CHAPTER II QUICK THINKING
For one tense moment it seemed as though nothing could avert a terribletragedy.
A woman burst out of the house and ran screaming toward her child. But itwas clearly impossible for her to reach the little one in time to saveit.
The child, startled by the screams, stood helplessly right in the path ofthe Juggernaut that seemed doomed to crush it.
The driver of the car had seen the danger, and he instantly threw out theclutch and put on the brakes. But he was too near to stop in time.
There was only one thing to do, and, like a gallant man, he did it. Hewhirled the wheel around, and the car, its speed diminished but stillconsiderable, dashed into a tree by the side of the road. The driver, anelderly man, was thrown out and lay stunned and bleeding.
The mother rushed to the little one and gathered it up into her arms withsobs and exclamations.
The girls, who had been unable to move and had sat paralyzed with horror,breathed a huge sigh of relief.
"Thank God, the baby's saved!" cried Bess.
"Yes," exclaimed Cora, "but the man may be killed! Let's see what we cando to help him."
The three girls jumped from the car and rushed over to the injured man.
While the girls are giving first aid to the man, and the mother is cryingand crooning over her child, it may be well for the sake of those whohave not followed our Motor Girls in their previous adventures to state alittle more fully just who they were and what they had been doing up tothe time this story opens.
Cora Kimball and her brother Jack--the same Jack who had been brought inso handily in their encounter with the impudent young man--were thechildren of a wealthy widow living in Chelton, a New England villagelocated not very far from the New York line. They were both healthy,normal, wideawake young people, and took vast delight in motoring. Eitherin a motor car or a motor boat they were equally happy and equally athome; and Cora was quite as expert in managing them as her brother.
Cora's special chums were Belle and Bess Robinson, twin daughters of Mr.and Mrs. Perry Robinson, the former a well-to-do railroad man, living inthe same town as the Kimballs. Belle, as we have seen, was tall andslender--"_svelte_" was the way she liked to put it. And Bess--well, Besswas "plump," but a very pretty and charming girl nevertheless. Of thethree girls, Cora was the natural leader, and the trio were almostinseparable.
Jack Kimball, Cora's brother, was a manly, likable chap and devotedlyattached to his sister, although at times he liked to "lord it" over herwith truly masculine complacency. He was a student at Exmouth College,and his most intimate friend was Walter Pennington, who spent most of hisvacations and whatever other spare time he had at the Kimball home.Perhaps Jack's charming sister was the special magnet that drew Walterthere so often---- But there, it isn't fair to delve too curiously intomatters of that kind.
Paul Hastings, who had a position in an automobile concern, was a closefriend of Jack and Walter, and the girls too liked him very much.
The love of motoring that all six, boys and girls alike, shared in commonhad led to many trips to various parts of the country, in the course ofwhich they had met with many surprising and sometimes thrillingadventures. Both Cora and the Robinson twins had cars of their own, butas Cora seemed to take the lead in everything, most of the tours weretaken in her car.
Their trips took them at one time or another to almost every section ofthe interior and the coast. At Lookout Beach, through New England, onCedar Lake, at Crystal Bay, on the coast, even as far as the West Indies,all that happened to them on these expeditions, and it was much, is toldin the previous volumes of the series.
In the volume immediately preceding this one, called "The Motor Girls atCamp Surprise," a number of very strange happenings are recorded. Tobegin with, Cora's car was stolen and she was almost inconsolable, forthough her mother would have bought her one to replace it, she had anaffectionate attachment for the old one that had so many happy memoriesconnected with it. They found no real track of the thieves until, whenthey were spending the early part of the summer at Camp Surprise, theycame across a gang of ticket counterfeiters, who had set up their plantin an underground passage leading from the very house where the girlswere staying.
And now, as the reader has seen, the girls were on their way to spend thelate summer in the heart of the Adirondacks. And right at the outset theyhad been witnesses of what was so nearly a tragedy that for the momenttheir hearts had stood still.
All alert, now that their terror for the child's safety was dispelled,the girls hurried over to the driver, who still lay stretched out in theroad. As they approached he opened his eyes and looked about him in adazed way.
"The child," he murmured, as he brushed his hand over his forehead. "Isit safe?"
"It's all right," replied Cora cheerily, immensely relieved to find thatthe driver was not dead, as she had feared. "But don't try to talk nowuntil you feel a little stronger."
She knelt down and took his head upon her knee.
"Run to the house, girls, and get some water," she commanded, takingcharge of things, as she always did in a crisis.
The farmer's wife, who had now got back some of her self-control, led theway into the house, and in a moment the girls were back with plenty ofcool water and some linen. Cora washed a cut in the man's head, deftlytied a bandage around it, and put some water to his lips, which he drankeagerly.
The cut was not a serious one, and the farmer, who had joined the group,announced after a brief examination that no bones seemed to be broken. Hewas urgent that the man should be taken into the house and a doctor sentfor, but the injured man, who was getting stronger by the minute andseemed to have a very determined will of his own, vetoed thisemphatically.
"There's nothing the matter with me except for the shock and a fewbruises," he declared. "I'll be as well as ever as soon as this dizzinesspasses away."
He proved himself a true prophet, for at the end of ten minutes he was onhis feet and looking ruefully at his car.
"Pretty much of a wreck, I imagine," he remarked with a twisted smile, ashe walked around it and took stock of the damage.
The girls joined in the inspection, and as they knew as much aboutautomobiles as the man himself, they satisfied themselves that he had notexaggerated much in describing it as a "wreck." The wheels and part ofthe body were intact, but the machinery was badly knocked out of gear. Itwas clear that it would not be able to go under its own power.
"There's a garage a few miles further on," the stranger remarked. "I'llhave to leave word there and have them come back to get it."
"No need of doing that," volunteered Cora. "We're going in thatdirection, and we'll be glad to tow you there."
The man hesitated.
"It's very good of you," he replied, "but I'm afraid I've taxed yourkindness too far already."
"It won't be any trouble at all," returned Cora cordially. "You can sitin the front seat with me, and as my car is a powerful one we'll be ableto tow yours easily."
He demurred a little longer, but finally accepted the offer with heartythanks. The farmer brought out a rope, and with the aid of a couple offarm hands got the wrecked machine out in the road. Then the two carswere connected and the girls started off, with a parting wave of the handand a smile directed especially to the little toddler, who was heldtightly in the mother's arm.
"That child won't be allowed to go out of the gate alone again in ahurry, I guess," laughed Belle.
"It wasn't the child's fault," remarked the stranger. "I was goingaltogether too fast. If I'd been moving at a moderate rate I could havestopped in plenty of time. Fact is, I was thinking of somethingelse--none too pleasant thoughts they were either--and I didn't realizejust how fast I was going."
"You were very lucky to get off as well as you did, Mr.----" Corahesitated inquiringly.
"Morley," supplemented the stranger. "Bless my heart, here I am acceptingall this service fr
om you young ladies and forgetting to introducemyself. Samuel Morley is my name, and I live in the town of Saxton, abouttwenty miles from here. Yes, as you were saying, I was very lucky to getoff as well as I did--a good deal luckier than I deserved. Though perhapsit would have been just as well if I had been killed after all."
He brought out the last sentence so savagely that the girls werestartled.
"You mustn't mind what I say," he said apologetically, as he noted thelook on their faces. "I'm just a crabbed old stick anyway. If I hadn'tbeen that, I wouldn't have so many painful memories now. Sometimes theycome crowding in upon me until it seems as though I couldn't stand them.But I wouldn't want to say anything that would shadow the faces of younggirls. There was a young girl once----"
He caught himself up sharply.
"But here I am doing all the talking," he said. "That's a sign I'mgetting old. Now suppose you girls turn the tables. Tell me all aboutyourselves and where you are going."
The conversation became general then, and from that time on he carefullyrefrained from saying anything bearing on himself, although the girls,who scented a romance or a tragedy somewhere, would gladly have forbornetheir own talk in order to hear more of his story.
"There's the garage over there," he said, as they drew near the outskirtsof a town, pointing to a low building on the right.
Cora drove her car close in and the keeper of the garage came out andunfastened the rope that bound the two machines.
"I can't thank you young ladies enough," Mr. Morley said gratefully, ashe shook hands with them. "I only hope the time will come when I canrepay the favor."
"Are you feeling all right now?" asked Cora, as she got ready to throw inthe clutch.
"Nothing worse than a headache. You're a first-class doctor," he repliedwith a twinkle in his eye.
Cora laughed.
"Don't tell any one," she admonished. "It might get me into trouble. Youknow, I haven't a license to practise in this state."