The Motor Girls at Lookout Beach Part 25

To this novelty the party betook themselves. Outside the entrance were people deliberating upon going in, but hesitating because the billboards announced that "each person would be put through the most novel and most complete process of washing to be obtained anywhere, at the low cost of ten cents the person."

But the Chelton folks were not afraid--they might have halted at the ironing possibility, but nothing in the way of washing had any terrors for the motor girls and their friends.

"Oh, my!" exclaimed Belle. "I could never go in that!"

"Why?" demanded Walter. "It looks perfectly tempting. Smell that soap suds!" A whiff came out of the building to them.

"And look at the blueing," cried Cora, pointing to a ma.s.s of blue water flowing from a pipe outside the structure. "If we never had the 'blues' we will have them now--all ready-made."

"If never you've been blue, prepare to be blue now," quoted Ed, with semi-tragic effect.

"Come along! Come right along!" shouted the "barker," or man who was booming the attraction. "This way for the greatest sensation outside of flying! Step this way--everybody! You pays your money and you gets a good wash! Satisfaction guaranteed. The servant problem solved. Here you are, young ladies and gentlemen--right this way!" and he looked at our friends in a humorous manner.

"Hear that?" called Jack. "He has us spotted, all right. He knows we need it, maybe. I'm going in first."

"That's the way to talk," commented the barker. "You'll never regret it, my friend. Step this way to the ticket office. Remember, ladies and gentlemen," he went on, in louder tones, "this is the only human washing machine on the beach. There are washing machines run by human beings but this is absolutely and without doubt the only self-regulated, double acting, six cylinder, four speeds forward and reverse machine, that washes human beings in the short s.p.a.ce of ten minutes--one sixth of an hour--six hundred seconds, and I say that without fear of successful contradiction. This way--everybody!"

"Here goes," went on Jack, as he purchased a number of tickets from a roll unwound by a woman in a little cage of an office. "I'll try it first, and if I survive the bleaching process the rest of you can come in."

"Oh!" cried Bess. "I'll never, never do it!"

"Me, either," added Belle.

"Wait until we see what it is," suggested Cora. "It may be great fun, and, as long as it's not vulgar I'm going in, if Jack says it's all right."

"Come one, come all!" the barker could be heard droning. The party of boys and girls went into the place, and found themselves in the midst of an excited and jolly crowd. Some had been washed, others needed washing, some wanted washing, and others desired it, but feared to undertake the ordeal.

"Good-bye!" called Jack, gaily, as he walked along a narrow pa.s.sage, protected by a railing on either side, for an attendant directed there all who wanted to indulge in the new sensation.

"Hold on!" cried Ed and Walter. "We're coming, too!"

"Get a hustle on," ordered Jack. "The water is just right now."

The girls stood where they could watch the process. Suddenly Jack and his chums could be seen bobbing up and down, as if they were in a boat on a choppy sea, and then the girls noticed that the lads were on a sort of endless, moving sidewalk, that did all sorts of queer "stunts"

while, underneath, water rushed and bubbled along, seemingly all about the boys, but never touching them.

"You are now in the tub of soapy water," announced a man who was evidently there for that purpose. "You are getting the first layer of contamination off."

Faster and faster went the moving, endless sidewalk. It surged up and down, and from side to side. The boys were laughing and joking, and they had to cling to the railing to maintain their footing.

"This is great!" cried Jack.

"All to the la-la!" added Ed.

"It most----" began Walter, but, at that minute all three came to the end of the first scrubbing process, and were precipitated upon a highly polished slide--somewhat like the bamboo ones that are so popular at summer resorts. It was like gla.s.s, and, as there were only a few lights at this point, whereas the "tub" was brilliantly illuminated, the boys went down in a heap, and slid along.

"Part of the game," commented Jack, grimly.

"You are now on the washing board," came from the announcer. "Keep perfectly still--there is no danger."

In front of, and behind, the boys came other persons--slipping, sliding, shouting, yelling, laughing, gasping and struggling.

"Wow!" yelled Ed. "Here comes another tub to go through!"

They had reached the end of the "washboard" and once more the three boys were tossed up and down, and from side to side, while rushing water under them seemed to give the effect of being put through a boiler of suds.

"Look out! Here's something new!" yelled Ed, a moment later, and, sure enough, they emerged, after a trip up and down, and around corners, upon a scrubbing board, made of gla.s.s, under which water was rushing with such effect that it seemed as if they were going to be soaked.

"This is great!" cried Jack, as he reached it. "I thought I was in for it that time, but it's all to the soap and starch; that's what!"

His companions, and many others, followed, and, a moment later, they were facing what looked like two rolls, such as collars and cuffs are run through.

"Do we go through them?" gasped Jack, halting a moment as he got on his feet after the slide down the scrubbing board.

"Sure--go ahead," said Walter.

"Oh, mercy! He won't really go through those rolls, will he?" gasped Belle.

The rolls did look formidable, and they were whirling around at a rapid rate.

"Be a sport," called Ed. "When you've been rolled out you'll be all right, Jack."

"All right--you go ahead," retorted Jack, stepping back. "You can have my place."

"It's all right, fellows--go ahead," one of the attendants a.s.sured them. Jack faced the revolving rolls. The attendant gave him a gentle push, and, before Jack knew it he was swallowed up in the whirling cylinders.

"Oh!" screamed Bess. "He'll be killed!"

But neither she nor the others could see what happened, for Jack vanished, and, after him went Walter and Ed.

Once through the rolls, they were tossed with considerable force into a wringer ten times the size of the one through which they had just pa.s.sed. Like the first the rolls were upright, and not horizontal.

They seemed to be made of rubber, and were more real than the first.

Jack tried to hold back, but it was of no use. He had been tossed fairly into the big wringer, and, a moment later, he found himself being drawn through. To his surprise the rolls were of straw, covered with cotton-batting, and they compressed sufficiently to allow him to go through easily.

"Come on, fellows!" Jack tried to call to his chums, but his mouth was stopped for an instant by the soft rolls. Besides, there was no need for his invitation, since Ed and Walter, whether they wanted to or not, found themselves being drawn in with irresistible force.

By this time the girls had run up, not without some little alarm, and they saw the boys come through the rolls.

"Oh--they--they're all--all right," gasped Belle, her hand on her heart.

"Of course," cried Jack, with a laugh. "We're most done, ladies. Then it will be your turn."

"Never!" declared Cora.

"Oh, you'll like it, ladies," the attendant a.s.sured them. "Next comes the blueing water," and Jack and his friends, together with a number of other persons who were undertaking the ordeal, were once more on a moving sidewalk, sliding up and down, from side to side, and over a ma.s.s of blue, rushing water, which, seen through the sections of the walk, looked as if, every minute, it would surge up all about their feet. But they were as dry as the proverbial bone.

"Now if you will kindly step this way you will be hung out to dry,"

called the attendant, and a door opened, and the boys with several others were fairly shot out into a yard, where they saw what they supposed were persons hanging over clothes lines.