Part 12 (1/2)

For a moment Betty hesitated, almost afraid of what she was going to do.

The pepper gun might work, but if she were not quick enough or clever enough, her little trick might also result in a tragedy.

Her hesitation was only momentary, however, for Betty was a born fighter.

Suddenly she cried out as if in joyful greeting to an unexpected arrival.

”Here they come! here they come!” she called, and in the moment that their captor turned his startled eyes from her to the road ahead, Betty acted.

She s.n.a.t.c.hed the pepper gun from its hiding place in the car and as the man once more turned furiously upon her let him have the full contents directly in the face.

It was a dreadful thing to do. Choking and sputtering, the ruffian dropped his revolver and raised both fists to his tortured eyes.

”I'll get you for this!” he cried between great sneezes that threatened to tear him apart. ”You just wait--”

But Betty refused to wait. As soon as the fellow had dropped his weapon she had started the engine, and now she guided the car past the stuttering robber and raced off down the road.

Mollie, who had only half understood what was going on but who had caught enough of it to be considerably alarmed did not stop to ask questions, but sped off down the road after Betty.

It was half a dozen miles farther on that Betty finally slowed the car and waited for Mollie and the others to catch up with her. Grace, who had been gradually recovering from her fright, had not yet recovered enough to ask any questions. She had been too much concerned in putting miles between them and the scene of their adventure.

As Mollie came up alongside, Betty drew her first free breath.

Of course Mollie and Amy and Mrs. Irving wanted to hear all about it, and Betty told them what had happened, her account interrupted by hysterical laughter.

But when she came to the pepper gun, the girls' expression of utter bewilderment changed to admiration of Betty's quick thought and quicker action.

”Why, Betty,” cried Amy, incredulously, ”I don't see how you ever had the courage to do it. Why, that man might have shot you!”

”He probably would have if I hadn't got him first,” said Betty, half-way between laughter and tears. ”It was taking an awfully big chance, but,”

with a flash of spirit, ”I wasn't going to sit there calmly and have him take away all our money. Not if I could help it.”

”Betty, I think you were simply wonderful,” said Mollie in heart-felt admiration. ”Why, if he had taken our money it would have completely spoiled our trip.”

”How they talk,” said Grace hysterically. ”Any one would think it was only the trip that mattered when we might very easily have been _killed._”

This remark served to bring Mrs. Irving to a realization of the present, and she suggested that they start on again.

”Not that I am particularly nervous,” she hastily added, as the girls looked at her suspiciously. ”Only I will feel just as well when we have put a dozen miles between us and that highway robber, instead of only half that. I wish there was a town handy where we could notify the authorities.”

They started on again, and as the miles slid past them they became less nervous and even began to laugh a little at thought of the robber's consternation when he received the contents of Betty's pepper gun full in his face.

”He was probably the most surprised crook ever,” commenced Grace with a chuckle. ”He never will get over cursing you, Betty. How did you ever happen to have it? The pepper gun, I mean,” she added curiously.

Betty explained how the gun had come into her possession. ”I didn't know,”

she added ruefully, her foot on the accelerator as they sped up a steep hill, ”when I bought it, that it would come in so handy. How much further do you suppose we have to go?” she asked, changing the subject abruptly.

”Why,” said Grace, looking at her wrist watch and realizing suddenly that she was getting rather hungry, ”we have been riding since ten o'clock and it is now after noon. We must be very nearly there by this time. Goodness, I hope there will be something to eat around Wild Rose Lodge. I'm getting famished.”

”Mollie's Uncle John said he would attend to that--stocking the cabin with good things, I mean,” said Betty, herself suddenly conscious of a disturbingly hungry feeling. ”He said we would find enough canned things to last us at least a week.”

”Canned things, yes,” pouted Grace. ”But who in the world wants to live on canned things? I don't see why we didn't bring a chicken along, at least.”