CHAPTER XIV
BLUFF POINT AT LAST
Very anxious the Outdoor Girls looked as the grouchy old farmer cametoward them. Mollie was making all sorts of noises under the car,apparently tinkering with its mechanism, while the girls kept up arunning fire of questions.
"What is the matter, Mollie?"
"Can't you find the trouble?"
"Better let me get under and take a look."
"If we don't get started pretty soon, we'll not get to Bluff Pointbefore dark."
These and other remarks like them met the suspicious ears of the driveras he jerked his team to a standstill.
"Hey, what's the matter with you?" he hailed them. "Have you got tostand right in the middle of the road? Can't you move over some?"
At this Mollie wriggled out from under the car and stood up, facing him.Her face was flushed from restrained mirth, but it might well have beenthe flush of indignation.
"If we could don't you suppose we would?" she queried, ratherincoherently. "Do you think I'm doing this for fun?" Then she abruptlydisappeared from sight again. The abruptness was caused by the terriblefear that if she stood looking at that sour old visage another momentshe would have to spoil everything by laughing.
As for the other girls, they were slowly turning purple in an effort tomaintain the solemnity demanded by the occasion. A strange noise frombeneath the car, promptly followed by a choked cough, didn't help themany, and they were relieved when their victim turned his suspicious gazefrom them to the shallow ditch at the side of the road which was stillmuddy from the rain of the night before. The only hope he had of gettingaround them was to drive through this mud.
Without a word or a glance in their direction, he whipped up his teamand started for the ditch. This was something the girls had notforeseen, and they were of no mind to let him get ahead of them again.
Grace and Amy flashed a distress signal to Betty, who stooped overMollie's feet, the feet being all that could be seen of her, and criedwith a peculiar inflection:
"I think you must have found the trouble by this time, Mollie, haven'tyou?"
Mollie took the hint and scrambled hurriedly to her feet.
"I think so," she said, then as her eyes swiftly took in thesituation--the grim old man already struggling through the ditch intenton getting ahead of them--she jumped to her seat and started the engine."All right," she cried gayly. "Come on, girls, jump in."
The girls jumped in with alacrity and Betty and Grace ran to the car infront. Then while the man whipped up his horses and called to them interms far from gentle, the two cars sprang forward and were off down theroad.
They turned once, to find the man urging his team to the road andshaking his fist after the "gasoline wagons." The girls waved to himmerrily, before the turn in the road shut him from sight.
"I guess that will teach him a lesson," said Grace, settling backcomfortably.
"Shouldn't wonder," agreed Betty absently, adding with a rueful littlesmile. "It was great fun, of course, but I hope we shan't meet many moreof his kind, or we'll never get to Bluff Point."
"We're almost there now," said Grace. "All this part of the country isalmost as familiar to me as Deepdale. When I was a little kiddie, I usedalmost to live with Aunt Mary."
"It's wonderful how little children love the woods and brooks and allwild things," mused Betty, adding, as the picture of Dodo and Paul,hiding in the machines and begging to be taken along, came back to her:"I almost wish we could have brought the twins with us. They would haveso loved it."
"And we would have spent all our time trying to keep them from fallinginto the ocean," added Grace dryly. "Besides," she added, "I don'tbelieve Mrs. Billette would have let them come. They are such littlemischiefs, and she is always afraid something will happen to them."
"Yes, and they're good company for her," agreed Betty thoughtfully;"especially when Mollie is away."
After a few minutes of silence Grace suddenly clutched Betty's arm,making the Little Captain jump.
"Betty," cried the former excitedly, "we're almost there. Just aroundthat curve--"
"Well, you needn't scare me to death," protested Betty, taking one handfrom the wheel to rub the arm Grace had clutched.
"But I love it so," Grace cried, standing up only to be jerked back intoher seat as Betty swung round the curve. "It's such a wonderful place!"
"Is that it up on the hill?"
"Yes," answered Grace, standing up in earnest now. "Turn up thedrive--it leads to the garage at the back. And, Betty, the house standson a little bluff looking out over the ocean. Do you hear it--the oceanI mean, not the house, Silly!"
The road that they had traveled from Deepdale to Bluff Point had ledacross country, Deepdale being in the interior, so that the girls hadscarcely realized how close they were coming to the coast.
Now, as Betty stopped the car at the back of the quaint little cottage,that sound of romance and mystery, the soft lapping of water with thedeeper undertone of waves against rock came up to her and she threw backher head with a little bubbling laugh.
"I don't wonder you love it, Gracie dear," she said. "I do already. It'sglorious."
They jumped out and ran back to meet Mollie's car, which was puffinglike an old man up the steep grade.
"The ocean! The ocean!" cried Betty ecstatically, as she opened thedoors and the girls tumbled out. "Do you smell it? Do you hear it? Oh,girls, hurry up, I can't wait to feel it!"
"Goodness, are you going to commit suicide?" cried Mollie. "If that'swhat you want, I don't see why you bothered to come away up here."
"Mother, Mother, give me the key, quick," demanded Grace, as they ranaround the side of the house and Betty made a face at Mollie. "Youhaven't forgotten it, have you?"
"No, I tied it on a ribbon around my neck," said Mrs. Ford, with asmile. "I had no intention of forgetting it. Here it is."
"Thank you."
Grace fitted the key in the lock and opened the door, but when sheturned, expecting to find the girls at her back, she found that they haddeserted her.
They were standing, gazing out over a gleaming white stretch of sand tothe shimmering water beyond, absolutely oblivious to everything but thebeauty of the scene.
The bluff on which they stood sloped gently down to the beach below.Once down there, the girls knew they would feel as though they wereisolated from all the rest of the world, for the beach was in the formof a semi-circle, surrounded on three sides by rocky bluffs and blockedoff in front by the ocean.
"How beautiful!" breathed Betty, as Grace stole up and joined them."We've seen a great many wonderful views, but I never saw one to equalthis. Just look at the reflection of the sun out there."
"Blood red," murmured Mollie. "That looks like a hot day to-morrow."
"All the more excuse for taking a swim," put in Amy, adding longingly:"I wish it weren't too late now."
"I'm afraid it is," said Mrs. Ford, seizing her opportunity. "We stillhave to put the cars away and get our provisions and cook supper--"
"Who said 'supper'?" Mollie demanded hungrily. "Mrs. Ford," she added,as they started for the house, "won't you please make Betty make somebiscuits?"
"But you make as good biscuits as I do," protested Betty.
"No, I don't, Darling," denied Mollie, putting an arm about her chum."And, anyway," she added convincingly, "I can eat more when I don't haveto make them!"
The girls were almost as pleased with the interior of the house as theyhad been with its surroundings. There were odd little passages andunexpected window seats such as Betty had dreamed of having in her ownlittle home some day.
The thought brought back the picture of Allen as he had gone away,gallant, hopeful, brave--oh, so brave--and involuntarily she uttered alittle sigh.
"Please don't do that," said Grace, as they entered the room they wereto have together. "I'm trying my best not to be as gloomy as I feel. Butif you begin to sigh, I'll just have to give up and spoil the party."
"I won't," s
aid Betty, trying a little smile before the mirror and doingit pretty successfully. "I didn't mean to that time, only, I was--justthinking."
"I know," said Grace a little petulantly, as she pulled off her hat andthrew it on the bed. "It seems to me that's all I'm ever doing--'justthinking.' If I could only really do something! Some time I'll screamaloud!"
"Well, don't you think we're all pretty much in the same fix?" suggestedBetty gently, coming over and putting an arm about her.
"I suppose so," she answered, eyes fixed moodily on the floor. "Only therest of you have only one to worry about, while I--" she stopped,flushed, and began letting down her thick hair. "If I could only cry!"
"I imagine that might help us all," said Betty wistfully, adding, with atouch of her old gayety: "Perhaps I can arrange it after supper."
"What?" asked Grace.
"A cry party," she answered, and the absurdity of it made them bothlaugh.
In spite of the shadow hanging over them, dinner that night was a greatsuccess. Everybody pitched in, and, having acquired ravenous appetiteson their long ride, did the cooking in record time, and of courseeverything tasted ambrosial.
After dinner they wandered out on the veranda, which was almost as bigas the rest of the house put together. It was a wonderful night, withthe moon so bright that it shed a magic silver radiance over everythingwhile the lapping of the water came softly up to them.
Suddenly Mollie's hand slipped into Betty's where they stood togetherlooking out.
"On such a night as this," breathed Mollie, scarcely above a whisper,"there should be nothing but peace in the world."
"Should be--yes," agreed Betty, a little bitterly. "But things are notalways as they should be!"
The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point; Or a Wreck and a Rescue Page 15
