“Oh, Bessie, do stop!” she begged.  “We might run into someone, or be run into ourselves.  This is awfully dangerous, I know!”

“So do I know that,” said Bessie.  “But we had to do something, Dolly, and this was the only thing I could think of to do, though I didn’t want to.  But we’re not going to stay in the car, don’t worry!  Do you see that lane that comes into the road just beyond that big oak tree?  Well, I’m going to turn up there, and leave the car so that they can find it.  I don’t want to steal the car, you know.”

Bessie managed the turn successfully, and, frightened as she was, even the few minutes that she had spent in driving the car had thrilled and exhilarated her.  She ran slowly up the lane, and when the main road was hidden by a curve, she stopped the car and got out.

“There!” she said.  “Dolly, if I only knew more about running it, I’d like to go back to the farm in the car.  It would serve Mr. Holmes right if we did, you know, for he was trying to play a mighty mean trick on me.  I wonder if I’ll ever be able to learn to drive a car like that?  I’d love to be able to, and to have one of my own to drive!”

“How are we going to get home?” wailed poor Dolly.  “Oh, Bessie, what an awful fool I’ve been!  And now I’m hungry and tired, and we’re lost, and miles from the farm, and Miss Eleanor will be furious at me!”

“Cheer up, Dolly!  We’ll get home all right.  And I’ll see that Miss Eleanor understands all right.  She won’t be angry.  She’ll probably tell you that you’ve been punished enough when we get back.  I don’t know about getting anything to eat, though.  We can’t do that around here.  All we want to do now is to get away from here.”

Then suddenly she had an idea.

“I’m not going to steal his nasty old car,” said Bessie, “but I am going to borrow something that ought to be in it, and that’s a map!  Anyone who travels around as much as he does must have maps that show the roads, and, as long as he has got us into this mess, I don’t see why we shouldn’t take something from his car to help us out of it.  I’ll send it back to him as soon as we get to the farm.  Here—­let’s see—­yes, here’s a whole lot of little maps.”

“Let me see, Bessie.  I’ve seen those maps before.  I bet I can find the right one that we want in a jiffy.  Yes, here it is!”

“All right.  Let’s get off in the woods here and look at it, Dolly.  We don’t want to stay near the car, because they’ll soon find that we turned up this lane, and they’ll come looking for the machine and for us.  So we want to be off where they can’t see us.  I’d hate to be caught again right now after taking such a chance with that automobile!”

“But you didn’t act as if you were taking a chance, Bessie.  I thought you were the bravest girl I’d ever seen—­”

“Nonsense, Dolly!  I was just as frightened as you were—­more frightened, I guess.  I didn’t know whether what I was doing was right or not, and I was afraid every second I’d push the wrong thing, or touch something with my foot, and start it going as fast as it could.”