But Mollie did more than slow down. She stopped! and with such suddenness that the girls were all but thrown out of the car and Betty bumped her nose on the seat in front. They had scarcely regained their poise when they were startled by a shrill cry from Amy. “Girls!” she almost screamed, clutching Betty’s arm in a grip that hurt, “look at that tree. It’s going to fall! Oh, we’ll be killed!” The girls followed the direction of her pointing finger and looks of horror sprang to their eyes. Slowly, its descent retarded somewhat by the branches of other trees, a towering giant of the forest tottered and crashed its destructive way downward. And they were directly in its path! CHAPTER II. THE FALLING TREE For a moment the Outdoor Girls sat fascinated, paralyzed, without the power to move a muscle. Then suddenly Grace seemed galvanized to action, She leaned toward Mollie, grasping the steering wheel of the motionless car frantically. “For heaven’s sake, Mollie, get out of the way! Start the car!” she screamed. “I can’t!” Mollie answered, tight-lipped. “Something’s wrong. The motor’s dead.” But with Grace’s scream, Betty had come to her senses and had scrambled out of the car, dragging the still paralyzed Amy after her. “Grace, get out! Mollie, are you crazy?” she shouted wildly. “You’ll be killed!!” Automatically Grace started to clamber to the road, but Mollie still fussed with brakes and levers, her lips in a tight line, her eyes blazing. “Something’s wrong! but I’ll get her started,” she muttered over and over to herself while Betty raged at her from the road. “Get out! get out!” fumed the Little Captain, “Jump, or I’ll come after you and we’ll both be killed. Mollie!” Luckily for Mollie’s suicidal stubbornness, the great tree had been halted far a moment in its downward plunge by some particularly heavy foliage and branches, but the girls could see that it was only a matter of seconds until the giant should tear itself loose and come plunging down upon them. And still Mollie fumbled with levers in a vain and foolish attempt to save her beloved car at the risk of her own life. Betty had just jumped upon the running board in a wild attempt to drag her chum from the car when suddenly help came to them from an unexpected quarter. An elderly man came running from the woods, evidently attracted by their excited cries. He gave one look at the toppling tree, even now tearing itself loose from the impeding branches, another at the machine with the two girls still in it, and then, with a speed and decision which seemed to belie his age, went to the rescue. “Come! help me push!” he cried to Amy and Grace, who were still standing dumbly in the middle of the road. A moment later he had thrown himself with all his might against the machine, striving to push it out of the path of the falling tree.