to Mollie in front,
Betty and Grace tumbled out of their car and came running toward them.

"Are you going to get out and eat, in romantic fashion, by the wayside?"
queried Grace, eyeing a pile of sandwiches hungrily. "Or are you going
to sit in state in the car and let us occupy the running board?"

"We'll give you one of the hampers," offered Mrs. Ford, but Mollie
gasped in dismay.

"Oh, please don't," she begged. "Don't you see--there are only two of
them to our three. And you want to give them half the lunch!"

They laughed at her, and Betty offered a solution.

"Far be it from us to rob you, Honey," she said soothingly. "We'll sit
right here on this rock--"

"Oh, goodness! who cares where we sit as long as we get something,"
groaned Grace. "Mollie, I'm dying."

"Well as long as you die out there it's all right," retorted Mollie
unfeelingly. Nevertheless, she handed the sufferer a ham sandwich and a
hard boiled egg, which the latter came as near to grabbing as her good
breeding would permit.

However, when they had finished the lunch, burned up what odds and ends
remained, and had once more started on their way, they found that the
shadow of unhappiness which the excitement of the race had almost
banished, was returning again.

In front with Betty, Grace sighed so dolefully that the Little Captain
looked at her inquiringly, an action which almost brought about a
collision with a tree by the wayside.

"Betty, what are you doing?"

"Trying to kill us," replied Betty serenely. "And if you give any more
sighs like that, I'll do it."

"I didn't know I sighed," said Grace gloomily. "But it wouldn't be any
wonder if I did. I feel as if I were made up of them--sighs, I mean."

Betty was silent a moment, then she asked suddenly:

"When does your father expect to hear from Washington?"

"Not before the end of the week, anyway. And by that time," Grace paused
to control the trembling of her lips, "nobody knows what may have
happened. For all we know Will may be--dead."

CHAPTER VIII

RED RAGS

"Well, we've been making pretty good speed for the last three hours,"
said Mollie, taking first one hand, then the other, from the steering
wheel and stretching her cramped fingers experimentally. "Now if nothing
else happens--"

The sound of an explosion cut short the rest of the sentence, and she
put on the brakes, at the same time tooting a signal to Betty. The
latter stopped her car and came running