und out later.

"Well, there's no help for it," sighed Walter.

"We'll have to go to the show alone," added Ed.

"If we could only find some nice girls," spoke Norton.

"We don't know a soul in town," declared Jack. "If that Dunn fellow had
been half-way decent he'd have made some arrangement about us after he
stole away the girls. Well, there's no use wasting all the tickets. Come
on to the show."

So the boys went, but they did not have a very good time by themselves,
and there was some amusement among the audience over four good-looking
boys occupying eight seats.

As for Cora and the girls, they had a delightful dance. It had turned out
as Norton had said. The girls, proceeding on ahead with Mrs. Fordam, after
Jack and the boys had stopped to look after Norton's car, had met young
Dunn and his companions out for a spin. Cora knew them at once, and the
young men, delighted at the prospect of such charming partners at a dance
they had almost elected to forgo, invited the motor girls to it.

Mrs. Fordam, who was a distant relative of young Dunn's father, had
consented to the arrangement. The girls and she slipped away after Jack
came in with the theatre tickets, proceeded to attire themselves most
becomingly, and had been met by their escorts, who lavishly hired big
cars to take their friends to the affair. Then Jack and his chums had
been handed the note which Cora left for them. It had all been very simple.

"Wasn't it glorious!"

"The floor was just splendid!"

"And those boys knew so many nice fellows."

"My card was filled almost before I knew it."

"The music was lovely!"

Thus chattered the motor girls as they came back to the hotel rather
late--or was it early? with Mrs. Fordam. They saw Jack sitting
disconsolately in the parlor, trying hard to keep awake by reading.

"Well, so you're back!" he exclaimed to Cora, rather shortly.

"Yes, brother mine!" she laughed tantalizingly.

"Well, it's about time," he growled.

"Why, how long have you been back?" she asked. "I hear that it was quite a
long and--tiresome--show. I'm sorry we had to disappoint you, but really
we had no other way of telling you where we were going. It was a lovely
dance!"

"Yes," said Jack, coldly.

"And we hope you had time to embroider another sign for our car," added
Bess. Really, she said later, she could not help it.

"Um!" grunted Jack. "I sat up for you," he added to his sister.

"There was no need, Jack. We had