"Oh, no," declared Cora. "We'll let you handicap us all you wish. We are willing to test the Whirlwind on its merits." "I should think so," sneered Ida, and then she turned disdainfully away, as if the landscape held more of interest for her than did the details of a race. "Who is that forward girl?" asked quiet Mary of Bess. "Ida Giles," was the whispered reply. "She looked at me as if I did not belong in a motor car," went on the little milliner, with that quick perception acquired by business experience. "Well, she doesn't belong in the one she's in," retorted Bess kindly. "I guess you imagine she meant something like that. Ida is not really mean. She is merely thoughtless." "That's the very meanest kind of meanness," insisted Mary, "for, when folks do a thing through thoughtlessness they do not know enough to be careful next time." Bess smiled to assure Mary that the milliner's model was on an equal footing with the girls in the Whirlwind, at all events. "Line up!" called Jack. "Get ready for the race. We'll not insist on a handicap for you, Cora." Sid sent his car directly to the middle of the road, the very best place. "Better let the touring car go there," suggested Walter in as even a tone as he could command. "It will need lots of room, and the road's not very wide." "That's right," added Jack. "A runabout can go on either side, then." "I don't know," began Sid. "Cora ought to beat, and yet with two fellows driving against her--" "Oh, if it's a matter of girls," almost sneered Ida, "I'll drive the Streak." "Good idea!" hurriedly spoke Jack. "That will `make the match even. Suppose we take a girl to drive our car, Walter?" Walter glanced rather ruefully at his companion. "Why--er--yes," he drawled. "Suppose we take--" "Bess," finished Jack, quickly. "She knows considerable about a car, and she's driven this one." Somehow, the idea of having Bess as a rival to Ida suggested fun to Jack. "Now we have it," went on Cora's brother, as Bess alighted from the Whirlwind and entered the Get There. "Are we all ready?" "Where's Walter going?" asked Cora, for he had given up his seat to Jack, who moved to make room for Bess. Mary, Cora and Belle were in the touring car. "I guess I'd better get into the big machine,", decided Walter. "Three such pretty girls in it all alone are an unequal division of beauty and talent--the last for myself, of course." He moved toward the Whirlwind. Ida frowned. She had rather hoped to have matters so arranged that Walter would be with her. Cora saw the frown and laughed merrily as Walter slipped into the seat beside her. "I suppose you think you are going to do the mascoting for this car," she said. "At your service, mademoiselle," replied Walter, trying to bow, a politeness rather difficult of accomplishment in a small seat. "Do anything you like, but don't run me into the ditch. My watch is deadly afraid of ditches."