The Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car | Page 6

Will Ford, the brother of
Grace; his chum, Frank Haley, and another friend, Allen Washburn,
now a young lawyer, with whom Betty--but there, why should I give
away Betty's little secret?
Quite in contrast to these boys was Percy Falconer, a rather foppish lad,
who greatly admired Betty--as who did not? But as for Percy--Betty did
not care for him in the least. She was too fine a character to permit
herself to be really angry at him, but Betty and Percy never could get
along well.
"Dear Deepdale," as the girls alliteratively referred to it, was a
charming country town, nestling in a bend of the Argono River, which,
some miles below the village, widened out into Rainbow Lake. It was
on this lake that the girls had cruised, and had such fun, and Betty's
boat was now docked in the new house constructed for it near Mollie's
home. The girls lived within short distance of one another, and were
continually visiting, or calling back and forth. Where you found one
you would find the others, and their parents used to say they never
knew when to expect their daughters home to meals--for they were like
one family in respect to dining out.
And, as usual, this beautiful summer day found the girls together in the
auto, when the accident had thrown them into such consternation.
"Did you find any water?" called Betty, who had made a pillow of the
lap robe, and supported on it the head of the unconscious girl.
"Yes," answered Mollie, her hand trembling as she extended a
collapsible cup of the fluid she had dipped from a nearby spring, "I'll
get more when she takes that."
"I'm afraid I can't get her to take much of it," said Betty. "But I can
bathe the cut and see how large it is."
She tried to get a little water between the lips of the strange girl, while
Amy and Grace held her head up; Mollie, with another cup provided by
Betty, going off after more water.

"She took a little," whispered Grace.
The girl turned her head to one side as though to avoid drinking. Then
she muttered a few words.
"What did she say?" asked Amy.
"I couldn't understand it," answered Betty.
Again the stranger murmured something, and this time the girls caught:
"No, no! I will not go back to him! Anything but the life I have been
leading. Oh, why must I do it? Why?"
There was pathetic pleading in the words.
"There, my dear, you will be taken care of," spoke Betty, soothingly.
"We will take you to your friends."
"I--I have none! Oh, I can't go back to--him!"
Her eyes did not open, and she appeared to be in a delirium.
"Poor thing!" said Amy, softly. "Bathe her head, Betty."
"Yes, I think that will be better than trying to force her to drink."
Dipping her handkerchief in the water Betty wiped away the blood
from the cut. It was seen to be a small one.
"That ought not to make her unconscious," said Betty. "More likely she
has some additional injury; possibly a blow on some other part of her
head. Girls, did you ever see such glorious hair!" Betty caressed it.
Truly there was a mass of it, and it was of beautiful silkness and
softness. It was still partly bound up, but the autoists could easily tell
that it must reach almost to the ground when the girl stood up.
"What in the world could she have been doing up the tree?" asked
Grace, as Mollie came back with more water.

"It is the oddest thing," agreed Betty, bathing the stranger's face and
wrists.
"Are you sure we didn't hit her with the auto?" asked Mollie,
tremblingly.
"I am almost sure you did not," spoke Betty, positively. "As she started
to fall you steered out. She just toppled to the ground. See, there is not
a mark of dust on her dress, as there would be if the tires had struck
her."
"Yes, but perhaps the mud guard, or----"
"But her dress isn't torn or much disarranged. No, Mollie, the auto
never struck her, of that I'm sure. But possibly she fell on her head, and
the blow and shock stunned her. Oh, we must get her to a doctor!
"Come, girls," went on Betty, "we can lift her into the auto, I'm sure,
and take her to the nearest house. Then we'll go for a physician."
"Try to arouse her, first," suggested Mollie. "I can't bear to see her--this
way."
Betty used more water, and succeeded in getting some between the pale
lips of the girl, but to no purpose. She was limp and half senseless,
though she continued to moan and talk incoherently. Then the four girls