R
REALLY there could be no question that the car had got away from her. Stanley Downs, driving his high-powered Archimedes down the winding mountain road, had noticed the girl eight or ten miles back, and had admired the ease with which she managed the rakish six-cylinder in the many difficult spots, where strength, as well as skill, was demanded to keep the road.
She was a slim, bright-faced young woman. He knew that, because he had had one good look at her pretty face as she swung around a “hairpin turn” and passed him on the lower road, while he traveled to the bend on the upper.
He had taken a chance in looking sideways while preparing to negotiate the cruel bend with his own car. He should have kept his attention straight ahead, without regard to any girl, pretty or otherwise, who might be passing two hundred feet away, and who certainly was paying no attention to him.
“That’s a Fanchon she’s driving, Karl,” remarked Stanley to his chauffeur, who sat idly by his side. “It’s a new car, and I don’t know whether it is dependable or not. It has speed, and the lines are graceful and strong. But until a car has been well tried out, you never know where a weakness will develop.”
“The Fanchon’s a good car,” pronounced Karl briefly.
“Glad you know that, Karl, because it—— Hello! What does that mean?”
Karl suddenly came to life, as, when they got around the bend, he, as wellas Stanley, saw that the Fanchon was moving faster and faster, and, moreover, was swaying from side to side in a wild manner, which, to their experienced eyes, told its own story.
“Something’s slipped, Karl. She’s lost control.”
“She sure has! And there’s the lake and bridge at the end of the short quarter-mile turn! She can’t make the bridge at that speed.”
“Of course she can’t!” returned Stanley excitedly, as he opened up his own gas a few notches. “There’s an ugly twist there. Merciful Heaven! If she strikes the bend like that, only one thing can happen. She’ll shoot into fifty feet of water.”
“Unless she hits the stonework of the bridge approach. Then——”
“Shut up!” snapped Stanley. “We can’t let her do it! We have five miles. In that distance, we ought to be able to help.”
Karl did not reply. He knew how quickly five miles can be covered in an automobile.
Stanley drove faster and faster. The girl had nearly got to the next bend, which was one of the awful “S” turns. He saw that she was bending low over her wheel, prepared to serpentine her way around at full speed, if it could be done.
“The Lord send that she doesn’t meet anything!” murmured Stanley, as he put on more power. “What are we doing, Karl?”
“Fifty,” replied Karl, glancing at the speedometer.
“Fifty miles an hour! Well, we’ll have to go up to sixty—perhaps more.”
Stanley Downs gritted his teeth, forced his car up to sixty miles an hour, and then reduced the speed to thirty. They were approaching the “S.”
The girl was just running out of it, her car rocking awfully as she reached the straight.
“Well, she’s out of that,” remarked Stanley. “I was afraid she’d never do it. By Jove, she’s some driver!”
The Archimedes, being under control, went through the “S” safely at forty miles an hour. Then Stanley Downs set himself to catch the other car.
He was not clear as to what he would do if he did catch it. But he was resolved to dosomething. There was another sharp bend ahead, close to the broad lake, with its stone wall and many boat landings. After that came another twist, taking the road straight upon the long bridge that crossed the water.
As the Fanchon whizzed around on two wheels, Stanley saw that the fair driver was leaning far to one side, to throw the weight of her body against the inclination of the car to tip over. She was game to the core. Stanley Downs would have sworn to that.
“Doesn’t seem scared!” shouted Karl, above the roaring of the car, as it gathered more speed.
“Nerve of pure steel!” replied Stanley, through his clenched teeth. “Karl!”
“Well?”
“Get ready to take this wheel—without stopping the car.”
“Great Scott! That’s going to be some stunt,” declared Karl, but loosening himself up at the same time, ready to obey. “What’s the idea?”
“You see that we are getting to that last twist in the road, the quarter mile?”
“Sure! All right! Ready to do it now?”
“Just a moment. Wait till I get my feet clear, so that I can swing out as you go in behind the wheel. Get me?”
“Yes.”
The two cars were not far apart now. The girl was holding to the steering wheel with a desperate grip, her feet on the pedals, trying to make the foot brake hold. The emergency hand brake had given out long ago, and the otherseemed to have hardly any power. But she was fighting every inch to regain control.
By this time, a score of people, who had been strolling along the high-terraced walk above the roadway, which overlooked the lake, were watching the two great cars swirling down toward the quarter-mile turn.
They were accustomed to seeing cars moving at a good speed, after safely negotiating this difficult bend, but it was unusual for machines to approach it in this headlong fashion.
At each of the bends was a gigantic signboard, painted a terrifying red, bearing the word “Danger!” in white letters two feet long, and with the additional caution, in rather smaller characters: “Sharp curve ahead! Drive slow!”
There was hardly time for the spectators to express their horror at the catastrophe that seemed imminent, when the two cars swept along side by side.
“Now!” shouted Stanley.
He knew that he could depend on Karl. That rather taciturn young man had proved his courage and intelligence on other occasions. It was his habit to do what came his way without making much fuss about it, and if the task menaced his safety, or even his life, why, it was all in the day’s work.
“Ready, sir!” replied Karl.
“All right! Come!”
Stanley slid along the seat from behind the wheel, and immediately Karl was in his place, recovering the slight divergence of the car that had been caused by the change of guiding hands.
It was now that Stanley Downs had a good view of the girl’s face.
It could not be said that she was not frightened. But certainly her apprehension had not interfered with the masterly manner in which she managed the steering wheel. She was staring straight ahead of her, and, as she whirled around the quarter-mile bend, she endeavored to get the car headed up the road.
But there was another hairpin curve—called so because the two roads ran almost parallel, like the legs of a hairpin—and the car would have to swing completely around, running in the opposite direction, if it were to avoid the lake.
“She can’t make it!” exclaimed Karl.
Stanley Downs said nothing. Karl had been obliged to let the Fanchon push a little ahead in rounding the bend, to avoid a collision, and Stanley was standing on the seat by the side of the chauffeur, balancing himself perilously on the leather cushion, with his eyes fixed on the girl.
He motioned with his arm to Karl to draw closer to the other car.
They were within a hundred yards of the edge of the lake, and charging straight toward it.
As Karl brought the two cars within a yard of each other, Stanley leaped across the gap and into the front seat of the Fanchon.
What followed happened too quickly to be described in detail.
With a savage tug, he dragged the girl away from the wheel, at the same time kicking open the door. Then he seized the wheel with both hands as he stood by the side of it, and wrenched it so hard that the car swerved until it seemed as if it might run along the road at the very edge of the water.
The wrench was not quite enough, however. Its only effect was to prevent its going straight into the lake. Instead, it shot off diagonally, and with the car went Stanley Downs and the girl.
The tremendous splash caused by the diving in of the Fanchon was followed instantly by another, as the Archimedes, with Karl at the wheel, plunged off the stone wall, and, turning a completesomersault, disappeared beneath the surface.
Only a number of bubbles in the center of two rapidly spreading series of rings, told the frantic people, who had rushed to the edge of the lake, that two cars, with three human beings, had sunk there.
Then the cap of the chauffeur, still on his head, where it was fastened by a chin strap, showed above the surface, as Karl swam toward a wooden boat landing.
Where were the other two—Stanley Downs and the girl?
The question was soon answered. Stanley and the girl came up together.
There was a streak of red across the forehead and cheek of the young man. But the beautiful face that lay against his shoulder was a dead white, and the eyes were closed.
Stanley Downs was pale himself, and there was a dazed expression in his eyes as he shook the water out of them and looked about for the shore.
In another moment he obtained a grip on himself, and struck out for the boat landing, where Karl was by this time being helped out.
It was with difficulty that Stanley swam the short distance. He had received a nasty knock as he broke away from the car under water, and it had weakened him. Moreover, he had the weight of the girl he was bringing to shore. She was unable to help herself. All she could do was to lie prone on his arm, her brown hair rippling over the water, and one small gauntleted hand resting on his shoulder and against his cheek.