ed the tanks filled with gasoline and had
tipped one of the garage men liberally to see that this was properly done.

Afterward Captain Tom declared he would never trust a garage workman
again.

"The only way to get a thing done well is to do it yourself--and a tip
never bought any special service yet," declared the angry Tom. "It is
merely a form of highway robbery."

But this was afterward. The party started off from Hampton in high fettle
and with a childlike trust in the honesty of a garage attendant.

There were banks of clouds shrouding the horizon both to the west and
north--the two directions from which thunder showers usually rise in this
part of New England in which they were traveling. And yet the shower held
off.

It was some time past noon before the thunder began to mutter again. The
automobile party was then in the hilly country. Heretofore farms had been
plentiful, although hamlets were few and far between.

"If it rains," said Ruth cheerfully, "of course we can take refuge in some
farmhouse."

"Ho, for adventure among the savage natives!" cried Helen.

"I hope we shall meet nobody quite as savage as Miss Susan Timmins," was
Aunt Kate's comment.

They ran into a deep cut between two wooded hills and there was not a
house in sight. Indeed, they had not passed a farmstead on the road for
the last five miles. Over the top of the wooded crest to the north curled
a slate colored storm cloud, its upper edge trembling with livid
lightnings. The veriest tyro of a weather prophet could see that a storm
was about to break. But nobody had foretold the sudden stopping of the
honeymoon car in the lead!

"What is the matter with you?" cried Helen, standing up in the tonneau of
the big car, when Tom pulled up suddenly to keep from running the maroon
roadster down. "Don't you see it is going to rain? We want to get
somewhere."

"I guess we have got somewhere," responded Jennie Stone. "As far as we are
concerned, this seems to be our stopping place. The old car won't go."

Tom jumped out and hurried forward to join Henri in an examination of the
car's mechanism.

"What happened, Colonel?" he asked the Frenchman, worriedly.

"I have no idea, _mon ami_," responded Marchand. "This is a puzzle, eh?"

"First of all, let's put up the tops. That rain is already beating the
woods on the summit of the hill."

The two young men hurried to do this, first sheltering Jennie and then
together dragging the heavy top