"Not exactly great," answered Mr. Foster, "but I have played some. My interest in sports has rather kept me away from society. That accounts for me not being better acquainted in Chelton, or perhaps--" "Hello there!" came a hail from the road. "Jack and Walter!" exclaimed Cora, as at that moment another machine came along and drew up alongside the fence which separated the highway from the meadow. "Now, won't they laugh at us!" "Well, I declare!" exclaimed the mud-bespattered young fellow. "If that isn't Jack! And Walter Pennington is with him!" "What's up?" called Jack, leaping from the car and running across the meadow, after a quick climb over the fence. "A great deal is up," said Cora. "Well--Ed Foster! Where in the world did you come from?" Jack added as he saw the young man about to alight from Cora's car. "From the ditch," was Ed's laughing answer, as he looked down at his splattered garments. "I just got but in time to--" "Never mind--shake!" interrupted Jack, extending his hand. "When I was a youngster, and our big Newfoundland dog came out With the stick from the pond--" "Now! now!" cautioned Ed. "I may be big, and I may have just crawled from the pond, but I deny the stick." "I'm sure we would have been here forever if Mr. Foster hadn't--" began Cora. "Been here first," interrupted Jack. "That's all very well, sis. But I told you so! A brand-new, spick-and-span car like this! And to run it into a muddy ditch!" "Indeed!" exclaimed Elizabeth. "We were almost killed! Cora just saved our lives!" "Mercy me!" cried Walter, who had left the car and joined Jack. "Now, Cora," he added mockingly, "when you start out to save lives, why don't you give a fellow the tip? There's nothing I do so love as to see lives saved--especially nice young ladies," and he made a low bow. "Oh, you may laugh," said Cora somewhat indignantly, "but I don't want anything like it to happen again. The brake would not work, and--" "The train was just in front of us, and we were running right in it," put in Isabel, her voice far from steady, and her face still very white. At this point Ed insisted upon telling the whole story, and he described the plight of the motor girls so graphically that both Jack and Walter were compelled to admit that Cora did indeed know how to drive a car in an emergency, and that she had acted most wisely. "Good for you, sis!" exclaimed Jack, when the story Was finished. "I could not have done better myself." "Such praise is praise indeed," spoke Ed with a laugh. He went around back to look at the brake, and found what had caused the trouble. A loose nut had fallen between the brake band and the wheel hub, and prevented the band from tightening. The trouble was soon remedied, and the brake put in working order. "There--you are all ready for the road now," remarked Ed. "Thank you--very much," said Cora quietly, but there was a world of meaning in her tones.