start back. I may meet the whole
party any time, now."

Billie and Nancy, therefore, settled themselves to rest on two benches
near the lake while the good doctor trudged off along the dusty road.

In the meantime, Mary, who had more than overtaxed her strength that
day, gave Percy and Elinor a bad fright by toppling over in a faint.
They brought her to with water which Percy carried from a brook in his
hat, and then carried her into the wood a bit where she could lie on the
pine needles and rest her head in Elinor's lap. But Percy hurried back
to the road to keep watch, and seeing a motor car broken down in the
distance hastened to catch up with it. It was a strange car, however,
and the chauffeur had not seen the "Comet."

And all this while, Ben and Miss Campbell, having waited an incalculable
time at the second bridge, had gone on for half a mile. Few people can
stand the test of being kept waiting. Their patience may be
inexhaustible but their judgments are apt to take a bad twist and bring
them right about face in the wrong direction.

It is true that Ben had yielded to Miss Campbell in going beyond the
supposed meeting place, and now to make matters worse, the "Comet" came
to an inexplicable standstill. Poor Ben, with small knowledge of what to
do, began a long and wearisome investigation of unfamiliar machinery.

There was something of the dumb driven animal in Ben when he entered
unfamiliar territory, and his slow plodding methods had been known to
irritate Miss Campbell profoundly.

And now, one more separation remained to complete the disbandment of
this innocent party of pleasure. Ben, shamefaced and very humble, was
obliged to confess to Miss Campbell that he could not locate the trouble
with the "Comet." Deeply he regretted his inefficiency, but there was
nothing to do but give up.

"I'm thinking," he said, "that maybe I had better walk back a little
ways and see if the others aren't coming up behind us."

"Very well," answered Miss Campbell with dignity. "You may go. I
suppose nobody would wish to harm an old woman."

Presently, therefore, she found herself alone in the wilderness. There
was something almost human and comforting about the "Comet," however,
that faithful mechanism that had borne them on so many pilgrimages, and
Miss Campbell addressed herself to him as to a human companion.

"I just believe you had more sense than that stupid Ben Austen," she
said. "You wouldn't go on because yo