The Motor Girls on the Coast: or, The Waif From the Sea

“Go ahead–don’t wait for us!” he called to his sister. “We can speed up and catch you.”

“Don’t take the wrong road,” Cora cautioned, and then Jack and Ed got out the repair kit. The work took them longer than they had expected, and it was getting dusk when they were ready to proceed.

“We’ll never make it before dark, old man,” said Ed.

“Oh, I guess we will. I’m going to fracture some speed limits,” and Jack opened wide the throttle. The Get There did make good time, but it was not worthy of its name. For, after going for some time, Jack felt that he must be nearing Fairport. He got out to look at a sign post, lighting a match to distinguish the directions. Then he uttered an expression of dismay.

“What is it?” asked Ed, anxiously. “Something else gone wrong, Jack?”

“Yes–we’ve gone wrong!”

“How so?”

“Why, we’re on the Belleville turnpike, and to my certain knowledge we’re about fifteen miles off the right road for Fairport. I thought that fellow we asked, about sunset, didn’t seem very sure of his directions. He told us wrong–maybe not on purpose–but wrong just the same. Ed, old man, we are lost in a dismal country with night coming on. Please groan and shiver for me, while I think of the proper thing to say. We’re lost!”

“Well, the only thing to do is to go back,” remarked Ed, philosophically. “Come on. Luckily the roads are good.”

“Hark! Some one is coming!” exclaimed Jack, as he heard footfalls on the hard highway. “I’ll ask him. Maybe there’s a short cut to Fairport.”

The figure advanced out of the darkness into the glare of the lights on Jack’s car. Then he exclaimed involuntarily:

“It’s a girl!”

CHAPTER VII

WORRIES

“Where shall we leave our cars?” asked Belle.

“There’s a garage just around the corner from the hotel,” answered Cora. “We can have the man look the machines over, too, and see that there is plenty of gasoline and oil. Then we won’t have to worry.”

The three cars had drawn up in front of the Mansion House at Fairport, following a pleasant run after the sheep episode. Jack and Ed, of course, were not present, and of them more presently. They were having, as Jack might express it, “their own troubles.”

“Oh, but I’m warm and dusty!” exclaimed Eline as she “flopped” from the car to the sidewalk. Flopped is the only word that properly expresses it.

“Then you’re not much used to motoring,” remarked Cora with a smile, as she disengaged herself from the steering wheel. “It is tiring, at first, but one soon becomes used to it. How did you like it, Cousin Mary?”

“It was delightful, my dear, purely delightful; but I will own that I shall be glad to walk again.” She alighted from the car of the twins. The two sisters got down, and Belle went around to look at one of the rear tires. She had a suspicion, amounting to a conviction, that it had gone flat. It had.

“I’ll let the garage man attend to it,” she said. “I’m too anxious now to get some nice warm water, soap and a large towel.”

“Me for a large, juicy towel!” exclaimed Walter, coming up with Norton. “Will you have yours boiled or stewed?”

“Silly! I don’t call that a joke!”

“You don’t need to; it comes without calling.”

“That’s worse,” declared Bess, trying to get some of the road dust off her face with a very small handkerchief.

“Well, we’re here, anyhow!” put in Norton, “I don’t think much of the hotel, though.”

“It will do very nicely,” answered Cora somewhat coldly. She was not quite sure whether she was going to like Norton or not. He did not seem to improve upon acquaintance, and she was a little sorry that Jack had asked him on the trip. Still, she reflected, one can easily be mistaken about boys. Perhaps his flippant manner might be due to nervousness, or a diffidence in not knowing how to say the right thing at the right time.

“We’re here–because we’re here!” exclaimed Walter. “That’s more than can be said for Jack and Ed.”

“Are they in sight?” asked Cora, looking down the long straight road–the main street of Fairport–by which they had entered the town.

“Not yet,” answered Bess. “Oh, do let’s get into the hotel!” she exclaimed. “A crowd is collecting, and I do so want a drink of cold water.”

“Hot tea for me,” spoke Belle. “Hot tea with a slice of lemon in it.”

“Since Belle went to that Russian tea-fest last winter she always takes lemon in her tea,” explained her sister. “Ugh! I can’t bear it!” Bess was nothing if not certain in her likes and dislikes.

“It’s really the only way to drink tea, my dear,” said Belle, with an affected society drawl. “It’s so–so mussy with cream and sugar in it,” and she spread out her hands in æsthetic horror–or something to simulate that.

“I think I shall be satisfied with just plain tea,” voiced Cora, as she took another look down the road for her brother. “Come on, girls–and boys!” she added.

A little throng was beginning to gather in front of the hotel, somewhat blocking the sidewalk, for the sight of the cars drawn up in front of the hostel and perhaps the sight of the four–well, it might as well be said–pretty motor girls, had attracted attention.

“Shoo–shoo–chickens!” exclaimed Mrs. Fordam with a laugh as she brought up back of the girls. “Let’s get in and freshen up for supper.”

“Dinner!” cried Walter. “It’s not allowed to say supper on this tour. Dinner; isn’t it, Cora?”

“As you like,” she assented a bit wearily, for now, after the excitement of the day, the work and worry, much of which had necessarily fallen to her, Cora was beginning to feel the reaction. The fire, too, and the strange woman, all had added to it. But she knew they could have a good rest that evening.

“Jack must be having trouble with that tire,” she went on, as they entered the hotel. “I think he had better put on an entirely new one.”

“Oh, he’ll be here pretty soon,” said Walter. “Really we haven’t been here long, and we ought to allow him half an hour anyway. The Get There will go – ”

“Once it does go,” interrupted Norton. “I wonder where we register?”

“There’s the desk,” said Walter, pointing to where the hotel clerk stood behind the counter waiting for the party. He smiled a welcome.

“I’ll register for the girls,” said Mrs. Fordam. “I want to see how the rooms are arranged before we commit ourselves to them.”

The suite was satisfactory and soon the girls had gone to their apartments, their suit cases having been brought up by the bell boys. Walter and Norton, after putting their names down on the register, took the three cars to the garage around the corner, leaving them there for the night.

“Unless we want to take a little spin this evening,” suggested Norton, as they were on their way back to the hotel.

“I guess the girls will be too tired,” returned Walter. “We might take in a show, however. That would be restful.”

“Not any moving pictures!” exclaimed Norton, hastily. “I’m dead sick of them.”

“So am I. There are a couple of good theatres in town, I think. However, we’ll leave it to the girls.”

“Did you see anything of Jack?” asked Cora, anxiously, as the two young men came in. There was a worried look in her eyes.

“No, he hasn’t come yet,” answered Walter. “But it’s early yet. Dinner won’t be served for an hour, the clerk told me. Say, you girls look all right!” and there was genuine admiration in his eyes.

“Why shouldn’t we?” asked Eline. She had put on a fawn-colored dress that set off her complexion wonderfully well. Cora had put on her new brown, while Belle in blue and Bess in mauve added to the charm. The girls had freshened their complexion with cold cream and a thorough rinsing, and all traces of the rather dusty trip had been removed.

“It’s up to us for our glad rags,” said Norton. “Come on, Walter. There’s no use letting them carry off all the honors,” and he started for the elevator.

“I wish you’d give just a look, and see if Jack isn’t coming,” went on Cora. “I’m really a little worried. He may have had an accident.”

“Now don’t you go to worrying,” counseled Walter, in his best brotherly manner. “Jack and Ed can take care of themselves, all right.”

“No, don’t worry,” went on Mrs. Fordam. “It will spoil your pleasure, Cora.”

“But I just can’t help it. Come on, girls, we’ll get our wraps and go outside. I simply can’t sit still.”

“No, we had plenty of sitting all day,” admitted Bess. “I believe it would be nice to walk up and down out in front for a change. It’s rather stuffy in here,” and she glanced about a typical hotel parlor.

“All right, go ahead and we’ll be with you in a little while,” directed Walter, he and Norton going to their rooms while the girls and Mrs. Fordam went outside.

All the injunctions of her companions not to worry did not drive anxiety from Cora. Time and again she glanced down the road her brother must come, but the Get There was not living up to its name.

Dusk came, but no Jack. The promise of good appetites for the dinner was not carried out, for Cora’s worry affected all of them more or less. And it began to look as if something really had happened.

“I simply must do something!” Cora exclaimed after dinner. “I’m going to see if I can’t telephone to some one along the road, and ask if there has been an accident.”

They tried to persuade her not to, but she insisted and started toward the booth.

CHAPTER VIII

THE GIRL

Jack and Ed, standing near the machine, under the sign post, peered at the advancing figure of the girl. She had stopped short–stopped rather timidly, it seemed, and she now stood there silent, apparently waiting for the boys to say something.

“It’s a girl, sure enough,” said Ed, in a low voice. “Out alone, too.”

Jack, who never hesitated long at doing anything, resolved to at once plunge into the midst of this new problem.

“Excuse me,” he said, taking off his cap, and he knew she could see him, for they were all in the glare of the auto’s lamps now, “excuse me, but can you tell us if there is any shorter way to get to Fairport than by going back? We are lost, it seems.”

“So–so am I!” faltered the girl.

“What?” exclaimed Ed.

“That is–well, I’m not exactly lost,” and Jack could see her smile faintly. Yet behind the smile there seemed to be sorrow, and it was evident, even in the difficult light of the gas lamps, that she had been crying.

“You’re lost–but not exactly lost,” remarked Ed, with a laugh. “That’s–er–rather odd; isn’t it?” He was anxious to put the girl at her ease. Clearly a strange young girl–and pretty, too, as the boys could see–would need to be put at her ease when alone, after dark, on a country road.

“I–I guess it is,” she admitted, and Jack made a mental note that he liked her voice. Quite discriminating in regard to voices Jack was getting–at least in his own estimation.

“Then you can’t help us much, I’m afraid,” went on Ed. “If you’re a stranger around here – ”

“Oh, yes, I’m a stranger–quite a stranger. I don’t know a soul!”

She said it so quickly–bringing out the words so promptly after Ed’s suggestion, that it almost seemed as though she had caught at a straw thrown in her way by a chance wind. Why did she want to make it appear that she was a stranger? And that she did want to give that impression–rightly or wrongly–was very evident to both young men.

“Then we are both–I mean all three–lost,” spoke Jack, good-naturedly. “I guess there’s no help for it, Ed. We’ll have to go back the way we came until we strike the road to Fairport.”

“I suppose so. But it will bring us in pretty late.”

“No help for it. What is to be–has to be. Cora will worry–she has that habit lately.”

“Naturally. Well, maybe we can get to a telephone somewhere, and let them know.”

“You could do that!” exclaimed the girl, impulsively. “I know what it is to worry. I saw a telephone not more than a mile back. I mean,” she explained with a smile, “I saw a place where there was a telephone pay station sign. It was in a little country store, where I stopped to–to – ”

She hesitated and her voice faltered.

“Look here!” exclaimed Jack. “Perhaps we can help you! Are you going anywhere that we can give you a lift? We’re bound to be late anyhow, and a little more time won’t matter. You see my sister and some friends–other girls and boys–are out on a trip. We are going to Sandy Point Cove, and are taking it easy on the way. My machine developed tire trouble a while ago–quite a while it is now,” he said ruefully, “and the others went on. I thought I could get up to them, but I took the wrong road and–well, here we are. Now if we can give you a ride, why, we’ll be glad to. Ed can sit on the run-board, and you – ”

“Oh, I couldn’t trouble you!” the girl exclaimed. “I–I am going – ”

She stopped rather abruptly and Jack and Ed each confessed to the other, later, that they were mortally afraid she was going to cry.

“And if she had,” said Jack, “I’d have been up in the air for fair!”

“Same here!” admitted Ed.

But she did not cry. She conquered the inclination, and went on.

“I mean that I don’t know exactly where I am going,” the girl said. “It isn’t important, anyhow. It doesn’t much matter where I stop.” There was a pathetic, hopeless note in her voice now.

Again Jack took a sudden resolve.

“Look here!” he exclaimed, “I’ve got a sister, and Ed here, and I, have a lot of girl friends. We wouldn’t want them to be out alone at night on a country road. So if you’ll excuse us, I think it would be better if we could take you to some of your friends. We won’t mind in the least, going out of our way to do it, either.”

“Of course not!” put in Ed.

“But I–I – ” she seemed struggling with some emotion. “I love to be in the country!” she said suddenly–as though she had made up her mind to rush through some explanation of her plight “I take long walks often. I think I walked too far to-day. I–I expected to reach Hayden before dark, but I stayed too long in a pretty little wood. I–am going to stop at the Young Women’s Christian Association in Hayden. But that’s only a mile further, and I can be there before it’s very much darker.”

“If it can get any darker than this, I’d like to see it,” remarked Ed, staring at the blackness which surrounded them.

“If it’s only a mile or so farther then we’re going to take you there!” exclaimed Jack. “We’re bound to be late anyhow, and we might as well be killed for a sheep as a lamb. Ed, it’s you for the run-board.”

“With pleasure,” and he bowed to the girl.

She laughed–just the least bit.

“Oh, but I couldn’t think of troubling you!” the girl exclaimed. “Really, I–I – ” She did not know what to say. Jack saw her clasp her hands convulsively. He had a good look at her face. Really she was quite pretty, he decided, an opinion in which Ed coincided.

“Look here!” cried Jack, purposely rough. He had found that tone advisable to take with Cora sometimes. “Look here, we are going on to Hayden anyhow, so you might as well ride with us as walk. I know my sister, Cora Kimball–perhaps you know her – ?”

“I don’t believe I do,” she answered.

“Well, no matter–anyhow, she’d never forgive me–nor Ed either, if we left you like this. And I know Ed would fuss more about Cora not forgiving him than I would. So you’ve just got to ride,” and he smiled frankly.

“But I thought you said you were going to Fairport,” spoke the girl.

“We are,” answered Jack. “But I’m not going to chase back all those fifteen miles we came by mistake. It would take too long, especially after dark. So if we can’t take a short cut over from Hayden, we’ll stay there all night, and go on in the morning. I can telephone my sister. I suppose there are ’phones in Hayden.”

“Oh, yes, it–it’s quite a town–a small city, I believe,” said the girl. “I inquired about it at the last stop I made, and they told me of the association where I could stay.”

“Then come on!” invited Jack. “I’ll crank up, and you can ride with us.”

“You’re sure it won’t be any trouble?”

“Not a bit–it will be a pleasure to have you. But perhaps we ought to look for a nearer telephone, and send word to your friends,” Jack suggested.

“No–no,” she spoke rapidly. “I haven’t any–I mean they won’t worry about me. I am used to looking after myself.”

Truly she seemed so, and now she appeared even more self-reliant as she stood there in the glare of the lamps of the auto. Her face had lost some of the traces of hopeless despair, and she had somehow managed to get rid of the evidences of the tears. The boys wondered how she did it, for it was rather like a magician’s trick, “done in full view of the audience.” Jack and Ed paid a mental tribute to her accomplishment in using a handkerchief.

“Are you sure you are comfortable there?” the girl asked Ed, as he crouched partly on the floor of the car, with his feet on the run-board.

“Quite,” he affirmed, not altogether truthfully, but at least gallantly.

“It seems so selfish of me, that really – ”

“Say, Ed’s all right!” cried Jack, gaily. “He’d rather ride on the run-board than anywhere else; wouldn’t you, old man?”

“Sure!”

“In fact, he often sits there when there’s a vacant seat. It’s a hobby of his. I’ve tried to break him of it, but he is hopeless!”

“Now I know you’re poking fun at me!” she exclaimed, and she laughed lightly. “I’ve almost a notion – ”

She made a motion as though to alight.

“Don’t you dare!” cried Jack. “Here we go!” He let in the gear, and the clutch came into place. The car moved forward slowly, and gathered speed.

“We’ll be there in no time,” Jack went on. “It’s rather unpleasant for you, isn’t it, going about by yourself?” he asked the girl.

“Oh, I’m used to it. I have been working in an office, but I–I decided on a vacation. I took it rather suddenly, and I haven’t made any plans since. I decided to go off–and, yes, lose myself for a time. That’s why I’m in a part of the country I have never visited before.”

“I see,” remarked Jack. “It is sometimes good to do things on an impulse. I know how tiresome the dull routine and grind must be.”

“He never worked a day in his life!” exclaimed Ed.

“No knocking, old man!” laughed Jack. “I think I’d like to be in an office myself,” he added. Mentally he decided that one where this girl was employed might not be a half-bad place.

“Yes, he’d want an office where the hours were from ten to twelve, with an hour for lunch,” grunted Ed, as the car went over a bump, jolting him.

“I really liked the work,” said the girl. “Of course there were some unpleasant features–in fact, that is why I left so suddenly. Now I am–free!”

She took a long breath of the night air rushing against her cheeks, as though the idea of being free was most delightful.

They talked of various subjects as the car shot along in the darkness. Both Jack and Ed were quite curious to learn more about this stray girl, but they had the good sense not to ask leading questions. Nor did she volunteer much information.

Finally the lights of Hayden glimmered into view, and soon the car had stopped in front of the Y. W. C. A., which Jack had located through a policeman.

“Now I shall be all right,” the girl exclaimed as Jack helped her out. “Thank you a thousand times. I really–I don’t know what I should have done had I not met you. I–I was just beginning to–get afraid.”

“Are you sure you will be all right now?” asked Ed.

“Can’t we do anything more for you?” Jack wanted to know. “I’m Jack Kimball, of Chelton, and this is Ed Foster. We are pretty well known in these parts, though we’ve never been in Hayden before. We auto around a good bit. If we can do anything – ”

“Oh, no, thank you ever so much. I shall be all right.” She gave Jack her hand, in a warm clasp, and then turned to Ed. “Thank you–so much!” She smiled, showing her white, even teeth, and ran up the steps of the building–a place where a lone girl could always find a safe shelter. She turned on the top step, waved a good-bye to them, and disappeared behind the doors.

CHAPTER IX

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

“What do you know about that?”

“It’s rather queer–all the way along.”

Jack asked and Ed answered. They stood by the machine and looked up at the building into which the girl had gone.

“Well, I guess there’s nothing for us to do but to see if there isn’t some way to get to Fairport from here,” remarked Jack, after a pause.

“That’s it–and telephone. There’s a drug-store across the street. It has a ’phone sign.”

“Come on, then.”

Presently they had been connected with the Mansion House, and Cora was at the other end of the wire.

“Oh, Jack, what happened?”

“We got lost–on the wrong road–that’s all.”

“Oh, Jack, I’ve been so worried!”

“Pshaw! What was the use? Didn’t I ever get lost before?”

“Yes, I know – ”

“You’re too fussy, Sis. How’s everybody?”

“All right–but – ”

“But them as is wrong; eh? Well, we’ll soon be with you. We had quite an adventure.”

“You did? Were you hurt?”

“No, can’t a fellow have an adventure without getting hurt? We met a pretty girl, and gave her a ride–that’s all.”

“Jack! You never did!”

“Oh, yes, we did. Ed’s here, and he’ll tell you all about it. It was a great time.”

“Jack Kimball, I believe you’re just teasing me! You’re not in Hayden at all!”

“Where am I, then?” he challenged.

“Right in town, and just as like as not you’re calling up from across the street here.”

“Well, I’m not then. You ask central. We really were lost on the road, and had quite a time. I don’t know now whether we can be with you to-night or not.”

“Oh, Jack, you must!”

“But if we can’t–we can’t. If we can find a short cut we’ll take it. Otherwise we’ll stay here all night and come on early in the morning.”

“Well, that will have to do then,” said Cora, with a sigh. “Oh, but we have been so worried. Who was that girl, Jack?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“No.”

“Does Ed?”

“Not guilty.”

“The idea! And you gave her a ride?”

“Why not? We met her on the road–she was all alone–it was dark. What else could we do?”

“That’s so, I suppose. Where is she now?”

“In the Y. W. C. A.”

“Oh, that’s all right then. Listen, you will try to come on to-night; won’t you?”

“Sure, Sis.”

“I’m so tired, and it’s more of a responsibility than I thought it would be.”

“Well, don’t worry, Sis. We’re going to get something to eat, and then we’ll see what we can do.”

“Eat! You don’t mean to say, Jack Kimball, that you’re going to stop to eat?”

“Well, I guess we are. Haven’t had a bite since noon.”

“Why can’t you get dinner after you get here?”

“It might be more like breakfast than dinner if we waited,” and Jack laughed. “No, we’re going to eat here and then we’ll see what we can do. Don’t worry any more. The Get There will go somewhere, anyhow. Now take it easy.”

“All right. I will, only do try to come.”

“Want to talk to Ed?”

“What for?”

“Oh, only to say ‘how de do,’” and again Jack laughed.

“Certainly I’ll speak to him.”

Ed on the wire.

“Hello, Cora. It’s all right. I listened to what Jack said.”

“And it’s all–I mean did you really help a girl?”

“Sure.”

“Who was she?”

“That’s telling. I’ve got her name, only Jack doesn’t know.”

“Don’t you believe him,” interjected Jack sideways into the transmitter.

“Try and make him come on to-night!” said Cora. “Your rooms are all engaged.”

“I will. Are the girls all right?”

“Yes.”

“And your cousin?”

“Surely.”

“Walter making himself useful as he always does, I suppose?”

“Of course. Don’t be silly.”

“I’m not. I’m only trying to think of something else to say.”

“You needn’t try then!” and Cora’s voice had a tint of snap in it.

“Don’t get mad,” Ed advised her. “Give my love to the girls, and tell ’em we’ll be with ’em soon. Do you want to talk to Jack again?”

“No, only tell him to please come to-night. I want to talk to him.”

“About that girl, I expect.”

“I don’t believe a word about her.”

“Ha! I’ll show you a lock of her hair.”

“Then I’d surely know you were fooling. Say, listen, you will make Jack come; won’t you, Ed?”

“Surest thing you know. Shall I say good-bye?”

“If you can’t think of anything else to say.”