For the first time the party of Camp Girls who had gathered about the little group gave their attention to the Meadow-Brook Girls.  The latter were now discovered to be much the worse for wear.  Their hair was down over their shoulders and their clothes were soiled and torn.

“Got it hard, didn’t you?” chuckled Mr. McCarthy.

“Oh, not so much,” replied Jane, repressing a smile.

“You are a thight.  You look ath though you had been digging for buried treathure,” declared Tommy.

“How’d it happen?” rumbled Mr. McCarthy.

“It was like this, Daddy, dear.  We were running along nicely and easily—­just at a comfortable jog, when—­”

“How fast?”

“How much time were we making, Harriet?”

“Nearly sixty miles an hour.”

“Yes, I knew it wasn’t very fast.  Just jogging, Daddy.”

The visitor grunted.

“Something went wrong with the steering gear.  I don’t know what it was, but the wheel had no effect on the car.  You should have seen us.  It was funny, wasn’t it, girls, the way that car darted from one side of the road to the other, and we hanging on for dear life?  You see, that was all we could do—­hang on.  Well, the car jumped the ditch, went up the bank on that side of the road, smashed into the iron post of a wire fence, then stood up on end and turned over backward.  Did you ever see such a contrary automobile?  Where did you buy it, Dad?”

“Didn’t buy it.  Borrowed it of a man I know up at Portsmouth.  It’ll cost me only a few thousand to make it right with him, but then Dad’s rich; don’t you care.”

“I never do,” chuckled Jane.  “Do you?”

“No, I don’t, so long as no one gets hurt.  How’d you get out?  What did you do when the car was stopped by the fence?”

“We just went on over, Dad.  You know nothing can stop a Meadow-Brook Girl when she is once well started on a course.  We landed on plowed ground on the other side of the fence.”

“Mercy!” exclaimed the Chief Guardian.

“Can anything hurt you, girls?”

“I hope not,” answered Harriet.  “This was a little sudden, but we didn’t mind it so very much, did we, Miss Elting?”

“I don’t know who you mean by ‘we,’ but please do not include me in this particular ‘we.’  I am not over the shock of that plunge yet, nor do I expect to be for some hours to come.  I fear the car is ruined, Mr. McCarthy.  I hope you will not send another one down here for Jane, if you will pardon my saying so.”  This from Miss Elting.

“That’s all right, Miss Elting.  I am not going to send another car at present.  Perhaps when you young folks are ready to go home I may send a car for you, but I may give you a driver.  For the present I’ve got something else in my mind.  I had to wait until I asked Mrs. Livingston about it before I put it through.  She thinks it will be fine.  She will tell you all about it at dinner to-day.”