direction of the Cleland Hills. To his mind the chief
fun of the expedition lay in simply taking any road that looked
interesting, without regard to sign-posts. The others trusted implicitly
to his powers of path-finding, and had really not the slightest idea in
what part of the country they were traveling. After quite a long time,
however, it occurred to Lilias to ask where they were, and how long it
would take them to get home again.

"We've come such a roundabout route, I scarcely know," replied Everard.
"Those are the Cleland Hills in front of us, though, and if we bowl
straight ahead, and go over them, we shall get to Clacton Bridge; then
we can get the straight highroad back to Cheverley."

"We shan't be home before it's dark, though?"

"Well, no! But the head lights are working all right--I tried them
before we started."

"It will be fun to drive in the dark!" chuckled the boys behind.

"I hope we shall be back before Grandfather and Cousin Clare, though,"
said Dulcie a little uneasily.

The road over the Cleland Hills was much wilder than they expected, and
it was very stony and bad. Up and up they went till walls, hedges and
farms had disappeared, and only the lonely moor lay on either side of
the rough track. It was a place where no motorist in his senses would
have ventured to take a car, the extreme roughness of the road made
steering difficult, and the strain on the tires was enormous. Instead of
driving cautiously, Everard plunged along with all the hardihood of
youth, bumping anyhow over ruts and stones. They were just beyond the
brow of the hill when a loud bang, followed by a grinding sensation,
announced the bad news that one of their tires had burst.

"What beastly bad luck!" lamented Everard, getting out to inspect the
injured cover. "It might have had the decency to keep up till we had
reached civilization! Well, there's nothing for it but to put on the
spare tire. I've helped Milner to do it before, so I can manage. It's a
bother we left the spare wheel at home. I shall want some of you to help
me, though."

Everard had indeed rendered some assistance to the chauffeur on various
occasions, but it was quite another matter to perform the troublesome
operation of changing the tire with only two girls and three young
brothers to lend a hand. In their inexperienced enthusiasm, they did all
the wrong things, very nearly nipped the tube, mislaid the tools, and
pulled where they should have pushed