"Go ahead--don't wait for us!" he called to his sister. "We can speed up
and catch you."

"Don't take the wrong road," Cora cautioned, and then Jack and Ed got out
the repair kit. The work took them longer than they had expected, and it
was getting dusk when they were ready to proceed.

"We'll never make it before dark, old man," said Ed.

"Oh, I guess we will. I'm going to fracture some speed limits," and Jack
opened wide the throttle. The _Get There_ did make good time, but it was
not worthy of its name. For, after going for some time, Jack felt that
he must be nearing Fairport. He got out to look at a sign post, lighting
a match to distinguish the directions. Then he uttered an expression of
dismay.

"What is it?" asked Ed, anxiously. "Something else gone wrong, Jack?"

"Yes--_we've_ gone wrong!"

"How so?"

"Why, we're on the Belleville turnpike, and to my certain knowledge
we're about fifteen miles off the right road for Fairport. I thought that
fellow we asked, about sunset, didn't seem very sure of his directions.
He told us wrong--maybe not on purpose--but wrong just the same. Ed, old
man, we are lost in a dismal country with night coming on. Please groan
and shiver for me, while I think of the proper thing to say. We're lost!"

"Well, the only thing to do is to go back," remarked Ed, philosophically.
"Come on. Luckily the roads are good."

"Hark! Some one is coming!" exclaimed Jack, as he heard footfalls on the
hard highway. "I'll ask him. Maybe there's a short cut to Fairport."

The figure advanced out of the darkness into the glare of the lights on
Jack's car. Then he exclaimed involuntarily:

"It's a girl!"

CHAPTER VII

WORRIES

"Where shall we leave our cars?" asked Belle.

"There's a garage just around the corner from the hotel," answered Cora.
"We can have the man look the machines over, too, and see that there is
plenty of gasoline and oil. Then we won't have to worry."

The three cars had drawn up in front of the Mansion House at Fairport,
following a pleasant run after the sheep episode. Jack and Ed, of course,
were not present, and of them more presently. They were having, as Jack
might express it, "their own troubles."

"Oh, but I'm warm and dusty!" exclaimed Eline as she "flopped" from the
car to the sidewalk. Flopped is the only word that properly expresses it.

"Then you're not much used to motoring," remarked Cora with a smile, as
she disengaged herself from the st