“I hope, later on, it won’t turn out that we should have taken the left,” said Mrs. Martin.
“Why, do you think something might happen?” asked Janet.
“Maybe we’ll get lost and have to stay in the woods all night!” remarked Teddy. And he said it as though he would rather like such a thing to happen.
“Oh, no, I don’t believe we’ll have any trouble,” said Mr. Martin. “I could have gone around by Parkersburg, and we would have had good roads all the way. But it was thirty miles farther and I thought we would save time this way. Well, we’ll see what happens.”
At first the road the farmer had told them to take was fairly good, though there were stretches of sand where they could not go fast. Then they struck a patch of woods through which the road wound in and out like some great snake. The trees met in arches overhead.
“This is a very narrow road,” remarked Mr. Martin, when they had traveled it for a mile or so. “I hope we don’t meet any other autos or wagons. We’d have hard work to pass them.”
But, so far, they had met and passed no other vehicles. Soon, however, the road, instead of being on the level, began to slope downhill, and it was rather a steep hill.
“Guess I’d better put on brakes here,” said Mr. Martin.
He began to do this, but he had no sooner started down the hill than he found the brakes were not holding well. The automobile rolled along too fast.
“Still there may be no danger if we don’t meet another car or wagon,” thought Mr. Martin.