“Goodbye!” he answered, in a tone of assumed distress.
The girls began to walk very fast, breaking now and then into a run, and talking little, in order to save their breath.
“If we only had a watch!” sighed Marjorie, after they had gone about half a mile.
“You’ll never forgive me, will you, Marj?” wailed Frieda again. In her own mind, she was the chief of sinners.
“Nonsense, Frieda; it was an accident. Oh, look, the sun’s gone in! Now we can’t possibly tell the time.”
“I’m baked!” cried Frieda, stopping suddenly. “I can’t stand this raincoat another minute!”
“Nor I either!” agreed Marjorie; and both girls took them off.
“There’s a house ahead!” announced Marjorie, about ten minutes later. “If we could only get a piece of bread----”
“And find out what time it is,” added the other.
All the while the atmosphere was growing heavier and stiller, and the clouds blacker and blacker. So hot, so tired, so hungry were the girls, however, that they hardly noticed the approaching storm. Keeping their eyes fixed on the house in the distance, they walked with grim determination toward their goal.
The house, though not large, was attractive and well-kept, and the girls greeted it with a sigh of relief.
“I hope we won’t be kidnapped if we dare to go in,” said Marjorie, jokingly.
A pleasant faced woman answered their knock. In a few hurried words, Marjorie told the story, and asked for the time, and for a drink.
“Five minutes of three!” answered the woman, glancing at the clock.
“We’ve lost out!” gasped Frieda. “In five minutes the canoe meet starts!”
“Not if I know it!” said the woman cheerily, throwing wide open the door. “Just look at that rain! Come on inside, or you’ll catch your death of cold!”
And so a second time Harold Mason’s attempt to help Ruth came to naught.
When the young people reached the bathing beach, they were surprised not to find Frieda and Marjorie already there. Nor was there a sign of a Ford car.
“A puncture, I’ll bet!” laughed Ruth. “Harold always does have the worst luck. Remember that time, Jack----”
“Indeed, I do!” he replied. “And weren’t we mad, though! Marj profited by the delay then, didn’t she? But not this time.”
“Well, she and Frieda can easily walk, unless they insist on helping Harold,” said Lily. “I hope they come soon.”