout, the Flyaway, made
+into a "live pond lily."
+
+"However did you do it?" asked Cora, actually amazed at the charming
+effect.
+
+"I shouldn't tell," replied Belle, who was looking very pretty--at
+least one of the strange boys thought so.  It was Phil MacVicker who
+"kept track" of Belle, and it was the same gallant Phil, who, late in
+the afternoon, helped Belle to finish up her pond lily.
+
+"We may all guess why Belle chose that design," said Daisy, who was
+waiting for the newcomers to pass judgment on her own runabout.  "A
+pond lily has a yellow head, and Belle's is just about that shade."
+
+It would be pretty to see a yellow head in the white peals of the
+improvised lily.  Cora satisfied her curiosity by finding out that
+these petals were nothing more than barrel staves covered with crushed
+white paper.
+
+"You have had an awful lot to do, girls," she said with genuine
+sincerity.  "I am actually sorry I could not have been here to help."
+
+"Of course, mine is not so elegant," remarked Daisy, who led the way to
+the other carriage house, where her machine was kept, "but I fancy
+people will look at it."
+
+Duncan "went wild" when he beheld what Daisy had rigged up.  A
+veritable circus wagon--a cage, in which Daisy declared she was going
+to sit with whip in hand, and Nero, the big St. Bernard dog, at her
+feet.
+
+"We made it out of clothes poles and laths," said Daisy proudly. "I
+have not taken a course in manual training for naught."
+
+Then the boys had to fix up their cars.  Duncan was tired--the other
+boys were frisky--so he nicely suggested that they "do as they jolly
+pleased with his car, so long as they left room for his feet."
+
+Of course the boys wanted something grotesque.  Phil suggested that
+they all carry out the circus idea, and "trail" after Beauty and the
+Beast.  This was finally agreed to, and it was Duncan's car that they
+turned into the calliope, actually going so far as to hire the local
+hurdy-gurdy man to ride in it and do the "callioping."
+
+"It looks as if our run home would be more auspicious than the trip we
+made in," said Cora to one of the very nice young students, who had
+offered to look over her car and see that it was in good working order.
+"We had a dreadful time coming out here--but I suppose the girls have
+told you about it."
+
+Bentley Davis, otherwise called Ben, admitted that the young ladies had
+spoken of the trip, and he presumed to predict a great time for the
+auto meet.
+
+So it went on until the boys had to go back to their hotel, and the
+girls, after discussing all sorts of necessary and unnecessary plans,
+finally consented to wait for the morrow.
+
+Tired from their enthusiasm, as well as from muscular efforts, the
+girls found their eyes scarcely "locked," before the bright rays of a
+late summer sun knocked on the tardy lids and demanded recognition.
+
+Was it really time to get up?
+
+If only the wasted hours of the evening past might be tucked on to the
+shortened time!  Most things might be lengthened that way.
+
+But, one after the other, the girls were at last awake, and so, quicker
+and quicker, sped the time until horns were sounding from garage and
+stable and even from the roadway.
+
+"There come the Cheltons!" called Duncan as he saw Jack's car. Then
+Walter's with Ed rounded the gravel driveway.
+
+From that moment, until car after car was upon the roads of
+Breakwater, it was a question which made the most noise, the girls
+talking or the boys blowing signals on the auto horns.  Hazel had come
+with Jack, as Paul was scarcely able for the excitement, so that, after
+all, the motor girls were all in the run.
+
+What a parade!
+
+Of course, Cora, being captain, had to lead, and from the floral folds
+of the Whirlwind floated the club flag in the newly adopted colors, red
+and white, with the gold letters, M. G. C.  (Motor Girls' Club),
+plainly discernible in the changing sunlight.
+
+Every one in Breakwater had heard that there was to be an amateur motor
+show, but few expected it to turn out into such a fine procession.
+
+The sound of the "calliope" was truly ludicrous.  To this was soon
+added all sorts of noises that only street urchins know how to develop
+spontaneously.
+
+Nor were the young people of Breakwater to be left out of the sport,
+for numbers of them possessing automobiles, fell into line, after the
+decorated cars, until the entire little summer place was agog with such
+excitement as the extreme originality of the visiting colonists usually
+affords.
+
+Street after street was paraded through, auto after auto wheeled along,
+horns tooting, whistles screeching, boys shouting, girls cheering,
+until one hour of this strenuous frolic seemed enough to satisfy motor
+girls and motor boys; and the party went to the Beacon for luncheon
+precisely at noon, leaving Tom to finish the honors by stripping the
+cars of their trappings and making them ready for a homeward trip.
+
+Cora, however, was persuaded to leave her machine decorated, as the
+flowers made a pretty picture, and the return home, after the
+three-days' trip, seemed more auspicious when thus heralded.
+
+Reluctantly the adieux were made--Mrs. Bennet had been so hospitable,
+and the boys such good company.
+
+Duncan found an opportunity of making Clip more intimately acquainted
+with his mother, for she was a woman glad to be the friend of her boy's
+friends, and willing to take considerable trouble to show the many
+little social preferences.
+
+Cora insisted on the festivities breaking up on the scheduled time, and
+so did Clip.  Cora wanted to get to the antique shop, and Clip wanted
+to get back to Chelton.  So after a delay, impossible to avoid where
+there were so many boys and so many girls, each and all wanting
+something to say, some question to ask, or some message to deliver, the
+party finally started off on the return trip of the first regular tour
+of the Motor Girls' Club.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+THE PROMISE KEPT
+
+
+With Jack's and Walter's additional cars the girls were able to ride
+home without crowding, so that the Whirlwind carried only Cora, Clip
+and Gertrude--the gallantry of the Chelton young men affording Tillie
+and Adele a chance for a most jolly trip in the little runabouts, while
+Hazel rode with the twins.
+
+Cora explained that she had an errand to do on the river road, so that
+she might go to the antique shop without the others.
+
+"I think it will be best to have a chance to talk with the old man
+quietly," she told her companions.  "I am so anxious to find out
+whether or not he really had Wren's table, or knows anything about it."
+
+But scarcely had she turned into the narrow street than the surprising
+sight of Rob Roland's car dashed before her eyes.  In it were Rob
+Roland and Sid Wilcox.
+
+Seeing the festooning of the Whirlwind, the driver of the smaller car
+slackened up, then, seeing further who the occupants of the floral car
+were, Rob Roland drew up to speak to Cora.
+
+"He has just come from the antique shop," whispered Clip, "and I am
+afraid we are too late, Cora."
+
+But Cora spoke cheerily to the young men, exchanging pleasantries about
+the auto show, and remarking that they should have been in Breakwater
+to see it.
+
+"Oh, we have had our own show this morning," said Rob triumphantly.  "I
+guess the motor girls are not such expert detectives as they have
+thought themselves to be."
+
+This seemed to be aimed directly at Clip.  She only laughed merrily,
+however, as the Whirlwind shot out of reach of the young man's voice.
+
+"What do you suppose he meant?" she asked Cora.
+
+"We will soon know," replied the other.  "It is about the table, of
+course."
+
+They pulled up to the narrow sidewalk.  Cora was not slow in leaving
+her car.  Clip was with her on the walk directly.
+
+As they pulled off, their gloves they stopped for a moment in front of
+the dingy window.
+
+Cora drew back.
+
+"Look!" she exclaimed.  "There is Wren's promise book."
+
+"For sale here!" gasped Clip.
+
+"I--hope so--" faltered Cora quickening her steps into the shop.
+
+The little bewhiskered man was rubbing his wrinkled hands in apparent
+satisfaction.  He was in no hurry to wait on his customers.
+
+"What is that album I see in the window?" asked Cora.  "Some foreign
+postcard book?"
+
+"Oh, that!  No, that is not foreign.  It is a sacred relic of some
+child saint."
+
+"For sale?" asked Cora, her voice a-tremble.
+
+"Oh, no!  No!  No!" and the man shook his head gravely.  "I always keep
+relics--for curiosities."
+
+"Might I look at it?" pressed the motor girl, while Clip picked up
+something with pretended interest.
+
+"Oh, yes, of course.  But it is only filled with names, and I got it in
+a deal with another sale.  The party who brought it here," went on the
+curio dealer, "the same who bought the table gave me the book in the
+bargain, with the understanding that I should not sell it but keep it
+on exhibition.  They were very particular about me not selling it."
+
+Cora instantly guessed what this meant--a trick of Rob Roland. To show
+her the book!  To make sure it was now useless, as the table had been
+made secure by him, but just to put it in that case to taunt her, when
+she would come, as of course he knew she would, and discover there was
+now absolutely no hope of ever recovering Wren's long-lost treasure.
+
+She looked vaguely into the glass case.  "So you did get the table?"
+she said indifferently.
+
+"Yes, that, too," said the man.  But he made no attempt to display it.
+
+"Can't I see it?  You said you would make me one like it--"
+
+"Oh, yes.  I know I did.  But my customer is very particular, and I
+have agreed not to show it."
+
+"Cora's heart sank.  She must be shrewd now or lose what she had so
+long worked for.
+
+"But you made the agreement with me first," she argued.  "You promised
+to let me see the table, and said you would make me one to order, not
+like it, of course, but in the same line."
+
+The old man shook his head.  He had evidently changed his mind.
+
+A new thought came to Cora.  "Has your customer paid for the table?"
+she asked.
+
+"Oh, it will be paid for--it will be paid for," and he seemed to gloat
+over the words, "when it is delivered."
+
+Then it was not yet paid for--not actually bought.  Clip saw instantly
+what Cora was striving for, but she pretended to be interested in the
+locked case in which rested the much-looked-for promise book.
+
+"How do you know it will be paid for?" hazarded Cora.  "Young folks
+often change their minds.  I suppose you have a good deposit?"
+
+"Well, no.  I wanted one, but the gentleman is gone for to cash a
+check--"
+
+Cora laughed.  The old man's face changed.
+
+"If they wanted the table why did they not bring the money?" she said.
+"I should think it would save you trouble to sell the table directly to
+me--if it suits me, of course.  I am going away from here, and suppose
+the other customer never comes back?"
+
+Still the old man did not speak.  Cora saw her advantage and took out
+her purse.
+
+"How much is it?" she asked boldly.
+
+"They will pay me fifty dollars for that table," he said dramatically.
+
+"So will I, if it suits me," she declared.  "Come, let me see it."
+
+The old man saw the new bills in her hands,
+
+He stepped toward the door of another room, but he put up his hand to
+warn her not to follow.
+
+"I will bring it," he said in such grave tones that Clip wanted to
+laugh--surely this was a Shylock.
+
+While he was within the room Cora whispered to Clip, and when the old
+man came out Clip was gone.
+
+He had between his hands a small, very narrow table, like the old-time
+card table, with glass knob at either end, and on the long drop leaves
+were inlaid an anchor and crossed oars.
+
+"That is just the size," declared Cora, while she trembled so she
+feared the man would detect her agitation.  Then she looked it over,
+and under she was seeking for a hidden drawer.
+
+"Are there drawers in it?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, my, but yes.  That is why it is worth so much.  The drawers cannot
+all be found.  It is like a safe--"
+
+Cora was sure this was the long-lost table.  Oh, if she could only
+induce the man to let her take it.
+
+The price, she was positive, was far beyond that offered by the other
+customer, but that did not matter.
+
+"You had better let me have this," she said.  "I will take it right
+along and save express.  Then make one for the other party, if he ever
+comes back."
+
+The shopkeeper shrugged his shoulders--if he only would talk, thought
+Cora.
+
+Cora counted out fifty dollars.  The man watched her greedily.  It was
+twenty-five dollars more than he had bargained to sell the table for.
+Why should he lose so much?
+
+"May I have it?" pressed Cora.
+
+"Well, I never before did that but he should have left a deposit," said
+the man.
+
+Quicker than the girl dreamed she could do it, Cora paid the man,
+actually grabbed the table herself and ran out of the shop with it and
+thrust it into the front of the Whirlwind among the flowers, cranked up
+her car and darted off.
+
+Her face was so white that she frightened Gertrude.  "Don't ask any
+questions, dear," she said to the latter.  "I must meet Clip. She has
+gone for a detective."
+
+Just around the corner came Clip, and with her an officer in plain
+clothes.  Cora swung in to the curb.
+
+"I have it!  I have it!" she exclaimed to Clip.  "Is this the officer?"
+she asked.  "And have you told him the book was stolen?"
+
+"Oh, don't worry about the details, miss," replied the officer. "We
+have that thing to do every day.  These fellows take anything they can
+get, and that being the book of a <DW36>, I will take chances on
+getting it.  You may be asked to explain fully, later."
+
+"Oh, thank you so much!" cried Cora, almost overcome.  "To think we may
+bring both the table and the book home to Wren!"
+
+What followed seemed like a dream to Cora.  Of course she knew that it
+was Rob Roland who had ordered the table and Sid Wilcox who had
+returned the book.  As the Whirlwind passed the little hotel on the
+road to Chelton Cora actually brushed against Rob Roland's car--and she
+had the table hidden amid the flowers in the Whirlwind!
+
+In Clip's hands was grasped the promise book--Wren should have both.
+Poor, afflicted little Wren!
+
+Straight to the private sanitarium they went--these two motor girls.
+Miss Brown helped carry the table up to Wren's bedside.
+
+At the sight of it Wren uttered a scream--then the shock did what
+medical skill often fails to do.  Wren Salvey sprang out of bed,
+touched a spring in the table and a drawer jerked open.
+
+"There!" she shrieked, holding up a paper.  "The will!" Then she fell
+back--exhausted.
+
+"The shock has done it," said Miss Brown as Clip helped put the girl on
+the bed and Cora looked frightened.  "It has broken the knot that tied
+her muscles.  She will be cured."
+
+Clip stepped over to a closet, and while Cora was almost fainting from
+excitement Clip quietly took off her motor coat.  Presently she stepped
+back to Cora--in the full garb of a trained nurse.
+
+"Clip!" exclaimed Cora.
+
+"Yes," replied the girl, "I graduate to-night.  Will you be able to
+come?"
+
+
+What more should be told?  With the failure of Rob Roland to get
+possession of the table he lost all courage and simply admitted defeat.
+It was Sid Wilcox who stole the book from little Wren--just to avenge
+Ida Giles, whose lunch basket had been demolished by a motor girl.  An
+odd revenge, but he thought, in some way, it would annoy the motor
+girls.  Of course Rob Roland paid him something for doing it.  But all
+their strategy was not equal to the ready wit of Cora Kimball and her
+chums.  Nor was this the only time that the motor girls proved their
+worth in times of danger and necessity.  They were active participants
+in other adventures, as will be related in the third volume of this
+series, to be called "The Motor Girls at Lookout Beach; Or, In Quest of
+the Runaways."  How they went East in their cars, and how they
+unexpectedly got on, the trail of two girls who had left home under a
+cloud, will, I think, make a tale you will wish to peruse.
+
+It was not long after the table and the promise book had been restored
+to Wren, and following her complete recovery, that the suit against Mr.
+Robinson was dropped.  Roland, Reed & Company admitted that they had
+arranged to have the papers taken from the mailbag, and the government
+imposed a heavy fine on them for their daring crime.  They had done
+what they did with the idea of securing information, and not with a
+desire to keep the papers, but the Federal authorities would accept no
+excuses.  Later Mr. Robinson secured heavy damages from the men, the
+disfigured thumb of one having served Clip to identify him.
+
+As for Wren and Mrs. Salvey, with the will in their possession, they
+were enabled to get control of a comfortable income, and Wren could be
+taken to a health resort to fully recover her strength. Sid Wilcox and
+Rob Roland were not prosecuted for their mean parts in the
+transactions, as it was desired to have as little publicity as possible.
+
+"And to think, Clip, dear, that you were deceiving us all the while,"
+remarked Cora several days later, when she and the Robinson twins; and
+a few other of the chums, were gathered in the Kimball home.  "I never
+would have thought it of you."
+
+"Nor I," added Belle.
+
+"But wasn't it strange how it all came about?" suggested Bess. "It
+seemed like fate."
+
+"It was fate," asserted Clip.  "Fate and--Cora."
+
+"Mostly fate, I'm afraid," declared Cora.  "Of course the table being
+disposed of at auction was a mere accident, likely to happen anywhere.
+The real power, though, was little Wren.  She, somehow, felt that the
+old will was in it, and by her talk, and through her promise book, the
+fact came to be known to the enemies of the family.  Then Rob Roland,
+or some of the men who used him as a tool, conceived the idea of
+searching for the table.  They probably had the old mahogany man act
+for them, and he made inquiries of auctioneers and persons who were in
+the habit of buying at auctions.  Then we came into the game, and--"
+
+"Yes, and then Ida and Sid Wilcox, though I'm glad Ida didn't take any
+part in these proceedings," observed Belle.
+
+"So am I," said Cora softly.  "Well, we managed to get ahead of Rob
+Roland.  A little later and he would have had the table, and would have
+found the will.  Then little Wren and her mother would never have come
+into their inheritance.  Oh, I don't see how people can be so mean!"
+
+"And the way they treated Paul," added Clip.  "They ought to be
+punished for that."
+
+"Well, I guess Paul was more harmed mentally than he was physically,"
+said Bess.  "He told me the men used him very gently. It was the papers
+in the bag they were after."
+
+"I think Clip gave us the greatest surprise of all," went on Cora. "The
+idea of a girl keeping it secret as long as she did, that she was all
+ready to graduate as a trained nurse!  No wonder she knew how to treat
+Wren.  I feel that she is far above us now."
+
+"Shall I lose my honorary membership in the Motor Girls' Club?" asked
+Clip as she slipped her arm around Cora and pretended to feel her pulse.
+
+"Well, I guess not!  The motor girls are proud of you!" cried Bess.
+
+"Of course," added Belle.
+
+Cora said nothing, but the manner in which she put her arm around the
+waist of Clip was answer enough.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Motor Girls on a Tour, by Margaret Penrose
+
+*** 
\ No newline at end of file