Myrtle’s voice was very soft and insinuating. She had tears always near the surface for ready use. “You never have been in love, Leslie; you don’t know what it is to be separated from the one who is all the world 249 to you. Come, now, Leslie; I’ll do anything in the world for you if you’ll only help me out now.”
“And if I won’t?” asked Leslie calmly, deliberately, as if she were really weighing the question.
“Well, if you won’t,” put in the person called Fred Hicks, “why, Bart and I will just fix you up perfectly harmlessly in the back seat there, where you can’t do any damage”––and he put his hand in his pocket, and brought out the end of an ugly-looking rope––“and then we’ll take charge of this expedition and go on our way. You can take it or leave it as you please. Shut up there, Myrt; we haven’t any more time to waste. We’re behind schedule now.”
Leslie’s mouth shut in a pretty little tight line, and her eyes got like two blue sparks, but her voice was cool and steady.
“Well, I won’t!” she said tensely; and with a sudden motion she grabbed the switch-key and, springing to her feet, flung it far out across the road, across a little scuttled canoe that lay at the bank, and plunk into the water, before the other occupants of the car could realize what she was doing.
Fred Hicks saw just an instant too late, and sprang for her arm to stop it, then arose in his seat with curses on his lips, watching the exact location of the splash and calling to his mate to go out and fish for it.
Leslie sank back in her seat, tense and white, and both young men sprang out and rushed to the shore of the little lake, leaving a stream of unspeakable language behind them. Myrtle began to berate her friend.
“You little fool!” she said. “You think you’ve stopped us, don’t you? But you’ll suffer for this! If you make us late, I’ll see that you don’t get back to 250 your blessed home for a whole week; and, when you do, you won’t have such a pretty reputation to go on as you have now! It won’t do a bit of good, either, for those two men can find that switch-key; or, if they can’t, Fred knows how to start a car without one. You’ve only made a lot of trouble for yourself, and that’s all the good it will do you. You thought you were smart, but you’re nothing but an ignorant little kid!”
But the ignorant little kid was not listening. With trembling fingers she was pulling off the wrappings from a small package, and suddenly a warning whir cut short Myrtle’s harangue. She lurched forward, and tried to pull Leslie’s hands away from the wheel.
“Bart! Come quick! She’s got another! Hurry, boys!”