part of a
week, and this, combined with the scare from the roar of the
automobile, had so gotten on their nerves that to calm them seemed
next to impossible. On and on they flew over the packed snow of the
hard road, the sleigh bouncing from side to side as it passed over the
bumps in the highway.

Jessie was deadly pale and had all she could do to keep from shrieking
with fright. But when she heard Dave address his sister in the above
words, she shut her teeth hard, resolved to remain silent, no matter
what the cost. Ben was worried as well as scared--the more so because
he realized there was practically nothing he could do to aid Dave in
subduing the runaways. The youth on the front seat had braced both
feet on the dashboard of the sleigh, and was pulling back on the reins
with all the strength of his vigorous muscles.

Thus fully a quarter of a mile was covered--a stretch of the hill road
which fortunately was comparatively straight. But then there loomed up
ahead a sharp turn, leading down to the straight road through the
valley below.

"Dave--the turn!" gasped Ben, unable to keep himself from speaking.

"I see it. I'll do what I can," cried the young driver; and then
pulled on the reins more strongly, if possible, than before.

Closer and closer to the dreaded turn in the road the sleigh
approached, and as it drew nearer the girls huddled in their seats
almost too terror-stricken to move. Ben sprang up, totally unconscious
of doing so.

"Can you make it, Dave, do you think?" gasped the real estate man's
son, when the turn was less than a hundred feet away.

"I don't think I'll try," was the unexpected answer. "Hold fast,
everybody! We're going through the fence!"

The turn in the road led to the left, and as they approached it Dave
relaxed his hold on the left rein and pulled with might and main on
the right. This brought the team around just a trifle, but it was
enough to keep them from attempting to follow the road--something
which would undoubtedly have caused the slewing around of the sleigh
and probably its overturning. As it was, the team left the roadway,
and the next instant had crashed through a frail rail-fence and was
floundering along in the deep snow of a ploughed-up and sloping field
beyond.

"Whoa there!" cried Dave, soothingly. "Whoa, Jerry! Whoa, Bill!" And
thus he continued to talk to the team while the sleigh bumped along
through the deep snow and over the uneven ground.

Running aw