CHAPTER XIII
THE WIND VEERS
The car purred along so easily and it was such a delight to manage thewheel without the interference of the chauffeur that Hester did notnote the distance she traveled. Nor was she at first aware of thespeed. Then she suddenly realized that she had shifted the gear to thehighest speed forward, and that a picket fence she passed was merely ablur along the roadside.
But this was a road on which there were few houses, and most of themwere back in the fields, in the middle of the farms that bordered thepike.
"This will never do," thought Hester, and she began to manipulate thelevers and finally brought the car to a stop. The roadway was narrowand she would have to back to turn. But this was one of the verythings she desired to learn how to do; and that officious Joseph wasalways fussing when he was beside her.
"How many miles have I come, I wonder?" she asked herself, lookingabout.
She was on a ridge of land overlooking a narrow valley. At the end ofthe valley the road seemed to dip from the ridge, and it disappearedin a thick haze of blue smoke.
"The fire must be over that way," she thought. "Shall I run that farand see what it means? The wind is not blowing toward me."
She started the car once more. The auto rolled on, but she noticedthat it wasn't firing regularly.
"Hullo! Is it going to kick up rusty now and here?" muttered Hester,and she stopped. Having learned that much, she opened the carburetorto see if the gasoline was flowing all right. Then she tried a dozentimes to start the car, without success. Suddenly she stood up with ajerk. In the distance she heard a growing roar--the oncoming rush of apowerful car.
Fortunately she had stopped on the side of the road. There was roomfor another car to pass. And out of the blue smoke ahead it appearedwith startling suddenness, hurled like a missile from a gun directlyup the road toward her.
She knew the car almost instantly. It was the Beldings' auto and itwas crowded with young folk. She knew where they had been. The nextweek the girls of Central High had been invited to Keyport to play thefirst team at basketball of the High School in that town.
Hester had heard all about the game the day before with the West Highgirls. With Roberta Fish in Hester's old position at forward center,the girls of Central High had swept all before them. They had beatentheir opponents with a good lead. Of course, the West High team wasnot as strong as the East High had been; but Roberta had done well andvictory had, for the first time in months, perched upon the banner ofCentral High.
A committee had been appointed to go over and see the Keyportmanagers, and now it was returning. The big car was driven by ChetBelding, with Launcelot Darby beside him. Laura, Jess, Bobby, Nellie,and the Lockwood twins filled the tonneau comfortably.
Hester hoped that the Belding car would wheel right by and that herschool fellows would not notice her. But Chet saw the car stalled, andLaura's quick eye detected the lone girl standing with her back tothem, looking off across the valley.
"What's the matter with that girl and her car?" demanded Lance, asChet slowed down.
"It's Hester. Mr. Grimes has bought a car at last, I understand," saidLaura, leaning over the back of the seat and speaking to the boys. "Isshe in trouble, do you think?"
"I'll bet she is!" exclaimed Lance.
"And out on this road alone. Where's the chauffeur?" said Chet.
"And if the wind should change!" cried Nellie Agnew.
"By Jove, that's so!" ejaculated Chet, bringing his car to a full stopright beside the stalled auto.
"Hullo, Miss Grimes!" he sang out. "Can we help you? What's the matterwith your car?"
Hester saw it was useless to refuse to see them then. Besides, she didnot want to be stalled there for hours.
"That's what I've been trying to find out," she said, pointedlyspeaking to the boy, not to the girls.
"Great machines," drawled Lance. "When you think you know all about'em they kick up and give you a lot of trouble. Isn't that so, Chet?"
Chet was getting from under the wheel, and grunted. But Laura hoppedout before him, came to Hester's side of the car, and asked:
"Did it stop of itself?"
"No. It wasn't firing regularly. I looked at the carburetor to see ifit was all right. Then I tried to start her and couldn't," saidHester, ungraciously.
Laura was going over the wiring to see if there were no loose contactsbefore Chet came to them. She turned the fly wheel far enough to getthe buzz of the spark coils.
"Go ahead, Sis!" chuckled Chet. "You know so much you'll be taking ourold mill to pieces pretty soon, I reckon."
Hester stood by and bit her lip with vexation. She was almost on thepoint of driving Laura away from the car, rather than have herenemy--for so she considered Mother Wit--help her out of her trouble.But night was coming on and she did not want to stand there muchlonger, if the car could be started.
Laura removed a plug, grounded it on a cylinder and turned the wheelto a sparking point to note the quality of the spark and the strengthof the battery. Then she ticked the carburetor and opened the smallcock at the bottom.
"You're getting your gloves all messy, Laura!" called Jess from theother car.
"Hush!" commanded Chet, grinning, and holding up his hand. "Do notdisturb the priestess of automobiling at her devotions. There will besomething 'didding' in a minute--now watch."
But Laura was serious--and interested. She closed the cock and feltalong the gasoline pipe to the valve rod. This seemed to interest herparticularly. In a moment she straightened up and stood back, sayingto Hester:
"You try the engine. Maybe she'll work now."
Hester scrambled into her seat and tried the starter. The engine beganto buzz like a saw-mill.
"Great Scott, Laura!" cried her brother. "What did you do to it?"
"Turned on the gasoline," said his sister, drily. "When Hester lookedat her carburetor she turned it off. No wonder the engine wouldn'trun."
"Thanks," muttered Hester, in a choked tone, while the crowd in theother auto smothered their laughter, and she prepared to start the carwhen Chet should have stepped aside.
"Hold on!" said young Belding. "This isn't any way to be traveling,Miss Hester."
"Why not?" she snapped at him, for the situation was getting on hernerves now.
"The wind is likely to change. If it veers around it will drive thefire directly up this road," said Chet.
"What's burning?" demanded the girl, sharply.
"The whole forest back yonder through the cut. We came through a bigcloud of smoke."
"If you got through I guess I can," Hester said, ungratefully, and thenext moment started her car, which rolled swiftly away along theturnpike.
The fact was, she did not want to try to turn the machine while theywere watching her. She knew she should be awkward about it. And LauraBelding had displayed her superiority over her once already--and thatwas enough!
The big car purred again joyously, and the roadway slipped behind likea ribbon running over a spool. In half a minute Hester and her car haddipped into the valley and were running through the cut between thehills. The Belding car was out of sight.
But suddenly she became aware that the smoke was thick here. This deepcut was filled with it. And the fumes were not only choking; there washeat with the smoke.
A shift of wind drove a thick cloud out of the forest and she had toshut her eyes. This was dangerous work. She knew better than to try torun the car on high speed when she could not see twenty feet beyondit.
When she reduced speed she was cognizant of a roaring sound from theforest. For a moment she thought a big wind was coming.
Then she knew better. It was the fire. Not far away the flames weredevouring the forest hungrily--and the wind was behind the flames!
There must have already been a change in the air-current, as Chet hadprophesied. The forest fire was driving right into this narrow cutbetween the hills. To be caught here by the flames would not only meanthe finish of this brand n
ew car, but Hester knew that there would beno escape for her from such a situation.