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THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT CHICAGO
Or
Winning Out Against Heavy Odds
by
LAURA DENT CRANE
Author of The Automobile Girls at Newport, The Automobile Girls
in the Berkshires, The Automobile Girls
Along the Hudson, etc.
Illustrated
[Illustration: "He's Here!" Cried Barbara.
_Frontispiece._]
Philadelphia
Henry Altemus Company
Copyright, 1912, by
Howard E. Altemus
Printed in the
United States of America
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE MAN IN SECTION THIRTEEN 7
II. THE MISSING PASSENGER 19
III. A DIZZY ROUND OF PLEASURE 32
IV. BATTLE OF THE BULLS AND BEARS 45
V. AN EMBARRASSING MOMENT 56
VI. THE WRECK OF MR. A. BUBBLE 68
VII. THE MYSTERY OF THE IRON GATES 75
VIII. EXPLORING THE SECRET PASSAGE 84
IX. IN AN INDIAN GRAVEYARD 96
X. MEETING A TREASURE HUNTER 106
XI. GIVING AN ATTIC PARTY 116
XII. A CURIOUS OLD JOURNAL 127
XIII. THE MYSTERY OF THE ATTIC 136
XIV. TOMMY TAKES A WILD RIDE 143
XV. AN AMAZING OCCURRENCE 154
XVI. BOB SOLVES ANOTHER MYSTERY 164
XVII. A LONG-REMEMBERED CHRISTMAS 178
XVIII. BAB'S EXCITING DISCOVERY 187
XIX. A BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT 195
XX. CONCLUSION 204
The Automobile Girls at Chicago
CHAPTER I
THE MAN IN SECTION THIRTEEN
BARBARA THURSTON awakened with a violent start.
"Wha--a-at is it?" she muttered, then opened her eyes wide. In the
darkness of the Pullman berth she could see nothing at all save a faint
perpendicular line of light at the edges of the curtains that enclosed
the section.
"I--I wonder what made me wake up so suddenly?" Barbara put out a
groping hand. The hand came in contact with Mollie Thurston's face.
Mollie brushed it away, muttering irritably in her sleep. Then all at
once Barbara discovered what had awakened her. Close at hand she heard
the voices of two men. They were conversing in low, cautious tones.
"I tell you I'll crush him! I'll crush them both. I'll make beggars of
them!" declared one of the men in a slightly heightened tone.
The train had stopped, as Barbara realized at that moment. Otherwise she
might not have been able to hear the words so plainly. The girl
shuddered at the tone of the speaker's voice more than at the words
themselves. She drew the curtains aside a little and peered out. It was
then that she discovered by the light reflected from the adjoining
section that the berths next to her had not been made up. Two men were
sitting in the double seat within a few inches of where her head had
lain. She was unable to see the men, nor did Barbara recognize either of
the voices. Their conversation could be of no possible interest to her,
she told herself. Still for some reason that she did not stop to
analyze, the girl lay back with half-closed eyes, listening. She
listened not because she wanted to hear, but for the reason that she
could not well help overhearing the conversation in the adjoining
section.
At Barbara's side Mollie Thurston lay sleeping peacefully. As for
Barbara, she was now wholly awake, all thought of sleep having left her.
"You mean you will crush them financially?" suggested the second
speaker.
"Body and soul!"
"Do you mean to say that you would crush a human being--perhaps drive
him to do desperate things--merely to gratify your love of money and
power? Is that what you mean, Nat?"
"That is partly my meaning. Yes, I want power. Already they call me the
'Young Napoleon of Finance,' but that is not enough. Those men must be
driven to the wall, for in crushing them I shall be increasing my own
power as well as taking theirs from them. I'd crush them just the same
if I knew it to be my last conscious act on earth."
Barbara Thurston gazed into the darkness wide-eyed. She knew she was
listening to the resolve of a desperate man, though she had not the
slightest idea what might be his plans for accomplishing his purpose.
"Why do you hate them so?" questioned the second voice. "What have they
ever done to you?"
The first speaker paused a few seconds before replying, then in a voice
tense with suppressed emotion he answered slowly:
"Hate them? That isn't exactly the word, but it will answer. I hate ----
---- because he turned me out when I was making my start. Turned me out
into the street, Jim. Do you understand? Turned me out without a dollar
in my pocket when I was trying to make something of myself. I hate the
other man because he is working with him. They are pulling together and
they must go down together. Let them down me if they can. I'll make
beggars of both of them!"
"Oh!" exclaimed Barbara Thurston in a tone that plainly must have
reached the two men.
The terrible threat had struck her almost with the effect of a blow. A
name had been mentioned that stirred her to instant alertness, a name
almost as familiar to the girl as her own.
"What was that?" demanded the voice that had uttered the terrible
threats.
"Someone dreaming."
"Let them dream. As for me, I never sleep these days. I leave that to
others. Jim, you watch me. I'll be a king of finance yet. I'll be the
Napoleon in reality before I have done. And what is more, those men will
never know where their opposition comes from until after the blow has
fallen. I'll see to it that they know then, however. Watch me, but keep
silent. Not a word, not a breath of what I have told you. I've said too
much, but I had to talk to some one I could trust. Now I'm all right
again."
"Never fear, Nat."
"And I'll give you a tip, boy. Buy wheat."
Bab could not catch all of the sentence. She caught the word "wheat,"
but a word ahead of that she missed.
"Thank you, I never gamble," replied the second man. "I'm sure to lose
if I do, so I have always steered clear of speculation. But I'm sorry
for the Old Man if you are after him. I'm sorry for anyone that you
visit your displeasure upon. I should hate to have you get after my
scalp."
"What's--who's talking in this berth?" demanded Mollie, sitting up
suddenly.
"Sh-h-h!" warned Barbara, laying a restraining hand on her sister's
lips. "It isn't in this berth. It's in the next one. Go to sleep."
"Is--is Grace asleep?"
"Yes. Be quiet."
Grace Carter, the girls' companion, occupied the berth above them. As no
sound had been heard from that quarter it was reasonable to suppose that
Grace had not been awakened by the conversation of the two men.
Barbara was trembling violently. She was profoundly affected by what she
had overheard. Yet while she had heard a name mentioned and a threat
made against the owner of that name, she was in the dark as to the
meaning of the threat--she did not understand what it was that this man
proposed to do. Her ears were now strained to catch every word uttered
on the other side of the partition.
"I shall watch the market with interest, Nat," the second speaker was
saying. "I don't say that I approve of your way of getting revenge, but
that is your own affair. Remember, however, that people who play with
fire are sooner or later sure to be singed."
The other man laughed.
"My feathers were singed a long time ago, Jim," he said.
"Well, here's where I get off. Good luck, old man, and good night."
The train had moved forward slowly, halting at a station a short
distance from the last stop. The man who had made the threats
accompanied his friend to the door of the car, then instead of returning
to the seat he had occupied with his friend, he seated himself opposite
the section occupied by the girls.
Bab, determined to know who the man was, peered cautiously between the
curtains.
"It's the man in section thirteen!" she exclaimed. Then she realized
that she had expressed her thought aloud.
The man wheeled sharply, his face hardening, his eyes narrowed to mere
slits as he gazed questioningly about him. He saw no one, for Barbara
had quickly withdrawn her head, holding the curtains firmly so that he
should observe no movement of them. The girl had learned that which she
was so curious to know. She now knew the man who had uttered the
threats. He had occupied the section opposite to her all during the
previous afternoon, though she did not recall having heard him speak nor
did she know his name. The man across the aisle reached for his bag,
from which he selected a package of papers. These he regarded
thoughtfully for a full minute, after which he opened the package,
taking several documents, returning the rest to the bag. Then after
drawing his cigar case from the bag, he rose and strode rapidly toward
the rear of the car, where the smoking compartment was located.
"So that's the man. I'm glad I know what I do, even though I do not know
what it is all about. I must ask Mr. Stuart about that man," mused
Barbara. Consulting her watch, she found that it was nearly one o'clock
in the morning. The girl shivered, snuggled into her blankets and fell
asleep. It was December and the air was chill. Barbara had not been
asleep long when she was awakened by a violent jolt, then a bumping that
shook her until her teeth chattered. The sleeping car swayed giddily
from side to side as it moved slowly forward with a grinding, crunching
sound. Then the car gave a lurch that hurled Bab violently against her
sister.
Mollie uttered a little cry of alarm. Bab threw her arms about her,
hugging Mollie in a tight embrace to save her sister from being thrown
against the side of the car. As yet Bab had not had time to think of
what was occurring outside. But now she began vaguely to realize that
the Pullman car had left the rails. An accident had occurred. Shouts and
cries of alarm from various parts of the car testified to the terror of
other passengers who were being buffeted about by the rocking sleeper.
All at once the forward end of the car appeared to plunge down head
first, as it were. The two girls were tumbled into one end of their
berth where for a few agonizing seconds both were nearly standing on
their heads.
Mollie screamed again.
"Don't!" commanded Barbara sharply in a half-smothered voice, holding
her sister even more tightly than before.
"We're going over!" cried Mollie.
Barbara had managed to straighten out and was now bracing herself with
all her might. She had thus far made no effort to get out into the
aisle. She was a girl quick to think and act in an emergency. She had
reasoned that they would be safer in their berth than out of it, for
they could not be buffeted about so much in the narrow berth as they
might be in the aisle where they could hear the thud of bags and other
articles falling from the various berths or being hurled from one side
to the other of the car.
The lights suddenly went out. Fortunately the train had not been moving
very fast when the accident occurred. Now it gave a sudden, sickening
lurch and lay over on its side to the accompaniment of crashing glass as
the windows were burst in and renewed cries of fear came from the
passengers.
The broad windows of the Thurston girls' berth burst in, sending a
shower of glass over them. Both received bruises as well as slight cuts
from the broken glass that had showered over them, though Barbara had
borne the brunt of the shock, managing to keep her own body between
Mollie and danger.
"Are we killed? Are we killed?" moaned Mollie.
"No. We are all right," soothed Bab with a confidence that she did not
feel. "Quick! Get on your clothes if you can find them. Here, put this
on. Don't try to dress completely, but just throw about you whatever you
can find."
While urging her sister to action, Bab was hunting feverishly for their
belongings. She thrust the first clothing she could find into the hands
of the trembling Mollie, then wrapped the younger girl in a blanket.
"I want my shoes," cried Mollie.
Barbara thrust two shoes into the girl's hands. One was Mollie's shoe,
the other Barbara's, but she could not be particular under the
circumstances.
Now a new danger threatened. Bab was certain that she could smell smoke.
She fairly dragged Mollie from the berth into the aisle that was now
tilted at an angle.
"Hurry! Get to the upper end of the car as fast as you can. The other
passengers are out I do believe."
"Oh, I can't! Help me, Bab."
"Help yourself. I must look after Grace."
"Grace!" groaned Mollie, a sudden and new fit of trembling seizing upon
her until her legs threatened to collapse under her.
Barbara gave her a violent push.
"Climb up the aisle. Support yourself by the seats. You will be able to
get through all right. I'll follow you just as soon as I can find Grace.
She may have gotten out, but I don't believe she has."
"Is--is--do you think she is dead?" gasped Mollie.
"Hurry!" urged Barbara, as the smell of smoke smote her nostrils more
strongly than before. "Grace!" she called, as soon as she saw that
Mollie had begun climbing.
There was no answer. Barbara was hurrying into such of her clothing as
she was able to find. The intense darkness of the car made any
systematic effort to dress impossible.
"Grace! Oh, Grace!"
Still no answer. Bab observed by the light that now filtered through the
broken windows of section number thirteen on the opposite side of the
aisle, that that section was empty. The car itself appeared to be empty.
At least the cries had died out, though outside the car there was a
great uproar. Barbara climbed into the upper berth occupied by Grace
Carter, who lay silent, unheeding Barbara's voice.
"Oh, Grace! Grace!" begged Barbara, throwing her arms about her friend.
"Answer me."
There was no response. A bar of moonlight shone through the broken
window of section number thirteen, falling directly on the pallid face
of the unconscious girl. Barbara shook her, calling upon her friend to
answer, but Grace neither spoke nor stirred.
"Is there any one left in here?" called a voice from the other end of
the car.
"Yes, yes; come here quickly and help me," cried Barbara.
Instead of coming to her assistance, the owner of the voice appeared to
turn back and go out again. Barbara was now chafing the hands and face
of the motionless girl in the upper berth.
"Oh, she's dead, she's dead. What shall I do?" gasped Bab.
With a suddenly formed resolution, she clasped her arms about Grace and
with considerable difficulty--for Grace was now a dead weight--dragged
the unconscious girl from her berth into the aisle. Bab did not pause
for an instant. Handling her friend as tenderly as possible, she began
working her way up the steep aisle, making but slow progress, one arm
about Grace Carter, the other pulling herself and her heavy burden along
by grasping the backs of the seats and the partitions between such of
the berths as were made up.