dull dust color. Two
men were in it, and once or twice they favored the occupants of Cora's
car with rather bold stares.

"I wonder who they can be?" asked Eline.

"Well, if they keep up this monkey business much longer I'll find out,"
declared Jack.

"Go easy, please," suggested his sister.

The only incident, or, rather, accident that marred the trip, was when
Cora's car suffered a puncture. It was on the run home.

"You go on," she called to the others. "I can fix it."

"No, I'll do it," offered Jack. Perhaps the presence of Nancy in the car
induced him to linger, together with Ed, who rode with him.

"All right," assented Cora, not sorry to be relieved of the task.

As Jack was struggling with the tire irons, the rubber shoe being a most
obstinate one, the low racing car that had several times passed them,
again hove in sight. Cora was helping Jack, and Eline and Nancy had
strolled down the road to gather a few wild flowers.

The racing car stopped, one of the men leaped out, and made a dash toward
the two girls. Eline, looking around, screamed, and Nancy, hearing her,
added to the exclamation.

"My guardian! My guardian!" she cried. "I won't go--I won't go!"

"Quick, Jack!" cried Cora. "They're trying to take Nancy away. You must
stop them!"

Jack, holding a heavy tire iron in his hand, leaped forward toward the
two girls. The man had almost reached them, when there was heard the loud
honk of an auto horn coming around the bend of the road.

CHAPTER XXVIII

A STRANGE MESSAGE

Nancy and Eline clung to each other. Nancy had started to run off into
the woods, but found herself unequal to the task. A nervous tremor seized
her.

"Oh, Eline, Eline!" she begged. "Don't let him take me away! Don't!"

But Nancy's guardian was not destined to get her into his control this
time. No sooner had the honk-honk of the other car been heard and it had
swung into sight around the bend of the road, than the man in the other
auto--the man who had accompanied Mr. Cross--called out:

"Look out, Rickford, this may be a trap!"

"You'd better believe it's something to stop you!" cried Jack, still
swinging forward on the run.

Cora, too, had started toward Eline and Nancy. She saw that the big car
probably had nothing to do with the attempted abduction of the shipwrecked
girl, and that it was only coincidence that brought it there at that
moment. But it was a fortunate coincidence, for it frightened away the