"Oh, we'll just go to a hotel in Baltimore, won't we, Mrs. Cameron? We'll be all right if we only get you safe to camp. Do you think we can do it?"
"Oh, yes, we can do it all right with this car. But I'm quite sure I ought not to let you do it just for me. What will your people think?"
"I've left word that I've gone to a friend in trouble," twinkled Ruth. "I'll call them up when I get to Baltimore, and make it all right with Auntie. She will trust me."
Cameron turned and looked at her wonderingly, reverently.
"It's wonderful that you should do this for me," he said in a low tone, quite low, so that the watching wistful mother could not even guess what he was saying.
"It's not in the least wonderful," said Ruth brightly. "Remember the hedge and Chuck Woodcock!" She was beginning to get her self possession again.
"You are paying that old score back in compound interest," said Cameron.
That was a wonderful ride rushing along beneath the stars, going back to childhood's days and getting acquainted again where they left off. Ruth forgot all about the cause of her wild chase, and the two young men she had left disconsolate in her library at home; forgot her own world in this new beautiful one, wherein her spirit really communed with another spirit; forgot utterly what Wainwright had said about Cameron as more and more through their talk she came to see the fineness of his character.
They flashed on from one little village to another, leaving one clustering glimmer of lights in the distance only to pass to other clustering groups. It was in their favor that there were not many other travellers to dispute their way, and they were hindered very little. Cameron had made the trip many times and knew the roads well. They did not have to hesitate and enquire the way. They made good time. The clocks were striking ten when they reached the outskirts of Baltimore.
"Now," said Ruth in a sweetly imperious tone, consulting her timepiece to be sure she had counted the clock strokes correctly, "do you know what you are going to do, Mr. Corporal? You are going to land your mother and me at the nearest hotel, and take the car with you back to camp. You said one of the fellows had his car down there, so I'm sure you'll be able to find a place to put it over night. If you find a way to send the car back to us in the morning, well and good. If not your mother and I will go home by train and the chauffeur can come down to-morrow and bring back the car; or, better still, you can drive yourself up the next time you get leave off."