“Crickity grasshoppers! I think it would be fun,” laughed Bert. “Look, we have plenty of sandwiches left!”
“Perhaps it’s a good thing we have them,” said his father. “There is no restaurant around here, I’m sure.”
“We have three bottles of soda water left, too,” went on Bert. He had bought more than was really needed for lunch.
Mr. Bobbsey drove the car carefully along the road. It was rapidly growing darker, and the lights of the automobile made two gleaming paths through the gloom.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything down this way,” said the twins’ father, after going about two miles. “Now we’ll try it in the other direction from the big rock.”
But that plan, likewise, amounted to nothing. Not a cross road did they see which they might take and so get to some town or village. And Mr. Bobbsey did not want to go too far back lest he get in a worse place than near the great stone.
“Well, we seem to be in the midst of a deserted wilderness,” he said, as once more he drove the car back to the big stone. “I guess we’d better stay here.”
“Well, it won’t be light until morning,” her father said, with a laugh. “And we’d only get more confused and lost, if that’s possible, traveling in the darkness. Cheer up, little girl, it won’t be so bad!”
“I think it will be sport!” declared Bert. “We can sleep in the car, and we’ve got something to eat. Can I make a campfire, Daddy?”
“No, I hardly think we will need that, and you might set fire to the woods—they are very dry. We have nothing to cook, and the car lamps will give us light enough.”
“No, we haven’t anything to cook—only some sandwiches to eat,” murmured Bert. “But it’s lucky we have them!” he added.
Mr. Bobbsey backed the car under an overhanging ledge of the great rock off the road, so that, if necessary, other cars could pass them in the night.
“But I hardly think other cars will come along,” said the children’s father. “I guess ours is the only auto within fifteen miles.”
“Oh, I can see to find my way out well enough when morning comes,” said her father. “It’s just that I don’t want to drive on a strange road after dark, and in the forest. Now then, let’s get ready to camp out for the night.”
“What will mother think when we don’t come home?” asked Nan.