The Camp Fire Girls Go Motoring; Or, Along the Road That Leads the Way

nto the room and was choking me. When I first awoke I thought that the racketers were still at it below, for from somewhere there came a horrible din. There was the sound

ve they must have been nearly suffocated. We had hard work rousing them. Above the shouts of the people in the street below we could hear an ominous crackling that increased every minute. At first I was so frightened I c

wits and was cool-headed as usual. Margery clung to her

find them, girls," she said calmly,

our hands on the wall, for the smoke was so thick that it was impossible to see a step before us. We reached the stairs at last. After one look we jumped back in alarm. The whole stairway was one mass of leaping flames. I have never seen such a dreadful sight. We groped our way back toward our rooms, which were at the front of the building, intending to lean out of the windows and shout for help from below. But we lost our way in th

ls," it said, and we knew that the ghost was a man with a towel tied over his face. "All of you get in line behind your mother,"

med in a goose line behind Nyoda, each one gripping tightly the hand of the one ahead of her, and thus we began to move forward. After what seemed a hundr

ond story at the back of the building," said

uld have strangled on the verge of being rescued. Without a moment's hesitation the hands that belonged to the towel and the voice seized Nyoda and swung her out of the window as if she had been a feather, and in a moment her "All right" told that she had landed safely

anyway", we heard the voice mutter, "th

ere watching the few that were trying to fight the

our belongings in our hands. With all the rest of her impedimenta Nyoda had rescued her camera, Nakwisi her spy-glass and I my note-book, and they gave us an odd, jaunty tourist appearance which must have been amusing. Well, the people came running with blankets and held them for us to jump an

back enough to thank him he had vanished from the scene. He must have been the proprietor, we judged,

dnight fires. Of course, there was no hope of saving the building, for the few thin streams of water that were playing on it went up in steam as soon as they touched th

less ruin and the people around here won't have to listen to it any more. And even if they do rebuild

been from the east, which drove the flames toward an open square where they could set nothing else afire, but suddenly it veered to the west, and showers of burning brands began to fall

of accident, we took our way among the other cars in the place to where the Glow-worm had stood. Then we rubbed our eyes and looked at each other. For where the Glow-worm had been when we left the place the night before there was an empty space. A hasty search through the place, which was not very large, revealed that the car was gone. Frantically we rushed after the proprietor, who was standing in the doorway

o bring the car back in safety and she was almost beside herself at the thought of its being stolen. None of us ever felt like facing Mr. Evans again. We reproached ourselves a thousand times that we had not gone for the Glow-worm immediately up

d, by a sudden glare from the fire we made out the Glow-worm, proceeding slowly and silently in the opposite direction, and the man at the wheel was the Frog! We all darted after him, shouting "Stop thief!" at the top of our voices. The Frog turned a

and bring him to justice. In our relief from the dismay o

if we had a place to do it, which is extremely doubtful. It's positive folly to leave this car standing around here any longer. That garage man is

own we had lost nothing. The trunk with our extra clothes was carried on the car. We agreed to Nyoda's proposal eagerly. Sleep for the rest of

ing her place behind the wheel. "

t she had been there just a moment ago, clinging to Sahwah's arm and squealing, although we could

rowd," said Nyoda. "You girls run and find

ly, we ran into the garage man and thought it only fair to tell him that we had found the car. He

a tan suit like

ed eagerly, "hav

g away just a minute ago with a ma

man look lik

garage man. "He wore great big green goggles that c

e Frog had run off with Margery! We r

ly thought he had begun to follow us from Toledo. But it might have been only a c

irst, if it was Margery he was

m," said Sahwah, with sta

of hers at all," she said, flatly. "I have a feeling in my bones that he isn't. I also have

thicker than ever and the Glow-worm's eyes shone dimly through the white curtain. We could not go ahead at full speed because we had to proceed slowly and carefully. The f

d so escape us. The fog naturally muffled all sounds, but we recognized at last the steady throbbing of a motor ahead of us on the road and knew that we were on the trail of the fugitives. We didn't know whether the Frog knew we were after him or

ehind," said Sahwah,

suddenness of an apparition. Nyoda had jammed on the emergency brake a half minute before we struck or there would have

light of our lamps, with the terrified Margery near-by. The next minute showed us our mistake. The man who was standing beside his car in the road, when we had

s going to strike something, and the car glanced to one side, so that it was the right front wheel and fender that actually struck. The limousine was in worse shape. Our wheel had jammed into its

ar stood and looked gloomily

re you're going?" h

Nyoda calmly, "and we couldn't see you in the

er the fault of the car. I couldn't make the lights burn. That'

any lights, for he left the limousine and came and looked carefully at what had happened to us. He was much relieved when he saw it was no worse.

tly from the inside of the limousine. Startled, he leaped over and pulled the door open. He turned a pocket flash into the car and we could all see that there was somebo

ed Nyoda. "What ar

embling so she could hardly stand. She looked from one to the other of us with big

into that car?" a

age. And he," she pointed to the man, "d

hide in the car

y uncle came into the garage. I was down on the floor of the limousine and he didn't see me. Just then the driver got up in front and began to take the car out, but I didn't dare open the door and come out. He drove away with me and I didn't know what to do, so I stayed in. T

, "was your uncle the

wasn't. My uncle is a litt

cut," she cried, turning the flashlight full on her face. The blood was running down her cheek from a cut in her forehea

rive on. The man offered to pay for having our wheel fixed and the fender put on again and seemed dreadfully afraid we were going to sue

d. At the time we had thought only of finding out what had become of Margery and had followed him blindly. The fog was getting thicker instead of thinner and it was impossible to see anything like a sign post. A sharp east wind was blowing that chilled us to the bone. It was rather a dismal situation we found ourselves in. Of all kinds of bad wea

want is a collide-o-scope!" Whereupon we all pin

became aware that it was not hard earth we were riding over

field!" cr

f some kind. The bottom was soft mud and to keep from sinking we had to go on across. Luckily it was shallow and not very wide and the water did not come inside the car. Margery screamed all the way across and we had a rather breathless few minutes, until we came out on the farther ba

thick mantle of fog rolling around us as dense as the smoke had been a few hours before. Could it have been only a few hours before that we came near b

er as that. We had had two blankets in the car but there was only one left when we recovered it from the

eparated and lost in the fog. This walk soon turned into a snake dance and then a war dance around the Glow-worm. It must have been a weird sight if anyone had seen us, ghostly figu

sure not many people have been stalled in a fog when on an automobile trip and have had to spend the night dancing to keep warm. Margery didn't see the funny side of it, and you really couldn't b

vering in the car with the one blanket around her

of turning. We got out of the field and followed the road. It was not a regular automobile road and was not sign-posted. We did not know whether we had gone north or south from Wellsville the night before. The fog had us completely turned around. By the position of the sun, the road extended toward the south. How far we had come we could not tell. We tho

ut six in the morning and a few people were stirring in the main street. We found by inquiry that we were in the town of Byron and that by turning to the west beyond the schoolhouse we would strike a road which eventually led to Rochester. "Eventually" was the right word. It certainly was not "directly". It twisted and turned and ended up in fields; it wound back and forth upon itself like a serpent; it dissolved in places into a lake of mud. We didn't go

th one wing off and the wobbling wheel gave it a tipsy appearance.

pins, needl

ves an auto her

ed Sa

wisi, as she came back to the seat a

lied Sahwah, and then bit her tong

singing "Along the Road that Leads the Way". But it was not long before there was a fly in the ointment. Turn