k red yet."

Sure enough, Alice's eyes were suspiciously pink about the corners. Betty
knew that the Guerin girls were unhappy, not alone because they could not
have as many or as pretty frocks as the other girls, but because they
were constantly worried about financial affairs at home. They had both
been made the confidantes of their parents to a greater degree than is
customary in many families, and Betty shrewdly suspected that Norma had
kept her father's books for him.

"I wish I could get hold of that treasure, or a part of it," Betty
thought. "Isn't it maddening to think of a string of pearls at the
bottom of a chasm and the girls to whom it should go struggling along on
next to nothing!"

They were half-way around the lake when the motor slowed down and the
bus stopped.

"What's the matter, George?" Miss Anderson asked.

"Don't know, Ma'am," answered the driver, a rather sleepy-looking
middle-aged man. "Guess I'll have to investigate her."

Scratching his head, he proceeded to "investigate," and at the end of
fifteen minutes hazarded an opinion that they were "out of luck."

"Looks like I'll have to go back to the school garage and get 'em to
send us a tow," he announced pleasantly.

"We want to go to the Academy!" chorused the girls. "We're late now. Oh,
George, can't you fix it?"

"Betty, don't you know anything about cars?" appealed Miss Anderson,
who had discovered that Betty was apt to be invaluable in an emergency
of any kind.

Betty had to confess that her experience had been confined to horses. The
Littell girls had been used to cars all their lives, but like the
majority of such fortunates, knew nothing about them beyond the colors
suitable for upholstery.

"I've helped my dad with his car," ventured Norma diffidently. "This
isn't the same make, but perhaps I can tell what the matter is."

The beautiful, expensive school bus was in fact another type than the
shabby, rattly affair Dr. Guerin made spin over the rough country roads.
However, Betty remembered at least one night, and she knew her experience
had been duplicated by many others, when the noise of the asthmatic
little car had been like sweetest music in her ears.

The doctor's daughter took off her plain jacket, rolled back her white
cuffs, and bent over the engine. George regarded her respectfully, and
Miss Anderson and the girls watched anxiously. If Norma could not send
them on their way it meant the trip must be given up.

N