QUICK THINKING
For one tense moment it seemed as though nothing could avert a terrible
tragedy.
A woman burst out of the house and ran screaming toward her child. But it
was clearly impossible for her to reach the little one in time to save
it.
The child, startled by the screams, stood helplessly right in the path of
the Juggernaut that seemed doomed to crush it.
The driver of the car had seen the danger, and he instantly threw out the
clutch 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. He
whirled the wheel around, and the car, its speed diminished but still
considerable, dashed into a tree by the side of the road. The driver, an
elderly man, was thrown out and lay stunned and bleeding.
The mother rushed to the little one and gathered it up into her arms with
sobs 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 can
do 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 crying
and crooning over her child, it may be well for the sake of those who
have not followed our Motor Girls in their previous adventures to state a
little more fully just who they were and what they had been doing up to
the time this story opens.
Cora Kimball and her brother Jack--the same Jack who had been brought in
so handily in their encounter with the impudent young man--were the
children of a wealthy widow living in Chelton, a New England village
located not very far from the New York line. They were both healthy,
normal, wideawake young people, and took vast delight in motoring. Either
in a motor car or a motor boat they were equally happy and equally at
home; 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 in
the same town as the Kimballs. Belle, as we have seen, was tall and
slender--"_svelte_" was the way she liked to put it. And Bess--well, Bess
was "plump," but a very pretty and charming girl nevertheless. Of the
three girls, Cora was the natural leader, and the trio were almost
inseparable.
Jack Kimball, Cora's brother, was a manly, likable chap and devotedly
attached to his sister, although at times he liked to "lord it" over her
with truly masculine complacency. He was a student at Exmouth College,
and his most intimate friend was Walter Pennington, who spent most of his
vacations and whatever other spare time he had at the Kimball home.
Perhaps Jack's charming sister was the special magnet that drew Walter
there so often---- But there, it isn't fair to delve too curiously into
matters of that kind.
Paul Hastings, who had a position in an automobile concern, was a close
friend 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 common
had led to many trips to various parts of the country, in the course of
which they had met with many surprising and sometimes thrilling
adventures. Both Cora and the Robinson twins had cars of their own, but
as Cora seemed to take the lead in everything, most of the tours were
taken in her car.
Their trips took them at one time or another to almost every section of
the interior and the coast. At Lookout Beach, through New England, on
Cedar 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 told
in the previous volumes of the series.
In the volume immediately preceding this one, called "The Motor Girls at
Camp Surprise," a number of very strange happenings are recorded. To
begin with, Cora's car was stolen and she was almost inconsolable, for
though her mother would have bought her one to replace it, she had an
affectionate attachment for the old one that had so many happy memories
connected with it. They found no real track of the thieves until, when
they were spending the early part of the summer at Camp Surprise, they
came across a gang of ticket counterfeiters, who had set up their plant
in an underground passage leading from the very house where the girls
were staying.
And now, as the reader has seen, the girls were on their way to spend the
late summer in the heart of the Adirondacks. And right at the outset they
had been witnesses of what was so nearly a tragedy that for the moment
their 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 the
road. As they approached he opened his eyes and looked about him in a
dazed way.
"The child," he murmured, as he brushed his hand over his forehead. "Is
it safe?"
"It's all right," replied Cora cheerily, immensely relieved to find that
the driver was not dead, as she had feared. "But don't try to talk now
until 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, taking
charge of things, as she always did in a crisis.
The farmer's wife, who had now got back some of her self-control, led the
way into the house, and in a moment the girls were back with plenty of
cool water and some linen. Cora washed a cut in the man's head, deftly
tied a bandage around it, and put some water to his lips, which he drank
eagerly.
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. He
was urgent that the man should be taken into the house and a doctor sent
for, but the injured man, who was getting stronger by the minute and
seemed to have a very determined will of his own, vetoed this
emphatically.
"There's nothing the matter with me except for the shock and a few
bruises," he declared. "I'll be as well as ever as soon as this dizziness
passes away."
He proved himself a true prophet, for at the end of ten minutes he was on
his feet and looking ruefully at his car.
"Pretty much of a wreck, I imagine," he remarked with a twisted smile, as
he walked around it and took stock of the damage.
The girls joined in the inspection, and as they knew as much about
automobiles as the man himself, they satisfied themselves that he had not
exaggerated much in describing it as a "wreck." The wheels and part of
the body were intact, but the machinery was badly knocked out of gear. It
was 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'll
have to leave word there and have them come back to get it."
"No need of doing that," volunteered Cora. "We're going in that
direction, 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 your
kindness too far already."
"It won't be any trouble at all," returned Cora cordially. "You can sit
in the front seat with me, and as my car is a powerful one we'll be able
to tow yours easily."
He demurred a little longer, but finally accepted the offer with hearty
thanks. The farmer brought out a rope, and with the aid of a couple of
farm hands got the wrecked machine out in the road. Then the two cars
were connected and the girls started off, with a parting wave of the hand
and a smile directed especially to the little toddler, who was held
tightly in the mother's arm.
"That child won't be allowed to go out of the gate alone again in a
hurry, I guess," laughed Belle.
"It wasn't the child's fault," remarked the stranger. "I was going
altogether too fast. If I'd been moving at a moderate rate I could have
stopped in plenty of time. Fact is, I was thinking of something
else--none too pleasant thoughts they were either--and I didn't realize
just how fast I was going."
"You were very lucky to get off as well as you did, Mr.----" Cora
hesitated inquiringly.
"Morley," supplemented the stranger. "Bless my heart, here I am accepting
all this service from you young ladies and forgetting to introduce
myself. Samuel Morley is my name, and I live in the town of Saxton, about
twenty miles from here. Yes, as you were saying, I was very lucky to get
off as well as I did--a good deal luckier than I deserved. Though perhaps
it would have been just as well if I had been killed after all."
He brought out the last sentence so savagely that the girls were
startled.
"You mustn't mind what I say," he said apologetically, as he noted the
look on their faces. "I'm just a crabbed old stick anyway. If I hadn't
been that, I wouldn't have so many painful memories now. Sometimes they
come 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 young
girls. 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'm
getting old. Now suppose you girls turn the tables. Tell me all about
yourselves and where you are going."
The conversation became general then, and from that time on he carefully
refrained from saying anything bearing on himself, although the girls,
who scented a romance or a tragedy somewhere, would gladly have forborne
their own talk in order to hear more of his story.
"There's the garage over there," he said, as they drew near the outskirts
of a town, pointing to a low building on the right.
Cora drove her car close in and the keeper of the garage came out and
unfastened the rope that bound the two machines.
"I can't thank you young ladies enough," Mr. Morley said gratefully, as
he shook hands with them. "I only hope the time will come when I can
repay the favor."
"Are you feeling all right now?" asked Cora, as she got ready to throw in
the clutch.
"Nothing worse than a headache. You're a first-class doctor," he replied
with a twinkle in his eye.
Cora laughed.
"Don't tell any one," she admonished. "It might get me into trouble. You
know, I haven't a license to practise in this state."