Suddenly the machine began to slow up, just after a loud clap of thunder which followed a bright flash of lightning.
"What's the matter?" exclaimed Rose. "Did it strike us?"
"Pooh! Of course not!" exclaimed Russ. "If we'd been hit you'd know it!"
"No, there is no danger yet," answered Captain Ben. "But I think we'd better stop and put up the side curtains before it rains, as it is going to soon, and rain hard," he said to Daddy Bunker.
The automobile was run beneath a tree at the edge of the road, and the two men began fastening up the side curtains. Hardly had they finished and climbed back into the machine, than there was a louder howl to the wind, the thunder rolled and crashed overhead, the lightning blazed in the black sky, and then the rain came down with pelting force, pattering on the top and sides of the automobile as it did on the shingle roof at the home of the six little Bunkers.
CHAPTER VIII
A QUEER NIGHT
"Isn't this fun!" shouted Rose, leaning back in the seat and putting her arm around Violet. "It's just like camping out."
"It's better'n camping out," declared Russ, who sat next to Laddie. The two smaller children were on the back seat of the automobile between Russ and his sister.
"What makes this better'n camping out?" Violet wanted to know. "Is it 'cause it rains harder?"