"Start it! Quick, Tom!" gasped Helen.
"I—I can't!" groaned her brother.
"Then we must run——"
"Sit still!" commanded Jane Ann, with fire in her eye. "I'm not going to run from that cat. I hate 'em, anyway——"
"We can't leave Mr. Sheming," said Ruth, decidedly. "Try again, Tommy."
"Oh, don't bother about me," groaned the young man, who was still a stranger to them. "Don't be caught here on my account."
"It will not do us any good to run," cried Ruth, sensibly. "Oh, Tommy!"
And then the engine started. The electric starter had worked at last. Tom threw in his clutch and the car lunged ahead just as the snarling cat sprang into the air again.
The cat and the car were approaching each other, head on. The creature could not change its course; nor could Tom Cameron veer the car very well on this rough ground.
He had meant to turn the car in a big circle and make for the road again. But that flashing black body darting through the air was enough to shake the nerve of anybody. The car "wabbled." It shot towards the tracks, and then back again.