ever of the machine he
was about to run.

"We are all ready," responded Roger Morr.

"Been ready for an hour," added Ben Basswood, who sat beside Roger.

"Oh, Ben, not quite as long as that!" burst out Laura Porter, who was
one of three girls in the tonneau of the second car.

"Well, make it fifty-eight minutes then; I'm not particular," responded
Ben, calmly.

"Are the lunch hampers in?" asked Jessie Wadsworth, anxiously. "Mamma
said we musn't forget anything."

"Trust Dave and Roger to look after the food," burst out Phil Lawrence.

"Likewise Mr. Phil Lawrence," added Dave. "Just wait till it comes lunch
time, and you'll see Phil stow away about fifteen chicken sandwiches,
ten slices of cake, three pickles, five olives----"

"Stop! I draw the line on olives, Dave!" cried Phil, making a wry face.

"Oh, olives are fine; I love them!" cried Belle Endicott.

"Then all that are coming to me are yours," returned Phil, quickly. "But
start her up, fellows, if we are going!" he added, and then, putting a
big horn to his lips, he blew a loud blast.

"Take good care of yourselves!" cried a voice from the veranda of the
mansion in front of which the two automobiles were standing, and Mrs.
Wadsworth waved a hand to the young people.

"We'll try to," answered Dave, and then he threw in the clutch on low
gear, and the big touring car moved gently away, out of the grounds of
the Wadsworth mansion and into the main highway leading from Crumville
to Shady Glen Falls. The second car speedily followed.

It was a late summer day, with a clear blue sky overhead and just enough
breeze blowing to freshen the air. A shower of rain the day previous had
laid the dust of the road and added to the freshness of fields and
woods.

The boys and girls had planned this outing for several days. All of the
youths were to return to Oak Hall school the following week, and they
wished to do something for the girls to remember them by, as Dave
expressed it.

"Might have a party," Roger had suggested.

"No good, unless it was a lawn party," Phil had answered. "It's too
stuffy in the house, these warm days."

"We might take a couple of autos and go for a day's outing up the river
road," Dave had suggested, and this proposition had been accepted
immediately. It was decided that Dave should run the Wadsworth machine,
he having learned to do so some time before, and Roger was to run a car
hired at the new Crumville garage. Each car had a cap