"Don"t worry about pushing us along," retorted Jack. "Just for that, I ought to shoot ahead out of sight and leave you to bitter regrets when you find yourselves lost in the wilderness. But I"m too n.o.ble to treat helpless girls that way, so you"re safe for the present. But beware, woman, of goading me too far! It"s a long worm that has no turning."
"If you"re as mixed in your road directions as you are in your proverbs, I"m afraid we won"t get to Camp Kill Kare to-night," rejoined Cora. "But go ahead now like a good boy, and think up some more bright things to spring on us. We want to be by ourselves so that we can talk without foolish interruptions."
"They want to talk," muttered Jack. "What a novelty!"
"If women talk a good deal, I notice that lots of men take after their mothers," replied Belle, as Jack"s car darted into the lead.
"Isn"t it tantalizing," said Cora to her chums, resuming their interrupted conversation, "that I can"t think just whom that gypsy girl looks like? Don"t you know how it is when you are trying to recall a word or a line of poetry or something, and have it just on the tip of your tongue but can"t quite get it? I feel just that way about this resemblance. I"m perfectly sure I"ve seen some one very much like her.
Can"t you girls help me out? We"re together so much, and we know the same people. Put on your thinking caps and see if you can"t give me a hint."
"I only wish I could," replied Belle thoughtfully. "There _was_ something a little familiar about the girl, though it didn"t strike me as strongly as it did you."
"There was a certain look in her eyes that suggested somebody I"ve seen,"
said Bess, "but for the life of me I can"t remember who it was. But even suppose we did remember? It wouldn"t prove anything. There are lots of people in the world who look alike and yet who haven"t the slightest relation to each other."
"I know it," admitted Cora. "But just the same I have what the boys would call a hunch that in this case it would give us a clue to the gypsy girl"s secret."
"If she has any," laughed Bess.
"Get out your crystal sphere, Sybilla, and pluck the heart from this mystery," smiled Belle.
"You girls can laugh if you want to," rejoined Cora, "but all the same I"ll think about this and perhaps dream about it until I recall the face I"m groping for."
"I shouldn"t wonder if we"d have something more practical to think of before long," remarked Belle, pointing to the sky. "Do you see those clouds coming up there? I"ve been watching them for the last five minutes and they"re getting bigger and blacker all the time. I"d hate to be caught in a thunderstorm."
"And get into Camp Kill Kare all wet and bedraggled," added Bess. "Oh, Cora, let"s hurry!"
"It isn"t getting wet that bothers me so much," replied Cora. "We could put up the top and keep dry enough. But a heavy storm would turn the road into a quagmire, and goodness knows it"s bad enough as it is."
The boys ahead had seen the signs, and Jack shouted back:
"Give her all the juice she can stand, sis! If the storm only holds off for fifteen minutes we"ll make the camp."
His own car shot ahead, and Cora threw in the speed and kept close behind. They could hear now faint rumblings of thunder, all the more noticeable because of the sudden hush that had fallen over the forest, as birds and animals and insects sensed the coming storm.
Darker and darker it grew and faster and faster the cars sped along, as their drivers called on the last ounce of speed they had in them. Despite their fluttering of anxiety, the girls had a keen sense of exhilaration in this race with the elements. Their veils whipped about their faces and their glowing eyes and reddened cheeks showed their inward excitement.
A jagged flash of lightning shot across the sky, followed by a deafening peal of thunder. It was evident that the bolt had struck not far off, for a moment later they heard the crash of a falling tree at a little distance to the right.
"Oh, hurry! hurry!" urged Bess and Belle.
"Do you think I"m creeping?" Cora called back. "I can"t talk to the car and encourage it as I might a horse. You"ll notice that the boys aren"t leaving us behind."
As a matter of fact, the cars were nearly touching.
"Keep up your pluck, girls!" Jack called back. "If this map is all right, we"ll make the camp in five minutes more."
"If we didn"t have an old tub in front of us, we"d make it in four," sang out Cora.
"If the rain will only hold off," murmured Belle.
But the prospect grew ever more threatening. The peals of thunder were redoubled and the lightning played so vividly across the sky that Bess covered her face with her hands.
"Suppose the car should be struck!" she exclaimed.
"If it were, we"d probably never know it," was all the comfort her sister could give.
Just then there was an appalling roar, and a great tree, split from top to bottom, swayed for a moment and then fell with a deafening crash right across the road, about a hundred feet in front of the leading car.
There were shrieks from the girls, and a jumble of shouts came from the boys, as Jack brought his machine to a halt, and Cora, who had not lost her presence of mind, did the same.
All jumped out and ran forward. A glance told them that there was no getting past the tree. It blocked the road completely. Nor was it possible to get around the fallen monarch with the cars, for there was dense undergrowth on both sides of the road.
"No help for it, girls," announced Jack, after a hurried examination of the conditions. "We"ll have to run for it. I caught a glimpse of the bungalow a minute ago, and it"s not far from here. We"ll have to leave the cars here and come back and cut a path for them after the storm"s over."
"But suppose they should be stolen?" objected Belle.
"Mighty little chance of that in this neck of the woods," replied Paul.
"You notice we haven"t met any one for the last two hours. We"ll put up the tops so that the inside won"t get wet. And there"ll be some one at the bungalow that we can send out to guard them and keep you from worrying about them."
"Now we"ve got to make tracks for the house. Come ahead, girls!" cried Jack, as soon as the tops had been put up.
Each of the boys took charge of one of the girls, and they skirted the tree, pushing their way through the underbrush till they reached the road on the other side.
The outdoor life of the Motor Girls had made them fleet and strong, and although of course with their clinging skirts they could not keep up with the boys, the latter accommodated their pace to theirs, and they came in sight of the bungalow in a few minutes.
But the rain was coming, too, and it was a pretty race. They could see it being driven before the wind in great gusts, and they felt the pattering of the advance drops. And just as they gained the shelter of the bungalow porch, the rain came down in torrents.
Their coming had been seen from the house, and Aunt Betty King came running out to meet them.
"You darlings!" she cried, as she tried to gather all the girls at once into her arms, and kissed them in turn. "How glad I am to see you! I"ve been watching for you for the last two hours and was beginning to worry for fear you wouldn"t get here before dark. And how lucky you were to get here ahead of the storm. But how on earth did you come?"
"We ran here all the way from Chelton," said Jack with a sober face. "How is that for Marathon work?"
"Don"t pay any attention to that fibber," laughed Cora. "You know what Jack is. Our cars are standing a little way down the road. The lightning struck a tree and it fell so that it blocked the path. So we had to make the rest of the way on foot."
"You poor dears!" exclaimed Aunt Betty with ready sympathy. "But come right in now and get rested. You must be awfully tired after your long journey, and you"re all out of breath from running so hard. And you boys, too. Your rooms are all ready for you and supper will be ready in a few minutes."
She led the way inside, followed by the flushed and panting travelers, glad that the end of their journey found them safely housed at Camp Kill Kare.
The bungalow was a strongly built and capacious one. It had only two stories, but was very wide and deep. It stood on a high point in the Adirondack Mountains, with a view that stretched for many miles in all directions. There was a large cleared s.p.a.ce about the building, but one had only to go a few rods away to find himself in a genuine wilderness.
The bungalow belonged to a relative of Mrs. Kimball. Usually the owner occupied it himself during the summer months; but this year he was on a trip to India, hunting for big game, and he had placed the camp at Mrs.
Kimball"s disposal, with a cordial invitation to occupy it and make use of all the facilities it afforded for enjoyment.
As Cora"s mother could not accompany the young folks, the question of a suitable chaperon had given her some concern. But this had been solved by securing the consent of Aunt Betty to undertake that responsibility.
Mrs. King was not really Cora"s aunt, being a second cousin of Mrs.