The Motor Girls on the Coast: or, The Waif From the Sea
TextCHAPTER V
A FLOCK OF SHEEP
“What a delightful road!”
“Isn’t it splendid!”
“Too perfect!”
It was Cora who made the first remark, Eline who answered and the Robinson twins who chorused the third. The highway was so wide, and there was so little traffic thus early in the morning, that the two cars could run side by side. On high gear with the gas throttled down they made scarcely any noise, so that conversation was possible.
“I don’t know what I have done to enjoy such pleasure,” said Mrs. Fordam.
“Are you really enjoying it, Cousin Mary?” inquired Cora.
“Indeed I am, my dear! I wouldn’t have missed it for a good deal. I never knew before how delightful it was to be chaperone to such nice girls.”
“I’m sorry I can’t stop steering long enough to pass you a chocolate candy!” exclaimed Bess. “Belle, you will have to do it for me. Such compliments!”
“No, I really mean it,” declared Mrs. Fordam, earnestly.
“Wait until the boys begin to cut up,” warned Cora.
“Oh, I know Jack of old,” returned the chaperone. “He can’t do anything very bad.”
“They seem to be hatching up some sort of a plot back there,” remarked Eline, as she looked to the rear where Jack’s gaudy red and yellow car was careening alongside the Beetle– that owned by Norton. It had been so christened because of its low, rakish appearance, and the fact that it was painted a dead black. It was not a pretty car, but it had speed, as Norton often boasted.
“Oh, I’ve no doubt they will do something,” conceded Belle. “But we can do things too!”
They ran on for some distance, this stretch of the road being particularly fine. They were under a perfect arch of maple trees, which, being planted on either side of the road, mingled their branches over the centre, affording a delightful shade. It was needed, too, in a measure, for the sun, creeping higher and higher in the blue sky, was sending down beams of heat, as well as light. There was gentle wind, which was accentuated by the motion of the machines.
“Is it hard to learn to drive a car?” asked Eline, as Bess and Belle combined in telling Mrs. Fordam something of the excitement of the previous night, she not having arrived until it was over.
“It is, my dear, at first,” Cora explained. “Then it all seems to come to you at once. Why you’d never believe it, but first I used to imagine I was going to hit everything on the road. I gave objects such a wide berth that everyone laughed at me. But I did not want to take chances. Now watch!”
She speeded up a little, and turning to one side seemed to be headed straight for a tree.
“Oh!” screamed Eline, and Bess and Belle echoed the cry.
“There!” cried Cora, as she skillfully passed it, far enough off for safety, as even the most careful motorist would admit, but near enough to make an amateur nervous. “You see what it is to have confidence,” she added to Eline.
“Yes,” was the somewhat doubtful comment.
“Cora, dear, I wouldn’t take those risks if I were you,” rebuked her Cousin Mary, gently.
“Oh, it wasn’t a risk at all! I had perfect control. I just wanted to show Eline what practice will do. I am going to teach her to drive.”
“I’ll never learn!” was the nervous protest.
The road narrowed about a mile farther on, but before the cars lengthened out into single file again, Belle asked:
“Where are we to lunch, Cora?”
“I planned on stopping at Mooreville. There is a nice, home-like restaurant there. We’ll be in Churchton soon, and we can stop there and ’phone in to have a meal ready for a party of nine.”
“That would be a good idea.”
Churchton was soon reached, and Jack found he had a puncture. While he stopped to put a new inner tube into service Cora got the restaurant on the wire and made arrangements.
“Now will you please be good?” Jack begged of his car, when the tire had been pumped up again. “This is a bad beginning for you, old Get There.”
“If it makes good you can tack on another title when we’re in Chelton again,” suggested Ed.
“What?”
“Call it Get There and Back.”
“I believe I will!” laughed Jack. “Sorry to delay you,” he said to the others, for they waited for him after Cora had finished telephoning.
“It’s all right,” spoke Walter, good-naturedly. “We have plenty of time.”
Once more they were under way. The road was now not so good, and in places positively bad. But they knew they would soon be on better ground, and on a fine highway leading into Mooreville.
Later they were on a narrow thoroughfare, so narrow, and with such deep ditches on either side, that it would take no small skill to pass another vehicle in certain places. Then, as Cora made a turn, the road ahead being hidden by a thick growth of trees, she saw straggling along the highway a big flock of sheep, tended by a man and two beautiful collie dogs. The fleecy animals straggled and spread out over the whole road.
“Oh dear!” Cora cried, as she slowed down. “Isn’t this provoking! We can’t get past them.”
“Why not?” asked Eline.
“Because they are so–so straggly. They take up the whole road, and if I tried to pass I’d be sure to run over one of them. Oh! what a shame!
“We’ve got to take it slowly!” she called back to the twins, who were just behind her. “I can’t take a chance of threading my way through all these animals.”
“This is tough luck!” complained Jack, as he saw what the trouble was.
The herder looked up stolidly, puffing on a short pipe, and called to one of the dogs, who leaped off to drive back into the flock a sheep that showed a propensity to lag behind.
“Can’t you try to pass them?” asked Eline. “I’m sure you could do it.”
“I’d rather not,” answered Cora.
“Don’t you dare!” cautioned Bess, who heard what was said.
“But we’ll be late for lunch–and it has been ordered,” wailed Belle. “And I’m so hungry!”
Cora resolved on an appeal.
“Do you think you could drive your sheep to one side, and keep them there until we passed?” she asked the man. “It will take us only a minute to shoot by.”
“It would be a risky undertaking miss,” the herder answered respectfully enough. “Sheep is queer critters. You think you’ve got ’em just where you want ’em, when, all to once they break out, and if one goes the others follow.”
“Yes, I know!” Cora was genuinely distressed. “But we simply must get past!” she exclaimed. “Can’t you think of a way?” She looked ahead at the sheep. There were a hundred or more–quite a flock. The herder took off his cap and scratched his head reflectively–looking the while meditatively at his pipe.
“It might be done–it might,” he murmured.
Cora brought her car to a stop.
“Oh!” cried Bess and Belle together, and Bess, who was driving, jammed on the foot and emergency brake quicker than she ever had in her life before. As it was her fender struck the rear tires of Cora’s car.
“Oh dear!” wailed Eline, clutching at Cora, while Belle, recovering from her momentary fright, had the presence of mind to raise her arm in the air as a signal for the boys to come to a halt.
“Cora Kimball!” cried Bess. “What did you stop so suddenly for, and not signal us? We might have broken your car!”
“I’m sorry. But I just thought of something, so didn’t think of signalling. Any damage done?”
“No, but there might have been.”
“All right then. Will you please come here?” she called to the man. “I want to speak to you–that is, if the sheep will be all right.”
“Yes, miss, the dogs will look after ’em,” and, calling a command to the intelligent collies, he advanced toward Cora’s car.
CHAPTER VI
JACK IS LOST
“How many sheep have you?” asked Cora.
“Well, there’s just a hundred and ten, miss. I had a hundred and ’leven, but one died on me,” the man explained.
“What is this–a class in arithmetic?” inquired Jack, who had left his car and come up to where his sister sat in hers.
“Now, Jack–please – ” she said.
“And how much farther does this road go before – ”
“The road doesn’t go–it stays right here!” chuckled her brother.
“Stop it!” she commanded in such a tone that he knew she meant it.
“How far before there is a cross-road into which you could turn your sheep?” went on Cora, fixing the man with what Jack said afterward was “a cold and fishy glance.”
“A matter of four mile, miss.”
“I thought so. Then we’d have to tag along behind you all that distance, losing time, and – ”
“To say nothing of swallowing all that dust!” exclaimed Belle, pointing to a cloud of it that hung over the flock of sheep, which the dogs were skillfully herding. “Oh, it’s awful!”
“That’s why I’ve thought of a way out,” spoke Cora.
“Then out with it, Sis!” exclaimed the irrepressible Jack. Once more his sister turned her attention to him–this time it was only a look, but it sufficed.
“Do you see that field over there?” asked Cora of the sheep man, pointing to one rich and luxuriant in deep, green grass.
“Yes, miss, I see it,” and he pointed with the stem of his pipe to be sure he made no mistake.
“Yes. Well, now, could you take your sheep in there, and keep them–er–quiet–until we passed in our autos. You see it is impossible for us to get by on the road, for even if you did get the animals to one side one might leap out, under the wheels of a car and there would be an accident.”
“I see, miss. The sheep might be killed.”
“Yes, and we’d be wrecked,” growled Jack. “What’s the game, Sis? If we stay here much longer that dinner will be eaten by some one else.”
“Be quiet Jack–please! Now could you not drive your sheep into the field?” she asked. “Then we could get past. Of course we might turn around and go back to some other road, but it would delay us. Could you?”
Certainly no mere man could withstand the appealing glance thrown at this humble sheep herder. He capitulated.
“I guess I could do it, miss. But what if the man who owns this field was to see me? You see I’m a stranger in these parts–I’m only hired to drive these sheep to the man that bought them.”
“I see. Well, if we gave you a dollar or so, you could give it to the man who owns that pasture in case he made objection. It would be worth two dollars to get past.”
“More,” Jack framed with his lips, but he did not speak aloud, being a careful and frugal youth.
“The sheep could not eat much grass in the short time you drove them into the field, kept them there until we got past, and then let ’em out again; could they?” she asked, with a winning smile.
“No, miss, I guess I can do it. Sheep is queer. They is easily frightened, and maybe it would be the best way. Why, only last night, when I had turned ’em into a pasture they near ran off on me.”
“Why?” asked Jack, rather idly.
“Well, you see it was this way. I had ’em all settled for the night, a matter of several miles back, when a woman came running along the road. She was takin’ on somethin’ bad, cryin’ like, and mutterin’ ‘Kin I ever find her? Kin I ever find her?’ You see – ”
“Was that what she said?” cried Cora excitedly.
“She did, miss!”
“What sort of a woman was she?” With her eyes Cora signalled to Jack to remain quiet. She knew the girls would.
“Well, I couldn’t rightly say, miss, as it was so dark right after the storm. But before I knew what she was doin’ she had come into the pasture that I hired for the sheep over night, and run toward a hay stack. She stumbled over a lamb, fell down, the dogs barked, and it took all I could do to quiet them sheep.”
“What became of the woman?” asked Cora, making a motion with her lips to signify that she thought her the same mysterious one who had been in her barn.
“Well, she was real sorry for having made me so much trouble, and it was trouble. She said she didn’t see the sheep in the field, and she was as scar’t as they was, I reckon. I asked her what she was doin’ out and she said looking for a girl.”
“A girl?” asked Jack, sharply.
“Yes. I ast her if it was her girl–thinkin’ she might be a farmer’s wife from around there, but she didn’t say any more. Only she kept sort of moanin’ like, an’ sayin’ as how her life was spoilt, an’ how if she could only find a girl–well, I couldn’t make much head or tail of it, an’ anyhow I was worried about the sheep, for one got torn on a barbed wire fence. But I was sorry for the woman. I ast her if she intended to spend the night out-doors, and she said yes.
“I couldn’t hardly stand for that–for by her voice I could tell she wasn’t a common kind. So I ast her if she had any money. I was goin’ to give her some myself, so she could get a night’s lodging anyhow. She put her hand in her pocket–sort of absent-minded like, and then she got a surprise, I guess, for she pulled out a silver purse, that she didn’t seem to expect to find there. I could see it plain for I was lightin’ my pipe just then to quiet my nerves.”
“A silver purse?” cried Cora.
“Ahem!” coughed Belle, meaningly, and Cora, looking at her, understood there was something to be told–later.
“Yes, a silver purse,” went on the man. “She didn’t appear to know she had it, and when she opened it and saw some bills and silver, she was more struck than ever. She said something about not knowing it was there, and then she cried out: ‘Oh, it must have been them dear girls! God bless ’em!’ That’s the words she used, miss. I remember ’em well.”
The others had left their cars now, and come up to hear the recital. The boys looked meaningly at one another, and the girls exchanged glances.
“What happened next?” asked Cora.
“Why, nothin’ much, miss. You see the woman had money though she didn’t know it, which I took to be queer. But it wa’n’t none of my affair. She gave me good-night and went back to the road, walkin’ off in the direction of the town. I guess she got lodging all right–she could go to a hotel with that money. It was more than I carry. But the sheep was all right by then, quieted down, so I left ’em to my dogs and crawled under the hay. I slept good, too.
“But now, miss, I want to oblige you an’ your friends, so I’ll just drive my animals into that field. I don’t believe the owner will care.”
“Well, take this in case he does,” said Cora, passing over a two-dollar bill. “Get ready now, people!” she cried gaily. “We’re going to move!”
With the aid of the beautiful collies, who seemed to be able to do everything but talk, the herder drove his sheep through the lowered bars of the pasture.
Then, with the bars up again, so they could not come out, the man waved for the auto to proceed, swinging his cap at the boys and girls in token of good will. Cora’s Whirlwind speeded up, followed by the others, and soon they were on the broad, level highway that led to Mooreville.
“Cora, I simply must speak or I’ll – ” began Bess.
“Don’t burst!” cautioned Jack, running his car up alongside his sister’s. The road was wide enough for three for a short distance.
“Wasn’t that the same woman who was at your house?” went on Bess.
“I’m sure of it,” assented Cora. “Only I didn’t want to speak of it before him, Poor creature! What a plight to be in! No place to stay!”
“But that silver purse!” cried Bess. “And the money – ” She stopped suddenly and looked at her sister. “Belle Robinson, you never gave that to her!” she cried.
“Yes I did,” admitted Belle. “I slipped it into the pocket of her cloak. I could see she needed it.”
“‘Bread upon the waters,’” quoted Cora. “I was wondering where she got it when the man mentioned it. To think of hearing about her again. Girls, I’m sure she must be, in some way, tragically mixed up in our lives. We are destined to meet her again, I’m sure.”
“Well, I can’t afford another silver purse,” said Belle, smiling. “It will have to be plain leather next time.”
“We’ll all chip in,” declared Jack.
“Well, we must make time now,” asserted Cora.
They found a rather anxious restaurant keeper looking down the road up which they came, but he became all smiles when he saw the merry party, and soon they were sitting down to a plain, but well-cooked and substantial meal. And they all had appetites, too!
“We will spend the night at the Mansion House, in Fairport,” spoke Cora, consulting a list after dinner. “I will telephone for rooms.”
“Perhaps you had better let me,” suggested Cousin Mary, and she made the arrangements over the wire.
Once more they were under way again, and all went well until Jack shouted that his tire had gone flat and would have to be pumped up.
“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.