The Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car/Chapter 10
CHAPTER X
OFF ON THE TOUR
Grace and Amy were in each other's arms. Betty admitted afterward that she wished she had some one to lean on, but she gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles went white with the strain. Mollie clutched the sides of the seat in a grip of something like despair. The boys looked wonderingly at one another, and then at the strange figure that had tumbled out of the bushes.
"Oh, it's the hair-tonic peddler!" exclaimed Mollie a moment later, as she got a glimpse of the man. He had risen and was brushing the dust off his rusty black suit.
"The who?" asked Will.
"A man who sells hair-tonic," explained Betty in a low voice, for the stranger was looking at them now.
"At your service, ladies and gentlemen!" exclaimed the proprietor of Bennington's Hair-Tonic. "I see you remember me," and he smirked at the girls—that hard, and rather cruel, look never leaving his face, even when he smiled.
"Oh, yes, we remember you," replied Betty, coolly. She now had control of her nerves.
"Don't talk to him too much," advised Allen, in a low voice. "You never can tell who these fellows are, nor what their game is."
"Oh, he's harmless," replied Betty, in a return whisper. "We met him on the road one day, and supplied a bolt that he had lost from his wagon."
"All the same," insisted Will, "he might"
He was interrupted by Mollie, who asked:
"Where is your wagon?"
"I left it in a secure place," replied the hair tonic man.
"What were you doing up there?" asked Allen, nodding in the direction whence the man had taken his tumble.
"That was an accident," replied Mr. Bennington, who continued to dust his clothes, which seemed to have accumulated considerable of the dirt of the road. "I was up on the hillside gathering the herbs I use in my tonic, when my foot slipped. I heard the auto coming, and I was afraid I might roll under it. That is why I yelled."
"Oh," said Mollie, faintly. "Well, you got on our nerves, Mr. Bennington."
"I am sorry I have nothing for nerves," and the fellow bowed, rather mockingly, it seemed. "I am a specialist in hair. If you would like any of my tonic—something to make your locks like mine," and he shook his own with an air of pride, "why," he resumed, "I am at your service!" Again he bowed.
"I don't think we care for any," answered Allen, who seemed to have, in common with the other boys, taken a dislike to the peddler. "Suppose we go on, Betty."
"Very well," replied the Little Captain at the wheel, as she advanced the gasoline lever. The motor had not ceased running.
"Then I can't sell you any of my Restorer?" called Mr. Bennington, as Betty slowly let in the clutch.
"No," answered Allen, and he glanced back in time to note the fellow making an elaborate bow, his white locks falling about his head in a "shower."
"I don't like him," Frank announced, when they were out of the man's hearing.
"Nor I," added Will.
"Why not? He seems harmless enough," spoke Amy. "Poor man! he probably has a hard time making a living."
"Don't you believe it!" declared Will. "To my way of thinking, he's a faker. He looked plump and well-fed enough. I warrant you he has no lack of good food. Those fellows put about ten cents worth of alcohol in a bottle, a little perfume and some water, and sell it for a dollar as hair-tonic."
"Well, really some of that stuff must be awful!" exclaimed Grace. "I'm glad I never use it."
"You never have to—nature was good to you," murmured Frank in her ear, whereat Grace blushed.
Mollie glanced back toward Shadow Valley. The gloom over it was increasing, and at the far end could just be discerned the deserted mansion—the remnant of a rich man's folly. About that, too, the shadows seemed to gather, dark and foreboding.
"Ugh! That place gives me the creeps!" Mollie muttered. And against the dusky background of the valley and the old mansion she beheld the figure of the rather mysterious peddler. His white locks stood out in strange contrast to the surrounding darkness, and his black clothes.
"It certainly looks as though it might be haunted," agreed Betty. "Poor Mr. Lagg! I'm afraid he will never get the money he expects out of that place. It would never do for a sanitarium for nervous wrecks."
"Oh, I don't know," answered Will. "I've been close to it several times, and, I think, by cutting down some of the trees that keep out the sunlight, a good view could be had. Then the place would not be half so depressing. But of course if it gets a reputation of being haunted that will settle it as far as people with weak nerves are concerned. Are you girls going to take up Lagg's offer?"
"We haven't thought of it lately," replied Grace.
"Too busy arranging for our grand tour," added Mollie.
"Well, we fellows may decide to take it up, and get the reward—it would come in handy for vacation money," said Will.
The car was now descending a slope, and soon Shadow Valley was out of sight, as was the strange old mansion. The girls breathed easier, and perhaps the boys did also, for, though nothing had actually occurred, the reputation of the place, and the sudden and startling appearance of the old man, had given them all a thrill.
"This is the second time some one has tumbled out almost under our auto," said Mollie, as they turned on a road toward Deepdale. "The third time may not be so lucky for them—or for us."
"That's so," agreed Amy. "The first was that girl who disappeared so mysteriously. I wonder what became of her?"
"So do I," spoke Grace.
"And if she ever went back to the mysterious 'him' of whom she talked?" added Betty.
"Perhaps it was her—sweetheart—and they had a quarrel," suggested Will.
"Is it silly to—have a sweetheart?" asked Allen, with a glance at Betty, whose face was then turned toward him. He saw the flush on her cheeks deepen.
"Of course!" declared Mollie.
"No, but it's silly to quarrel with them," said Will. "Isn't it, girls? Especially when they bring you—chocolates."
"It's all some of them are good for!" declared Grace, with a toss of her head.
"Children—children!" said Amy, pleadingly. "Don't be naughty."
"All right—little mother!" promised Will.
"But, seriously, I often think of that girl," went on Mollie. "She seemed very nice, and in such trouble."
"Funny about being up a tree, though," said Will, drily. "Maybe she was one of the original tree-dwellers, and reverted to her ancient days."
You are hopeless," murmured Grace. "Don't encourage him, girls."
"If they don't I'll pine away and go into a gradual decline," said Will, languishingly, trying, unsuccessfully, to put his head on Amy's shoulder.
"Stop it!" she commanded.
"I have it!" cried Frank. "That girl wasn't—well, not to put too fine a point upon it—she wasn't just right in her head. That's why she climbed a tree."
"Poor girl!" spoke Amy. "I hope she found some friends, at any rate," and Amy thought of the mystery surrounding her own life, and how fortunate she had been to find such a good home with Mr. and Mrs. Stonington.
Talking of the recent happening, laughing and joking, the young people were soon in Deepdale, and a little later had separated to their several homes.
As Mollie had said, the details of the tour were now practically settled. Mollie's cousin, Mrs. Jane Mackson, had arranged to accompany the girls as chaperone, and on such times as she could not be with them they were to stop over night at the homes of friends or relatives.
They did not arrange for any definite rules about their trips. It was to be a pleasure jaunt, and at times they would cover more ground than others. Nor were any fixed dates set as to when they would be at certain places. As Mollie aptly expressed it:
"It's so much nicer not to know exactly what you are going to do, and then if anything comes up to make you change your plans you're not disappointed. We're going to be as care-free as we can."
And so the tour was laid out. The girls would take with them suit-cases with sufficient change of raiment to do them until other things could be forwarded from their homes to various designated points. Occasionally they would take a run back to Deepdale to renew necessaries.
The farthest point they would reach would be to visit an aunt of Mollie's in Midvale, about two hundred miles from Deepdale. But this would come at the end of the tour.
"Well, I think we are all ready to start!" exclaimed Mollie one morning, when the three girls, and her cousin, had assembled at her house. "Have you everything you need?:
"Not nearly—but all I can carry," announced Betty.
"No, no, Dodo! Mustn't climb in the car!" admonished Mollie, for the little girl was endeavoring to do so.
"Dot any tandy?" demanded Paul, possibly as the price of not following his sister's example.
"Ess—us ikes tandy!" cried Dodo, climbing down.
"Oh, Grace, will you kindly oblige again!" begged Mollie, as she took her place at the wheel.
"Certainly," said Grace, sweetly.
The girls were in the car.
"All aboard—we're off!' cried Mollie, and she pressed the self-starter button.