“Oh, Betty, we are being held up!” moaned Grace, who evidently was frightened enough for both of them. “For goodness’ sake, hold up your hands. He may shoot.” Still feeling rather dazed with the suddenness of the thing, Betty raised both hands above her head, at the same time feeling a rather hysterical desire to laugh. It was so absurd, being held up by a masked stranger in broad daylight, Nevertheless, she gave a little gasp of fright as the man waved his big revolver menacingly and came close to the car. She wished frantically that he would not point that firearm at her. Suppose it should go off! “Come on, hand over what you got,” the robber demanded in a gruff threatening voice. “The quicker you move, the better it will be for you.” “Wh-what do you want?” asked Betty, in a weak little voice that did not sound like her own at all. She had thought of her pocketbook beside her in the pocket of the car. The purse contained a whole month’s allowance. She was sparring desperately for time! help in some form or other might come at any moment. But the ruffian in the road was evidently in no frame of mind to be fooled with. He waved his revolver once more, eliciting a terrified gurgle from Grace and commanded roughly that they get out of the car. “No funny business,” he snarled. “Get out!” Betty was about to obey when she had a brilliant thought. Her pepper gun! She had bought it the day before from the son of her father’s chauffeur, thinking it was an undesirable plaything for a nine-year-old boy and had put it, as the most convenient place, in her car. And the pepper gun was filled! as it should have been! with good red cayenne pepper! CHAPTER XII. SHEEP! For a moment Betty hesitated, almost afraid of what she was going to do. The pepper gun might work, but if she were not quick enough or clever enough, her little trick might also result in a tragedy. Her hesitation was only momentary, however, for Betty was a born fighter. Suddenly she cried out as if in joyful greeting to an unexpected arrival. “Here they come! here they come!” she called, and in the moment that their captor turned his startled eyes from her to the road ahead, Betty acted. She snatched the pepper gun from its hiding place in the car and as the man once more turned furiously upon her let him have the full contents directly in the face. It was a dreadful thing to do. Choking and sputtering, the ruffian dropped his revolver and raised both fists to his tortured eyes. “I’ll get you for this!” he cried between great sneezes that threatened to tear him apart. “You just wait!!” But Betty refused to wait. As soon as the fellow had dropped his weapon she had started the engine, and now she guided the car past the stuttering robber and raced off down the road. Mollie, who had only half understood what was going on but who had caught enough of it to be considerably alarmed did not stop to ask questions, but sped off down the road after Betty.