"I do believe that"s all that ails Ida--just plain jealousy."
"Maybe," a.s.sented Isabel.
They rode along for some time, coasting down the steeper parts of the hill, and running easily where there was a level stretch. They were now approaching the worst part of the descent. From this point there was quite a steep slant to the level highway, which the railroad crossed at grade, and approached on a curve.
There was a long-drawn, shrill whistle.
"What"s that?" exclaimed Elizabeth.
"The train!" cried Isabel. "Oh, the train! Cora, the train is coming!"
"I hear it," spoke Cora calmly, but she pressed her foot down harder on the brake pedal, and tried to use the compression of the cylinders as a r.e.t.a.r.ding force, as Paul had showed her.
"Can"t you slow up?" pleaded Elizabeth. There was a note of alarm in her voice.
"I"m--I"m trying to!" almost shouted Cora, as she exerted more strength on the brake lever. "I"ve done all I know, now, but but we don"t seem to be stopping!"
She spoke the last words in a curiously quiet voice.
"Put on the brakes!" called Bess.
"They are on!" said Cora fiercely.
"Oh, Cora!" screamed Isabel. "I see the train! There at the foot of the hill! We"ll run into it! I"m going to jump! We can"t stop!"
"Sit still!" commanded Cora energetically.
Elizabeth covered her face with her hands. She shrank back into her seat. Her sister leaned up against her. Below could be heard the puffing of the train. Then the engineer, seeing the auto rushing down to destruction, blew shrieking whistles, as if that could help.
Cora was frantically pulling on the brake lever. Her face was now white with fear, but even in the midst of this terror she felt a curious calmness. It was just as if she were looking at some picture of the scene. She thought she was miles and miles away. Her foot was pressed down so hard on the brake pedal that it felt as if her shoe would burst off.
But the car slid along, nearer and nearer the track, along which the train was thundering--rushing to meet the auto-to annihilate it.
"Stop! Stop!" screamed Isabel. "Stop!" She rose in her seat.
"Sit down!" commanded Cora.
"But stop!" pleaded Isabel. "We"ll all be killed! Stop! Oh, Cora, stop!"
"I"m trying to!" was the grim reply. "But--I can"t the brake--the brake is jammed!"
The last words came out jerkily, for Cora was pulling on the brake handle with all her force.
Nearer and nearer sounded the approaching train. The auto was sliding down the hill with ever-increasing speed, but Cora never let go her hold of the steering wheel.
Once more she tried to pull the brake lever. It would not come back another notch. The engineer of the train was blowing more frantic signals. He leaned from his cab window and motioned the auto back.
He even seemed to be shouting to them.
Cora braced both feet against the brake pedal.
She took a firmer grasp of the wheel. The seams of her new gloves were starting from the strain. There was a desperate look on her face.
"Oh, we"ll be killed! We"ll be killed!" screamed Isabel. "We can"t get across in time!"
She leaned over, and fell into her sister"s arms, while Cora, with a keen glance to either side, stiffened in her seat. There was a bare chance of safety.
CHAPTER III
A SUDDEN ACQUAINTANCE
Despite the tense moment of anxiety, the almost certainty that the auto would crash into the train, Cora"s quick eye had seen something that she hoped would enable her to avert the accident.
She knew that she could not stop the machine in time, by any means at her command. There was but one other thing to do. That was to steer to one side.
To the left there was a solid stone wall. To dash into that would mean almost as horrible an accident as if she collided with the train. To the right there was a field, but it was fenced in, and between it and the road was a little miry, brook.
In some places the brook widened almost into a pond. The bottom was treacherous, and to steer into it meant to sink down deeply into the mud. To run into the fence might mean that one of the rails would become entangled in the mechanism of the motor, tearing it all to pieces. Or one of the long pieces of wood might even impale the occupants of the car.
Cora"s eyes swept down the length of the barrier with a flash.
There was just what she wanted! A gap in the fence!
She could go through that in safety. But suppose the machine was brought to too sudden a stop in the mud? They would all be thrown out and perhaps injured. But it was the only thing to do.
With a firm grasp of the wheel Cora sent the auto from the road.
Elizabeth screamed as she felt the swaying of the car. She had to hold her sister from being tossed but, for Isabel was incapable of taking care of herself.
Straight for the field rushed the car, the engineer of the train now tooting his whistle as if in gladness at the narrow escape.
Splash!
The auto fairly dived into the brook, and gradually slackened speed.
Right toward a clump of willow trees it surged, throwing a spray of water in advance. Then it became stationary in the middle of a spot where the brook widened into a pond.
Cora was dimly conscious of a figure on the opposite bank of the stream. A figure of a young man, with a fishing-pole in his hands.
She saw a spray of water, cast up by the auto, drench him. She even heard him cry out, but at that moment she gave him not a thought.
Everything centered on her narrow escape, the condition of her two chums, and, last, but not least, whether her new auto had been damaged.
Cora leaned over the side and looked at the water flowing past the mud guards.
"Safe!" she exclaimed. "I--I thought we were doomed, girls. Didn"t you?"
"Doomed?" echoed Elizabeth. "I never want to go through that experience again."