"Oh, thank you," she stammered rather shyly. "I am sure you have helped me wonderfully. I don't know how to thank you--all." "You can stand, eh?" asked Mr. Stevens, satisfaction showing in his voice, and ruddy face. "I suppose you feel--that I should have taken your offer for the horses?" she remarked with confusion. "Well, there is always a first time," he replied, "but since you are no worse off you must not complain. Guess the boys had better lift you to the road. Then we will see if you can run your car." Again, in that straightforward way, peculiar to those who know when they're right and then go ahead, the "boys" simply picked Cora up, she putting her arms over their shoulders, and while the three other girls wended their way over the cliff, Cora was carried safely back to the spot where still lay the helpless _Whirlwind_. CHAPTER VII THE CLUE AT THE SPRING HOUSE Just how Cora did manage to run her car into Chelton, with a stiffened wrist and a twisted shoulder, she was not able to explain afterward to the anxious ones at home. Belle rode with her, and was sufficiently familiar with the machine to take a hand at the wheel now and then, but it was Cora who drove the _Whirlwind_, in spite of that. It was now two days since the eventful afternoon at the strawberry patch, and the girls were ready again to make the trip to Squaton, in quest of the crate of berries promised to Mrs. Robinson. Jack argued that his sister was not strong enough to run her car with ease, so he insisted on going along. Then, when his friends, Ed Foster and Walter Pennington, heard of this they declared it was a trick of Jack's to "do them out of a run with the motor girls," and they promptly arranged to go along also. Ed rode with Walter, in the latter's runabout, and the twins were, of course, together in the _Flyaway_, while Cora was beside Jack in the _Whirlwind_, for, although the girls were speedily turning into the years that would make them young ladies, they still maintained the decorum of riding "girls with girls" and "boys with boys," except on very rare occasions. As they rode along, an old stone house, set far back from the highway, attracted Jack's attention. "Let's stop here," he suggested, "and look over the place. I'll bet it has an open fire place with a crane and fixings, for cooking." Word was passed to those in the other cars, and all were glad to stop, for the afternoon was delightful, and the ride to Squaton rather short. As no path marked the grass that led to the old house it was evident that no one had lately occupied it. The boys ran on ahead to make sure that no ghosts or other "demons" might be lurking within the moldy place, while Cora, Bess and Belle stopped to pick some particularly pretty forget-me-nots, from near the spring that trickled along through the neglected place.