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THE MOTOR GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS
Or
The Gypsy Girl's Secret
BY Margaret Penrose
Copyright, 1919, by Cupples & Leon Company
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE I. Breaking the Speed Limit 1 II. Quick Thinking 12 III. The Missing Purse 21 IV. The Sterner Sex 29 V. A Group of Vagabonds 39 VI. A Perplexing Problem 47 VII. The Mountain Camp 54 VIII. Fun in the Open 64 IX. The "Water Sprite" 74 X. Springing a Leak 83 XI. Cora Makes a Discovery 92 XII. An Ugly Customer 100 XIII. A Momentous Step 107 XIV. In the Wilderness 115 XV. Consternation 125 XVI. Help From the Sky 132 XVII. A Joyful Reunion 142 XVIII. Good News Travels Fast 150 XIX. An Uninvited Guest 159 XX. The Greedy Marauder 170 XXI. The Drifting Boat 177 XXII. The Gypsy Camp 183 XXIII. A Tangled Skein 189 XXIV. The Knocking at Midnight 195 XXV. Falsely Accused 202 XXVI. Council of War 209 XXVII. A Narrow Escape 216 XXVIII. Waylaid 223 XXIX. The Plot 230 XXX. Brought Together 237
THE MOTOR GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS
CHAPTER I BREAKING THE SPEED LIMIT
"Say, girls, isn't this the best thing ever?"
Cora Kimball, the girl whose hand was on the wheel of the motor car as itsped swiftly along a sun-flecked country road, put the words in the formof a question, but they were really an exclamation drawn from her bysheer delight in living. She was gloriously indifferent as to an answer,but the answer came just the same from the two pretty girls who occupiedthe seat behind her.
"It's perfectly grand!" cried Belle Robinson, the more slender of thetwo, as she snuggled down still more luxuriously in the soft cushions ofthe automobile.
"It seems to me yet as though it must be a dream," declared her twinsister Bess, who was considerably larger than either of her companions."Pinch me, somebody, so that I can be sure it's real."
Cora reached over mischievously and took her at her word.
Bess drew back with a little squeal.
"Ouch!" she exclaimed. "You took a piece out that time!"
"Well, what if I did?" laughed Cora. "You can spare a little withoutmissing it."
"You ought to be thankful to Cora for helping you to reduce," put in hersister slyly.
Bess flushed a trifle, for her "plumpness"--she abominated the word"stout" and avoided it as if it were the plague--was rather a tenderpoint with her.
"I don't care for such drastic methods," she retorted. "I'd rather takethe flesh off more gradually. Besides," she added with a show of pride,"I'm going down quite fast enough as it is. I'm two pounds lighter than Iwas last week."
"Swell chance you have of getting thinner when you will keep nibbling atchocolate creams," remarked her sister unbelievingly. "You might handsome over, you stingy thing, instead of keeping them all to yourself."
"No such thing!" denied Bess, producing a small box. "They're lemondrops, and everybody knows _they_ don't make you"--she was going to say"fat," but checked herself just in time to substitute "plump."
"Slip one into my mouth, Belle," commanded Cora. "I don't dare to take myhand from the wheel."
"I noticed that you took it away fast enough when you wanted to pinchme," remarked Bess.
"That was different," returned Cora. "You asked me to, and I'd do a gooddeal to oblige a friend."
"Heaven save me from my friends," sighed Bess, and then they all laughed.
For laughter came easy on a day like this. The sun of early August wastempered by a light breeze that removed any suspicion of sultriness. Theroad was a good one, and Cora's car under her expert guidance glidedalong with scarcely a jar. Great trees on either side provided a gratefulshade. Squirrels scolded noisily in the branches, and here and there achipmunk slipped like a shadow along the fences and the hum of thelocusts filled the air with a dreamy harmony. A bobolink flitted acrossthe road, dropping a whole sheaf of silver notes from his joyous throat.It was a day on which it was good to be alive.
"To think that we're really on our way to the Adirondacks," murmuredBelle delightedly. "I've wanted to go there ever since I wore pigtails."
"And to Camp Kill Kare," said Bess. "The very name seems to promise allkinds of fun."
"Doesn't it?" agreed Cora. "And how much more fun it is to go this waythan in stuffy old railway cars."
"Are you sure we can get there by to-morrow night?" asked Belle.
"We can if nothing happens to the car," answered Cora. "It's in splendidshape now, and we're fairly eating up the miles. Of course, if it rainsand the roads get muddy it may take us a little longer. But after all therain we had last week, I guess we can be sure of good weather. Thereisn't a cloud in the sky now."
"Did you finally decide to stay at your Aunt Margaret's house to-night?"asked Bess.
"Yes," replied Cora. "Isn't it lucky that her home is just about half-wayon our trip? If it hadn't been for that, we'd have had to bring achaperon along with us, and that would have been a nuisance. I supposethey are a necessary evil, but I'm awfully glad when we get a chance todo without one."
"I suppose your Aunt Betty will be at Kill Kare when we get there,"remarked Belle.
"She's already there," answered Cora. "We got a letter from heryesterday, saying that everything was all ready for us and that she wasjust dying to see us. And with Aunt Betty in mind, I'll take back what Isaid about chaperons. She's a perfect dear, and I'm sure you girls willfall dead in love with her."
"I've no doubt we shall," answered Bess. "I'm prepared to love her justfrom your description. But say, girls," she continued, glancing at herwrist watch, "do you know that it's after twelve o'clock? Don't you thinkwe'd better be looking about for some place to stop to get lunch?"
"Hear that girl talk!" mocked Cora. "And she's the one that's alwaystalking about reducing!"
"Oh, that this too, too solid flesh might melt," quoted Belle.
"If the truth were known, I'll wager
I don't eat as much as either of youtwo," retorted Bess. "I had only a cup of coffee and two rolls thismorning."
"You had more than two rolls," declared Belle, "I counted them and therewere at least ten."
"What do you mean, Belle Robinson?" asked Bess, turning to her sister inbewilderment.
"Rolls on the floor, I mean," explained Belle, "when you were goingthrough your reducing exercises."
Bess turned her eyes to heaven in mute appeal.
"My own sister giving me away!" she moaned. "Well, our relatives arewished on us, but thank goodness I can choose my friends."
"Stop your scrapping, girls," interposed Cora, "and listen to me. Thereisn't any hotel in sight, and even if there were, who wants to go indoorson a day like this? Mary put up a splendid lunch before we started.What's the matter with dining _al fresco_?"
"Listen to the girl!" exclaimed Belle. "What does she mean by that?"
"Sounds to me like a sleight of hand performer," murmured Bess.
"You're thinking of 'presto change,'" laughed Cora. "No, my benightedsisters. To put the thing in terms that your limited intelligence cangrasp, I meant that we would eat in the open air."
"Good!" exclaimed Belle.
"Right here in the car?" asked Bess.
"Why, we could," answered Cora; "but don't you think it would be betteryet to find some nice little place by the side of the road? I'm a littlecramped from sitting so long, and I suppose you are too. It will do usgood to have a change."
"Let's choose some place where there's a brook or a spring," suggestedBess. "I'm dreadfully thirsty."
"Been eating too many lemon drops," said Belle.
"No more than you," retorted Bess.
"No. But, gracious, that's too many," sighed her sister. "Less candy andmore sandwiches for me when we are in the open air like this! Come,where's that brook?"
"I've no doubt we can find such a place," observed Cora, as she put alittle extra speed in the car. "You girls keep your eyes open and tell mewhen to stop. I've got all I can do to watch the road and save some dogor chicken from untimely death."
Not many minutes had elapsed before Belle reached over and touched Cora'sarm.
"The very spot!" she exclaimed. "There's a brook and some trees that werejust intended for a picnic party."
Cora guided the car to the side of the road. The girls got out andstretched their cramped limbs with a sigh of relief. The lunch basket wastaken from beneath the seat and carried to a cool and shady spot beneatha clump of great trees that stood a few feet away from the road. From abrook that rippled over the stones with a musical murmur, they brought asupply of water. A robe from the car was spread out on the grass, andnapkins from the basket served as miniature tablecloths.
Then Mary's offerings were brought to light, and amply maintained thatperson's reputation for culinary skill. Lettuce sandwiches, hard-boiledeggs, fried chicken legs, lemon tarts and fruit followed each other inrapid succession. Then, too, there was a thermos bottle filled with hot,fragrant coffee.
Their morning in the open air had sharpened the appetites of the girls,and they ate with a zest that would have made a dyspeptic turn green withenvy. Bess, to be sure, tried feebly to bear in mind her rules fordieting, but the temptation was too great, and for that once anyway hergood resolutions went by the board.
"I could die happy now," she murmured, between bites of a lemon tart.
"You will die anyway if you eat much more," said her sister severely."Bess Robinson, I'm ashamed of you."
"You'll have to take twenty rolls to-morrow instead of ten, to make upfor this," laughed Cora.
"To-morrow's a new day," replied Bess mutinously. "Sufficient unto theday is the evil thereof."
"She's a hopeless case, I'm afraid," sighed Belle. "But come along now,girls, and gather up these things. We want to get to the house of Cora'saunt before it gets dark."
"Behold a stranger cometh," remarked Cora, as a horse and buggy came insight, with a young man holding the reins.
The vehicle approached rapidly, and the eyes of the driver lighted up ashe caught sight of the three girls. Instead of driving by, he reined upat the roadside and jumping from the buggy made his way toward the littleparty.
He was of medium height, flashily dressed, and had a weak,dissipated-looking face. The girls had risen to their feet and drawn alittle closer together as he approached.
He took off his hat and bowed, with a smile that he tried to makeingratiating.
"I see I'm in luck," he remarked. "Just in time to have a bite of lunch,if there's any left."
Cora, to whom the other girls looked for leadership, froze him with aglance.
"If you're hungry, you can probably get something to eat at the nexttown," she said. "We haven't anything for tramps."
The man flushed uncomfortably, and his impudent assurance went downseveral degrees beneath her stare.
"What's the use of being so stiff?" he expostulated. "I'm only trying tobe friendly."
"That's just what we object to," replied Cora. "We don't want yourfriendship. My brother will be along shortly, and perhaps he willappreciate it more than we do."
The young man cast a hurried glance up and down the road. It was evidentthat, however strong his craving for feminine society, he had no desireto meet the brother.
"Oh, well," he muttered, as he made his way toward the buggy, "youneedn't be so quick to take offence. There are plenty of girls who wouldbe glad of my company."
And with this, that was meant to be a Parthian shot, but that onlyprovoked a nervous desire to laugh on the part of the girls, he gatheredup the reins and drove off.
They saw him go with immense relief, for there was no other man in sight,and his impudence had alarmed as well as offended them.
"Well, of all the nerve!" ejaculated Belle.
"You certainly can freeze when you want to, Cora," laughed Bess.
"How lucky it was that you thought of Jack," said Belle. "Did you see thefrightened look that came into his eyes?"
"That sort of man always is a coward," replied Cora. "Perhaps he won't beso free and easy when he meets girls alone again. But let's get busy nowand hustle these things back into the car."
They soon had the thermos bottle and the depleted lunch basket tuckedsnugly away. The twins settled down in the rear seat, Cora threw in theclutch, and the car started.
They had gone perhaps a mile, when they descried a car coming at a rapidrate from the opposite direction.
"That man seems to be trying to break the speed limit," remarked Cora, asshe drove her own car close to the right-hand side of the road so as togive plenty of room.
"Like Jehu, the son of Nimshi, he driveth furiously," observed Belle.
Just then the gate of a near-by farmhouse was pushed open, and a littlechild about three years old toddled out into the road, right in the pathof the onrushing car.
A shriek went up from the girls.
"Oh, girls," screamed Bess, rising from her seat, "that child will bekilled!"