d yet they were delighted, for they had set their minds on beating
their earlier mark.

Halfway down the hill they passed Linda and her group, who had drawn up
at one side to let them pass. Even at that breakneck rate of speed they
could see the sneer on Linda's lips as she recognized the sled and its
crew.

But they were nearing the curve now and Nan's eyes were fastened on the
path ahead while she tightly gripped the wheel.

"Hold fast, girls!" she warned, as they neared the bend in the road and
the sled swerved at her touch.

The next instant they rounded the curve, and a cry of horror burst from
their lips.

Directly in their path was an elderly woman who had just started across
the road.

She looked up as she heard them scream. Terror and bewilderment came
into her face. She started back, then forward. Then, utterly paralyzed
with fright, she stood helpless in the path of the bobsled that was
rushing toward her with the speed of an express train.

The girls shouted at her, but her brain, numbed by fear, refused to act.

"Oh, she'll be killed!" wailed Grace.

"Oh, Nan, can't you do something?" cried Bess frantically.

Nan's brain was working like lightning. She was white to the lips, but
never for an instant did she lose her presence of mind.

At the left of the road was an almost solid row of trees. It was certain
death to turn that way. At the right there was an opening that led into
a little glade. She determined to steer into that.

She swerved the sled in that direction. She could have made it if the
woman had remained where she was. But just then she backed a step to the
right. The sled struck her and hurled her aside, and she went down with
a scream.

CHAPTER II

NEARLY A TRAGEDY

The collision changed the direction of the bobsled, and by the merest
fraction it escaped striking a tree. Nan, however, despite her mental
anguish, kept her head and dexterously guided it into the glade, where
it found soft snow and gradually came to a stop.

Then the frightened girls rose and rushed as fast as they could toward
the victim of the accident, who was lying still in a heap of snow at the
side of the road.

Nan dropped on the snow beside her and took her head in her arms, while
Rhoda put her hand on the woman's heart.

"Oh," sobbed Grace, "we've killed her!"

"No, we haven't," replied Rhoda. "I can feel that her heart is beating.
She's fainted, either from pain or fright or both, poor