The Motor Girls | Page 3

gown. She had need to disregard frills now, for she was a motor girl.
"Oh, come on, and don't ask a single question!" she exclaimed as the Robinson twins--Bess and Belle--hastened to meet her in response to her ring. "Come on! We must go over to the garage, quick! I've got a new machine, and I've got to learn all about it."
She had to pause for breath, and Belle managed to say
"Cora! A new machine! All for yourself! Oh, you dear! Who gave it to you?"
"Why Jack found it," Cora laughed. "It was running along the street, you know, and he lassoed it. It was going like mad, but he whirled the lash of his riding-whip about it and--and--"
"Now, Cora, dear!" and Belle dropped her voice to one of aggrieved tones. "You know what I meant."
"Of course I do, girly; but hurry--do! I want the man at the garage to teach me all about my new machine. I call it the Whirlwind.' You know it's different from Jack's small runabout, and there are several new points to be posted on. I want to be all ready, so that when we go out to-morrow morning we can surprise the boys."
"Oh, how perfectly lovely!" exclaimed Bess.
Delighted and excited, the three girls hurried over the railroad hill, on a short cut to the garage.
"Do you think he'll show you?" asked Bess. "He might want you to hire a chauffeur."
"Well, we'll see," responded Cora. "If we can manage to find a nice, agreeable, elderly gentleman--the story-book kind of machinist, you know. I fancy he will be sufficiently interested-- ahem! well, you know--" and she finished with a little laugh; in which her chums joined.
They had reached the small door of the office of the garage. A notice on the glass directed them to "Push."
Cora put both hands to the portal, and it swung back. She almost stumbled into the room.
"We would like to see some one who will teach us how to run an auto," she began. "I know something of one, but I have a new kind."
The three girls drew back.
"A nice, agreeable, elderly gentleman!" whispered Belle to Cora.
Cora could not repress a smile.
Instead of the "story-book machinist," a handsome young lad stood before them, smiling at their discomfiture.
"What is it?" he asked in a pleasant voice, and Cora noticed how white and even his teeth were.
"We--er--I--that is, we--I want to learn some points about my new car," she stammered. "It's a--"
"I understand," replied the handsome chap. "I will be very glad to show you. Just step this way, please," and, with a little bow, he motioned to them to follow him into the semi-dark machine shop back of the office.
CHAPTER II
THE DASH OF THE WHIRLWIND
When Jack Kimball called at the Robinson home that same evening, at precisely nine-thirty, he found three very much agitated young ladies. Bess, or, to be more exact, Elizabeth Robinson, the brown-haired, "plump" girl--she who was known as the "big" Robinson girl--was positively out of breath, while her twin sister, Isabel, usually called Belle, too slim to puff and too thin to "fluster," was fanning herself with a very dainty lace handkerchief.
Cora paced up and down the piazza, in the true athletic way of cooling off.
"Why the wherefore?" asked Jack, surprised at the excitement so plainly shown, in spite of the girls' attempts to hide it.
"Oh, just a race," replied Cora indifferently.
"Out in the dark?" 'persisted Jack.
"Only across the hill," went on Cora, while Bess giggled threateningly.
"Seems to me you took a queer time to race," remarked the lad with a sly wink at Isabel. "Who won out?"
"Oh, Cora, of course," answered Isabel. "She won--in and out."
"Oh, I don't know," spoke Jack's sister. "You didn't do half badly, Belle."
"Oh, I was laughing so I couldn't run."
"Cora said you were coming for her," put in Bess with a smile.
Jack seemed disappointed that the subject was mentioned.
"Yes," he said. "She was very particular to specify the time. It's nine-thirty now, but I'm in no hurry," and he looked about for a chair.
"But I am," insisted Cora.
"Well, then," added Jack a bit stiffly, "if you're ready, suppose we run along. Or, have you had enough running for this evening?"
"Plenty. But I really must go, girls. Be sure and be ready in the morning for--well, you know what," and she finished with a laugh. "We want the Chelton folks--"
"To sit up and take notice, I suppose," put in Jack quickly. "Pardon the slang, ladies, but sometimes slang seems to fit where nothing else will."
The twins managed to whisper a word or two into Cora's ear as she said good-night and left with her brother.
They had had such a splendid time at the garage. It was the run back home, over the railroad embankment, that had caused all their flurry and excitement. And, though