CHAPTER IX
THUNDER AND MUD
"You don't mean it's raining!" cried Grace, holding out a hand to seefor herself. "Oh, dear, and we have several miles to go before we evenreach the outskirts of Bensington. What shall we do now?"
"I don't know," answered Betty, while a worried frown wrinkled herpretty forehead. "I don't know just how far out we are. Oh, there's asignboard. What does it say, Gracie? You can read it better than I."
"Ten miles to Bensington," Grace read, leaning far out of the car. "OhBetty, we can't possibly make it! Listen to that!"
"That" was an ominous rumble of thunder, and Betty's pretty foreheadpuckered still more.
"Well, we can at least put the top up," she said practically. "That willkeep the worst of it off anyway, and if we hurry we may have a chance ofbeating it yet."
Betty brought the car to a stop, jumped out on the road with Grace ather heels, and waited for Mollie to come up. They had not long to waitfor a moment later Mollie stopped her car with a grinding of brakes andcame running up to her chums.
"I was wondering how long you were going to ignore the warnings ofnature," she said, with a little grimace. "That cloud has been growingwith horrible rapidity for the last five minutes. What are your plans,Captain?" and she favored Betty with a true military salute.
"I wish I had some," said the latter, cocking a still more anxious eyeat the threatening cloud. "And all I've been able to think of so far isthe very original idea of putting up the top."
"And side curtains," supplemented Mollie, with a chuckle. "Strange as itmay seem, even I have been favored with that inspiration."
"Well, let's get busy," suggested Amy, with practical, though slangy,emphasis. "We're apt to get drowned while we stand here talking."
It was easy to see by the way they went to work that the girls agreedwith her. Even Mrs. Ford gave willing, though inexperienced, aid, and ina very short time they had lifted the tops, adjusted the side curtainsand made all snug for the expected downpour.
Nor did they have very much time to spare. While they had been working,the thunder had grown louder and more insistent and now the rain beganto fall in earnest.
"Duck!" cried Betty inelegantly, and they ran for shelter.
"Well," said Betty, as she pressed the self-starter and the enginepurred evenly, "it's bad, but it might be a good deal worse. We can'tget wet unless it's an unusually heavy downpour."
"Oh, it isn't getting wet that bothers me so much," said Grace, andBetty looked at her in surprise. "It's the roads," she added by way ofexplanation. "I've heard Aunt Mary say that they have terribly heavystorms in this part of the country, and sometimes in half an hour theroads get almost impassable. Many a machine has been known to sink threeor four inches in mud, and sometimes they get in so deep they have to behauled out."
"What a cheerful prospect!" cried Betty, dismayed, adding, as the rainbeat against the windshield in steady, driving sheets: "Especially asthis storm bids fair to be a record breaker. Look how muddy the roadsare already."
"And we haven't passed more than two or three wagons all the way out,"wailed Grace. "And they didn't look strong enough to pull a toy machineout. Oh, Betty, look out!"
The admonition was occasioned by a seemingly sudden wild desire on thepart of the car to stand on two wheels while it waved the other twospinningly in the air.
Betty, though undeniably frightened, succeeded in persuading the erringwheels to the muddy road again. Then she slackened her speed and beganto laugh hysterically.
"I don't see anything to laugh about," protested Grace, still breathlesswith apprehension.
"Neither do I," admitted Betty, adding whimsically. "But I had either tolaugh or cry, so I decided to laugh. After all, you must admit, it was awonderful skid."
"The best of its kind," admitted Grace dryly. "But please don't try itagain, Honey, it has a wearing effect on my nerves!"
They were silent for a while after that, while Betty regarded theincreasingly muddy road ahead of her with anxious eyes. She had beenforced to slacken her speed more and more until now they were barelycrawling along.
"I'm afraid we're in an awfully tight fix," she said at last. "We'rejust plowing through this mud, and if it's hard on us, what must it befor Mollie, whose car is twice as heavy as this. Look behind, will you,Gracie, and see how she's coming along?"
"She is just coming, and that's all," reported Grace, after a prolongedscrutiny through the rain-glazed window. "Goodness, we've been out instorms before, but I never saw anything like this. And listen to thatthunder--o-oh!"
A terrific clap of thunder caused Grace to clap her hands over her earswith a little moan, while even steady-nerved Betty jumped in her seatand took a tighter grip of the steering wheel.
"Oh, what shall we do!" cried Grace, for she hated a thunderstorm worsethan she hated anything else on earth. "We can't go on this way, Betty.We're likely to get struck any moment."
"Well, I don't see that we'll be any less likely to get struck if westand still," retorted Betty, a little sharply, for the situation wasbecoming wearing, to say the least. "If you can suggest any way that wecan get out of this fix--" the sentence was cut short by a still louderand more terrifying clap of thunder.
Grace huddled in her seat, miserably trying not to die of fright.
"Is Mollie still following us?" asked Betty, after an interval of weirdflashes, crashing thunder, and rain beating relentlessly against theglass in front and turning the road to a sea of mud. "If she should getstuck I don't know what we would do."
"Yes, she's still struggling," replied Grace. "But it's getting so darkI can't more than just make out the lines of the car. Oh, Betty, don'tyou suppose we must be pretty close to Bensington?"
"No, I don't," Betty replied wearily. "You see how we've beentraveling--not more than a snail's pace, and it won't be very longbefore we shall have to stop altogether. I'm surprised that Mollie hasbeen able to keep going so long. You will have to keep your eye on herall the time, now, Grace, since it is getting so dark. We don't want tolose her."
"But," Grace suggested hesitantly, "I don't see that we could do themvery much good by staying here with them, if they do get stuck. Wouldn'tit be better to go on and try to make Bensington? Then we could sendhelp back to them."
"I've thought of that," said Betty simply, "and it would work all rightprovided we did manage to reach Bensington. But the probability is thatwe would be forced to stop a little further on, and I must say I don'texactly enjoy the prospect of spending the night alone on this desertedroad."
Grace shivered, but answered with a nervous little laugh: "I don't knowbut what we would be safe enough at that. If we can't get through,probably nobody else could."
"Just the same," said Betty decidedly, "I think I would rather cling tothe old theory that there is safety in numbers. Besides, probably yourmother would rather decide that for us. Are they still coming, Grace?"
"Goodness, you remind me of Bluebeard's wife," Grace laughedhysterically. "I thought you were going to say, 'Sister Anne, SisterAnne, do you see a man'?"
"Well, I see something better than a man," cried Betty suddenly,straining her eyes through the darkness and the streaming windshield."Grace honey, do my eyes deceive me, or is that a light?"
"A light!" cried Grace excitedly. "Oh, Betty, where--wait--yes, I seeit! It is a light! And there's another! Two lighted windows! Betty,honey, we're saved!"
"It's a house!" cried Betty jubilantly, while the hand that held thesteering wheel shook with relief. "You darling, wonderful house. Gracie,dear, I think it showed on the horizon just in the nick of time. Lookbehind once more."
"Yes, they're still coming. Oh, if they only don't get stuck in front ofthe door!"
"Don't be a goose, Gracie," chided Betty, feeling in hilarious spiritsnow that the end of their trouble was in sight. "You ought to get downon your knees in thankfulness that there is a front door to get stuck infront of!"
"Oh, is that so?" mocked Grace, her o
wn spirits reviving at the prospectof relief. "Well, I'm thankful enough, but I certainly don't intend toget down on my knees about it. There isn't room in here and you can seeit's too muddy outside!"
Two minutes later Betty swung the little car from the, by this time,almost impassable road on to a gloriously graveled driveway that led upto the hospitably lighted house.
"Now, if whoever lives here will only let us in," she sighed, as shestopped the car and glanced behind to be sure Mollie was following them,"we'll have nothing left to ask for."
"Except something to eat," amended Grace hungrily. "I thought I hadeaten enough lunch to last me a week, but I see I'm muchly mistaken.What shall we do, Betty?" as the latter started to open the curtain andclosed it quickly again as the rain beat in upon them. "We are apt toget soaked just running that little distance to the porch."
"And the umbrellas are all wrapped up in the back of Mollie's car,"lamented Betty, then added, with sudden decision: "I guess unless wewant to sit here all night we'd better chance it. I for one am sohungry I'd be willing to brave more than a rain for the sake ofsomething to eat."
"I'd say so!" groaned Grace, again reminded of her own state ofstarvation. "You get out your side Betty and I'll get out mine and we'llmake a quick dash for it."
GRACE AND BETTY MADE A QUICK DASH FOR SHELTER. _TheOutdoor Girls at Bluff Point._ _Page 83._]
So they lifted the curtains and slipped out, thankful for the gravelwalk that, while it was wet and slippery, was still a delightfulcontrast to the muddy sea of road they had left. They ran head downagainst the blinding rain, and gained the bottom step of the porch atthe same time.
A moment more, and they had climbed to the shelter of the porch itself,out of breath but jubilant.
"Thank goodness!" cried Grace.
"And here come your mother and Mollie and Amy," chuckled Betty as thetrio followed their example and raced for the porch. "I guess none ofthem ever knew she could run so fast in her life before. Hello, folks.Beautiful weather, isn't it?" she inquired gayly, as the threescrambled, panting, up on the porch. "You seem in a terrible hurry toget somewhere."
"Speak for yourself, John," gasped Mollie, shaking out her wet skirtsand trying to regain some of her dignity by putting her hat on straight."If you could know what I've been through for the last hour, justcoaxing the car along an inch at a time--"
"Well," laughed Betty, as she turned to the front door and pushed thebell, "I've been through a little bit of everything, myself, for thelast few hours, except a good square meal. And, judging from thedelightful aroma that hovers about this place," she added sniffinghungrily, "I shouldn't wonder if that oversight wouldn't be swiftlyremedied!"
Then the door opened and a tall, gray-haired lady stood in the lighteddoorway.