THE GIRLS RETALIATE
"But why should we change our plans?" asked Cora, when, a little later,
the boys had brought their own cars up in front of the hotels and had
gone back for those of the girls. "I don't see why Bess should ride with
Walter."
"No, but I see it," said Walter, quickly. "I want to talk to her, and----"
"Oh, that's a different story," admitted Cora, with a smile. "But what
will Norton do?"
"I'd like to drive the _Flyaway_, if I might," put in the latter. "There's
a bad stretch of road ahead, and perhaps Belle may not be equal to it."
"Don't you dare intimate there's danger ahead," cried Belle.
"Not exactly danger," returned Norton, with a wink at the other boys, "but
the road is rough. If Cora wants to I guess Ed could drive her car for
her, too."
"Thank you, I'll wait until I see what sort of a road we are going to
encounter, and if I can't negotiate it, I'll let Ed take the wheel,"
assented Cora. "But I've driven over some very hard stretches myself;
haven't I, Jack?"
"Indeed you have, Sis. But it's all right if Belle wants Norton to drive
for her for a change."
"Well," began the Robinson twin, "it all came so suddenly. I don't know
yet whether I want Norton to drive for me. Of course I'd like to have him
in the car, if Bess wants to go with Walter for a change, and----"
"That's it," broke in Norton. "Just for a change. Hurry up now, girls,
get in the cars and we'll be off." He ran here and there, helping lift
in the luggage, and appeared anxious to make a start. In fact, the boys
had seemed in a hurry ever since they brought up the girls' cars, and
this very haste might have made the motor maids suspicious, but it did not
seem to.
Then came the proposal for the change in companionship for a time, and
this took the attention of Cora and her friends. Jack had run his car
close up to the rear of the _Flyaway_, so that the back of the tonneau was
not easily seen.
"All aboard!" cried Ed. "We're off!"
Quite a little throng had gathered on the sidewalk in front to see the
start, and among the persons might have been noticed a certain number
of boys, with paper bags concealed in their hands. These same boys might
have been observed to be receiving signals--in the way of nods and winks
from Jack and his chums, from time to time.
"I am sure those boys are up to something!" exclaimed Cora to Eline, as
they took their places.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean some trick."
"How can you tell?"
"Why, Jack's so anxious to get us off. He paid the hotel bill for me,
bought me a magazine and some candy. He never does things like that unless
there is something queer about to happen. Does anything seem wrong? Do I
look all right?"
"Perfectly charming, Cora. That's a stunning sweater you have."
"Yes, I like it. Then it can't be me that he's going to bother. I wish
I could tell what it was." She looked back to where Jack, with hurried
politeness, was helping Belle into her car. He did not want her to have
a glimpse at the rear of it.
"Well, we'll see what develops," spoke Cora, as she slipped in first
speed, and prepared to set the clutch. She gave a last look back. The
little cavalcade of autos was all ready to start. That of Norton, with
Walter at the wheel, and Bess on the seat beside him, was directly behind
Cora's big maroon beauty, then came the machine of the twins and lastly
that of Jack.
"Let her go!" shouted Jack.
Cora's machine shot forward. Norton's jumped as Walter let in the clutch.
Then Jack, with a quick motion, pulled from the back of the Robinson
car, that Norton was driving, a strip of white muslin. It left revealed
another, containing the words:
ON THEIR HONEYMOON
"Let 'em have it!" cried Jack.
Instantly the urchins with the paper bags opened them and a shower of rice
fell over Norton and Belle, being scattered liberally over Mrs. Fordam.
"Mercy!" cried the chaperone. "What is this? Stop it at once!" she ordered
to the boys, but laughingly they persisted.
"Good luck!" cried the street lads.
"Hurray!"
"Send us a piece of wedding cake!"
Cora, turning, seeing the showers of rice and hearing the calls, guessed
what had happened.
"This was Jack's trick!" she exclaimed. "He's given the impression that
this is a big wedding party. Oh, wait until I get a chance to retaliate.
Hurry up!" she cried back to Norton, who was grinning cheerfully, and
trying to summon a blush to his cheeks to make him fit the part of the
bashful bridegroom.
Walter shot Norton's car ahead, and Norton guided that containing the
placard out into the middle of the street. There the words were more
plainly seen, and good-natured laughter came from the throng, who thought
they understood the situation. The rice continued to fall, for the boys
had bought liberally of it, and had bribed the street urchins to throw it.
"This is terrible!" exclaimed Bess, in the car with Walter, seeing what
had happened.
"It's only a joke," he said. "But I was afraid you girls wouldn't like it."
"Like it? I should say not. I'm going to take that sign off our car at
once."
She made a motion as though to alight from the moving auto, but Walter
detained her.
"We'll take it off when we get around the corner," he promised.
"What does this mean?" demanded Belle, rather indignantly, of Norton.
"I guess they take this for a wedding procession," he replied.
"And who are----"
She stopped suddenly.
"I see!" she exclaimed, as the meaning of the rice came to her. "Well, I
don't think this a bit nice. I'd rather have my sister back here with me,"
she went on coldly. "Mrs. Fordam, is there anything on our car--any of
those silly white satin ribbons, or----"
"Old shoes?" suggested Norton, rather abashed at the way his joke had been
received.
The chaperone looked over the rear of the tonneau.
"There's a strip of cloth on here, with some letters on it," she answered,
"but I can't read it upside down without my glasses. Surely----"
She hesitated for a moment, and then cried:
"The rice! Oh, I see! Boys, you shouldn't have done it!" but she laughed
nevertheless, and Norton felt more relieved.
"It was only in fun," he protested.
"A boy's idea of fun, and a girl's, often differ exceedingly," spoke Mrs.
Fordam. "I really think it had better be taken off."
The crowd had been following along the sidewalk, tossing rice and
showering congratulations on those in the "bridal-car." Norton saw that
Mrs. Fordam meant what she said. So he stopped the machine and got out to
remove the placard, just as Cora was about to turn around to learn more of
the cause of the merriment. Norton ripped off the lettered muslin and
tossed it aside.
"It may do for someone else to play a joke with," he remarked. "I guess I
got myself in bad here. I'll have to make up for it."
"There, you needn't get out--Norton is fixing it," said Bess to Walter.
"But I think I'll ride in my own car, if you don't mind," and she prepared
to get out as he put on the brakes.
"Not mad; are you?" he asked, and there was a note of anxiety in his voice.
"No, not exactly," she replied with a smile.
Cora, who had made the turn, and had learned what had happened, said
nothing. She looked at Jack rather reprovingly, however. Then, the crowd
seeing no more chance for fun, began to drop back. The autos went on, the
twins in their own, and Walter back with Norton, while Jack and Ed rode
together, Cora being with Eline up ahead--a pacemaker.
There was a little coldness among the girls and boys--on the side of the
girls--when they stopped for dinner at a country hotel. Nothing of moment
had occurred on the road, save that Cora got a puncture, and Jack and the
other boys had no little difficulty in getting off an old shoe that had
not been removed in some time.
A little later something went wrong with the carbureter on the car of
the twins. The boys took turns trying to adjust it, as they were far
from a garage. It was Norton who discovered the trouble--a simple enough
matter--and remedied it.
"Doesn't that entitle me to a rebate of punishment?" he asked of Belle.
"I'll see," she answered, but her glance was not as stern as it had been,
and she ventured to smile a little.
With the offending placard removed, the cars proceeded onward again. They
had planned to take the trip leisurely, and to stop over night at another
hotel. The day following that would bring them to Sandy Point Cove in
good time to settle the bungalows before dark.
"We're going to the theatre to-night," Jack announced, shortly after the
arrival in Duncan, where they were to spend the night. He had gone out
after reaching the hotel, and purchased the seats for a popular comedy
then running.
"Oh, are we?" asked Cora with a lifting of her eyebrows, a signal, that
had Jack but known it, meant more than he suspected. "That's awfully nice
of you, really."
"It's a fine show," declared Norton. "A friend of mine saw it in New York."
"What time are we to be ready?" asked Belle, with a look at Cora.
"It begins at eight, if you start now putting on your hats you'll be ready
in time, it's only a little after six," remarked Ed.
"Smart!" exclaimed Bess. "We can be ready as soon as you!"
After supper--or dinner whichever you prefer to call it--the boys went to
their rooms to get ready for the little theatre party. The girls, with
much whispering and not a little laughter proceeded, apparently, with the
same object.
But a little later the motor maids, accompanied by their chaperone, Mrs.
Fordam, slipped down a rear stairway, out into the ladies' parlor of
the hotel, and thence into two big limousine cars that awaited them. The
girls had on semi-evening dress, with some flimsy chiffon veils over
their heads in place of hats, which might account for the speed with
which they got ready.
"Isn't it nice we met those boys!" exclaimed Eline.
"They came just in time to make it possible for us to retaliate," remarked
Cora. "And our boys need a lesson."
In the somewhat luxurious autos that had drawn up in front of the
hotel were four young men in evening dress. They greeted the girls
enthusiastically.
"It's awfully nice of you to come on such short notice," said one to Cora.
"Oh, we were only too glad to" she answered.