GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD.
California at last!
To most of the girls, who had never been farther west than Wyoming, this
state, with its renowned climate and its beautiful scenery, appeared
even lovelier than they had pictured it. The mountains and canyons, the
wonderful Yosemite Valley with its tall trees; the great stretches of
smooth road, seemed like heaven after the desert. For a time the
travellers forgot their losses, their anxiety, and even their rewards in
their admiration of the country.
It was Marjorie who first brought their thoughts back to the practical
side of life.
“Girls, how many of you would be willing to keep on going for a couple
of hours after supper? It doesn’t get dark for a good while, and since
we haven’t any camp to pitch, we might as well make use of every minute.
We can’t afford to waste any time, you know!”
“That’s a splendid idea!” cried Ethel. “Only one thing I beg—let’s be
sure to get the car into a garage for the night!”
“Maybe we better insure it,” suggested Lily. “For if this one were
stolen, we would be left.”
“We wouldn’t be left,” returned Ethel. “Because we’d manage to get there
somehow, even if we had to hike!”
“But then we wouldn’t earn our automobiles!”
“So we’d have to walk back,” concluded Marjorie. “Well, girls, we’ll see
to it that we don’t lose this car. Now—to go back to my first
suggestion, what do you say to a little ride after supper?”
To her joy she found all the others heartily in favor of the
proposition; so after a good substantial meal, they set off again in the
early twilight.
“How long shall we drive?” asked Alice, who was taking her turn at the
wheel.
“Till about nine o’clock I should suggest,” said Mrs. Remington. “The
first good-looking hotel after that—”
“With a garage!” put in Lily.
“Yes, with a garage. At least if we find that we can secure rooms. And
if we can’t, we’ll drive on.”
“Just as long as we don’t have to drive all night,” remarked Marjorie.
“Like that night we met the woman and the sick child.”
“The child that wasn’t sick, you mean,” corrected Alice.
The girls drove along merrily; indeed, it seemed almost as if the theft
of the smaller car had not been a misfortune, so enjoyable it was never
to be separated. They watched the sun set beneath the horizon; then, in
a few minutes, the cars which they passed began to show lights, and they
realized that evening was coming on. A little after dark they came to a
broken piece of the road where a detour was necessary. Alice stopped
short in time to let the girls make a decision.
“Shall we go on?” she asked.
“It just depends,” observed Marjorie, “upon how far the detour lasts. If
it keeps up off the main road for a good distance, I should say that we
had better turn back to that hotel we just passed.”
“No! No!” protested Alice. “Don’t let’s do that—when time is so
precious!”
“But if we don’t know where we are going—” objected Lily.
“On! On!” cried Florence, dramatically. “We want to get to the coast!”
“And what care we for danger?” challenged Alice.
A daring spirit of adventure seemed to have taken possession of the
little party, for they one and all agreed that they wanted to press on.
Alice gladly turned to the wheel again, and released her brakes.
They continued on the same road for about fifteen minutes; all the while
the cars which they passed became fewer and fewer, and the road more
narrow and rough. Then they began to look anxiously for detour signs, or
for a hotel; but neither appeared. Finally Alice declared that she knew
that they were lost.
“Here’s a building with a light—let’s stop here and inquire!” she
suggested. “Probably they can direct us back to the Lincoln Highway.”
“But we won’t all go in and leave the car alone this time,” remarked
Florence, with a significant glance at Alice. “The same thief might come
along again!”
“I’ll go and ask,” volunteered Mrs. Remington.
She disappeared into the building, and the girls fell to discussing
their misfortunes, and the possibility of regaining any of their lost
property. They had reported the theft of the Rolls-Royce at Salt Lake
City, but they hardly expected to hear of it again; the food and the
uniforms they counted as gone forever.
The conversation dragged, for the girls were growing tired; they could
think of nothing but their desire to find lodging for the night. They
began to look impatiently for Mrs. Remington.
“I do wish she’d hurry!” yawned Florence. “I’m beginning to feel pretty
sleepy!”
“If only we had our camping outfit!” mourned Alice. “We could go to bed
right here!”
“Girls, Mrs. Remington is coming out now!” Marjorie informed them.
“Look—and some children are with her!”
“These girls don’t know a thing about the Lincoln Highway,” said Mrs.
Remington when she reached the car, “but they are so anxious to hear
something about the Girl Scouts that I thought maybe we could go in and
let them see our uniforms, and do a little signalling—”
“But we’re dirty, and tired,” grumbled Florence. “We can give them the
Headquarters’ address—”
“Do a good turn daily!” murmured Alice, under her breath.
“We’ll be delighted!” announced Marjorie, immediately. “At least, if you
girls can assure us of finding some place to stay for the night.”
“Oh, somebody will surely take you in!” their leader told them. “There
is a boarding house about half a mile up the road.”
“Then let Lily and me stay and watch the car,” urged Florence. “The rest
of you go in—we don’t dare take any chances!”
Putting aside their own sense of fatigue, the girls followed the
children back to the building, and gave them a thorough demonstration of
scouting, explaining as they proceeded. Their audience was thrilled;
with shining eyes they followed every detail, and showed such intense
gratitude that the girls forgot all about their weariness.
It was after ten o’clock when they finally left the building and climbed
into the machine once more. Florence had turned it around, and sat at
the wheel in readiness. They all felt that it would be best to get back
to the Lincoln Highway again, and there hunt for a place to spend the
night, instead of risking the unknown boarding house the children had
mentioned.
It was not, however, such an easy task as they had hoped; in the
darkness they failed to recognize any of the land-marks which they had
noted in the twilight, and because of the roughness of the road they
were forced to proceed slowly and carefully.
“I think we have passed it,” remarked Florence, after they had been
driving for some time.
“But we couldn’t have!” protested Alice. “Even in the dark we would be
able to see any road crossing this.”
“Then we’ve strayed on to another road. I’m sure we weren’t so far from
the highway; we should have crossed it long ago.”
“And I’m sure there was no road leading from this that we could stray
into,” insisted Alice.
“Then why don’t we come to it?”
“Maybe Aunt Emeline had it moved back a few miles, just to annoy us,”
suggested Ethel.
“I think you’re all wrong,” said Lily. “I’ve noticed before, when
driving at night, that if you’re looking for a road it always seems
farther away.”
“Lily’s right,” agreed Marjorie. “Of course we came out lots faster than
we are going back; we could see the ruts then and avoid them. Don’t you
think so, Captain?”
“Very likely,” answered Mrs. Remington. “I do think we’re on the right
road, and we’ll reach the highway if we only keep on going.”
“I see a light ahead!” announced Ethel, who was sitting in front with
Florence.
“So do I!” said Lily. “Two lights!”
“That’s an approaching car!”
“At least we can ask for directions,” declared the ever-ready Marjorie.
“Pull over to the right, Flos, and stop when they get to us.”
They could see by the bobbing of the lights that the other car was
approaching at a pretty rapid pace, regardless of road. In another
moment it was upon them, but showed no signs of turning out.
“Now!” cried Marjorie; and Florence swung the car sharply to the side of
the road and applied the brakes.
“Just in time to avoid a collision,” growled Lily. “Where do they think
they are driving like that—”
But even as they stopped, the other car came to an abrupt halt too, a
few yards ahead of them, the brakes screeching shrilly in the night.
With the full glare of the other car’s headlights in their eyes, the
girls could just make out the two figures which descended from the
machine.
“Can you tell us, please,” called Marjorie, “whether this road will take
us to the Lincoln Highway?”
The answer, when it came, was like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky.
“Hands up!” ordered a rough voice; and two men approached.
The girls were thrown immediately into helpless, speechless panic. So
great was their consternation that they even failed to do as the man
commanded. “Hold up yer hands, I say!” he roared, advancing to the side
of the car, threatening them with a revolver.
Obediently, seven pairs of hands were elevated.
“Ye Gods! Bill,” called the ruffian to his companion. “’tain’t nothin’
but a carload of girls!”
“Easy pickins, I’ll say!” remarked the other.
The men now stood revealed in the gleam of their own headlights. They
were clad in soiled overalls and jumpers, and looked like ordinary
mechanics except for the masks which covered their faces
completely—rudely improvised masks consisting of nothing more than
pocket handkerchiefs with eyeholes cut in them. But they looked weird
enough, and it was no wonder the girls were frightened.
“Ladies,” said the man with the gun, who seemed to be the leader, “we
hate to disturb you, and all that sort of thing, but we’re badly in need
of ready cash. So I just guess you’ll have to oblige us with some.”
“You mean you want to steal our money?” cried Daisy.
“Yes, dearie, if you have t’ put it that way. Shell out’s the word,”
replied the man, laughing.
With a sigh of resignation, Mrs. Remington lowered her hands long enough
to produce her purse, which she dropped reluctantly into the
outstretched hands of the bandit, and the girls followed her example.
Marjorie was among the last to surrender her purse. After the first
moment of surprise, she had quickly recovered her wits, and was casting
about for some method of escape; for she noticed that the man with the
revolver failed to keep them covered with it when he saw that they were
all girls, and had even replaced the gun in his pocket.
“If I can only get hold of my revolver without arousing his suspicions,
I’ll have the drop on him, and make him give the money back. The other
man won’t dare do anything for fear I’ll shoot his companion.”
These thoughts flashed through her mind with lightning rapidity, and she
determined to take a chance. Under pretence of reaching for her purse,
she calmly directed her hand to the pocket where she always carried her
revolver, a gift from John Hadley. Alas, the pocket was empty! Then she
recalled having put it away in her bag the day they had washed their
uniforms. It galled her exceedingly to hand over her purse without
resistance. If only Jack and John were with them! But she realized that
it was useless to think of resistance now. She could not help saying,
however, as she submitted like the other girls:
“You ought to be ashamed of yourselves—two men robbing a party of
girls!”
“We are, dearie, we are. It almost breaks our hearts. In fact, you’d
better hand over your jewelry to console us!”
“We haven’t anything but our watches,” replied Mrs. Remington, quietly.
“Girl Scouts in uniform don’t wear jewelry.”
“Wal, fork ’em over!” ordered their persecutor. Each scout slipped off
her wrist-watch and handed it to the bandit. The man surveyed the
articles sullenly, and seeming satisfied returned to his own car. His
companion had already started the engine, and without any other words
they drove past the girls and sped away into the darkness.
The girls’ tongues were loosened now; they all began to talk at once.
Anger was the predominating sentiment—anger at being so taken in; but
there was also relief at being freed with their lives.
“A pretty pair of cowards!” snapped Marjorie.
They all turned naturally to Mrs. Remington for the solution of their
problem.
“We have some travellers’ checks in our trunk,” she said.
“Well, we needn’t say a word about paying at the hotel until tomorrow,”
said Ethel. “Luckily, hotels aren’t pay-as-you-enter-contrivances. We
can settle later.”
“That’s so!” exclaimed Marjorie, joyfully. “But are you sure that we
have enough money to get us to San Francisco?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” replied the older woman.
Florence started the car again, and they turned their attention to
watching for the Lincoln Highway. It was not long before they spied the
detour sign in the distance, and knew that a hotel was not far off.
“Here we are!” cried Marjorie, after they had proceeded about half a
mile. “Here—on the right!”
“But it’s closed!” protested Florence.
“So is most everything now,” put in Lily. “It must be nearly midnight.”
“Yes, we’ll have to rouse them,” said Mrs. Remington. “Marjorie, come on
out with me while we see.”
It was another fifteen minutes before they were rewarded with an answer.
“Yes, we can put you up,” replied the proprietor sleepily, “but we
haven’t any room in the garage for your car!”
The girls, who had all heard this reply, looked at each other
despairingly.
“Our car is the only thing we have left!” wailed Alice; “we’ve been
robbed of food, and clothing, and jewelry, and money—”
“And another car,” added Lily.
The proprietor regarded them sympathetically; if what they said was
true, they certainly had been having a rough time.
“You must have enemies,” he remarked. “Nobody could have all those
misfortunes just by chance!”
“But we haven’t any enemies!” protested Alice. “Only some bootleggers
whom we prosecuted last year—and they’re in jail!”
“Well, I am sorry for you,” the man concluded; “and I guess I can find a
safe place for your car under my shed. Only, if the place burns down
I’ll lose my insurance—but I guess I’ll take a chance. You look pretty
tired!”
They put the car away where he indicated, and crept wearily up the
stairs to their rooms. The little clock that Mrs. Remington kept in her
suit-case informed them that it was one o’clock in the morning—the
beginning of a new day, the thirtieth of July. Yet they went to bed with
a sense of victory in their hearts; they still possessed one car, and
enough money to get them to their destination. Moreover, two days
remained to complete their trip to the coast!