The Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car/Chapter 5
CHAPTER V
PAUL AT THE WHEEL
The girls looked back at the old peddler as they swept on. He was standing beside his horse, evidently mending some part of the harness.
"It was rather a dilapidated outfit," remarked Betty. "I don't see how he can cover much ground in a day."
"Probably he doesn't," answered Mollie. "He may sleep in his wagon, eat there—dining on bread and cheese or herring—and so reduce the high cost of living. Then he may make a big profit on his hair restorer. Ugh! The stuff! I could not bear to use it'
"Nor I; and yet he had nice hair."
"Perhaps he'd have that anyhow. He meant it well enough offering us the bottle."
"Yes," agreed Betty. "But it was just as well not to take it. My! what a day of adventures this has been!"
"It has started in almost the way some days did when we were on our tramp," spoke Grace, ifrom the tonneau.
"Or when we were at the lake, trying not to be afraid of the 'ghost'," added Amy. "Do you intend to do any more cruising this fall, Betty?"
"We may. Would you like it?"
"Would we?' cried Grace, "just ask us!"
"Now please wait," broke in Mollie. "I may have a little plan of my own to propose soon."
"What is it?" begged Amy.
"I haven't it all worked out yet. I'll tell you as soon as I have. It may offer us a chance for some fun"
"And adventures?" asked Betty, quickly.
"And adventures," assented Mollie. "But one thing I do want, and that is to have each of you girls run the car. I don't want to be selfish and drive all the while."
"I would like to learn," said Betty, eagerly. "It's good of you to want us to, Mollie."
"No, I have rather a selfish motive back of it. Sometimes I want to sit in the tonneau and not have to worry about running over a dog"
"Look out!" suddenly cried Betty, impulsively grasping Mollie's arm. "That child!"
A little toddler had run from the yard of a house near the road, and was scampering across the highway, his mother in close pursuit.
Quickly Mollie put on both brakes, and threw out the clutch, but there was no need; for the child, with the perverseness of youth, had turned and was running back toward the gate, evidently frightened by the frantic tooting of the horn, the bulb of which Mollie pressed spasmodically.
"Oh my! What a scare!" panted Mollie, as she slipped in low gear, and started up again, without coming to a full stop.
"Well, I don't want to seem mean, but he is getting just what he deserves," said Grace, looking back, "and that is—a spanking. Toddlers must be made to learn the danger of rushing blindly across auto roads."
"I suppose so," agreed Mollie. "I could just see little Paul then," she went on. "If I had hit that child"
She did not finish, but they all knew what she meant.
Deepdale was reached without further incident, and the girls agreed that Mollie had piloted her car wonderfully well for a beginner.
"Of course I've got lots to learn," she said to her chums, "but that will come gradually, the demonstrator said. One learns, after a while, to steer instinctively, and to do everything almost automatically—like slowing down, applying the brakes and so on. Now you girls must come over to-night, and we'll"
"Talk! " interrupted Amy. "We've got lots to talk about."
"We always have," said Grace, looking in vain for a chocolate. The car had stopped in front of her house, and Mollie had said she would leave the other girls at their residences.
"Oh, don't bother," Betty had protested. "You must be tired, and it's only a step."
"No, we must do this in style!" decided Mollie. "What is the use of a motor car if one can't bring one's friends home in the proper mode?" And she had her way.
The auto was to be kept in a public garage until Mrs. Billette could have one built on her own premises, and, leaving her machine with the man in charge, Mollie walked home.
That night her three chums called, and the talk was almost entirely devoted to the strange girl and her queer disappearance.
In the days that followed the four inseparables took many rides out into the beautiful country around Deepdale. True to her determination, Mollie insisted on Betty, Amy and Grace taking at least a few lessons. Betty was quick to learn, but Grace was not quite strong enough to handle the wheel properly, and Amy was too timid. Still, either of the latter could manage the car on a straight, level road, but Betty was the only one who persisted enough to be able to get a license, which sne one day took out on Mollie's suggestion.
"And what is the something you were going to tell us?" asked Betty of Mollie one day, as they were returning from a short run, Betty at the wheel.
"Oh, it isn't quite ready yet," she said. "I'll tell you in plenty of time to prepare for it, though. Mind your wheel, Bet, there are two cars coming back of us, and I think they're going to pass us close."
"Well, let them look out, I'm on the right side of the road."
Two cars, scorching, did pass them, throwing up a cloud of dust that caused the girls to gasp and choke.
"Horrid creatures!" cried Grace. "My new cloak will be spoiled!" and she dusted off the auto garment she had recently purchased.
"It is such as they who give all autoists a bad name," remarked Mollie. "One rule of our club must be never to scorch."
"Our club?" asked Grace, wonderingly.
"There—I've told part of my secret!' exclaimed Mollie, in some confusion. "I was going to suggest that, as we have a sort of informal Camping and Tramping Club, and as there is a kind of motor boat club feeling existing among us, we form an auto club."
"Let's!" proposed Amy. "Bet has the boat, you have the car, Mollie, but poor Grace and I"
"That doesn't make a bit of difference!" broke in Mollie. "You don't have to have an auto to belong to this club. Just as when you get your airship, Grace, we'll join your aero club; though you'll be the only one with a flying machine."
"No flies for me!" said Grace, determinedly.
They reached Mollie's house rather early that afternoon, not having gone far.
"Do come in for a cup of tea," urged Mollie. "It will refresh you all. No, no, Paul!" she called to her brother, "you must not get in sister's auto when she is not in it," for the little follow had started to climb up in the front seat as the girls strolled toward the house.
"Oo dot any tandy?" he asked, coming toward them.
"Oh dear, I wonder if I will always have to bribe you, Paul?" sighed Mollie. "Grace, will you kindly oblige again? I guess I shall have to appoint you official candy distributor."
"That would suit me," laughed Grace. "Here, Paul, and don't get that on your suit—the chocolate is so sticky and messy in warm weather," and Grace daintily removed, with the tip of her tongue, some brown spots from the ends of her rosy fingers that had passed the candy to the little boy.
The girls were sipping tea in the library, and talking, when there came from out in front the sudden throbbing of an auto motor. Mollie leaped up and rushed to the window. Then she screamed:
"Oh girls! Paul is in my car and it's running away with him! Oh, stop him, some one!"
They all saw little Paul—a mite in the seat—holding bravely to the steering wheel, and the car moving down the hill in front of the Billette home.