Jack brought the _Get There_ in line with the other runabout. "My, but that shower is coming up quickly. I'll bet the girls are about scared to death," he said. "Cora isn't particularly afraid of thunder showers, but I know Belle is." "Then, they will have to put up somewhere before they get to Wayside," remarked Ed. "That thunder is not far away." As he said this a blinding flash of lightning confirmed the statement. "I wonder if that chauffeur Mr. Robinson hired, knows any place to put up at?" asked Jack, his voice showing some anxiety. "Well, there doesn't happen to be any place on this road," replied Ed. "I came along here last week, and the only thing like a hotel I could find, was an old roadhouse over on a back lane." "My, but that's sharp lightning!" exclaimed Walter. "Guess I had better get ahead, Jack. It's safer now." For a mile or so the runabouts went along, "between the flashes," as Ed put it. Then the rain came, pelting and with a tempestuous wind. "Where's the turn, Ed?" asked Jack. "We'd better hurry on and overtake the girls now. I don't feel like risking it in this downpour. That fellow from the garage may not know more than he has to, and I promised Mr. Robinson I'd sort of look after the girls." "Listen!" exclaimed Walter. "I don't hear the cars, do you?" Both runabouts slowed up, and their occupants did not speak for some seconds. "But where could they have gone to?" questioned Jack, as their strained ears failed to catch the familiar sound of a machine that had been running on ahead. All the joy of the stolen ride instantly vanished. Jack Kimball, Ed Foster, and Walter Pennington were no longer the jolly, laughing youths, chasing the motor girls. They were three very much frightened young men, for the girls, and the car in which the other members of the Robinson family had been riding, could neither be seen nor heard! Through the pouring rain the boys dashed on. The rays of light from the search-lamps revealed nothing but a stretch of mud that, every moment, became deeper and more treacherous! Then came a fork in the road, and beside the turn, a lane offered a possible clue to the sudden departure of the girls from the main highway. "We've got to get out and look for their tracks," said Jack. "I suppose they put on all kinds of speed to get away from the rain." But although the other cars must have passed over that place somewhere, and not more than half an hour before, not a mark of the heavy wheels could be discerned in the deep, dark mud, though Jack took off one of the oil lamps and flashed it across the road. "Golly!" exclaimed Ed, in earnest despair. "Which way?" asked Walter, deferring now to the much-alarmed brother of Cora Kimball. "I wish I knew," replied he, with a sigh. "Suppose we make straight for the Wayside?" suggested Ed. "They may have known of the roadhouse." "How far to Wayside?" asked Jack.