in the world which to take."

"Oh!" gasped Amy.

Mrs. Ford gave a low whistle as she saw the fix they were in.

"Then if Betty doesn't realize our predicament and come back pretty
soon, we'll either have to stay here indefinitely, or go back the way we
came, is that it?"

"Yes," nodded Mollie, adding truthfully and more than a little
anxiously: "Only I'm not quite sure I know just how we came. As I said,
this is unfamiliar country to me."

Amy groaned.

"Then we shall be lost for fair," she said. "Oh, why did Betty do such a
foolish thing?"

Mollie was about to retort when a cloud of dust in the distance and a
faint chug-chug made her swallow her words.

"What's that?" she cried. "It sounds like a motor. I wonder--"

"Yes, it is!" cried Amy, straining her eyes to see through the cloud of
dust. "It's only a little car, and it's coming at about ninety miles an
hour."

At this reference to Betty's speed, Mollie winced a little but gave a
relieved sigh nevertheless. For by this time the car was near enough to
be identified beyond doubt. It was a racer, and there was a girl at the
wheel.

A few moments later Betty herself, with a grin, hailed them.

"Hello," she cried, adding as the car slowed to a standstill: "This time
the joke's on us. We were so busy running away from you that we took the
wrong road. This one ends about two miles up in somebody's farm."

"It's lucky something stopped you," said Mollie dryly, adding as she
cocked one eye at the sun: "Well, let's be getting along. We'll have to
hurry and make up for lost time."

"Do you still want to get ahead of us?" asked Betty, as a moment later
she swung her car into the right road. "Because if you do--"

"Go on," cried Mollie, exasperated, yet beginning to laugh, for after
all Mollie was a good loser. "Some way or other I'll get even with you,
Betty Nelson. Meanwhile hustle!"

And Betty hustled, with Mollie keeping just far enough behind to avoid
the cloud of dust the little car threw up. For an hour more the motors
purred rhythmically, eating up mile after mile, until finally the girls
were compelled by ravenous and healthy appetites to stop for lunch.

They had brought two big hampers, packed full with sandwiches, fruit and
cake and also something to drink, and after the long ride in the open
the very thought of these delicacies brought, as Grace said, "the tears
of longing to their eyes."

As Mrs. Ford handed one of the baskets over the seat