“The train was just in front of us, and we were running right in it,” put in Isabel, her voice far from steady, and her face still very white.

At this point Ed insisted upon telling the whole story, and he described the plight of the motor girls so graphically that both Jack and Walter were compelled to admit that Cora did indeed know how to drive a car in an emergency, and that she had acted most wisely.

“Good for you, sis!” exclaimed Jack, when the story Was finished.  “I could not have done better myself.”

“Such praise is praise indeed,” spoke Ed with a laugh.

He went around back to look at the brake, and found what had caused the trouble.  A loose nut had fallen between the brake band and the wheel hub, and prevented the band from tightening.  The trouble was soon remedied, and the brake put in working order.

“There—­you are all ready for the road now,” remarked Ed.

“Thank you—­very much,” said Cora quietly, but there was a world of meaning in her tones.

Ed looked into her eyes rather longer than perhaps was necessary.

“Come on; get in with us, Ed,” invited Jack.  “Haven’t seen you in an age.  Let’s hear about the Detroit team.”

“Oh, I’m—­I’m too dirty to get in the car, I’m afraid,” objected Ed, with a glance at the mud spots that were now turning to light-gray polka-dots on his clothes, in the strong sunlight.

“Nonsense!” cried Jack heartily.  “Come along.  Walter will drive for Cora, in case she is nervous.  It needs a strong wrist in this soft ground.”

“Oh, yes!  Do please steer for us,” begged the still trembling Isabel.  “I’d feel so much safer—­”

“Well, I like that!” cried Corm with a light laugh.  “Is that the way you treat me, after having saved your life?”

“But it was you-who—­who almost ran us into the train, Cora,” answered Isabel, giving her friend a little pinch on her now rosy cheek.  “So you see it was your duty to save us.”

“Well, I did it,” replied Cora, glad that she had come out of the affair with such flying colors.

Walter took Ed’s place at the steering wheel of the Whirlwind, and the fisherman seated himself beside Jack.  Then Walter ran Cora’s car out of the mire of the meadow and into the road, the three girls remaining in the machine.

“I suppose if the young ladies hadn’t run you down we wouldn’t have seen you the entire summer,” said Jack to Ed as he ran the smaller machine along behind the touring car.

“Oh, indeed you would,” answered Ed.  “I really intended looking you up in a day or two.  You see, I have been very busy.  What are you laughing at?  Because I said I was busy?  Well, I guess I have the busiest kind of business on hand.  Say, let me whisper,” and he leaned over confidentially, though there was no need for it, as the other auto was some distance ahead.  “I’m going into finance.”

“Finance?”