“It’ll have to be the front wheels or nothing,” said Edward, wiping the perspiration from his brow as he carried the two boards and the crossbeam to the front and placed them under the car.
This time, with a mighty strain, the Comet rolled slowly onto the boards, went the full length and promptly sank again into the sand. But each time he responded promptly to the “board treatment,” as Billie called it, and after infinite patience and energy they finally pulled him to harder ground.
“What shall we do now?” asked Nancy. “We’re only getting deeper into the woods.”
“We can’t turn around,” answered Billie. “We’ll just have to ride over bush and brake, I suppose, and follow the path.”
“Sound the horn, then,” said Elinor, “to scare away the animals,” and as the honk, honk rang out in the stillness the birds and beasts who lived in the woods must have thought some terrible new creature had come to disturb their haunts.
It was a slow ride they took that morning along the trail. The Comet picked his way cautiously, crushing vegetation under his iron wheels, like the car of Juggernaut riding over its victims, while the Motor Maids and Edward Paxton ducked their heads frequently to avoid being hit with vines and branches.
Past the hermit’s house they went, past the enclosure and still the path persevered. They could trace it far in front of them. The trail had been carefully and deliberately made, evidently. Trees had been felled on each side and vines and plants torn away, and although a new vegetation had grown up, the path was still open.
Except for the noise made by the wheels of the motor car as it passed over bracken and fern and all the varied undergrowth of a great forest, there was not a sound. The woods were deadly quiet. The birds had stopped singing; even, the insects ceased to buzz. The quiet was terrible.
“I feel,” whispered Mary, “as if everything in the place was waiting for something to happen. Do you notice there isn’t a sound? The birds are too frightened to sing. I have heard that a poisonous snake could hypnotize a whole forest like this.”
No one replied to this unpleasant suggestion. There was a long, uneasy silence. Then, suddenly, the Comet gave a swift backward movement like a terrified horse. Right in his path crouched a creature which might, in that shady twilight spot, have been taken for a good-sized cat. But his body was spotted, each spot outlined with an uneven circle of black, and his tawny eyes gleamed more fiercely than any cat’s eyes ever gleamed.