CHAPTER VI
GETTING A TOW
For a few minutes every one seemed to be talking at once, and therewas considerable confusion. Sid and Ida came in for a number ofrather angry glances, for the mishap seemed to be due entirely totheir thoughtless conduct, and that their runabout had been the mostdamaged did not appear to lessen their offense.
Walter took the wheel of the Whirlwind, which Cora gladlyrelinquished to him, and soon had the car out of the ditch and uponthe highway. The Streak, of course, could not move under its ownpower for more than a short distance, as the water had all leakedout of the radiator, and, there being none to cool the cylinders, tooperate it was to invite disaster. Jack and Bess had alighted fromthe Get There. Jack was very angry.
"Nice way to race!" he exclaimed. "I've got a good mind to--dosomething to you, Sid Wilcox!"
"Oh, you have, eh?" sneered Sid. "Well, I don't know but what Imight like to take it out of you for your sister cutting so closeacross my course. I guess I'm the one to get mad."
"You sneak! She did nothing of the sort!" cried Jack.
"Oh, Jack! Please don't!" begged his sister. "If it was my fault,I'm ready to apologize."
"Your fault!" exclaimed Walter. "It wasn't your fault at all. Itwas--er--well, Sid and Ida were to blame."
"That's the way it looked to me," declared Cora.
Ida stared at Jack's sister for a moment, and then, with an opensneer on her face, turned deliberately away.
"Oh, I'm so glad we escaped, anyhow!" ejaculated Mary Downes. Hervoice attracted Sid's attention. He had not noticed the little workgirl before. At first he appeared to scowl, and then he smiled mostpleasantly. The action was not lost upon Belle, though Cora,puzzling over Ida's manner, had not seen it.
"Come on, get in, girls," called Walter from his seat in the touringcar. "No use standing there in the sun."
"You've got to tow me," ordered Sid in a peremptory manner.
"Got to?" repeated Walter, with a curious inflection.
"Hush!" whispered Cora. "Let's do it, Walter. Jack is so angry athim that I'm afraid something will happen."
"Very well. Just as you say," replied Walter gallantly.
Jack turned away in disgust. He was evidently trying hard to keephis temper under control.
"That he and Ida should deliberately endanger the lives of severalpeople, to say nothing of their own risk, seems past belief," Jackmurmured to Walter. "I've a good mind to teach him a much-deservedlesson. We ought to leave him to walk home."
"Oh, I do dislike rows!" exclaimed Cora, and she whispered in Jack'sear: "Don't bother with him, Bud. He isn't worth it."
"You're right about that," was the response, and the lad lookedaffectionately at his sister. She had gotten over the momentaryfright, and there was now a pretty flush on her face. "I'll overlookit this time, sis," went on Jack. "Perhaps he'll get his lessonlater--without me having to give it to him."
"Aren't some of you going to tow me?" asked Sid ratherdisconsolately. "I can't run my car the way it is."
"Don't ask any favors of them," Cora heard Ida whisper to Sid."We'll walk."
"I will not," he answered sharply. "I'm not going to leave my carhere. Will you give me a tow, Cora?" he asked. "Seeing that you mademe smash--"
"She did not!" cried Jack. "And if you say so you're--"
"Jack!" exclaimed his sister.
"Well, he knows it was his own fault," concluded Jack, not wishingto accuse Ida.
Sid looked a bit worried.
"We'll tow you," said Cora simply.
"Thank you," responded Sid.
"Got a rope?" asked Walter.
"Here's one," answered the owner of the Streak, producing a strongrope from the rear of his runabout.
"Looks as if you were in the habit of getting towed," remarkedWalter.
"Yes. I've had bad luck with this car."
Sid and Walter were soon busy arranging the two cars, so that thebig auto would tow the disabled one.
"I want the boys to separate," whispered Cora to Bess. "I'm soAfraid Jack and Sid will quarrel."
"Not if they keep as far apart as they are now," was the answer, forJack had gotten back into his own car, and was looking on. Ida, too,seemed to keep herself at a distance from the other girls.
"Well, I guess that will hold," remarked Walter as he put the lastknot in the rope.
"Here comes Ed Foster!" suddenly exclaimed Jack as the puffing of anauto was heard and a machine came in sight. "Now I guess we're allhere. Hello, Ed!"
"Hello, yourself," replied Ed. "Well, what's up now? Somebodyturned turtle?"
"No, but somebody's turned--" began Jack, on the point of sayingsomething uncomplimentary about Sid, but Cora interrupted him.
"We had a race, and this is how I--that is, we--won it," she saidwith a laugh.
Ed stepped out of his car and walked to where Sid's silent machinestood.
"Radiator, eh?" he questioned. "A bad break."
"That's what. Cora collided with me--but it was partly my fault,"added Sid quickly for jack's benefit.
"And look at my nice, new mud guard," spoke Cora. "See how it hangsdown, like a dog's broken leg. Isn't it a shame? I guess we'll haveto tear it off, so we can run."
"Let me look at it," suggested Ed. "Maybe I can spring it back intoplace."
"I never thought of that,"--remarked Walter.
Ed was searching in his tool-box, and presently drew out some strongstring.
"I never go without a bit of cord, a knife and some pins for justsuch emergencies as these," he said with a laugh. "I never know whenI may be shipwrecked on a desert island."
Ed skillfully sprung the guard back, and as one of the rivets wastorn out, he lashed the protector into place. It was only atemporary repair, but it would protect the occupants of the car froma shower of dust or mud.
"There," said Ed finally. "I guess that will answer. The roadahead is pretty muddy. Too much moisture from a sprinkling-cart, Iguess. I caught some of it."
Cora turned to see if everything was in readiness for a start, andwas surprised to find Mary in close conversation with Ida. Bothgirls and Sid were in a group an the other side of the Whirlwind.And another thing Cora noticed was that the faces of both Ida andMary were unusually flushed.
"That's rather odd--that Mary and Ida should get so chummy,"murmured Cora. "Sid must have introduced them to each other:"
A moment later Ida looked over, and seeing Cora watching her, shequickly turned away and walked over to where Ed was locking up histoolbox. She placed her hand on the seat of his small auto and begantalking to him.
"I hear you are going into business," Cora heard Ida say.
"Well, not exactly business," replied Ed. "I'm going to have someinterest in the bank at New City."
"Oh, yes. I heard about it."
"Say, Ed, have you all that--" began Jack, and then he stoppedquickly. He had been on the point of asking Ed if he had with himthe twenty thousand dollars in cash and negotiable securities, buthe quickly reflected that such a question was not a proper one toask on a public road.
"Got what?" inquired Ed with a laugh, but at the same time Cora sawhim frown slightly at her brother.
"I meant to say, have you any of those fish with you that we caughtlast time?" asked Jack, laughing rather uneasily.
"Yes, I have them," replied Ed, which was his way of replying toJack's implied question.
"Going over to New City?" asked Sid, coming around from aninspection of the broken radiator.
"Yes; I've some business over there, and as it's getting late I'llhave to hurry. I'll bid you all good-by. Hope you get safely home."
Ed jumped into his car, which he had quickly cranked up, and calleda general farewell.
"So long," answered Jack.
"Come on," called Walter, as Ed's car puffed out of sight. "We'llhave a load to pull now, Cora."
"Perhaps I had better get in with Jack and Bess," remarked Belle."We can manage it--if
we squeeze some."
Then she blushed, and everybody laughed.
"The more the merrier," replied Jack. "I think it will be a goodidea, though. We'll get home quicker than Cora and her tow will."
Belle climbed into the Get There. This left Cora alone with Walterin the big car. Ida and Sid stood on the ground, apparently waitingfor an invitation to get in somewhere.
"I'll have to steer my car," said Sid. "You had better get inCora's machine, Ida, for it's no fun riding in a towed auto."
"Yes, do come in here," said Cora quickly, but Ida hung back andlooked miserably unhappy.
"Come on," and Walter added his invitation. "I'm going to be the'shuffler,' and I may as well have something worth while to'shuffle' while I'm at it."
Ida smiled at this. It was evident that she could not resist afterthis appeal--especially as it came from Walter, who found much favorin her eyes.
Ida climbed into the big car nimbly enough, and sat on the thickcushions in the roomy tonneau beside Mary.
"I guess she'd rather be in front," remarked Bess in a whisper toBelle, but she took care that Jack should not hear.
Walter started Cora's car off, and Sid's followed, with himself atthe wheel, looking very glum. Jack brought up in the rear with thepretty twins.
The Whirlwind easily towed the weight of the disabled runabout, andthe autoists were soon approaching town.
"Let me out at the post-office, please," begged Mary of Cora, asthey rolled through the village streets. "I had better not let madamsee me out riding."
"Why, she gave you permission, didn't she?" asked Cora in surprise.
"But I would rather get out here," insisted Mary, not answering thequestion directly.
"If you'll cast me loose, I'll run my machine in this shop,"suddenly called Sid, as they passed a rather tumble-down shack on aside street.
"But you're not going to let old Smith tinker with it, are you?"asked Walter.
"Oh, I don't know what I'll do with it!" snapped Sid. "May as wellleave it here as anywhere else."
Smith's place was a second-rate blacksmith shop, while at CheltonCenter, a little farther on, there was a fine garage--Newton's--theone at which Cora and the twins had met the handsome machinist.
"Why don't you take it to Newton's?" asked Cora. "We'll go therewith you. I--er--, I know the machinist there."
"I prefer to leave it here," said Sid shortly. "Stop, please, andI'll loosen the rope."
"Oh!" exclaimed Cora shortly. She could not understand Sid. Walterstopped her car, and before it had come to a full halt Sid wasdetaching the tow rope. Mary took this chance to alight from theWhirlwind, as they were not far from the post-office, and Idafollowed her. Sid cranked up for the short run into the blacksmithshop. Ida and Mary were walking down the street together.
"Go ahead!" Sid called to Walter.
"Oh, you're welcome," replied Walter sarcastically. "Not the leasttrouble, thank you. Glad at any time--"
Sid shot at him an angry glance over his shoulder.
"I'd like to know who had a better right to haul me out of theditch?" he said sneeringly.
Jack, with the twins, had run on. As Walter started Cora's machineoff again, they saw a man coming out of the smithy. He helped Sidpush the car in, and then stood talking with him in a friendly sortof fashion. The man's clothing was unkempt, and his generalappearance anything but prepossessing.
"Who's that?" asked Cora.
"Him, you mean?" inquired Walter. "Oh, that's Lem Gildy. Or justplain Lem, if you like that better."
"What does he do?"
"Nothing. Easily said. Yet I've heard it remarked that he'd doanything for money."
"Curious that Sid should be on such friendly terms with such acharacter."
"Rather," remarked Walter, and he turned to see Sid pointing at thebig car, while Lem Gildy was nodding his head as if assenting tosomething.