Eleanor had been grinning at the officer"s reply, and now she could not withstand the temptation to answer: "From the Cannibal Isles."
The crowd standing about the two cars, laughed--all but the policeman. He scowled at Eleanor and said: "Be careful, young lady, or I"ll take you along for contempt of court."
"But you are not arresting _me_, and this is not Court," argued Eleanor.
"Oh, goodness me! Is he going to arrest me?" cried Dodo.
"If you don"t answer my questions promptly, I"ll arrest you," returned the officer, severely.
"Well, I am from Denver, Colorado, where folks don"t fuss like you do in the East, just because you cross a street to get to the other side!"
declared Dodo, in self-justification.
"From Denver! Got a New York license to drive?" said he.
"No, I haven"t, but I"ve driven all over England and the Continent this Summer--as these girls will tell you. They were in the party."
"It"s nothing to me whether you drove up the Matterhorn and down the other side; as long as you can"t show me a plain old American license, you"ll have to pay the costs."
"How much is it?" quickly asked Dodo, taking her purse out to settle the bill.
"I don"t know. You"d better follow me to the police station and we"ll see."
Dodo was handed a little paper which she read aloud to her horrified companions, and thus, finding themselves arrested, they meekly tried to follow the blue-jacket. But the cars had not been disentangled, although both boys from the racer were doing their utmost to clear the way.
As the storm raised in the hearts of the two students by the carelessness of Dodo abated, both boys realized how pretty and helpless the five girls were, so they began to feel sorry for them. Besides this, the front wheels were now divorced and the two cars backed away from each other to give room for the congested traffic to pa.s.s.
"Dear me," wailed Dodo, "what will Mr. Dalken say when he hears about his car! I don"t mind going to jail or being made to pay a hundred dollars fine, but to break up his automobile the first time I drove it, and get his license tag into trouble--that is terrible!"
Polly laughed. "Not Dalken"s license tag, but his name--in the papers.
That"s what comes of being so well-known in New York."
"And the newspaper men will be sure to say that a party of joy-riders stole his car to have a little jaunt in the country, I suppose," added Eleanor, teasingly.
One of the good-looking young students now came over to the girls and lifted his cap. "Did I understand you to say this is Mr. Dalken"s car?"
Five girls glowered at him. Polly snapped out: "Are you a reporter from a city paper?"
John Baxter laughed. "No, I am his protege. Mr. Dalken is the executor of my father"s estate and I was just on my way to the city, to visit him, this evening."
"Oh how nice! We know Mr. Dalken very well, too. He is one of our best friends," returned Polly, eagerly.
Nancy Fabian would have been more reticent had she been spokeswoman for the girls; but both boys were so pleasant, now, that they were introducing themselves to the girls, hence she said nothing.
"We"ll go with you to the station house and see that the sergeant behaves himself," suggested John.
The girls felt very grateful to this needed friend, and the boys started their car after the policeman, the girls following in their damaged car that b.u.mped and jolted on one side.
When the inspector learned that not one of the five girls had a license to drive a car in New York State, and that the car belonged to someone else, he fined Dodo and gave her a good scolding to boot.
"This time I"ll let you off easy, as you are green in the East. But don"t let it happen again, or you"ll be sorry. Apply for a permit to drive, as soon as you get home, young lady, and then get a book of rules on traffic, and learn it by heart."
Dodo meekly paid the fine, and the young people left the room with lighter hearts than they had entered it. Both cars had to be taken to a garage and put into running shape again. Meantime there would be two hours of waiting on their hands, and seven young folks with impatient blood in their veins to kill that time.
"I"m sorry you ladies have been deprived of your pleasure drive, but I might suggest a little consolation if you ever deign to go to the Movies," said John Baxter, politely.
"There"s a good show up the street in that large Picture Theatre," added his friend Andrews.
"We love movies--when they are good," ventured Eleanor.
"What do you think, Nan? Shall we go?" asked Polly.
"Oh yes! it will be awful--waiting about this place with nowhere to go other than the Movies, as you say," returned Nancy.
So the two young men escorted the five girls to the show where they forgot their recent troubles in watching Harold Lloyd do his best to break his neck.
Dodo paid the bill at the garage for both cars, even though the boys insisted that they pay for their own damages. But she replied: "No, the insurance company will have to settle eventually."
The good-natured way in which Dodo accepted the situation more than convinced the boys that these girls were "bricks" all right! It was now past five, and the cars were ready to go again, but the "collectors"
found they had to go back to the city for that time, without having seen as much as a shadow of an antique.
"What will you girls do about getting home?" asked Andrews.
"Why, drive, of course!" returned Dodo.
"But you can"t--you haven"t a license. Neither has any one of the other girls," explained Jack.
"Oh, we never thought of that!" exclaimed Polly, perplexed.
"I have one," suggested Andrews. "I can get in your car, and one of you girls can drive with Baxter, if you will. That will solve the problem."
"All right," a.s.sented Dodo, getting out of her seat to allow Andrews to get in.
"Which one wants to drive with Jack?" asked Andrews.
Neither girl answered, and not as much as by a tremor of the eye-lid did either show how delighted she would have been to sit beside the handsome young man and skim along the road to New York.
Baxter laughed heartily, and Andrews added: "I never dreamed that _no_ one would care to drive with him. I"m sorry, Jack, but you"ll have to go alone."
"Not if I know it!" retorted Baxter, quickly. "I can"t choose when all are so desirable, but we can cast lots to see who will be my companion."
The girls thought this most exciting, and when Andrews had shown the slip of paper that would be the lucky draw, and then had folded and shaken the slips well in his cap, the girls drew. As each girl opened her sc.r.a.p of paper to find it was blank, and then watched the others try, there was great laughter and anxious waiting. Finally Polly opened her slip and found she had drawn the lucky one.
"Ha! Isn"t Jack Baxter lucky, though!" laughed Eleanor. "Not only gets the cleverest girl in the crowd, but the prettiest one, too!"
"Stop your nonsense, Nolla! How many times do I have to tell you to allow me to live in peace, without so much of your chaffing!" exclaimed Polly, impatiently.
Everyone laughed merrily at Polly"s retort, and Baxter looked admiringly at the flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes. He was most gallant in a.s.sisting Polly into the "boat" as he called it, and then he jumped in beside her.