"I did," admitted Cora. "I will surely have to use a barrel of it going through the changes in the hills. I cannot stand a stinging face."
Mrs. Robinson had taken a notion that her twins were outgrowing their twinship, consequently their outfits for the mountain trip had been made exactly alike in material and effect. The result was, the boys purposely mixed the girls up, asking Belle what made her so thin, for instance, when they knew perfectly well that she was always thin, and that it was Bess who had to own to being stout.
The twins" costumes were of hunter-green corduroy, with knitted green caps. Cora wore mole-color cloth, with a toque to match, and as they now stood before the garage, waiting the coming of the others, who had stopped at the post office, many admiring eyes turned in their direction.
"They have a lot of mail," remarked Cora gleefully, as Jack waved letters and cards to her. "I hope it is nothing we don"t want just now."
"As long as the gypsy man is safe, we needn"t fear anything unpleasant," said Bess, "but I did feel a lot better when I heard that they took him to the real county jail."
"Oh, yes," and Cora laughed. "You seemed to think that man was our particular evil genius. Bess, all gypsies are supposed to steal."
"h.e.l.lo!"
"Here we are!"
"Everybody and everything!"
"No, Wallie forgot his new handkerchief--the one with the pretty rose in the corner."
"And Jacky forgot his rope. We won"t be able to haul him this time."
"I forgot something," began Miss Robbins, "my absorbent cotton. See to it that if you must get hurt you don"t get----"
"The nose-bleed," Ed finished more practically than eloquently.
Miss Robbins was to travel in Cora"s car, with Cora and Hazel Hastings.
The boys had tried to alter this plan, they declaring one boy, at least, should go in the big car, but Cora argued that the _Whirlwind_ was distinctly a girl"s auto, and only girls should travel in it. This put Jack in his own runabout and Walter and Ed in the _Comet_. The Robinson girls, of course, were not to be separated, as the _Flyaway_ seemed to know all about the twins, and the twins knew all about the _Flyaway_.
The weather was uncertain, and the fog horn at the point lighthouse had blown all night, so that the girls were naturally apprehensive. Only Cora"s car was canopied, so that should it rain they would be obliged to stop and wait for clear weather.
Nevertheless it was a very jolly party that now waited at the garage for the machines to be run out. The boys went inside and attended to the very last of the preparations, while Cora, too, insisted upon looking over her machine before starting off.
"You"ll have a fine trip," remarked the man at the garage. "I think the run through the Berkshires one of the best there is. Fine roads and nice people along the way."
"Well, we need both," answered Miss Robbins. "I don"t know so much about roads, but people--we always need them."
"All aboard," cried Ed, as finally they all did get into the cars, and, as usual, the _Whirlwind_ led. Next came the _Flyaway_, then the two runabouts with the young men.
"What a fine chauffeur Miss Cora is?" remarked Miss Robbins to Hazel.
"Yes, but you must call her Cora," corrected Hazel gayly. "We make it a rule to go by first names when we like people."
"Then you must call me Regina," added Miss Robbins. "I hope the young men don"t make me Reggie."
"They"re very apt to," commented Hazel.
Cora had thrown in the third speed, and was now bending over her wheel in real man fashion. They were getting out on the country roads, where all expected to make good time. Bess also threw on her full speed, following Cora"s lead, and the boys, of course, gave the speeding signal on their horns.
"My!" exclaimed Miss Robbins admiringly, as the landscape flashed by.
"Can"t we go," added Hazel exultingly.
"It"s like eating and drinking the atmosphere," continued the young lady physician.
"I do love autoing," went on Hazel. "My brother is a perfect devotee of the machine. But we do not happen to own one of our own."
"That is where good friends come in," said Miss Robbins. "This trip is a perfect delight to me. And, really, it will fix me up wonderfully for what I have to undertake this fall. You see, we have just closed the bungalow, mother has gone home, and that left me free to go to the Berkshires and have a little pleasure, together with attending to some business. I have a very old patient there. I have to call on her before she leaves the hills."
"And you really have patients?" Hazel looked in surprise at the young woman beside her.
"Of course, I do. But this one I inherited--she is a great aunt of mine."
Hazel leaned forward to ask Cora what her speedometer was registering.
"Only twenty miles an hour," replied Cora. "And we could go thirty easily. But I don"t fancy ripping off a shoe, or doing any other of the things that speed might do."
"I shall enjoy it all the more when I am so sure of that," spoke Regina. "I cannot see why people take risks just for the sake of----"
"Hey, there!" shouted Ed, as his car shot past Cora"s. "We are going on ahead."
"So--we--see!" answered Cora dryly.
"What do you suppose they are up to?" asked Bess, as she turned the _Flyaway_ up to the side of the _Whirlwind_.
"Haven"t any idea," replied Cora, just as Jack, too, shot by.
"See you later," called Jack.
"Not deserting us, are they?" asked Regina.
"Oh, no, just some lark," answered Cora.
But scarcely had the boys" machines disappeared than a trail of three gypsy wagons turned into the mountain highway from some narrow crossroad.
"Oh!" sighed Belle, apprehensively clutching the arm of her sister.
"Don"t, Belle. You almost turned me into the _Whirlwind_," cautioned the sister, as she quickly twisted around the steering wheel.
"Those are the beach gypsies," Cora was able to say to Bess.
Then no one spoke. Bess leaned over her wheel, while Cora looked carefully for a place to turn out that would bring her clear of the rumbling old wagons.
A woman sat in the back of one of the vehicles. She poked her head out and glared at the approaching machines. Then she was seen to wave a red handkerchief so that the persons in the next wagon could distinctly see it.
The motor girls also saw it.
This caused some confusion, as the motorists were trying to get out in the clear road, while the wagons were blocking the way.