Katherine Stokes

“ Poor Jim had ridden for some miles beside the Comet and they had gone slowly in order to enjoy his company. Then, with a last hand-shake all around and a heart-breaking sigh, he stopped in the middle of the road, his sombrero in one hand and his horse’s reins in the other. And there he stood as still as a statue until the motor car was reduced to a small scarlet dot on the horizon. When he had shaken hands with Nancy, he thrust a small package into her lap. ”

“ The picnic was to begin in the morning. Miss Helen, prepared for an all day trip, was properly surprised when Billie turned the Comet into a little mountain road running between grapevines now heavy with fruit.
Men and women were gathering the grapes in baskets, singing while they worked.
At the top of the mountain was the tiniest little village imaginable, all stucco houses on a dusty street with a church at one end. Next to the church was the inn and standing at the door of the inn was the landlord and owner of the vineyard, Pasquale. ”

“ Billie had made up her mind not to linger. If they must see these men into a safe hiding place it was well to get it over with as soon as possible.
They had not been permitted to light the Comet’s one illuminating eye, but had gone silently and swiftly along. It was now eight o’clock by the motor timepiece, but it was still light enough to see the road winding in front of them like a white ribbon in the blue gray atmosphere.
“We are most there now, young Miss,” Jim Bowles observed respectfully. He admired intensely this intrepid young woman who drove a car better than most men. ”

“ We are all of us in the dumps and have been for more than a day. We are desperately homesick! Aren’t we now, as man to man?”
“Yes,” admitted the others in a gloomy chorus.
“On this the third day of our voyage, while we are still in shallow water, as papa would say, there is not one of us who would not be glad to turn back again to the next railroad station, ship the Comet home by freight and take the first train to West Haven. Isn’t it the truth?”
This frank declaration was greeted in silence.
“Oh, it’s not quite as bad as that, dear,” said Miss Campbell at last. ”

“ Then, after another dip, they dressed and lunched in the restaurant of the splendid bathing pavilion, one of the finest structures of its kind in the world. Again they sat on the beach watching the opalescent mountains. They felt intensely drowsy in the warm, dry air, and by and by sleep descended on them, and they lay like so many enchanted victims by the still waters of that mysterious lake. ”

“ Billie Campbell was just the type of a straightforward, athletic girl to be successful as a practical Motor Maid. She took her car, as she did her class-mates, to her heart, and many a grand good time did they have all together. The road over which she ran her red machine had many an unexpected turning,—now it led her into peculiar danger; now into contact with strange travelers; and again into experiences by fire and water. But, best of all, “The Comet” never failed its brave girl owner. ”

“ Don’t lose a moment in leaving Salt Lake City. They have no case against me, of course, but I am afraid the old villain will keep me here until after Evelyn’s marriage. He’s a very powerful man in this town. I beg of you not to make any efforts to see Evelyn. He is capable of most anything, I think, and it is too late to stop the wedding now.’ Now, wasn’t I right not to let you deliver that note, Billie, dear?” she added triumphantly. “I tell you it is most dangerous interfering with other people’s affairs.” ”

“ And now there came that crucial moment when the Motor Maids and Miss Helen Campbell were obliged to leave the protecting interior of the 195 Comet and mingle with a band of mountain brigands.
“I can’t do it, Mr. Moore. I tell you, I shall simply die of fright,” Miss Campbell whimpered into the ear of Daniel Moore, who seemed like an old and intimate friend in this dangerous situation.
“You must,” he said, giving her his arm. “Keep up and don’t show you are frightened. If you trust them, they’ll do their best for you, as they have promised.” ”

“ Pasquale and Lucia stood in the most theatrical attitudes imaginable, their hands outstretched, exactly like two opera singers when they had reached the closing notes of a grand duetto.
“Ah, Signora, thisa gooda breakfast,—chicken broila—questa bella vista—”
“Good heavens, the man is mad. They are both perfectly mad,” cried poor Miss Campbell rushing to the terrace and almost into the arms of—Oh, horror of horrors! ”

“ She was a princess and feared no man, neither Mormon nor Gentile. Mary walked innocently at her side. Her conscience was clear, and she was not afraid to look the whole world in the face. Then came the guilty ones, pale and silent. Oh, heavens! What it is to have a black secret on one’s soul. The food had no taste. The music clashed inharmoniously, and the murmur of the conversation of other diners grated on their nerves.
“Nancy, dear, you have no appetite,” Miss 254 Campbell was saying, when a waiter approached bearing a long, official-looking envelope on a tray. ”

“ Barney gave a humorous, good-natured grin.
“I’ll defend the ladies,” he said.
The suspense of waiting was almost more than they could endure. Miss Campbell proposed that they pile all the suitcases one on top of the other and take their stand behind them, like an improvised fort.
Billie suggested that they lay them across the road so that the car would be obliged to stop. As for Barney, he leapt on his Texas horse and took his stand like a sentinel in the middle of the road, pistol cocked.
But the Comet appeared before the girls could do anything. ”

“ Thank you!” cried Minnie, kissing Miss Campbell’s small hand with all the fervor of her warm nature.
“Now, Minnie, go about your work as if nothing had happened. The girls will help you, and leave the rest to me. Well,” she observed in a low voice to Daniel Moore, who was standing by the window, looking anxiously out, “if any one had told me this morning that this evening I should be protecting a train robber from the law, I should never have believed them in the world. But things seem to happen out in the West that never could happen in the East.” ”

“ She had never dreamed that hidden deep somewhere behind that granite exterior her father had a real flesh and blood heart.
It was Miss Campbell who had discovered it and it was Miss Campbell who must now pay the penalty of her discovery.
No one ever knew exactly what conversation passed between her and the Mormon gentleman on the terrace that morning after breakfast. But they guessed that the little spinster had received a declaration of love and an offer of marriage. At any rate, half an hour later, she shut herself into her room and refused to appear again until dinner time. ”

“ Nancy was the picture of misery.
“What is it, girls?” whispered Mary in a frightened voice.
“I don’t know,” answered Billie; “but something dreadful has happened, I feel sure. The letter was from the Chief of Police, I think. I did deliver the note to Evelyn Stone, Mary. I know it was wrong to have disobeyed, but I couldn’t see the harm of giving one person a letter from another person.”
“Oh, Billie!” exclaimed Mary, “there is no telling what that dreadful man will do to us. He may put us in jail, too.” ”

“ Then a look of recognition came into his eyes.
“It’s Miss Campbell and the young ladies,” he exclaimed. “So it was your automobile. I had no time to examine it, but I remembered the color was red.”
“If you are feeling quite yourself, now, young feller,” interrupted Barney, “I think we’ll be taking you along to the next village where we can leave you to be dealt with according to the law in these parts.”
“I suppose you won’t believe me, Miss Campbell,” began Peter in a rather weak voice, “but I give you my word of honor I’m not a thief. The real thief has my own car.” ”

“ You may imagine, I am sure, what a sensation our dainty young girls and Miss Campbell, in a beautiful gray silk, made on the rough company now assembled. There were subdued murmurs of surprise 143 and admiration. The few plain weather-beaten looking women who had driven miles across the plains for a glimpse of the Motor Maids, looked down hastily at their own pitiful attempts at finery, and ranchmen and cowboys craned their necks for a glimpse of the fair vision which had been vouchsafed them. ”

“ The journey across the continent has not been an unprofitable one. Through the kindly efforts of Miss Helen Campbell and the Motor Maids, lovers long separated have been reunited; hearts of stone melted into flesh and blood, and bad men transformed into good.
Before they left San Francisco, our young girls on a lark one day consulted a crystal gazer. ”

“ The girls smiled, somewhat relieved that their beloved chaperone had emerged from the one fit of rage in which they had ever seen her.
“But my heart bleeds for that poor girl,” she continued. “I wish I had the power to help her. Has the child no spirit that she permits herself to be forced into this unhappy marriage?”
“Would you really like to help Evelyn Stone if you had a chance, Cousin Helen?” asked Billie suddenly. ”

“ It was no easy matter to crawl through the interstices of barbed wire, and Billie, in her haste, tore a great gaping hole in her automobile coat.
But she pulled off the wrap with the recklessness of a young person who has something far more interesting on hand than pongee coats, and 18 flung it in the road where it was rescued by Miss Campbell.
In the middle of the field lay the flying machine, looking very much like an enormous kite at close range. But where was the human being who so lately had been mounting high into the air? ”

“ After riding hundreds of miles over level prairie grounds, the eyes become accustomed to wide stretches of landscape and the mind, too, takes a broader and more generous outlook on life. What is called “the peace of the plains” seems to brood over the traveler.
Our five motorists were filled with this quietude as they went Westward. All the difficulties of the trip and past dangers were forgotten. They were as peaceful as holy pilgrims journeying toward Mecca. At last, late in the afternoon, Billie suddenly stopped the car and pointed silently toward the setting sun. ”

“ For awhile things seemed rather dull to Miss Campbell and the Motor Maids, such a romantic 29 halo encircles the head of him who flies through the air, and this ingratiating Peter Van Vechten, with his reddish hair and his keen brown eyes, also his polished manners, left a very deep impression on them all. ”

“ They were glad to get back to the Comet again and glad to be on the road.
Already they seemed to have been traveling an endless time. But the first day of a long journey always affects people in this way. For some inexplicable reason they were a little homesick. The monotony of this level country oppressed them, endless green fields, which had once been vast prairie lands, covered with waving grass and a multitude of wild flowers.
Late that afternoon, when they stopped for gasoline at a garage in a thriving little village, a group of men stood about the door talking. ”

“ Sand hills and plains, plains and sand hills, stretching out indefinitely and interminably. There was only one bit of color in all the monotonous landscape. A flash of red on the desert.
Six weary travelers, brown as Indians, hot and thirsty, their clothes, their hair, their eyes and nostrils filled with a fine dust. But a good traveler never complains and not one voice was lifted in protest.
Bang! went a tire—the second that day. Billie wearily stopped the motor and climbed out followed by the others. ”

“ How strange it seemed to Miss Campbell, her four girls dancing among these queer people. No wonder the other dancers forgot the figures of the reel while they drank in the picture of their fresh young faces. It was to them as if a garden of roses had suddenly sprung up in the desert.
“Down the center,” called the musician. “Now, right and left all around.”
The fiddle whined. The guitar thrummed passionately. Miss Campbell’s head was in a whirl.
“Ought we to have taken the risk of this 153 visit?” she kept saying. “When one is traveling one must have experiences,” her thoughts continued. ”

“ He smiled ruefully as they gathered around him.
“If we could only do something,” exclaimed Billie. “We can never forgive ourselves for having taken you for a thief. I hope you will accept our apologies.”
“Don’t ever let it trouble you any more,” he replied. “I had almost forgotten it really. When one flies very high in the air, one forgets lots of things that happen on the earth beneath.”
He turned again to his machine.
“It’s a beastly break,” he exclaimed, exasperated.
All this time, Nancy’s mind was very busy, trying to recall something. ”

“ Be silent and go quietly, or you’ll be a raving lunatic in five minutes. Of course the whole ranch will set out to find you as soon as they know you are actually lost. And of course they will find you. There can be no doubt of that. You are not going to die yet. You are far too young and strong and fond of 165 life and—and hungry,” she added with a little quaver in her voice.
But not again did Billie give way to the delirium of the lost. With her back to the sun she hurried on, not even a village of prairie dogs attracting her absorbed attention. ”