CHAPTER IX
A DISMAYING DISCOVERY
"'The Later Pilgrims' are well out of that trouble," announced Helen, whenthe cars were underway, the honeymoon car ahead and the other members ofthe party packed into the bigger automobile.
"And I hope," she added, "that Ruth will find no more waifs and strays."
"Don't be knocking Ruthie all the time," said Tom, glancing back over hisshoulder. "She's all right."
"And you keep your eyes straight ahead, young man," advised Aunt Kate, "oryou will have this heavy car in the ditch."
"Watch out for Henri and Heavy, too," advised Helen. "They do not quiteknow what they are about and you may run them down. There! See hishorizon-blue sleeve steal about her? He's got only one hand left to steerwith. Talk about a perfect thirty-six! It's lucky Henri's arm isphenomenally long, or he could never surround _that_ baby!"
"I declare, Helen," laughed Ruth. "I believe you are covetous."
"Well, Henri is an awfully nice fellow--for a Frenchman."
"And you are the damsel who declared you proposed to remain an old maidforever and ever and the year after."
"I can be an old maid and still like the boys, can't I? All the more, infact. I sha'n't have to be true to just one man, which, I believe, wouldbe tedious."
"You should live in that part of New York called Greenwich Village andwear a Russian blouse and your hair bobbed. Those are the kind of bon motsthose people throw off in conversation. Light and airy persiflage, it iscalled," said Tom from the front seat.
"What do you know about such people, Tommy?" demanded his sister.
"There were some co-eds of that breed I met at Cambridge. They wereexponents of the 'new freedom,' whatever that is. Bolshevism, I guess.Freedom from both law and morals."
"Those are not the kind of girls who are helping in France," said Ruthsoberly.
"You said it!" agreed Tom. "That sort are so busy riding hobbies over herethat they have no interest in what is going on in Europe unless it may bein Russia. Well, thank heaven, there are comparatively few nuts comparedwith us sane folks."
Such thoughts as these, however, did not occupy their minds for long. Justas Tom had declared, they were out for fun, and the fun could be foundalmost anywhere by these blithe young folk.
Ruth's face actually changed as they journeyed on. She was both "pink andpretty," Helen declared, before they camped at the wayside for luncheon.
The hampers on the big car were crammed with all the necessities of foodand service for several meals. There were, too, twin alcohol lamps, acoffee boiler and a teapot.
Altogether they were making a very satisfactory meal and were having ajolly time at the edge of a piece of wood when a big, black wood-antdropped down Jennie Stone's back.
At first they did not know what the matter was with her. Her mouth wasfull, the food in that state of mastication that she could not immediatelyswallow it.
"Ow! Ow! Ow!" choked the plump girl, trying to get both hands at once downthe neck of her shirt-waist.
"What _is_ the matter, Heavy?" gasped Helen.
"Jennie, dear!" murmured Ruth. "Don't!"
"_Ma chere!_" gasped Henri Marchand. "Is she ill?"
"Jennie, behave yourself!" cried her aunt.
"I saw a toad swallow a hornet once," Tom declared. "She acts just thesame way."
"As the hornet?" demanded his sister, beginning to giggle.
"As the toad," answered Tom, gravely.
But Henri had got to his feet and now reached the wriggling girl. "Let metry to help!" he cried.
"If you even begin wiggling that way, Colonel Marchand," declared Helen,"you will be in danger of arrest. There is a law against _that_ dance."
"Ow! Ow! Ow!" burst out Jennie once more, actually in danger of choking.
"What _is_ it?" Ruth demanded, likewise reaching the writhing girl.
"Oh, he bit me!" finally exploded Jennie.
Ruth guessed what must be the trouble then, and she forced Jennie's handsout of the neck of her waist and ran her hand down the plump girl's back.Between them they killed the ant, for Ruth finally recovered a part of theunfortunate creature.
"But just think," consoled Helen, "how much more awful it would have beenif you had swallowed him, Heavy, instead of his wriggling down your spinalcolumn."
"Oh, don't! I can feel him wriggling now," sighed Jennie.
"That can be nothing more than his ghost," said Tom soberly, "for Ruthretrieved at least half of the ant's bodily presence."
"You'll give us all the fidgets if you keep on wriggling, Jennie,"declared Aunt Kate.
"Well, I don't want to sit on the grass in a woodsy place again while weare on this journey," sighed Jennie. "Ugh! I always did hate creepythings."
"Including spiders, snakes, beetles and babies, I suppose?" laughed Helen."Come on now. Let us clear up the wreck. Where do we camp to-night,Tommy?"
"No more camping, I pray!" squealed Jennie. "I am no Gypsy."
"The hotel at Hampton is recommended as the real thing. They have a horseshow every year at Hampton, you know. It is in the midst of a summercolony of wealthy people. It is the real thing," Tom repeated.
They made a pleasant and long run that afternoon and arrived at theHampton hotel in good season to dress for dinner. Jennie and her aunt metsome people they knew, and naturally Jennie's fiance and her friends werewarmly welcomed by the gay little colony.
Men at the pleasure resorts were very scarce that year, and here were twoperfectly good dancers. So it was very late when the automobile party gotaway from the dance at the Casino.
They were late the next morning in starting on the road to Boston.Besides, there was thunder early, and Helen, having heard it rumbling,quoted:
"'Thunder in the morning, Sailors take warning!'"
and rolled over for another nap.
Ruth, however, at last had to get up. She was no "lie-abed" in any case,and in her present nervous state she had to be up and doing.
"But it's going to ra-a-ain!" whined Jennie Stone when Ruth went into herroom.
"You're neither sugar nor salt," said Ruth.
"Henri says I'm as sweet as sugar," yawned Jennie.
"He is not responsible for what he says about you," said her aunt briskly."When I think of what that really nice young man is taking on hisshoulders when he marries you----"
"But, Auntie!" cried Jennie, "he's not going to try to carry me pickaback,you know."
"Just the same, it is wrong for us to encourage him to become responsiblefor you, Jennie," said her aunt. "He really should be warned."
"Oh!" gasped the plump girl. "Let anybody dare try to get between me andmy Henri----"
"Nobody can--no fear--when you are sitting with him in the front seat ofthat roadster of Tom's," said Ruth. "You fill every atom of space, Heavy."
She went to the window and looked out again. Heavy rolled out of bed--agood deal like a barrel, her aunt said tartly.
"What is it doing outside?" yawned the plump girl.
"Well, it's not raining. And it is a long run to Boston. We should be onour way now. The road through the hills is winding. There will be no timeto stop for a Gypsy picnic."
"Thank goodness for that!" grumbled Jennie, sitting on the floor,schoolgirl fashion, to draw on her stockings. "I'll eat enough atbreakfast hereafter to keep me alive until we reach a hotel, if you folksinsist on inviting wood ants and other savage creatures of the forest toour luncheon table."
When the party finally gathered for breakfast in the hotel dining room onthis morning, it was disgracefully late. Tom had been over both cars andpronounced them fit. He had ordered the tanks filled with gasoline and hadtipped one of the garage men liberally to see that this was properly done.
Afterward Captain Tom declared he would never trust a garage workmanagain.
"The only way to get a thing done well is to do it yourself--and a tipnever bought any special service yet," declared the angry Tom. "It ismerely a form of highway robbery."<
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But this was afterward. The party started off from Hampton in high fettleand with a childlike trust in the honesty of a garage attendant.
There were banks of clouds shrouding the horizon both to the west andnorth--the two directions from which thunder showers usually rise in thispart of New England in which they were traveling. And yet the shower heldoff.
It was some time past noon before the thunder began to mutter again. Theautomobile party was then in the hilly country. Heretofore farms had beenplentiful, although hamlets were few and far between.
"If it rains," said Ruth cheerfully, "of course we can take refuge in somefarmhouse."
"Ho, for adventure among the savage natives!" cried Helen.
"I hope we shall meet nobody quite as savage as Miss Susan Timmins," wasAunt Kate's comment.
They ran into a deep cut between two wooded hills and there was not ahouse in sight. Indeed, they had not passed a farmstead on the road forthe last five miles. Over the top of the wooded crest to the north curleda slate colored storm cloud, its upper edge trembling with lividlightnings. The veriest tyro of a weather prophet could see that a stormwas about to break. But nobody had foretold the sudden stopping of thehoneymoon car in the lead!
"What is the matter with you?" cried Helen, standing up in the tonneau ofthe big car, when Tom pulled up suddenly to keep from running the maroonroadster down. "Don't you see it is going to rain? We want to getsomewhere."
"I guess we have got somewhere," responded Jennie Stone. "As far as we areconcerned, this seems to be our stopping place. The old car won't go."
Tom jumped out and hurried forward to join Henri in an examination of thecar's mechanism.
"What happened, Colonel?" he asked the Frenchman, worriedly.
"I have no idea, _mon ami_," responded Marchand. "This is a puzzle, eh?"
"First of all, let's put up the tops. That rain is already beating thewoods on the summit of the hill."
The two young men hurried to do this, first sheltering Jennie and thentogether dragging the heavy top over the big car, covering the baggage andpassengers. Helen and Ruth could fasten the curtains, and soon the womenof the party were snug enough. The drivers, however, had to get into raingarments and begin the work of hunting the trouble with the roadster.
The thunder grew louder and louder. Flashes of lightning streaked acrossthe sky overhead. The electric explosions were soon so frequent andfurious that the girls cowered together in real terror. Jennie had slippedout of the small car and crowded in with her chums and Aunt Kate.
"I don't care!" she wailed, "Henri and Tom are bound to take that car allto pieces to find what has happened."
But they did not have to go as far as that. In fact, before the rainreally began to fall in earnest, Tom made the tragic discovery. There wasscarcely a drop of gasoline in the tank of the small machine. Tom hurriedback to the big car. He glanced at the dial of the gasoline tank. Therewas not enough of the fluid to take them a mile! And the emergency tankwas turned on!
It was at this point that he stated his opinion of the trustworthiness ofgarage workmen.
Ruth Fielding Down East; Or, The Hermit of Beach Plum Point Page 9