Chapter XV: Boys to the Rescue

Never had a ride seemed so treacherous. Sharp turns threatened to overturn the cars and the brakes, on slippery hills, were of little use. Fortunately the engines of both machines were in perfect running order and in spite of the bad conditions of the roads the _Comet_ and the _Get There_ pegged along, through mud and slush, sometimes sinking deep in the former, and ploughing madly through the latter.

"I thought I saw a light," said Ed to Walter, after a period of hard driving.

"Where?" asked the pilot of the _Comet_.

"To the left--what place can that be?"

Jack's attention was called to a distant but faint gleam, and, presently, the runabouts had left the main road, and were chugging through the heaviest track they had yet encountered. They turned in between what seemed to be tall gate-posts.

"Why--this is--a graveyard!" exclaimed Jack, as the headlight fell on a shaft across a tall monument.

"Well that's--something, over there," declared Ed. "And I--see it--move!" He slackened the speed of the car.

"Now for real ghosts!" Walter could not refrain from remarking, although the situation was far from reassuring.

"This is a cemetery, all right," went on Jack. "What's the use of us ploughing over--graves? Let's get out. We took the wrong turn, I guess."

"Let's give a call," suggested Walter, at the same moment squeezing two or three loud "honk-honks" on his horn.

"Hark!"

"Honk! Honk! Honk--honk--honk!"

"That's Cora's signal," shouted Jack. "Hurry on ahead, Walter. They are some place in this cemetery."

But it was not so easy to hurry over the gruesome driveway, for it was narrow and uncertain, and the heavy rains had washed out so many holes, that the boys felt an uncanny fear that a sudden turn might precipitate them into some strange grave.

"Where are you!" yelled Jack at the top of his voice. "Turn on your lights!" pleaded Walter, without waiting for a possible answer. "We can't tell where you are!"

As quickly as it could have been possible to do so, the strong searchlight of a car (surely it was Cora's) gleamed over the shafts of stone, and marble, that now seemed like so many pyramids, erected to confuse the way of the alarmed young men.

"We can't cut over the headstones," almost growled Ed. "What on earth do folks want those things sticking up for?"

The absurdity of the remark was lost on the others.

"If the girls are around they must have been blown in here," declared Jack, making a sudden turn, and jamming the foot-brake to keep the machine on its wheels, while he released the clutch.

"Here! Here!" came the unmistakable voice of Cora.

"Which way?" Jack called back.

"Look out for the lake! Turn in from the vault!" came the voice again, and none too soon, for without the drivers having any idea of being near a body of water, both runabouts a moment later, were actually on the very brink of a dangerous-looking lake.

"Gosh!" exclaimed Walter. "We nearly got ours that time. I'm going to get out and walk."

"Great idea," agreed Ed, and at the same time Jack also left his car.

More shouting and more answers soon put the searchers on the right track, and, although they were obliged to run over graves, and otherwise forget the sacredness of their surroundings, the trio soon brought up back of the vault, where the lamps of the _Whirlwind_ and of the _Flyaway_ told the first part of the strange story.

"Oh, boys!" gasped Belle and Bess in one breath.

"Jack!" exclaimed Cora.

"Thank fortune!" came the fervent words from Mrs. Robinson.

Jack had Cora in his arms before he could say a word, Walter and Ed divided themselves among the frightened group as best they could. Belle really fell into some one's arms, and Bess had difficulty in clinging to her trembling, little mother.

"Another moment in this dreadful place, and I should have died!" wailed Mrs. Robinson.

"And to think that it was all my fault, that you came out just to let me--see the--ocean," cried the visitor, Miss Steel of Chicago. "I shouldn't have consented----"

"Nonsense!" interrupted Bess. "You had nothing to do with the accident. It was all the fault of that--disgraceful--man. He is no more a chauffeur--than----"

"I knew he would do something dreadful!" put in Belle, who was sobbing hysterically, while Walter tried to comfort her.

For some moments the scene was one of confusion, punctuated with such remarks as would spring from the frightened lips unbidden by brain or effort. Then the storm seemed to suddenly clear away, and with the passing of the rain went the black blankets that had hidden the lights from the sky.

It seemed almost uncanny that the stars and moon should flash so suddenly over the heads of the party in the cemetery, and reveal to them the marble shafts, and granite headstones glaring in ghostly whiteness.

"Let's get out of here," spoke Jack, giving his terrified sister a reassuring hug. "Cora, you are drenched through!" he exclaimed.

"Well, I tried to be on the lookout," she stammered, "and so I could not keep under shelter."

"What on earth happened?" asked Ed, following Jack's example, and assisting Mrs. Robinson and Miss Steel over the rough mounds into the pathway.

"Suppose we delay investigations," suggested Walter. "The ladies have certainly had a most unpleasant experience."

"Unpleasant!" repeated Bess. "It was simply dreadful!"

"How long have you been here?" asked Jack.

"A life time!" ejaculated Belle.

"And we were just approaching the re-incarnate state," added Cora, with a desperate attempt at frivolity.

"Did you see any ghosts?" asked Ed, almost lifting the little Miss Steel over a rough spot.

"Did we!" mocked Belle.

"Oh, I mean the kind that--shine," explained Ed. "Not the mental species."

"Belle had a regular series of apparitions," declared Bess, now running from the terror state into one of extreme hilarity, the natural reaction from her awful experience.

"But we have to wait for that--chauffeur," wailed Mrs. Robinson.

"Why should we wait for him?" asked Jack.

"He has gone for something,--Cora knows," concluded the woman helplessly.

"Why, when I found my starting system was out of commission he said it was best for him to go and get new batteries. So he hurried off in his car, to go to the shop we passed out on the turnpike. It was then we discovered we were in the graveyard. He had turned in here by the merest accident. It was so dreadfully dark."

"He mistook this road for the one to Wayside," interrupted Belle.

"And ran off and left you in a cemetery," said Ed with a sneer.

"But we couldn't go on without the _Whirlwind_," argued Cora. "Had it been one of the smaller cars that failed we might have managed."

"And he didn't try to fix your batteries?" inquired Walter.

"Why, he said he--couldn't," answered Cora in a tone of voice that betrayed her own suspicions.

"We really cannot go on without him," declared Mrs. Robinson, feeling that it was due to her matronly reputation to stand firm for the chauffeur.

"We really _must_ go on without him," declared Jack. "Are we to catch our deaths of cold here, waiting for the return of a man, who should never have gone away? I have an idea that the fellow was simply scared, and so left his post----"

"Oh, indeed!" interrupted Belle, "he did everything he could to fix the _Whirlwind_, but Cora declared it would not spark, and so he said he had to go for batteries. You see we could not possibly go on without the big car."

"Well, we will start off. If we should meet him on the road we might--speak to him," said Jack with a sort of growl, "but personally I don't think the fellow worth that much consideration."

"There will be plenty of room in all the good cars now," added Ed, "and we can come out to-morrow and get the _Whirlwind_."

"But I cannot go, and leave my car behind," objected Cora. "I have never left it--on the road yet!"

"Let's look it over," suggested Jack, who knew very well that it would be next to impossible to induce Cora to go on without her machine.

Feeling secure now, the entire party set to the task of looking over the _Whirlwind_, even the ladies taking part by holding the lights, and otherwise assisting the young men, who went to work to put the ignition system back into commission.

It did not take the boys long to discover what was the trouble, and in a short time there was enough spark to start the _Whirlwind_. The car was cranked up, Jack was at the wheel, while Ed had put the _Get There_ in a position to go ahead, and assumed control of the runabout.

It was not, however, so simple a matter to get the cars out of the cemetery, so the boys directed the girls and ladies to walk to the road, while the youths managed, by much twisting and turning, to run the machines to an open space. This finally accomplished, Mrs. Robinson got in the _Whirlwind_, while Miss Steel took her place with Ed in the _Get There_.

What a beautifully clear night had emerged from the folds of that storm!

And what a delightful thing it was to ride in safety after the dreadful experience of being "shipwrecked" in a graveyard!

"I wish we had invited you to come," said Belle to Walter and Jack, as the _Flyaway_ glided on near the other cars.

"I wish we had come without being invited," amended Jack.

"Next time we will not try to keep secrets," declared Bess.

"Next time we will not let you have any to keep," insisted Jack, "especially if there is a road ride in the combination."

"What time is it?" asked Cora. "I haven't dared look at my watch."

"The magical hour," replied Ed. "It was a pity to leave the graveyard just then. It is exactly midnight."

"And there is a light by the road over there," went on Cora. "What ever could have induced that man to leave the road and drive down into the cemetery? He _must_ have known."

"He's--well, wait until I get back to Chelton," threatened Jack. "I guess we will have some fun with that fellow's license."

"Had we better stop at that house, and get some refreshment for you?" asked Walter. "Or would you rather go right on to the Wayside, where you can remove your wet clothing?"

This last suggestion was considered the more practical, and very soon the _Whirlwind_, the _Comet_, the _Flyaway_ and the _Get There_ were gliding as smoothly over the wet and muddy roads, as if the machines had never put their occupants into the panic of fear and terror that had furnished the motor girls such a very thrilling experience.

"There are the Wayside lights!" announced Jack.

"Thank goodness!" said Mrs. Robinson, fervently. "I, for one, have had enough of night auto rides!"