They were half-way around the lake when the motor slowed down and the bus stopped.

“What’s the matter, George?” Miss Anderson asked.

“Don’t know, Ma’am,” answered the driver, a rather sleepy-looking middle-aged man.  “Guess I’ll have to investigate her.”

Scratching his head, he proceeded to “investigate,” and at the end of fifteen minutes hazarded an opinion that they were “out of luck.”

“Looks like I’ll have to go back to the school garage and get ’em to send us a tow,” he announced pleasantly.

“We want to go to the Academy!” chorused the girls.  “We’re late now.  Oh, George, can’t you fix it?”

“Betty, don’t you know anything about cars?” appealed Miss Anderson, who had discovered that Betty was apt to be invaluable in an emergency of any kind.

Betty had to confess that her experience had been confined to horses.  The Littell girls had been used to cars all their lives, but like the majority of such fortunates, knew nothing about them beyond the colors suitable for upholstery.

“I’ve helped my dad with his car,” ventured Norma diffidently.  “This isn’t the same make, but perhaps I can tell what the matter is.”

The beautiful, expensive school bus was in fact another type than the shabby, rattly affair Dr. Guerin made spin over the rough country roads.  However, Betty remembered at least one night, and she knew her experience had been duplicated by many others, when the noise of the asthmatic little car had been like sweetest music in her ears.

The doctor’s daughter took off her plain jacket, rolled back her white cuffs, and bent over the engine.  George regarded her respectfully, and Miss Anderson and the girls watched anxiously.  If Norma could not send them on their way it meant the trip must be given up.

Norma put her slim hands down among the oily plugs, selected a tool from the kit George held out to her, and did something mysterious to the “innards.”

“Start her,” she commanded briefly.

Obediently George took the wheel and touched the self-starter.  The engine purred contentedly.

“By gum!” cried George inelegantly, “she’s done it!”

He produced a towel from the box for Norma, who managed to rub off most of the grease from her hands.  She put on her jacket and climbed into her place between Betty and her sister.  George proceeded to make up for lost time at a speed that left them breathless.

“Here’s the girl who got us here!” said Betty to Bob, when the group of cadets met their bus at the athletic field where several cars were drawn up on the sidelines.

“Then she shall have my fur coat and my best curly chrysanthemum,” announced Tommy Tucker gallantly, throwing a handsome raccoon fur coat over Norma’s shoulders and presenting her with a magnificent yellow chrysanthemum.

CHAPTER XVI