Bessie was afraid that Dolly would betray them by a laugh, but nothing of the sort happened.  It was quite plain that the conductor never thought of connecting them with the two girls Holmes had charged with the theft of the car.  But, even so, the knowledge that he had made such an accusation publicly worried Bessie.  She did not know much of the law, and she was afraid that she and Dolly might possibly have rendered themselves liable to arrest by taking the car, even though they had abandoned it almost at once, and Holmes had recovered it undamaged.

In that case, she feared getting out of the state might not save them.  They might, for all she knew, be arrested and taken back to Jericho, where she would be in the power of Weeks.  However, she decided not to worry much about that, and when she mentioned her fears, Dolly laughed at them.

“People in glass houses can’t afford to throw stones,” she said, sagely.  “Look here, Bessie, he might be able to make people believe that he had a right to catch you, if he was acting for this nasty old Farmer Weeks.  But they haven’t any right to touch me, and I believe they could make a lot of trouble for Mr. Holmes for carrying me off.  I remember that they sent a man to prison for a long time not long ago for carrying off a child that lived near us.  I guess Mr. Holmes won’t be very anxious to go to law about his old car.”

“Well, look here, Dolly, we’re not quite out of the woods yet, you know.  Here’s the station where we have to get out to catch the train for Deer Crossing.  It’s marked Tecumseh.  And it’s a funny thing, but the railroad is in the other state, and the trolley car stops in this one.  Do you see?  When we get off the car we’ll still be in this state, but it won’t take more than a minute to cross the line.  Mr. Holmes told Jake he’d be waiting there, so we must look out.”

“Oh, Bessie, are you sure?  Wouldn’t it be dreadful to have escaped this far, and then be caught just when everything seemed to be all right?  I’d rather have been held up by Jake Hoover, I do believe!  And I thought everything was all right now.”

“Well, there’s no use getting discouraged.  We’re much better off than we were when we were in the car, Dolly, and we got out of that mess.  So we might as well try to think that we’ll be all right, anyhow.  Oh, I just thought of something!  Is there a station on this trolley line before we come to Tecumseh?”

They looked eagerly at the map, but disappointment was their lot.  There was no station between the one where they had boarded the car and Tecumseh.  But Dolly had an idea again, just as they had about decided that they would have to take their chances with Holmes at Tecumseh.

“Doesn’t this car ever slow down at all between stations?” she asked the conductor, smiling and looking as attractive as she could.

“Well, that depends,” said the conductor, returning the smile.  “If a passenger’s got a pull with me or the motorman, it might.  Why?”