“I guess,” remarked Betty whimsically, just as Mollie and Amy ran down the stairs and into the room, “that we’re fast becoming what you said you were the other day, Gracie—­a regular flock of geese!”

CHAPTER XVI

SPARRING FOR TIME

The roads were muddy from the heavy rain that had fallen over night, but Mollie demurred when the girls suggested that they walk to the station rather than go in the automobile.

“It may be all very well for you,” she declared, “but I certainly don’t feel in any mood for taking a two-mile walk this morning.”

“Well, my knees do feel kind of weak and wobbly,” agreed Amy plaintively.  “But you know how reckless you are, Mollie, and on these wet roads we’re very apt to skid.”

“Well, but what’s one skid more or less in a good cause?” interrupted Betty merrily.  “Besides, I guess we wouldn’t have time to walk, anyway,” she added quickly, as dozens of soldiers began pouring from their barracks.  “We’ll never be able to get to the station before the boys unless we take the car.”

“Girls, they’re really going,” wailed Amy, as they quickly got into their wraps.

“Certainly looks like it,” said Grace grimly, for once not knowing or caring whether the becoming little hat was tilted at exactly the right angle or not.  “It makes me feel all queer and—­wobbly inside.”

“Better take some candy along,” advised Mollie, with a weak attempt at raillery as they ran down the porch steps and piled into the car.  “You won’t be able to come out of it alive if you’re not properly fortified, Gracie.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” cried Betty, springing from her seat and from the car at the risk of her neck, for the machine had already begun to move.  “We forgot the chocolate and tobacco for the boys.  Wait for me, Mollie.”

But Mollie, who had already brought the car to a standstill with a jerk and a grinding of brakes, leapt out after her, and the two flew up the steps, taking two at a time, and into the house.

Left behind, Amy and Grace looked at each other.

“I wish I could move like that,” sighed the latter.  “Those two get things done while I’m just beginning to think about it.”

“And here they come back again,” marveled Amy.

“Yes we have, and it’s just about time, too,” panted Betty, as they scrambled into the machine.  “The boys are coming from the main gate now, and we’ll have to make things hum if we want to get there before them.”

“As Frank would remark,” agreed Mollie:  “‘You said it!’ This is going to be the race of a lifetime,”

“But Mollie,” said Amy, gripping both hands tight in her lap as the car swerved sharply and executed a magnificent skid on two wheels, “you know it won’t do either the boys or us any good if we get killed on the way.  Do be—­”

“Amy Blackford,” cried Mollie in an ominous tone of voice, “if you say that word to me again I will run into a tree or something just for spite!”