the spot where the roads met, Tavia stopped to look back at the car.
"I declare!" she gasped. "He is climbing into the machine."
"Oh, what shall we do?" wailed Dorothy.
"Can't do a thing but hide here until the boys come. We can see him if he gets out, but if we went over to the house we might miss the boys, and they might run right into his arms."
"Oh," cried Dorothy. "I am so dreadfully frightened. Don't you suppose we can get any help until the boys come?"
"Not unless someone happens to pass. And this is a back road: no one seems to go home from work this way."
"Oh, if someone only would!" and Dorothy was now almost in tears.
"Just see!" exclaimed Tavia, "he is examining the front now. Suppose he could start it up?"
"But he cannot," Dorothy declared, "if the car worked the boys would never have left us here all alone," and again she was dangerously near shedding tears.
"There now, he is getting in again. Well, I hope he stays there until someone comes," said Tavia. "Isn't it getting dark?"
"And if the boys do not get back – Oh, perhaps we had better run right straight on. We may get to some town – "
"We would be running into a deeper woods, and goodness knows, it is dark enough here. No, we had better stay near the house, then, if worst comes to worst, we can ask them to keep us all night – "
"Tavia you make me shudder," cried Dorothy. "Of course we will not have to do any such thing."
But Tavia's spirit of adventure was thoroughly aroused, and, in her sensational way, she forgot for the moment the condition of Dorothy's nerves, and really enjoyed the speculation of what might happen if "the worst came to the worst."
"There he goes again," she burst out, beginning to see humor in the situation, as the figure in the car climbed from the front seat to the back. "He is like the little girl who got into the house of the 'Three Bears.' One is too high and one is too low – there now, Doro, he has found your place 'just right' and will go to sleep there, see if he doesn't."
"Hark! That's Ned's voice – "
"And that's Nat's – "
"Yes, there they come. Oh, I am so glad – "
"Me too," said Tavia, in her pardonable English.
"Had we better go and meet them?"
"No, indeed, the man in the car might take it into his head to come to. Better keep quiet."
Presently Ned and Nat reached the corner.
"Hush," called Tavia, coming out from her hiding-place.
"Well, what on earth – " began Nat.
"Listen," commanded Tavia. "There's a man in the car. He has been there ever since you went away – "
"In our car! Well, his time is up," blurted out Ned. "He must move on," and the boy's manner indicated, "I will make him move on."
"But he may be dangerous," cried Dorothy. "Oh, please Ned, don't go near him until you have someone to help you!"
"And what would I be doing?" said Nat, in that same challenging manner. "Come along, Ned. We will teach that fellow to let our girls and our property alone."
"But please!" begged Dorothy, clinging to Ned. "Call someone from that house. He did look so like – "
"Our friend Anderson," finished Tavia, for Dorothy seemed too frightened to utter the name.
"Did he though?" and Nat gave Ned a significant look. "All the more reason why I should like to make his acquaintance. You girls will have to hide here until we get rid of him, and we have no time to spare if we want to work by daylight. Come along, Ned. Girls, don't be the least alarmed. We will be down the road after you in a jiffy. It won't take two seconds to put in this clutch."
"But I feel sure it is that dreadful man," wailed Dorothy. "Oh, if some strong person would only come!"
"Now, you just sit down there," said Ned, tenderly, "and when you hear us whistle you will know it is all right. It may be only a poor farmer resting on his way home."
But the girls were too certain that no farmer would have enjoyed climbing from one seat to the other as they had seen this man doing, and they had strange misgivings about him – of course Anderson was in jail, but —
"Now, don't be a bit worried," added Nat. "We will be spinning down the road directly," and at this the boys left the girls again, and started down the road to interview the strange man in their automobile.
"Oh, I do feel as if I shall die!" cried Dorothy. "Let us pray, Tavia, that nothing will happen to the boys!"
"You pray, but I have to watch," answered Tavia, not realizing how scriptural her words were, "for if they should need help I have got to go to that house after it."
Then, on the damp grass, poor Dorothy buried her head in prayer, such prayer as can come only from a heart in distress.
Tavia, as she had said, stood straight out in the middle of the road, watching through the dim light.
The boys were at the car now, and they were speaking to the man!
CHAPTER V
THE POLICE PATROL
For some moments neither girl spoke: Tavia stood out in the road like an officer, while Dorothy did not lift her head from her attitude of prayer. Suddenly Dorothy, in a frenzy of fear, rushed out to where Tavia stood, and threw her arms around her.
"Tavia," she exclaimed, "I must go to them. I cannot stand another moment like this – I am simply choking. Come: See, they have not been able to manage him. He is in the car yet. Oh, do let us go!" and the look on the terrified girl's face so frightened Tavia she forgot to watch, forgot everything but Dorothy – something would surely happen to her if that anxiety was not soon relieved.
But to go to the boys! Might not that make matters worse?
"Dorothy, darling," began Tavia, "don't be so frightened. Perhaps they are just talking pleasantly to him – "
"Then I must hear them. I must know what it is all about. Do come!" and she tried to drag Tavia from the spot to which she seemed riveted.
"If you would only wait here while I go down first, and then if it is all right, that is, if the boys want us to come – "
"No, no," cried Dorothy. "I must go at once! See! Oh, Nat is coming this way – "
"Yes, here comes Nat. It will be all right now," and Tavia was soothing Dorothy as if she were a baby – patting her, smoothing her hair, and even pressing her lips to her cheek. In truth Dorothy appeared as weak as a baby, and seemed to require that help which a loving human hand may impart to a nervous body, at once the sense of protection and the assurance of sympathy.
"Ned is starting up the machine," exclaimed Tavia. "Oh, I know. He is going to give the man a ride."
Little dreaming how truly she spoke, for indeed Ned was going to give the strange
