Chapter XVIII: A Very Annoying Situation

In a minute or two the rain was falling torrentially--beating upon the automobile cover and quickly turning the sandy road to an actual mire.

It grew rapidly dark, although it was only mid-afternoon. Overhead the lightning crackled and the thunder ricochetted from the distant hills. The trees bordering the road swayed in the wind and the weight of the falling rain bent them like saplings.

Neale O'Neil could not drive the automobile rapidly, much as they desired to reach a place of refuge from the storm, for the wind-shield was blurred so that he had to poke his head out at the side every now and then to watch the road.

The roar of the elements was appalling. The girls and Mrs. Heard shut their eyes and cowered in the tonneau when the sharp flashes of lightning came. But they were perfectly dry.

Sammy was in a state of hysterical delight. He was not frightened, but he jumped every time the thunder broke above them. Once Neale told him to keep still, but Sammy cried:

"I can't, Neale. I don't mean to jump--and I wouldn't if it wasn't for that old thunder. I know the bolt of lightning I see won't hit me--my dad told me that. I guess if I was deaf so I wouldn't hear the thunder, I'd keep as still as still!"

Not much was said by the girls, and Tom Jonah merely hung his pink tongue out like a flag, whining sometimes when the thunder rolled; for, like Sammy, he was mostly disturbed by it.

The narrow road ahead, as they swooped down into a hollow, seemed to be flooded. The shallow gutters could not contain the amount of water which had fallen, and the wheels of the automobile rolled through a brown stream of sand and water. At the bottom of this hill was a sharp turn; but Neale saw this in plenty of time. However, what lay beyond was completely hidden by an outthrust bank. The water in the driveway deepened as they descended. Despite the hard going the automobile gained momentum from the descent, and Neale steered carefully.

"Just like riding through a river, ain't it, Neale?" shrieked Sammy.

Tom Jonah, as excited as Sammy himself, barked. Neale punched the horn, although he did not expect to meet anybody or anything in such a storm and in such a lonely place. He slipped in the clutch at the bottom of the hill, turning out slightly to make the turn. He could not foresee the result of this last move; but he realized his mistake in just ten seconds--when it was too late.

The rear wheels skidded a little, and then the car, on the right side, slumped down into the mud and water, hub deep, and stopped dead!

The girls screamed, and Mrs. Heard, too, was frightened by the sudden jolt and the way the car tipped over. It did seem for a moment or two as though there might be a complete overturn.

"Now you've done it, Neale O'Neil!" cried Agnes, in her excitement.

"I s'pose I made it rain, too," sniffed Neale, in disgust. "You give me a pain, Aggie."

"What nonsense to blame Neale," Ruth, the fair-minded, hastened to put in. "What shall we do?"

"Stay where we are and keep dry," Mrs. Heard declared, with decision.

"But Neale can't get the car out of the mud with us in it," Agnes cried.

"Nor with you out of it, I reckon," said the boy, crossly; "wait till I see."

He crawled out with some difficulty to look the situation over, having to drive back Sammy and Tom Jonah with decision. "I don't want you two ramping around out here," he growled.

Neale had put on his slicker when the downpour began, and it was well he had, for this was no ordinary rain. The rush of water had filled the gutter with sand in solution, and there was now a regular quagmire where the wheels of the automobile stood. The fury of the storm had somewhat relaxed, but the rain fell steadily. Even should the rain stop, the water would not run out of this spot for hours. It did not take "half an eye," as Neale himself said, to see that they were stuck.

"And this is a nice place to spend the night in," complained Agnes.

"Can nothing really be done, Neale?" asked Mrs. Heard, much worried.

"I can't get her out without help," admitted the boy, in a discouraged tone.

Tess and Dot were crying a little, and Sammy looked at them scornfully. "Aw, you kids make me sick," he said. "You don't see me bawling, do you? S'pose you was in a pirate ship, 'way out in the ocean, and she was wrecked?"

"I don't want to be a pirate--so there!" sobbed Dot.

Tess said, solemnly: "Wait till you get hungry, Sammy Pinkney."

This silenced Sammy--for the time being, at least.

Suddenly Agnes cried aloud: "Oh, dear me! here it comes again."

It certainly sounded as though the tempest were returning, there was such a rattling and jangling behind them on the hill. Neale ran around the automobile to look.

A big wagon with a tarpaulin over it, making it look as large as a load of hay, and drawn by a pair of drenched horses, came rattling down the hill. There were two figures in slickers and rubber hats on the seat under the hood.

"A tin peddler's outfit, sure as you live," he cried.

"Oh, dear, Neale," said Ruth, "maybe they will be rough men and will not help you."

"I reckon they'll help us if we make it worth their while," said the boy, with assurance, peering through the rain to try to make out the faces of the two on the wagon seat.

"Be careful, boy," said Mrs. Heard. "Don't show them much money. We don't know what sort of men they may be. Peddlers----"

Neale reached back into the car and seized a heavy wrench. "Nothing like 'preparedness,'" he said, with a grin.

"My goodness!" exclaimed Agnes, giggling suddenly, "they'll think you are a highway robber."

"I'm going to hold them up all right," returned Neale O'Neil, with assurance.

The wagon was evidently hung with a large supply of tinware and the like, but all under the canvas cover. Yet it came down the hill at such a pace that the horses must not have found their load a heavy one to draw.

Of course the two strangers saw Neale, and the stalled car could not be overlooked, either. The one driving pulled in his team. Neale could make out the features of neither, for the turned-down brims of their hats hid their faces.

But the one driving called out in a very pleasant and unexpectedly cultivated voice:

"Hello there! What's the matter? In a hole?"

"That's just what we _are_ in," Neale responded, and immediately tossed the wrench back into the car. He knew they had nothing to fear from a man with a voice like that.

"Is she in deep?" asked the stranger.

"You can see how she's bogged down," Neale returned. "No chance of my humping her out under her own engine, that's sure."

"You need something more--about two-horse power, eh?" said the driver of the peddler's cart, with a laugh.

"It must be a very annoying situation," said the second person on the seat of the cart.

Neale fairly jumped. It was a most astonishing thing, and he gaped impolitely for a moment up into the speaker's face. It was a girl!

Neale O'Neil was sure that she laughed at his surprise. But the young man said nothing further as he wrapped the lines around the whipstock and began to climb down.

By this time the Corner House girls were peering out of the curtains of the automobile, very much interested. The young man, when he got upon the ground, appeared to be about twenty-one, and his face was keen and pleasant, if not handsome. It seemed very queer indeed to find two young people of this character driving a tin peddler's wagon through the country.

"It is a girl!" whispered Agnes, shrilly. "Goodness me! what fun!"

"And a _nice_ girl, too," murmured Ruth. "That man looks like a college student."

"Do you s'pose they are on their honeymoon?" suggested the romantic Agnes.

"For pity's sake don't ask them till you are a little better acquainted," begged Ruth.

Mrs. Heard asked the strange girl: "Won't you get wet up there?"

"Oh, no; I'm quite dry, thanks. And then I can go inside the wagon if it gets _too_ rough."

Not only Mrs. Heard, but the girls expressed their surprise at this statement.

"You see," explained the girl, "we have the cart fixed like a van inside. We can sleep in it if we don't want to put up our tent. It's very cozy indeed."

"Why," said Mrs. Heard, "this seems to be an entirely new idea. And do you really peddle tinware?"

"Oh, yes. Just like other peddlers. Only the country people would rather trade with us, for we look honest," and she laughed merrily. "Besides, we did it last summer, too, and almost everybody remembers us in this country."

"I should think it would be splendid!" cried Agnes, with her usual enthusiasm over anything new.

"Oh, yes; it's fine. And we are having a nice vacation, Luke and I. Luke is my brother. Luke Shepard. I am Cecile."

Ruth at once gave in turn the names of the automobile party. Meanwhile Dot said to Tess:

"I guess _she_ knows how to be a wild girl better'n you and me did," and Tess agreed, though with a whispered protest over her sister's grammar.

Neale and young Mr. Shepard had finally decided that the only way to get the car out of the mire was to unhitch the team from the peddler's wagon and use that "two horse power engine."

"You'll all have to get out while it's being done, too," said Neale to his party. "There'll be weight enough for one pair of horses, at best."

At once Cecile Shepard hopped down from the seat of the cart, and while the boys unhitched the horses, she got an umbrella and took Mrs. Heard first from the automobile to the rear of the van. There were steps and a door which gave entrance to the strange vehicle; and a lamp was quickly lighted inside. Then Cecile came back with the umbrella for the girls, and the entire touring party, save Neale and Tom Jonah, but including Sammy, were soon cozily ensconced in the peddler's wagon.

The Corner House girls were delighted with the way the van was arranged--and they were delighted with the cheerful, intelligent Cecile Shepard, too. They had a very talkative time while the boys worked hard to get the stranded automobile out of the mud.

The rain thundered down upon the huge tarpaulin that covered the van. A sweet breath of damp air blew through the wagon from the opening in front to the open door behind. Cecile told them something of the experiences of herself and her brother as tin peddlers.

Luke had a rope long enough to surround the body of the stalled automobile, so that the strain could be properly distributed. He and Neale tackled on the horses and carefully started them.

At the second trial the automobile wheels came out of the mud, and she rolled out upon the harder center of the road.

"Whoop--ee!" yelled Neale. "Now we're all right. And--and the rain is stopping! What do you know about that?"