Part 10 (1/2)

And now the moon rose and shed its radiance on them. The fire died down and the night grew deeper and stiller. A chill crept into the air and they snuggled closer under their blankets and slept and slept and dreamed.

Billie dreamed that the black speck she had seen on the road in the distance evolved itself into a man. He was riding a pony. She was sure of it, because in her dream she heard the sound of horse's hoofs as they came nearer. Then the sounds stopped and all was silent again, a long, long silence. She remembered sitting up to see if the horseman had pa.s.sed, but the invisible chains of sleep bound her closely and back she sank into slumber. But always in her dream she felt that some one was near. Had a light been flashed across their faces or was it the rays of the moon which hung in the center of the heavens like a great lantern, illuminating the landscape for miles around?

At last, after slipping into the immeasurable distances of time and s.p.a.ce, which only a dream can compa.s.s, there came the sound of a motor.

For a moment it was quite near, and then gradually it died away and the night was all serene again.

As the dawn crept up, Miss Campbell waked. But she waited, not wis.h.i.+ng to disturb her sleeping companions. She lay with her back to the road, her face turned toward the limitless prairies which were now suffused with a rosy light. Then, trailing clouds of glory after him, the sun burst into view over the edge of the world. Never before had Miss Campbell seen a sunrise.

”Girls, girls!” she cried, ”you must wake up and see this marvellous sight.”

They jumped up and stood in a silent, wondering row as the plains were flooded with light.

Suddenly Billie turned her face toward the road.

Throwing her hands over her head with a gesture of despair, she began to weep bitterly.

”Oh! oh!” she cried, ”the Comet, my beloved Comet! He has been stolen!”

CHAPTER VII.-BARNEY M'GEE.

It was almost as much of a shock to Miss Campbell and the others to see Billie so unstrung as to find the Comet stolen.

The young girl's feeling for her car was of a very real character, and if the Comet had been a favorite animal or a human being even, she could not have been more distressed.

”Billie, my darling, you must not give way so,” cried her cousin, putting her arms gently around Billie's neck. ”We shall find the Comet, I'm sure.”

”I never dreamed anyone would take him,” sobbed Billie. ”I thought he would be quite safe in this lonely place. It was stupid of me to have left him unprotected like that all night long.”

Her friends, who had been subdued and silent in the presence of her grief could hardly refrain from smiling at the notion of Billie's sitting up all night to protect the automobile from kidnappers. Billie, her normal, cheerful self, was the most sensible person in the world; but Billie, the prey of tears and doubts, was just as unreasonable as any other weeping, unhappy girl.

While she had her cry out on Miss Helen's shoulder with her devoted Nancy hanging over her, Mary and Elinor began to look about them.

”The robber must have been a chauffeur, Elinor,” said Mary, ”and a very good one, too, because he not only knew how to run the Comet but to repair it.”

”What are we going to do?” asked Elinor irrelevantly.

The two girls stood thinking. The robber had not taken their suitcases which they had been obliged to unstrap and open the night before; nor had he touched their camping outfit. Only the motor had been filched from them while they slept.

”I think the first thing to do is to make ourselves comfortable,” Mary remarked as her eyes fell on the alcohol stove. ”Then we'll get breakfast and Billie will be more cheerful. Perhaps someone will come along by then.”

As soon as Billie noticed her friends arranging their tumbled hair and was.h.i.+ng their faces from the bottle of drinking water they always carried with them, she stopped crying at once.

”I'm awfully ashamed,” she exclaimed, as embarra.s.sed as a boy caught in the act of shedding tears. ”I'm afraid I've been a fearful cry-baby, as if weeping could do any good. Here, let's wash them off and get busy,”

she added, trying to smile while she poured some of the water over her pocket handkerchief and bathed her red eyes.

”Don't you care, Billie,” cried Nancy. ”I was glad to see you a little human like the rest of us. And it was a dreadful blow.”

Mary, with her unfailing desire to make everybody comfortable under the most trying circ.u.mstances, began presently to prepare coffee over the alcohol stove, and the fragrance of the bean did seem to comfort them somewhat in their trying position. When the most optimistic person in a party becomes the prey of wretchedness, the others usually pretend a cheerfulness they by no means feel. But now that Billie had regained her composure, Miss Campbell's spirits began to sink.