The racing car stopped, one of the men leaped out, and made a dash toward the two girls. Eline, looking around, screamed, and Nancy, hearing her, added to the exclamation.
“My guardian! My guardian!” she cried. “I won’t go–I won’t go!”
“Quick, Jack!” cried Cora. “They’re trying to take Nancy away. You must stop them!”
Jack, holding a heavy tire iron in his hand, leaped forward toward the two girls. The man had almost reached them, when there was heard the loud honk of an auto horn coming around the bend of the road.
CHAPTER XXVIII
A STRANGE MESSAGE
Nancy and Eline clung to each other. Nancy had started to run off into the woods, but found herself unequal to the task. A nervous tremor seized her.
“Oh, Eline, Eline!” she begged. “Don’t let him take me away! Don’t!”
But Nancy’s guardian was not destined to get her into his control this time. No sooner had the honk-honk of the other car been heard and it had swung into sight around the bend of the road, than the man in the other auto–the man who had accompanied Mr. Cross–called out:
“Look out, Rickford, this may be a trap!”