e was seeking was in that car ahead.

It was a thrilling race. Ruth said no word, but she knew that her
companion was aware that she was chasing that car. Mrs. Cameron sat
straight and tense as if it had been a race of life and death, her cheeks
glowing and her eyes shining. Ruth was grateful that she did not talk.
Some women would have talked incessantly.

The other car did not go in to Chester proper at all, but veered away
into a branch road and Ruth followed, leaping over the road as if it had
been a gray velvet ribbon. She did not seem to be gaining on the car; but
it was encouraging that they could keep it still in sight. Then there
came a sharp turn of the road and it was gone. They were pulsing along
now at a tremendous rate. The girl had cast caution to the winds. She was
hearing the complacent sneer of Harry Wainwright as he boasted how they
would get John Cameron into trouble, and all the force of her strong
young will was enlisted to frustrate his plans.

It was growing dusk, and lights leaped out on the munition factories all
about them. Along the river other lights flashed and flickered in the
white mist that rose like a wreath. But Ruth saw nothing of it all. She
was straining her eyes for the little black speck of a car which she had
been following and which now seemed to be swallowed up by the evening.
She had not relaxed her speed, and the miles were whirling by, and she
had a growing consciousness that she might be passing the object of her
chase at any minute without knowing it. Presently they came to a junction
of three roads, and she paused. On ahead the road was broad and empty
save for a car coming towards them. Off to the right was a desolate way
leading to a little cemetery. Down to the left a smooth wooded road wound
into the darkness. There were sign boards up. Ruth leaned out and flashed
a pocket torch on the board. "TO PINE TREE INN, 7 Miles" it read. Did she
fancy it or was it really true that she could hear the distant sound of a
car among the pines?

"I'm going down this way!" she said decidedly to her companion, as if her
action needed an explanation, and she turned her car into the new road.

"But it's too late now," said Mrs. Cameron wistfully. "The train will be
gone, of course, even from Wilmington. And you ought to be going home.
I'm very wrong to have let you come so far; and it's getting dark. Your
folks will be worrying about you. That man will likely do his best to get
him