The front car slowed imperceptibly, then hurried on again.

At about half past ten o’clock, Mr. Meyers turned into one of the narrow old-fashioned streets of the town of Alexandria, which is just south-west of Washington.  The town was only dimly lighted and the roads made winding turns, so that it was impossible to see any great distance ahead.

Ruth had managed to keep her car going, though she had long since lost her sweet temper, and the others of her party were very angry.

“It serves us right,” Hugh Post declared to Ruth.  “We ought never to have accepted this fellow’s invitation.  I knew he wasn’t a gentleman, and I know Mr. Hamlin does not wish Harriet to have anything to do with him.  Yet, just because the fellow is enormously rich and gives automobile parties, here we have been spending the evening as his guests.  Look here, Ruth, do you think I can forget I have enjoyed his hospitality, and punch his head for him when we get back to Washington, for leading you on a chase like this?”

Ruth smiled and shook her head.  She was seldom nervous about her automobile after all her experiences as chauffeur.  Yet this wild ride at night through towns of which she knew little or nothing, was not exactly her idea of sport.

Mr. Bubble was again outdistanced.  As the streets were deserted, Ruth decided to make one more violent spurt in an effort to catch up with the front car.  Poor Mr. A. Bubble who had traveled so far with his carload of happy girls was shaking from side to side.  But Ruth did not think of danger.  Alexandria is a sleepy old Southern town and nearly all its inhabitants were in bed.

“Aren’t there any speed regulations in this part of the world, Hugh?” Ruth suddenly inquired.

But she was too late.  At this instant everyone in her car heard a loud shout.

“Hold up there!  Stop!” A figure on a bicycle darted out of a dark alley in hot pursuit of them.

“Go it, Ruth!” Hugh whispered.  But Ruth shook her head.

“No,” she answered.  “We must face the music.”  Ruth put on her stop brake and her car slowed down.

“What do you mean,” cried a wrathful voice, “tearing through a peaceful town like this, lickitty-split, as though there were no folks on earth but you.  You just come along to the station with me!  You’ll find out, pretty quick, what twenty-five miles an hour means in this here town.”

“Let me explain matters to you,” Hugh protested.  “It is all a mistake.”

“I ain’t never arrested anybody for speeding yet that they ain’t told me it was just a mistake,” fumed the policeman.  “But you will git a chance to tell your story to the chief of police.  You’re just wasting good time talkin’ to me.  I ain’t got a mite of patience with crazy automobilists.”

“Don’t take us all to the station house, officer!” Hugh pleaded.  “Just take me along, and let the rest of the party go on back to Washington.  It’s awfully late.  You surely wouldn’t keep these young ladies.”