"Grace, get out! Mollie, are you crazy?" she shouted wildly. "You'll be
killed--"

Automatically Grace started to clamber to the road, but Mollie still
fussed with brakes and levers, her lips in a tight line, her eyes blazing.

"Something's wrong--but I'll get her started," she muttered over and over
to herself while Betty raged at her from the road.

"Get out! get out!" fumed the Little Captain. "Jump, or I'll come after
you and we'll both be killed. Mollie!"

Luckily for Mollie's suicidal stubbornness, the great tree had been halted
for a moment in its downward plunge by some particularly heavy foliage and
branches, but the girls could see that it was only a matter of seconds
until the giant should tear itself loose and come plunging down upon them.

And still Mollie fumbled with levers in a vain and foolish attempt to save
her beloved car at the risk of her own life.

Betty had just jumped upon the running board in a wild attempt to drag her
chum from the car when suddenly help came to them from an unexpected
quarter.

An elderly man came running from the woods, evidently attracted by their
excited cries. He gave one look at the toppling tree, even now tearing
itself loose from the impeding branches, another at the machine with the
two girls still in it, and then, with a speed and decision which seemed to
belie his age, went to the rescue.