s.

Then no one spoke. Bess leaned over her wheel, while Cora looked
carefully for a place to turn out that would bring her clear of the
rumbling old wagons.

A woman sat in the back of one of the vehicles. She poked her head out
and glared at the approaching machines. Then she was seen to wave a
red handkerchief so that the persons in the next wagon could distinctly
see it.

The motor girls also saw it.

This caused some confusion, as the motorists were trying to get out in
the clear road, while the wagons were blocking the way.

Then, just as the _Whirlwind_ was about to pass the second wagon, the
driver halted his horse and stepped down directly in her path. He
waved for Cora to stop.

"Don't!" called Miss Robbins, and Cora shot by, followed closely by
Bess, who turned on more gas.

The gypsy wagons had all stopped in the middle of the road.

The automobiles were now safely out of the wanderers' reach.

"That was the time a chaperon counted," said Cora, "for I had not the
slightest fear of stopping. I thought he might just want to ask some
ordinary question."

"You are too brave," said Miss Robbins. "It is not particularly
interesting to stop on a road like this to talk to gypsies when our
boys are out of reach."

"We must speed up and reach them," said Cora. "I might meet more
gypsies."

Belle was thoroughly frightened. Hazel did not know what to make of
the occurrence, but to Cora and to Bess, who had so lately learned
something of queer gypsy ways, the matter looked more serious, now that
there was time to think of it.

"There they are!" shouted Bess, as she espied the two runabouts stopped
at the roadside.

"They are getting lunch," said Hazel. "Look at Jack putting down the
things on the grass."

"They certainly are," confirmed Cora. "Now, isn't that nice of them?
And we have been blaming them for deserting us!"

Neither the motor girls nor the motor boys knew what the meeting of the
gypsy wagons was about to lead to--serious trouble for some of the
party.

CHAPTER X

AN EXPLOSION

The rain came. It descended in perfect sheets, and only the fact that
our tourists could reach a mountain house saved them from more
inconvenience than a wetting.

They had just partaken of a very agreeable lunch by the roadside, all
arranged and prepared by the boys, with endless burned potatoes down on
the menu as "fresh roasted," when the lowering clouds gave Dame
Nature's warning. Ne