The Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III
STRANGELY MISSING
"Wait a minute," directed Betty, as she and her chums advanced, carrying the unconscious girl. "We'll have to put her down here, where the grass is soft"
"Why?" asked Amy, "she isn't heavy."
"No, but it will be better to get the auto out of the bushes, and into the road before we put her in it Something might go wrong, and jolt her."
"That's so," agreed Mollie. "I think I can do it. Oh, but I'm nervous!"
"Shame on you!" cried Betty. "Be an outdoor girl—be your own brave self, Mollie!"
"I will!" and there was determination in her voice. "I'm sure I can get the car out all right!"
Mollie took her place at the wheel, pressed the starting button, and then, with a glance backward to see which way to steer, she slipped in the reverse gear, and let the clutch come into place. Slowly, amid a tearing away of vines and bushes, the car regained the highway.
"Good!" cried Grace. "Now, how shall we put her in, Betty?" for the "Little Captain," as she was often called (as Mollie was called "Billy") was generally looked to for advice in emergencies like these.
"You and Amy must hold her between you on the rear seat," Betty directed. "Support her all you can. Mollie will drive slowly."
"But perhaps we ought to get her to a doctor right away," spoke the owner of the car.
"Getting her to a doctor would not make up for any injury caused by a jolt," said practical Betty. "Besides, I do not think she can be seriously hurt. Her hair is so very thick that she could stand a very hard blow on the head. There are no other signs of injuries; but of course there may be internal hurts. She did not fall far, those branches were very close to the ground."
"What she can have been doing up the tree is a mystery," remarked Grace.
"Like the time when we found that five hundred dollar bill," added Mollie.
"And the 'ghost' of Elm Island, and the missing papers in the saddle bags," remarked Amy to Grace.
Mollie had brought her car to a stop, and alighted to help lift in the unconscious girl. Between them Amy and Grace held her in the tonneau, her head resting on Amy's shoulder, a damp handkerchief covering the cut to keep any dirt from getting in it. Mollie again took her place at the steering wheel, and when Betty had gotten in the girls started off with their strange passenger.
"I couldn't imagine what it was, when I saw something white falling out of the tree," spoke Mollie, driving along on high gear, but with the motor well throttled down.
"Nor could I," added Betty. "And when you steered out so suddenly, I thought surely we would crash into the stone fence, just beyond the bushes."
"So did I, but I knew there was only one thing to do, and that was to put on the brakes as hard as I could."
"And you did," said Grace. "I didn't know you could move so quickly, Mollie."
"You can do many things when the emergency comes," replied Mollie, as she turned out to avoid a rut in the road.
"This is better than a dozen lessons in the art of managing an auto," commented Betty. "Practical problems are what count—not theoretical ones. Does she seem all right, Grace?" and she looked around at the unconscious girl.
"Yes, and her breathing is better. I think she will soon come to."
"That's good. See, there's a house. We can take her in, and ask where the nearest doctor is," and Betty pointed ahead.
Presently the auto stopped before it, and to a motherly-looking woman who came out, Betty and the girls quickly explained what had happened.
"Of course! Bring the poor dear in!" the woman directed. "The men folks are over in the far meadow salting the cows, or I'd send one of them for Dr. Brown. He's most likely to be home too, now. He lives down the road a piece—about a mile."
"I can go for him in the car, and bring him back," said Mollie.
"That's good. Bring the poor dear in the bed room, and we'll look after her until the doctor comes. I'll get the camphor bottle. That's good for a faint."
The girl seemed to have again sunk into a stupor, as they carried her in, and placed her on a comfortable lounge. Then the woman of the house brought out a bottle of camphor, of generous size, and it was held to the nostrils of the unconscious one.
The sufferer turned her head away from the pungent odor, and seemed to be struggling against some unseen force. Again she seemed to revive somewhat, and muttered:
"Oh, I can't! I can't! I don't want to go back to him! Anything but that! I don't like—I can't bear that life!"
Her voice trailed off into a mere whisper.
"You had better hurry for the doctor," said Betty, and Mollie hastened out to her car.
"I'll come with you," volunteered Grace, and Mollie was grateful.
"Suppose we take her into the bed room," suggested the woman. "It's cooler there. We can manage her. I'm real strong."
With her help it was no great task to get the girl on the bed. Her garments were loosened so that she might be more comfortable, and more camphor was used, but it seemed to have no effect.
"Suppose we go out and let her be by herself; we can't do anything more," suggested the woman. "Besides, she needs all the air she can get. That's always best for fainting folks. She may come to by herself, I'll open the window and shutters," and she proceeded to do so. Then coming out, and closing the door, they left the strange girl alone, Betty and Amy taking turns telling how the affair had happened.
"Land's sakes! Fell out of a tree!" exclaimed the woman. "What in the world do you s'pose she was doin' up in it?"
"We haven't the least idea," answered Betty.
"And who is this man she says she won't go back to?"
"We have even less idea—she has repeated that several times," spoke Amy. "Oh, I do hope they find the doctor!"
"Dr. Brown is real good," was the woman's opinion. "He cured my rheumatism, and Hetty Blake—she lives over on the Melford road—she had jaundice something terrible—she was as yellow as saffron tea, and he brought her around when old Dr. Wakefield give her up. Yes, Dr. Brown is right smart."
Thus she entertained the girls with remarks on the country life around, until Betty ventured to remark:
"I wonder if we oughtn't to look in on her?" motioning to the room where they had left the girl.
"No, best let her be," said the woman—Mrs, Meckelburn, she had said her name was.
"Hark!" exclaimed Amy a little later.
"It's an auto!" said Betty, going to the window.
She saw Mollie and Grace in the car, a young man, with a professional air about him, at the steering wheel.
"That's Dr. Brown!" exclaimed Mrs. Meckelburn, "but I didn't know he could drive one of them things."
"I guess Mollie got too nervous," explained Betty.
The doctor caught up his bag and hurried toward the house, followed by Grace and Mollie.
"An accident!" he exclaimed in brisk tones, bowing to Betty and Amy, and taking in the woman in his greeting. "Where is she?'
"In my bed room, Dr. Brown," said Mrs. Meckelburn. "I do hope there's nothing much the matter with the poor dear."
They clustered around as the pyhsician pushed open the door. Then he turned to them with a queer look on his face.
"Must be some mistake," he said. "There is no one here."
"No one there!" cried Betty in strange tones. "Why"
She looked over his shoulder. There in the bed was the imprint of a human form, but the girl herself had vanished!