The Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car | Page 8

to be struggling against some unseen force. Again she seemed to revive
somewhat, and muttered:
"Oh, I can't! I can't! I don't want to go back to him! Anything but that! I
don't like--I can't bear that life!"
Her voice trailed off into a mere whisper.
"You had better hurry for the doctor," said Betty, and Mollie hastened
out to her car.
"I'll come with you," volunteered Grace, and Mollie was grateful.
"Suppose we take her into the bedroom," suggested the woman. "It's
cooler there. We can manage her. I'm real strong."
With her help it was no great task to get the girl on the bed. Her
garments were loosened so that she might be more comfortable, and
more camphor was used, but it seemed to have no effect.

"Suppose we go out and let her be by herself; we can't do anything
more," suggested the woman. "Besides, she needs all the air she can get.
That's always best for fainting folks. She may come to by herself, I'll
open the window and shutters," and she proceeded to do so. Then
coming out, and closing the door, they left the strange girl alone, Betty
and Amy taking turns telling how the affair had happened.
"Land's sakes! Fell out of a tree!" exclaimed the woman. "What in the
world do you s'pose she was doin' up in it?"
"We haven't the least idea," answered Betty.
"And who is this man she says she won't go back to?"
"We have even less idea--she has repeated that several times," spoke
Amy. "Oh, I do hope they find the doctor!"
"Dr. Brown is real good," was the woman's opinion. "He cured my
rheumatism, and Hetty Blake--she lives over on the Melford road--she
had jaundice something terrible--she was as yellow as saffron tea, and
he brought her around when old Dr. Wakefield give her up. Yes, Dr.
Brown is right smart."
Thus she entertained the girls with remarks on the country life around,
until Betty ventured to remark:
"I wonder if we oughtn't to look in on her?" motioning to the room
where they had left the girl.
"No, best let her be," said the woman--Mrs. Meckelburn, she had said
her name was.
"Hark!" exclaimed Amy a little later.
"It's an auto!" said Betty, going to the window.
She saw Mollie and Grace in the car, a young man, with a professional
air about him, at the steering wheel.

"That's Dr. Brown!" exclaimed Mrs. Meckelburn, "but I didn't know he
could drive one of them things."
"I guess Mollie got too nervous," explained Betty.
The doctor caught up his bag and hurried toward the house, followed
by Grace and Mollie.
"An accident!" he exclaimed in brisk tones, bowing to Betty and Amy,
and taking in the woman in his greeting. "Where is she?"
"In my bedroom, Dr. Brown," said Mrs. Meckelburn. "I do hope there's
nothing much the matter with the poor dear."
They clustered around as the physician pushed open the door. Then he
turned to them with a queer look on his face.
"Must be some mistake," he said. "There is no one here."
"No one there!" cried Betty in strange tones. "Why----"
She looked over his shoulder. There in the bed was the imprint of a
human form, but the girl herself had vanished!
CHAPTER IV
THE QUEER PEDDLER
For a moment after this surprising discovery had been made no one
spoke. Dr. Brown looked oddly from one girl to the other, and at Mrs.
Meckelburn.
"There is evidently some mystery here," he said. "I supposed there was
really some one here who needed my services?" and he glanced
questioningly at Mollie, who had summoned him.
"Oh, indeed there was," she said, quickly. "A girl fell out of a tree----"
"Out of a tree!" exclaimed the doctor, and for a moment it seemed as

though he believed a joke had been attempted on him.
"Yes," went on Betty, taking up the story, "didn't Mollie tell you that?
She really fell from a tree as our auto passed, and at first we thought we
had struck her." Betty shot a glance of inquiry at Mollie.
"No, I didn't tell that part," confessed the owner of the new car. "I was
so flustrated, and I guess Grace didn't say anything either."
"No," answered the willowy one.
"Well, I'm here, at all events, but there is no patient," said the doctor,
with a smile.
"Oh, we'll pay you for your call!" exclaimed Betty, quickly taking out
her silver mesh bag. "How much----"
"No, no!" said Dr. Brown somewhat sharply, "you misunderstand me. I
never accept a fee in a simple accident case. What I meant about there
being no patient was that she has evidently gone away, possibly in a
delirium, and in that case we had