-bag and your father's cushion. Now, Johnson, just
anywhere! The very first cottage that will take us in!"

Luckily they were not far from a village with a fairly comfortable inn,
where a sympathetic landlady provided bedrooms and hot water. As their
luggage was on the car, it was an easy matter to change, and before very
long both Carmel and her rescuer were in dry garments, and drinking the
hot coffee which Mrs. Rogers insisted upon as a preventive against
catching cold.

"I shall hardly dare to let you out of my sight again, Carmel!" she
said, half laughingly, yet half in earnest. "I don't want to have to
write to your mother and tell her you're drowned!"

"Nonsense!" declared the Major rather testily. "It's not a thing she's
likely to do twice! I should think she'd be frightened to go anywhere
near a river again just yet. Are those clothes dry? Well, never mind,
pack them as they are; we can't wait for them. And the rug, too, just
bundle it up and put it at the bottom of the car. Johnson can brush it
to-morrow. He's a fine chap. I shall write to the 'Humane Society'
about this business. They ought to give him a medal."

"I've tried to thank him," said Carmel, "but directly I begin he dives
away and does something at the car. He doesn't seem to want to be
thanked."

"Oh, that's just Johnson's usual way!" drawled Sheila. "I expect he's
pleased all the same. You look a little more respectable now, Carmel. I
shouldn't have liked to take you into the Hill Crest Hotel as you were
an hour ago! I expect after this stoppage we shall arrive too late to
dress comfortably for dinner, unless Johnson literally tears along, and
then I'm scared out of my wits! What a life! I'd never go motoring for
choice! It's not my idea of a holiday, I must say."

After all, though Johnson seldom exceeded the speed limit, the Rogers
arrived at Tivermouth in ample time for Sheila to don a fascinating
evening costume, and to arrange her fair hair in an elaborate coiffure.
The hotel was full of summer visitors, and in her opinion the large
dining-room with its Moorish decorations, the numerous daintily-spread
little tables, and the fashionable well-dressed crowd who flocked in at
the sounding of a gong were far more entertaining than a wood and a
picnic meal. But Sheila was not fond of "rabbit" holidays.

[Illustration: JOHNSON THE CHAUFFEUR SHOT DOWN THROUGH THE WOOD]

"It beats those old-fashioned places we stayed at in the country towns,