ge," said Helen seriously. "Dear old Ardmore!
Ruth! won't you be glad to get back to the grind again?"

"I--don't--know," said her chum slowly. "We have seen so much greater
things than college. It's going to be rather tame, isn't it?"

But this conversation was all before they were distributed into their
seats and had started. Colonel Marchand was an excellent driver, and he
soon understood clearly the mechanism of the smaller car. Tom gave him the
directions for the first few miles and they pulled out of the yard with
Mr. Curtis, the station master, and his lame daughter, who now acted as
telegraph operator, waving the party good-bye.

They would not go by the way of the Red Mill, for that would take them out
of the way they had chosen. The inn they had in mind to stop at on this
first night was a long four hours' ride.

"Eastward, Ho!" shouted Tom. "This is to be a voyage of discovery, but
don't discover any punctures or blow-outs this evening."

Then he glanced at Ruth's rather serious face beside him and muttered to
himself:

"And we want to discover principally the smile that Ruth Fielding seems to
have permanently lost!"

CHAPTER VI

"THE NEVERGETOVERS"

After crossing the Cheslow Hills and the Lumano by the Long Bridge about
twenty miles below the Red Mill, the touring party debouched upon one of
the very best State roads. They left much of the dust from which they had
first suffered behind them, and Tom could now lead the way with the big
car without smothering the occupants of the honeymoon car in the rear.

The highway wound along a pretty ridge for some miles, with farms dotting
the landscape and lush meadows or fruit-growing farms dipping to the edge
of the distant river.

"Ah," sighed Henri Marchand. "Like _la belle_ France before the war. Such
peace and quietude we knew, too. Fortunate you are, my friends, that _le
Boche_ has not trampled these fields into bloody mire."

This comment he made when they halted the cars at a certain overlook to
view the landscape. But they could not stop often. Their first objective
inn was still a long way ahead.

They did not, however, reach the inn, which was a resort well known to
motorists. Five miles away Tom noticed that the car was acting strangely.

"What is it, Tom?" demanded Ruth quickly.

"Steering gear, I am afraid. Something is loose."

It did not take him long to make an examination, and in the meantime the
second car came alongside.