forced to slacken her speed more and more until now they were barely
crawling along.

"I'm afraid we're in an awfully tight fix," she said at last. "We're
just plowing through this mud, and if it's hard on us, what must it be
for Mollie, whose car is twice as heavy as this. Look behind, will you,
Gracie, and see how she's coming along?"

"She is just coming, and that's all," reported Grace, after a prolonged
scrutiny through the rain-glazed window. "Goodness, we've been out in
storms before, but I never saw anything like this. And listen to that
thunder--o-oh!"

A terrific clap of thunder caused Grace to clap her hands over her ears
with a little moan, while even steady-nerved Betty jumped in her seat
and took a tighter grip of the steering wheel.

"Oh, what shall we do!" cried Grace, for she hated a thunderstorm worse
than she hated anything else on earth. "We can't go on this way, Betty.
We're likely to get struck any moment."

"Well, I don't see that we'll be any less likely to get struck if we
stand still," retorted Betty, a little sharply, for the situation was
becoming wearing, to say the least. "If you can suggest any way that we
can get out of this fix--" the sentence was cut short by a still louder
and more terrifying clap of thunder.

Grace huddled in her seat, miserably trying not to die of fright.

"Is Mollie still following us?" asked Betty, after an interval of weird
flashes, crashing thunder, and rain beating relentlessly against the
glass in front and turning the road to a sea of mud. "If she should get
stuck I don't know what we would do."

"Yes, she's still struggling," replied Grace. "But it's getting so dark
I can't more than just make out the lines of the car. Oh, Betty, don't
you suppose we must be pretty close to Bensington?"

"No, I don't," Betty replied wearily. "You see how we've been
traveling--not more than a snail's pace, and it won't be very long
before we shall have to stop altogether. I'm surprised that Mollie has
been able to keep going so long. You will have to keep your eye on her
all the time, now, Grace, since it is getting so dark. We don't want to
lose her."

"But," Grace suggested hesitantly, "I don't see that we could do them
very much good by staying here with them, if they do get stuck. Wouldn't
it be better to go on and try to make Bensington? Then we could send
help back to them."

"I've thought of that," said Betty simply, "and it would work all right
provided