And Betty hustled, with Mollie keeping just far enough behind to avoid the cloud of dust the little car threw up. For an hour more the motors purred rhythmically, eating up mile after mile, until finally the girls were compelled by ravenous and healthy appetites to stop for lunch. They had brought two big hampers, packed full with sandwiches, fruit and cake and also something to drink, and after the long ride in the open the very thought of these delicacies brought, as Grace said, "the tears of longing to their eyes." As Mrs. Ford handed one of the baskets over the seat to Mollie in front, Betty and Grace tumbled out of their car and came running toward them. "Are you going to get out and eat, in romantic fashion, by the wayside?" queried Grace, eyeing a pile of sandwiches hungrily. "Or are you going to sit in state in the car and let us occupy the running board?" "We'll give you one of the hampers," offered Mrs. Ford, but Mollie gasped in dismay. "Oh, please don't," she begged. "Don't you see--there are only two of them to our three. And you want to give them half the lunch!" They laughed at her, and Betty offered a solution. "Far be it from us to rob you, Honey," she said soothingly. "We'll sit right here on this rock--" "Oh, goodness! who cares where we sit as long as we get something," groaned Grace. "Mollie, I'm dying." "Well as long as you die out there it's all right," retorted Mollie unfeelingly. Nevertheless, she handed the sufferer a ham sandwich and a hard boiled egg, which the latter came as near to grabbing as her good breeding would permit. However, when they had finished the lunch, burned up what odds and ends remained, and had once more started on their way, they found that the shadow of unhappiness which the excitement of the race had almost banished, was returning again. In front with Betty, Grace sighed so dolefully that the Little Captain looked at her inquiringly, an action which almost brought about a collision with a tree by the wayside. "Betty, what are you doing?" "Trying to kill us," replied Betty serenely. "And if you give any more sighs like that, I'll do it." "I didn't know I sighed," said Grace gloomily. "But it wouldn't be any wonder if I did. I feel as if I were made up of them--sighs, I mean." Betty was silent a moment, then she asked suddenly: "When does your father expect to hear from Washington?" "Not before the end of the week, anyway. And by that time," Grace paused to control the trembling of her lips, "nobody knows what may have happened. For all we know Will may be--dead." CHAPTER VIII RED RAGS "Well, we've been making pretty good speed for the last three hours," said Mollie, taking first one hand, then the other, from the steering wheel and stretching her cramped fingers experimentally. "Now if nothing else happens--"