th through the big haystack and--stopped!

"Frank, I'm getting smothered; won't you dig me out?" It was Betty's
voice, plaintive and half hysterical.

Will and Frank shook the hay from their own eyes and then went to the
rescue of the girls. Then they stared at each other. Gradually the look
of utter bewilderment faded from their faces and a smile flashed from
one to the other like a ray of sunshine.

Then suddenly Mollie laughed. "Oh, you look so funny!" she gasped. "Just
when I thought we were all going to be killed----"

"You get disappointed," Frank finished with a rueful smile. "Just the
same, it's lucky for us that big haystack was just exactly where it is,"
he added. "When I hit the rock I sure thought we were all goners."

"Oh, don't," begged Grace, then added, with a shame-faced little smile,
"I'm sorry I made such a fuss--I always am ashamed of myself when the
danger is over."

"You needn't apologize, Grace," said Betty, quickly. "If there's one
time you ought to be excused for making a fuss it's when you think it's
going to be your last chance."

That was Betty all over--bright, generous, fun-loving, the acknowledged
leader of the girls. Grace was tall, graceful, slender, with a pretty
face framed in a wealth of bright hair. She was accustomed to take life
more easily than Betty and, although not a coward in the true sense of
the word, she was always willing to have the other girls go first. Then
there was Mollie, dark eyed and quick tempered, with more than a touch
of the French in her, but Betty's equal in bravery. The last of the
little quartette was Amy Blackford (formerly called Amy Stonington), who
has not yet appeared in this book. Up to a year before she had been
surrounded by a mystery which would have held great interest for the
girls even had they not loved and admired her for her own good
qualities.

Such were the girls who, with Betty's help, were fast recovering their
good spirits.

"If we can back the machine out of this haystack," Frank was saying, "I
guess we had better start for home."

"But don't you think we had better walk," Grace suggested nervously.
"I'm afraid to trust myself to the old thing again."

"Oh, there won't be any danger now," Will assured her. "We can go back
by a roundabout route where there aren't any hills to speed us into
haystacks. How about it, Frank?"

"You're right! We are not going to take any more chances, I can tell you
that." Then, turning to the