Instinctively they turned toward the car, but Mollie suddenly began to
laugh in a half-hysterical manner.

"This is what I call fun," she said. "Engine dead, caught in the rain,
and I've even left the side curtains at home! I guess we're in for it,
girls."

CHAPTER III

THE QUEER LITTLE MAN

While the girls stood looking wildly at each other their unknown
rescuer seemed suddenly galvanized to action.

"This won't do at all!" he cried, raising both hands to his bald head
which was by this time very wet and more shiny than ever. "You will
get your death of cold, young ladies, you surely will. You must come
with me. Here, right along this path I have a cottage--" All the time
he was talking he was hustling them fussily ahead of him, for all the
world like some old hen with a brood of chickens.

The girls, not knowing what else to do and being in rather a
bewildered frame of mind, allowed themselves to be hustled. The rain
was sheeting down in a terrific cloud burst, so that their clothes
clung to them damply and they began to shiver.

They circled the fallen tree which had so nearly been their undoing,
and a moment later found themselves upon a narrow footpath which
seemed to lead into the very heart of the woods.