“Come on, fellows. This won’t do,” cried George. “We’ve got to make tracks now.” They scrambled to their feet and set out at a fast pace. In the meantime Jane McCarthy, chuckling over the scare she had given the Tramp Club, was racing along the highway in her mad drive to the eastward.
A few miles farther on she stopped the car and after taking a survey of the land, got out and made some chalk marks on a fence. Then she drove on more leisurely.
While all this was happening the Meadow-Brook Girls were traveling on, also at a fast pace. They had gotten over the rugged range of hills after having sustained some scratches on their hands and several rents in their frocks. They then came out into a corn field. A highway lay below them which they would have to cross. On the opposite side of the highway lay an apple orchard, the trees standing close together, their tops in most instances interlacing.
“I wonder if the boys have passed here?” questioned Hazel, shading her eyes and gazing up and down the road.
“No. They must still be a long way back,” answered Harriet.
The Meadow-Brook Girls started down the hill, climbing the fence into the road. There before them, plainly discernible, were the tracks of an automobile.
“Jane went past here not long ago,” decided Margery. “These are her car tracks, I am sure.”
“Yes, and there’s a chalk mark on the fence,” said Miss Elting, pointing down the road a few rods. They hurried over to examine the sign.
“A broken arrow,” exclaimed Harriet. “That means danger or ‘look out.’ Now, I wonder what we are to look out for? I don’t see anything alarming.”
“I think Jane means to inform us that the boys are not far from here and to look out for them,” suggested the guardian.