"The bread is all right, anyway!"
Such was the volley of remarks that came out from the crowd.
"We will manage somehow," said Cora. "Our boys are used to emergency work in the line of eating and fixing meals."
"Seems ter me," whined a wizen old lady, "thet the girls knows somethin" about it, too!"
In the dining room on the second floor were two chandeliers. Under these were, of course, tables, and before the anxious ones had time to settle their fears there stood on these tables Cora, Bess and Belle, and on the other Ed, Jack and Walter. Each of our friends had in his or her hand something that answered to the pan or pot brand of utensil, and in the pan or pot, which was held over the gas, was something that began to "talk-talk" out loud of good things to eat, sizzling and crisping.
It was very funny to see the young folks cooking over the handsome chandeliers, from which, of course, the gla.s.s globes had been removed.
"Well, did you ever!" exclaimed more than one.
"Those young folks do beat all! I used to think ma and pa brung us up right, but whoever on earth would have cooked bacon and eggs over a lamp," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed an old man.
"I guess driving them machines makes them smart," said another guest, as she took the pan Cora handed down and gingerly slopped the stuff over on a wooden plate. "I guess it is a good thing to know how to drive an automobile. Makes you right smart! Whew! but that was hot!"
and she put the overheated fingers into her mouth.
"Put another dish over it to keep it hot," Cora ordered. "And can"t some one set a table? That is not such a difficult thing to do."
"See here!" called out Ed, "this is no pancake party. I am not going to stay up here cooking all night. I am going down to eat. We have enough of tomatoes warmed to fill the wash bowl, and I love canned tomatoes if they are out of a washbowl. We washed the bowl, and sterilized it, and it"s as good as a soup tureen."
There stood the white wash basin almost filled with the steaming tomatoes. As Ed said, there could be no objection to the crockery.
Jack had charge of the water for tea. This took a long time to boil, owing to the fact that the kettle was a very much bent-up affair that had been rescued from the ruined kitchen.
Bess was cooking canned peas, while Belle insisted that all she could do was to turn over, with a fork, the things that cooked nicely on Cora"s pan.
"Done to a turn!" announced Jack, as he jumped down with his pots.
"Now, if you folks need any more you will really have to go into active service."
His initiative was followed by the others, and presently the less timid of the guests had put food into pans and taken up their places on the tables to do their cooking, while it seemed that all at once every one "fell to" and procured something to eat.
"Let there be no unbecoming haste!" remarked Walter gently, but it was a great meal, that.
CHAPTER XII
QUEER COBBLERS
"Isn"t she disappointing?" remarked Hazel.
"Very," answered Cora.
"To think that she should leave us for a patient!"
"I cannot understand it."
"I have heard that girls not home raised are like that--they have no sentiment."
"Nor honor, either!"
"Well, she didn"t think she was bound to go with us, and, of course, there was money besides reputation in being on the spot when the hotel owners would arrive. But I am disappointed."
"I hope the boys will not feel obliged to return for her," and Cora"s lip curled slightly. "She is such a good business woman she ought to be able to get to the Berkshires from here."
"Walter seems enthralled," and Hazel laughed. "I wonder how Jack got him to leave her?"
They were on the road again, and Miss Robbins, the physician, the business woman, the chaperon, had stayed behind to take care of those who had been injured in the explosion. There were good doctors within call, but she simply would stay, and saw no reason why the girls should not go on alone. To her the idea of being obligated to them was not to be thought of when a matter like professional business came up. Of course, this was a general disappointment, for the girls would never have entrusted themselves to her patronage if they had not felt certain that she would keep her word with them. However, the fact was that they were on the road again, and Regina Robbins was happy on the sunny porch of the big hotel, incidentally attending to a cut or two on one man"s face and a bad-looking burn on the arm of another.
Bess and Belle were driving along, "their faces as long as fiddles," as Cora said. The boys had taken the lead, and they were having their own trouble trying to convince Walter that Miss Robbins had "dumped" the girls, and that it was a "low-down trick."
The _Whirlwind_ glided along apparently happy under the firm hand of its fair owner. The _Flyaway_ seemed, too, to be glad of a chance to get away again, and as Bess threw in the third speed, according to commands from Jack, who was leading, the little silver machine darted away like an arrow freed from the bow.
The day was wonderfully clear after the rain, and even the sunshine had been polished up by the scouring of the mighty storm of late summer.
"I shouldn"t care so much," Belle confided to her twin sister, "but when we get to Lenox alone, without a chaperon, what will people say?"
"Well, Tinkle, we have not got there yet. Maybe we may pick up a chaperon between this and that."
"If we only could! Where do we stop tonight?"
"Wherever we get."
So they sped on. Mile after mile was lapped up in the dust of the motors. Out through Connecticut, over the line into Ma.s.sachusetts, and along the splendid roads that border the Housatonic River.
Houses were becoming scarcer and fewer; it was now largely a matter of woodlands and roads.
"We have to make time now," called Cora to the twins. "The boys say we should get to Pittsfield by evening."
"To Pittsfield! Why, that"s----"
"About a hundred," called Cora again. "Look out for your shoes, and don"t be reckless on the turns. Stripping your differential just now would be fatal."
"All right," responded Bess, "but mine is not the only car in the race."
"Thanks," called back Cora, "and now we will clear off. Good-by!"
The _Whirlwind_ shot ahead. Jack"s car was clear of the other--Walter"s, and as the run had to be made against time it was best for each machine to have "room to look around it."
"Oh!" gasped Hazel, as Cora swerved around a sharp bend, "I don"t fancy this sort of riding."
"But we have to get to a large town before night. It"s all right. The roads are so clear."
On they flew. Only the shrieking of Jack"s siren and the groaning of the deep horn on Walter"s car gave messages to the girls.