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+Project Gutenberg's Betty Gordon at Boarding School, by Alice Emerson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Betty Gordon at Boarding School
+       The Treasure of Indian Chasm
+
+Author: Alice Emerson
+
+Release Date: November 27, 2003 [EBook #10317]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+                    Betty Gordon at Boarding School
+
+                                  OR
+
+                     The Treasure of Indian Chasm
+
+                          BY ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+                                 1921
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+     I NEW PLANS
+
+    II NORMA'S LETTER
+
+   III SURPRISING BOB
+
+    IV MORE GOOD-BYES
+
+     V A REGULAR CROSS-PATCH
+
+    VI FINE FEATHERS
+
+   VII FUN AT FAIRFIELDS
+
+  VIII TOO MUCH PARTY
+
+    IX ADJUSTER TOMMY
+
+     X SHADYSIDE SCHOOL
+
+    XI FIRST IMPRESSIONS
+
+   XII THE LOST TREASURE
+
+  XIII THE MYSTERIOUS FOUR
+
+   XIV A SATURDAY RACE
+
+    XV NORMA MAKES REPAIRS
+
+   XVI THE NUTTING PARTY
+
+  XVII CAUGHT IN THE STORM
+
+ XVIII LIBBIE'S SECRET
+
+   XIX BOB'S SOLUTION
+
+    XX THE SECOND DEGREE
+
+   XXI DRAMATICS
+
+  XXII ANOTHER MYSTERY
+
+ XXIII JUST DESERTS
+
+  XXIV BETTY GOES COASTING
+
+   XXV THE TREASURE
+
+
+
+
+BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+NEW PLANS
+
+
+"Me make you velly nice apple tart. Miss Betty." The Chinese cook
+flourished his rolling pin with one hand and swung his apron viciously
+with the other as he held open the screen door and swept out some
+imaginary flies.
+
+Lee Chang, cook for the bunk house in the oil fields, could do several
+things at one time, as he had frequently proved.
+
+The girl, who was watching a wiry little bay horse contentedly crop grass
+that grew in straggling whisps about the fence posts, looked up and
+showed an even row of white teeth as she smiled.
+
+"I don't think we're going to stay for dinner to-day," she said half
+regretfully. "I know your apple tarts, Lee Chang--they are delicious."
+
+The fat Chinaman closed the screen door and went on with his pastry
+making. From time to time, as he passed from the table to the oven, he
+glanced out. Betty Gordon still stood watching the horse.
+
+"That Bob no come?" inquired Lee Chang, poking his head out of the door
+again. Fast developing into a good American, his natural trait of
+curiosity gave him the advantage of acquiring information blandly and
+with ease.
+
+Betty shaded her eyes with her hand. The Oklahoma sun was pitiless. Far
+up the road that ran straight away from the bunk house a faint cloud of
+dust was rising.
+
+"He's coming now," said the girl confidently.
+
+Lee Chang grunted and returned to his work, satisfied that whatever Betty
+was waiting for would soon be at hand.
+
+"Bake tart 'fore that boy goes away," the Chinaman muttered to himself,
+waddling hastily to the oven, opening it, and closing the door again with
+a satisfied sniff.
+
+The cloud of dust whirled more madly, rose higher. Out from the center of
+it finally emerged a raw-boned white horse that galloped with amazing
+awkwardness and incredible speed. Astride him sat a slim, tanned youth
+with eyes as blue as Betty Gordon's were dark.
+
+"Got something for you!" he called, waving his arm in the motion of
+lasso-throwing. "Catch if you can!"
+
+"Oh, don't!" cried Betty eagerly. "What is it, Bob? Be careful or you'll
+break it."
+
+Bob Henderson reined in his mount and slipped to the ground. The white
+horse contentedly went to munching dry blades of dusty grass.
+
+"Bob, I do believe you've been silly," said Betty, trying to speak
+severely and failing completely because her dimple would deepen
+distractingly. "You know I told you not to do it."
+
+"How do you know what I've done?" demanded Bob, placing a square
+package in the girl's hands. "Don't scold till you know what you're
+scolding about."
+
+Betty, busy with the cord and paper, paused.
+
+"Oh, Bob!" she beamed, her vivid face glowing with a new thought.
+"What do you think? I had a letter yesterday from Bobby Littell, and
+she's going to boarding school. And, Bob, so am I! Uncle Dick says so.
+And, Bob--"
+
+"Yes?" smiled Bob, thinking how the girl's face changed as she talked.
+"Go on, Betty."
+
+"Well, Louise is going, too, and they think Libbie will come down
+from Vermont. Dear old Libbie--I wonder if she is as incurably
+romantic as ever!"
+
+Betty's fingers had worked mechanically while she spoke, and now she had
+her parcel undone.
+
+"Why, Bob Henderson!" she gasped, as she drew out a handsome white box
+tied with pale blue ribbons and encased in waxed paper.
+
+"I hope they're not stale," said Bob diffidently.
+
+Betty slit the waxed paper and took off the box lid, revealing a
+perfectly packed box of expensive chocolates.
+
+"They're beautiful," she declared. "But I never dreamed you would send
+East for 'em simply because I happened to say I was hungry for good
+candy. Um--um--taste one quick, Bob."
+
+Bob took a caramel and pronounced it not "half bad."
+
+"Uncle Dick's gone somewhere with Dave Thorne," announced Betty, biting
+into another candy. "He didn't know when he would get back, and I'm
+supposed to ride to the Watterby farm for lunch. It must be after
+eleven now."
+
+"Miss Betty!" Lee Chang's voice was persuasive. "Miss Betty, that apple
+tart he all baked done now."
+
+"Apple tart?" shouted Bob. "Show me, Lee Chang! I'd rather have a corner
+of your pie than all the candy in New York."
+
+"Him for Miss Betty," said the Chinaman gravely.
+
+"But you don't care if I give Bob some, do you?" returned Betty
+coaxingly. "See, Lee Chang, Bob gave me these. You take some, and we'll
+eat the tart on our way home."
+
+Lee Chang's wish was fulfilled when he placed the flaky tart in
+Betty's hands, and he took a candy or two (which he privately
+considered rather poor stuff) and watched the girl no longer. From now
+on till dinner time Lee Chang's whole attention would be concentrated
+on the preparation of an excellent dinner for the men who worked that
+section of the oil fields.
+
+"I don't believe I can ride and eat this, after all," decided Betty.
+"Let's sit down on the grass and finish it; Clover hasn't finished her
+lunch, either."
+
+The little bay horse and the tall, shambling white were amiably straying
+up and down the narrow borders of the road, never getting very far away.
+
+"You haven't said a single word about my going to boarding school, Bob,"
+Betty said, dropping down comfortably on the dusty grass and breaking the
+tart across into two nearly even pieces. "There--take your pie. Don't you
+think I'll have fun with the Littell girls?"
+
+"You'll have a lark, but I'm not so sure about the teachers," declared
+Bob enthusiastically, an odd little smile quivering on his lips. "With
+you and Bobby Littell about, I doubt if the school knows a dull moment."
+
+"Bobby is so funny," dimpled Betty. "She writes that if Libbie comes, her
+aunt expects Bobby to look after her. Wait a minute and I'll read you
+that part--" Betty took a letter from the pocket of her blouse.
+"Listen--
+
+"Aunt Elizabeth has written mother that she hopes I will keep an eye on
+Libbie. Now Betty, can you honestly see me trailing around after that
+girl who sees a romance in every bush and book and who cries when any one
+plays violin music? I'll look after her all right--she'll have to study
+French instead of poetry if I'm to be her friend and guide."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"But, of course, Bobby does really love Libbie very dearly," said Betty,
+folding up the letter and returning it to her pocket. "She wouldn't hurt
+her for worlds."
+
+"You'll be a much better guardian for Libbie, if she needs one,"
+pronounced Bob, with unexpected shrewdness. "Bobby hasn't much tact,
+and she makes Libbie mad. You could probably control her better with
+less words."
+
+"Well, I never!" gasped Betty, gazing at Bob with new respect. "I never
+knew you thought anything about it."
+
+"Didn't until just now," responded Bob cheerfully. "So Uncle Dick is
+willing to let you go, is he? When do you start?"
+
+"You don't mind, do you, Bob?" countered Betty, puzzled. "You sound so
+kind of--of funny."
+
+"Don't mean to," said Bob laconically.
+
+Having finished his tart, he lay back and rested his head in his hands in
+true masculine contentment.
+
+"I like that blue thing you've got on," he commented lazily. "Did I ever
+see it before?"
+
+"Certainly not," Betty informed him. "I've been waiting for you to notice
+it. It's wash silk, Bob, and your Aunt Faith said I could have it if I
+could do anything with it. She's had it in a trunk for years and years."
+
+"I don't see how you and Aunt Faith could wear the same clothes, she's so
+much taller than you are," said Bob, obviously trying to put two and two
+together in his mind. "But it looks fine on you, Betty."
+
+Betty smiled at him compassionately.
+
+"Oh, Bob, you're so funny!" she sighed. "I made this blouse all
+myself--that is," she corrected, "Mrs. Watterby helped me cut it out and
+she sewed the sleeves in after I had basted them in wrong twice, but I
+did everything else. There wasn't a scrap of goods left over, either. I
+put it on to-day because I wanted you to see me in it."
+
+She was worth seeing, Bob acknowledged to himself. The over-blouse of
+blue and white checked silk, slashed at the throat for the crisp black
+tie, and the gray corduroy riding skirt and smart tan shoes were at once
+suitable and becoming.
+
+"I'll have to have some new clothes for school," declared Betty, who had
+a healthy interest in this topic. "We can't wear very fussy things,
+though--Bobby sent me the catalogue. Sailor suits for every day, and a
+cloth frock for best. And not more than one party dress."
+
+"I asked her when she started," Bob confided to the blank eye of the
+white horse now turned dully toward him. "But if she answered me, I
+didn't hear."
+
+"I'm going a week from this Friday," announced Betty hastily. "That will
+give me a week in Washington, and Mrs. Littell has asked me to stay with
+them. I must write to Mrs. Bender to-night and tell her the news; she has
+been so anxious for me to go to school again."
+
+"Oh, gee, Betty, that reminds me--" Bob sat up with a jerk and began a
+hasty search of his pockets. "When you spoke of Mrs. Bender that reminded
+me of Laurel Grove, and Laurel Grove reminded me of Glenside, and that,
+of course, made me think of the Guerins--Here 'tis!" and the boy
+triumphantly fished out a small letter from an inside pocket of his coat
+and tossed it into Betty's lap.
+
+"It's from Norma Guerin!" Betty's expressive voice betrayed her
+delight "Why, I haven't heard from her in perfect ages. I wonder what
+she has to say."
+
+"Open it and see," advised the practical Bob. "I meant to give you the
+letter right away, and first the tart and then the blouse thing-a-bub
+drove it out of my mind. I'll lead the horses and you can read as we
+walk. Want me to take the plate back to Lee Chang?"
+
+He dashed back to the bunk house, returned the tin, and rejoined Betty,
+who was slowly slitting the envelope of her letter with a hairpin. She
+had tucked her candy box under her arm, and Bob took the bridles of the
+two horses.
+
+"Mercy, what was that?" Betty glanced up startled, as a wild yell sounded
+over on their right.
+
+There was a chorus of shouts, the same wild yell repeated, and then,
+sudden and without warning, came a dense and heavy rain of blackest oil.
+
+"Oh, Bob, Bob!" There was genuine anguish in Betty's wail of appeal. "My
+new blouse--look at it!"
+
+But Bob had no time to look at anything. Action was to be his course.
+
+"It's a premature blast!" he shouted. "Come on, we've got to get out!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+NORMA'S LETTER
+
+
+This was not Betty Gordon's first experience with an oil well set
+off prematurely, and while she was naturally excited, she was not at
+all afraid.
+
+"Get on Clover!" shouted Bob. "I do wish you'd ever wear a hat--"
+
+Betty laughed a little as she scrambled into her saddle. Bob, mounting
+his own horse, wore no hat, but it was a pet grievance of his that Betty
+persistently scorned headgear whether riding or walking.
+
+"Gallop!" cried Bob. "Shut your eyes if you want to--Clover will
+follow Reuben."
+
+The white horse set off, his awkward lunge carrying him over the ground
+swiftly, and the little bay Clover cantered obediently after him. Oil
+continued to rain down as they headed toward the north.
+
+Betty closed her eyes, clutching her letter and candy box tightly in both
+hands and letting the reins lie idle on her horse's neck. Clover,
+galloping now, could be trusted to follow the leading horse.
+
+"Getting better now!" Bob shouted back, turning in his saddle to see that
+Betty was safe.
+
+Betty's dark eyes opened and she shook back her hair, making a little
+face at the taste of oil in her mouth. She slipped Norma Guerin's letter
+into her pocket, glancing down at her blouse as she did so.
+
+"I'm a perfect sight!" she called to Bob dolorously. "I don't believe I
+can ever get the oil spots out of this silk."
+
+"Sue the company!" Bob cried, with a grin. "Don't let Clover go to sleep
+till we're nearer home, Betty."
+
+The girl urged the little bay forward with a whispered word of
+encouragement, and gradually, very gradually, they began to draw out of
+the rain of oil.
+
+Betty Gordon was not an Oklahoma girl, though she rode with the
+effortless ease of a Westerner. She was an orphan, of New England stock,
+and had come from the East to the oil fields to join her one living
+relative, a beloved uncle whose interest in oil holdings made an
+incessant traveler of him.
+
+This Richard Gordon, "Uncle Dick" to Bob Henderson as well as to Betty,
+had found himself unexpectedly made guardian of his little niece at a
+time when it was impassible for him to establish a home for her. His time
+and skill pledged to the oil company he represented, Mr. Gordon had
+solved the problem of what to do with Betty by sending her to spend the
+summer with an old childhood friend of his, a Mrs. Peabody who had
+married a farmer, reputed well-to-do. Betty's experiences, pleasant and
+otherwise, as a member of the Peabody household, have been told in the
+first book of this series entitled "Betty Gordon at Bramble Farm; or The
+Mystery of a Nobody."
+
+She made some true friends during the months she spent with the Peabodys,
+and perhaps the closest, and certainly the most loyal, was Bob Henderson.
+A year older than Betty, the fourteen year old Bob, whose life at Bramble
+Farm had been harsh and unlovely and preceded by nothing brighter than a
+drab existence at the county poor farm, became the champion of the
+dark-eyed girl who had smiled at him and suggested that because they were
+both orphans they had a common bond of friendship.
+
+How Bob Henderson got track of his mother's people and what steps were
+necessary before he could discover a definite clue, have been related in
+the second volume of the series, entitled, "Betty Gordon in Washington;
+or Strange Adventures in a Great City."
+
+In this book Bob and Betty came together again in the Capitol City, and
+Betty acquired a second "Uncle Dick" in the person of Richard Littell,
+the father of three lively daughters who innocently kidnapped Betty, only
+to have the entire family become her firm friends. While in Washington
+Bob and Betty each received good news that sent them trustfully to
+Oklahoma, there to meet Uncle Dick Gordon, and later, Bob's own aunts.
+
+The story of the "Saunders' place" and of the unscrupulous sharpers who
+tried to cheat the old ladies who were the sisters of Bob's dead mother,
+has been told in the third book about Betty Gordon. This book, "Betty
+Gordon in the Land of Oil; or The Farm that Was Worth a Fortune," relates
+the varied experiences of Bob and Betty in the oil section of Oklahoma
+and the long train of events that culminated in the sale of the Saunders
+farm for ninety thousand dollars. Uncle Dick had been made guardian of
+Bob, at his own and the aunts' request, so Bob was now a ward with Betty.
+
+The possession of money, though it meant the difference between
+poverty and debt and great comfort, had, to date, made very little
+change in the mode of living of Miss Faith and Miss Charity Saunders,
+or of their nephew.
+
+This morning he had been delayed by some extra work on the farm, for the
+oil company did not take possession till the first of the month, now a
+week away, and Betty had ridden to the oil fields ahead of him. She
+divided her time between the Saunders' place and the Watterby farm, where
+she and Bob had stayed when they first came to Flame City.
+
+"Whew!" gasped Bob as they finally emerged from the black curtain of oil.
+"Of all the messy stuff! Betty, you look as though an oil lamp had
+exploded in your face."
+
+"Now I'll have to wash my hair again," mourned Betty. "You'd better come
+to Grandma Watterby's and get tidied up, Bob. It's nearer than your
+aunts', taking this road; and they always have the stove tank full of
+hot water."
+
+Bob took this advice, and the sympathetic Watterby family came to the
+oil-spotted pair's assistance with copious supplies of hot water, soap
+and towels and liberal handfuls of borax, for the water was very hard.
+Fortunately, Betty had a clean blouse and skirt at hand (most of her
+wardrobe was in the guest room at the Saunders farm), and Bob borrowed a
+clean shirt from Will Watterby, in which the boy, being much smaller than
+the man, looked a little absurd.
+
+"I'm clean, anyway, and that makes me feel good, so why should I care how
+I look?" was Bob's defense when his appearance was commented on.
+
+"I'm so hungry," announced Betty, coming out of her room, once more trim
+and neat, and sniffing the delicious odor of hot waffles. "I wonder if I
+could pin my hair up in a towel and dry it after lunch?"
+
+"Of course you may," said Mrs. Will Watterby warmly. "Did you fix a place
+for Betty, Grandma?"
+
+"What a silly question, Emma," reproved old Grandma Watterby
+severely. "Here, Betty, you sit next to me, and Bob can have Will's
+place. He's gone over to Flame City with a bolt he wants the
+blacksmith to tinker up."
+
+Ki, the Indian who helped with the farm work, smiled at Betty but said
+nothing more than the single "Howdy," which was his stock form of
+salutation. Mrs. Watterby's waffles were quite as good as they smelled,
+and she apparently had mixed an inexhaustible quantity of batter. Every
+one ate rapidly and in comparative silence, a habit to which Bob and
+Betty were by now quite accustomed. When Mr. Gordon was present he
+insisted on a little conversation, but his presence was lacking to-day.
+
+"You go right out in the sun and dry your hair, Betty," said Mrs.
+Watterby, when the meal was over. "No, I don't need any help with
+the dishes. Grandma and me, we're going over to town in the car
+this afternoon and I don't care whether I do the dishes till I come
+back or not."
+
+This, for Mrs. Watterby, was a great step forward. Before the purchase of
+the automobile, bought with a legacy inherited by Grandma Watterby,
+dishes and housework had been the sum total of Mrs. Will Watterby's
+existence. Now that she could drive the car and get away from her kitchen
+sink at will, she seemed another woman.
+
+Betty voiced something of this to Bob as she unfastened the towel and let
+her heavy dark hair fall over her shoulders. She was sitting on the back
+porch where the afternoon sun shone unobstructed.
+
+"Yes, I guess automobiles are a good thing," admitted Bob absently. "I
+want Aunt Faith to get one. A runabout would be handy for them--one like
+Doctor Guerin's. Remember, Betty?"
+
+"My goodness, I haven't read Norma's letter!" said Betty hastily. "I left
+it in my other blouse. Wait a minute, and I'll get it."
+
+She dashed into the house and was back again in a moment, the letter Bob
+had handed her just before the shower of oil, in her hand.
+
+Bob, in his favorite attitude of lying on his back and staring at the
+sky, was startled by an exclamation before Betty had finished the first
+page of the closely written missive.
+
+"What's the matter?" he demanded, sitting up. "Anybody sick?"
+
+"Oh, Bob, such fun!" Betty's eyes danced with pleasure. "What do you
+think! Norma and Alice Guerin are going to Shadyside!"
+
+"Well, I'm willing to jump with joy, but could you tell me what
+Shadyside is, and where?" said Bob humbly. "Why do the Guerin girls want
+to go there?"
+
+"I forgot you didn't know," apologized Betty. "Shadyside is the boarding
+school, Bob. That's the name of the station, too. It's five hours' ride
+from Washington. Let's see, there's Bobby and Louise Littell and Libbie,
+and now Norma and Alice--five girls I know already! I guess I won't be
+homesick or lonely."
+
+But as she said it she glanced uncertainly at Bob.
+
+That young man snickered, turned it into a cough, and that failing,
+essayed to whistle.
+
+"Bob, you act too funny for anything!" This time Betty's glance was not
+one of approval. "What does ail you?"
+
+"Nothing, nothing at all, Betsey," Bob assured her. "I'm my usual
+charming self. Are Norma and Alice going to Washington first?"
+
+"No. I wish they were," answered Betty, taking up the letter again.
+"Bob, I'm afraid they're having a hard time with money matters. You know
+Dr. Guerin is so easy-going he never collects one-third of the bills he
+sends out, and any one can get his services free if they tell him a hard
+luck story. Norma writes that she and Alice have always wanted to go to
+Shadyside because their mother graduated from there when it was only a
+day school. Mrs. Guerin's people lived around there somewhere. And last
+year, you know, Norma went to an awfully ordinary school--good enough, I
+suppose, but not very thorough. She couldn't prepare for college there."
+
+"Well, couldn't we fix it some way for them?" asked Bob interestedly.
+"I'd do anything in the world for Doctor Guerin. Didn't he row me that
+time he found us out in the fields at two o'clock in the morning? You
+think up some way to make him accept some money, Betty."
+
+Doctor Hal Guerin and his wife and daughters had been good friends to Bob
+and Betty in the Bramble Farm days. The doctor, with a large country
+practice that brought him more affection and esteem than ready cash, had
+managed to look after the boy and girl more or less effectively, and
+Norma, his daughter, had supplied Bob with orders from her school friends
+for little carved pendants that he made with no better tools than an old
+knife. This money had been the first Bob had ever earned and had given
+him his first taste of independence.
+
+"I don't think you could make Doctor Guerin take money, even as a
+loan," said Betty slowly, in answer to Bob's proposal. "Norma wouldn't
+like it if she thought her letter had suggested such a thing. What
+makes it hard for them, I think, is that Mrs. Guerin expected to have
+quite a fortune some day. Her mother was really wealthy, and she was an
+only child. I don't know where the money went, but I do know the
+Guerins never had any of it."
+
+Bob jumped to his feet as she finished the sentence.
+
+"Here's Uncle Dick!" he cried. "Did you see the new well come in, sir?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+SURPRISING BOB
+
+
+Betty shook back her hair and rose to kiss the gray-haired gentleman who
+put an arm affectionately about her.
+
+"I heard about that blast," he said, and smiled good-humoredly. "Lee
+Chang was much worried when I went in to dinner. His one consolation was
+that you had eaten the tart before the oil began to fall."
+
+"We were all right, only of course it rather daubed us up," said Bob.
+"Betty had to wash her hair."
+
+"My hair's nothing," declared Betty scornfully. "But my brand-new blouse
+that I worked on for two days--you ought to see it, Uncle Dick! Grandma
+Watterby thinks maybe she can get the oil out, but she says the color may
+come out, too."
+
+Mr. Gordon sat down on the step and took off his hat.
+
+"You've a clear claim for damages, Betty," he assured his niece gravely.
+"To save time, I'm willing to make good; what does a new blouse cost?"
+
+"This wasn't exactly new," explained Betty fairly. "Aunt Faith had the
+material in her trunk for years. But it was the first thing I ever made,
+and I was so proud of it."
+
+"Well, we'll see that you have something to take its place," promised her
+uncle, drawing her down beside him. "I have some news for you, Betsey.
+When you go East next week, I'm going, too. That is, as far as Chicago.
+From there I take a little run up into Canada."
+
+"But you said you'd spend Christmas with us!" argued Betty.
+
+"Oh, Christmas is months off," returned Mr. Gordon comfortably. "I expect
+to be back in the States long before the holidays. And Bob's aunts have
+finally made up their minds where they want to spend the winter. Aunt
+Faith has commissioned me to buy two tickets for southern California."
+
+"But there's Bob!" Betty gazed anxiously at her uncle. "What's Bob going
+to do without any one at all, Uncle Dick?"
+
+Mr. Gordon looked at Bob, and an unwilling grin turned the corners of the
+boy's mouth.
+
+"That's the way he's been acting all day," scolded Betty. "What ails
+him? I think it's silly to sit there and smile when there's nothing to
+smile about."
+
+"I suspect Bob doesn't take kindly to secrets," returned her uncle.
+"Suppose you 'fess up, Bob, and when the atmosphere is clear we can have
+a little talk."
+
+"All right," said Bob, with manifest relief. "I kept quiet only because I
+wanted to be sure I was going, sir. Betty, Mr. Littell wrote me about a
+military academy in the East and put me in, touch with several boys who
+attend it. Uncle Dick thinks it is just the school for me, and I'm going.
+Timothy Derby is one of the boys. He's a son of the man I worked for in
+Washington."
+
+"How splendid!" With characteristic enthusiasm Betty forgot her momentary
+displeasure at Bob's method of keeping a secret. "When are you going,
+Bob? Where is the school?"
+
+"That's the best part," said Bob boyishly. "It's the Salsette Military
+Academy, Betty, and it's right across the lake from the Shadyside school.
+All five of the boys Mr. Littell told me of are friends of the Littell
+girls, so you see it is going to be great fun all around."
+
+"I never knew of anything so nice!" declared Betty. "Never! So you knew
+when I told you about Shadyside that you were going to be so near!"
+
+Bob nodded.
+
+"Have to keep an eye on you," he said with mock seriousness, at which
+Betty made a little face.
+
+"You haven't much time to get ready," Mr. Gordon warned them. "The aunts
+will leave Wednesday and our train pulls out at ten twenty-six on Friday
+morning. Of course you will do your shopping in Washington and be guided
+by the advice of Mr. and Mrs. Littell. I wish I could go to Washington
+with you, but that is impossible now. You must write me faithfully, both
+of you, though I suppose we'll have to expect the same delay between
+letters that we've experienced before. Most of my time will be spent on a
+farm thirty miles from a railroad. If you get into any difficulties, go
+to the Littells, and for little troubles, help each other."
+
+Mr. Gordon went on to say that while Bob and Betty were independent to a
+greater degree than most boys and girls of their age, the same force of
+circumstances that made this possible also gave them a heavier
+responsibility. He explained that each was to have an allowance and asked
+that each keep a cash account to be submitted to him on his return from
+Canada, not, he said, to serve as a check upon extravagant or foolish
+expenditures, but that he might be better able to advise them and to
+point out avoidable mistakes.
+
+After supper that night he drew the boy aside for further discussion.
+
+"I'm really leaving Betty in your charge," he said, and Bob stood fully
+two inches taller. "Not that I think she will get into any serious
+trouble, but there's no telling what a bevy of high-spirited girls will
+think up. And you know what Betty is when once started, she can not be
+stopped. I rely on you to keep her confidence and hold her back if she
+seems inclined to act rashly. The Littells are splendid people, but they
+will be five hours' distance away, while you will be across the lake. I
+put my trust in you, Bob."
+
+Bob silently resolved to be worthy. Betty had been his first friend, and
+to her he gave all the pent-up loyalty and starved affection of a lonely
+boy nature. When Mr. Gordon came into his life, and especially when he
+was made his legal guardian, Bob experienced the novel sensation of
+having some one interested in his future. Though the various older men
+he had met were more than willing to help him, Mr. Gordon was the only
+one to succeed in winning over Bob's almost fanatical pride and the lad
+who admired, respected, and loved him, would have done anything in the
+world for him.
+
+The next few days were extremely busy ones for Bob, the aunts, and Betty.
+Miss Hope and Miss Charity were so excited at the prospect of a journey
+that they completely lost their faculty for planning, and most of the
+work fell on Bob and Betty. Luckily there was little packing to be done,
+for the few bits of old furniture were to be sold for what they would
+bring, and the keepsakes that neither Miss Hope nor her sister could
+bring themselves to part with were stored in several old trunks to be
+housed in the Watterby attic.
+
+"Betty, child," her uncle's voice broke in upon Betty's orderly packing
+one afternoon, "I know you're going to be disappointed, but we mustn't
+cry over what can't be helped. I've had a wire and must leave for
+Chicago Wednesday morning. You and Bob will have to make the Washington
+trip alone."
+
+"I knew it was too good to be true," mourned Betty, a tear dropping on
+the yellowed silk shawl she was neatly folding. "Oh, dear, Uncle Dick, I
+did want you to go with us part of the way!"
+
+"Better luck next time," replied Mr. Gordon. "There's no use grumbling
+over what you can't change."
+
+This was his philosophy, and he followed it consistently. Bob and Betty,
+though keenly disappointed they were not to have his companionship, tried
+to accept the situation as cheerfully as he did.
+
+The packing was hastened, and soon the old farmhouse was stripped and
+dismantled, the trunks stored in the Watterby attic, the furniture
+carried off to the homes of those who bought it, and the key delivered
+to Dave Thorne, the section foreman, who would deliver it to the
+superintendent.
+
+The hospitable Watterbys had insisted that the travelers should all stay
+with them until the time for their several departures, and Bob and Betty
+had a last glorious ride on Clover and the ungainly white horse while
+the aunts rested and put the final touches to their preparations for
+their journey.
+
+The next morning all was bustle and hurry, for the aunts were to start on
+their trip and Mr. Gordon must be off to Chicago. Miss Hope insisted on
+being taken to the station an hour before their train was due, and when a
+puff of steam up the track announced the actual approach of the train the
+two old ladies trembled with nervousness and excitement. Mr. Gordon
+guided them up the steps of the car, after a tearful farewell to Bob and
+Betty, and saw that they were settled in the right sections. He spoke to
+the conductor on the way out, and tipped the porter and maid liberally to
+look after the travelers' comfort.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MORE GOOD-BYES
+
+
+"They'll feel better presently," he remarked, rejoining Bob and Betty on
+the platform. "I know the boarding house they've chosen is fine in every
+way and they're going to have a delightful winter."
+
+The train started slowly, and the black silk gloves of the aunts waved
+dolorously from the window. They were embarked on their adventure.
+
+"Don't look so solemn, Betty," teased her uncle. "If I'm not mistaken
+that's the smoke from my train. I don't want any one to weep over my
+departure."
+
+"I could, but I won't," Betty assured him bravely. "You won't get sick or
+anything, will you, Uncle Dick? And you'll write to me every week?"
+
+"Like a clock," he promised her. "There goes the agent with my bags--this
+is the local, all right. Good-bye, Bob. Remember what I've asked of you."
+
+Mr. Gordon wrung Bob's hand and smiled down into the blue eyes lifted so
+fervently to his.
+
+"You're my boy, too," he said clearly. "Don't forget, lad, if you need
+me."
+
+Then he swept Betty into his arms.
+
+"Be a good girl, Sweetheart," he murmured, kissing her.
+
+They watched him climb up the steps of the snorting, smoky local, saw his
+bags tossed into the baggage car, and then, with a shrill grinding of
+wheels, the training resumed its way. As long as they could see, the tall
+figure in the gray suit stood on the platform and waved a white
+handkerchief to them.
+
+"Oh, Bob, don't let me cry," begged Betty, in a sudden panic.
+"Everybody's watching us. Let's go somewhere, quick."
+
+"All right, we will," promised Bob. "We'll take the car to Doctor
+Morrison. Hop in, Betsey, and dry your eyes. You're going traveling
+yourself day after to-morrow."
+
+"I wasn't really crying," explained Betty as she settled herself in the
+shabby car that had belonged to her uncle; he had sold it to the town
+physician. "But doesn't it give you a lonesome feeling to be the one
+that's left? I hate to say good-bye, anyway."
+
+Bob's experience with motors was rather limited, and what slight
+knowledge he possessed had been gained in a few lessons taken while
+riding with Mr. Gordon. However, the boy was sure that he could drive the
+car the brief distance to the doctor's house, and Betty shared his
+confidence. From the Morrison house it was only a short walk to the
+Watterby farm, where they were to stay until they left for the East.
+
+Betty forgot to cry as Bob started the car so suddenly that it shot
+forward like a live thing. He jammed on the brake and brought it to a
+standstill so abruptly that Betty came very near to pitching through the
+windshield.
+
+"Couldn't you do it--er--more gently?" she hinted delicately.
+
+"Hold fast and I'll try," grinned Bob. "As a chauffeur I'd be a
+good iceman."
+
+The second time he managed better, and the battered little car moved off
+with less disturbing results.
+
+In a very few minutes they had reached Doctor Morrison's garage.
+
+The doctor urged Bob and Betty strongly to stay to supper with him and
+promised beaten biscuit and honey, but although they knew the skill of
+his old Southern cook very well, they had promised Grandma Watterby to be
+there for supper and such a promise could not be disregarded.
+
+"Well, anyway," said Betty soothingly, as they walked on toward the
+Watterby farm, "when we ride Clover and Reuben up to the fields we won't
+have to worry about how to make them go."
+
+"No, that's so," agreed Bob. "But, Betty, I hate to think of giving up
+Reuben. He isn't much to look at, but he has been a mighty good horse."
+
+"I'd feel worse," declared Betty, "if we had to sell them to strangers.
+We wouldn't know how they would be treated then. Now we are sure they
+will be cared for and petted and they won't miss us."
+
+Reuben and Clover, Mr. Gordon had said, were to be disposed of as Betty
+and Bob chose. The horses were theirs to give away or sell as they
+preferred. Bob had instantly decided to give his mount to Dave Thorne,
+the section foreman, who had shown him many kindnesses and who was
+delighted to get a trained saddle horse. Horses were very scarce in that
+section of the country, and Mr. Gordon had gone to considerable trouble
+to get these.
+
+Betty had elected to give Clover to the new superintendent's daughter,
+the girl who was to move with her parents into the old Saunders
+farmhouse. Betty had never seen her, but knew she was about fourteen or
+fifteen and eager to learn to ride.
+
+The day before they were to start for Washington, Bob and Betty rode the
+horses up to the oil fields and gave them into the charge of Dave
+Thorne. The superintendent was already on the ground but his family and
+furniture were not due for a week.
+
+Clover and Reuben bore the parting better than their young mistress and
+master, and Betty was glad when all the good-byes had been said and they
+stepped into the Watterby car which Mrs. Watterby had driven up for them.
+The fields were about eight miles from her house.
+
+"You'll be happier when once you're on the train, Betty," said good Mrs.
+Watterby, glancing swiftly at Betty's clouded face, "This going around
+saying good-bye to people and things is enough to break anybody up. Now
+to-morrow me and mother won't weep a tear over you--you'll see. We're
+glad you're going to school to have a good time with all those young
+folks. Now what's that Chinaman want?"
+
+Lee Chang came running from the bunk house, waving something tied in
+white paper.
+
+"Apple tart, Miss Betty!" he called imploringly. "Velly nice apple
+tart--maybe the cook at that school no make good tarts."
+
+Betty took the package and thanked him warmly and they drove on.
+
+"People are so good to me," choked the girl. "I never knew I had so
+many friends."
+
+"Well, that's nothing to cry over," advised Bob philosophically. "You
+ought to be glad. Do I get a crumb of the tart, Betsey?"
+
+He spoke with a purpose and was rewarded by seeing Betty's own sunny
+smile come out.
+
+"You always do," she told him. "But wait till we get home. I want Ki to
+have a piece, too."
+
+Ki, it developed, when they reached the Watterby farm, had been busy with
+farewell plans of his own.
+
+"For you," he announced gravely to Bob, handing him an immense hunting
+knife as he stepped out of the car.
+
+"For you," he informed Betty with equal gravity, presenting her a little
+silver nugget.
+
+They both thanked him repeatedly, and he stalked off, carrying his piece
+of the apple tart and apparently assured of their sincerity.
+
+"Though what he expects me to do with a hunting knife is more than I can
+guess," laughed Bob.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A REGULAR CROSS-PATCH
+
+
+"Be sure you send me a postal from Washington. I never knew anybody from
+there before," said Grandma Watterby earnestly.
+
+"And don't get off the train unless you know how long it's going to
+stop," advised Will Watterby.
+
+"Do you think you ate enough breakfast?" his wife asked anxiously.
+
+Bob and Betty were waiting for the Eastern Limited, and the Watterby
+family, who had brought them to the station, were waiting, too. The
+Limited stopped only on signal, and this was no every day occurrence.
+
+"We'll be all right," said Bob earnestly. "You can look for a postal from
+Chicago first, Grandma."
+
+Then came the usual hurried good-byes, the kisses and handshakes and the
+repeated promises to "write soon." Then Bob and Betty found themselves in
+the sleeper, waving frantically to the little group on the platform as
+the Limited slowly got under way.
+
+"And that's the last of Flame City--for some time at least,"
+observed Bob.
+
+Betty, who had made excellent use of lessons learned in her few previous
+long journeys, took off her hat and gloves and placed them in a paper bag
+which Bob put in the rack for her.
+
+"I did want a new hat so much," she sighed, looking rather
+enviously at the woman across the aisle who wore a smart Fall hat
+that was unmistakably new. "But Flame City depends on mail order
+hats and I thought it safer to wait till I could see what people
+are really wearing."
+
+"You look all right," said Bob loyally. "What's that around that woman's
+neck--fur? Why I'm so hot I can hardly breathe."
+
+"It's mink," Betty informed him with superiority. "Isn't it beautiful? I
+wanted a set, but Uncle Dick said mink was too old for me. He did say,
+though, that I can have a neckpiece made from that fox skin Ki gave me."
+
+"Don't see why you want to tie yourself up like an Eskimo," grumbled
+Bob. "Well, we seem to be headed toward the door marked 'Education,'
+don't we, Betsey?"
+
+They exchanged a smile of understanding.
+
+Bob was passionately eager for what he called "regular schooling," that
+is the steady discipline of fixed lessons, the companionship of boys of
+his own age, and the give and take of the average large, busy school.
+Normal life of any kind was out of the question in the poorhouse where he
+had spent the first ten years of his life, and after that he had not seen
+the inside of a schoolroom. He had read whatever books he could pick up
+while at Bramble Farm, and in the knowledge of current events was
+remarkably well-posted, thanks to his steady assimilation of newspapers
+and magazines since leaving the Peabody roof. But he feared, and with
+some foundation, that he might be found deplorably lacking in the most
+rudimentary branches.
+
+Betty, of course, had gone to school regularly until her mother's
+death. In the year that had elapsed she had thought little of
+lessons, and though she did not realize it, she had lost to a great
+extent the power of application. Systematic study of any kind might
+easily prove a hardship for the active Betty. Still she was eager to
+study again, perhaps prepare for college. More than anything else she
+craved girl friends.
+
+"Let's go in for lunch at the first call," suggested Betty presently. "I
+didn't eat much breakfast, and I don't believe you did either."
+
+"I swallowed a cup of boiling coffee," admitted Bob, "but that's all I
+remember. So I'm ready when you are."
+
+Seated at a table well toward the center of the car, Betty's attention
+was attracted to a girl who sat facing her. She was not a pretty girl.
+She looked discontented and peevish, and the manner in which she
+addressed the waiter indicated that she felt under no obligation to
+disguise her feelings.
+
+"Take that back," she ordered, pointing a beautifully manicured hand at
+a dish just placed before her. "If you can't bring me a poached egg
+that isn't raw, don't bother at all. And I hope you don't intend to
+call this cream?"
+
+Bob glanced swiftly over at the table. The girl consciously tucked back a
+lock of stringy hair, displaying the flash of several diamonds.
+
+"Sweet disposition, hasn't she?" muttered Bob under his breath. "I'd like
+to see her board just one week with Mr. Peabody."
+
+"Don't--she'll hear you," protested Betty. "I wonder if she is all alone?
+What lovely clothes she has! And did you see her rings?"
+
+"Well, she'll need 'em, if she's going to snap at everybody," said Bob
+severely. "Diamonds help out a cross tongue when a poor waiter is
+thinking of his tip."
+
+The girl was still finding fault with her food when Betty and Bob rose to
+leave the car, and when they passed her table she stared at them with
+languid insolence, half closing her narrow hazel eyes.
+
+"Wow, she's bored completely," snickered Bob, when they were out of
+earshot. "I don't believe she's a day older than you are, Betty, and she
+is dressed up like a little Christmas tree."
+
+"I think her clothes are wonderful," said Betty. "I wish I had a lace
+vestee and some long white gloves. Don't you think they're pretty, Bob?"
+
+"No, I think they're silly," retorted Bob. "You wouldn't catch Bobby
+Littell going traveling in a party dress and wearing all the family
+jewels. Huh, here comes the conductor--wonder what he wants."
+
+The conductor, it developed, was shifting passengers from the car behind
+the one in which Bob and Betty had seats. It was to be dropped at the
+next junction and the few passengers remaining were to be accommodated in
+this coach.
+
+"You're all right, don't have to make any change," said the official
+kindly, after examining their tickets. "I'll tell the porter you go
+through to Chicago."
+
+The car had been fairly well crowded before, and the extra influx taxed
+every available seat. Betty took out her crocheting and Bob decided that
+he would go in search of a shoe-shine.
+
+"I'll come back and get you and we'll go out on the observation
+platform," he said contentedly.
+
+"Chain six, double crochet--into the ring--" Betty murmured her
+directions half aloud.
+
+"Right here, Ma'am?" The porter's voice aroused her.
+
+There in the aisle stood the girl she had noticed in the diner, and with
+her was a harassed looking porter carrying three heavy bags.
+
+"Perhaps you would just as lief take the aisle seat?" said the girl,
+surveying Betty as a princess might gaze upon an annoying little page. "I
+travel better when I can have plenty of fresh air."
+
+"You might have thought I was a bug," Betty confided later to Bob.
+
+The diamonds flashed as the girl loosened the fur collar at her throat.
+
+"Please move over," she commanded calmly.
+
+Betty was bewildered, but her innate courtesy died hard.
+
+"You--you've made a mistake," she faltered. "This seat is taken."
+
+"The conductor said to take any vacant seat," said the newcomer. "You
+can't hold seats in a public conveyance--my father says so. Put the bags
+in here, porter. Be careful of that enamel leather."
+
+To Betty's dismay, she settled herself, flounces and furs and bags, in
+the narrow space that belonged to Bob, and by an adroit pressure of her
+elbow made it impossible for Betty to resume her crocheting.
+
+"I think you done made a mistake, lady," ventured the porter. "This seat
+belongs to a young man what has a ticket to Chicago."
+
+"Well, I'm going to Chicago," answered the girl composedly. "Do you
+expect me to stand up the rest of the way? The agent had no business to
+sell me a reservation in a car that only went as far as the Junction."
+
+The porter withdrew, shaking his head, and in a few minutes Bob came back
+to his seat. Betty, watching the girl, saw her glance sidewise at him
+from her narrow eyes, though she pretended to be absorbed in a magazine.
+
+"I beg your pardon," said Bob politely.
+
+There was no response.
+
+"Pardon me, but you've made a mistake," began Bob again. "You are in the
+wrong seat."
+
+The magazine came down with a crash and the girl's face, distorted with
+rage, appeared in its place.
+
+"Well, if I am, what are you going to do about it?" she shrilled rudely.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+FINE FEATHERS
+
+
+Betty Gordon had always, foolishly perhaps, associated courtesy and
+good-breeding with beautiful clothes. This strange girl, who could speak
+so on such slight provocation (none at all, to be exact) wore a handsome
+suit, and if her jewelry was too conspicuous it had the merit of being
+genuine. Betty herself had a lively temper, but she was altogether free
+from snappishness and when she "blew up" the cause was sure to be
+unmistakable and significant.
+
+Bob jumped when the girl fired her question at him. There had been
+nothing in his limited experience with girls to prepare him for such an
+outburst. Betty half expected him to acquiesce and leave the stranger in
+possession of his seat, but to her surprise he simply turned on his heel
+and walked away. Not, however, before Betty had seen something bordering
+on contempt in his eyes.
+
+"I'd hate to have Bob look at me like that," she thought. "It wasn't as
+if he didn't like her, or was mad at her--what is it I am trying to
+say? Bob looked as if--as if--Oh, bother, I know what I mean, but I
+can't say it."
+
+The little spitfire in the seat beside her wriggled uneasily as if she,
+too, were not as comfortable as she would pretend. Bob's silent reception
+of her discourtesy had infuriated her, and she knew better than Betty
+where she stood in the boy's estimation. She had instantly forfeited his
+respect and probably his admiration forever.
+
+In a few minutes Bob was back, and with him the conductor.
+
+"Young lady, you're in the wrong seat," that official announced in a tone
+that admitted of no trifling. "You were in eighteen in the other car and
+I had to move you to twenty-three in here. Just follow me, please."
+
+He reached in and took one of the suitcases, and Bob matter-of-factly
+took the other two. The girl opened her mouth, glanced at the conductor,
+and thought better of whatever she was going to say. Meekly she followed
+him to another section on the other side of the car and found herself
+compelled to share a seat with a severe-looking gray-haired woman,
+evidently a sufferer from hay fever, as she sneezed incessantly.
+
+Bob dropped down in his old place and shot a quizzical look at Betty.
+
+"Flame City may be tough," he observed, "and I'd be the last one to claim
+that it possessed one grain of culture; but at that, I can't remember
+having a pitched battle with a girl during my care-free existence there."
+
+"She's used to having her own way," said Betty, with a laudable ambition
+to be charitable, an intention which she inadvertently destroyed by
+adding vigorously: "She'd get that knocked out of her if she lived West a
+little while."
+
+"Guess the East can be trusted to smooth her down," commented Bob grimly.
+"Unless she's planning to live in seclusion, she won't get far in peace
+or happiness unless she behaves a bit more like a human being."
+
+The girl was more or less in evidence during the rest of the trip and
+incurred the cordial enmity of every woman in the car by the coolness
+with which she appropriated the dressing room in the morning and curled
+her hair and made an elaborate toilet in perfect indifference to the
+other feminine travelers who were shut out till she had the last hairpin
+adjusted to her satisfaction.
+
+She was met at the Chicago terminal by a party of gay friends who whisked
+her off in a palatial car, and Bob and Betty who, acting on Mr. Gordon's
+advice, spent their two-hour wait between trains driving along the Lake
+Shore Drive, forgot her completely.
+
+But first Betty fell victim to the charms of a hat displayed in a smart
+little millinery shop, and had an argument with Bob in which she came
+off victor.
+
+"Oh, Bob, what a darling hat!" she had exclaimed, drawing him over to the
+window as they turned down the first street from the station. "I must
+have it; I want to look nice when I meet the girls in Washington."
+
+"You look nice now," declared Bob sturdily. "But if you want to buy it,
+go ahead," he encouraged her. "Ask 'em how much it is, though," he added,
+with a sudden recollection of the fabulous prices said to be charged for
+a yard of ribbon and a bit of lace.
+
+The hat in question was a soft brown beaver that rolled slightly away
+from the face and boasted as trimming a single scarlet quill. It was
+undeniably becoming, and Bob gave it his unqualified approval.
+
+"And you will want a veil?" insinuated the clever young French
+saleswoman. "See--it is charming!"
+
+She threw over the hat a cobwebby pattern of brown silk net embroidered
+heavily with chenille dots and deftly draped it back from Betty's
+glowing face.
+
+"You don't want a veil!" said Bob bluntly.
+
+Now the mirror told Betty that the veil looked very well indeed, and made
+her, she was sure of it, prettier. Betty was a good traveler and the
+journey had not tired her. The excitement and pleasure of choosing a new
+hat had brought a flush to her cheeks, and the shining brown eyes that
+gazed back at her from the glass assured her that a veil was something
+greatly to be desired.
+
+"You don't want it," repeated Bob. "You're only thirteen and you'll look
+silly. Do you want to dress like that girl on the train?"
+
+If Bob had stopped to think he would have realized that his remarks were
+not exactly tactful. Especially the reference to Betty's age, just when
+she fancied that she looked very grown up indeed. She was fond of
+braiding her heavy thick hair and wrapping it around her head so that
+there were no hair-ribbons to betray her. In Betty's experience the
+border line between a young lady and a little girl was determined by the
+absence or presence of hair-ribbons.
+
+"How much is it?" she asked the saleswoman.
+
+"Oh, but six dollars," answered that young person with a wave of one
+jeweled hand as though six dollars were a mere nothing.
+
+"I'll take it," said Betty decisively. "And I'll wear it and the hat,
+too, please; you can wrap up my old one."
+
+Bob was silent until the transaction had been completed and they were out
+of the shop.
+
+"You wait here and I'll see about getting a car to take us along the
+Drive," he said then.
+
+"You're--you're not mad at me, are you Bob?" faltered Betty, putting an
+appealing hand on his arm. "I haven't had any fun with clothes all
+summer long."
+
+"No, I'm not mad. But I think you're an awful chump," replied Bob with
+his characteristic frankness.
+
+Before the drive was over, Betty was inclined to agree with him.
+
+The car was an open one, and while the day was warm and sunny, there was
+a lively breeze blowing straight off the lake. The veil persisted in
+blowing first into Betty's eyes, then into Bob's, and interfered to an
+amazing degree with their enjoyment of the scenery. Finally, as they
+rounded a curve and caught the full breath of the breeze, the veil blew
+away entirely.
+
+"Let it go," said Betty resignedly. "It's cost me six dollars to learn I
+don't want to wear a veil."
+
+Bob privately decided he liked her much better without the flimsy net
+affair, but he wisely determined not to air his opinion. There was no
+use, he told himself, in "rubbing it in."
+
+They had lunch in a cozy little tea-room and went back to the train like
+seasoned travelers. Bob was an ideal companion for such journeys, for he
+never lost his head and never missed connections, while nervous haste was
+unknown to him.
+
+"Won't I be glad to see the Littells!" exclaimed Betty, watching the
+porter make up their berths.
+
+"So shall I," agreed Bob. "Did you ever know such hospitable people,
+asking a whole raft of us to spend the week at Fairfields? How many did
+Bobby write would be there?"
+
+"Let's see," said Betty, checking off on her fingers. "There'll be Bobby
+and Louise, of course; and Esther who is too young to go away to school,
+but who will want to do everything we do; Libbie Littell and another
+Vermont girl we don't know--Frances Martin; you and I; and the five boys
+Mr. Littell wrote you about--the Tucker twins, Timothy Derby, Sydney
+Cooke and Winifred Marion Brown. Twelve of us! Won't it be fun! I do wish
+the Guerin girls could be there, but we'll see them at the school."
+
+"I'd like to see that Winifred Marion chap," declared Bob. "A boy with a
+girl's name has his troubles cut out for him, I should say."
+
+"Lots of 'em have girls' names--in history," contributed Betty absently.
+"What time do we get into Washington, Bob?"
+
+"Around five, probably six p.m., for we're likely to be a bit late,"
+replied Bob. "Let's go to bed now, Betty, and get an early start in
+the morning."
+
+The day spent on the train was uneventful, and, contrary to Bob's
+expectations, they were on time at every station. Betty's heart beat
+faster as the hands of her little wrist watch pointed to 5:45 and the
+passengers began to gather up their wraps. The porter came through and
+brushed them thoroughly and Betty adjusted her new hat carefully.
+
+The long train slid into the Union Station. With what different
+emotions both Bob and Betty had seen the beautiful, brilliantly lighted
+building on the occasion of their first trip to Washington! Then each
+had been without a friend in the great city, and now they were to be
+welcomed by a host.
+
+Betty's cheeks flushed rose-red, but her lovely eyes filled with a sudden
+rush of tears.
+
+"I'm so happy!" she whispered to the bewildered Bob.
+
+"Want my handkerchief?" he asked anxiously, at which Betty tried
+not to laugh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+FUN AT FAIRFIELDS
+
+
+The long platform was crowded. Betty followed Bob, who carried their
+bags. She tried to peer ahead, but the moving forms blocked her view.
+Just after they passed through the gate, some one caught her.
+
+"Betty, you lamb! I never was so glad to see any one in my life!"
+cried a gay voice, and Bobby Littell hugged her close in one of her
+rare caresses.
+
+Bob Henderson held out his hand as soon as Bobby released Betty. He liked
+this straightforward, brusque girl who so evidently adored Betty.
+
+"Why, Bob, you've grown a foot!" was Bobby Littell's greeting to him.
+
+Bob modestly disclaimed any such record, and then Louise and Esther, who
+had swooped upon Betty, turned to shake hands with him.
+
+"The rest of the crowd is out in the car," said Bobby carelessly.
+
+Outside the station, in the open plaza, a handsome closed car awaited
+them. The gray-haired chauffeur, cap in hand, stood back as a procession
+of boys and girls advanced upon Bob and Betty and their escort.
+
+"Oh, Betty, dear!" Short, plump Libbie Littell, who had relinquished
+her claim to the name of "Betty" in Betty Gordon's favor some time
+ago, hurled herself upon her friend. "To think we're going to the
+same school!"
+
+"Well, Frances is going, too," said Bobby practically. "She might like to
+be introduced, you know. Betty, this is Frances Martin, a Vermont girl
+who is out after all the Latin prizes."
+
+Frances smiled a slow, sweet smile, and, behind thick glasses, her dark
+near-sighted eyes said that she was very glad to know Betty Gordon.
+
+"Now the boys!" announced the irrepressible Bobby, apparently taking
+Bob's introduction to Frances for granted. "The boys will please line up
+and I'll indicate them."
+
+The five lads obediently came forward and ranged themselves in a row.
+
+"From left to right," chanted Bobby, "we have the Tucker twins, Tommy and
+Teddy, W. M. Brown, who asks his friends to use his initials and punches
+those who refuse, Timothy Derby who reads poetry and Sydney Cooke who
+ought to--" and Bobby completed her speech with a wicked grin, for she
+had managed to hit several weaknesses.
+
+"As an introducer," she announced calmly to Carter, the personification
+of propriety's horror, "I think I do rather well."
+
+They stowed themselves into the limousine somehow, the girls settled more
+or less comfortably on the seats, the boys squeezed in between, hanging
+on the running board, and spilling over into Carter's domain.
+
+Bob liked the five boys at once, and they seemed to accept him as one of
+them. If he had had a little fear that he would feel diffident and
+unboyish among lads of his own age, it vanished at the first contact.
+
+"Betty, you sweet child, how we have missed you!" cried Mrs. Littell,
+standing on the lowest step under the porte-cochère as the car swept up
+the drive of Fairfields, as the Littell's home was called.
+
+Behind her waited Mr. Littell, fully recovered from the injury to his
+foot which had made him an invalid during Betty's previous visit.
+
+From Carter, who had beamingly greeted her at the station, to the pretty
+parlor maid who smiled as Betty entered her room to find her turning down
+the bed covers, there was not a servant who did not remember Betty and
+seem glad to see her.
+
+"It is so good to have you two here again," Mr. Littell had said.
+
+"I never knew such people," Betty repeated to herself twenty times that
+evening. "How lovely they are to Bob and me!"
+
+Mrs. Littell, who was happiest when entertaining young people, had put
+the six boys on the third floor in three connecting rooms. The girls were
+on the second floor, and Esther, the youngest, who had strenuously fought
+to be allowed to go to Shadyside with her two sisters, was almost beside
+herself with the effort to be in all the rooms at once and hear what
+every one was saying.
+
+"I'm so glad your uncle let you come," said Bobby, as they waited for
+Betty to change into a light house frock for dinner. "I don't know much
+about this school, except that mother went to school with the principal."
+
+That was a characteristic Bobby Littell remark, and the other
+girls laughed.
+
+"I had a letter from a girl who lives in Glenside," confided Betty,
+re-braiding her hair. "She and her sister are going--Norma and Alice
+Guerin. I know you'll like them. Norma wrote her mother went to Shadyside
+when it was a day school."
+
+"Yes, I believe it was, years and years ago," returned Louise Littell.
+"The aristocratic families who lived on large estates used to send
+their daughters to Mrs. Warde. Her daughter, Mrs. Eustice, is the
+principal now."
+
+Betty wondered if Norma Guerin's mother had belonged to one of the
+families who owned large estates, but they went down to dinner presently
+and she forgot the Guerins for the time being.
+
+That was a busy week for the school boys and girls.
+
+The beautiful house and grounds of Fairfields were at their disposal, and
+the gallant host and gentle hostess gave themselves up to the whims and
+wishes of the houseful of young people.
+
+"Racket while you may, for school-room discipline is coming," laughed Mr.
+Littell, when he went upstairs unexpectedly early one night and caught
+the abashed Tucker twins sliding down the banisters.
+
+Both Bob and Betty had wired Mr. Gordon of their safe arrival in
+Washington, and Bob had also telegraphed his aunts. While they were at
+Fairfields a letter reached them from Miss Hope and Miss Charity,
+describing in glowing terms the boarding house in which they were
+living and the California climate which, the writers declared, made
+them feel "twenty years younger." So Bob was assured that the elderly
+ladies were neither homesick nor unhappy and that added appreciably to
+his peace of mind.
+
+He and Betty found time, too, to slip away from their gay companions and
+go to the old second-hand bookshop where Lockwood Hale browsed among his
+dusty volumes. He had set Bob upon the trail that led him West and
+brought him finally to his surviving kin, and the boy felt warm gratitude
+to the absent-minded old man.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Littell rigidly insisted that the last night before the
+young folks started for Shadyside must be reserved for final packing and
+early retirement so that the gay band might begin their journey
+auspiciously. The Tuesday evening before the Thursday they were to leave
+for school, the host and hostess gave a dance for their young people.
+
+"I'm glad to have at least one chance to wear this dress," observed
+Bobby, smoothing down the folds of her rose-colored frock with
+satisfaction. "The only thing I don't like about Shadyside, so far, is
+that restriction about party clothes."
+
+"I imagine it is a wise rule in many ways," said Betty sagely, thinking
+particularly of the Guerin girls, who would probably be hard-pressed to
+get even the one evening frock allowed. "You know how some girls are,
+Bobby; they'd come with a dozen crêpe de chine and georgette dresses and
+about three clean blouses for school-room wear."
+
+"Like Ruth Gladys Royal," giggled Bobby. "I remember her at Miss
+Graham's last year. Goodness, the clothes that girl would wear! The rest
+of us didn't even try to compete. And, by the way, girls, Ruth Gladys is
+going to Shadyside. Her aunt telephoned mother last night while we were
+at the movies."
+
+"That's the girl we went to call on that day we saw Mr. Peabody tackle
+Bob in the hotel," Louise explained in an aside to Betty. "I wonder why
+every one seems bent and determined to go to Shadyside this year."
+
+"Because it is a fine school with a half-century reputation," Bobby, who
+had studied the catalogue, informed her sister primly.
+
+"I'm not going," objected Esther. "I think it's mean."
+
+"Mother and dad need one girl at home, dearest," her mother reminded her,
+as she came in looking very handsome and kindly in a black spangled net
+gown. "All ready, girls? Then suppose we go down."
+
+It was a simple and informal dance, as befitted the ages of the guests,
+but Mr. and Mrs. Littell knew to perfection the secret of making each one
+enjoy himself. There were a handful of outside friends invited, and
+Betty, to whom a party was a never-failing source of delight, felt, as
+she confided to Bob, as though she were "walking on air."
+
+"You look awfully nice in that white stuff," he said frankly, and Betty
+liked the comment on her pretty ruffled white frock which she had
+dubiously decided a moment before was too plain.
+
+Betty was what country folk call a "natural-born dancer," and she
+quickly learned the new steps she had had no opportunity to practice
+since going West. All the girls and most of the boys were excellent
+dancers, too, and Bob was not allowed to beg off. Frances Martin, the
+last girl one would have named, had taught a dancing class in her home
+town with great success and she volunteered to lead Bob. To his surprise,
+the boy found he liked the music and movement and before the evening was
+over he was in a fair way to become a good dancer.
+
+The party broke up promptly at eleven o'clock, and a few minutes later
+the whir of the last motor bearing home the departing guests died away.
+There was a natural lingering to "talk things over," but by twelve the
+house was silent and dark.
+
+Betty had just fairly dozed off when some one woke her by shaking
+her gently.
+
+"Betty! Betty, please wake up!" whispered a frightened little voice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+TOO MUCH PARTY
+
+
+Betty shared a room with Bobby. The single beds were separated by a
+table on which an electric drop light and the water pitcher and glasses
+were placed.
+
+Betty's first impulse was to snap on the light, but as she put out her
+hand, Esther grasped her wrist.
+
+"It's only me," she whispered, her teeth chattering with fright. "Don't
+wake Bobby up."
+
+"Are you cold?" asked Betty, sitting up anxiously. "Perhaps you were too
+warm dancing. Do you want to get into bed with me?"
+
+It was a warm night for October, and Betty was at a loss to understand
+Esther's shivering.
+
+"I can't find Libbie!" Esther cried. "Oh, Betty, I never thought she
+would do it, never."
+
+Betty reached for her dressing gown and slippers.
+
+"Don't cry, or you'll wake up Bobby," she advised the sobbing Esther.
+"Come on, I'll go back with you. Don't make a noise."
+
+The girls occupied three connecting rooms, and Esther and Libbie had
+slept in the end of the suite. To reach it now, the two girls had to go
+through the room where Louise and Frances lay slumbering peacefully.
+Betty breathed a sigh of relief when they gained Esther's room and she
+closed the door carefully and turned on the light.
+
+Esther's bed, madly tumbled, and Libbie's, evidently occupied that night,
+but now empty, were revealed.
+
+Esther dropped down on the floor, wrapping her kimono about her, and
+regarded Betty trustfully. She was sure her friend would straighten
+things out.
+
+"Where is Libbie?" demanded Betty. "What is she doing?"
+
+"I don't know," admitted Esther unhappily. "But I tell you what I
+think--I think she's eloped!"
+
+Esther was only eleven, and as she sat on the floor and stared at Betty
+from great wet blue eyes, she seemed very young indeed.
+
+"Eloped!" gasped Betty. "Why, I never heard of such a thing!"
+
+"She's always talking about it," the younger girl wailed, beginning to
+cry again. "She says it's the most romantic way to be married, and she
+means to throw her hope chest out of the window first and slide down a
+rope made of bedsheets."
+
+"Well, I think it's very silly to talk like that," scolded Betty. "And,
+what's more, Esther, however much Libbie may talk of eloping, she hasn't
+done it this time. All her clothes are here, and her shoes and her hat.
+Here's her purse on the dresser, too."
+
+"I never thought of looking to see if her clothes were here," confessed
+Esther. "But then, where is she, Betty?"
+
+"That's what I mean to find out," announced Betty, with more confidence
+than she felt. "Come on, Esther. And don't trip on your kimono or walk
+into anything."
+
+They tiptoed out into the wide hall and had reached the head of the
+beautiful carved staircase when they saw a dim form coming toward them.
+
+Esther nearly shrieked aloud, but Betty put a hand over her mouth in
+time.
+
+"Who--who, who-o-o are you?" stammered Betty, her heart beating so fast
+it was painful.
+
+"Betty!" Bob stifled a gasp. "For the love of Mike! what are you doing at
+this time of night?"
+
+"Esther's here--we're hunting for Libbie," whispered Betty. "She isn't in
+her room."
+
+"So that's it!" For some reason unknown to the girls Bob seemed to be
+vastly relieved. "I was just going after Mr. Littell," he added.
+
+"But Libbie is lost! Maybe she is sick," urged Betty.
+
+"She's all right," declared Bob confidently. "You see, I couldn't go to
+sleep, and after I'd been in bed about an hour I got up and sat by the
+window. I was staring down into the garden, and all of a sudden I saw
+something white begin to move and creep about. I watched it a few moments
+and I got the idea it was a burglar or a sneak thief, it kept so close to
+the house. I came down to call Mr. Littell and bumped into you."
+
+"Do you suppose it is Libbie?" chattered Esther. "Why would she go into
+the garden in the middle of the night?"
+
+"Walking in her sleep," explained Bob. "I've heard it is dangerous to
+waken a sleep-walker suddenly. Perhaps you'd better call Mrs. Littell,
+Betty, and I'll sit here on the window seat and see that she doesn't walk
+out into the road."
+
+The two girls hurried off and tapped lightly on Mrs. Littell's door. That
+lady hurriedly admitted them, her motherly mind instantly picturing
+something wrong.
+
+"It's Libbie," said Betty softly. "Bob saw her from his window in the
+garden and he thinks she's walking in her sleep. We don't want to
+frighten her. What can we do?"
+
+"I'll be right out," said Mrs. Littell reassuringly. "Libbie's mother
+used to walk in her sleep, too. I think I can get the child into bed
+without waking her at all."
+
+In a few moments she came out, a heavy corduroy robe and slippers
+protecting her against the night air.
+
+"Esther, lamb, you stay here in the hall with Bob," she directed her
+youngest daughter. "You won't be afraid with Bob, will you, dear? I don't
+want too many to go down or we may startle Libbie."
+
+Betty crept downstairs after Mrs. Littell, the soft, thick rugs making
+their progress absolutely noiseless. Not a step in the well-built
+staircase creaked.
+
+They found the chain and bolt drawn from the heavy front door. Libbie had
+evidently let herself out with no difficulty. From the wide hall window
+Bob and Esther watched breathlessly.
+
+"Just go up to her quietly and take one of her hands," Mrs. Littell
+whispered to Betty. "I'll take the other, and, if I'm not mistaken, we
+can lead her into the house."
+
+Libbie stood motionless beside a rosebush as they approached her. Her
+eyes were wide open, and her dark hair floated over her shoulders. In her
+white nightdress, the moonlight full upon her, she looked very pretty and
+yet so weird that Betty could not repress a shiver.
+
+Mrs. Littell did not speak, but took one of the limp hands in hers, and
+Betty took the other. Libbie made no resistance, and allowed them to
+draw her toward the house. They crossed the threshold, led her upstairs,
+past the quivering Esther and Bob huddled on the windowseat, and into the
+bedroom she had so unceremoniously left.
+
+Then Mrs. Littell lifted her in strong arms, put her gently down on the
+bed, and Libbie rolled up like a little kitten, tucked one hand under her
+cheek and continued to sleep.
+
+"Now go to bed, children, do," commanded Mrs. Littell. "Bob, I'm so
+thankful you saw that child--she might have wandered off or caught a
+severe cold. As it is, I don't believe she has been out very long. What's
+the matter, Esther?"
+
+"Can I come and sleep with you?" pleaded Esther. "I'm afraid to sleep
+with Libbie. She might do it again."
+
+"I don't think so--not to-night," said her mother, smiling. "However,
+chicken, come and sleep with me if you'll rest better."
+
+Betty awoke and went in later that night to see if Libbie had vanished
+again, but found her sleeping normally. In the morning the girl was much
+surprised to find she had been wandering in the garden and betrayed
+considerable interest in the details. Betty decided that it would be
+better to omit Esther's belief that she had eloped, and Libbie was
+allowed to remain in blissful ignorance of the action her youthful cousin
+attributed to her.
+
+The last day sped by all too soon, and what the Tucker twins persisted
+in pessimistically designating the "fateful Thursday" was upon them.
+
+"I don't know why you sigh so frequently," dimpled Betty, who sat next to
+Tommy Tucker at the breakfast table. "I'm very anxious to go to school.
+Don't you really like to go back?"
+
+"It's like this," said Tommy, the "dark Tucker twin," solemnly. "From
+four to ten p.m. (except on drill nights) I like it well enough, and from
+ten, lights out, till six, reveille, I'm fairly contented. But from nine
+to four, when we're cooped up in classrooms, I simply detest school!"
+
+Teddy, the "light Tucker twin," nodded in confirmation.
+
+"I suppose we have to be educated," he admitted, with the air of one
+making a generous concession to public opinion, "but I don't see why they
+find it necessary to prolong the agony. Any one who can read and write
+can make a living."
+
+"Perhaps your father hopes you'll do a bit more than that," suggested Mr.
+Littell slyly.
+
+This effectually silenced the twins, for their wealthy father was a
+splendid scientist who had made several explorations that had contributed
+materially to the knowledge of the scientific world, and he had lost the
+sight of one eye in a laboratory experiment undertaken to advance the
+cause for which he labored.
+
+The Littell car carried the twelve to the station soon after
+breakfast, and though Shadyside and Salsette, unlike many of the large
+northern schools, ran no "special," the few passengers who were not
+school bound found themselves decidedly in the minority on the "9:36
+local" that morning.
+
+"Remember, Betty, you and Bob are to spend the holidays with us," said
+Mrs. Littell, as she kissed her good-bye. "If your uncle comes down from
+Canada, he must come, too."
+
+"All aboard!" shouted the conductor, who foresaw a lively trip. "No'm,
+you can't go through the gate--nobody can."
+
+The crowd of fathers and mothers and younger brothers and sisters
+pressed close to the iron grating as the train got under way. On the
+back platform the Tucker twins raised their voices in a school yell that
+would have horrified the dignified heads of the Academy had they been
+there to hear it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+ADJUSTER TOMMY
+
+
+"I'm Salsette born!" trilled Tommy Tucker soulfully.
+
+"And Salsette bred!" chimed in his brother
+
+"And when I die--" caroled Tommy.
+
+"I'll be Salsette dead!" they finished together.
+
+Then, highly satisfied with this intelligible ditty, they burst into the
+car where the others were waiting for them.
+
+The boys had appropriated the seats at the forward end of the car, and
+unfortunately their selection included a seat in which an elderly, or so
+she seemed to them, woman sat. She fidgeted incessantly, folding and
+unfolding her long traveling coat, opening and closing a fitted lunch
+basket, and arranging and re-arranging several small unwieldy parcels and
+heavy books that slid persistently to the floor with the jarring of the
+train. When the conductor came through for tickets, she discovered that
+she had mislaid hers and it was necessary to flutter the pages of every
+book before the missing bit of pasteboard finally dropped from between
+the leaves of the last one opened.
+
+Bob, with instinctive courtesy, had offered to help her search, but she
+had rebuffed him sharply.
+
+"I don't want any boy pawing over my belongings," she informed him
+tartly.
+
+Bob flushed a little, it was impossible not to help it, but he said
+nothing. Meeting Betty's indignant eyes, he smiled good-humoredly.
+
+"Sweet pickles!" ejaculated Tommy Tucker indignantly. "Here, you Timothy,
+hand me that suitcase at your feet--it belongs to the little dark girl."
+
+Libbie, "the little dark girl," smiled dreamily as Timothy passed her
+suitcase to Tommy. She and Timothy Derby, ignoring the jeers of their
+friends, were deep in two white and gold volumes of poetry. Timothy,
+Libbie had discovered, had a leaning toward the romantic in fiction,
+though he preferred his served in rhyme.
+
+The wicked Tommy had a motive in asking for Libbie's suitcase. It was
+much smaller and lighter than any of the others, and he swung it deftly
+into the rack over the vinegary lady's unsuspecting head. With a
+deftness, born it must be confessed of previous practice, he balanced
+the case on the rim so that the first lurch of the train catapulted the
+thing down squarely on the woman's hat, snapping a shiny, hard black
+quill in two.
+
+"I must say!" she sputtered, rising angrily. "Who put that up there? If
+anything goes in that rack, it will be some of my things. I paid for
+this seat."
+
+She set the suitcase out into the aisle with a decided bang, and lifted
+up the wicker lunch basket. To the glee of the watching young people, as
+she lifted it to the rack, two china cups, several teaspoons and a silver
+cream jug sifted down. The cups broke on the floor and the other articles
+rolled under the seats.
+
+"Get 'em, quick!" cried the owner. "My two best cups broken, and I
+thought I had them packed so well! Pick up those teaspoons, some of
+you--they're solid silver!"
+
+"If you don't mind boys pawing them--" began Teddy Tucker, but Betty
+intervened.
+
+"Oh, don't!" she protested softly. "Don't be so mean. Pick them up,
+please do."
+
+So down on their hands and knees went the six lads, and if, in their
+earnestness, they bumped into the elderly woman's hat box, and knocked
+down her books, that really should not be held against them.
+
+"Now for mercy's sake, don't let me hear from you again," was her
+speech of thanks to them when the teaspoons had been recovered and
+restored to her.
+
+She might have been severely left alone after this, if Sydney Cooke had
+not discovered a remarkable peculiarity she possessed. Sydney was a great
+lover of games, and he had brought his pocket checkerboard and men with
+him. He persuaded Winifred Marion Brown to play a game with him, and the
+rest of the party crowded around to watch.
+
+"I'll trouble you to let me pass," said the owner of the teaspoons, when
+Sydney had just made his first play.
+
+The group parted to let her through, closed in again, and opened again
+for her when she came back. No one paid any attention to this until she
+had made the request four times.
+
+"What ails that woman?" demanded Sydney irritably.
+
+Each time she had passed him she had brushed his elbow, scattering his
+checkers about. Ordinarily sweet-tempered, Sydney was beginning to weary
+of this performance.
+
+"What do you think?" snickered Bobby Littell. "She takes a white tablet
+every five minutes. Honest! I've been watching her. She sits there with
+her watch in her hand, and exactly five minutes apart--I've timed
+her--she starts for the water cooler. She puts something on her tongue,
+swallows a glass of water, and comes back."
+
+"Well, somebody carry her a gallon jug," muttered Sydney impatiently. "I
+can't get anywhere if she is going to parade up and down the aisle
+incessantly."
+
+"Don't worry," said Tommy Tucker soothingly. "I'll adjust this little
+matter for you."
+
+If Sydney had been less interested in his game, he might have felt
+slightly apprehensive. The Tucker twins were famous for their
+"adjustments."
+
+Tommy went down the aisle and slipped into the seat directly back of the
+woman who did not approve of boys. She turned and regarded him hostilely,
+but he gazed out at the flying landscape. The moment she turned around,
+he ducked to the floor.
+
+"What do you suppose he is doing?" whispered Bobby to Betty. "Tommy can
+think up tricks faster than any boy I ever knew."
+
+Whatever Tommy was doing, he finished in a very few moments and sauntered
+back to the checker game, his eyes dancing.
+
+Sydney and Winifred were absorbed in their game, and the others, with the
+exception of Bobby and Betty, had not noticed Tommy's brief absence.
+
+"Oh, look!" Betty clutched Bobby's arm excitedly. "What has
+happened to her?"
+
+The woman, who had sat with her watch in her hand, snapped it shut,
+prepared to make another journey to the water cooler. She half rose, an
+alarmed expression flitted over her face, and she sank into her seat
+again. Tommy's eyes were studiously on the checkerboard.
+
+With one convulsive effort, the woman struggled to her feet, grasped the
+bell-cord and jerked it twice, then dropped into her seat and began to
+weep hysterically.
+
+The brakes jarred down, and the train came to a sudden stop that sent
+many of the passengers m a mad scramble forward.
+
+In a few moments the conductor flung open the car door angrily. Behind
+him two anxious young brakesmen peered curiously.
+
+"Anybody in here jerk that bellcord?" demanded the conductor, scowling.
+
+"Certainly. It was I," said the elderly woman loftily.
+
+"Oh, you did, eh?" he bristled, apparently unworried by her opinion.
+"What did you do that for? Here you've stopped a whole train."
+
+"I considered it necessary," was the icy reply. "Perhaps you will be good
+enough to call a doctor?"
+
+"Are you ill?" the conductor's voice changed perceptibly. "I doubt if
+there is a doctor on the train, but I'll see."
+
+"Tell him to hurry," said the woman commandingly. "I think I'm
+paralyzed."
+
+"Paralyzed!" Tommy Tucker gave a loud snort and fell over backward into
+the arms of his twin.
+
+The conductor shot a suspicious glance toward him. He had traveled on
+school trains before.
+
+"You seem to be all right, Madam," he said to the stricken one
+courteously. "There's a doctor at the Junction, I'm sure. What makes you
+think you're paralyzed?"
+
+"My good man," said the woman majestically, "when a person in good health
+and accustomed to normal activity suddenly loses the power to use
+her--er--feet, isn't that an indication of some physical trouble?"
+
+Her unfortunate and un-American phrase, "my good man," had nettled the
+conductor, and besides his train was losing time.
+
+"We'll miss connections at the Junction if we fool away much more time,"
+he said testily. "I wonder--Why look here! No wonder you can't use
+your feet!"
+
+To the elderly woman's horror he had swooped down and laid a not
+ungentle hand on her ankle in its neat and smart-looking shoe. Now he
+took out his knife, slashed twice, and held up the pieces of a stout
+length of twine.
+
+"You were tied to the seat-base by the heels of your shoes," he informed
+the patient grimly. "One foot tied to the other, too. Well, Jim, take in
+your signals--guess we can mosey along."
+
+"And who would have expected her to wear high-heeled boots!" exclaimed
+Bobby, with real amazement showing in voice and look.
+
+The few passengers in the car, aside from the school contingent, were
+openly laughing. The victim of this practical joke turned a dull red and
+the glare she turned on the back of the luckless Tommy's head was proof
+enough that she knew exactly where to lay the blame.
+
+However, she said nothing, nor did she make another trip down the aisle
+and as Tommy philosophically whispered, this was worth all he had dared
+and suffered. Sydney and Winifred finished their game before the Junction
+was reached and that brought a wild charge to get on the train that would
+carry them to Shadyside station.
+
+To their relief, there was no sign of the elderly woman in the new car,
+and as they were all a bit tired from the journey and excitement the
+hour's ride to Shadyside from the Junction was comparatively quiet.
+
+Betty looked eagerly from the window as the brakesman shouted,
+"Shadyside! Shadyside!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+SHADYSIDE SCHOOL
+
+
+"Isn't it a pretty station!" said Louise Littell.
+
+Betty agreed with her.
+
+The lawn was still green about the gray stone building and the tiles on
+the low-hanging roof were moss green, too. The long platform was roofed
+over and seemed swarming with girls and boys. Evidently a train had come
+in from the other direction a few minutes before the Junction train, for
+bags and suitcases and trunks were heaped up outside the baggage room
+door and the busses backed up to the edge of the gravel driveway were
+partially filled with passengers.
+
+The blue and silver uniforms of the Salsette cadets were much in
+evidence, and Betty's first thought was of how nice Bob Henderson would
+look in uniform.
+
+"There's our friend!" whispered Tommy Tucker, directing Betty's
+attention to the severe-looking elderly woman whom he had so bothered on
+the train. "Gee, do you suppose she goes to Shadyside? I thought it was
+a girls' School!"
+
+"Oh, do be quiet!" scolded Bobby Littell "Tommy, you've got us in a peck
+of trouble--she's one of the teachers!"
+
+"How do you know?" demanded Tommy. "Who told you?"
+
+"Well, if you'd keep still a minute, you'd hear," said the
+exasperated Bobby.
+
+Sure enough, a pleasant, fresh-faced woman, hardly more than a girl, was
+escorting the gray-haired woman to a waiting touring car.
+
+"You're the last of the staff to come," she said clearly. Mrs. Eustice
+was beginning to worry about you. Will you tell her that I'm coming up in
+the bus with the girls?"
+
+"All right, you win," admitted Tommy. "Why couldn't she say she was a
+teacher instead of acting so blamed exclusive? Anyway, she probably won't
+connect you girls with me--all boys look alike to her."
+
+"She has a wonderful memory--like a camera," surmised Bobby gloomily.
+"You wait and see."
+
+"Girls, are all of you for Shadyside?" The young woman had come up to
+them and now she smiled at the giggling, chattering group with engaging
+friendliness. "I thought you were. We take this auto-stage over here.
+Give your baggage checks to this porter. I'm Miss Anderson, the physical
+instructor."
+
+"Salsette boys this way!" boomed a stentorian voice.
+
+"Good-bye, Betty. See you soon," whispered Bob, giving Betty's hand a
+hurried squeeze. "We're only across the lake, you know."
+
+"You chaps, _move_!" directed the voice snappily.
+
+With one accord the group dissolved, the boys hastening to the stage
+marked "Salsette" and the girls following Miss Anderson.
+
+There were two stages for the Academy and two for Shadyside, and a
+smaller bus which, they afterward learned, followed the route to the
+town, which was not on the railroad.
+
+"Betty, darling!"
+
+A pretty girl tumbled down the stage steps and nearly choked Betty with
+the fervency of her embrace.
+
+It was Norma Guerin, and Alice was waiting, smiling. Betty was delighted
+to meet these old friends, and she introduced them to the Littell girls
+and Libbie and Frances in the happy, tangled fashion that such
+introductions usually are performed. Names and faces get straightened out
+more gradually.
+
+The stage in which they found themselves, for the seven girls insisted on
+sitting near each other, was well-filled. They had started and were
+lurching along the rather uneven road when Betty found herself staring at
+a girl on the other side of the bus.
+
+"Where have I seen her before?" she puzzled. "I wonder--does she look
+like some one I know? Oh, I remember! She's the girl we saw on the
+train--the one that took Bob's seat!"
+
+Just then a girl sitting up near the driver's seat leaned forward.
+
+"Ada!" she called. "Ada Nansen! Are you the girl they say brought five
+trunks and three hat boxes?"
+
+"Well, they're little ones!" said the girl sitting opposite Betty. "I
+wanted to bring three wardrobe trunks, but mother thought Mrs. Eustice
+might make a fuss."
+
+So the girl's name was Ada Nansen. Betty was sure she remembered their
+encounter on the train, if for no other reason than that Ada studiously
+refused to meet her eye. Betty was too inexperienced to know that a
+certain type of girl never takes a step toward making a new friend
+unless she has the worldly standing of that friend first clearly fixed
+in her mind.
+
+"What gorgeous furs she has!" whispered Norma Guerin. "Do you know
+her, Betty?"
+
+Betty shook her head. Strictly speaking, she did not know Ada. What she
+did know of her was not pleasant, and it was part of Betty's personal
+creed never to repeat anything unkind if nothing good was to come of it.
+
+"I can tell Bob, 'cause he knows about her," she said to herself. "Won't
+he be surprised! I do hope she hasn't brought a huge wardrobe to school
+to make Norma and Alice feel bad."
+
+Though both the Guerin girls wore the neatest blouses and suits, any
+girl could immediately have told you that their clothes were not new
+that season and that the little bag each carried had been oiled and
+polished at home.
+
+That Ada Nansen's trunks were worrying Norma, too, her next remark
+showed.
+
+"Alice and I have only one trunk between us," she confided to Betty.
+"Mother said Mrs. Eustice never allowed the girls to dress much. I made
+Alice's party frock and mine, too. They're plain white."
+
+"So's mine," said Betty quickly. "Mrs. Littell wouldn't let her daughters
+have elaborate clothes, and the Littells have oceans of money. I don't
+believe Ada can wear her fine feathers now she has 'em."
+
+Twenty minutes' ride brought them in sight of the school, and as the bus
+turned down the road that led to the lake, many exclamations of pleasure
+were heard.
+
+A double row of weeping willows, now bare, of course, bordered the lake,
+and the sloping lawns of the school led down to these. The red brick
+buildings of the Salsette Academy could be glimpsed on the other shore.
+Shadyside consisted of a large brick and limestone building that the
+last term pupils in the busses obligingly explained was the
+"administration," where classes were taught. The gymnasium was also in
+this building. In addition were three gray stone buildings, connected
+with bridges, in which were the dormitories, the teachers' rooms, the
+dining room, the infirmary, and the kitchens. The administration building
+was also connected with the other buildings by a covered passageway
+which, they were to discover, was opened only in bad weather. Mrs.
+Eustice, the principal, had a theory that girls did not get out into the
+fresh air often enough.
+
+The main building possessed a handsome doorway, and here the busses
+stopped and discharged their passengers.
+
+"Ada, my dear love!" cried a girl from the bus behind the one in which
+Betty and her friends had ridden.
+
+An over-dressed, stout girl advanced upon Ada Nansen and kissed her
+affectionately.
+
+"Look quick! That's Ruth Gladys Royal!" whispered Bobby. "I hope they
+room together--they'll be a pair. Ada, my dear love!" she mimicked
+wickedly. "Libbie, let that be a warning to you--Ruth Gladys Royal is
+terribly romantic, too!"
+
+Miss Anderson, smiling and unhurried, marshaled her charges into the
+large foyer and announced that they would be assigned to rooms
+before luncheon.
+
+"Mrs. Eustice will speak to you in the assembly hall this afternoon,"
+said Miss Anderson. "And you will meet her and the teachers for a little
+social hour."
+
+Two busy young clerks were at work in the office adjoining the foyer, and
+for those who were already provided with a room-mate the task of securing
+a room was a matter of only a few moments.
+
+Our girls, with the exception of Louise, had paired off when they had
+registered for the term. Bobby Littell and Betty Gordon were, of course,
+inseparable. Libbie and Frances, great friends in their home town,
+naturally gravitated together, though Betty would have chosen a less
+studious room-mate for the dreamy Libbie--she needed a girl who would
+know more accurately what she was doing. Norma and Alice Guerin were to
+share a room, and Louise felt forlornly out of things when Miss Anderson
+came up to her bringing a red-haired, freckle-faced girl with wide gray
+eyes and a boyish grin.
+
+"Louise Littell--you are Louise, aren't you?" asked the teacher. "Well,
+here's a girl who's come to us from a Western army post. Her name is
+Constance Howard, and she doesn't know a single girl. Don't you think
+you two might be happy together?"
+
+Constance smiled again, and Louise warmed perceptibly. Louise was the
+least friendly of the three Littell girls.
+
+"I'll let you play my ukulele," offered Constance eagerly.
+
+"Let me. She doesn't know a ukulele from a music box," said Bobby, with
+sisterly frankness. "Come on, girls, let's go up and see our rooms."
+
+They tramped up the broad staircase and crossed one of the bridges to
+find themselves in a delightful, sunny building with corridors carpeted
+in softest green. The rooms apparently were all connecting, and the
+teacher who met them said the eight friends might have adjoining rooms as
+long as "they gave no trouble."
+
+"I'm your corridor teacher, Miss Lacey," she explained.
+
+"Let's be glad she isn't the one we saw on the train," whispered the
+irrepressible Bobby, as they all trooped into the first room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+FIRST IMPRESSIONS
+
+
+It was soon settled that Betty and Bobby were to have the center room in
+a suite of three and Libbie and Frances should be on one side of them,
+and Louise and Constance Howard on the other. There was a perfectly
+appointed bathroom opening off the center room which the six were to
+share. Norma and Alice Guerin were given a room that adjoined that
+occupied by Libbie and Frances, but nominally, Miss Lacey explained, they
+would be considered as a unit in the next suite of three connecting
+rooms. Fortunately two very friendly, quiet girls drew the room
+immediately next to the Guerin girls.
+
+"But, Betty, listen," whispered Norma Guerin, drawing Betty aside as a
+great bumping and banging announced the arrival of the trunks. "Who do
+you suppose has the room next to the Bennett sisters? Ada Nansen and Ruth
+Gladys Royal!"
+
+"You are in hard luck!" commented Bobby, who had overheard, as she danced
+off to open the door to the grinning expressman.
+
+"All the porters are busy!" the man explained.
+
+"So I just told 'em Tim McCarthy wasn't one to stand by and let work go
+undone. Where would ye be wantin' these little bags put now?"
+
+He had a trunk on his back that, as Bobby afterward remarked to Betty,
+"would have done for an elephant."
+
+"Girls, whose trunk is this?" demanded Bobby.
+
+"Not mine!" came like a well-drilled chorus.
+
+"'Miss Ada Nansen,'" read Betty, examining the card. "Bobby, that's one
+of the five!"
+
+They directed the perspiring expressman to the right door and, it is to
+be regretted, shamelessly peeped while he toiled up and down bringing the
+five trunks and three hat boxes. Then he began on the baggage consigned
+to Ruth Gladys Royal, and the watchers counted three trunks.
+
+Betty looked at the Guerin girls and laughed.
+
+"Eight trunks!" she gasped. "They can't get that number in one room.
+Not and have any room for the furniture. Norma, do go and see what
+you can see."
+
+Norma sped away, and returned as speedily, her eyes blazing.
+
+"What do you think?" she demanded furiously. "They've had some of 'em put
+in our room, three I counted, and two in the Bennett girls' room. They're
+as mad as hops!"
+
+"The Bennett girls are my friends," declared Bobby Littell sententiously.
+"I only hope they're mad enough to hop right down to the office and
+explain the state of things."
+
+But the luncheon gong sounded just then, and a laughing, colorful throng
+of femininity swept down the broad stairs to the dining room.
+
+"How lovely!" said Betty involuntarily.
+
+There were no long tables in the large, airy room. Instead, round tables
+that seated from six to eight, each daintily set and with a slender vase
+of flowers in the center of each. Betty and Bobby had the same thought at
+the same moment.
+
+"If we could only sit together, all of us!" their eyes telegraphed.
+
+"They're all taking the tables they want and standing by the chairs,"
+whispered Betty. "Let's do that."
+
+A table set for eight was close to the door. Betty, Bobby, Louise,
+Frances, Libbie, Constance, Norma and Alice gently surrounded this and
+stood quietly behind the chairs.
+
+Some one, somewhere, gave a signal, and the roomful was seated as
+if by magic.
+
+"I see--those four tables over by the window are for the teachers,"
+whispered Betty. "I see Miss Anderson and Miss Lacey, and that
+white-haired woman must be the principal. Yes, and girls, there's that
+woman whom the boys tormented so on the train!"
+
+Sure enough, there she was, looking even more severe now that her hat
+was removed and her sharp features were unrelieved.
+
+"If this isn't fun! I'm sorry for poor Esther at Miss Graham's,"
+said Bobby, looking about her with delight. "Mercy, what do you
+suppose this is?"
+
+One of the young clerks from the office approached the table, a large
+cardboard sheet in her hand.
+
+"I'm filling in the diagram," she explained. "You mustn't change your
+seats without permission. Tell me your names, and I'll put you down in
+the right spaces."
+
+Betty looked over her shoulder as she wrote down their names. Like the
+diagram of the seating space of a theatre, the tables and chairs were
+plainly marked. Betty swiftly calculated that between one hundred and
+twenty-five and one hundred and fifty girls must be seated in the room.
+Later she learned that the total enrollment was one hundred and sixty.
+
+Just outside the dining room was a large bulletin board, impossible to
+ignore or overlook. When they came out from luncheon a notice was posted
+that Mrs. Eustice would address the school at two o'clock in the assembly
+hall in the main building. It was now one-thirty.
+
+"Let's go look at the gym," suggested Bobby. "We have time. Oh, how do
+you do?"--this last was apparently jerked out of her.
+
+"I didn't know you were coming to Shadyside, Bobby," said Ruth Gladys
+Royal effusively. "Do you know my chum, Ada Nansen? She's from San
+Francisco."
+
+"Constance Howard is from the West, too--the Presidio," said Bobby.
+
+Gracefully she introduced the others to Ada and Ruth who surveyed them
+indifferently. The Littell girls they knew were wealthy and had a place
+in Washington society, but the rest were not yet classified.
+
+"Haven't I seen you before?" Ada languidly questioned Betty. "You're not
+the little waitress--Oh, how stupid of me! I was thinking of a girl who
+looked enough like you to be your sister."
+
+Bobby bristled indignantly, but Betty struggled with laughter.
+
+"I remember you," she said clearly. "You had the wrong seat on the train
+from Oklahoma."
+
+Ada Nansen glanced at her with positive dislike.
+
+"I don't recall," she said icily. "However, I've traveled so much I
+daresay many incidents slip my mind. Well, Gladys, let's go in and get
+good seats. I want to hear Mrs. Eustice; they say she is a direct
+descendant of Richard Carvel."
+
+"We might as well go in, too," said Bobby disconsolately. "She's used up
+so much time we couldn't do the gym justice."
+
+Promptly at two o'clock, white-haired Mrs. Eustice mounted the platform
+and tapped a little bell for silence.
+
+The principal was a gracious woman of perhaps fifty. Her snow-white hair
+was piled high on her head and her dark eyes were bright and keen.
+Wonderful eyes they were, seeming to gaze straight into the youthful eyes
+that stared back affectionately or curiously as the case might be. Mrs.
+Eustice's gown was of black or very dark blue silk, made simply and
+fitting exquisitely. Straight, soft collar and cuffs of dotted net
+outlined the neck and wrists, and her single ornament was a tiny watch
+worn on a black ribbon.
+
+"I wish Ada Nansen would take a good look at her," muttered Bobby.
+
+"I am so glad to welcome you, my girls," began Mrs. Eustice.
+
+Betty thrilled to the magic of that modulated voice, low and yet clear
+enough to be heard in every corner of the large room. Surely this lovely
+woman could teach them the secret of cultivated, dignified and happy
+young womanhood.
+
+The principal spoke to them briefly of her ideals for them, explained the
+few rigid rules of the school, and asked that all exercise tact and
+patience for the first week during which the rough edges of new
+schedules might reasonably be expected to wear off.
+
+"I want to have a little personal talk with each one of you," she
+concluded. "Your corridor teachers will consult with me and will tell you
+when you are to come to me. And I hope you are to be very, very happy
+here with us at Shadyside."
+
+A soft clapping of hands followed this speech, and Mrs. Eustice stepped
+down from the platform to be instantly surrounded by the girls who had
+spent other terms at the school.
+
+After the older girls had spoken to the principal, the newcomers began to
+move forward. They were presented by their corridor teachers, who seemed
+to possess a special faculty to remember names, and here and there Mrs.
+Eustice recognized a girl through the association of ideas.
+
+As Miss Lacey swept her girls forward, Ada Nansen and Ruth Gladys Royal
+happened to head the ranks. Mrs. Eustice put out her hand to Ada, then
+gazed down at her in evident astonishment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE LOST TREASURE
+
+
+"Diamonds," whispered Betty to Norma Guerin, who seemed depressed. "She
+wears three diamond rings and one sapphire and a square-cut emerald. And
+her wrist-watch is platinum set with diamonds."
+
+Mrs. Eustice gazed at the soft little hand she held for a few moments,
+then released it. She said nothing.
+
+"Ah, your mother wrote me of you," was the principal's greeting to the
+Littell girls. "You look like her, Louise. And Bobby is much like her
+father as I remember him."
+
+"This is Betty Gordon," said the loyal Bobby, indicating her chum.
+"Mother wrote about her, too, didn't she?"
+
+"Indeed she did," assented Mrs. Eustice warmly. "I must have a special
+talk with Betty soon, for she has an ambitious program before her. And
+here are Libbie and Frances from the state I remember so affectionately
+from girlhood visits there."
+
+But it was Norma and Alice Guerin, sensitive Norma and shy Alice, who
+were welcomed most cordially after all.
+
+"So you are Elsie Guerin's daughters!" said the principal, putting an
+arm around Norma and holding her hand out to Alice. "My own dear mother
+taught your mother when she was a little girl with braids like yours.
+And your dear grandmother used to give the most wonderful parties.
+People talk about them to this day. It was at her Rose Ball I first met
+my husband. You must go up the north road some day and see the old
+Macklin house."
+
+Norma and Alice fairly glowed as they went back to their rooms with the
+other girls. Ada Nansen had heard, and she was regarding them with
+evident respect.
+
+Norma and Alice might have been uneasy had they heard Ada's comment when
+she and Ruth were once more in their own rooms.
+
+"They must have money," argued Ada, "though I never saw such ordinary
+clothes. Giving balls and parties in the lavish Southern style costs,
+let me tell you. Probably they have some fine family jewels in that
+shabby trunk."
+
+"I'll tell you what I think," said Ruth Gladys wisely. "I think the money
+is all used up. Probably they're here as charity pupils for old
+friendship's sake."
+
+This speculation was duly stored up in Ada Nansen's mind to be brought
+out when needed.
+
+After dinner Miss Anderson played for them to dance in the broad hall,
+but every one was tired from train journeys, and at nine o'clock they
+voluntarily sought their rooms.
+
+"Get into a kimono and brush your hair in here," hospitably suggested
+Betty, and Bobby seconded her by flinging the suitcases under the beds.
+All of the rooms were fitted with pretty day-beds so that a cover quickly
+transformed them into couches and the bedrooms into sitting rooms.
+
+Four gay-colored kimono-wrapped figures came pattering in presently and
+curled up comfortably on the beds. Norma and Alice were the last to
+arrive, and when they did come they mystified their friends by prancing
+in silently and waltzing gaily about the room.
+
+"Oh, girls!" they chortled when they had tired of this performance, "what
+do you think?"
+
+"We couldn't help hearing," said Norma deprecatingly.
+
+"Laura Bennett called us in," declared Alice.
+
+"Don't sing a duet," commanded Bobby sternly. "What are you talking
+about? One at a time. You tell, Norma."
+
+"Laura Bennett called us into her room," obediently recited Norma. "Miss
+Lacey was talking to Ada and Ruth. You could hear every word without
+listening--that is without eavesdropping--you know what I mean. Mrs.
+Eustice must have spoken to Miss Lacey, because she told the girls they
+would have to send all the trunks home except one apiece. Ada must put
+all her jewelry in the school safe and at the Christmas holidays she is
+to take it home and leave it there. Both of them have to wear their hair
+down or in a knot--you know they have it waved now and done up just like
+my mother's. And Miss Lacey is to go over their clothes to-morrow and
+tell 'em what they can keep!"
+
+"I'm glad some one has some sense!" was Bobby's terse comment.
+
+Something in Norma's face told Betty that she would like to speak to her
+alone, so half an hour later when the girls had dispersed for the night,
+she made a bent nail file an excuse to go to the Guerins' room.
+
+"I was hoping you'd come, Betty," said Norma gratefully. "We have to put
+out the lights at ten, don't we? I'll try to talk fast. You see, Alice
+and I want to tell you something."
+
+A fleecy old-fashioned shawl lay across the bed and Norma flung this
+about Betty's shoulders.
+
+"Alice's kimono is flannel and so is mine," she explained in answer to
+the protest. "You never met Grandma Macklin, did you, Betty?"
+
+"No-o, I'm sure I never did," responded Betty thoughtfully. "Does she
+live with you?"
+
+"Yes. But while you were at the Peabodys she was visiting her half-sister
+in Georgia," explained Norma. "She is mother's mother, you know."
+
+"What was it Mrs. Eustice said about her?" questioned Betty with
+interest. "Did she live near here? Was that when your mother went to
+this school?"
+
+"It was a day school then, you know," put in the laconic Alice.
+
+"Yes, and grandma lived in a perfectly wonderful big house," said Norma.
+"It must be fully five miles from here. Uncle Goliath, an old colored
+man, used to drive her over every day and call for her in the afternoon.
+Mother has always been determined Alice and I should graduate from
+Shadyside."
+
+"Well then, it's lovely she is to have her wish," commented Betty
+brightly.
+
+"Oh, goodness, I don't see that we're ever going to have four years,"
+confessed Norma. "If you knew what they've given up at home to send us
+for this term! And though we wouldn't say anything, mother and grandma
+worked so hard to get us ready, Alice and I are positively ashamed of our
+clothes. You see, Betty, I think when you're poor, you ought to go where
+you'll meet other poor girls. Alice and I ought to have entered the
+Glenside high school, I think. But when I said something like that to dad
+he said it would break mother's heart. But if she knew how hard it was to
+be poor and to have to rub elbows with girls who have everything--"
+
+"I don't think you ought to feel that way," urged Betty. "You have
+something that no amount of money could buy for you, and no lack can take
+away--birth and breeding. And the training your mother wants you to have
+is worth sacrificing other things for. Ever since I heard Mrs. Eustice
+talk I feel that I know what makes her school really successful."
+
+A soft tap fell on the door.
+
+"Lights go off in ten minutes, girls," said Miss Lacey pleasantly.
+
+"Do you know, Betty," confessed Norma hurriedly, "dad has lost quite a
+lot of money lately. He's such a dear he never can bear to press
+payment of a bill and half the county owes him. And a friend got him to
+invest what he did have in some silly stock that never amounted to a
+hill of beans, as the farmers say. So it's no wonder the Macklin
+fortune worries mother whenever she thinks of it; a family like ours
+could use money so easily."
+
+"Most families are like that," said Betty, with a flash of Uncle Dick's
+humor. "I didn't like to ask, Norma, but your grandmother must have
+been wealthy."
+
+"She was," confirmed Norma. "Not fabulously so, of course. But even in
+those days when lavish hospitality was common Grandma Macklin was famous
+for the way she ran the estate. She was left a widow when a very young
+woman, and mother was her only child. Her husband didn't believe women
+knew very much about money, and he left his fortune mostly in bonds and
+jewels--the most magnificent diamonds in three counties, grandma says
+hers were. And she had a rope of emeralds and two strings of exquisitely
+matched pearls. Besides, there were rose topazes and lovely cameos and
+oh, goodness, I couldn't repeat the list; Alice and I have been brought
+up on the story.
+
+"Well, about the time mother had finished school, Grandma Macklin came to
+the end of her bank account. Several mortgages had been paid her in gold,
+and she kept this money with the jewelry and a lot of solid silver in a
+little safe in her room. Foolish, of course, but she says others did it
+in those days, too. She meant to take the gold and some of the diamonds
+to her lawyer and get a check which would take her and mother around the
+world on a luxurious cruise. And the day before she had the appointment
+with Mr. Davies--"
+
+A soft blackness settled down over the girls like a blanket. The
+electric lights had gone out!
+
+"Move closer, and I'll finish," whispered Norma.
+
+Betty snuggled up between the two, and shivered a little with excitement.
+
+"The day before she was to drive to Edentown," repeated Norma, "a band of
+Indians from the reservation in the next state came through on their
+annual tramping trip and walked in on poor little grandma as she sat at
+her mahogany secretary turning over her jewels and counting her beautiful
+shining gold. Every darkey on the place fled in terror, and those
+rascally Indians simply scooped up everything in sight and locked grandma
+and mother in the room!"
+
+"Couldn't any one stop them?" demanded Betty eagerly. "Surely a band of
+Indians could have been easily traced. Didn't any one try?"
+
+"Oh, they tried," admitted Norma. "That's the maddening part. Suppose I
+told you, Betty, that I know where grandma's inheritance is this minute?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE MYSTERIOUS FOUR
+
+
+"Well, for mercy's sake!" said Betty in exasperation, "if you know
+where the property is, why don't you claim it? Why doesn't your mother?
+Where is it?"
+
+"At the bottom of Indian Chasm," declared Norma calmly.
+
+"Where's that?"
+
+"I don't know exactly," admitted Norma. "It's around here somewhere. You
+see the Indians streaked for the woods, and mother got out by way of a
+window and ran to the next estate. The men and boys there armed
+themselves and took horses and chased the Redskins, and when they were
+almost up with them the robbers tossed everything down this great canyon
+in the earth. There was no way to get into it, and though they tried
+lowering men with ropes, they couldn't find a solitary gold piece. As far
+as any one knows it is all at the bottom of the chasm now."
+
+"And grandma had to mortgage the house and they couldn't pay the interest
+and it was sold and all the lovely mahogany furniture," mourned Alice.
+"And grandma and mother moved to New York and mother taught school and
+met dad, who was a medical student. And they were married when he
+graduated, and grandma came to live with 'em."
+
+Betty crept away to her own bed when the story was finished. Bobby was
+asleep, for which her chum was thankful. Betty wanted to think. Surely
+there must be a way to recover the Macklin fortune, if it was still down
+in the big chasm.
+
+"I'll tell Bob and we'll go and find that place. Perhaps he can think of
+a plan," was Betty's last thought before she went to sleep.
+
+The next few days were very busy ones for every pupil. Ada and Ruth, in
+tears, submitted to having their wardrobes censored, and thereafter
+appeared in clothes that were not too striking.
+
+The appointments with Mrs. Eustice materialized, and Betty, after her
+interview, was conscious of a sincere affection for the woman who seemed
+to understand girls so thoroughly.
+
+Bobby was "crazy," to quote her own expression, about the gymnasium
+classes, and Miss Anderson beamed approvingly upon her. Betty, too, was
+often to be found in the gymnasium after school hours, but Libbie had to
+be driven to regular exercise. She liked to dance, but unless some one
+was made responsible for her, she was prone to cut her regular gymnasium
+period and devote the time to some thrilling novel. When the other girls
+discovered this they good-naturedly made up a schedule for the week,
+assigning a different day to every girl whose duty it should be to "seal,
+sign and deliver" the reluctant Libbie at the gymnasium door at the
+appointed time.
+
+Mrs. Eustice, rather peculiarly some people thought--Ada Nansen's mother
+among them--held the theory that school girls should spend a fair
+proportion of their time in study. She had small patience with the
+faddist type of school that abhorred "night work" and whose students
+specialized on "manners" to the neglect of spelling.
+
+"I dislike the term 'finishing school,'" she had once said. "I try
+to teach my girls that what they learn in school fits them for
+beginning life."
+
+So from seven to half-past eight every night, except Friday, the pupils
+at Shadyside were busy with their books. They might study in their rooms,
+provided their marks for the preceding week were satisfactory, but those
+who fell below a certain percentage were sentenced to prepare their
+lessons in the study hall under the eye of a teacher.
+
+The second Friday night of the term the new students were warned by
+little pink cocked notes to remain in their rooms after dinner until they
+had been inspected by the "Mysterious Four."
+
+"It's a secret society," Bobby announced the moment she had read her
+note. "Well, let's go upstairs and prepare to be inspected."
+
+The eight gathered in Betty and Bobby's room, and though they were
+expecting it, the knock, when it finally did come, made them all jump.
+
+"Come--come in," stammered Betty and Bobby together.
+
+Four veiled figures entered, each carrying something in her hand. They
+spoke in disguised voices, though as they were upper classmen they were
+fairly safe from recognition; the new girls were hardly acquainted among
+themselves and knew few of the older students by name.
+
+"Freshmen," said the tallest figure, "when we enter, rise."
+
+The eight leaped to their feet at a bound.
+
+"Do you wish to become members of the Mysterious Four?" demanded the
+second figure.
+
+"Oh, yes," chorused the willing victims.
+
+"It is well," chanted the third figure.
+
+"It is well," echoed the fourth.
+
+"I don't," said Libbie calmly.
+
+"Don't what?" questioned the tallest figure, evidently appointed chief
+spokesman.
+
+"Want to be a member of the Mysterious Four," announced Libbie, who had
+an obstinate streak in her make-up.
+
+"Unfortunately," the spokesman informed her, "you haven't any choice in
+the matter; you're elected one already."
+
+While Libbie was thinking up an answer, which considering the finality
+of that statement, was not an easy matter, the tall draped figure went
+on to explain to the interested girls that there were two degrees to
+be undergone before one could be a full fledged member of the
+Mysterious Four.
+
+"You must take the first degree to-night," they were told. "The second
+will be several weeks later."
+
+"Are we allowed to ask a question?" asked Betty respectfully.
+
+"Oh, yes. But we may not answer it," was the cheering response.
+
+"Why is the society called the 'Mysterious Four'?" asked Betty "All the
+freshman class received notes, so the membership must be large; where
+does the four enter?"
+
+"You'll learn that at the close of your first degree," said the spokesman
+with firm kindness. "Now you're to remain here for five minutes, and then
+go down to the study hall. Five minutes, remember."
+
+They departed majestically, and the girls were left to spend their five
+minutes in discussion of the visit.
+
+"I don't see why I have to belong," grumbled Libbie.
+
+"It will do you good," said Bobby severely. "When I promised Aunt
+Elizabeth to look after you, I didn't know that meant I would have to
+risk my head by sleeping under 'Lady Gwendolyn' in two volumes--and fat
+ones at that"
+
+Libbie had the grace to blush. Bobby, who was fond of books but whose
+taste ran to "Rules for Basketball" and "How to Gain Health Through
+Exercise," had put up a small shelf directly over her bed to hold her
+literary treasures. Libbie, exhausting the space in her tiny corner
+bookcase had thoughtlessly placed the two heavy volumes of the story
+Bobby mentioned on top of her cousin's books with the awful result that
+the shelf broke in the night and spilled the books on the wrathful Bobby.
+
+"Let's go down to the study hall," suggested peace-loving Louise. "The
+five minutes are up."
+
+Down they trooped, to find a number of girls already there, for the most
+part looking rather frightened.
+
+At five minute intervals other groups entered, until all the freshman
+class was assembled.
+
+"I don't care anything about this society," whispered Ada Nansen to
+Ruth Royal. "I wouldn't give fifty cents for an organization where no
+discrimination is shown in choosing the members. However, this is
+Mrs. Eustice's pet scheme, they tell me, and I want to stand well
+with her. Next year I'm going to get elected to the White Scroll,
+you see if I don't."
+
+The Mysterious Four came in as the last group of girls were seated and
+slowly mounted the platform.
+
+"Candidates," announced the leader, "you are summoned here to take your
+first degree. It is simple, but no shirking is to be permitted. You are
+to do the one thing that you do best. As your names are called, you will
+mount the platform and comply. Four minutes is allowed for decision--on
+the platform."
+
+There was a gasp from the audience, and one could almost see the mental
+cog wheels of sixty girls going furiously to work.
+
+"Betty," whispered the desperate Bobby, "what can you do best?"
+
+"Ride, I guess," said Betty, recollections of Clover coming to mind.
+
+There was a crashing chord from the piano. One of the veiled figures had
+seated herself at the instrument and now proceeded to play "appropriate
+selections" as the candidates performed their turns.
+
+As the clever leader had foreseen, no one relished spending her allotted
+four minutes for reflection on the platform in full view of the audience,
+and the majority of the victims made up their minds with a rush.
+
+After they had entered into the spirit of the thing, it was fun, and
+their shrieks of laughter aroused sympathetic smiles in other rooms. No
+teachers and no member of the other classes were permitted to enter, but
+Aunt Nancy, the fat cook, and half a dozen young waitresses peeped in at
+the door and enjoyed the spectacle hugely.
+
+Betty Gordon obligingly cantered across the platform on a chair and won
+applause by her realistic interpretation of western riding. Bobby
+convulsed the room with her imaginary efforts to cut and fit a dress, her
+mistakes being glaring ones, for Bobby never touched a needle if she
+could help it. Clever Constance Howard had gone for her ukulele and
+played it charmingly. Libbie insisted on giving the "balcony scene" from
+Romeo and Juliet, in which she was supported by the unwilling Frances,
+who was certainly the stiffest Romeo who ever walked the stage.
+
+"Ada Nansen," called the leader, when the eight chums had made their
+individual contributions to the program.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A SATURDAY RACE
+
+
+Ada had been watching the others with a contempt she made little attempt
+to conceal. When her name was called she walked to the platform and faced
+the leader defiantly.
+
+"What can you do best, Ada?" came the familiar question.
+
+Ada smiled patronizingly.
+
+"Spend money," she said briefly.
+
+"Do that," said the young leader calmly.
+
+"How can I spend money here?" demanded Ada angrily. "There's nothing to
+buy. I call that silly."
+
+"Then you admit you can't spend money?"
+
+"No such thing!" Ada stamped her foot, furious at such stupidity. "I say
+I can't spend it here where there is nothing to buy. You let me go to
+Edentown, and I'll show you whether I can spend money or not."
+
+"The order of the first degree of the Mysterious Four is that the
+candidate must do what she can do best," repeated the veiled figure
+insistently. "What can you do best?"
+
+"Sing," said Ada sullenly.
+
+"Then do that."
+
+And now the watching girls had what Bobby later admitted was "the
+surprise of their lives."
+
+The girl at the piano fingered a chord tentatively, then struck into a
+popular song, an appealing little melody, the words a lyric set to music
+by a composer with a spark of genius.
+
+"I picked a rose in my garden fair--" sang Ada.
+
+She sang without affectation. Her voice was a charming contralto,
+evidently partially trained, and promising with coming years to be worth
+consideration.
+
+"But it withered in a day--" went on the lovely voice.
+
+The girls were absolutely mute. When she had finished the song, and she
+gave it all, they burst into a spontaneous storm of applause.
+
+Ada barely acknowledged the hand-clapping. Her face had instantly slipped
+back into the old sullen lines.
+
+"When she can sing like that, shouldn't you think she would be perfectly
+happy?" sighed Betty. "I'd give anything if I had a voice!"
+
+As a matter of fact Betty had a clear little contralto of her own and she
+sang as naturally as a bird. But there was no denying that Ada's voice
+was exceptional.
+
+After the last girl had had her turn the veiled leader mounted the
+platform and threw back her swathing net.
+
+"She's the president of the senior class, Mabel Waters," whispered a girl
+near Betty.
+
+"I have the honor to welcome you all as members in good standing of the
+novice class, first-degree, Mysterious For," announced Miss Waters.
+"That's all there is to the name, girls--when we decided to form a new
+society here in school some one asked 'What's it for?' So our
+organization became the Mysterious F-O-R, and you'll find out as time
+goes on what the answer is. I might say, though, that happiness and good
+fellowship and a little spice of sisterliness are what we try to
+incorporate in the unwritten bylaws. And now I think Aunt Nancy has some
+cake and ice-cream for us."
+
+Saturday was a busy day for the one hundred and sixty odd girls who were
+enrolled at Shadyside. Penance and pleasure had a way of marking off the
+hours. Those who were good were allowed to go twice a month to Edentown,
+chaperoned by a teacher, for shopping, moving picture treats, and such
+other simple pleasures as the small city afforded. There were always a
+number of girls sentenced to "within bounds," which were the spacious
+school grounds, for minor sins of omission and commission. Bobby Littell
+was usually among these. She was impulsive and heedless, and got herself
+into hot water with amazing regularity.
+
+"Bobby," announced Betty, one Saturday morning not long after the
+initiation into the Mysterious For, "don't you think you could manage to
+have a good record this coming week? We want to go nutting a week from
+to-day, and if you have to stay in bounds it will spoil all the fun."
+
+"I'll try my best," promised Bobby solemnly. "I never mean to do a
+thing, Betty. Trouble is, I think afterward. I did want to go to
+Edentown to-day, too, but Libbie and Frances have promised to get the
+wool for my sweater. Want to come down to the gym? I'm going to drill my
+squad this morning."
+
+In the gymnasium they found Ada Nansen, also in charge of a squad.
+
+"She flunked twice in French and was impudent to Madame," whispered
+Bobby, who knew all the school gossip. "Mrs. Eustice canceled her
+Edentown permit."
+
+Ada frankly scowled at the newcomers. She had found the Littell girls
+slow to overtures of friendship, and they persisted in displaying an
+annoying fancy for the society of Betty and the Guerin girls, who, for
+all Ada knew, might be what she described to her mother as "perfect
+nobodies." So Ada and Ruth Royal gradually formed a circle of their own
+to which gravitated the more snobbish girls, those who fought, openly or
+covertly, the rule for simple dressing, and those who found in Ada's
+characteristics of petty meanness, worship of money, and social
+aspirations a response to similar urgings of their own natures.
+
+"Well, Bobby, I'm glad to see you and your 'men,'" said Miss Anderson
+briskly. "I was just saying to Ada that to-day is too beautiful to waste
+indoors. I want you all to come out on the campus and we'll have a race."
+
+Bobby's squad included Betty--who had refused to leave her chum--the
+Guerin girls (who refused to go to Edentown because it was almost
+impossible to avoid spending money for little luxuries and for
+treats), Constance Howard and Dora Estabrooke, a fat girl who was
+good-nature itself.
+
+"We'll have to use elimination," said the teacher when she had her pupils
+out on the green level that was back of the gymnasium and walled in by
+tall Lombardy poplars planted closely. "Let's see, twelve of you" (for
+Ada's squad numbered the same). "I think we'll number off first."
+
+The odd numbers in each squad fell out and were matched, and the even
+numbers were paired similarly. Betty's rival was a near-sighted girl who
+delayed the next step because Miss Anderson discovered that she was
+wearing high-heeled shoes.
+
+"I don't care for those flat things," volunteered Violet Canby, as she
+departed lockerward at Miss Anderson's stern insistence. "I have a very
+high instep, and they hurt me."
+
+Nevertheless, she had to wear them, and the physical instructor put the
+others through a rigid inspection, but bloomers and sneakers were all
+properly donned.
+
+"Now," said Miss Anderson when Violet had returned minus her pumps, "try
+to remember that it's just like a spelling match, girls; gradually we'll
+narrow down to the two best runners."
+
+The trial "heats" resulted in leaving Betty, Bobby and Norma of the one
+squad, and Ada, Ruth and a girl named Edith Harrison, of the other.
+
+Norma was paired with Ruth Royal, and at the signal they got away nicely.
+Norma was an excellent runner, and she reached the tape fully three yards
+ahead of Ruth. Something in her glowing, happy face, prompted Ruth to
+resentment.
+
+"Oh, well," she remarked disdainfully, taking care that her words should
+carry clearly, "I suppose a farmer's daughter does a good deal of running
+after cows--they ought to be in training."
+
+Norma flushed scarlet.
+
+"My father is a doctor," she said hotly. "I'm not a farmer's daughter,
+but I know splendid girls who are--girls too well-bred to say a thing
+like that."
+
+Ruth walked away--she was out of the finals now--and Norma went back to
+the starting place. She had not recovered her poise when the time came
+for her to race Bobby, and that young person won easily only to be
+outdistanced by Betty.
+
+Rather to the latter's regret, she found herself the opponent of Ada for
+the deciding race.
+
+"Go it, Betty--beat her!" whispered Bobby, proud of her chum. "She and
+Ruth Royal have dispositions like vinegar barrels!"
+
+Betty had often raced with Bob, and she ran like a boy herself--head
+down, elbows held in. She was running that way, against Ada, when
+something suddenly shunted her off sideways. She fell, landing in a
+little heap. High and sharp rose the shrill whistle of the starter.
+
+"Are you hurt, Betty?" demanded Miss Anderson, running up to the dazed
+girl and lifting her to her feet. "Ada Nansen that was absolutely the
+most unsportsmanlike trick I ever saw. You've lost the race on a foul.
+Betty was clearly winning when you tripped her."
+
+"I didn't," muttered Ada, but she refused to meet her teacher's eyes.
+
+"I don't want a race on a foul," argued Betty pluckily, for her skinned
+elbow was smarting madly. "Let's begin over."
+
+She had her way, too, and this time won without interference, though Ada
+was so furious that Bobby was seriously concerned.
+
+"She looks mad enough to put something in your soup," she told Betty, as
+they went in to dress and have Betty's elbow attended to. "What is it,
+Caroline?"
+
+"Two young gentlemen to see you, Miss Bobby and Miss Betty," announced
+the maid importantly. "They is waiting in the parlor. Mrs. Eustice says
+you all should go right up."
+
+In the parlor the girls found two slim, uniformed young figures who rose
+like well-set-up ramrods at their entrance.
+
+"Bob!" ejaculated Betty, her voice betraying her pleasure. "Bob, you look
+splendid!"
+
+Tommy Tucker glanced hopefully at Bobby.
+
+"Don't I look splendid, too?" he asked.
+
+"You're overshadowed by Bob," said Bobby mischievously. "However, when
+not compared with him, I dare say you look rather well."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+NORMA MAKES REPAIRS
+
+
+This had to content the Tucker twin who took Bobby's chaffing
+good-humoredly.
+
+Bob Henderson did indeed look very well. The uniform was most becoming,
+and though he was studying hard to make up for lack of preparation, his
+clear eyes and skin and firm muscles told of a wise schedule that
+included plenty of outdoor exercise.
+
+"We want you girls to come over to a practice game," announced Tommy
+Tucker presently. "We've got rather jolly rooms, and we thought if you
+brought Miss Thingumbob along we could have you in for tea and show you
+the sights. Do you think the powers that be will say yes?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," answered Betty thoughtfully. "I didn't know you
+Salsette boys had much to do with girls. Of course the whole school goes
+to the big football games, but asking us to see a practice game is
+something new. Of course it will be difficult to get an afternoon when
+every one is free--"
+
+"Every one!" exploded Bob. "Who said anything about every one? We don't
+want the whole school--just you and Bobby and Louise and Frances and
+Libbie and the Guerin girls."
+
+"Sure, the same bunch that came up on the train," said Tommy Tucker.
+"Lead me to Mrs. Eustice and I'll ask her."
+
+"Mrs. Eustice is not in this afternoon," announced an extremely cold and
+disapproving voice. "Have you permission, young ladies, to see these
+er--callers?"
+
+It was the elderly teacher whom Tommy had tormented on the train!
+
+For once in his life that young man was thoroughly abashed. He threw
+Betty an appealing look that asked her to save him.
+
+"Miss Prettyman, may I present my friends?" said the girl with the
+formality that is subtly flattering to an older woman. "This is Bob
+Henderson, who came from the West with me and who is really like my
+brother, since my uncle is his guardian. And this is Tommy Tucker, who
+lives in Washington."
+
+"How do you do, Robert and Thomas?" said Miss Prettyman austerely. "Did
+Mrs. Eustice know you had callers?" she persisted, turning to the girls.
+"She took the last bus to Edentown."
+
+"Yes, she knew. It is all right. Caroline said so," babbled Betty, in
+frantic terror lest the boys make the mistake of telling Miss Prettyman
+about the proposed visit.
+
+"What was it you wanted to ask Mrs. Eustice, young man?" the teacher
+demanded next. "I am her secretary and try to save her work whenever
+possible. Perhaps I can answer your question."
+
+Behind Miss Prettyman's narrow back Betty signaled wildly.
+
+"Don't tell--hush!" she wig-wagged, laying her finger against her lips.
+
+Tommy stared at her idiotically, his mouth gaping.
+
+"Thank you, but only Mrs. Eustice could really give us an answer," said
+Bob, coming to the rescue of his stricken chum. "Betty, will you deliver
+our message and perhaps you can telephone the answer?"
+
+"No Shadyside girl is allowed to telephone Salsette Academy," announced
+Miss Prettyman, with grim satisfaction.
+
+Betty had not known of this rule, but she realized it was undoubtedly in
+existence.
+
+"We'll let you know some way," she promised.
+
+Still pursued by Miss Prettyman's icy glare, the wretched boys backed out
+of the room and the unfortunate Tommy walked into a handsome china
+jardiniere with disastrous results. There was a sickening crash, a
+ladylike scream from Miss Prettyman, and Betty heard Bob's voice in a
+tone of suppressed fury: "You've done it now, you idiot!"
+
+Bobby giggled, of course, but Miss Prettyman, who had followed the boys
+into the hall ("I think she thought we'd steal something on the way out,"
+Bob confided later to Betty) maintained her poise.
+
+"I'm--I'm awfully sorry," faltered the culprit. "I hope it wasn't very
+expensive. I'll pay Mrs. Eustice, of course, or buy her another one--"
+
+"That jardiniere happened to be imported from Nippon," remarked Miss
+Prettyman coldly. "I doubt if it can ever be replaced. It has stood in
+that exact spot for seven years. But then, naturally, our callers are
+accustomed to leaving a room gracefully. I'm sure I--"
+
+The agonized Tommy tried to get in a word, failed, and took a step toward
+the door. His foot caught in the rug, and for one dreadful moment he
+thought he was doomed to create another scene. As he recovered his
+balance, Ada Nansen came down the stairs.
+
+"What was that noise we heard a few minutes ago?" she asked sweetly,
+looking at the boys.
+
+Betty and Bobby, laughing in the doorway of the reception room, the
+unyielding Miss Prettyman, and the cool and curious Ada swam before
+Tommy's eyes. Bob retained his presence of mind and, opening the door
+with one hand and pushing Tommy before him with the other, managed to
+effect their exit.
+
+"Gosh, Bob, wasn't that awful!" sighed poor Tommy, when they were finally
+clear of the school portal. "Don't I always have bad luck? How could I
+know we were going to walk smack into that dame? She remembered us, too."
+
+"She remembered you," said Bob significantly. "And you were within one of
+asking her to let the girls come over to the game, too! Didn't you know,
+you poor fish, that she would jump for joy if she could have a chance to
+turn you down?"
+
+"Well, anyway," replied Tommy more contentedly, "Betty will let us know.
+She can find a way."
+
+Betty lost no time in putting the invitation before Mrs. Eunice when she
+returned from her town expedition. The principal knew all about Bob
+through Mr. Gordon's letters and those from Mrs. Littell, and she knew
+most of the parents of the other lads Betty mentioned.
+
+"I see no reason, my dear," she said graciously when she heard of the
+morning's visit, "why you should not go. Get the consent of your
+chaperone and then settle on the afternoon. How many of you are invited?"
+
+"Seven," answered Betty truthfully. "But I want Constance Howard to go,
+Mrs. Eustice. The boys didn't know about her. She is Louise's roommate
+you see, and we eight always do everything together."
+
+"All right, Constance may go, too," acquiesced Mrs. Eustice.
+
+Betty thanked her warmly and danced off to find Bobby. Then they flew to
+ask Miss Anderson to be their chaperone, a duty that young woman assumed
+cordially, and before bedtime Betty had written Bob a note to say that
+they would be over Friday afternoon about half-past four.
+
+Watched a little enviously by the others, the eight piled into the school
+bus the next Friday afternoon. Miss Anderson tripped down the steps, took
+her place among them, and they were off.
+
+"Did you see that lovely blouse Ada had on?" Norma Guerin whispered to
+Betty. "I do wish I could have one like that to wear with my suit."
+
+"You look fifty times prettier than she does," flared Betty loyally. "And
+you know I've told you to borrow anything of mine whenever you want to."
+
+"I know it," admitted Norma. "But I can't borrow clothes! Silly or not, I
+just can't seem to! I don't mean to complain all the time, either, but I
+don't believe mother or granny realized how difficult it was going to be.
+Alice cried so hard this afternoon when she started to get dressed I
+thought she'd never get her eyes right again. They look red yet."
+
+Sure enough, Alice's eyes were suspiciously pink about the corners. Betty
+knew that the Guerin girls were unhappy, not alone because they could not
+have as many or as pretty frocks as the other girls, but because they
+were constantly worried about financial affairs at home. They had both
+been made the confidantes of their parents to a greater degree than is
+customary in many families, and Betty shrewdly suspected that Norma had
+kept her father's books for him.
+
+"I wish I could get hold of that treasure, or a part of it," Betty
+thought. "Isn't it maddening to think of a string of pearls at the
+bottom of a chasm and the girls to whom it should go struggling along on
+next to nothing!"
+
+They were half-way around the lake when the motor slowed down and the
+bus stopped.
+
+"What's the matter, George?" Miss Anderson asked.
+
+"Don't know, Ma'am," answered the driver, a rather sleepy-looking
+middle-aged man. "Guess I'll have to investigate her."
+
+Scratching his head, he proceeded to "investigate," and at the end of
+fifteen minutes hazarded an opinion that they were "out of luck."
+
+"Looks like I'll have to go back to the school garage and get 'em to
+send us a tow," he announced pleasantly.
+
+"We want to go to the Academy!" chorused the girls. "We're late now. Oh,
+George, can't you fix it?"
+
+"Betty, don't you know anything about cars?" appealed Miss Anderson,
+who had discovered that Betty was apt to be invaluable in an emergency
+of any kind.
+
+Betty had to confess that her experience had been confined to horses. The
+Littell girls had been used to cars all their lives, but like the
+majority of such fortunates, knew nothing about them beyond the colors
+suitable for upholstery.
+
+"I've helped my dad with his car," ventured Norma diffidently. "This
+isn't the same make, but perhaps I can tell what the matter is."
+
+The beautiful, expensive school bus was in fact another type than the
+shabby, rattly affair Dr. Guerin made spin over the rough country roads.
+However, Betty remembered at least one night, and she knew her experience
+had been duplicated by many others, when the noise of the asthmatic
+little car had been like sweetest music in her ears.
+
+The doctor's daughter took off her plain jacket, rolled back her white
+cuffs, and bent over the engine. George regarded her respectfully, and
+Miss Anderson and the girls watched anxiously. If Norma could not send
+them on their way it meant the trip must be given up.
+
+Norma put her slim hands down among the oily plugs, selected a tool from
+the kit George held out to her, and did something mysterious to the
+"innards."
+
+"Start her," she commanded briefly.
+
+Obediently George took the wheel and touched the self-starter. The engine
+purred contentedly.
+
+"By gum!" cried George inelegantly, "she's done it!"
+
+He produced a towel from the box for Norma, who managed to rub off most
+of the grease from her hands. She put on her jacket and climbed into her
+place between Betty and her sister. George proceeded to make up for lost
+time at a speed that left them breathless.
+
+"Here's the girl who got us here!" said Betty to Bob, when the group of
+cadets met their bus at the athletic field where several cars were drawn
+up on the sidelines.
+
+"Then she shall have my fur coat and my best curly chrysanthemum,"
+announced Tommy Tucker gallantly, throwing a handsome raccoon fur coat
+over Norma's shoulders and presenting her with a magnificent yellow
+chrysanthemum.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE NUTTING PARTY
+
+
+To the boy's surprise Bobby, who was usually aloof and liked to tease
+him, squeezed his arm surreptitiously.
+
+"You're a dear!" she told him enthusiastically.
+
+"Girls are a queer lot," the dazed youth confided to Bob, as they went
+back to their quarters. "Here I handed over my coat to that Norma Guerin
+and gave her the flower I'd been saving for Bobby, just to pay Bobby back
+for being so snippy to me over at school. And she calls me a dear and is
+nicer to me than she's been in months!"
+
+Bob briefly outlined something of the Guerin history, for Betty had told
+him of the lost treasure in her hurried note, and hinted his belief that
+the girls had very little money in comparison to Shadyside standards.
+
+"Shucks--money isn't anything!" was Tommy's answer to the recital, with
+the easy assurance of a person who has never been without a comfortable
+competence. "They're nice girls, and we'll pass the word that the boys
+are to show them a good time."
+
+As a result, when after the conclusion of the game, the girls and Miss
+Anderson were ushered upstairs into the cozy suite of rooms the cadets
+occupied, Norma and Alice found themselves plied with attentions. Miss
+Anderson poured the hot chocolate and made friends with the shy Sydney
+Cooke, who had been dreading this visit all the afternoon. Indeed his
+chums had threatened to lock him in the clothes closet in order that they
+might be sure of his attendance.
+
+Winifred Marion Brown, in addition to his ability as a checker player,
+was a good pianist, and he obligingly played for them to dance. The piano
+belonged to the Tucker twins. Norma and Alice were "rushed" with
+partners, and they quite forgot their clothes in the enjoyment of dancing
+to irresistible music.
+
+Libbie had brought a book of poems for Timothy Derby, who solemnly loaned
+her one of his in exchange. This odd pair remained impervious to all
+criticisms, and certainly many of those voiced were frank to the point of
+painfulness.
+
+"But their natures can not understand the lyric appeal," said Libbie
+sadly. Her English teacher moaned over her spelling and rejoiced in
+her themes.
+
+Finally Miss Anderson insisted they must go, and the bouquet of flowers
+on the tea table was plucked apart to reveal nine little individual
+bouquets, one for each guest.
+
+"Good-bye, and thank you for a lovely party," said Miss Anderson gaily.
+
+"Do you know?" blurted Teddy Tucker, "you're my idea of a chaperone! Most
+of 'em are such dubs and kill-joys!"
+
+Which tactful speech proved to be the best Teddy could have made.
+
+A week of small pleasures and hard study followed this "glorious Friday
+afternoon."
+
+Bobby, for a wonder, remembered her promise of good behavior, and by
+herculean effort managed to be on the "starred" list for the Saturday set
+aside for the nutting expedition.
+
+"We'll go after lunch," planned Betty. "Miss Anderson says if we strike
+off toward the woods at the back of the school we ought to come to a
+grove of hickory nut trees."
+
+The eight girls, ready for their tramp, came in to lunch attired in heavy
+wool skirts and stout shoes and carried their sweaters. Ada Nansen
+glanced complacently at her own suede pumps and silk stockings.
+
+"It's hard to tell which is really the farmer's daughter to-day," she
+drawled. "Perhaps we all ought to assume that uniform out of kindness."
+
+Ada sat at the table directly behind Norma, and not a girl at either
+table could possibly miss the significance of her remarks. Their import,
+it developed, had been plain to Miss Lacey who, on her way to her own
+table, had overheard. Miss Lacey was a quiet, rather drab little woman,
+misleading in her effacement of self. She knew more about her pupils than
+they often suspected.
+
+"Ada," she said quietly, stopping by the girl, "you may leave the table.
+If you will persist in acting like a naughty little six year old girl,
+you must be treated as one."
+
+Ada flounced out of her chair and from the room. Her departure created a
+ripple of curiosity. It was most unusual for a girl to be dismissed from
+table, and had Ada only known it, she had drawn the attention of the
+whole school to herself.
+
+Miss Lacey went on to her seat, without a glance at the flushed faces of
+Norma and Alice.
+
+"Some day," said Bobby furiously, "I'm going to throw a plate at
+that girl!"
+
+"No, you're not," contradicted Betty. "Then Mrs. Eustice would rise up
+and send you from the room and you'd feel about half the size Ada does
+now. For mercy's sake, don't descend to anybody's level--make 'em come up
+to fight on yours."
+
+They were all glad to get through the meal and find themselves outdoors.
+It was a perfect autumn day, warm and hazy, and the red and gold of the
+leaves showed burnished from the hillside. They tramped rather silently
+at first, and then, as the tense mood wore off, their tongues were
+loosened and they chattered like magpies.
+
+"Here's a tree!" shouted Louise and Frances, who were in the lead.
+
+When they had picked all the nuts on the ground, Bobby essayed to climb
+the tree. She made rather sad work of the effort, for a shag-bark
+hickory is not the easiest tree in the world to climb, and after she had
+torn her skirt in two places and mended it with safety pins, she gave up
+the attempt.
+
+"Let's walk further," she suggested. "We'll mark our trail as we go like
+the Indians."
+
+This idea caught the fancy of the girls, and they marked an elaborate
+trail, building little mounds at every turn and leaving odd arrangements
+of stones to mark their passing.
+
+"Come on, I'll race you," shouted Bobby suddenly. "I feel just like
+exercising."
+
+Betty wondered what she called the scramble through the woods, but she,
+too, was ready for a run. They set off pellmell, laughing and shouting.
+
+"Look out!" shrieked Betty, stopping so suddenly that Libbie and Louise
+fell against her. "Look! I almost ran right into it!"
+
+She pointed ahead to where the ground fell away abruptly. A great chasm,
+like an angry scar, was cut through the earth, and on the side opposite
+to the girls a steep hill came down in an uncompromising slant.
+
+"What a dandy hill for coasting!" ejaculated Bobby. "Let's come up here
+this winter. We can steer away from this hole."
+
+"That's no hole," said Norma Guerin, in an odd voice. "That's Indian
+Chasm. And it's miles long."
+
+Betty stared at her. She had thought Indian Chasm many miles away.
+
+"I didn't realize we had walked so far," said Norma, apparently reading
+her thoughts. "But I know I am right. Here are the woods and the steep
+hill, just as grandma has described them a hundred times. This is
+Indian Chasm."
+
+The girls looked at her curiously. Betty had not told them the story,
+believing that Alice and Norma should have that sole right. Now Norma
+rapidly sketched the outlines for them and they listened breathlessly,
+for surely this true story was more thrilling than any piece of fiction,
+however highly colored.
+
+"I never heard of anything so romantic!" was Libbie's comment.
+
+To which Bobby retorted with cousinly severity:
+
+"Romantic? Where do you see anything romantic in a band of Indians
+scalping a peaceful white family?"
+
+"Oh, Bobby!" protested Norma, laughing. "They didn't scalp grandma. They
+stole everything she had."
+
+"And is all that stuff down there now?" asked Constance Howard,
+round-eyed. "Perhaps if we look we can see something."
+
+There was a concerted rush to the chasm's edge, and the eight girls
+plumped down flat on their stomachs, determined to see whatever there was
+to be seen.
+
+The sides of the earth fell away sharply, down, down. Betty shouted, and
+the empty echo of her voice came back to her.
+
+"The ground's so shaly and crumbly," she said thoughtfully, "that it
+would be impossible to let a man down with a rope--the earth would cave
+in and bury him."
+
+"I think I see a diamond," reported Libbie. "Don't you see something
+glittering down there?"
+
+"Can't even see the bottom," said Bobby curtly. "Much less a diamond. Oh,
+girls, to think of those valuables at the bottom of a chasm like this
+and none of us able to think up a way to get 'em out."
+
+"Well, lots of people have tried," said Alice reasonably. "If grown-up
+men couldn't salvage 'em for grandma, I guess it's nothing to our
+discredit that we can't get them."
+
+"We might push Libbie in," suggested Bobby wickedly. "Then she could tell
+us how deep it is."
+
+This had the effect of sending Libbie scurrying away from the
+dangerous place, and the others followed her more slowly to resume the
+search for nuts.
+
+"I wish we could think of a way, Norma, dear," said Betty.
+
+"Oh, I don't care--not so very much," answered Norma bravely. But then
+she sighed deeply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+CAUGHT IN THE STORM
+
+
+The Shadyside gymnasium was equipped with a fine pool, and it was the
+school's boast that every girl learned to swim during her first term.
+Perhaps the proximity of the lake and the lure of the small fleet of
+canoes and rowboats tied up at the wharf had something to do with the
+success of the swimming classes. No girl who could not swim was permitted
+on the lake, alone or with a companion.
+
+Betty and her chums awaited their final tests eagerly--so excited the
+last day or two they could scarcely keep their minds on their books or
+sit in patience through a recitation--and passed them with flying colors.
+Constance Howard was an excellent swimmer, and it was the sight of her
+paddling gracefully about the lake on sunny Saturday afternoons that
+spurred the seven who could not swim on to greater effort.
+
+"Come on," cried Betty gaily, taking the gymnasium steps two at a time.
+"Come, girls--this afternoon we go rowing. I've my 'stiffcut,' as Mr.
+Peabody used to call it, and we've all passed. Oh, it's cloudy!"
+
+She looked at the sky disappointedly. When they had gone into the pool an
+hour before the sun had been shining brightly, but now the gray clouds
+were thick overhead and the air was chilly.
+
+"Who cares for the weather?" said Bobby scornfully. "Guess it will take
+more than a little rain to stop me! I've been crazy to take a row-boat
+out for three weeks."
+
+"Perhaps it will clear," contributed the optimistic Louise.
+
+But after lunch the sky was still overcast.
+
+"Don't be silly--it won't rain," urged Bobby, as her chums demurred.
+"Next Saturday it may be too cold. Oh, come on, girls."
+
+Thus incited, they went down to the wharf and made their choice of boats.
+Norma and Alice wanted to take out a canoe, and they offered to paddle
+for Libbie, who seemed disinclined to exercise. Betty had wondered once
+or twice if the girl were ill, for she seemed very nervous, jumped if a
+door slammed or some one spoke to her suddenly, and in the morning looked
+as if she had not slept well.
+
+Betty and Bobby selected a flat-bottomed row-boat and for passenger they
+took Frances, who offered to help row if they became tired.
+
+Louise and Constance chose another canoe.
+
+They headed north, and once out in the center of the lake, paddled
+and rowed steadily. Betty's rowing experience was limited, but Bobby
+was proud of her "stroke," and soon taught her chum the secret of
+handling the oars.
+
+"Ship ahoy!" shouted Bobby presently.
+
+Libbie jumped and looked ahead anxiously.
+
+"It's only the boys," she said dully.
+
+An eight-oared rowing shell shot down to them, and the freckled-faced
+coxswain, Gilbert Lane, one of the boys the girls had met at Bob and
+Tommy's "party," grinned cheerfully.
+
+"Where you going?" he asked, resting a friendly hand on the
+rowboat's rim.
+
+Bobby described an arc with her oar that incidentally showered the
+questioner with shining water drops.
+
+"We're out for adventure," she answered airily.
+
+"Just got our swimming certificates to-day," volunteered Betty.
+
+Bob flashed her a congratulatory smile.
+
+"Race you to the end of the lake?" suggested Tommy Tucker.
+
+Bobby regarded him with magnificent scorn.
+
+"As if eight of you couldn't beat two!" she said significantly. "I never
+heard such talk! Why you'd have a walk!" she added.
+
+The boys shouted with laughter.
+
+"You're a poet, Bobby," declared Tommy. "Tennyson had nothing on
+you--had he, Libbie?"
+
+Libbie turned her dark eyes on him and frowned a little.
+
+"I wasn't listening," she said indifferently.
+
+"Well, anyway, row up to the end of the lake, will you?" suggested
+Gilbert. "With drill night ahead of us, we want a little brightness to
+remember the day by."
+
+Canoes, rowboat and shell swept on up the lake, and when the scrubby
+pines that bordered the narrow peak of the north shore were in sight,
+Bobby glanced back over her shoulder at Betty.
+
+"You're spattering me," she complained.
+
+"I thinks it's beginning to rain," said Betty mildly, and even as she
+spoke, Louise called to them:
+
+"Girls, it's beginning to pour!"
+
+A sudden blast of wind struck them, blowing the rain against their backs.
+
+"Keep on rowing!" shouted Bob's voice. "We'll have to land and walk back.
+You girls can never beat back against this storm. We're almost to the
+shore now."
+
+A few minutes more and the boats touched shore. The boys were out in an
+instant and helped the girls to land.
+
+"We'll carry up the boats--don't you think that is best, Tommy?" shouted
+Bob. "If we carry them up high enough and leave them, they will be
+perfectly safe."
+
+The wind and the rain made shouting necessary if one's voice were to
+carry above the storm. The boys lifted the light boats and carried them
+into the woods, turning them over so that the keels were up.
+
+"Now the question is," said Bob, who seemed by common consent to have
+been elected leader, "shall we walk along the shore and get drenched, or
+take a chance of finding our way through the woods?"
+
+To their astonishment, Libbie burst into a fit of hysterical weeping.
+
+"Don't go through the woods," she begged, her teeth chattering. "We'll
+fall into that awful Indian Chasm."
+
+Bobby's heart reproached her for her thoughtless joke and she put an arm
+around her cousin.
+
+"Libbie, you never thought I was serious about pushing you into the
+chasm, did you?" she asked anxiously. "Is that what has been making you
+act so queerly ever since? I was only fooling."
+
+So, thought Betty, Bobby, too, had noticed Libbie's unnatural behavior.
+
+"Oh, it isn't that," sobbed Libbie. "I can't explain--but if we go
+through the woods, I'm sure I shall go crazy."
+
+"Well, then, that settles it," said Bob comfortably. "Better to be
+drowned than to go crazy. Can you turn up your sweater collars, girls? I
+wish we'd brought some raincoats along."
+
+Splashing and stumbling, they followed Bob down to the shore and began
+the weary walk that would lead them back to the school. After fifteen
+minutes' steady walking they came to a dense undergrowth that was
+impossible to penetrate.
+
+"No use, we'll have to make a cut through the woods," announced Bob. "Up
+this way and over, ought to bring us out right."
+
+He was so cheerful and patient that the tired, rain-soaked girls could
+not do otherwise than follow his example. Libbie was crying silently, but
+the others tramped along cheerfully, singing, at Betty's suggestion, old
+college and school songs.
+
+"Look here, Bob," said Tommy Tucker in an undertone, "I don't think we're
+going in the right direction. Don't you say it would be better to take
+the girls to that deserted cabin we found the other day and leave them
+there while we explore a bit? They're getting soaked through, and Libbie
+Littell is fixing to have hysterics. Leave a couple of the boys with 'em,
+so they won't be afraid, and then we'll locate the right trail and take
+'em over it home in a hurry."
+
+This suggestion sounded like good, common-sense to Bob, and he said so.
+
+"Betty could walk ten miles and be all right," he declared proudly, "and
+I think Bobby is good for a hike, too. But Frances Martin can't see when
+the rain gets on her glasses, and, as you say, something is the matter
+with Libbie. So let's make for the cabin, quick."
+
+The Salsette boys had explored the woods pretty thoroughly, and on a
+recent expedition Bob and his chums had stumbled on an old one-room
+cabin, buried deep in the woods and evidently unoccupied for years. It
+was not far from the end of the lake, and toward it they now led the
+girls, explaining as they went what they intended to do.
+
+"We'll be all right," said Betty at once. "I think if Libbie can sit down
+and rest she'll feel better, too. And if you all want to go and hunt for
+the trail, you needn't worry about us."
+
+"Oh, Sydney and I intend to stay," Gilbert Lane assured her quickly. (The
+boys had settled that among themselves.) "We'll be handy in case any
+Indians or the like come after you."
+
+Betty gave him a warning glance, for Libbie looked frightened. Surely
+something was wrong with the girl!
+
+The cabin door was open and the interior was comparatively dry. There was
+no furniture, but three or four old packing boxes furnished the girls
+with seats. Bob and five of his friends disappeared, whistling. Gilbert
+and Sydney were investigating the ramshackle fireplace to see what the
+prospects were for starting a fire when a shriek from Libbie brought them
+to their feet.
+
+"A ghost!" cried the girl. "A ghost! Over there in the corner!"
+
+Frances Martin gave a cry, and Betty and Bobby went white. Even Gilbert
+afterward confessed that his scalp prickled when a figure stepped forward
+from a narrow closet against the wall.
+
+"Ugh! Howdy!" he grunted, and they saw that he was a very old and very
+dirty Indian.
+
+"Rain," he said slowly, pointing to the door. "Stop soon now. Go
+get supper."
+
+He shuffled over the doorsill and at the edge he turned.
+
+"Howdy!" he said, apparently with some vague idea of farewell.
+"Much rain!"
+
+Petrified, they watched him hobble away through the woods.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+LIBBIE'S SECRET
+
+
+Gilbert Lane was the first to recover his voice.
+
+"Well, what do you know about that!" he ejaculated. "The old bird was
+here all the time."
+
+"Are--are--are there any more of them?" stammered Louise.
+
+"No, that old fellow is the only Indian for miles around," said Gilbert
+carelessly. "He was left behind, the fellows at school say, when that
+band stole the Macklin treasure. They had a grudge against him, it seems,
+and they tripped him and left him with a broken leg. He worked around on
+different farms for years and now does a day's work often enough to keep
+him in food. Queer old dick, I guess."
+
+"What makes you girls look so funny?" demanded Sydney. "You're not afraid
+now, are you? That Indian won't come back--he was more afraid of us than
+we were of him. I figure out he was asleep when we came in and the noise
+woke him up. What are you smiling about?"
+
+"My grandmother is Mrs. Marcia Macklin," explained Norma. "And you see
+it was her gold and silver and jewels the Indians stole. I wonder what he
+would have said if we had told him?"
+
+"Gee, is that so?" asked Sydney, ignoring the latter half of Norma's
+sentence. "And is all that stuff down in the chasm yet?"
+
+"As far as we know, it is," said Norma. "And likely to remain there," she
+added, with a sigh.
+
+Bob and the boys returned in less than half an hour, to announce that
+they had found the right road and were prepared to pilot the girls
+expeditiously homeward. Libbie's cheeks were unnaturally flushed and she
+looked miserable, but she refused to let Bob and Tommy carry her by
+forming a "chair" with their hands.
+
+"I'm all right," she insisted hoarsely. "I only want to get home."
+
+Knowing the way positively saved much fumbling and time, and soon the
+familiar buildings of Shadyside loomed up before them. The boys had a
+long tramp still before them, and if they were not to be late for supper,
+must walk briskly. They continued on their way, while the girls ran up
+the steps of the dormitory building.
+
+"There's no use talking, Libbie, you've got to see the infirmary nurse,"
+said Bobby resolutely. "I promised your mother to look after you, and if
+you're going to be sick you'll at least have the proper care. Wait till
+we get into some dry things, and I'll take you."
+
+Libbie looked rebellious, but she made no verbal protest, and when they
+were once more in dry clothes Bobby marched her cousin to the immaculate
+infirmary. She returned alone, saying that the nurse had detained Libbie
+for observation over night.
+
+"She thinks she's getting a heavy cold, but it may be more serious,"
+Bobby reported. "Well, anyway, I've done my duty. But romantic people are
+always forgetting to wear their rubbers."
+
+Betty had just drowsed off to sleep that night, the girls having gone to
+bed immediately after the study hour, for the afternoon in the wind and
+rain had made them extraordinarily sleepy, when a soft knock on the door
+startled her.
+
+She slipped out of bed and ran to the door, opening it carefully so
+as not to wake Bobby. Miss Morris, the school nurse, and Miss Lacey
+stood there.
+
+"Elizabeth isn't worse," said Miss Morris hastily, noting Betty's look of
+alarm. "But she is very restless and wants to see you. Miss Lacey says
+you may come up. Get your dressing gown and slippers, dear."
+
+Betty obeyed quickly. Libbie was probably lonely, she reflected.
+
+The infirmary consisted of three connecting rooms, fitted with two
+single beds in each, and Libbie happened to be the only patient. She was
+sitting up in bed, well wrapped up, when Betty saw her, her eyes
+unnaturally bright, her cheeks very red.
+
+"Now I'll leave you two girls together for exactly half an hour," said
+the nurse kindly. After that Elizabeth must go to sleep."
+
+"Is the door shut--shut tight?" demanded Libbie feverishly, grasping
+Betty's hand with both her hot, dry ones.
+
+"Yes, dear, yes," affirmed Betty soothingly. "What's the matter,
+Libbie--is your throat sore?"
+
+"Oh, Betty, I'm in such terrible trouble!" gasped Libbie, her eyes
+overflowing. "I'm so frightened!"
+
+"Tell me about it, dear," soothed Betty. "I'll help you, you know I will.
+Has it anything to do with school?"
+
+She was totally unprepared for Libbie's next words.
+
+"I have to have some money--a lot of money, Betty. I've spent my last
+allowance and I can't write home for more because they will ask me why
+I want it. I've borrowed so much from Louise that I can't ask her
+again! I ought to pay it back. But I've got to have twenty dollars by
+to-morrow night."
+
+"What for? What's the matter?" asked Betty, in alarm.
+
+"You'll promise not to tell Bobby?" demanded Libbie intensely. "Promise
+me you won't tell Bobby? She'd scold so. And Mrs. Eustice would expel me.
+If you won't tell Bobby or Mrs. Eustice, Betty, I'll tell you."
+
+Betty was now thoroughly aroused. She knew that impulsive novel-reading
+Libbie went about with her pretty head filled with all sorts of trashy
+ideas, and she didn't know what lengths she might have gone to. If Mrs.
+Eustice would expel her, the affair must be serious indeed.
+
+"I'll promise," said Betty rashly. "Tell me everything, Libbie, and if I
+can I'll help you."
+
+"Well, you remember when we went nutting?" said Libbie. "I carried a
+bottle with me with--with my name and address written on a slip of paper
+inside. I read about that in a book. And I said to leave an answer in the
+same bottle. I--I buried it just at the foot of the hill, before we began
+to climb. Louise was with me, but she was hunting for specimens for her
+botany book."
+
+"So that's why you hung back, was it?" said Betty. "I wish to goodness
+Louise was more interested in what is going on around her. She might
+have stopped you. Go on--what happened to your silly bottle?"
+
+"I buried it," repeated Libbie, "and two days after I went out and dug it
+up. And there was an answer in it."
+
+"What did it say?" demanded Betty practically.
+
+"I've got it here--" Libbie reached under her pillow and pulled out a
+slip of paper.
+
+"It says 'Leave ten dollars in this same place to-night, or Mrs. Eustice
+shall hear of this.' And, of course," concluded Libbie, "I put ten
+dollars in the bottle, because whoever found it had the slip with my name
+on it to show Mrs. Eustice."
+
+Betty studied the paper. The handwriting was a strong backhand, not at
+all an illiterate hand.
+
+"Oh, dear, what shall I do?" wailed Libbie. "He keeps asking for more,
+and I won't have any money till the first of the month. I only meant
+to do like the girl in the book--have a thrilling unknown
+correspondent. I never knew he would ask for money! Suppose he is a
+horrid, dirty tramp and he comes and tells Mrs. Eustice he found my
+note? I should die of shame!"
+
+"I'll have the money ready for you in the morning," said Betty firmly. "I
+have that much. But, of course, he'll keep demanding more. I do hope,
+Libbie, that if you ever get out of this mess, you'll be cured of some of
+your crazy notions!"
+
+"Oh, I will," promised Libbie earnestly. "I will be good, Betty. Only
+don't tell Bobby."
+
+She was manifestly relieved by her confession, and when Miss Morris came
+in to send Betty back to her own room, Libbie curled down contentedly for
+a restful night.
+
+Not so poor Betty. She turned and tossed, wondering how she could get
+more money for her chum without arousing suspicion.
+
+"What ever made her do a thing like that!" she groaned. "Of all the wild
+ideas! The twenty will take every cent I have. I must see Bob and borrow
+from him."
+
+Libbie was much improved in the morning--so well, in fact, that after
+breakfast in bed she was permitted to dress and go to her room, though
+strictly forbidden to attend classes or go out of doors. Betty brought
+her the twenty dollars and when school was in session, the benighted
+Libbie sped out to her buried bottle and put the money in it, regaining
+her room without detection.
+
+Two days later there was another demand for money, and two days after
+that, another. Libbie visited the bottle regularly, afraid to let a
+day pass lest the blackmailer expose her to the principal. Betty had
+seen Bob at a football game, and had borrowed fifteen dollars from
+him. She could not write her uncle, for communication with him was
+uncertain and her generous allowance came to her regularly through his
+Philadelphia lawyer.
+
+"He wants twenty-five dollars by to-morrow night!" whispered Libbie,
+meeting Betty in the hall after her last visit to the buried bottle. "Oh,
+Betty, what _shall_ we do?"
+
+Both girls had watched patiently and furtively in their spare time in an
+effort to detect the person who dug up the bottle, but they had never
+seen any one go near the spot.
+
+As it happened, when Libbie whispered her news to Betty, they were both
+on their way to recitation with Miss Jessup whose current events class
+both girls nominally enjoyed. To-day Betty found it impossible to fix
+her mind on the brisk discussions, and half in a dream heard Libbie
+flunk dismally.
+
+When next she was conscious of what was going on about her--she had been
+turning Libbie's troubles over and over in her mind without result--Miss
+Jessup was speaking to her class about the "association of ideas."
+
+"We won't go very deeply into it this morning," she was saying, "but
+you'll find even the surface of the subject fascinating."
+
+Then she began a rapid fire of questions to which Betty paid small
+attention till the sound of Ada Nansen's name aroused her.
+
+"Key, Ada?" asked Miss Jessup.
+
+The answers were supposed to indicate definite ideas.
+
+"Key hole," said Ada promptly.
+
+"Purse?"
+
+"Money."
+
+"Bee?" asked Miss Jessup.
+
+To her surprise and that of the listening class, nine-tenths of whom were
+forming the word "honey" with their lips, Ada answered without
+hesitation, "Bottle."
+
+"You must have thought I meant the letter 'B,'" said the teacher lightly,
+passing on to the next pupil.
+
+Betty heard the dismissal bell with real relief. She cornered Libbie in
+the hall as the class streamed out and announced a decision.
+
+"I'll have to go see Bob--I'll paddle one of the canoes," she said
+hurriedly.
+
+"If any one asks for me, say I'm out on the lake."
+
+Betty was now an expert with the paddle, and the trip across the lake was
+easy of accomplishment. She had the great good fortune to meet Bob
+returning from a recitation, and though surprised to see her, he knew she
+must have come by boat or canoe. The boys had gone the next day and
+brought back the canoes from the woods where they had placed them during
+the storm.
+
+"I'm ever so sorry, Bob," said Betty earnestly, "But--could you lend me
+twenty-five dollars?"
+
+Bob whistled.
+
+"I could," he admitted cautiously. "What's it for, Betsey?"
+
+"That," said Betty, "is a secret."
+
+Bob glanced at her sharply. His chin hardened.
+
+"Come down here where we won't be interrupted," he said, leading the way
+to the wharf. "You'll have to give me a good reason for wanting the
+money, Betty."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+BOB'S SOLUTION
+
+
+"If you wanted twenty-five dollars and I had it," said Betty
+persuasively, "I'd give it to you without asking a solitary question."
+
+Rob's lips twitched.
+
+"But, Betty--" he began. Then--"Oh, do play fair," he urged. "You're
+younger than I am. Uncle Dick expects me to look after you. Goodness
+knows I don't want to pry into your affairs, but when you borrow fifteen
+dollars and then want twenty-five the same week, what's a fellow to
+think? If some one is borrowing from you, it's time to call a halt;
+you're not fair to yourself."
+
+Betty looked startled. How could Bob possibly guess so near the truth?
+She began to think that the better part of wisdom was to confide in this
+keen young man.
+
+"Come on, Betty, tell me what you want it for, and you shall have twice
+twenty-five," said Bob earnestly. "I've most of my allowance in the
+school bank. It's all yours, if you'll let me have an inkling of the
+reason you need money."
+
+"Well," said Betty, slowly, "I didn't promise I wouldn't tell--only
+that I wouldn't tell Bobby or Mrs. Eustice. It's Libbie who has to have
+the money."
+
+She sketched Libbie's story for him rapidly, Bob listening in silence. At
+the end he asked a single question.
+
+"Have you any of those notes asking for money?"
+
+"Here's one." Betty thrust her hand into the pocket of her sweater and
+pulled out the crumpled paper that Libbie had shaken out of the bottle
+that morning.
+
+"Were they all written on this same kind of paper?" asked Bob,
+reading the note.
+
+"Ye-s, that is, I think so," hesitated Betty. "I really haven't
+noticed. Why?"
+
+"Because I don't think any man wrote this," announced Bob confidently.
+"I think some girl at school has done it, either as a joke or to
+torment Libbie."
+
+"But it's grown-up writing," protested Betty. "Though, come to think of
+it, we don't know any of the girls' handwriting," she added thoughtfully.
+
+"What girl would be likely to do it?" asked Bob. "Can you recall a
+practical joker? This is copy book paper torn from an ordinary theme
+book. Yes, I'll bet a cookie a girl wrote it."
+
+"Ada Nansen or Ruth Gladys Royal might do it to plague Libbie," said
+Betty slowly. "They don't like any of our crowd, and Libbie is so good
+at French she turns Ada green with envy. The more I think of it, the
+surer I am it is Ada. Ruth doesn't dislike any one actively enough to
+exert herself."
+
+"Ada Nansen?" repeated Bob. "Isn't she that girl we saw on the train and
+who plumped herself down in my seat? I thought so--I remember you told
+me. Well, from the sidelight I have on her character, I believe she is
+the one at the bottom of this. That will explain, too, why you never
+catch any one digging up the bottle--she knows exactly when you are busy
+and when you are not."
+
+"Bottle!" said Betty explosively, to Bob's amazement. "Oh, Bob! this
+morning Miss Jessup was talking to us about association of ideas, and she
+asked Ada what bee meant to her. We thought she'd say 'honey,' of course,
+but she said 'bottle.' Doesn't that show--"
+
+"I should say it did!" Bob's voice was eager. "She took it for the letter
+'B' and bottle was in her mind. You may depend upon it, that girl is at
+the back of all this fuss! Gee, when I've nothing else to do, I'm going
+to study up on this association of ideas stuff."
+
+"You don't need it--you can get at things without a bit of trouble,"
+Betty assured him affectionately.
+
+"How will you go about pinning down Ada?" Bob asked anxiously.
+
+"I'll cut out Latin to-morrow afternoon when she has a study period,"
+planned Betty. "She'll think Libbie is reciting, and she'll not think of
+me at all, and I'll slip out and watch to see if she goes near the
+bottle. But what can I do if she does prove to be the right one? She'll
+tell Mrs. Eustice, and poor Libbie will be in a peck of trouble. I really
+think Mrs. Eustice would send her home if she knew."
+
+"And serve Libbie right for being such an idiot!" pronounced Bob
+severely. "However, I think she has been pretty thoroughly punished
+through fear. I only wish you'd told me this before, Betty, because I
+know exactly how you can deal with Ada."
+
+"You do? Oh, Bob, what should I ever do without you!" cried Betty,
+forgetting that a few moments before she had berated him for his
+insistence. "Tell me, quick."
+
+"Well, a crowd of us fellows happened to be over in Edentown last Friday
+night, and we saw Ada and Ruth at the movies," said Bob. "They didn't see
+us, for we sat back. They were the only girls from Shadyside, and Tommy
+and I decided they had sneaked out after dinner and walked all that
+distance. Now threatening isn't a very nice performance, Betty, but
+sometimes you have to meet like with like. I think, if when you see Ada
+digging up the bottle, you go to her and say that unless she returns the
+money and Libbie's first note to you and promises to let the matter
+drop--forever--you will expose her Edentown trip to Mrs. Eustice, she
+will listen to reason."
+
+"So do I," agreed Betty. "I don't think she has touched the money--she
+has plenty. But I must have the note so that Libbie can destroy it. Mrs.
+Eustice never lets us go to town at night, and I'm sure Ada and Ruth had
+to go down the fire-escape. Goodness, didn't they take a chance of being
+discovered!"
+
+"Well, as I've already missed half an algebra recitation, and you know
+you have no business over here at this time of day, I move we begin our
+penance," suggested Bob. "Paddle home, Betsey, and if our hunch turns out
+wrong, we'll tackle another one."
+
+"Oh, it won't--I'm sure you're right," said Betty gratefully. "Thank you
+ever so much, Bob. And the next time I'll tell you everything at the
+very first."
+
+"Don't let me hear of another time," Bob called after her, with
+mock severity.
+
+"Well, I never!" gasped Libbie, astonished, when Betty told her of Bob's
+suspicions. "Oh, Betty, wouldn't it be wonderful if it should be true!"
+
+"I'm going to cut Latin this afternoon and find out," said Betty
+vigorously. "If Miss Sharpe asks for me, you don't know where I am; she
+never does anything but give you double lines to translate."
+
+Betty knew that Ada had a study period, which she usually spent in her
+room, directly after lunch.
+
+Directly after she left the dining room that noon Betty sped away to the
+foot of the hill. There were several stubby bushes about half-filled with
+wind-blown leaves and old rubbish and affording an excellent screen.
+Betty crouched down behind one of these.
+
+She had not long to wait. Ada, in her beautiful mink furs, which she
+clung to persistently, though the fall weather so far had been very mild,
+was presently seen coming across the grass. She walked straight to the
+spot where the bottle was buried, and, stooping down, brushed away the
+leaves and dirt. She lifted the bottle.
+
+"Pshaw, it's empty!" she said aloud.
+
+"Yes, it's empty," echoed Betty, stepping out from behind the bush. "And
+you are to give the money back to me, and Libbie's note with it."
+
+"Is that so?" said Ada contemptuously. "I have something to say
+about that. I intend to see that that note reaches the proper
+person--Mrs. Eustice."
+
+Betty took a step nearer, her dark eyes blazing.
+
+"I can play the kind of game you play--if I must," she said in a
+curiously repressed tone. "What about the trip you and Ruth Gladys made
+to Edentown last Friday night?"
+
+Ada glared at her.
+
+"Were you there? How did you know?" she stammered jerkily. "If you were
+up to the same trick, you'll look nice tattle-telling on us, won't you?"
+
+"I wasn't there, but I have witnesses whom I can summon to say you
+were," declared Betty, wishing her voice did not tremble with
+nervousness. "You were the only girls from Shadyside, and you must have
+climbed down the fire--"
+
+Ada raised her hand that held the bottle.
+
+"You--you tell-tale!" she screamed threateningly.
+
+Betty flung up her arm to knock the bottle aside, missed Ada's hand and
+hit her shoulder. Ada went down, Betty on top of her.
+
+"Girls! For mercy's sake!" Miss Anderson stood beside them, scandalized.
+"Betty, get up. Ada, what are you thinking of? I saw you from the gym
+windows. You'll have the whole school out here presently. Betty, I
+thought you had Latin at this period?"
+
+"I have," admitted Betty, so meekly that Miss Anderson looked away lest
+she laugh. "Only I had to see Ada."
+
+"I don't know what you were quarreling about," said Miss Anderson, with
+characteristic frankness. "But I do know that both of you are old enough
+to know better than to revert to small-boy tactics. You've a hole in your
+stocking, Betty, that would do credit to a little brother."
+
+"I ripped it on that stone," said Betty regretfully.
+
+Ada stood sullenly, unconscious of two dead leaves hanging to her hat
+which completely destroyed her usual effect of studied elegance.
+
+"Go on in, Betty," said the physical culture teacher, who labored under
+no delusions about the duties of a peacemaker. To tell the truth, she did
+not believe in forced reconciliation. "Ada will come with me."
+
+"Ada has something I want," said Betty stubbornly. "She has to promise to
+give it to me first."
+
+Ada looked at the resolute little figure facing her. Betty, she knew, was
+capable of doing exactly what she had said. Mrs. Eustice had no more
+rigid rule than the one against going to town, day or night, without
+permission. Ada gave in.
+
+"I'll leave it in your room before dinner--you didn't think I carried it
+with me, did you?" she snapped.
+
+"Both?" said Betty significantly, meaning the note and the money.
+
+"Everything!" cried the exasperated Ada, on the verge of angry tears.
+
+"Then you have my promise never to say a word," Betty assured her
+blithely.
+
+"Do you want this bottle?" Miss Anderson called after her, as she started
+for the school.
+
+Miss Anderson had been studying both girls as she waited quietly.
+
+Now Betty turned, smiled radiantly, and took the bottle the teacher held
+out to her. With careful aim, worthy of Bob's training, she fixed her eye
+on a handy rock, hurled the bottle with all her strength, and had the
+satisfaction of seeing it dashed into a thousand fragments as it struck
+the target squarely.
+
+Then she trotted sedately on to her delayed recitation, and Miss Anderson
+and the scowling Ada followed more slowly.
+
+Just before dinner that night there came a knock on Betty's door, and
+Virgie Smith, one of Ada's friends, thrust a package at Bobby, who had
+answered the tap.
+
+Betty managed to turn aside her chum's curiosity and to get away to
+Libbie and give her the note. They burned it in the flame of a candle,
+and counted the money. It was all there, folded just as Libbie had
+placed it in the bottle. Evidently Ada had never carried it.
+
+Libbie paid Louise the money she had borrowed of her and gave Betty the
+amount she owed her, most of which was Bob's.
+
+"Now do try to be more sensible, Libbie," pleaded Betty, turning to go
+back to Bobby. "When you want to do something romantic think twice and
+count a hundred."
+
+"I will!" promised Libbie fervently. "I'll never be so silly
+again, Betty."
+
+But dear me, she was, a hundred times! But in a different way each time.
+Libbie would be Libbie to the end of the chapter.
+
+Betty, rushing back to brush her hair for dinner, heard a sound
+suspiciously like a sob as she passed Norma Guerin's door. It was
+unlatched, and as no one answered when she tapped Betty gently pushed it
+open and stepped into the room.
+
+Norma lay on her bed crying as though her heart would break, and Alice,
+looking very forlorn and solemn, was holding a letter in her hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE SECOND DEGREE
+
+
+"My patience, what a world of trouble this is!" sighed Betty to herself,
+but aloud she said cheerily: "What's the matter with Norma?"
+
+Norma sat up, mopping her eyes.
+
+"Oh, Betty," she choked, "I don't believe Alice and I can come back
+after Christmas! They've had a fire in Glenside and a house dad owns
+there burned. He hasn't a cent of insurance, and the mortgagee takes
+the ground. So that's the rental right out of our income. Besides,
+grandma has had an operation on her eyes and she has to spend weeks in
+an expensive Philadelphia hospital. Even with the small fees the
+surgeons charge because of dad, the board will amount to more than he
+can afford to pay. Alice and I ought to be learning stenography or
+something useful."
+
+"Well, now, your father would say," suggested Betty, with determined
+optimism, "that the Christmas vacation is too far off to make any plans
+about what you're going to do afterward. You know Bobby Littell has set
+her heart on you and Alice spending the recess with them in Washington.
+Anyway, lots of things can turn up before Christmas, Norma--even the
+treasure!"
+
+Norma tried to smile.
+
+"I dream about that chasm nearly every night," she said. "Sometimes I
+think the Indians came back and got the stuff, Betty. They're so clever
+about climbing, and I know they wouldn't easily give up."
+
+"Nonsense!" chided Betty. "The treasure is there, and we've just got to
+think up a way to get it out. At all costs you mustn't cry yourself sick
+about the future--you'll spoil all the fun awaiting you in the weeks
+before Christmas. And you know you can't study as well when you're
+depressed, and, goodness knows! one has to study at Shadyside."
+
+"I've a headache now," confessed Norma, pushing her tumbled hair out
+of her eyes. "I can't go down to dinner--I'm a perfect sight. There's
+the bell!"
+
+"Just lie down and try to rest," advised Betty, smoothing the tangled
+covers with a deft hand. "I'll bring you up some supper on a tray. Aunt
+Nancy thinks you're an angel on general principles, and she has a special
+soft spot in her heart for you because her mother used to cook for your
+grandmother. Come on, Alice, we'll turn the light out and let her rest
+her eyes."
+
+"I do wish some one would think up a way to get those pearls and the
+gold," fretted Betty, turning restlessly on her pillow that night. "If
+Norma and Alice are ever going to be well-off now is the time. When
+they're so old they can't walk, money won't do 'em any good!"
+
+Which showed that Betty, for all her sound sense, was still a little
+girl. Very old ladies, who can not walk, certainly need money to make
+them comfortable and keep them so.
+
+The next night was Friday, and Betty welcomed the prospect of the second
+degree necessary to stamp the freshmen as full-fledged members of the
+Mysterious For. The week had been noticeably tinged with indigo for at
+least two of Betty's friends, and she hoped the initiation might take
+their minds from their troubles.
+
+The second degree, it was whispered about among the girls, was bound to
+be a "hummer."
+
+"They say it's a test of your character," said Bobby, with a shiver.
+"Somehow, Betty, my character oozes out of my shoes when it knows it
+should be prancing up to the firing line."
+
+"I guess you imagine that," smiled Betty. "Speak sternly to it, Bobby,
+and explain that funking is out of the question."
+
+However, more girls than Bobby found it necessary to clutch at their
+oozing courage when, upon assembling in the large hall, the lights
+suddenly went out. In the shadows, four white veiled figures were seen
+slowly to mount the platform.
+
+"To-night," said one of them, stretching out a long arm and pointing
+toward the fascinated and expectant audience, "we are your fates! You
+have come to the final tests. We have no choice in these tests, nor have
+you. You are to come forward, one at a time, and take a slip from this
+basket here on the table. Go directly to your room after drawing your
+slip, and there open it and follow the directions explicitly. Come to the
+platform in the order in which you are seated, please."
+
+The lights did not come on, and one by one the girls stumbled up the
+steps to the platform, felt around in the basket, and drew a slip. Then
+they hurried away to their rooms to see what was to happen next.
+
+Bobby and Betty could hardly wait to open their notes, and before they
+had them fairly digested, Frances and Libbie and Constance and Louise and
+the Guerin girls were crowding in to compare notes.
+
+"I have to go and ask Miss Prettyman if I may telephone to Salsette
+Academy and ask for a lost-and-found notice on their bulletin board,"
+wailed Bobby. "I'm supposed to have lost a pair of gloves at the last
+football game. I always have the worst luck! Can't you imagine how Miss
+Prettyman will lecture me? She'll say that at my age I ought to have
+something in my head besides excuses to talk to the boys!"
+
+The girls laughed, recognizing the ring of prophecy in Bobby's speech.
+
+"That's nothing--I'm to row Dora Estabrooke twice around the lake,"
+mourned Louise. "She weighs two hundred, if she weighs a pound. Thank
+goodness, I don't have to do it to-night."
+
+Norma was instructed to walk three times around the cellar, chanting
+"Little Boy Blue" before ten o'clock that night. Frances Martin, to her
+horror, was enjoined to produce six live angle worms the following
+morning--"and you know I despise the wiggling things," she wailed. Alice
+Guerin, the silent member of the octette, was condemned to recite "The
+Children's Hour" in the dining room "between cereal and eggs." And
+Constance Howard was told she must add up an unbelievably long column of
+figures and present the correct answer within half an hour. Constance's
+_bête noir_ was figures, and already these long columns danced dizzily
+before her eyes.
+
+"You needn't tell me that chance made such canny selections," observed
+Betty. "One of those girls manipulated the right notes into our hands.
+Libbie, what does yours say?"
+
+Libbie handed her slip of paper to Betty without a word.
+
+"Go to bed at once," the latter read aloud.
+
+There was a gale of laughter. Libbie, the curious, who dearly loved to
+hear and see, to be sent off to bed in the middle of the most wildly
+exciting night they had known in weeks!
+
+"Hurry," admonished Bobby. "You're disobeying by staying up this long.
+Where's your character, Libbie?"
+
+Libbie scowled, but departed, grumbling that she didn't see why she
+couldn't stay up and watch Norma walk down in the cellar.
+
+"Mine is the most spooky," said Betty, when the door had closed behind
+Libbie. "Listen--I'm to climb the water tower at midnight and leave this
+card there to show I have complied."
+
+She held out a little plain white card in a green envelope.
+
+"Hark! was that somebody at the door?" asked Bobby, and she ran over to
+it lightly and jerked it open.
+
+The corridor was empty.
+
+"We're all nervous," remarked Betty lightly. "I'll set the alarm for
+eleven-forty-five and put the clock under my pillow so Miss Lacey won't
+hear it. I'll lie down all dressed, and then I won't have to use a light.
+She might see that through the transom."
+
+"Don't you want some of us to go with you?" asked Constance. "We needn't
+go up into the tower, if you say not. But at least we could go that far
+with you; you might fall off the roof."
+
+"No, please, I'd rather go alone," said Betty firmly. "It's a test, you
+see, and the idea isn't to make it easy. I'll be all right, and in the
+morning the girls will find the card and know I didn't flunk."
+
+After the girls had gone away to their own rooms the clock was set for a
+quarter of twelve, but Betty and Bobby decided that they might as well
+stay awake till midnight. They would lie down on their beds--Betty
+insisted that Bobby should undress and go to bed "right"--and wait for
+the time to come. Within twenty minutes they were both sound asleep.
+
+The muffled whir of her alarm clock awakened Betty. For a moment she was
+dazed, then recollection cleared her mind. She slipped to the floor
+without waking Bobby and softly tiptoed from the room.
+
+A dim light burned in the corridor, and Betty knew the way to the water
+tower. To reach it, one had to mount to the roof of the dormitory
+building. Betty experienced a little difficulty with the obstinate catch
+of the scuttle cover, but she finally mastered it and stepped out on the
+tarred graveled roof. The water tower, a huge tank on an iron framework,
+had a little enclosed room built directly under it reached by an iron
+ladder. Here the engineer kept various plumbing tools. It was in this
+room that Betty was to leave the card.
+
+The night wind blew damp and keen, and the stars overhead seemed very far
+away. Betty had no sense of fear as she began to climb, mounting slowly
+and feeling for each step with her hands. The friendly dark shut in
+around her and somewhere in the distance a train whistle tooted shrilly.
+
+She knew she had reached the last step when her hands encountered wood,
+and she felt about till she touched the knob of the door. It opened at
+her touch and she pulled herself in over the sill.
+
+"Now the card," she whispered, feeling in her pocket.
+
+A gust of wind fanned her cheek and something clicked.
+
+The door had blown shut!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+DRAMATICS
+
+
+There are pleasanter places to be at midnight than the dark room of a
+strange water tower, but Betty was not frightened. She tripped over some
+tool as she felt for the door and discovered that she had lost her sense
+of direction completely.
+
+"I'm all turned around," was the way she expressed it. "I must start and
+go around the sides, feeling till I come to the door."
+
+Following this plan, she did come to the door and confidently turned the
+knob. The door stuck and she rattled the knob sharply. Then the
+explanation dawned on her.
+
+The door was locked!
+
+Could it have a spring lock? she wondered. Then she remembered a day
+when, on exploration bent, a group of girls had made the trip to the roof
+and the kindly Dave McGuire had taken a key from his pocket and unlocked
+the door of the little room for the more adventurous ones who wanted to
+climb up and see the inside.
+
+"It was a flat key, like a latch key," Betty reflected. "The girls must
+have had the door unlocked for me to-night, but I don't think they would
+follow me and lock it. That would be mean!"
+
+However, the door was locked and she was a prisoner. It was inky black
+and at every step she seemed to knock over something or stumble against
+cold iron. Gradually her eyes became accustomed to the lack of light, and
+she made out the outlines of something against the wall.
+
+"Why, there is a window--I remember!" she said aloud. "I wonder if I can
+reach it."
+
+Cautiously she felt her way around and stretched up tentative fingers.
+She could barely touch the lower frame.
+
+Then, for the first time, Betty felt a little shiver of fear and
+apprehension. It was close in the tower room, and the smell of oil and
+dead air began to be oppressive. She had no wish to shout, even if she
+could be heard, a doubtful probability, for she had no mind to be rescued
+before the curious eyes of the entire school.
+
+"I'll get out of it somehow, if I have to stay here all night," she told
+herself pluckily. "Oh, my goodness, what was that?"
+
+A tiny sawing noise in one corner of the room sent Betty scurrying to
+the other side. She would have indignantly denied any fear of mice or
+rats, but the bravest girl might be excused from a too close
+acquaintance thrust upon her in the dark. Betty had no wish to put her
+fingers on a mouse.
+
+"How can I get out?" she cried aloud, a little wildly. "I can't breathe!"
+
+In the uncanny silence that followed the sound of her voice, the sawing
+noise sounded regularly, rhythmically. In desperation Betty seized an
+iron crowbar she had backed into on the wall, and hurled it in the
+direction of the industrious rodents.
+
+"Now I've done it," she admitted, as with a clatter and a bang that, she
+was sure, could be heard a mile away, an evident avalanche of tools
+tumbled to the floor. Her crowbar had struck a box of tools.
+
+But the silence shut down again after that. Betty did not realize that
+the water tower was so isolated that even unusual noises inside it would
+not carry far, and with the door and the window both closed the room was
+practically sealed.
+
+The sawing noise was not repeated, there was that much to be grateful
+for, Betty reflected. She wondered if she could batter down the door.
+
+"I'll try, anyway," she thought wearily.
+
+And then she could not find the crowbar! Around and around she went,
+feeling on the floor for the tools that had clattered down with such a
+racket and for the iron bar she had hurled among them. Not one tool could
+she put her hands on.
+
+"I must be going crazy," she cried in despair. "I couldn't have dreamed
+those tools fell down, and yet where could they have gone? There's no
+hole in the floor--"
+
+Now Betty's nerves were sorely tried by the lonely imprisonment, the bad
+air, the heat, and the darkness, and it is not to be wondered at that her
+usual sound common sense was tricked by her imagination. Her fancy
+suggested that the weight of the tools might have torn a hole in the
+floor, they might have dropped through to the roof, and Betty herself
+might be in momentary danger of stepping into this hole.
+
+Nonsense? Well, wiser minds have conceived wilder possibilities under
+similar trying conditions.
+
+"I won't walk another step!" cried poor Betty, as she visioned this
+yawning hole. "Not another step. I'll wait till it's light."
+
+But she waited, fifteen, twenty, thirty minutes, and the darkness if
+anything grew blacker. She had no idea how long she had been locked in
+the room, and she could not calculate how far off the morning might be.
+
+"I'll put my hands out before me and creep," she said finally. "That
+ought to be safe. Perhaps I can find something to stand on to reach that
+window. I guess I could drop to the roof from there."
+
+Stiffly and painfully, she began to crawl, holding out her hands before
+her and starting back time and again as she fancied she felt an opening
+just ahead. But when she brought up against a step ladder she forgot her
+fears in the joy of her discovery.
+
+It was a short ladder, but she dragged it over to the window and put it
+in place and mounted it, all in the twinkling of an eye. By stretching to
+her full height, she was able to raise the creaky window, but to her
+dismay the roof offered a very long drop. She had not realized how high
+she had climbed.
+
+"Dave was fussing with ropes and buckets the other day," she recalled.
+"Now I wonder--wouldn't it be the best luck in the world if I could
+find a rope?"
+
+Hope was singing high in her heart now, but she almost despaired of such
+good fortune after a diligent search. Then something told her to feel
+about again on the floor. Round and round she went, getting her fingers
+into spider webs and sticky substances that renewed her inward shudders
+because she could not identify them. And when she found the rope, a tarry
+coil, she also solved the mystery of the tools. They had fallen down
+behind the coil of rope and were effectively fenced off from the circle
+of floor explored by the bewildered Betty.
+
+It was the work of a moment to tie one end of the rope to a heavy staple
+driven under the window sill, and then, closing her eyes to the pitch
+black void beneath her, Betty let herself slide down to the roof. Her
+hands were cruelly scratched by the rope fibres and she was too tired to
+care about the evidences of her flight.
+
+"If anybody wants to know about that rope and the locked door, let 'em!"
+she sighed defiantly.
+
+Bobby woke up as Betty came in the door, and then there were questions
+galore to be answered. Betty was covered with dust and her clothing was
+torn and rumpled. Bobby declared she looked as if she had been to war.
+
+"I feel it," admitted Betty. "Let me take a hot bath and get into bed.
+And, Bobby, promise me on your word of honor that you'll call me in the
+morning. Whoever locked me in expects me to stay there till I'm missed,
+and I want to walk into breakfast as usual."
+
+She half regretted her instructions when Bobby called her at seven the
+next morning, but Betty was nothing if not gritty, and she sleepily
+struggled into her clothes. Ada Nansen's look of utter astonishment when
+she saw Betty come into the dining room with the rest for breakfast told
+those in the secret what they had already suspected.
+
+"Bobby must have heard her listening at our door last night," said
+Betty. "What am I going to do? Why nothing, of course! That was part of
+the stunt, or at least I'm going to consider it so. My card is there, so
+they'll know I fulfilled my part."
+
+Dave McGuire scratched his head when he found the rope and the open
+window, but he wisely said nothing. He had two keys, and one he had
+loaned at the request of the senior class president to a fellow student.
+The other key, for emergency use, hung on a nail in the fourth story
+hall. That was the key Dave found in the door lock when he made his early
+morning tour of inspection. "But the young folks must be having their
+fun," he said indulgently, "and, short of burning down the place, 'tis
+not Dave McGuire who will be interfering with 'em."
+
+Mid-term tests were approaching. Bobby, who, with all her love of fun,
+was a hard student, felt prepared and went around serenely. Constance
+Howard had, most humanly, neglected, so far as the teacher of mathematics
+permitted, the study that was hardest for her, her algebra. She now spent
+hours in "cramming" on this, meanwhile complaining to those of her
+special chums who would listen to her of "the unfairness of being made to
+study algebra."
+
+"I can add--with the use of my fingers--and subtract and divide and
+multiply--at least I know the tables up through the twelves. Of what use
+will a's and b's and x's, y's and z's ever be to me?"
+
+"Constance, you know that's nonsense," Bobby told her. "We're every one
+of us here because we want to play a bigger part in life than the
+two-plus-two-is-four people, and we've got to dig in and prepare
+ourselves. If you'd do your work when you ought to, you wouldn't be in
+such an upset state now."
+
+"Yes'm," grinned Constance, and went back to her belated work.
+
+Betty had found that her year away from school had made it hard for her
+to concentrate her mind on her studies, and while she had not
+deliberately neglected her work, as Constance had in her algebra, she had
+not always kept up to the highest pitch. She was working furiously now,
+with the tests to face so soon, and with it went the resolve to be more
+studious from day to day during the rest of the school year. The
+concentration was becoming easier, too, as the term advanced, and, the
+teaching at Shadyside being of the best, she felt sure she would feel
+that she had accomplished something by the end of the year.
+
+The Dramatic Club of Shadyside woke to ambition as the term progressed.
+Soon after the mid-term tests, which all the girls, even Constance,
+passed successfully, by dint of threat and bribery, each student was
+"tried out" and her ability duly catalogued.
+
+Betty liked to act, and proved to have a natural talent, while Bobby,
+professing a great love for things theatrical, was hopeless on the stage.
+Her efforts either moved her coaches to helpless laughter or caused them
+to retire in indignant tears.
+
+"She is--what you call it?--impossible!" sighed Madame, the French
+teacher, shaking her head after witnessing one rehearsal in which Bobby,
+as the villain, had convulsed the actors as well as the student audience.
+
+"Well then, I'll be a stage hand," declared Bobby, whose feelings
+were impervious to slights. "I'm going to have something to do with
+this play!"
+
+Ada Nansen was eager to be assigned a part--the players were chosen on
+merit--and she aspired modestly to the leading rôle, mainly because, the
+girls hinted, the heroine wore a red velvet dress with a train and a
+string of pearls.
+
+But Ada, it developed, was worse than Bobby as an actress. She was
+self-conscious, impatient of correction, and so arrogant toward the other
+players that even gentle Alice Guerin was roused to retort.
+
+"I haven't been assigned the maid's part yet!" she flashed, when Ada
+ordered her to remove several stage properties that were in the way.
+
+"Give it to her, Alice!" encouraged the mischievous Bobby. "That girl
+would ruffle an angel."
+
+Alice and Norma were both valuable additions to the Dramatic Club
+ranks. Norma especially proved to be a find, and she was given the
+hero's part after the first rehearsal while Alice was the heroine's
+mother. Betty, much to her surprise, was posted on the bulletin board
+as the "leading lady."
+
+Down toward the end of the list of the cast was Ada Nansen's name as
+"the maid."
+
+"She'll be furious," whispered Bobby. "Miss Anderson told Miss Sharpe,
+when she didn't think I could hear, that Ada wasn't really good enough to
+be the maid, but that they hoped she would sing for them between the
+acts. Miss Anderson said if they didn't let her have some part she'd be
+so sulky she wouldn't sing."
+
+A rehearsal was held in the gymnasium after school that afternoon, and as
+she went through her first act Betty was uncomfortably conscious of Ada's
+glowering eyes following her. When the cue was given for the maid, Ada
+did not move.
+
+"That's your cue, Ada," called Miss Anderson patiently.
+
+"I've resigned, Miss Anderson," said Ada clearly. "It's a little too
+much to ask me to play maid to two charity students."
+
+Norma and Alice shrank back, but Betty sprang forward.
+
+"How dare you!" she flared, white with rage. "How dare you say such a
+thing! It's untrue, and you know it. Even if it were so, you have no
+right to say such an outrageous thing."
+
+Betty was angrier than she had ever been in her life. She possessed a
+lively temper and was no meeker than she should be, but during the past
+summer she had learned to control herself fairly well. Ada's cruel taunt,
+directed with such a sneer at the Guerin sisters that every girl knew
+whom she meant, had sent Betty's temper to the boiling point.
+
+"Easy, easy, Betty," counseled Miss Anderson, putting an arm about the
+shaking girl. "You're not mending matters, you know."
+
+Then she turned to Ada, who was now rather frightened at what she had
+done. She had not meant to go so far.
+
+"Ada," said Miss Anderson sharply, "you will apologize immediately before
+these girls for the injustice you have done to two of them. What you have
+just said is nothing more nor less than a lie. I will not stoop to put my
+meaning in gentler phrases. Apologize to Norma and Alice at once."
+
+Ada set her lips obstinately. The teacher waited a moment.
+
+"I will give you just three minutes," she declared. "If at the end of
+that time you still refuse to obey me, I will send for Mrs. Eustice."
+
+Ada shuffled her feet uneasily. She had no fancy to meet Mrs. Eustice,
+whose friendship for the Guerins was well known. Mrs. Eustice had a
+hot white anger of her own that a pupil who once witnessed it could
+never forget.
+
+"Well, Ada?" came Miss Anderson's voice at the end of the three minutes.
+
+Ada hastily stumbled through a shame-faced apology, painful to listen
+to, and then, the angry tears running down her face, turned and dashed
+from the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+ANOTHER MYSTERY
+
+
+"Ready, Betty," said Miss Anderson briskly. "You enter at the left and
+begin 'I thought I heard voices--' Don't look toward the auditorium.
+Remember you are supposed to be in a small room."
+
+Betty managed to command her voice, and the rehearsal went on. Miss
+Anderson herself took the part of the maid and, as she had foreseen,
+by the time they had finished the hour they were in a normal, happy
+frame of mind.
+
+No reference was ever made by any one to Ada's speech, but she never
+appeared at another rehearsal. After two weeks' diligent practice, the
+players were pronounced perfect and a night was set for the performance
+of "The Violet Patchwork."
+
+"Why don't we go to the woods and get some leaves to trim the assembly
+hall?" suggested Betty two days before the time for the play. "Mrs.
+Eustice's sister is coming to see her, and some other guests, and we want
+it to look nice. We might get some nuts, too. Aunt Nancy promised us nut
+cake with ice cream if we'll get her enough."
+
+"All right, I like to go nutting," agreed Bobby. "But, for goodness'
+sake, if we're going to walk a hundred miles this time, let's have
+something to eat with us. Sandwiches and a regular spread. How many have
+boxes from home?"
+
+A canvass showed that a round dozen of the girls had been favored that
+week, and, at Bobby's suggestion, they donated their goodies to "the
+common cause."
+
+"Not all the girls will want to go," said Betty. "Some are such poor
+walkers, they'll decline at the first hint of a hike. Every one in the
+V.P. will want to go, I think, and that's eleven. Then, counting the
+girls with boxes and the others who have asked to come, we'll have
+twenty. Twenty of us ought to manage to bring home enough leaves to trim
+the hall respectably."
+
+"We might ask for a holiday!" Bobby's face beamed at the thought. "We
+haven't had a day off in weeks, and Mrs. Eustice said a long time ago she
+thought we'd earned one. Will you do the asking, Betty?"
+
+Betty was accustomed to "doing the asking," and she said she would once
+more if Norma Guerin would go with her. Wherever possible, Betty drew
+Norma into every school activity, and she persistently refused to allow
+her friend to talk as though the Christmas holidays would end their days
+at Shadyside. Alice worried less than Norma, but both girls grieved at
+the thought of the sacrifice those at home were making for them and felt
+that they could not accept it much longer without vigorous protest.
+
+Betty and Bobby, on the other hand, were determined to see to it that
+the sisters spent their holidays in Washington, and while Bobby
+cherished wild plans of filling a trunk with new dresses and hats and
+forcing it in some manner upon her chums, Betty concentrated her
+attention on the subject of cash. She intended to consult her uncle, in
+person if possible, and if that proved impossible, by letter, and Bob as
+to the feasibility of persuading Norma and Alice to borrow a sum
+sufficient to see them through to graduation day at Shadyside. Betty was
+sure her uncle and Bob, in both of whom she had infinite faith, could
+manage this difficult task satisfactorily, though the Guerin pride was a
+formidable obstacle.
+
+Acting immediately on the decision to ask for a holiday, Betty and Norma
+went down to the office and preferred their request, which was cordially
+granted after an explanation of its purpose.
+
+"All day to-morrow off!" shouted Betty, bursting in upon the six girls
+assembled to hear the result.
+
+"We may go after breakfast and needn't come back till four o'clock when
+Miss Anderson has called a dress rehearsal," chimed in Norma.
+
+Libbie and Louise were dispatched to notify the other girls and to
+give strict instructions to those who had boxes not to eat any more of
+the contents.
+
+"Elsie Taylor had already eaten six eclairs when I requisitioned her box
+for the picnic," said Constance Howard. "It's lucky we're going tomorrow,
+or there wouldn't be much left to eat."
+
+Betty and Bobby each had a box from Mrs. Littell, who sent packages of
+sensible goodies regularly to her girls in turn.
+
+"I hope the sandwiches will keep fresh enough," worried Betty.
+
+But she might have saved her worry.
+
+Just as she and Bobby were going to bed that night Norma and Alice came
+in, wrapped in their kimonos, each carrying a large box under her arm.
+
+"What do you suppose?" asked Norma. "Good old Aunt Nancy heard we were
+going after nuts for her cake and leaves for the hall, and she's made us
+dozens of sandwiches. She said she did it because Mrs. Eustice reserved
+one of the best seats for her at the play. Anyway, we'll be glad to have
+them, shan't we? And, oh yes, Aunt Nancy says she'll make us a cake as
+big as 'a black walnut tree' and two kinds of ice cream!"
+
+"And she brought the sandwiches up to Norma and Alice because she
+was determined they should have something for the picnic," thought
+Betty after the girls had gone. "Talk about tact! Aunt Nancy has the
+real thing."
+
+The girls were all up early the next morning, and soon after breakfast
+they were on their way to the woods. Many of those who were not of the
+nutting party went to Edentown, some took canoes and went paddling,
+others "puttered" around the school grounds, enjoying the beautiful
+autumn weather and the luxury of a holiday.
+
+Ada Nansen and her friends had elected to go to Edentown, and passed the
+nutting party on the way. Betty took one glance into the bus and then
+looked at Bobby. That young person promptly giggled.
+
+"Did you see what I saw?" she asked.
+
+"Poor Ada!" said Betty. "She does have troubles of her own!"
+
+For of all the teachers, Miss Prettyman alone had been available as
+chaperone, and to go to town under Miss Prettyman's eagle eye was
+anything but an exciting experience. She was usually bent on "improving"
+the minds of her charges, and she improved them with serene disregard of
+the victims' tastes and interests. Betty and Bobby had seen her sitting
+bolt upright in the bus, reading a thin volume of essays while Ada
+scowled at the happy crowd tramping in the road.
+
+The woods reached, they separated, some to gather branches of leaves and
+others intent on filling their sacks with nuts. The boxes of lunch were
+neatly piled under a tree, and sweaters were left with them, for it was
+comfortably warm even in the shadiest spots.
+
+"I don't believe we will have many more days like this," remarked Frances
+Martin, her nearsighted eyes peering into a hollow tree stump. "Girls,
+what have I found--a squirrel?"
+
+"Plain owl," laughed Betty. "Isn't he cunning?"
+
+They crowded around to admire the funny little creature, and then,
+admonished by Bobby, whom Constance declared would make a good drill
+sergeant, set busily to work again. Nuts were not plentiful, but they
+filled half a sack, and then, a large pile of flaming branches having
+been gathered, they decided to drag their spoils back to the tree and to
+have lunch.
+
+"Girls, girls, girls!" shrieked Libbie, who was in the lead, "our lunch
+is gone--every crumb of it!"
+
+Sure enough, the sweaters were all tossed about in confusion and the
+boxes had disappeared.
+
+"Who took it?" demanded Bobby wrathfully. "You needn't tell me that
+lunch walked off!"
+
+High and clear and shrill, a familiar whistle sounded back of them.
+
+"That's Bob!" Betty's face brightened. "Listen!"
+
+She gave an answering whistle, and Bob's sounded again.
+
+There was a scrambling among the bushes, and a group of cadets burst
+through. Bob and the Tucker twins were first, and after them came Gilbert
+Lane and Timothy Derby and Winifred Marion Brown.
+
+"Hello, anything the matter?" was Bob's greeting. "You look rather glum."
+
+"So would you," Betty informed him, "if you were starving after a
+morning's work and your lunch was stolen."
+
+"Gee, that is tough!" exclaimed Bob sympathetically. "Who stole it?"
+
+"We don't know," volunteered Bobby. "But all those boxes couldn't take
+wings and fly away."
+
+"You go back and get the fellows," Bob commanded Tommy Tucker. "We were
+having a potato roast down by the lake, and while the potatoes were
+baking some of us came up for more wood," he explained to the girls. "We
+thought we heard voices, and so I whistled."
+
+Tommy Tucker was flying down to the lake before half of this explanation
+was given.
+
+"Have you a holiday, too?" Betty asked. "We're out to get decorations for
+the play."
+
+"It's the colonel's birthday," explained Bob, "and the old boy gave us
+the day off. Here come the fellows."
+
+Half a dozen more cadets joined them, all boys the girls had met at the
+games. They were loud in their expressions of sympathy for the
+disappointed picnickers and promptly offered their potatoes as
+refreshments when they should be done.
+
+"Oh, we're going to get that lunch back," announced Bob Henderson
+confidently. "Look here!"
+
+He pointed to some footprints in a bit of muddy ground.
+
+"Cadet shoes!" cried Tommy Tucker. "Jimminy Crickets, I'll bet it's that
+Marshall Morgan and his crowd!"
+
+"But this is a girl's shoe," protested Betty, pointing to another print.
+"See the narrow toe?"
+
+"Ada Nansen or Ruth Royal!" guessed Bobby quickly. "They're the only ones
+who won't wear a sensible shoe."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+JUST DESERTS
+
+
+"Who," demanded Betty, "is Marshall Morgan?"
+
+"He's a pest," said Tommy, with characteristic frankness. "He has one
+mission in life, and that is to plague those unfortunates who have to be
+under the same roof with him. He never does anything on a large scale,
+but then a mosquito can drive you crazy, you know."
+
+"Dear me, he ought to know Ada," rejoined Bobby. "Perhaps he does. She is
+a pestess, if there is such a word."
+
+"There isn't," Betty assured her. "Anyway, this won't get our lunch back.
+What are you going to do, Bob?"
+
+"A little Indian work," was Bob's reply. "We'll send out scouts to locate
+the thieves and then we'll surround them and let the consequences fall."
+
+"I'll be a consequence," declared Bobby vindictively. "I'll fall on Ada
+with such force she'll think an avalanche has struck her."
+
+Bob sent some of the boys to trace the steps, and while they were gone
+outlined his plans to the others. Once they knew where the marauders
+were, they were to spread out fan-shape and swoop down upon the enemy.
+
+"I figure they'll get a safe distance away and then stop to eat the
+lunch," said Bob. "It is hardly likely that they will take the stuff back
+to school with them."
+
+"But Ada went to Edentown," protested Libbie. "We saw her in the bus,
+didn't we, girls? And Ruth, too."
+
+"They could easily come back in the same bus," said Betty. "Indeed, I'm
+willing to wager that is just what they did. Miss Prettyman as a
+chaperone probably killed any desire Ada had to go shopping."
+
+The scouts came back after fifteen or twenty minutes to report that they
+had discovered the invaders camped under a large oak tree and preparing
+to open the boxes.
+
+"They were laughing and saying how they'd put one over on you," said
+Gilbert Lane.
+
+"Well, they won't laugh long," retorted Bob grimly. "How many are there?"
+
+"Marshall Morgan, Jim Cronk, the Royce boys, all three of 'em, Hilbert
+Mitchell and George Timmins," named Gilbert, using his fingers as an
+adding machine. "Then there are nine girls."
+
+"Has one of them a brown velvet hat with a pink rose at the front and
+brown gaiters and mink furs and a perfectly lovely velvet handbag?" asked
+Betty. "And did you see a girl with black pumps and white silk stockings
+and a blue tricotine dress embroidered with crystal beads?"
+
+The boys looked bewildered.
+
+"Don't believe we did," admitted Gilbert regretfully. "But one of 'em
+called a skinny girl 'Ada' and somebody is named 'Gladys.'"
+
+"Never mind the clothes," Bobby told him gratefully. "We knew those two
+were mixed up in this."
+
+They started cautiously, mindful of Bob's instructions not to make a
+noise, and succeeded, after ten or fifteen minutes creeping, in getting
+within hearing distance of the despoilers.
+
+"You girls will have to tend to your friends," grinned Bob. "You can't
+expect us to discipline them. But we'll give the boys something to
+remember!"
+
+The party spread out, and at his signal whistle they sprang forward,
+shouting like wild Indians. Straight for the oak tree they charged and
+closed in on the group beneath it. Those seated there rose to their feet
+in genuine alarm.
+
+"Rush 'em!" shouted Bob.
+
+Pushing and scrambling, those in the attacking party began to force the
+others down the narrow path. The boys were struggling desperately and
+the girls were resisting as best they could and some were crying.
+
+"Let us out!" wept Ada. "Ow! You're stepping on me! Let us out!"
+
+She kicked blindly, and fought with her hands. The first person she
+grasped was Ruth, who was nearly choked before she could jerk her fur
+collar free.
+
+"I will get out!" panted Ada. "Push, girls!"
+
+The circle opened for them, and following Ada they dashed through
+straight into a tangle of blackberry bushes. Half mad with rage and blind
+from excitement they ploughed their way through, fighting the bushes as
+though they were flesh and blood arms held out to stop them. When they
+were clear of the thicket their clothes were in tatters and their faces
+and hands scratched and bleeding cruelly.
+
+There was nothing for them to do but to go back to the school and try to
+invent a plausible story for their condition. All the cold cream in the
+handsome glass jars on Ada's dressing table could not heal her smarting
+face and thoughts that night.
+
+Bob and his friends continued on their resolute way, pushing the luckless
+cadets before them. Once out of the woods, they seized them by the jacket
+collars and rushed them down to the lake and into the icy waters. They
+generously allowed them to come out after a few minutes immersion, and
+the sorry, dripping crew began the long run that would bring them to dry
+clothes and, it is to be hoped, mended ways.
+
+"Now the potatoes are done," Bob reported, after examining the oven
+hollowed out and lined with stones. "Why not combine forces and eat?"
+
+Every one was famished, and they found plenty of good things left in the
+boxes. The uninvited guests could not have had those packages open long
+before they were overtaken.
+
+After a hearty picnic meal the boys helped the girls gather up their
+branches and walked with them to the point where their boats were tied.
+They had rowed over because of the attraction of the woods--Salsette
+being located on the flat side of the lake--and now they must go back for
+the afternoon drill that was never omitted even for such an important
+occasion as the colonel's birthday.
+
+Ada and her chums did not come down to dinner that night, and so did not
+help with the decorating of the hall. That was pronounced an unqualified
+success, as was the performance of "The Violet Patchwork" the following
+night and the nut cake and the chocolate and the pistache ice-cream that
+was served at the close.
+
+Both audience and players were treated to two surprises in the course of
+the evening. Bobby was responsible for one and, much to the astonishment
+of the school, Ada Nansen and Constance Howard for the other.
+
+True to her promise, the dauntless Bobby had accepted the humble rôle of
+stage hand rather than have no part in the play, and she trundled scenery
+with right good will and acted as Miss Anderson's right hand in a mood of
+unfailing good humor. There was not an atom of envy in Bobby's character,
+and she thought Betty the most wonderful actress she had ever seen.
+
+"You look lovely in that dress," she said, as Betty stood awaiting her
+cue at the opening of the second act.
+
+Betty smiled, took her cue and walked on the stage.
+
+A ripple of laughter that grew to hilarity greeted her after the first
+puzzled moment.
+
+"Oh, oh!" cried Madame hysterically, in the wings. "See, that Bobby! Some
+one call her! She is walking with the tree!"
+
+The rather primitive arrangements of the background provided for the play
+called for a girl to stand behind each tree in the formal garden scene as
+support. In her admiration of Betty, Bobby had unconsciously edged after
+her to keep her in sight, and the startled audience saw the heroine being
+persistently pursued by a pretty boxwood tree. Bobby was recalled to
+herself, the tree became rooted in its place, and "The Violet Patchwork"
+proceeded smoothly.
+
+Between the third and fourth acts, the lights went out at a signal and
+to the general surprise--for the players had known nothing of what was
+to come--a velvety voice rolled out in the darkness singing the words
+of "A Maid in a Garden Green," a song a great singer had made popular
+that season.
+
+"It's Ada," whispered the school with a rustle of delight. "No one else
+can sing like that."
+
+They encored her heartily, and she responded. Then the lights flared up
+and died down again for the last act.
+
+"Constance got her to do it," whispered Betty to Bobby. "I heard Miss
+Anderson telling Miss Sharpe. Ada's face is so scratched she couldn't, or
+rather wouldn't, show herself, and Constance said why not sing in the
+dark the way they do at the movies? That tickled Ada--who'd like to be a
+movie actress, Connie says--and she said she would."
+
+"Constance Howard has a way with her," remarked Bobby sagely. "Any one
+that can persuade Ada Nansen to do anything nice is qualified to take a
+diplomatic post in Thibet."
+
+Soon after the play the weather turned colder and skating and coasting
+became popular topics of conversation. There was not much ice-skating,
+as a rule, in that section of the country, but snow was to be expected,
+and more than one girl had secret aspirations to go from the top of the
+hill back of the school as far as good fortune would take her.
+
+"Coasting?" Ada Nansen had sniffed when the subject was mentioned to her.
+"Why, that's for children! Girls of our ages don't go coasting. Now at
+home, my brother has an ice-boat--that's real sport."
+
+"Well, Ada, I suppose you think I'm old enough to be your grandmother,"
+said Miss Anderson, laughing. "I wonder what you'll say when I tell you
+that I still enjoy a good coast? If you girls who think you are too old
+to play in the snow would only get outdoors more you wouldn't complain of
+so many headaches."
+
+But Ada refused to be mollified, and she remained indifferent to the
+shrieks of delight that greeted the first powdering of snow. Thanksgiving
+morning saw the first flakes.
+
+The holiday was happily celebrated at Shadyside, very few of the girls
+going home. Mrs. Eustice preferred to add the time to the Christmas
+vacation, and the girls had found that this plan added to their
+enjoyment. Aunt Nancy and her assistants fairly outdid themselves on the
+dinner, and that alone would have made the day memorable for those with
+good appetites, and where is the school girl who does not like to eat?
+
+The Dramatic Club gave another play to which the Salsette boys were
+invited as a special treat, and a little dance followed the play.
+
+"You're a great little actress, Betty," Bob told her when he came to
+claim the first dance. "I'm almost willing to let you steer the new
+bobsled the first time it snows."
+
+The bobsled, built by Bob and his chums, was an object of admiration to
+half of Salsette Academy. It was large and roomy and promised plenty of
+speed. The boys, of course, were wild to try it, and Betty and Bobby, who
+had been promised one of the first rides, joined them in earnestly
+wishing for snow. Betty had a sled of her own, too, a graceful, light
+affair her uncle had sent her.
+
+The desired snow did not come for several days. Instead the weather grew
+still and cold and the girls were glad to stay indoors and work on their
+lessons or on things they were making for Christmas gifts.
+
+"You may not have much money to spend, Norma," remarked Bobby one
+afternoon, "but then you don't need it. Just look at the things you can
+do with a crochet hook and a knitting needle."
+
+Norma, bent over a pretty lace pattern, flushed a little.
+
+"I'd like to be able to give grandma the things she needs far more than a
+lace collar," she said quietly.
+
+Betty knew that Mrs. Macklin was still in the Philadelphia hospital.
+Every letter from Glenside now meant "a spell of the blues" for Norma,
+who was beginning to have dark circles under her eyes. She looked as
+though she might lie awake at night and plan.
+
+When the girls put away their books and their sewing to go down to
+dinner, a few uncertain feathery flakes were softly sifting down and late
+that night it began to snow in earnest, promising perfect coasting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+BETTY GOES COASTING
+
+
+It did seem a shame that lessons should be as exacting as ever when
+outside the trees bent beneath their white burden and eager eyes were
+fixed longingly on the hill back of the school.
+
+"You can't coast through the woods, anyway, Betty," Libbie whispered in
+the French period. "You may be a wonder, but how can you go through the
+tree stumps?"
+
+"Don't intend to," whispered back Betty. "There's a cleared space in
+there--I'll show you."
+
+"Young ladies, if you please--" suggested Madame politely, and the girls
+jerked their thoughts back to translation.
+
+The moment lessons were over that afternoon, they dashed for their sleds.
+The eight who chummed together had four sleds between them which was
+enough for the enjoyment of all. Constance Howard had seen so little snow
+in her life spent in California that she was very much excited about it
+and had bought her sled in August to be ready for the first fall. Bobby
+had been to Edentown and bought a little toy affair, the best she could
+get there, and Frances Martin had sent home for her big, comfortable
+Vermont-made sled that made up in dependability what it lacked in varnish
+and polish. Counting Betty's, this gave them four sleds.
+
+There was a conventional hill half a mile away from the school, toward
+which most of the girls turned their steps. On the first afternoon it was
+crowded. The Salsette cadets had come coasting, too, for on their side of
+the lake there was not so much as a mound of earth, and whoever would
+coast must perforce cross the lake.
+
+"We'll go up to the woods," announced Betty. "There will be more room,
+and it's much more exciting to go down a steep hill."
+
+So it proved. The cleared space to which Betty had referred demanded
+careful steering, and Frances Martin at the first glance relinquished the
+control of her sled.
+
+"I can't judge distances," she explained, touching her glasses, "and
+I'd be sure to steer straight for a tree. Libbie, you'll have to be
+the skipper."
+
+So Libbie took Frances, Betty took Bobby, Constance took Norma on her
+sled, and Alice steered for Louise, using Bobby's sled.
+
+Such shrieks of laughter, such wild spills! If Ada Nansen had been there
+to see she would certainly have been confirmed in her statement that
+coasting was "for children." They were coming down for the sixth time
+when Bob Henderson, the Tucker twins and Timothy Derby appeared.
+
+"We thought we'd find you here!" was Bob's greeting. "Trust Betty to pick
+out a mystic maze for her coasting. It's a wonder some of you girls
+haven't shot down into Indian Chasm!"
+
+"Well, I like a steep coast," said Betty defensively. "I wouldn't give a
+cent a hundred for a little short coast down a gentle slope. Want me to
+take you down on my sled, Bob?"
+
+"I don't believe I do, thank you just the same," returned Bob politely.
+"Six of you can pile on the bob, though, and I'll give you a thrilling
+ride, safety guaranteed. Who wants to come?"
+
+It ended by all taking turns, and by that time it was half-past four and
+they must start back to school.
+
+"I'm coming to-morrow," declared Betty. "I think winter is the nicest
+time of the whole year."
+
+"You say that of every season," criticised Bobby. "Besides, I think it
+will rain to-morrow; it is much warmer than when we came out."
+
+Bobby proved a good weather prophet for the next day was warmer and
+cloudy, and when lessons for the day were over at half-past two, a fine
+drizzle had begun to fall.
+
+"Just the same I'm going," persisted Betty, pulling on her rubbers and
+struggling into a heavier sweater. "The snow hasn't all melted, and
+there will be enough for a good coast. I think you're a lazy bunch to
+want to stay cooped up in here and knit. A little fresh air would be good
+for you, Norma."
+
+"I've a cold," said Norma, in explanation of her red eyes. "Anyway, I
+don't feel like playing around outdoors. And Alice has gone to bed with a
+headache and I'd rather not leave her."
+
+Some had studying to do and others refused to be moved from their fancy
+work, so Betty and her sled finally set off alone. She knew, of course,
+that Norma's red eyes were the result of crying, as was Alice's headache.
+They had definitely decided the night before that they would not return
+to Shadyside after the Christmas holidays.
+
+"I think this is a funny world," scolded Betty to herself, as she reached
+her favorite hill and put her sled in position. "Here are Norma and
+Alice, the kind of girls Mrs. Eustice is proud to have represent the
+school, and they can't afford to take a full course and graduate. And Ada
+Nansen, who is everything the ideals of Shadyside try to combat, has
+oceans of money and every prospect of staying. She'll probably take a
+P.G. course!"
+
+A wild ride through the slushy snow made Betty feel better, and when, as
+she dragged the sled up again, Bob's whistle sounded, the last trace of
+her resentment vanished.
+
+"Something told me you'd be out hunting a sore throat to-day," declared
+Bob, in mock-disapproval. "The fellows all said there wouldn't be enough
+snow to hold up a sparrow."
+
+"Silly things!" dimpled Betty. "There's plenty of snow for a good coast.
+Take me, Bob?"
+
+"Well, if you'll come on over where there's a decent hill," Bob
+assented. "With only two on the bob, we want to get some grade. Here,
+I'll stick your sled in between these two trees and you can get it when
+we come back."
+
+Together they pulled the heavy bobsled up the hill and crossed over the
+hollow, taking a wagon trail that led up over another hill.
+
+"It's a long walk," admitted Bob, panting. "But wait till you see the
+ride we're going to get."
+
+They reached the top of Pudding Hill presently, and Betty looked down
+over a rolling expanse of white country covered closely by a lowering
+gray sky that looked, she said to herself, like the lid of a soup kettle.
+
+"Bully coast!" exclaimed Bob with satisfaction, swinging the bodsled into
+position. "All ready, Betsey?"
+
+"Just a minute," begged Betty, with a delightful little shiver of
+excitement as she tucked in her skirts and pulled her soft hat further
+over her eyes. "Ye-s, now I guess I'm fixed."
+
+They started. The wind sang in their ears and sharp particles of snow
+flew up to sting their faces. Zip! they had taken one hill, and the
+gallant bobsled gathered momentum. Betty clung tightly to Bob.
+
+"All right?" he shouted, without turning his head.
+
+"It's fine!" shrieked Betty. "It takes my breath away, but I love it!"
+
+The bobsled seemed fairly to leap the series of gentle slopes that lay at
+the foot of the long hill, and for every rise Betty and Bob received a
+bump that would have jarred the bones of less enthusiastic sportsmen.
+Then, suddenly, they were in the hollow, and the next thing they knew
+Betty lay breathless in a soft snow bank and Bob found himself flat on
+his back a few feet away. The sled had overturned with them.
+
+"Betty! are you hurt?" cried Bob, scrambling to his feet. "Here, don't
+struggle! I'll have you out in a jiffy."
+
+He pulled her from the bank of snow and helped her shake her garments
+free from the white flakes.
+
+"I'm not hurt a bit, not even scratched," she assured him. "Wasn't that a
+spill, though? The first thing I knew I was sailing through space, and
+I'm thankful I landed in soft snow. Where's the sled? Oh, over there!"
+
+"Want to quit?" asked Bob, as she began to help him right the overturned
+sled. "We can walk over to where we left your sled, you know, Betty."
+
+"And miss the coast?" said Betty scornfully. "Well, not much, Bob
+Henderson. It takes more than one upset to make me give up coasting."
+
+She seated herself behind Bob again, and with a touch of his foot they
+began the descent of the second hill. The snow had melted more here, and
+in some spots the covering was very thin. Bob found the task of steering
+really difficult.
+
+"I don't think much of this," he began to say, but at the second word the
+bobsled struck a huge root, the riders were pitched forward, and for one
+desperate moment they clung to the scrubby undergrowth that bordered what
+they supposed was the side of the road.
+
+Then their hold loosened and they fell.
+
+Slipping, sliding, tumbling, rolling, a confused sound of Bob's shouts in
+her ears, Betty closed her eyes and only opened them when she found that
+she was stationary again. She had no idea of where she was, nor of how
+far she had fallen.
+
+"Bob?" she called timidly at first, and then in terror. "Bob!"
+
+"Look behind you," said Bob's familiar voice.
+
+Betty turned her head, and there was Bob, grinning at her placidly. His
+cap was gone and several buttons were ripped bodily from his mackinaw,
+but he did not seem to be injured and when he pulled Betty to her feet,
+that young person found that she, too, was unhurt.
+
+"What happened?" she asked. "Where are we?"
+
+"The bobsled balked," explained Bob cheerfully. "Guess it knew where we
+were heading for better than I did. Anyway, you and I took a double
+header that was a beauty. If you want to see where we came down, just
+look up there."
+
+Betty followed the direction of his finger and saw a trail gashed in the
+snow, a trail that twisted and turned down the steep, forbidding sides
+of a frowning gorge. Was it possible that they had fallen so far and
+escaped injury?
+
+"Know where you are?" asked Bob, watching her.
+
+Betty shook her head.
+
+"I must have been away off the road," explained Bob. "Betsey, you and I
+are standing at the bottom of Indian Chasm."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE TREASURE
+
+
+Indian Chasm!
+
+Betty stared at Bob in dismay. Afterward she confessed that her first
+thought was of Indians who might capture them.
+
+"Indian Chasm," repeated Bob firmly. "Come on, Betty, we mustn't stand
+here. If you once get cold, there's no way to warm you up. We must walk,
+and try to find a way out."
+
+Betty stumbled after him, her mind a bewildered maze. She could not yet
+grasp the explanation that Bob, turned about by their spill in the
+hollow, had followed an old trail instead of the hill road. The trail had
+led straight to the border of the chasm.
+
+Bob ploughed along, head bent, a heavy sense of responsibility keeping
+him silent. He knew better than Betty the difficulties that in all
+probability lay before them.
+
+He glanced back at Betty, wearily toiling after him.
+
+"Want to rest a moment?" he suggested. "Sit on that rock till you begin
+to feel chilly."
+
+Betty accepted the suggestion gratefully. She was very tired and she was
+hungry. Her rubbers had been torn on the stones she had encountered in
+her fall and her shoes were damp.
+
+"What a funny rock," she said idly.
+
+It was a huge slab that had once been a part of another huge rock
+which still stood upright. Some force of nature had slit the two like
+a piece of paper--from the looks of it, the break was a recent
+one--and had forced a section outward, making it look like a wall
+about to topple over.
+
+Rested a little, Betty rose and walked around to the other side of the
+rock on which she sat, moved by an impulse of curiosity. She went close
+to the rock that stood upright like a sentinel.
+
+"What's the matter?" called Bob as she started back.
+
+"I--I thought I kicked against something," answered Betty. "There, did
+you hear that?"
+
+"Something clinked," admitted Bob. "Wait, I'll help you look."
+
+He ran around to her and together they began to dig in the snow and
+dead leaves.
+
+"Bob! Bob!" Betty's voice rose in delight. "Look!"
+
+She held up a small rusty iron box that, as she tilted it, yawned to
+disgorge a shower of gold coins.
+
+"The Macklin treasure! We've found it!" cried Betty, beginning to dig
+like an excited terrier. "Help me hunt, Bob! It must be Mrs. Macklin's
+treasure, mustn't it?"
+
+"Looks that way," admitted Bob.
+
+As he spoke he drew something from under the shadow of the rock that
+settled the question immediately. Something that sparkled and glittered
+and slipped through his cold red fingers like glass.
+
+"The emeralds!" breathed Betty. "Oh, Bob, aren't they beautiful!"
+
+"Look, Betty! That slab was forced outward not long ago. Before that this
+treasure was concealed in a narrow crack between the two rocks. That's
+why no one was able to find it when the search was made soon after the
+loss! Isn't it great that we have found it?"
+
+In a frenzy now, they dug, and when there seemed to be nothing more
+hidden under the accumulation of dirt and leaves, the two stared at each
+other in delighted amazement. At their feet lay little jewel bags
+containing the pearls of which Norma had talked, the rose topazes, the
+dozen cameos. Magnificent diamonds sparkled in a rusty case, ear-rings
+and rings lay in a little heap, and a handful of uncut stones was wrapped
+in a bit of chamois skin. Solid silver pitchers and goblets and trays,
+sadly battered by being flung against the rocks, lay just as they had
+fallen until Bob and Betty had uncovered the leaves which, had so long
+covered them.
+
+"How are we going to get it out of here?" asked Betty, when they had
+satisfied themselves there was nothing left undiscovered.
+
+"That's the pressing question," confessed Bob. "Incidentally, we have to
+get ourselves out, too. I think we'd better walk on a bit, and look for
+some trail out. One lucky thing, no one will take the treasure while
+we're scouting."
+
+"Where do you suppose that goes to?" said Betty, when they had been
+tramping about five minutes.
+
+She pointed to a rocky formation that led off into the side of the chasm.
+It was evidently the mouth of a cave.
+
+"I don't know, of course," admitted Bob. "But I think we had better take
+a chance and follow it. It will be dark, but so will the chasm in another
+half hour. I'll go first and you come after me."
+
+It was inky black in the cave, and there was no assurance that it would
+lead them anywhere and every prospect that they would have to retrace
+their steps. He was careful to hint nothing of this to Betty, however,
+and she, on her part, determinedly stifled any complaint of weariness
+that rose to her lips.
+
+It was an experience they both remembered all their lives--that slow,
+halting groping through the winding cavern, where the rocky walls
+narrowed or widened without warning and the roof rose to great heights or
+dropped so low they must crawl on hands and knees. The thought of the
+found treasure sustained them and gave them courage to keep on.
+
+"I see a light!" cried Bob after what seemed to Betty hours of this.
+"Betty, I do believe we've come to an opening!"
+
+The pin-spot of light grew and broadened, and, as they approached it,
+they saw it was the winter sky. The sun was setting, for the clouds had
+cleared, and never was a sight half so beautiful to the anxious eyes that
+rested on it. What did it matter that they were miles from the school, or
+that both were wet and cold and tired to the point of collapse? Just to
+get out of that awful chasm was enough.
+
+"I'll go get your sled and pack the stuff on that," proposed Bob, "I
+don't suppose it would hurt to leave it there all night, but somehow I
+can't. Will you go on ahead, Betty? You're so tired."
+
+"I'm going back with you," said Betty firmly. "I couldn't rest one
+minute, knowing you were crawling through that awful cave again. Oh, yes,
+I'm coming with you, Bob--you needn't shake your head like that."
+
+Bob realized that it was useless to try to persuade her to go on to the
+school alone. His common sense told him that it would be wiser to leave
+the treasure where it was and come after it the next day, but common
+sense does not always win out. It was actually impossible for Bob or
+Betty to abandon the Macklin fortune now that they had found it.
+
+Bob found Betty's sled, after some search, where they had left it
+between two trees, and together they began to thread the tortuous maze
+of the cave again, Bob going ahead and dragging the sled after him.
+Betty thought despairingly that she had never known what it meant to be
+tired before.
+
+"I'll wrap the little things in my middy tie," she said when they came
+out in the chasm at last and found the heap of treasure where they had
+piled it, "and we can fasten down the rest of the stuff with the belt
+from my coat."
+
+Their fingers were stiff with cold, but they managed to get everything on
+the sled and lash it securely with a rope and the leather belt from
+Betty's coat. Then, once more, they started back through the cave.
+
+The sled was heavy and the way seemed twice as long as the first time
+they had followed it, but they kept doggedly on. It was dark when they
+emerged on the familiar hillside.
+
+"Sit on the sled, and I'll pull you, Betty," offered Bob, looking a
+little anxiously at his companion's white face.
+
+But Betty resolutely refused, and she trotted beside him all the way,
+helping to pull the sled, till the gray buildings of Shadyside loomed up
+before them.
+
+She insisted that Bob must come in with her, and they told their story to
+Mrs. Eustice, breathlessly and disconnectedly, to be sure, but the rope
+of emeralds and the gleaming diamonds filled in all gaps in the
+narrative. Before she went to sleep Betty had the satisfaction of knowing
+that Norma and Alice had been told the good news and that a telegram was
+speeding off to the home folks.
+
+The discovery and recovery of the missing treasure created a wave of
+excitement when it became generally known. A few girls, who valued
+worldly possessions above everything else, made overtures of friendship
+to the sisters whom previously they had ignored. Their old friends
+heartily rejoiced with them and Norma and Alice went about in a dream of
+bliss compounded of joy for their grandmother and parents, plans for new
+frocks and the proposed holiday trip to Washington.
+
+"It's the nicest thing that ever happened," Betty wrote her uncle. "Now
+Norma and Alice can graduate from Shadyside, and Grandma Macklin can
+spend the rest of the winter in Florida and dear Doctor and Mrs. Guerin
+can doctor and nurse half the county for nothing, if they please."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Doctor Guerin and his wife wrote that Norma and Alice should go happily
+with the Littell girls for a visit and forget the "no longer depressing
+question of finances." Both Doctor and Mrs. Guerin were enthusiastic in
+their praise of Betty and Bob, who began to feel that too much was made
+of their lucky discovery, especially when, at the direction of Mrs.
+Macklin, the Macklin family's old lawyer (who had taken charge of the
+recovered treasure and appraised it at nearly twice its value when lost)
+sent Betty a pair of the diamond earrings and Bob one of the priceless
+old silver platters.
+
+"But you not only found it, you went through a lot to bring it to us,"
+said Norma affectionately. "No, Betty, you and Bob can't wriggle out of
+being thanked."
+
+The finding of the treasure was not the last of Betty's adventures. What
+happened to her and her chums the following summer will be related in the
+next volume of this series.
+
+The remaining days of the term fairly flew, and almost before they
+realized it, school closed for the Christmas holidays. A merry party
+boarded the train for the Junction, where they could make connections for
+Washington, one crisp, sunny December morning.
+
+"Every one here?" demanded Bobby Littell. "I don't want to run the risk
+of arriving home short a guest or two."
+
+"I'm willing to be kidnapped," suggested Tommy Tucker, who knew the story
+of Betty's first meeting with Bobby.
+
+Both girls laughed, and Betty was still smiling as she held out her
+ticket to the conductor.
+
+"Have a good time, young 'uns," chirped the grizzled little man cheerily.
+"Only one thing's more fun than goin' to school, and that's goin' home
+from school for a spell of play."
+
+And with this happy prospect before her, let us leave Betty Gordon.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Betty Gordon at Boarding School, by Alice Emerson
+
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+
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diff --git a/old/10317-8.zip b/old/10317-8.zip
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+++ b/old/10317.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5976 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Betty Gordon at Boarding School, by Alice Emerson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Betty Gordon at Boarding School
+       The Treasure of Indian Chasm
+
+Author: Alice Emerson
+
+Release Date: November 27, 2003 [EBook #10317]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+                    Betty Gordon at Boarding School
+
+                                  OR
+
+                     The Treasure of Indian Chasm
+
+                          BY ALICE B. EMERSON
+
+                                 1921
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+     I NEW PLANS
+
+    II NORMA'S LETTER
+
+   III SURPRISING BOB
+
+    IV MORE GOOD-BYES
+
+     V A REGULAR CROSS-PATCH
+
+    VI FINE FEATHERS
+
+   VII FUN AT FAIRFIELDS
+
+  VIII TOO MUCH PARTY
+
+    IX ADJUSTER TOMMY
+
+     X SHADYSIDE SCHOOL
+
+    XI FIRST IMPRESSIONS
+
+   XII THE LOST TREASURE
+
+  XIII THE MYSTERIOUS FOUR
+
+   XIV A SATURDAY RACE
+
+    XV NORMA MAKES REPAIRS
+
+   XVI THE NUTTING PARTY
+
+  XVII CAUGHT IN THE STORM
+
+ XVIII LIBBIE'S SECRET
+
+   XIX BOB'S SOLUTION
+
+    XX THE SECOND DEGREE
+
+   XXI DRAMATICS
+
+  XXII ANOTHER MYSTERY
+
+ XXIII JUST DESERTS
+
+  XXIV BETTY GOES COASTING
+
+   XXV THE TREASURE
+
+
+
+
+BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+NEW PLANS
+
+
+"Me make you velly nice apple tart. Miss Betty." The Chinese cook
+flourished his rolling pin with one hand and swung his apron viciously
+with the other as he held open the screen door and swept out some
+imaginary flies.
+
+Lee Chang, cook for the bunk house in the oil fields, could do several
+things at one time, as he had frequently proved.
+
+The girl, who was watching a wiry little bay horse contentedly crop grass
+that grew in straggling whisps about the fence posts, looked up and
+showed an even row of white teeth as she smiled.
+
+"I don't think we're going to stay for dinner to-day," she said half
+regretfully. "I know your apple tarts, Lee Chang--they are delicious."
+
+The fat Chinaman closed the screen door and went on with his pastry
+making. From time to time, as he passed from the table to the oven, he
+glanced out. Betty Gordon still stood watching the horse.
+
+"That Bob no come?" inquired Lee Chang, poking his head out of the door
+again. Fast developing into a good American, his natural trait of
+curiosity gave him the advantage of acquiring information blandly and
+with ease.
+
+Betty shaded her eyes with her hand. The Oklahoma sun was pitiless. Far
+up the road that ran straight away from the bunk house a faint cloud of
+dust was rising.
+
+"He's coming now," said the girl confidently.
+
+Lee Chang grunted and returned to his work, satisfied that whatever Betty
+was waiting for would soon be at hand.
+
+"Bake tart 'fore that boy goes away," the Chinaman muttered to himself,
+waddling hastily to the oven, opening it, and closing the door again with
+a satisfied sniff.
+
+The cloud of dust whirled more madly, rose higher. Out from the center of
+it finally emerged a raw-boned white horse that galloped with amazing
+awkwardness and incredible speed. Astride him sat a slim, tanned youth
+with eyes as blue as Betty Gordon's were dark.
+
+"Got something for you!" he called, waving his arm in the motion of
+lasso-throwing. "Catch if you can!"
+
+"Oh, don't!" cried Betty eagerly. "What is it, Bob? Be careful or you'll
+break it."
+
+Bob Henderson reined in his mount and slipped to the ground. The white
+horse contentedly went to munching dry blades of dusty grass.
+
+"Bob, I do believe you've been silly," said Betty, trying to speak
+severely and failing completely because her dimple would deepen
+distractingly. "You know I told you not to do it."
+
+"How do you know what I've done?" demanded Bob, placing a square
+package in the girl's hands. "Don't scold till you know what you're
+scolding about."
+
+Betty, busy with the cord and paper, paused.
+
+"Oh, Bob!" she beamed, her vivid face glowing with a new thought.
+"What do you think? I had a letter yesterday from Bobby Littell, and
+she's going to boarding school. And, Bob, so am I! Uncle Dick says so.
+And, Bob--"
+
+"Yes?" smiled Bob, thinking how the girl's face changed as she talked.
+"Go on, Betty."
+
+"Well, Louise is going, too, and they think Libbie will come down
+from Vermont. Dear old Libbie--I wonder if she is as incurably
+romantic as ever!"
+
+Betty's fingers had worked mechanically while she spoke, and now she had
+her parcel undone.
+
+"Why, Bob Henderson!" she gasped, as she drew out a handsome white box
+tied with pale blue ribbons and encased in waxed paper.
+
+"I hope they're not stale," said Bob diffidently.
+
+Betty slit the waxed paper and took off the box lid, revealing a
+perfectly packed box of expensive chocolates.
+
+"They're beautiful," she declared. "But I never dreamed you would send
+East for 'em simply because I happened to say I was hungry for good
+candy. Um--um--taste one quick, Bob."
+
+Bob took a caramel and pronounced it not "half bad."
+
+"Uncle Dick's gone somewhere with Dave Thorne," announced Betty, biting
+into another candy. "He didn't know when he would get back, and I'm
+supposed to ride to the Watterby farm for lunch. It must be after
+eleven now."
+
+"Miss Betty!" Lee Chang's voice was persuasive. "Miss Betty, that apple
+tart he all baked done now."
+
+"Apple tart?" shouted Bob. "Show me, Lee Chang! I'd rather have a corner
+of your pie than all the candy in New York."
+
+"Him for Miss Betty," said the Chinaman gravely.
+
+"But you don't care if I give Bob some, do you?" returned Betty
+coaxingly. "See, Lee Chang, Bob gave me these. You take some, and we'll
+eat the tart on our way home."
+
+Lee Chang's wish was fulfilled when he placed the flaky tart in
+Betty's hands, and he took a candy or two (which he privately
+considered rather poor stuff) and watched the girl no longer. From now
+on till dinner time Lee Chang's whole attention would be concentrated
+on the preparation of an excellent dinner for the men who worked that
+section of the oil fields.
+
+"I don't believe I can ride and eat this, after all," decided Betty.
+"Let's sit down on the grass and finish it; Clover hasn't finished her
+lunch, either."
+
+The little bay horse and the tall, shambling white were amiably straying
+up and down the narrow borders of the road, never getting very far away.
+
+"You haven't said a single word about my going to boarding school, Bob,"
+Betty said, dropping down comfortably on the dusty grass and breaking the
+tart across into two nearly even pieces. "There--take your pie. Don't you
+think I'll have fun with the Littell girls?"
+
+"You'll have a lark, but I'm not so sure about the teachers," declared
+Bob enthusiastically, an odd little smile quivering on his lips. "With
+you and Bobby Littell about, I doubt if the school knows a dull moment."
+
+"Bobby is so funny," dimpled Betty. "She writes that if Libbie comes, her
+aunt expects Bobby to look after her. Wait a minute and I'll read you
+that part--" Betty took a letter from the pocket of her blouse.
+"Listen--
+
+"Aunt Elizabeth has written mother that she hopes I will keep an eye on
+Libbie. Now Betty, can you honestly see me trailing around after that
+girl who sees a romance in every bush and book and who cries when any one
+plays violin music? I'll look after her all right--she'll have to study
+French instead of poetry if I'm to be her friend and guide."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"But, of course, Bobby does really love Libbie very dearly," said Betty,
+folding up the letter and returning it to her pocket. "She wouldn't hurt
+her for worlds."
+
+"You'll be a much better guardian for Libbie, if she needs one,"
+pronounced Bob, with unexpected shrewdness. "Bobby hasn't much tact,
+and she makes Libbie mad. You could probably control her better with
+less words."
+
+"Well, I never!" gasped Betty, gazing at Bob with new respect. "I never
+knew you thought anything about it."
+
+"Didn't until just now," responded Bob cheerfully. "So Uncle Dick is
+willing to let you go, is he? When do you start?"
+
+"You don't mind, do you, Bob?" countered Betty, puzzled. "You sound so
+kind of--of funny."
+
+"Don't mean to," said Bob laconically.
+
+Having finished his tart, he lay back and rested his head in his hands in
+true masculine contentment.
+
+"I like that blue thing you've got on," he commented lazily. "Did I ever
+see it before?"
+
+"Certainly not," Betty informed him. "I've been waiting for you to notice
+it. It's wash silk, Bob, and your Aunt Faith said I could have it if I
+could do anything with it. She's had it in a trunk for years and years."
+
+"I don't see how you and Aunt Faith could wear the same clothes, she's so
+much taller than you are," said Bob, obviously trying to put two and two
+together in his mind. "But it looks fine on you, Betty."
+
+Betty smiled at him compassionately.
+
+"Oh, Bob, you're so funny!" she sighed. "I made this blouse all
+myself--that is," she corrected, "Mrs. Watterby helped me cut it out and
+she sewed the sleeves in after I had basted them in wrong twice, but I
+did everything else. There wasn't a scrap of goods left over, either. I
+put it on to-day because I wanted you to see me in it."
+
+She was worth seeing, Bob acknowledged to himself. The over-blouse of
+blue and white checked silk, slashed at the throat for the crisp black
+tie, and the gray corduroy riding skirt and smart tan shoes were at once
+suitable and becoming.
+
+"I'll have to have some new clothes for school," declared Betty, who had
+a healthy interest in this topic. "We can't wear very fussy things,
+though--Bobby sent me the catalogue. Sailor suits for every day, and a
+cloth frock for best. And not more than one party dress."
+
+"I asked her when she started," Bob confided to the blank eye of the
+white horse now turned dully toward him. "But if she answered me, I
+didn't hear."
+
+"I'm going a week from this Friday," announced Betty hastily. "That will
+give me a week in Washington, and Mrs. Littell has asked me to stay with
+them. I must write to Mrs. Bender to-night and tell her the news; she has
+been so anxious for me to go to school again."
+
+"Oh, gee, Betty, that reminds me--" Bob sat up with a jerk and began a
+hasty search of his pockets. "When you spoke of Mrs. Bender that reminded
+me of Laurel Grove, and Laurel Grove reminded me of Glenside, and that,
+of course, made me think of the Guerins--Here 'tis!" and the boy
+triumphantly fished out a small letter from an inside pocket of his coat
+and tossed it into Betty's lap.
+
+"It's from Norma Guerin!" Betty's expressive voice betrayed her
+delight "Why, I haven't heard from her in perfect ages. I wonder what
+she has to say."
+
+"Open it and see," advised the practical Bob. "I meant to give you the
+letter right away, and first the tart and then the blouse thing-a-bub
+drove it out of my mind. I'll lead the horses and you can read as we
+walk. Want me to take the plate back to Lee Chang?"
+
+He dashed back to the bunk house, returned the tin, and rejoined Betty,
+who was slowly slitting the envelope of her letter with a hairpin. She
+had tucked her candy box under her arm, and Bob took the bridles of the
+two horses.
+
+"Mercy, what was that?" Betty glanced up startled, as a wild yell sounded
+over on their right.
+
+There was a chorus of shouts, the same wild yell repeated, and then,
+sudden and without warning, came a dense and heavy rain of blackest oil.
+
+"Oh, Bob, Bob!" There was genuine anguish in Betty's wail of appeal. "My
+new blouse--look at it!"
+
+But Bob had no time to look at anything. Action was to be his course.
+
+"It's a premature blast!" he shouted. "Come on, we've got to get out!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+NORMA'S LETTER
+
+
+This was not Betty Gordon's first experience with an oil well set
+off prematurely, and while she was naturally excited, she was not at
+all afraid.
+
+"Get on Clover!" shouted Bob. "I do wish you'd ever wear a hat--"
+
+Betty laughed a little as she scrambled into her saddle. Bob, mounting
+his own horse, wore no hat, but it was a pet grievance of his that Betty
+persistently scorned headgear whether riding or walking.
+
+"Gallop!" cried Bob. "Shut your eyes if you want to--Clover will
+follow Reuben."
+
+The white horse set off, his awkward lunge carrying him over the ground
+swiftly, and the little bay Clover cantered obediently after him. Oil
+continued to rain down as they headed toward the north.
+
+Betty closed her eyes, clutching her letter and candy box tightly in both
+hands and letting the reins lie idle on her horse's neck. Clover,
+galloping now, could be trusted to follow the leading horse.
+
+"Getting better now!" Bob shouted back, turning in his saddle to see that
+Betty was safe.
+
+Betty's dark eyes opened and she shook back her hair, making a little
+face at the taste of oil in her mouth. She slipped Norma Guerin's letter
+into her pocket, glancing down at her blouse as she did so.
+
+"I'm a perfect sight!" she called to Bob dolorously. "I don't believe I
+can ever get the oil spots out of this silk."
+
+"Sue the company!" Bob cried, with a grin. "Don't let Clover go to sleep
+till we're nearer home, Betty."
+
+The girl urged the little bay forward with a whispered word of
+encouragement, and gradually, very gradually, they began to draw out of
+the rain of oil.
+
+Betty Gordon was not an Oklahoma girl, though she rode with the
+effortless ease of a Westerner. She was an orphan, of New England stock,
+and had come from the East to the oil fields to join her one living
+relative, a beloved uncle whose interest in oil holdings made an
+incessant traveler of him.
+
+This Richard Gordon, "Uncle Dick" to Bob Henderson as well as to Betty,
+had found himself unexpectedly made guardian of his little niece at a
+time when it was impassible for him to establish a home for her. His time
+and skill pledged to the oil company he represented, Mr. Gordon had
+solved the problem of what to do with Betty by sending her to spend the
+summer with an old childhood friend of his, a Mrs. Peabody who had
+married a farmer, reputed well-to-do. Betty's experiences, pleasant and
+otherwise, as a member of the Peabody household, have been told in the
+first book of this series entitled "Betty Gordon at Bramble Farm; or The
+Mystery of a Nobody."
+
+She made some true friends during the months she spent with the Peabodys,
+and perhaps the closest, and certainly the most loyal, was Bob Henderson.
+A year older than Betty, the fourteen year old Bob, whose life at Bramble
+Farm had been harsh and unlovely and preceded by nothing brighter than a
+drab existence at the county poor farm, became the champion of the
+dark-eyed girl who had smiled at him and suggested that because they were
+both orphans they had a common bond of friendship.
+
+How Bob Henderson got track of his mother's people and what steps were
+necessary before he could discover a definite clue, have been related in
+the second volume of the series, entitled, "Betty Gordon in Washington;
+or Strange Adventures in a Great City."
+
+In this book Bob and Betty came together again in the Capitol City, and
+Betty acquired a second "Uncle Dick" in the person of Richard Littell,
+the father of three lively daughters who innocently kidnapped Betty, only
+to have the entire family become her firm friends. While in Washington
+Bob and Betty each received good news that sent them trustfully to
+Oklahoma, there to meet Uncle Dick Gordon, and later, Bob's own aunts.
+
+The story of the "Saunders' place" and of the unscrupulous sharpers who
+tried to cheat the old ladies who were the sisters of Bob's dead mother,
+has been told in the third book about Betty Gordon. This book, "Betty
+Gordon in the Land of Oil; or The Farm that Was Worth a Fortune," relates
+the varied experiences of Bob and Betty in the oil section of Oklahoma
+and the long train of events that culminated in the sale of the Saunders
+farm for ninety thousand dollars. Uncle Dick had been made guardian of
+Bob, at his own and the aunts' request, so Bob was now a ward with Betty.
+
+The possession of money, though it meant the difference between
+poverty and debt and great comfort, had, to date, made very little
+change in the mode of living of Miss Faith and Miss Charity Saunders,
+or of their nephew.
+
+This morning he had been delayed by some extra work on the farm, for the
+oil company did not take possession till the first of the month, now a
+week away, and Betty had ridden to the oil fields ahead of him. She
+divided her time between the Saunders' place and the Watterby farm, where
+she and Bob had stayed when they first came to Flame City.
+
+"Whew!" gasped Bob as they finally emerged from the black curtain of oil.
+"Of all the messy stuff! Betty, you look as though an oil lamp had
+exploded in your face."
+
+"Now I'll have to wash my hair again," mourned Betty. "You'd better come
+to Grandma Watterby's and get tidied up, Bob. It's nearer than your
+aunts', taking this road; and they always have the stove tank full of
+hot water."
+
+Bob took this advice, and the sympathetic Watterby family came to the
+oil-spotted pair's assistance with copious supplies of hot water, soap
+and towels and liberal handfuls of borax, for the water was very hard.
+Fortunately, Betty had a clean blouse and skirt at hand (most of her
+wardrobe was in the guest room at the Saunders farm), and Bob borrowed a
+clean shirt from Will Watterby, in which the boy, being much smaller than
+the man, looked a little absurd.
+
+"I'm clean, anyway, and that makes me feel good, so why should I care how
+I look?" was Bob's defense when his appearance was commented on.
+
+"I'm so hungry," announced Betty, coming out of her room, once more trim
+and neat, and sniffing the delicious odor of hot waffles. "I wonder if I
+could pin my hair up in a towel and dry it after lunch?"
+
+"Of course you may," said Mrs. Will Watterby warmly. "Did you fix a place
+for Betty, Grandma?"
+
+"What a silly question, Emma," reproved old Grandma Watterby
+severely. "Here, Betty, you sit next to me, and Bob can have Will's
+place. He's gone over to Flame City with a bolt he wants the
+blacksmith to tinker up."
+
+Ki, the Indian who helped with the farm work, smiled at Betty but said
+nothing more than the single "Howdy," which was his stock form of
+salutation. Mrs. Watterby's waffles were quite as good as they smelled,
+and she apparently had mixed an inexhaustible quantity of batter. Every
+one ate rapidly and in comparative silence, a habit to which Bob and
+Betty were by now quite accustomed. When Mr. Gordon was present he
+insisted on a little conversation, but his presence was lacking to-day.
+
+"You go right out in the sun and dry your hair, Betty," said Mrs.
+Watterby, when the meal was over. "No, I don't need any help with
+the dishes. Grandma and me, we're going over to town in the car
+this afternoon and I don't care whether I do the dishes till I come
+back or not."
+
+This, for Mrs. Watterby, was a great step forward. Before the purchase of
+the automobile, bought with a legacy inherited by Grandma Watterby,
+dishes and housework had been the sum total of Mrs. Will Watterby's
+existence. Now that she could drive the car and get away from her kitchen
+sink at will, she seemed another woman.
+
+Betty voiced something of this to Bob as she unfastened the towel and let
+her heavy dark hair fall over her shoulders. She was sitting on the back
+porch where the afternoon sun shone unobstructed.
+
+"Yes, I guess automobiles are a good thing," admitted Bob absently. "I
+want Aunt Faith to get one. A runabout would be handy for them--one like
+Doctor Guerin's. Remember, Betty?"
+
+"My goodness, I haven't read Norma's letter!" said Betty hastily. "I left
+it in my other blouse. Wait a minute, and I'll get it."
+
+She dashed into the house and was back again in a moment, the letter Bob
+had handed her just before the shower of oil, in her hand.
+
+Bob, in his favorite attitude of lying on his back and staring at the
+sky, was startled by an exclamation before Betty had finished the first
+page of the closely written missive.
+
+"What's the matter?" he demanded, sitting up. "Anybody sick?"
+
+"Oh, Bob, such fun!" Betty's eyes danced with pleasure. "What do you
+think! Norma and Alice Guerin are going to Shadyside!"
+
+"Well, I'm willing to jump with joy, but could you tell me what
+Shadyside is, and where?" said Bob humbly. "Why do the Guerin girls want
+to go there?"
+
+"I forgot you didn't know," apologized Betty. "Shadyside is the boarding
+school, Bob. That's the name of the station, too. It's five hours' ride
+from Washington. Let's see, there's Bobby and Louise Littell and Libbie,
+and now Norma and Alice--five girls I know already! I guess I won't be
+homesick or lonely."
+
+But as she said it she glanced uncertainly at Bob.
+
+That young man snickered, turned it into a cough, and that failing,
+essayed to whistle.
+
+"Bob, you act too funny for anything!" This time Betty's glance was not
+one of approval. "What does ail you?"
+
+"Nothing, nothing at all, Betsey," Bob assured her. "I'm my usual
+charming self. Are Norma and Alice going to Washington first?"
+
+"No. I wish they were," answered Betty, taking up the letter again.
+"Bob, I'm afraid they're having a hard time with money matters. You know
+Dr. Guerin is so easy-going he never collects one-third of the bills he
+sends out, and any one can get his services free if they tell him a hard
+luck story. Norma writes that she and Alice have always wanted to go to
+Shadyside because their mother graduated from there when it was only a
+day school. Mrs. Guerin's people lived around there somewhere. And last
+year, you know, Norma went to an awfully ordinary school--good enough, I
+suppose, but not very thorough. She couldn't prepare for college there."
+
+"Well, couldn't we fix it some way for them?" asked Bob interestedly.
+"I'd do anything in the world for Doctor Guerin. Didn't he row me that
+time he found us out in the fields at two o'clock in the morning? You
+think up some way to make him accept some money, Betty."
+
+Doctor Hal Guerin and his wife and daughters had been good friends to Bob
+and Betty in the Bramble Farm days. The doctor, with a large country
+practice that brought him more affection and esteem than ready cash, had
+managed to look after the boy and girl more or less effectively, and
+Norma, his daughter, had supplied Bob with orders from her school friends
+for little carved pendants that he made with no better tools than an old
+knife. This money had been the first Bob had ever earned and had given
+him his first taste of independence.
+
+"I don't think you could make Doctor Guerin take money, even as a
+loan," said Betty slowly, in answer to Bob's proposal. "Norma wouldn't
+like it if she thought her letter had suggested such a thing. What
+makes it hard for them, I think, is that Mrs. Guerin expected to have
+quite a fortune some day. Her mother was really wealthy, and she was an
+only child. I don't know where the money went, but I do know the
+Guerins never had any of it."
+
+Bob jumped to his feet as she finished the sentence.
+
+"Here's Uncle Dick!" he cried. "Did you see the new well come in, sir?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+SURPRISING BOB
+
+
+Betty shook back her hair and rose to kiss the gray-haired gentleman who
+put an arm affectionately about her.
+
+"I heard about that blast," he said, and smiled good-humoredly. "Lee
+Chang was much worried when I went in to dinner. His one consolation was
+that you had eaten the tart before the oil began to fall."
+
+"We were all right, only of course it rather daubed us up," said Bob.
+"Betty had to wash her hair."
+
+"My hair's nothing," declared Betty scornfully. "But my brand-new blouse
+that I worked on for two days--you ought to see it, Uncle Dick! Grandma
+Watterby thinks maybe she can get the oil out, but she says the color may
+come out, too."
+
+Mr. Gordon sat down on the step and took off his hat.
+
+"You've a clear claim for damages, Betty," he assured his niece gravely.
+"To save time, I'm willing to make good; what does a new blouse cost?"
+
+"This wasn't exactly new," explained Betty fairly. "Aunt Faith had the
+material in her trunk for years. But it was the first thing I ever made,
+and I was so proud of it."
+
+"Well, we'll see that you have something to take its place," promised her
+uncle, drawing her down beside him. "I have some news for you, Betsey.
+When you go East next week, I'm going, too. That is, as far as Chicago.
+From there I take a little run up into Canada."
+
+"But you said you'd spend Christmas with us!" argued Betty.
+
+"Oh, Christmas is months off," returned Mr. Gordon comfortably. "I expect
+to be back in the States long before the holidays. And Bob's aunts have
+finally made up their minds where they want to spend the winter. Aunt
+Faith has commissioned me to buy two tickets for southern California."
+
+"But there's Bob!" Betty gazed anxiously at her uncle. "What's Bob going
+to do without any one at all, Uncle Dick?"
+
+Mr. Gordon looked at Bob, and an unwilling grin turned the corners of the
+boy's mouth.
+
+"That's the way he's been acting all day," scolded Betty. "What ails
+him? I think it's silly to sit there and smile when there's nothing to
+smile about."
+
+"I suspect Bob doesn't take kindly to secrets," returned her uncle.
+"Suppose you 'fess up, Bob, and when the atmosphere is clear we can have
+a little talk."
+
+"All right," said Bob, with manifest relief. "I kept quiet only because I
+wanted to be sure I was going, sir. Betty, Mr. Littell wrote me about a
+military academy in the East and put me in, touch with several boys who
+attend it. Uncle Dick thinks it is just the school for me, and I'm going.
+Timothy Derby is one of the boys. He's a son of the man I worked for in
+Washington."
+
+"How splendid!" With characteristic enthusiasm Betty forgot her momentary
+displeasure at Bob's method of keeping a secret. "When are you going,
+Bob? Where is the school?"
+
+"That's the best part," said Bob boyishly. "It's the Salsette Military
+Academy, Betty, and it's right across the lake from the Shadyside school.
+All five of the boys Mr. Littell told me of are friends of the Littell
+girls, so you see it is going to be great fun all around."
+
+"I never knew of anything so nice!" declared Betty. "Never! So you knew
+when I told you about Shadyside that you were going to be so near!"
+
+Bob nodded.
+
+"Have to keep an eye on you," he said with mock seriousness, at which
+Betty made a little face.
+
+"You haven't much time to get ready," Mr. Gordon warned them. "The aunts
+will leave Wednesday and our train pulls out at ten twenty-six on Friday
+morning. Of course you will do your shopping in Washington and be guided
+by the advice of Mr. and Mrs. Littell. I wish I could go to Washington
+with you, but that is impossible now. You must write me faithfully, both
+of you, though I suppose we'll have to expect the same delay between
+letters that we've experienced before. Most of my time will be spent on a
+farm thirty miles from a railroad. If you get into any difficulties, go
+to the Littells, and for little troubles, help each other."
+
+Mr. Gordon went on to say that while Bob and Betty were independent to a
+greater degree than most boys and girls of their age, the same force of
+circumstances that made this possible also gave them a heavier
+responsibility. He explained that each was to have an allowance and asked
+that each keep a cash account to be submitted to him on his return from
+Canada, not, he said, to serve as a check upon extravagant or foolish
+expenditures, but that he might be better able to advise them and to
+point out avoidable mistakes.
+
+After supper that night he drew the boy aside for further discussion.
+
+"I'm really leaving Betty in your charge," he said, and Bob stood fully
+two inches taller. "Not that I think she will get into any serious
+trouble, but there's no telling what a bevy of high-spirited girls will
+think up. And you know what Betty is when once started, she can not be
+stopped. I rely on you to keep her confidence and hold her back if she
+seems inclined to act rashly. The Littells are splendid people, but they
+will be five hours' distance away, while you will be across the lake. I
+put my trust in you, Bob."
+
+Bob silently resolved to be worthy. Betty had been his first friend, and
+to her he gave all the pent-up loyalty and starved affection of a lonely
+boy nature. When Mr. Gordon came into his life, and especially when he
+was made his legal guardian, Bob experienced the novel sensation of
+having some one interested in his future. Though the various older men
+he had met were more than willing to help him, Mr. Gordon was the only
+one to succeed in winning over Bob's almost fanatical pride and the lad
+who admired, respected, and loved him, would have done anything in the
+world for him.
+
+The next few days were extremely busy ones for Bob, the aunts, and Betty.
+Miss Hope and Miss Charity were so excited at the prospect of a journey
+that they completely lost their faculty for planning, and most of the
+work fell on Bob and Betty. Luckily there was little packing to be done,
+for the few bits of old furniture were to be sold for what they would
+bring, and the keepsakes that neither Miss Hope nor her sister could
+bring themselves to part with were stored in several old trunks to be
+housed in the Watterby attic.
+
+"Betty, child," her uncle's voice broke in upon Betty's orderly packing
+one afternoon, "I know you're going to be disappointed, but we mustn't
+cry over what can't be helped. I've had a wire and must leave for
+Chicago Wednesday morning. You and Bob will have to make the Washington
+trip alone."
+
+"I knew it was too good to be true," mourned Betty, a tear dropping on
+the yellowed silk shawl she was neatly folding. "Oh, dear, Uncle Dick, I
+did want you to go with us part of the way!"
+
+"Better luck next time," replied Mr. Gordon. "There's no use grumbling
+over what you can't change."
+
+This was his philosophy, and he followed it consistently. Bob and Betty,
+though keenly disappointed they were not to have his companionship, tried
+to accept the situation as cheerfully as he did.
+
+The packing was hastened, and soon the old farmhouse was stripped and
+dismantled, the trunks stored in the Watterby attic, the furniture
+carried off to the homes of those who bought it, and the key delivered
+to Dave Thorne, the section foreman, who would deliver it to the
+superintendent.
+
+The hospitable Watterbys had insisted that the travelers should all stay
+with them until the time for their several departures, and Bob and Betty
+had a last glorious ride on Clover and the ungainly white horse while
+the aunts rested and put the final touches to their preparations for
+their journey.
+
+The next morning all was bustle and hurry, for the aunts were to start on
+their trip and Mr. Gordon must be off to Chicago. Miss Hope insisted on
+being taken to the station an hour before their train was due, and when a
+puff of steam up the track announced the actual approach of the train the
+two old ladies trembled with nervousness and excitement. Mr. Gordon
+guided them up the steps of the car, after a tearful farewell to Bob and
+Betty, and saw that they were settled in the right sections. He spoke to
+the conductor on the way out, and tipped the porter and maid liberally to
+look after the travelers' comfort.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MORE GOOD-BYES
+
+
+"They'll feel better presently," he remarked, rejoining Bob and Betty on
+the platform. "I know the boarding house they've chosen is fine in every
+way and they're going to have a delightful winter."
+
+The train started slowly, and the black silk gloves of the aunts waved
+dolorously from the window. They were embarked on their adventure.
+
+"Don't look so solemn, Betty," teased her uncle. "If I'm not mistaken
+that's the smoke from my train. I don't want any one to weep over my
+departure."
+
+"I could, but I won't," Betty assured him bravely. "You won't get sick or
+anything, will you, Uncle Dick? And you'll write to me every week?"
+
+"Like a clock," he promised her. "There goes the agent with my bags--this
+is the local, all right. Good-bye, Bob. Remember what I've asked of you."
+
+Mr. Gordon wrung Bob's hand and smiled down into the blue eyes lifted so
+fervently to his.
+
+"You're my boy, too," he said clearly. "Don't forget, lad, if you need
+me."
+
+Then he swept Betty into his arms.
+
+"Be a good girl, Sweetheart," he murmured, kissing her.
+
+They watched him climb up the steps of the snorting, smoky local, saw his
+bags tossed into the baggage car, and then, with a shrill grinding of
+wheels, the training resumed its way. As long as they could see, the tall
+figure in the gray suit stood on the platform and waved a white
+handkerchief to them.
+
+"Oh, Bob, don't let me cry," begged Betty, in a sudden panic.
+"Everybody's watching us. Let's go somewhere, quick."
+
+"All right, we will," promised Bob. "We'll take the car to Doctor
+Morrison. Hop in, Betsey, and dry your eyes. You're going traveling
+yourself day after to-morrow."
+
+"I wasn't really crying," explained Betty as she settled herself in the
+shabby car that had belonged to her uncle; he had sold it to the town
+physician. "But doesn't it give you a lonesome feeling to be the one
+that's left? I hate to say good-bye, anyway."
+
+Bob's experience with motors was rather limited, and what slight
+knowledge he possessed had been gained in a few lessons taken while
+riding with Mr. Gordon. However, the boy was sure that he could drive the
+car the brief distance to the doctor's house, and Betty shared his
+confidence. From the Morrison house it was only a short walk to the
+Watterby farm, where they were to stay until they left for the East.
+
+Betty forgot to cry as Bob started the car so suddenly that it shot
+forward like a live thing. He jammed on the brake and brought it to a
+standstill so abruptly that Betty came very near to pitching through the
+windshield.
+
+"Couldn't you do it--er--more gently?" she hinted delicately.
+
+"Hold fast and I'll try," grinned Bob. "As a chauffeur I'd be a
+good iceman."
+
+The second time he managed better, and the battered little car moved off
+with less disturbing results.
+
+In a very few minutes they had reached Doctor Morrison's garage.
+
+The doctor urged Bob and Betty strongly to stay to supper with him and
+promised beaten biscuit and honey, but although they knew the skill of
+his old Southern cook very well, they had promised Grandma Watterby to be
+there for supper and such a promise could not be disregarded.
+
+"Well, anyway," said Betty soothingly, as they walked on toward the
+Watterby farm, "when we ride Clover and Reuben up to the fields we won't
+have to worry about how to make them go."
+
+"No, that's so," agreed Bob. "But, Betty, I hate to think of giving up
+Reuben. He isn't much to look at, but he has been a mighty good horse."
+
+"I'd feel worse," declared Betty, "if we had to sell them to strangers.
+We wouldn't know how they would be treated then. Now we are sure they
+will be cared for and petted and they won't miss us."
+
+Reuben and Clover, Mr. Gordon had said, were to be disposed of as Betty
+and Bob chose. The horses were theirs to give away or sell as they
+preferred. Bob had instantly decided to give his mount to Dave Thorne,
+the section foreman, who had shown him many kindnesses and who was
+delighted to get a trained saddle horse. Horses were very scarce in that
+section of the country, and Mr. Gordon had gone to considerable trouble
+to get these.
+
+Betty had elected to give Clover to the new superintendent's daughter,
+the girl who was to move with her parents into the old Saunders
+farmhouse. Betty had never seen her, but knew she was about fourteen or
+fifteen and eager to learn to ride.
+
+The day before they were to start for Washington, Bob and Betty rode the
+horses up to the oil fields and gave them into the charge of Dave
+Thorne. The superintendent was already on the ground but his family and
+furniture were not due for a week.
+
+Clover and Reuben bore the parting better than their young mistress and
+master, and Betty was glad when all the good-byes had been said and they
+stepped into the Watterby car which Mrs. Watterby had driven up for them.
+The fields were about eight miles from her house.
+
+"You'll be happier when once you're on the train, Betty," said good Mrs.
+Watterby, glancing swiftly at Betty's clouded face, "This going around
+saying good-bye to people and things is enough to break anybody up. Now
+to-morrow me and mother won't weep a tear over you--you'll see. We're
+glad you're going to school to have a good time with all those young
+folks. Now what's that Chinaman want?"
+
+Lee Chang came running from the bunk house, waving something tied in
+white paper.
+
+"Apple tart, Miss Betty!" he called imploringly. "Velly nice apple
+tart--maybe the cook at that school no make good tarts."
+
+Betty took the package and thanked him warmly and they drove on.
+
+"People are so good to me," choked the girl. "I never knew I had so
+many friends."
+
+"Well, that's nothing to cry over," advised Bob philosophically. "You
+ought to be glad. Do I get a crumb of the tart, Betsey?"
+
+He spoke with a purpose and was rewarded by seeing Betty's own sunny
+smile come out.
+
+"You always do," she told him. "But wait till we get home. I want Ki to
+have a piece, too."
+
+Ki, it developed, when they reached the Watterby farm, had been busy with
+farewell plans of his own.
+
+"For you," he announced gravely to Bob, handing him an immense hunting
+knife as he stepped out of the car.
+
+"For you," he informed Betty with equal gravity, presenting her a little
+silver nugget.
+
+They both thanked him repeatedly, and he stalked off, carrying his piece
+of the apple tart and apparently assured of their sincerity.
+
+"Though what he expects me to do with a hunting knife is more than I can
+guess," laughed Bob.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A REGULAR CROSS-PATCH
+
+
+"Be sure you send me a postal from Washington. I never knew anybody from
+there before," said Grandma Watterby earnestly.
+
+"And don't get off the train unless you know how long it's going to
+stop," advised Will Watterby.
+
+"Do you think you ate enough breakfast?" his wife asked anxiously.
+
+Bob and Betty were waiting for the Eastern Limited, and the Watterby
+family, who had brought them to the station, were waiting, too. The
+Limited stopped only on signal, and this was no every day occurrence.
+
+"We'll be all right," said Bob earnestly. "You can look for a postal from
+Chicago first, Grandma."
+
+Then came the usual hurried good-byes, the kisses and handshakes and the
+repeated promises to "write soon." Then Bob and Betty found themselves in
+the sleeper, waving frantically to the little group on the platform as
+the Limited slowly got under way.
+
+"And that's the last of Flame City--for some time at least,"
+observed Bob.
+
+Betty, who had made excellent use of lessons learned in her few previous
+long journeys, took off her hat and gloves and placed them in a paper bag
+which Bob put in the rack for her.
+
+"I did want a new hat so much," she sighed, looking rather
+enviously at the woman across the aisle who wore a smart Fall hat
+that was unmistakably new. "But Flame City depends on mail order
+hats and I thought it safer to wait till I could see what people
+are really wearing."
+
+"You look all right," said Bob loyally. "What's that around that woman's
+neck--fur? Why I'm so hot I can hardly breathe."
+
+"It's mink," Betty informed him with superiority. "Isn't it beautiful? I
+wanted a set, but Uncle Dick said mink was too old for me. He did say,
+though, that I can have a neckpiece made from that fox skin Ki gave me."
+
+"Don't see why you want to tie yourself up like an Eskimo," grumbled
+Bob. "Well, we seem to be headed toward the door marked 'Education,'
+don't we, Betsey?"
+
+They exchanged a smile of understanding.
+
+Bob was passionately eager for what he called "regular schooling," that
+is the steady discipline of fixed lessons, the companionship of boys of
+his own age, and the give and take of the average large, busy school.
+Normal life of any kind was out of the question in the poorhouse where he
+had spent the first ten years of his life, and after that he had not seen
+the inside of a schoolroom. He had read whatever books he could pick up
+while at Bramble Farm, and in the knowledge of current events was
+remarkably well-posted, thanks to his steady assimilation of newspapers
+and magazines since leaving the Peabody roof. But he feared, and with
+some foundation, that he might be found deplorably lacking in the most
+rudimentary branches.
+
+Betty, of course, had gone to school regularly until her mother's
+death. In the year that had elapsed she had thought little of
+lessons, and though she did not realize it, she had lost to a great
+extent the power of application. Systematic study of any kind might
+easily prove a hardship for the active Betty. Still she was eager to
+study again, perhaps prepare for college. More than anything else she
+craved girl friends.
+
+"Let's go in for lunch at the first call," suggested Betty presently. "I
+didn't eat much breakfast, and I don't believe you did either."
+
+"I swallowed a cup of boiling coffee," admitted Bob, "but that's all I
+remember. So I'm ready when you are."
+
+Seated at a table well toward the center of the car, Betty's attention
+was attracted to a girl who sat facing her. She was not a pretty girl.
+She looked discontented and peevish, and the manner in which she
+addressed the waiter indicated that she felt under no obligation to
+disguise her feelings.
+
+"Take that back," she ordered, pointing a beautifully manicured hand at
+a dish just placed before her. "If you can't bring me a poached egg
+that isn't raw, don't bother at all. And I hope you don't intend to
+call this cream?"
+
+Bob glanced swiftly over at the table. The girl consciously tucked back a
+lock of stringy hair, displaying the flash of several diamonds.
+
+"Sweet disposition, hasn't she?" muttered Bob under his breath. "I'd like
+to see her board just one week with Mr. Peabody."
+
+"Don't--she'll hear you," protested Betty. "I wonder if she is all alone?
+What lovely clothes she has! And did you see her rings?"
+
+"Well, she'll need 'em, if she's going to snap at everybody," said Bob
+severely. "Diamonds help out a cross tongue when a poor waiter is
+thinking of his tip."
+
+The girl was still finding fault with her food when Betty and Bob rose to
+leave the car, and when they passed her table she stared at them with
+languid insolence, half closing her narrow hazel eyes.
+
+"Wow, she's bored completely," snickered Bob, when they were out of
+earshot. "I don't believe she's a day older than you are, Betty, and she
+is dressed up like a little Christmas tree."
+
+"I think her clothes are wonderful," said Betty. "I wish I had a lace
+vestee and some long white gloves. Don't you think they're pretty, Bob?"
+
+"No, I think they're silly," retorted Bob. "You wouldn't catch Bobby
+Littell going traveling in a party dress and wearing all the family
+jewels. Huh, here comes the conductor--wonder what he wants."
+
+The conductor, it developed, was shifting passengers from the car behind
+the one in which Bob and Betty had seats. It was to be dropped at the
+next junction and the few passengers remaining were to be accommodated in
+this coach.
+
+"You're all right, don't have to make any change," said the official
+kindly, after examining their tickets. "I'll tell the porter you go
+through to Chicago."
+
+The car had been fairly well crowded before, and the extra influx taxed
+every available seat. Betty took out her crocheting and Bob decided that
+he would go in search of a shoe-shine.
+
+"I'll come back and get you and we'll go out on the observation
+platform," he said contentedly.
+
+"Chain six, double crochet--into the ring--" Betty murmured her
+directions half aloud.
+
+"Right here, Ma'am?" The porter's voice aroused her.
+
+There in the aisle stood the girl she had noticed in the diner, and with
+her was a harassed looking porter carrying three heavy bags.
+
+"Perhaps you would just as lief take the aisle seat?" said the girl,
+surveying Betty as a princess might gaze upon an annoying little page. "I
+travel better when I can have plenty of fresh air."
+
+"You might have thought I was a bug," Betty confided later to Bob.
+
+The diamonds flashed as the girl loosened the fur collar at her throat.
+
+"Please move over," she commanded calmly.
+
+Betty was bewildered, but her innate courtesy died hard.
+
+"You--you've made a mistake," she faltered. "This seat is taken."
+
+"The conductor said to take any vacant seat," said the newcomer. "You
+can't hold seats in a public conveyance--my father says so. Put the bags
+in here, porter. Be careful of that enamel leather."
+
+To Betty's dismay, she settled herself, flounces and furs and bags, in
+the narrow space that belonged to Bob, and by an adroit pressure of her
+elbow made it impossible for Betty to resume her crocheting.
+
+"I think you done made a mistake, lady," ventured the porter. "This seat
+belongs to a young man what has a ticket to Chicago."
+
+"Well, I'm going to Chicago," answered the girl composedly. "Do you
+expect me to stand up the rest of the way? The agent had no business to
+sell me a reservation in a car that only went as far as the Junction."
+
+The porter withdrew, shaking his head, and in a few minutes Bob came back
+to his seat. Betty, watching the girl, saw her glance sidewise at him
+from her narrow eyes, though she pretended to be absorbed in a magazine.
+
+"I beg your pardon," said Bob politely.
+
+There was no response.
+
+"Pardon me, but you've made a mistake," began Bob again. "You are in the
+wrong seat."
+
+The magazine came down with a crash and the girl's face, distorted with
+rage, appeared in its place.
+
+"Well, if I am, what are you going to do about it?" she shrilled rudely.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+FINE FEATHERS
+
+
+Betty Gordon had always, foolishly perhaps, associated courtesy and
+good-breeding with beautiful clothes. This strange girl, who could speak
+so on such slight provocation (none at all, to be exact) wore a handsome
+suit, and if her jewelry was too conspicuous it had the merit of being
+genuine. Betty herself had a lively temper, but she was altogether free
+from snappishness and when she "blew up" the cause was sure to be
+unmistakable and significant.
+
+Bob jumped when the girl fired her question at him. There had been
+nothing in his limited experience with girls to prepare him for such an
+outburst. Betty half expected him to acquiesce and leave the stranger in
+possession of his seat, but to her surprise he simply turned on his heel
+and walked away. Not, however, before Betty had seen something bordering
+on contempt in his eyes.
+
+"I'd hate to have Bob look at me like that," she thought. "It wasn't as
+if he didn't like her, or was mad at her--what is it I am trying to
+say? Bob looked as if--as if--Oh, bother, I know what I mean, but I
+can't say it."
+
+The little spitfire in the seat beside her wriggled uneasily as if she,
+too, were not as comfortable as she would pretend. Bob's silent reception
+of her discourtesy had infuriated her, and she knew better than Betty
+where she stood in the boy's estimation. She had instantly forfeited his
+respect and probably his admiration forever.
+
+In a few minutes Bob was back, and with him the conductor.
+
+"Young lady, you're in the wrong seat," that official announced in a tone
+that admitted of no trifling. "You were in eighteen in the other car and
+I had to move you to twenty-three in here. Just follow me, please."
+
+He reached in and took one of the suitcases, and Bob matter-of-factly
+took the other two. The girl opened her mouth, glanced at the conductor,
+and thought better of whatever she was going to say. Meekly she followed
+him to another section on the other side of the car and found herself
+compelled to share a seat with a severe-looking gray-haired woman,
+evidently a sufferer from hay fever, as she sneezed incessantly.
+
+Bob dropped down in his old place and shot a quizzical look at Betty.
+
+"Flame City may be tough," he observed, "and I'd be the last one to claim
+that it possessed one grain of culture; but at that, I can't remember
+having a pitched battle with a girl during my care-free existence there."
+
+"She's used to having her own way," said Betty, with a laudable ambition
+to be charitable, an intention which she inadvertently destroyed by
+adding vigorously: "She'd get that knocked out of her if she lived West a
+little while."
+
+"Guess the East can be trusted to smooth her down," commented Bob grimly.
+"Unless she's planning to live in seclusion, she won't get far in peace
+or happiness unless she behaves a bit more like a human being."
+
+The girl was more or less in evidence during the rest of the trip and
+incurred the cordial enmity of every woman in the car by the coolness
+with which she appropriated the dressing room in the morning and curled
+her hair and made an elaborate toilet in perfect indifference to the
+other feminine travelers who were shut out till she had the last hairpin
+adjusted to her satisfaction.
+
+She was met at the Chicago terminal by a party of gay friends who whisked
+her off in a palatial car, and Bob and Betty who, acting on Mr. Gordon's
+advice, spent their two-hour wait between trains driving along the Lake
+Shore Drive, forgot her completely.
+
+But first Betty fell victim to the charms of a hat displayed in a smart
+little millinery shop, and had an argument with Bob in which she came
+off victor.
+
+"Oh, Bob, what a darling hat!" she had exclaimed, drawing him over to the
+window as they turned down the first street from the station. "I must
+have it; I want to look nice when I meet the girls in Washington."
+
+"You look nice now," declared Bob sturdily. "But if you want to buy it,
+go ahead," he encouraged her. "Ask 'em how much it is, though," he added,
+with a sudden recollection of the fabulous prices said to be charged for
+a yard of ribbon and a bit of lace.
+
+The hat in question was a soft brown beaver that rolled slightly away
+from the face and boasted as trimming a single scarlet quill. It was
+undeniably becoming, and Bob gave it his unqualified approval.
+
+"And you will want a veil?" insinuated the clever young French
+saleswoman. "See--it is charming!"
+
+She threw over the hat a cobwebby pattern of brown silk net embroidered
+heavily with chenille dots and deftly draped it back from Betty's
+glowing face.
+
+"You don't want a veil!" said Bob bluntly.
+
+Now the mirror told Betty that the veil looked very well indeed, and made
+her, she was sure of it, prettier. Betty was a good traveler and the
+journey had not tired her. The excitement and pleasure of choosing a new
+hat had brought a flush to her cheeks, and the shining brown eyes that
+gazed back at her from the glass assured her that a veil was something
+greatly to be desired.
+
+"You don't want it," repeated Bob. "You're only thirteen and you'll look
+silly. Do you want to dress like that girl on the train?"
+
+If Bob had stopped to think he would have realized that his remarks were
+not exactly tactful. Especially the reference to Betty's age, just when
+she fancied that she looked very grown up indeed. She was fond of
+braiding her heavy thick hair and wrapping it around her head so that
+there were no hair-ribbons to betray her. In Betty's experience the
+border line between a young lady and a little girl was determined by the
+absence or presence of hair-ribbons.
+
+"How much is it?" she asked the saleswoman.
+
+"Oh, but six dollars," answered that young person with a wave of one
+jeweled hand as though six dollars were a mere nothing.
+
+"I'll take it," said Betty decisively. "And I'll wear it and the hat,
+too, please; you can wrap up my old one."
+
+Bob was silent until the transaction had been completed and they were out
+of the shop.
+
+"You wait here and I'll see about getting a car to take us along the
+Drive," he said then.
+
+"You're--you're not mad at me, are you Bob?" faltered Betty, putting an
+appealing hand on his arm. "I haven't had any fun with clothes all
+summer long."
+
+"No, I'm not mad. But I think you're an awful chump," replied Bob with
+his characteristic frankness.
+
+Before the drive was over, Betty was inclined to agree with him.
+
+The car was an open one, and while the day was warm and sunny, there was
+a lively breeze blowing straight off the lake. The veil persisted in
+blowing first into Betty's eyes, then into Bob's, and interfered to an
+amazing degree with their enjoyment of the scenery. Finally, as they
+rounded a curve and caught the full breath of the breeze, the veil blew
+away entirely.
+
+"Let it go," said Betty resignedly. "It's cost me six dollars to learn I
+don't want to wear a veil."
+
+Bob privately decided he liked her much better without the flimsy net
+affair, but he wisely determined not to air his opinion. There was no
+use, he told himself, in "rubbing it in."
+
+They had lunch in a cozy little tea-room and went back to the train like
+seasoned travelers. Bob was an ideal companion for such journeys, for he
+never lost his head and never missed connections, while nervous haste was
+unknown to him.
+
+"Won't I be glad to see the Littells!" exclaimed Betty, watching the
+porter make up their berths.
+
+"So shall I," agreed Bob. "Did you ever know such hospitable people,
+asking a whole raft of us to spend the week at Fairfields? How many did
+Bobby write would be there?"
+
+"Let's see," said Betty, checking off on her fingers. "There'll be Bobby
+and Louise, of course; and Esther who is too young to go away to school,
+but who will want to do everything we do; Libbie Littell and another
+Vermont girl we don't know--Frances Martin; you and I; and the five boys
+Mr. Littell wrote you about--the Tucker twins, Timothy Derby, Sydney
+Cooke and Winifred Marion Brown. Twelve of us! Won't it be fun! I do wish
+the Guerin girls could be there, but we'll see them at the school."
+
+"I'd like to see that Winifred Marion chap," declared Bob. "A boy with a
+girl's name has his troubles cut out for him, I should say."
+
+"Lots of 'em have girls' names--in history," contributed Betty absently.
+"What time do we get into Washington, Bob?"
+
+"Around five, probably six p.m., for we're likely to be a bit late,"
+replied Bob. "Let's go to bed now, Betty, and get an early start in
+the morning."
+
+The day spent on the train was uneventful, and, contrary to Bob's
+expectations, they were on time at every station. Betty's heart beat
+faster as the hands of her little wrist watch pointed to 5:45 and the
+passengers began to gather up their wraps. The porter came through and
+brushed them thoroughly and Betty adjusted her new hat carefully.
+
+The long train slid into the Union Station. With what different
+emotions both Bob and Betty had seen the beautiful, brilliantly lighted
+building on the occasion of their first trip to Washington! Then each
+had been without a friend in the great city, and now they were to be
+welcomed by a host.
+
+Betty's cheeks flushed rose-red, but her lovely eyes filled with a sudden
+rush of tears.
+
+"I'm so happy!" she whispered to the bewildered Bob.
+
+"Want my handkerchief?" he asked anxiously, at which Betty tried
+not to laugh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+FUN AT FAIRFIELDS
+
+
+The long platform was crowded. Betty followed Bob, who carried their
+bags. She tried to peer ahead, but the moving forms blocked her view.
+Just after they passed through the gate, some one caught her.
+
+"Betty, you lamb! I never was so glad to see any one in my life!"
+cried a gay voice, and Bobby Littell hugged her close in one of her
+rare caresses.
+
+Bob Henderson held out his hand as soon as Bobby released Betty. He liked
+this straightforward, brusque girl who so evidently adored Betty.
+
+"Why, Bob, you've grown a foot!" was Bobby Littell's greeting to him.
+
+Bob modestly disclaimed any such record, and then Louise and Esther, who
+had swooped upon Betty, turned to shake hands with him.
+
+"The rest of the crowd is out in the car," said Bobby carelessly.
+
+Outside the station, in the open plaza, a handsome closed car awaited
+them. The gray-haired chauffeur, cap in hand, stood back as a procession
+of boys and girls advanced upon Bob and Betty and their escort.
+
+"Oh, Betty, dear!" Short, plump Libbie Littell, who had relinquished
+her claim to the name of "Betty" in Betty Gordon's favor some time
+ago, hurled herself upon her friend. "To think we're going to the
+same school!"
+
+"Well, Frances is going, too," said Bobby practically. "She might like to
+be introduced, you know. Betty, this is Frances Martin, a Vermont girl
+who is out after all the Latin prizes."
+
+Frances smiled a slow, sweet smile, and, behind thick glasses, her dark
+near-sighted eyes said that she was very glad to know Betty Gordon.
+
+"Now the boys!" announced the irrepressible Bobby, apparently taking
+Bob's introduction to Frances for granted. "The boys will please line up
+and I'll indicate them."
+
+The five lads obediently came forward and ranged themselves in a row.
+
+"From left to right," chanted Bobby, "we have the Tucker twins, Tommy and
+Teddy, W. M. Brown, who asks his friends to use his initials and punches
+those who refuse, Timothy Derby who reads poetry and Sydney Cooke who
+ought to--" and Bobby completed her speech with a wicked grin, for she
+had managed to hit several weaknesses.
+
+"As an introducer," she announced calmly to Carter, the personification
+of propriety's horror, "I think I do rather well."
+
+They stowed themselves into the limousine somehow, the girls settled more
+or less comfortably on the seats, the boys squeezed in between, hanging
+on the running board, and spilling over into Carter's domain.
+
+Bob liked the five boys at once, and they seemed to accept him as one of
+them. If he had had a little fear that he would feel diffident and
+unboyish among lads of his own age, it vanished at the first contact.
+
+"Betty, you sweet child, how we have missed you!" cried Mrs. Littell,
+standing on the lowest step under the porte-cochere as the car swept up
+the drive of Fairfields, as the Littell's home was called.
+
+Behind her waited Mr. Littell, fully recovered from the injury to his
+foot which had made him an invalid during Betty's previous visit.
+
+From Carter, who had beamingly greeted her at the station, to the pretty
+parlor maid who smiled as Betty entered her room to find her turning down
+the bed covers, there was not a servant who did not remember Betty and
+seem glad to see her.
+
+"It is so good to have you two here again," Mr. Littell had said.
+
+"I never knew such people," Betty repeated to herself twenty times that
+evening. "How lovely they are to Bob and me!"
+
+Mrs. Littell, who was happiest when entertaining young people, had put
+the six boys on the third floor in three connecting rooms. The girls were
+on the second floor, and Esther, the youngest, who had strenuously fought
+to be allowed to go to Shadyside with her two sisters, was almost beside
+herself with the effort to be in all the rooms at once and hear what
+every one was saying.
+
+"I'm so glad your uncle let you come," said Bobby, as they waited for
+Betty to change into a light house frock for dinner. "I don't know much
+about this school, except that mother went to school with the principal."
+
+That was a characteristic Bobby Littell remark, and the other
+girls laughed.
+
+"I had a letter from a girl who lives in Glenside," confided Betty,
+re-braiding her hair. "She and her sister are going--Norma and Alice
+Guerin. I know you'll like them. Norma wrote her mother went to Shadyside
+when it was a day school."
+
+"Yes, I believe it was, years and years ago," returned Louise Littell.
+"The aristocratic families who lived on large estates used to send
+their daughters to Mrs. Warde. Her daughter, Mrs. Eustice, is the
+principal now."
+
+Betty wondered if Norma Guerin's mother had belonged to one of the
+families who owned large estates, but they went down to dinner presently
+and she forgot the Guerins for the time being.
+
+That was a busy week for the school boys and girls.
+
+The beautiful house and grounds of Fairfields were at their disposal, and
+the gallant host and gentle hostess gave themselves up to the whims and
+wishes of the houseful of young people.
+
+"Racket while you may, for school-room discipline is coming," laughed Mr.
+Littell, when he went upstairs unexpectedly early one night and caught
+the abashed Tucker twins sliding down the banisters.
+
+Both Bob and Betty had wired Mr. Gordon of their safe arrival in
+Washington, and Bob had also telegraphed his aunts. While they were at
+Fairfields a letter reached them from Miss Hope and Miss Charity,
+describing in glowing terms the boarding house in which they were
+living and the California climate which, the writers declared, made
+them feel "twenty years younger." So Bob was assured that the elderly
+ladies were neither homesick nor unhappy and that added appreciably to
+his peace of mind.
+
+He and Betty found time, too, to slip away from their gay companions and
+go to the old second-hand bookshop where Lockwood Hale browsed among his
+dusty volumes. He had set Bob upon the trail that led him West and
+brought him finally to his surviving kin, and the boy felt warm gratitude
+to the absent-minded old man.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Littell rigidly insisted that the last night before the
+young folks started for Shadyside must be reserved for final packing and
+early retirement so that the gay band might begin their journey
+auspiciously. The Tuesday evening before the Thursday they were to leave
+for school, the host and hostess gave a dance for their young people.
+
+"I'm glad to have at least one chance to wear this dress," observed
+Bobby, smoothing down the folds of her rose-colored frock with
+satisfaction. "The only thing I don't like about Shadyside, so far, is
+that restriction about party clothes."
+
+"I imagine it is a wise rule in many ways," said Betty sagely, thinking
+particularly of the Guerin girls, who would probably be hard-pressed to
+get even the one evening frock allowed. "You know how some girls are,
+Bobby; they'd come with a dozen crepe de chine and georgette dresses and
+about three clean blouses for school-room wear."
+
+"Like Ruth Gladys Royal," giggled Bobby. "I remember her at Miss
+Graham's last year. Goodness, the clothes that girl would wear! The rest
+of us didn't even try to compete. And, by the way, girls, Ruth Gladys is
+going to Shadyside. Her aunt telephoned mother last night while we were
+at the movies."
+
+"That's the girl we went to call on that day we saw Mr. Peabody tackle
+Bob in the hotel," Louise explained in an aside to Betty. "I wonder why
+every one seems bent and determined to go to Shadyside this year."
+
+"Because it is a fine school with a half-century reputation," Bobby, who
+had studied the catalogue, informed her sister primly.
+
+"I'm not going," objected Esther. "I think it's mean."
+
+"Mother and dad need one girl at home, dearest," her mother reminded her,
+as she came in looking very handsome and kindly in a black spangled net
+gown. "All ready, girls? Then suppose we go down."
+
+It was a simple and informal dance, as befitted the ages of the guests,
+but Mr. and Mrs. Littell knew to perfection the secret of making each one
+enjoy himself. There were a handful of outside friends invited, and
+Betty, to whom a party was a never-failing source of delight, felt, as
+she confided to Bob, as though she were "walking on air."
+
+"You look awfully nice in that white stuff," he said frankly, and Betty
+liked the comment on her pretty ruffled white frock which she had
+dubiously decided a moment before was too plain.
+
+Betty was what country folk call a "natural-born dancer," and she
+quickly learned the new steps she had had no opportunity to practice
+since going West. All the girls and most of the boys were excellent
+dancers, too, and Bob was not allowed to beg off. Frances Martin, the
+last girl one would have named, had taught a dancing class in her home
+town with great success and she volunteered to lead Bob. To his surprise,
+the boy found he liked the music and movement and before the evening was
+over he was in a fair way to become a good dancer.
+
+The party broke up promptly at eleven o'clock, and a few minutes later
+the whir of the last motor bearing home the departing guests died away.
+There was a natural lingering to "talk things over," but by twelve the
+house was silent and dark.
+
+Betty had just fairly dozed off when some one woke her by shaking
+her gently.
+
+"Betty! Betty, please wake up!" whispered a frightened little voice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+TOO MUCH PARTY
+
+
+Betty shared a room with Bobby. The single beds were separated by a
+table on which an electric drop light and the water pitcher and glasses
+were placed.
+
+Betty's first impulse was to snap on the light, but as she put out her
+hand, Esther grasped her wrist.
+
+"It's only me," she whispered, her teeth chattering with fright. "Don't
+wake Bobby up."
+
+"Are you cold?" asked Betty, sitting up anxiously. "Perhaps you were too
+warm dancing. Do you want to get into bed with me?"
+
+It was a warm night for October, and Betty was at a loss to understand
+Esther's shivering.
+
+"I can't find Libbie!" Esther cried. "Oh, Betty, I never thought she
+would do it, never."
+
+Betty reached for her dressing gown and slippers.
+
+"Don't cry, or you'll wake up Bobby," she advised the sobbing Esther.
+"Come on, I'll go back with you. Don't make a noise."
+
+The girls occupied three connecting rooms, and Esther and Libbie had
+slept in the end of the suite. To reach it now, the two girls had to go
+through the room where Louise and Frances lay slumbering peacefully.
+Betty breathed a sigh of relief when they gained Esther's room and she
+closed the door carefully and turned on the light.
+
+Esther's bed, madly tumbled, and Libbie's, evidently occupied that night,
+but now empty, were revealed.
+
+Esther dropped down on the floor, wrapping her kimono about her, and
+regarded Betty trustfully. She was sure her friend would straighten
+things out.
+
+"Where is Libbie?" demanded Betty. "What is she doing?"
+
+"I don't know," admitted Esther unhappily. "But I tell you what I
+think--I think she's eloped!"
+
+Esther was only eleven, and as she sat on the floor and stared at Betty
+from great wet blue eyes, she seemed very young indeed.
+
+"Eloped!" gasped Betty. "Why, I never heard of such a thing!"
+
+"She's always talking about it," the younger girl wailed, beginning to
+cry again. "She says it's the most romantic way to be married, and she
+means to throw her hope chest out of the window first and slide down a
+rope made of bedsheets."
+
+"Well, I think it's very silly to talk like that," scolded Betty. "And,
+what's more, Esther, however much Libbie may talk of eloping, she hasn't
+done it this time. All her clothes are here, and her shoes and her hat.
+Here's her purse on the dresser, too."
+
+"I never thought of looking to see if her clothes were here," confessed
+Esther. "But then, where is she, Betty?"
+
+"That's what I mean to find out," announced Betty, with more confidence
+than she felt. "Come on, Esther. And don't trip on your kimono or walk
+into anything."
+
+They tiptoed out into the wide hall and had reached the head of the
+beautiful carved staircase when they saw a dim form coming toward them.
+
+Esther nearly shrieked aloud, but Betty put a hand over her mouth in
+time.
+
+"Who--who, who-o-o are you?" stammered Betty, her heart beating so fast
+it was painful.
+
+"Betty!" Bob stifled a gasp. "For the love of Mike! what are you doing at
+this time of night?"
+
+"Esther's here--we're hunting for Libbie," whispered Betty. "She isn't in
+her room."
+
+"So that's it!" For some reason unknown to the girls Bob seemed to be
+vastly relieved. "I was just going after Mr. Littell," he added.
+
+"But Libbie is lost! Maybe she is sick," urged Betty.
+
+"She's all right," declared Bob confidently. "You see, I couldn't go to
+sleep, and after I'd been in bed about an hour I got up and sat by the
+window. I was staring down into the garden, and all of a sudden I saw
+something white begin to move and creep about. I watched it a few moments
+and I got the idea it was a burglar or a sneak thief, it kept so close to
+the house. I came down to call Mr. Littell and bumped into you."
+
+"Do you suppose it is Libbie?" chattered Esther. "Why would she go into
+the garden in the middle of the night?"
+
+"Walking in her sleep," explained Bob. "I've heard it is dangerous to
+waken a sleep-walker suddenly. Perhaps you'd better call Mrs. Littell,
+Betty, and I'll sit here on the window seat and see that she doesn't walk
+out into the road."
+
+The two girls hurried off and tapped lightly on Mrs. Littell's door. That
+lady hurriedly admitted them, her motherly mind instantly picturing
+something wrong.
+
+"It's Libbie," said Betty softly. "Bob saw her from his window in the
+garden and he thinks she's walking in her sleep. We don't want to
+frighten her. What can we do?"
+
+"I'll be right out," said Mrs. Littell reassuringly. "Libbie's mother
+used to walk in her sleep, too. I think I can get the child into bed
+without waking her at all."
+
+In a few moments she came out, a heavy corduroy robe and slippers
+protecting her against the night air.
+
+"Esther, lamb, you stay here in the hall with Bob," she directed her
+youngest daughter. "You won't be afraid with Bob, will you, dear? I don't
+want too many to go down or we may startle Libbie."
+
+Betty crept downstairs after Mrs. Littell, the soft, thick rugs making
+their progress absolutely noiseless. Not a step in the well-built
+staircase creaked.
+
+They found the chain and bolt drawn from the heavy front door. Libbie had
+evidently let herself out with no difficulty. From the wide hall window
+Bob and Esther watched breathlessly.
+
+"Just go up to her quietly and take one of her hands," Mrs. Littell
+whispered to Betty. "I'll take the other, and, if I'm not mistaken, we
+can lead her into the house."
+
+Libbie stood motionless beside a rosebush as they approached her. Her
+eyes were wide open, and her dark hair floated over her shoulders. In her
+white nightdress, the moonlight full upon her, she looked very pretty and
+yet so weird that Betty could not repress a shiver.
+
+Mrs. Littell did not speak, but took one of the limp hands in hers, and
+Betty took the other. Libbie made no resistance, and allowed them to
+draw her toward the house. They crossed the threshold, led her upstairs,
+past the quivering Esther and Bob huddled on the windowseat, and into the
+bedroom she had so unceremoniously left.
+
+Then Mrs. Littell lifted her in strong arms, put her gently down on the
+bed, and Libbie rolled up like a little kitten, tucked one hand under her
+cheek and continued to sleep.
+
+"Now go to bed, children, do," commanded Mrs. Littell. "Bob, I'm so
+thankful you saw that child--she might have wandered off or caught a
+severe cold. As it is, I don't believe she has been out very long. What's
+the matter, Esther?"
+
+"Can I come and sleep with you?" pleaded Esther. "I'm afraid to sleep
+with Libbie. She might do it again."
+
+"I don't think so--not to-night," said her mother, smiling. "However,
+chicken, come and sleep with me if you'll rest better."
+
+Betty awoke and went in later that night to see if Libbie had vanished
+again, but found her sleeping normally. In the morning the girl was much
+surprised to find she had been wandering in the garden and betrayed
+considerable interest in the details. Betty decided that it would be
+better to omit Esther's belief that she had eloped, and Libbie was
+allowed to remain in blissful ignorance of the action her youthful cousin
+attributed to her.
+
+The last day sped by all too soon, and what the Tucker twins persisted
+in pessimistically designating the "fateful Thursday" was upon them.
+
+"I don't know why you sigh so frequently," dimpled Betty, who sat next to
+Tommy Tucker at the breakfast table. "I'm very anxious to go to school.
+Don't you really like to go back?"
+
+"It's like this," said Tommy, the "dark Tucker twin," solemnly. "From
+four to ten p.m. (except on drill nights) I like it well enough, and from
+ten, lights out, till six, reveille, I'm fairly contented. But from nine
+to four, when we're cooped up in classrooms, I simply detest school!"
+
+Teddy, the "light Tucker twin," nodded in confirmation.
+
+"I suppose we have to be educated," he admitted, with the air of one
+making a generous concession to public opinion, "but I don't see why they
+find it necessary to prolong the agony. Any one who can read and write
+can make a living."
+
+"Perhaps your father hopes you'll do a bit more than that," suggested Mr.
+Littell slyly.
+
+This effectually silenced the twins, for their wealthy father was a
+splendid scientist who had made several explorations that had contributed
+materially to the knowledge of the scientific world, and he had lost the
+sight of one eye in a laboratory experiment undertaken to advance the
+cause for which he labored.
+
+The Littell car carried the twelve to the station soon after
+breakfast, and though Shadyside and Salsette, unlike many of the large
+northern schools, ran no "special," the few passengers who were not
+school bound found themselves decidedly in the minority on the "9:36
+local" that morning.
+
+"Remember, Betty, you and Bob are to spend the holidays with us," said
+Mrs. Littell, as she kissed her good-bye. "If your uncle comes down from
+Canada, he must come, too."
+
+"All aboard!" shouted the conductor, who foresaw a lively trip. "No'm,
+you can't go through the gate--nobody can."
+
+The crowd of fathers and mothers and younger brothers and sisters
+pressed close to the iron grating as the train got under way. On the
+back platform the Tucker twins raised their voices in a school yell that
+would have horrified the dignified heads of the Academy had they been
+there to hear it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+ADJUSTER TOMMY
+
+
+"I'm Salsette born!" trilled Tommy Tucker soulfully.
+
+"And Salsette bred!" chimed in his brother
+
+"And when I die--" caroled Tommy.
+
+"I'll be Salsette dead!" they finished together.
+
+Then, highly satisfied with this intelligible ditty, they burst into the
+car where the others were waiting for them.
+
+The boys had appropriated the seats at the forward end of the car, and
+unfortunately their selection included a seat in which an elderly, or so
+she seemed to them, woman sat. She fidgeted incessantly, folding and
+unfolding her long traveling coat, opening and closing a fitted lunch
+basket, and arranging and re-arranging several small unwieldy parcels and
+heavy books that slid persistently to the floor with the jarring of the
+train. When the conductor came through for tickets, she discovered that
+she had mislaid hers and it was necessary to flutter the pages of every
+book before the missing bit of pasteboard finally dropped from between
+the leaves of the last one opened.
+
+Bob, with instinctive courtesy, had offered to help her search, but she
+had rebuffed him sharply.
+
+"I don't want any boy pawing over my belongings," she informed him
+tartly.
+
+Bob flushed a little, it was impossible not to help it, but he said
+nothing. Meeting Betty's indignant eyes, he smiled good-humoredly.
+
+"Sweet pickles!" ejaculated Tommy Tucker indignantly. "Here, you Timothy,
+hand me that suitcase at your feet--it belongs to the little dark girl."
+
+Libbie, "the little dark girl," smiled dreamily as Timothy passed her
+suitcase to Tommy. She and Timothy Derby, ignoring the jeers of their
+friends, were deep in two white and gold volumes of poetry. Timothy,
+Libbie had discovered, had a leaning toward the romantic in fiction,
+though he preferred his served in rhyme.
+
+The wicked Tommy had a motive in asking for Libbie's suitcase. It was
+much smaller and lighter than any of the others, and he swung it deftly
+into the rack over the vinegary lady's unsuspecting head. With a
+deftness, born it must be confessed of previous practice, he balanced
+the case on the rim so that the first lurch of the train catapulted the
+thing down squarely on the woman's hat, snapping a shiny, hard black
+quill in two.
+
+"I must say!" she sputtered, rising angrily. "Who put that up there? If
+anything goes in that rack, it will be some of my things. I paid for
+this seat."
+
+She set the suitcase out into the aisle with a decided bang, and lifted
+up the wicker lunch basket. To the glee of the watching young people, as
+she lifted it to the rack, two china cups, several teaspoons and a silver
+cream jug sifted down. The cups broke on the floor and the other articles
+rolled under the seats.
+
+"Get 'em, quick!" cried the owner. "My two best cups broken, and I
+thought I had them packed so well! Pick up those teaspoons, some of
+you--they're solid silver!"
+
+"If you don't mind boys pawing them--" began Teddy Tucker, but Betty
+intervened.
+
+"Oh, don't!" she protested softly. "Don't be so mean. Pick them up,
+please do."
+
+So down on their hands and knees went the six lads, and if, in their
+earnestness, they bumped into the elderly woman's hat box, and knocked
+down her books, that really should not be held against them.
+
+"Now for mercy's sake, don't let me hear from you again," was her
+speech of thanks to them when the teaspoons had been recovered and
+restored to her.
+
+She might have been severely left alone after this, if Sydney Cooke had
+not discovered a remarkable peculiarity she possessed. Sydney was a great
+lover of games, and he had brought his pocket checkerboard and men with
+him. He persuaded Winifred Marion Brown to play a game with him, and the
+rest of the party crowded around to watch.
+
+"I'll trouble you to let me pass," said the owner of the teaspoons, when
+Sydney had just made his first play.
+
+The group parted to let her through, closed in again, and opened again
+for her when she came back. No one paid any attention to this until she
+had made the request four times.
+
+"What ails that woman?" demanded Sydney irritably.
+
+Each time she had passed him she had brushed his elbow, scattering his
+checkers about. Ordinarily sweet-tempered, Sydney was beginning to weary
+of this performance.
+
+"What do you think?" snickered Bobby Littell. "She takes a white tablet
+every five minutes. Honest! I've been watching her. She sits there with
+her watch in her hand, and exactly five minutes apart--I've timed
+her--she starts for the water cooler. She puts something on her tongue,
+swallows a glass of water, and comes back."
+
+"Well, somebody carry her a gallon jug," muttered Sydney impatiently. "I
+can't get anywhere if she is going to parade up and down the aisle
+incessantly."
+
+"Don't worry," said Tommy Tucker soothingly. "I'll adjust this little
+matter for you."
+
+If Sydney had been less interested in his game, he might have felt
+slightly apprehensive. The Tucker twins were famous for their
+"adjustments."
+
+Tommy went down the aisle and slipped into the seat directly back of the
+woman who did not approve of boys. She turned and regarded him hostilely,
+but he gazed out at the flying landscape. The moment she turned around,
+he ducked to the floor.
+
+"What do you suppose he is doing?" whispered Bobby to Betty. "Tommy can
+think up tricks faster than any boy I ever knew."
+
+Whatever Tommy was doing, he finished in a very few moments and sauntered
+back to the checker game, his eyes dancing.
+
+Sydney and Winifred were absorbed in their game, and the others, with the
+exception of Bobby and Betty, had not noticed Tommy's brief absence.
+
+"Oh, look!" Betty clutched Bobby's arm excitedly. "What has
+happened to her?"
+
+The woman, who had sat with her watch in her hand, snapped it shut,
+prepared to make another journey to the water cooler. She half rose, an
+alarmed expression flitted over her face, and she sank into her seat
+again. Tommy's eyes were studiously on the checkerboard.
+
+With one convulsive effort, the woman struggled to her feet, grasped the
+bell-cord and jerked it twice, then dropped into her seat and began to
+weep hysterically.
+
+The brakes jarred down, and the train came to a sudden stop that sent
+many of the passengers m a mad scramble forward.
+
+In a few moments the conductor flung open the car door angrily. Behind
+him two anxious young brakesmen peered curiously.
+
+"Anybody in here jerk that bellcord?" demanded the conductor, scowling.
+
+"Certainly. It was I," said the elderly woman loftily.
+
+"Oh, you did, eh?" he bristled, apparently unworried by her opinion.
+"What did you do that for? Here you've stopped a whole train."
+
+"I considered it necessary," was the icy reply. "Perhaps you will be good
+enough to call a doctor?"
+
+"Are you ill?" the conductor's voice changed perceptibly. "I doubt if
+there is a doctor on the train, but I'll see."
+
+"Tell him to hurry," said the woman commandingly. "I think I'm
+paralyzed."
+
+"Paralyzed!" Tommy Tucker gave a loud snort and fell over backward into
+the arms of his twin.
+
+The conductor shot a suspicious glance toward him. He had traveled on
+school trains before.
+
+"You seem to be all right, Madam," he said to the stricken one
+courteously. "There's a doctor at the Junction, I'm sure. What makes you
+think you're paralyzed?"
+
+"My good man," said the woman majestically, "when a person in good health
+and accustomed to normal activity suddenly loses the power to use
+her--er--feet, isn't that an indication of some physical trouble?"
+
+Her unfortunate and un-American phrase, "my good man," had nettled the
+conductor, and besides his train was losing time.
+
+"We'll miss connections at the Junction if we fool away much more time,"
+he said testily. "I wonder--Why look here! No wonder you can't use
+your feet!"
+
+To the elderly woman's horror he had swooped down and laid a not
+ungentle hand on her ankle in its neat and smart-looking shoe. Now he
+took out his knife, slashed twice, and held up the pieces of a stout
+length of twine.
+
+"You were tied to the seat-base by the heels of your shoes," he informed
+the patient grimly. "One foot tied to the other, too. Well, Jim, take in
+your signals--guess we can mosey along."
+
+"And who would have expected her to wear high-heeled boots!" exclaimed
+Bobby, with real amazement showing in voice and look.
+
+The few passengers in the car, aside from the school contingent, were
+openly laughing. The victim of this practical joke turned a dull red and
+the glare she turned on the back of the luckless Tommy's head was proof
+enough that she knew exactly where to lay the blame.
+
+However, she said nothing, nor did she make another trip down the aisle
+and as Tommy philosophically whispered, this was worth all he had dared
+and suffered. Sydney and Winifred finished their game before the Junction
+was reached and that brought a wild charge to get on the train that would
+carry them to Shadyside station.
+
+To their relief, there was no sign of the elderly woman in the new car,
+and as they were all a bit tired from the journey and excitement the
+hour's ride to Shadyside from the Junction was comparatively quiet.
+
+Betty looked eagerly from the window as the brakesman shouted,
+"Shadyside! Shadyside!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+SHADYSIDE SCHOOL
+
+
+"Isn't it a pretty station!" said Louise Littell.
+
+Betty agreed with her.
+
+The lawn was still green about the gray stone building and the tiles on
+the low-hanging roof were moss green, too. The long platform was roofed
+over and seemed swarming with girls and boys. Evidently a train had come
+in from the other direction a few minutes before the Junction train, for
+bags and suitcases and trunks were heaped up outside the baggage room
+door and the busses backed up to the edge of the gravel driveway were
+partially filled with passengers.
+
+The blue and silver uniforms of the Salsette cadets were much in
+evidence, and Betty's first thought was of how nice Bob Henderson would
+look in uniform.
+
+"There's our friend!" whispered Tommy Tucker, directing Betty's
+attention to the severe-looking elderly woman whom he had so bothered on
+the train. "Gee, do you suppose she goes to Shadyside? I thought it was
+a girls' School!"
+
+"Oh, do be quiet!" scolded Bobby Littell "Tommy, you've got us in a peck
+of trouble--she's one of the teachers!"
+
+"How do you know?" demanded Tommy. "Who told you?"
+
+"Well, if you'd keep still a minute, you'd hear," said the
+exasperated Bobby.
+
+Sure enough, a pleasant, fresh-faced woman, hardly more than a girl, was
+escorting the gray-haired woman to a waiting touring car.
+
+"You're the last of the staff to come," she said clearly. Mrs. Eustice
+was beginning to worry about you. Will you tell her that I'm coming up in
+the bus with the girls?"
+
+"All right, you win," admitted Tommy. "Why couldn't she say she was a
+teacher instead of acting so blamed exclusive? Anyway, she probably won't
+connect you girls with me--all boys look alike to her."
+
+"She has a wonderful memory--like a camera," surmised Bobby gloomily.
+"You wait and see."
+
+"Girls, are all of you for Shadyside?" The young woman had come up to
+them and now she smiled at the giggling, chattering group with engaging
+friendliness. "I thought you were. We take this auto-stage over here.
+Give your baggage checks to this porter. I'm Miss Anderson, the physical
+instructor."
+
+"Salsette boys this way!" boomed a stentorian voice.
+
+"Good-bye, Betty. See you soon," whispered Bob, giving Betty's hand a
+hurried squeeze. "We're only across the lake, you know."
+
+"You chaps, _move_!" directed the voice snappily.
+
+With one accord the group dissolved, the boys hastening to the stage
+marked "Salsette" and the girls following Miss Anderson.
+
+There were two stages for the Academy and two for Shadyside, and a
+smaller bus which, they afterward learned, followed the route to the
+town, which was not on the railroad.
+
+"Betty, darling!"
+
+A pretty girl tumbled down the stage steps and nearly choked Betty with
+the fervency of her embrace.
+
+It was Norma Guerin, and Alice was waiting, smiling. Betty was delighted
+to meet these old friends, and she introduced them to the Littell girls
+and Libbie and Frances in the happy, tangled fashion that such
+introductions usually are performed. Names and faces get straightened out
+more gradually.
+
+The stage in which they found themselves, for the seven girls insisted on
+sitting near each other, was well-filled. They had started and were
+lurching along the rather uneven road when Betty found herself staring at
+a girl on the other side of the bus.
+
+"Where have I seen her before?" she puzzled. "I wonder--does she look
+like some one I know? Oh, I remember! She's the girl we saw on the
+train--the one that took Bob's seat!"
+
+Just then a girl sitting up near the driver's seat leaned forward.
+
+"Ada!" she called. "Ada Nansen! Are you the girl they say brought five
+trunks and three hat boxes?"
+
+"Well, they're little ones!" said the girl sitting opposite Betty. "I
+wanted to bring three wardrobe trunks, but mother thought Mrs. Eustice
+might make a fuss."
+
+So the girl's name was Ada Nansen. Betty was sure she remembered their
+encounter on the train, if for no other reason than that Ada studiously
+refused to meet her eye. Betty was too inexperienced to know that a
+certain type of girl never takes a step toward making a new friend
+unless she has the worldly standing of that friend first clearly fixed
+in her mind.
+
+"What gorgeous furs she has!" whispered Norma Guerin. "Do you know
+her, Betty?"
+
+Betty shook her head. Strictly speaking, she did not know Ada. What she
+did know of her was not pleasant, and it was part of Betty's personal
+creed never to repeat anything unkind if nothing good was to come of it.
+
+"I can tell Bob, 'cause he knows about her," she said to herself. "Won't
+he be surprised! I do hope she hasn't brought a huge wardrobe to school
+to make Norma and Alice feel bad."
+
+Though both the Guerin girls wore the neatest blouses and suits, any
+girl could immediately have told you that their clothes were not new
+that season and that the little bag each carried had been oiled and
+polished at home.
+
+That Ada Nansen's trunks were worrying Norma, too, her next remark
+showed.
+
+"Alice and I have only one trunk between us," she confided to Betty.
+"Mother said Mrs. Eustice never allowed the girls to dress much. I made
+Alice's party frock and mine, too. They're plain white."
+
+"So's mine," said Betty quickly. "Mrs. Littell wouldn't let her daughters
+have elaborate clothes, and the Littells have oceans of money. I don't
+believe Ada can wear her fine feathers now she has 'em."
+
+Twenty minutes' ride brought them in sight of the school, and as the bus
+turned down the road that led to the lake, many exclamations of pleasure
+were heard.
+
+A double row of weeping willows, now bare, of course, bordered the lake,
+and the sloping lawns of the school led down to these. The red brick
+buildings of the Salsette Academy could be glimpsed on the other shore.
+Shadyside consisted of a large brick and limestone building that the
+last term pupils in the busses obligingly explained was the
+"administration," where classes were taught. The gymnasium was also in
+this building. In addition were three gray stone buildings, connected
+with bridges, in which were the dormitories, the teachers' rooms, the
+dining room, the infirmary, and the kitchens. The administration building
+was also connected with the other buildings by a covered passageway
+which, they were to discover, was opened only in bad weather. Mrs.
+Eustice, the principal, had a theory that girls did not get out into the
+fresh air often enough.
+
+The main building possessed a handsome doorway, and here the busses
+stopped and discharged their passengers.
+
+"Ada, my dear love!" cried a girl from the bus behind the one in which
+Betty and her friends had ridden.
+
+An over-dressed, stout girl advanced upon Ada Nansen and kissed her
+affectionately.
+
+"Look quick! That's Ruth Gladys Royal!" whispered Bobby. "I hope they
+room together--they'll be a pair. Ada, my dear love!" she mimicked
+wickedly. "Libbie, let that be a warning to you--Ruth Gladys Royal is
+terribly romantic, too!"
+
+Miss Anderson, smiling and unhurried, marshaled her charges into the
+large foyer and announced that they would be assigned to rooms
+before luncheon.
+
+"Mrs. Eustice will speak to you in the assembly hall this afternoon,"
+said Miss Anderson. "And you will meet her and the teachers for a little
+social hour."
+
+Two busy young clerks were at work in the office adjoining the foyer, and
+for those who were already provided with a room-mate the task of securing
+a room was a matter of only a few moments.
+
+Our girls, with the exception of Louise, had paired off when they had
+registered for the term. Bobby Littell and Betty Gordon were, of course,
+inseparable. Libbie and Frances, great friends in their home town,
+naturally gravitated together, though Betty would have chosen a less
+studious room-mate for the dreamy Libbie--she needed a girl who would
+know more accurately what she was doing. Norma and Alice Guerin were to
+share a room, and Louise felt forlornly out of things when Miss Anderson
+came up to her bringing a red-haired, freckle-faced girl with wide gray
+eyes and a boyish grin.
+
+"Louise Littell--you are Louise, aren't you?" asked the teacher. "Well,
+here's a girl who's come to us from a Western army post. Her name is
+Constance Howard, and she doesn't know a single girl. Don't you think
+you two might be happy together?"
+
+Constance smiled again, and Louise warmed perceptibly. Louise was the
+least friendly of the three Littell girls.
+
+"I'll let you play my ukulele," offered Constance eagerly.
+
+"Let me. She doesn't know a ukulele from a music box," said Bobby, with
+sisterly frankness. "Come on, girls, let's go up and see our rooms."
+
+They tramped up the broad staircase and crossed one of the bridges to
+find themselves in a delightful, sunny building with corridors carpeted
+in softest green. The rooms apparently were all connecting, and the
+teacher who met them said the eight friends might have adjoining rooms as
+long as "they gave no trouble."
+
+"I'm your corridor teacher, Miss Lacey," she explained.
+
+"Let's be glad she isn't the one we saw on the train," whispered the
+irrepressible Bobby, as they all trooped into the first room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+FIRST IMPRESSIONS
+
+
+It was soon settled that Betty and Bobby were to have the center room in
+a suite of three and Libbie and Frances should be on one side of them,
+and Louise and Constance Howard on the other. There was a perfectly
+appointed bathroom opening off the center room which the six were to
+share. Norma and Alice Guerin were given a room that adjoined that
+occupied by Libbie and Frances, but nominally, Miss Lacey explained, they
+would be considered as a unit in the next suite of three connecting
+rooms. Fortunately two very friendly, quiet girls drew the room
+immediately next to the Guerin girls.
+
+"But, Betty, listen," whispered Norma Guerin, drawing Betty aside as a
+great bumping and banging announced the arrival of the trunks. "Who do
+you suppose has the room next to the Bennett sisters? Ada Nansen and Ruth
+Gladys Royal!"
+
+"You are in hard luck!" commented Bobby, who had overheard, as she danced
+off to open the door to the grinning expressman.
+
+"All the porters are busy!" the man explained.
+
+"So I just told 'em Tim McCarthy wasn't one to stand by and let work go
+undone. Where would ye be wantin' these little bags put now?"
+
+He had a trunk on his back that, as Bobby afterward remarked to Betty,
+"would have done for an elephant."
+
+"Girls, whose trunk is this?" demanded Bobby.
+
+"Not mine!" came like a well-drilled chorus.
+
+"'Miss Ada Nansen,'" read Betty, examining the card. "Bobby, that's one
+of the five!"
+
+They directed the perspiring expressman to the right door and, it is to
+be regretted, shamelessly peeped while he toiled up and down bringing the
+five trunks and three hat boxes. Then he began on the baggage consigned
+to Ruth Gladys Royal, and the watchers counted three trunks.
+
+Betty looked at the Guerin girls and laughed.
+
+"Eight trunks!" she gasped. "They can't get that number in one room.
+Not and have any room for the furniture. Norma, do go and see what
+you can see."
+
+Norma sped away, and returned as speedily, her eyes blazing.
+
+"What do you think?" she demanded furiously. "They've had some of 'em put
+in our room, three I counted, and two in the Bennett girls' room. They're
+as mad as hops!"
+
+"The Bennett girls are my friends," declared Bobby Littell sententiously.
+"I only hope they're mad enough to hop right down to the office and
+explain the state of things."
+
+But the luncheon gong sounded just then, and a laughing, colorful throng
+of femininity swept down the broad stairs to the dining room.
+
+"How lovely!" said Betty involuntarily.
+
+There were no long tables in the large, airy room. Instead, round tables
+that seated from six to eight, each daintily set and with a slender vase
+of flowers in the center of each. Betty and Bobby had the same thought at
+the same moment.
+
+"If we could only sit together, all of us!" their eyes telegraphed.
+
+"They're all taking the tables they want and standing by the chairs,"
+whispered Betty. "Let's do that."
+
+A table set for eight was close to the door. Betty, Bobby, Louise,
+Frances, Libbie, Constance, Norma and Alice gently surrounded this and
+stood quietly behind the chairs.
+
+Some one, somewhere, gave a signal, and the roomful was seated as
+if by magic.
+
+"I see--those four tables over by the window are for the teachers,"
+whispered Betty. "I see Miss Anderson and Miss Lacey, and that
+white-haired woman must be the principal. Yes, and girls, there's that
+woman whom the boys tormented so on the train!"
+
+Sure enough, there she was, looking even more severe now that her hat
+was removed and her sharp features were unrelieved.
+
+"If this isn't fun! I'm sorry for poor Esther at Miss Graham's,"
+said Bobby, looking about her with delight. "Mercy, what do you
+suppose this is?"
+
+One of the young clerks from the office approached the table, a large
+cardboard sheet in her hand.
+
+"I'm filling in the diagram," she explained. "You mustn't change your
+seats without permission. Tell me your names, and I'll put you down in
+the right spaces."
+
+Betty looked over her shoulder as she wrote down their names. Like the
+diagram of the seating space of a theatre, the tables and chairs were
+plainly marked. Betty swiftly calculated that between one hundred and
+twenty-five and one hundred and fifty girls must be seated in the room.
+Later she learned that the total enrollment was one hundred and sixty.
+
+Just outside the dining room was a large bulletin board, impossible to
+ignore or overlook. When they came out from luncheon a notice was posted
+that Mrs. Eustice would address the school at two o'clock in the assembly
+hall in the main building. It was now one-thirty.
+
+"Let's go look at the gym," suggested Bobby. "We have time. Oh, how do
+you do?"--this last was apparently jerked out of her.
+
+"I didn't know you were coming to Shadyside, Bobby," said Ruth Gladys
+Royal effusively. "Do you know my chum, Ada Nansen? She's from San
+Francisco."
+
+"Constance Howard is from the West, too--the Presidio," said Bobby.
+
+Gracefully she introduced the others to Ada and Ruth who surveyed them
+indifferently. The Littell girls they knew were wealthy and had a place
+in Washington society, but the rest were not yet classified.
+
+"Haven't I seen you before?" Ada languidly questioned Betty. "You're not
+the little waitress--Oh, how stupid of me! I was thinking of a girl who
+looked enough like you to be your sister."
+
+Bobby bristled indignantly, but Betty struggled with laughter.
+
+"I remember you," she said clearly. "You had the wrong seat on the train
+from Oklahoma."
+
+Ada Nansen glanced at her with positive dislike.
+
+"I don't recall," she said icily. "However, I've traveled so much I
+daresay many incidents slip my mind. Well, Gladys, let's go in and get
+good seats. I want to hear Mrs. Eustice; they say she is a direct
+descendant of Richard Carvel."
+
+"We might as well go in, too," said Bobby disconsolately. "She's used up
+so much time we couldn't do the gym justice."
+
+Promptly at two o'clock, white-haired Mrs. Eustice mounted the platform
+and tapped a little bell for silence.
+
+The principal was a gracious woman of perhaps fifty. Her snow-white hair
+was piled high on her head and her dark eyes were bright and keen.
+Wonderful eyes they were, seeming to gaze straight into the youthful eyes
+that stared back affectionately or curiously as the case might be. Mrs.
+Eustice's gown was of black or very dark blue silk, made simply and
+fitting exquisitely. Straight, soft collar and cuffs of dotted net
+outlined the neck and wrists, and her single ornament was a tiny watch
+worn on a black ribbon.
+
+"I wish Ada Nansen would take a good look at her," muttered Bobby.
+
+"I am so glad to welcome you, my girls," began Mrs. Eustice.
+
+Betty thrilled to the magic of that modulated voice, low and yet clear
+enough to be heard in every corner of the large room. Surely this lovely
+woman could teach them the secret of cultivated, dignified and happy
+young womanhood.
+
+The principal spoke to them briefly of her ideals for them, explained the
+few rigid rules of the school, and asked that all exercise tact and
+patience for the first week during which the rough edges of new
+schedules might reasonably be expected to wear off.
+
+"I want to have a little personal talk with each one of you," she
+concluded. "Your corridor teachers will consult with me and will tell you
+when you are to come to me. And I hope you are to be very, very happy
+here with us at Shadyside."
+
+A soft clapping of hands followed this speech, and Mrs. Eustice stepped
+down from the platform to be instantly surrounded by the girls who had
+spent other terms at the school.
+
+After the older girls had spoken to the principal, the newcomers began to
+move forward. They were presented by their corridor teachers, who seemed
+to possess a special faculty to remember names, and here and there Mrs.
+Eustice recognized a girl through the association of ideas.
+
+As Miss Lacey swept her girls forward, Ada Nansen and Ruth Gladys Royal
+happened to head the ranks. Mrs. Eustice put out her hand to Ada, then
+gazed down at her in evident astonishment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE LOST TREASURE
+
+
+"Diamonds," whispered Betty to Norma Guerin, who seemed depressed. "She
+wears three diamond rings and one sapphire and a square-cut emerald. And
+her wrist-watch is platinum set with diamonds."
+
+Mrs. Eustice gazed at the soft little hand she held for a few moments,
+then released it. She said nothing.
+
+"Ah, your mother wrote me of you," was the principal's greeting to the
+Littell girls. "You look like her, Louise. And Bobby is much like her
+father as I remember him."
+
+"This is Betty Gordon," said the loyal Bobby, indicating her chum.
+"Mother wrote about her, too, didn't she?"
+
+"Indeed she did," assented Mrs. Eustice warmly. "I must have a special
+talk with Betty soon, for she has an ambitious program before her. And
+here are Libbie and Frances from the state I remember so affectionately
+from girlhood visits there."
+
+But it was Norma and Alice Guerin, sensitive Norma and shy Alice, who
+were welcomed most cordially after all.
+
+"So you are Elsie Guerin's daughters!" said the principal, putting an
+arm around Norma and holding her hand out to Alice. "My own dear mother
+taught your mother when she was a little girl with braids like yours.
+And your dear grandmother used to give the most wonderful parties.
+People talk about them to this day. It was at her Rose Ball I first met
+my husband. You must go up the north road some day and see the old
+Macklin house."
+
+Norma and Alice fairly glowed as they went back to their rooms with the
+other girls. Ada Nansen had heard, and she was regarding them with
+evident respect.
+
+Norma and Alice might have been uneasy had they heard Ada's comment when
+she and Ruth were once more in their own rooms.
+
+"They must have money," argued Ada, "though I never saw such ordinary
+clothes. Giving balls and parties in the lavish Southern style costs,
+let me tell you. Probably they have some fine family jewels in that
+shabby trunk."
+
+"I'll tell you what I think," said Ruth Gladys wisely. "I think the money
+is all used up. Probably they're here as charity pupils for old
+friendship's sake."
+
+This speculation was duly stored up in Ada Nansen's mind to be brought
+out when needed.
+
+After dinner Miss Anderson played for them to dance in the broad hall,
+but every one was tired from train journeys, and at nine o'clock they
+voluntarily sought their rooms.
+
+"Get into a kimono and brush your hair in here," hospitably suggested
+Betty, and Bobby seconded her by flinging the suitcases under the beds.
+All of the rooms were fitted with pretty day-beds so that a cover quickly
+transformed them into couches and the bedrooms into sitting rooms.
+
+Four gay-colored kimono-wrapped figures came pattering in presently and
+curled up comfortably on the beds. Norma and Alice were the last to
+arrive, and when they did come they mystified their friends by prancing
+in silently and waltzing gaily about the room.
+
+"Oh, girls!" they chortled when they had tired of this performance, "what
+do you think?"
+
+"We couldn't help hearing," said Norma deprecatingly.
+
+"Laura Bennett called us in," declared Alice.
+
+"Don't sing a duet," commanded Bobby sternly. "What are you talking
+about? One at a time. You tell, Norma."
+
+"Laura Bennett called us into her room," obediently recited Norma. "Miss
+Lacey was talking to Ada and Ruth. You could hear every word without
+listening--that is without eavesdropping--you know what I mean. Mrs.
+Eustice must have spoken to Miss Lacey, because she told the girls they
+would have to send all the trunks home except one apiece. Ada must put
+all her jewelry in the school safe and at the Christmas holidays she is
+to take it home and leave it there. Both of them have to wear their hair
+down or in a knot--you know they have it waved now and done up just like
+my mother's. And Miss Lacey is to go over their clothes to-morrow and
+tell 'em what they can keep!"
+
+"I'm glad some one has some sense!" was Bobby's terse comment.
+
+Something in Norma's face told Betty that she would like to speak to her
+alone, so half an hour later when the girls had dispersed for the night,
+she made a bent nail file an excuse to go to the Guerins' room.
+
+"I was hoping you'd come, Betty," said Norma gratefully. "We have to put
+out the lights at ten, don't we? I'll try to talk fast. You see, Alice
+and I want to tell you something."
+
+A fleecy old-fashioned shawl lay across the bed and Norma flung this
+about Betty's shoulders.
+
+"Alice's kimono is flannel and so is mine," she explained in answer to
+the protest. "You never met Grandma Macklin, did you, Betty?"
+
+"No-o, I'm sure I never did," responded Betty thoughtfully. "Does she
+live with you?"
+
+"Yes. But while you were at the Peabodys she was visiting her half-sister
+in Georgia," explained Norma. "She is mother's mother, you know."
+
+"What was it Mrs. Eustice said about her?" questioned Betty with
+interest. "Did she live near here? Was that when your mother went to
+this school?"
+
+"It was a day school then, you know," put in the laconic Alice.
+
+"Yes, and grandma lived in a perfectly wonderful big house," said Norma.
+"It must be fully five miles from here. Uncle Goliath, an old colored
+man, used to drive her over every day and call for her in the afternoon.
+Mother has always been determined Alice and I should graduate from
+Shadyside."
+
+"Well then, it's lovely she is to have her wish," commented Betty
+brightly.
+
+"Oh, goodness, I don't see that we're ever going to have four years,"
+confessed Norma. "If you knew what they've given up at home to send us
+for this term! And though we wouldn't say anything, mother and grandma
+worked so hard to get us ready, Alice and I are positively ashamed of our
+clothes. You see, Betty, I think when you're poor, you ought to go where
+you'll meet other poor girls. Alice and I ought to have entered the
+Glenside high school, I think. But when I said something like that to dad
+he said it would break mother's heart. But if she knew how hard it was to
+be poor and to have to rub elbows with girls who have everything--"
+
+"I don't think you ought to feel that way," urged Betty. "You have
+something that no amount of money could buy for you, and no lack can take
+away--birth and breeding. And the training your mother wants you to have
+is worth sacrificing other things for. Ever since I heard Mrs. Eustice
+talk I feel that I know what makes her school really successful."
+
+A soft tap fell on the door.
+
+"Lights go off in ten minutes, girls," said Miss Lacey pleasantly.
+
+"Do you know, Betty," confessed Norma hurriedly, "dad has lost quite a
+lot of money lately. He's such a dear he never can bear to press
+payment of a bill and half the county owes him. And a friend got him to
+invest what he did have in some silly stock that never amounted to a
+hill of beans, as the farmers say. So it's no wonder the Macklin
+fortune worries mother whenever she thinks of it; a family like ours
+could use money so easily."
+
+"Most families are like that," said Betty, with a flash of Uncle Dick's
+humor. "I didn't like to ask, Norma, but your grandmother must have
+been wealthy."
+
+"She was," confirmed Norma. "Not fabulously so, of course. But even in
+those days when lavish hospitality was common Grandma Macklin was famous
+for the way she ran the estate. She was left a widow when a very young
+woman, and mother was her only child. Her husband didn't believe women
+knew very much about money, and he left his fortune mostly in bonds and
+jewels--the most magnificent diamonds in three counties, grandma says
+hers were. And she had a rope of emeralds and two strings of exquisitely
+matched pearls. Besides, there were rose topazes and lovely cameos and
+oh, goodness, I couldn't repeat the list; Alice and I have been brought
+up on the story.
+
+"Well, about the time mother had finished school, Grandma Macklin came to
+the end of her bank account. Several mortgages had been paid her in gold,
+and she kept this money with the jewelry and a lot of solid silver in a
+little safe in her room. Foolish, of course, but she says others did it
+in those days, too. She meant to take the gold and some of the diamonds
+to her lawyer and get a check which would take her and mother around the
+world on a luxurious cruise. And the day before she had the appointment
+with Mr. Davies--"
+
+A soft blackness settled down over the girls like a blanket. The
+electric lights had gone out!
+
+"Move closer, and I'll finish," whispered Norma.
+
+Betty snuggled up between the two, and shivered a little with excitement.
+
+"The day before she was to drive to Edentown," repeated Norma, "a band of
+Indians from the reservation in the next state came through on their
+annual tramping trip and walked in on poor little grandma as she sat at
+her mahogany secretary turning over her jewels and counting her beautiful
+shining gold. Every darkey on the place fled in terror, and those
+rascally Indians simply scooped up everything in sight and locked grandma
+and mother in the room!"
+
+"Couldn't any one stop them?" demanded Betty eagerly. "Surely a band of
+Indians could have been easily traced. Didn't any one try?"
+
+"Oh, they tried," admitted Norma. "That's the maddening part. Suppose I
+told you, Betty, that I know where grandma's inheritance is this minute?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE MYSTERIOUS FOUR
+
+
+"Well, for mercy's sake!" said Betty in exasperation, "if you know
+where the property is, why don't you claim it? Why doesn't your mother?
+Where is it?"
+
+"At the bottom of Indian Chasm," declared Norma calmly.
+
+"Where's that?"
+
+"I don't know exactly," admitted Norma. "It's around here somewhere. You
+see the Indians streaked for the woods, and mother got out by way of a
+window and ran to the next estate. The men and boys there armed
+themselves and took horses and chased the Redskins, and when they were
+almost up with them the robbers tossed everything down this great canyon
+in the earth. There was no way to get into it, and though they tried
+lowering men with ropes, they couldn't find a solitary gold piece. As far
+as any one knows it is all at the bottom of the chasm now."
+
+"And grandma had to mortgage the house and they couldn't pay the interest
+and it was sold and all the lovely mahogany furniture," mourned Alice.
+"And grandma and mother moved to New York and mother taught school and
+met dad, who was a medical student. And they were married when he
+graduated, and grandma came to live with 'em."
+
+Betty crept away to her own bed when the story was finished. Bobby was
+asleep, for which her chum was thankful. Betty wanted to think. Surely
+there must be a way to recover the Macklin fortune, if it was still down
+in the big chasm.
+
+"I'll tell Bob and we'll go and find that place. Perhaps he can think of
+a plan," was Betty's last thought before she went to sleep.
+
+The next few days were very busy ones for every pupil. Ada and Ruth, in
+tears, submitted to having their wardrobes censored, and thereafter
+appeared in clothes that were not too striking.
+
+The appointments with Mrs. Eustice materialized, and Betty, after her
+interview, was conscious of a sincere affection for the woman who seemed
+to understand girls so thoroughly.
+
+Bobby was "crazy," to quote her own expression, about the gymnasium
+classes, and Miss Anderson beamed approvingly upon her. Betty, too, was
+often to be found in the gymnasium after school hours, but Libbie had to
+be driven to regular exercise. She liked to dance, but unless some one
+was made responsible for her, she was prone to cut her regular gymnasium
+period and devote the time to some thrilling novel. When the other girls
+discovered this they good-naturedly made up a schedule for the week,
+assigning a different day to every girl whose duty it should be to "seal,
+sign and deliver" the reluctant Libbie at the gymnasium door at the
+appointed time.
+
+Mrs. Eustice, rather peculiarly some people thought--Ada Nansen's mother
+among them--held the theory that school girls should spend a fair
+proportion of their time in study. She had small patience with the
+faddist type of school that abhorred "night work" and whose students
+specialized on "manners" to the neglect of spelling.
+
+"I dislike the term 'finishing school,'" she had once said. "I try
+to teach my girls that what they learn in school fits them for
+beginning life."
+
+So from seven to half-past eight every night, except Friday, the pupils
+at Shadyside were busy with their books. They might study in their rooms,
+provided their marks for the preceding week were satisfactory, but those
+who fell below a certain percentage were sentenced to prepare their
+lessons in the study hall under the eye of a teacher.
+
+The second Friday night of the term the new students were warned by
+little pink cocked notes to remain in their rooms after dinner until they
+had been inspected by the "Mysterious Four."
+
+"It's a secret society," Bobby announced the moment she had read her
+note. "Well, let's go upstairs and prepare to be inspected."
+
+The eight gathered in Betty and Bobby's room, and though they were
+expecting it, the knock, when it finally did come, made them all jump.
+
+"Come--come in," stammered Betty and Bobby together.
+
+Four veiled figures entered, each carrying something in her hand. They
+spoke in disguised voices, though as they were upper classmen they were
+fairly safe from recognition; the new girls were hardly acquainted among
+themselves and knew few of the older students by name.
+
+"Freshmen," said the tallest figure, "when we enter, rise."
+
+The eight leaped to their feet at a bound.
+
+"Do you wish to become members of the Mysterious Four?" demanded the
+second figure.
+
+"Oh, yes," chorused the willing victims.
+
+"It is well," chanted the third figure.
+
+"It is well," echoed the fourth.
+
+"I don't," said Libbie calmly.
+
+"Don't what?" questioned the tallest figure, evidently appointed chief
+spokesman.
+
+"Want to be a member of the Mysterious Four," announced Libbie, who had
+an obstinate streak in her make-up.
+
+"Unfortunately," the spokesman informed her, "you haven't any choice in
+the matter; you're elected one already."
+
+While Libbie was thinking up an answer, which considering the finality
+of that statement, was not an easy matter, the tall draped figure went
+on to explain to the interested girls that there were two degrees to
+be undergone before one could be a full fledged member of the
+Mysterious Four.
+
+"You must take the first degree to-night," they were told. "The second
+will be several weeks later."
+
+"Are we allowed to ask a question?" asked Betty respectfully.
+
+"Oh, yes. But we may not answer it," was the cheering response.
+
+"Why is the society called the 'Mysterious Four'?" asked Betty "All the
+freshman class received notes, so the membership must be large; where
+does the four enter?"
+
+"You'll learn that at the close of your first degree," said the spokesman
+with firm kindness. "Now you're to remain here for five minutes, and then
+go down to the study hall. Five minutes, remember."
+
+They departed majestically, and the girls were left to spend their five
+minutes in discussion of the visit.
+
+"I don't see why I have to belong," grumbled Libbie.
+
+"It will do you good," said Bobby severely. "When I promised Aunt
+Elizabeth to look after you, I didn't know that meant I would have to
+risk my head by sleeping under 'Lady Gwendolyn' in two volumes--and fat
+ones at that"
+
+Libbie had the grace to blush. Bobby, who was fond of books but whose
+taste ran to "Rules for Basketball" and "How to Gain Health Through
+Exercise," had put up a small shelf directly over her bed to hold her
+literary treasures. Libbie, exhausting the space in her tiny corner
+bookcase had thoughtlessly placed the two heavy volumes of the story
+Bobby mentioned on top of her cousin's books with the awful result that
+the shelf broke in the night and spilled the books on the wrathful Bobby.
+
+"Let's go down to the study hall," suggested peace-loving Louise. "The
+five minutes are up."
+
+Down they trooped, to find a number of girls already there, for the most
+part looking rather frightened.
+
+At five minute intervals other groups entered, until all the freshman
+class was assembled.
+
+"I don't care anything about this society," whispered Ada Nansen to
+Ruth Royal. "I wouldn't give fifty cents for an organization where no
+discrimination is shown in choosing the members. However, this is
+Mrs. Eustice's pet scheme, they tell me, and I want to stand well
+with her. Next year I'm going to get elected to the White Scroll,
+you see if I don't."
+
+The Mysterious Four came in as the last group of girls were seated and
+slowly mounted the platform.
+
+"Candidates," announced the leader, "you are summoned here to take your
+first degree. It is simple, but no shirking is to be permitted. You are
+to do the one thing that you do best. As your names are called, you will
+mount the platform and comply. Four minutes is allowed for decision--on
+the platform."
+
+There was a gasp from the audience, and one could almost see the mental
+cog wheels of sixty girls going furiously to work.
+
+"Betty," whispered the desperate Bobby, "what can you do best?"
+
+"Ride, I guess," said Betty, recollections of Clover coming to mind.
+
+There was a crashing chord from the piano. One of the veiled figures had
+seated herself at the instrument and now proceeded to play "appropriate
+selections" as the candidates performed their turns.
+
+As the clever leader had foreseen, no one relished spending her allotted
+four minutes for reflection on the platform in full view of the audience,
+and the majority of the victims made up their minds with a rush.
+
+After they had entered into the spirit of the thing, it was fun, and
+their shrieks of laughter aroused sympathetic smiles in other rooms. No
+teachers and no member of the other classes were permitted to enter, but
+Aunt Nancy, the fat cook, and half a dozen young waitresses peeped in at
+the door and enjoyed the spectacle hugely.
+
+Betty Gordon obligingly cantered across the platform on a chair and won
+applause by her realistic interpretation of western riding. Bobby
+convulsed the room with her imaginary efforts to cut and fit a dress, her
+mistakes being glaring ones, for Bobby never touched a needle if she
+could help it. Clever Constance Howard had gone for her ukulele and
+played it charmingly. Libbie insisted on giving the "balcony scene" from
+Romeo and Juliet, in which she was supported by the unwilling Frances,
+who was certainly the stiffest Romeo who ever walked the stage.
+
+"Ada Nansen," called the leader, when the eight chums had made their
+individual contributions to the program.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A SATURDAY RACE
+
+
+Ada had been watching the others with a contempt she made little attempt
+to conceal. When her name was called she walked to the platform and faced
+the leader defiantly.
+
+"What can you do best, Ada?" came the familiar question.
+
+Ada smiled patronizingly.
+
+"Spend money," she said briefly.
+
+"Do that," said the young leader calmly.
+
+"How can I spend money here?" demanded Ada angrily. "There's nothing to
+buy. I call that silly."
+
+"Then you admit you can't spend money?"
+
+"No such thing!" Ada stamped her foot, furious at such stupidity. "I say
+I can't spend it here where there is nothing to buy. You let me go to
+Edentown, and I'll show you whether I can spend money or not."
+
+"The order of the first degree of the Mysterious Four is that the
+candidate must do what she can do best," repeated the veiled figure
+insistently. "What can you do best?"
+
+"Sing," said Ada sullenly.
+
+"Then do that."
+
+And now the watching girls had what Bobby later admitted was "the
+surprise of their lives."
+
+The girl at the piano fingered a chord tentatively, then struck into a
+popular song, an appealing little melody, the words a lyric set to music
+by a composer with a spark of genius.
+
+"I picked a rose in my garden fair--" sang Ada.
+
+She sang without affectation. Her voice was a charming contralto,
+evidently partially trained, and promising with coming years to be worth
+consideration.
+
+"But it withered in a day--" went on the lovely voice.
+
+The girls were absolutely mute. When she had finished the song, and she
+gave it all, they burst into a spontaneous storm of applause.
+
+Ada barely acknowledged the hand-clapping. Her face had instantly slipped
+back into the old sullen lines.
+
+"When she can sing like that, shouldn't you think she would be perfectly
+happy?" sighed Betty. "I'd give anything if I had a voice!"
+
+As a matter of fact Betty had a clear little contralto of her own and she
+sang as naturally as a bird. But there was no denying that Ada's voice
+was exceptional.
+
+After the last girl had had her turn the veiled leader mounted the
+platform and threw back her swathing net.
+
+"She's the president of the senior class, Mabel Waters," whispered a girl
+near Betty.
+
+"I have the honor to welcome you all as members in good standing of the
+novice class, first-degree, Mysterious For," announced Miss Waters.
+"That's all there is to the name, girls--when we decided to form a new
+society here in school some one asked 'What's it for?' So our
+organization became the Mysterious F-O-R, and you'll find out as time
+goes on what the answer is. I might say, though, that happiness and good
+fellowship and a little spice of sisterliness are what we try to
+incorporate in the unwritten bylaws. And now I think Aunt Nancy has some
+cake and ice-cream for us."
+
+Saturday was a busy day for the one hundred and sixty odd girls who were
+enrolled at Shadyside. Penance and pleasure had a way of marking off the
+hours. Those who were good were allowed to go twice a month to Edentown,
+chaperoned by a teacher, for shopping, moving picture treats, and such
+other simple pleasures as the small city afforded. There were always a
+number of girls sentenced to "within bounds," which were the spacious
+school grounds, for minor sins of omission and commission. Bobby Littell
+was usually among these. She was impulsive and heedless, and got herself
+into hot water with amazing regularity.
+
+"Bobby," announced Betty, one Saturday morning not long after the
+initiation into the Mysterious For, "don't you think you could manage to
+have a good record this coming week? We want to go nutting a week from
+to-day, and if you have to stay in bounds it will spoil all the fun."
+
+"I'll try my best," promised Bobby solemnly. "I never mean to do a
+thing, Betty. Trouble is, I think afterward. I did want to go to
+Edentown to-day, too, but Libbie and Frances have promised to get the
+wool for my sweater. Want to come down to the gym? I'm going to drill my
+squad this morning."
+
+In the gymnasium they found Ada Nansen, also in charge of a squad.
+
+"She flunked twice in French and was impudent to Madame," whispered
+Bobby, who knew all the school gossip. "Mrs. Eustice canceled her
+Edentown permit."
+
+Ada frankly scowled at the newcomers. She had found the Littell girls
+slow to overtures of friendship, and they persisted in displaying an
+annoying fancy for the society of Betty and the Guerin girls, who, for
+all Ada knew, might be what she described to her mother as "perfect
+nobodies." So Ada and Ruth Royal gradually formed a circle of their own
+to which gravitated the more snobbish girls, those who fought, openly or
+covertly, the rule for simple dressing, and those who found in Ada's
+characteristics of petty meanness, worship of money, and social
+aspirations a response to similar urgings of their own natures.
+
+"Well, Bobby, I'm glad to see you and your 'men,'" said Miss Anderson
+briskly. "I was just saying to Ada that to-day is too beautiful to waste
+indoors. I want you all to come out on the campus and we'll have a race."
+
+Bobby's squad included Betty--who had refused to leave her chum--the
+Guerin girls (who refused to go to Edentown because it was almost
+impossible to avoid spending money for little luxuries and for
+treats), Constance Howard and Dora Estabrooke, a fat girl who was
+good-nature itself.
+
+"We'll have to use elimination," said the teacher when she had her pupils
+out on the green level that was back of the gymnasium and walled in by
+tall Lombardy poplars planted closely. "Let's see, twelve of you" (for
+Ada's squad numbered the same). "I think we'll number off first."
+
+The odd numbers in each squad fell out and were matched, and the even
+numbers were paired similarly. Betty's rival was a near-sighted girl who
+delayed the next step because Miss Anderson discovered that she was
+wearing high-heeled shoes.
+
+"I don't care for those flat things," volunteered Violet Canby, as she
+departed lockerward at Miss Anderson's stern insistence. "I have a very
+high instep, and they hurt me."
+
+Nevertheless, she had to wear them, and the physical instructor put the
+others through a rigid inspection, but bloomers and sneakers were all
+properly donned.
+
+"Now," said Miss Anderson when Violet had returned minus her pumps, "try
+to remember that it's just like a spelling match, girls; gradually we'll
+narrow down to the two best runners."
+
+The trial "heats" resulted in leaving Betty, Bobby and Norma of the one
+squad, and Ada, Ruth and a girl named Edith Harrison, of the other.
+
+Norma was paired with Ruth Royal, and at the signal they got away nicely.
+Norma was an excellent runner, and she reached the tape fully three yards
+ahead of Ruth. Something in her glowing, happy face, prompted Ruth to
+resentment.
+
+"Oh, well," she remarked disdainfully, taking care that her words should
+carry clearly, "I suppose a farmer's daughter does a good deal of running
+after cows--they ought to be in training."
+
+Norma flushed scarlet.
+
+"My father is a doctor," she said hotly. "I'm not a farmer's daughter,
+but I know splendid girls who are--girls too well-bred to say a thing
+like that."
+
+Ruth walked away--she was out of the finals now--and Norma went back to
+the starting place. She had not recovered her poise when the time came
+for her to race Bobby, and that young person won easily only to be
+outdistanced by Betty.
+
+Rather to the latter's regret, she found herself the opponent of Ada for
+the deciding race.
+
+"Go it, Betty--beat her!" whispered Bobby, proud of her chum. "She and
+Ruth Royal have dispositions like vinegar barrels!"
+
+Betty had often raced with Bob, and she ran like a boy herself--head
+down, elbows held in. She was running that way, against Ada, when
+something suddenly shunted her off sideways. She fell, landing in a
+little heap. High and sharp rose the shrill whistle of the starter.
+
+"Are you hurt, Betty?" demanded Miss Anderson, running up to the dazed
+girl and lifting her to her feet. "Ada Nansen that was absolutely the
+most unsportsmanlike trick I ever saw. You've lost the race on a foul.
+Betty was clearly winning when you tripped her."
+
+"I didn't," muttered Ada, but she refused to meet her teacher's eyes.
+
+"I don't want a race on a foul," argued Betty pluckily, for her skinned
+elbow was smarting madly. "Let's begin over."
+
+She had her way, too, and this time won without interference, though Ada
+was so furious that Bobby was seriously concerned.
+
+"She looks mad enough to put something in your soup," she told Betty, as
+they went in to dress and have Betty's elbow attended to. "What is it,
+Caroline?"
+
+"Two young gentlemen to see you, Miss Bobby and Miss Betty," announced
+the maid importantly. "They is waiting in the parlor. Mrs. Eustice says
+you all should go right up."
+
+In the parlor the girls found two slim, uniformed young figures who rose
+like well-set-up ramrods at their entrance.
+
+"Bob!" ejaculated Betty, her voice betraying her pleasure. "Bob, you look
+splendid!"
+
+Tommy Tucker glanced hopefully at Bobby.
+
+"Don't I look splendid, too?" he asked.
+
+"You're overshadowed by Bob," said Bobby mischievously. "However, when
+not compared with him, I dare say you look rather well."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+NORMA MAKES REPAIRS
+
+
+This had to content the Tucker twin who took Bobby's chaffing
+good-humoredly.
+
+Bob Henderson did indeed look very well. The uniform was most becoming,
+and though he was studying hard to make up for lack of preparation, his
+clear eyes and skin and firm muscles told of a wise schedule that
+included plenty of outdoor exercise.
+
+"We want you girls to come over to a practice game," announced Tommy
+Tucker presently. "We've got rather jolly rooms, and we thought if you
+brought Miss Thingumbob along we could have you in for tea and show you
+the sights. Do you think the powers that be will say yes?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," answered Betty thoughtfully. "I didn't know you
+Salsette boys had much to do with girls. Of course the whole school goes
+to the big football games, but asking us to see a practice game is
+something new. Of course it will be difficult to get an afternoon when
+every one is free--"
+
+"Every one!" exploded Bob. "Who said anything about every one? We don't
+want the whole school--just you and Bobby and Louise and Frances and
+Libbie and the Guerin girls."
+
+"Sure, the same bunch that came up on the train," said Tommy Tucker.
+"Lead me to Mrs. Eustice and I'll ask her."
+
+"Mrs. Eustice is not in this afternoon," announced an extremely cold and
+disapproving voice. "Have you permission, young ladies, to see these
+er--callers?"
+
+It was the elderly teacher whom Tommy had tormented on the train!
+
+For once in his life that young man was thoroughly abashed. He threw
+Betty an appealing look that asked her to save him.
+
+"Miss Prettyman, may I present my friends?" said the girl with the
+formality that is subtly flattering to an older woman. "This is Bob
+Henderson, who came from the West with me and who is really like my
+brother, since my uncle is his guardian. And this is Tommy Tucker, who
+lives in Washington."
+
+"How do you do, Robert and Thomas?" said Miss Prettyman austerely. "Did
+Mrs. Eustice know you had callers?" she persisted, turning to the girls.
+"She took the last bus to Edentown."
+
+"Yes, she knew. It is all right. Caroline said so," babbled Betty, in
+frantic terror lest the boys make the mistake of telling Miss Prettyman
+about the proposed visit.
+
+"What was it you wanted to ask Mrs. Eustice, young man?" the teacher
+demanded next. "I am her secretary and try to save her work whenever
+possible. Perhaps I can answer your question."
+
+Behind Miss Prettyman's narrow back Betty signaled wildly.
+
+"Don't tell--hush!" she wig-wagged, laying her finger against her lips.
+
+Tommy stared at her idiotically, his mouth gaping.
+
+"Thank you, but only Mrs. Eustice could really give us an answer," said
+Bob, coming to the rescue of his stricken chum. "Betty, will you deliver
+our message and perhaps you can telephone the answer?"
+
+"No Shadyside girl is allowed to telephone Salsette Academy," announced
+Miss Prettyman, with grim satisfaction.
+
+Betty had not known of this rule, but she realized it was undoubtedly in
+existence.
+
+"We'll let you know some way," she promised.
+
+Still pursued by Miss Prettyman's icy glare, the wretched boys backed out
+of the room and the unfortunate Tommy walked into a handsome china
+jardiniere with disastrous results. There was a sickening crash, a
+ladylike scream from Miss Prettyman, and Betty heard Bob's voice in a
+tone of suppressed fury: "You've done it now, you idiot!"
+
+Bobby giggled, of course, but Miss Prettyman, who had followed the boys
+into the hall ("I think she thought we'd steal something on the way out,"
+Bob confided later to Betty) maintained her poise.
+
+"I'm--I'm awfully sorry," faltered the culprit. "I hope it wasn't very
+expensive. I'll pay Mrs. Eustice, of course, or buy her another one--"
+
+"That jardiniere happened to be imported from Nippon," remarked Miss
+Prettyman coldly. "I doubt if it can ever be replaced. It has stood in
+that exact spot for seven years. But then, naturally, our callers are
+accustomed to leaving a room gracefully. I'm sure I--"
+
+The agonized Tommy tried to get in a word, failed, and took a step toward
+the door. His foot caught in the rug, and for one dreadful moment he
+thought he was doomed to create another scene. As he recovered his
+balance, Ada Nansen came down the stairs.
+
+"What was that noise we heard a few minutes ago?" she asked sweetly,
+looking at the boys.
+
+Betty and Bobby, laughing in the doorway of the reception room, the
+unyielding Miss Prettyman, and the cool and curious Ada swam before
+Tommy's eyes. Bob retained his presence of mind and, opening the door
+with one hand and pushing Tommy before him with the other, managed to
+effect their exit.
+
+"Gosh, Bob, wasn't that awful!" sighed poor Tommy, when they were finally
+clear of the school portal. "Don't I always have bad luck? How could I
+know we were going to walk smack into that dame? She remembered us, too."
+
+"She remembered you," said Bob significantly. "And you were within one of
+asking her to let the girls come over to the game, too! Didn't you know,
+you poor fish, that she would jump for joy if she could have a chance to
+turn you down?"
+
+"Well, anyway," replied Tommy more contentedly, "Betty will let us know.
+She can find a way."
+
+Betty lost no time in putting the invitation before Mrs. Eunice when she
+returned from her town expedition. The principal knew all about Bob
+through Mr. Gordon's letters and those from Mrs. Littell, and she knew
+most of the parents of the other lads Betty mentioned.
+
+"I see no reason, my dear," she said graciously when she heard of the
+morning's visit, "why you should not go. Get the consent of your
+chaperone and then settle on the afternoon. How many of you are invited?"
+
+"Seven," answered Betty truthfully. "But I want Constance Howard to go,
+Mrs. Eustice. The boys didn't know about her. She is Louise's roommate
+you see, and we eight always do everything together."
+
+"All right, Constance may go, too," acquiesced Mrs. Eustice.
+
+Betty thanked her warmly and danced off to find Bobby. Then they flew to
+ask Miss Anderson to be their chaperone, a duty that young woman assumed
+cordially, and before bedtime Betty had written Bob a note to say that
+they would be over Friday afternoon about half-past four.
+
+Watched a little enviously by the others, the eight piled into the school
+bus the next Friday afternoon. Miss Anderson tripped down the steps, took
+her place among them, and they were off.
+
+"Did you see that lovely blouse Ada had on?" Norma Guerin whispered to
+Betty. "I do wish I could have one like that to wear with my suit."
+
+"You look fifty times prettier than she does," flared Betty loyally. "And
+you know I've told you to borrow anything of mine whenever you want to."
+
+"I know it," admitted Norma. "But I can't borrow clothes! Silly or not, I
+just can't seem to! I don't mean to complain all the time, either, but I
+don't believe mother or granny realized how difficult it was going to be.
+Alice cried so hard this afternoon when she started to get dressed I
+thought she'd never get her eyes right again. They look red yet."
+
+Sure enough, Alice's eyes were suspiciously pink about the corners. Betty
+knew that the Guerin girls were unhappy, not alone because they could not
+have as many or as pretty frocks as the other girls, but because they
+were constantly worried about financial affairs at home. They had both
+been made the confidantes of their parents to a greater degree than is
+customary in many families, and Betty shrewdly suspected that Norma had
+kept her father's books for him.
+
+"I wish I could get hold of that treasure, or a part of it," Betty
+thought. "Isn't it maddening to think of a string of pearls at the
+bottom of a chasm and the girls to whom it should go struggling along on
+next to nothing!"
+
+They were half-way around the lake when the motor slowed down and the
+bus stopped.
+
+"What's the matter, George?" Miss Anderson asked.
+
+"Don't know, Ma'am," answered the driver, a rather sleepy-looking
+middle-aged man. "Guess I'll have to investigate her."
+
+Scratching his head, he proceeded to "investigate," and at the end of
+fifteen minutes hazarded an opinion that they were "out of luck."
+
+"Looks like I'll have to go back to the school garage and get 'em to
+send us a tow," he announced pleasantly.
+
+"We want to go to the Academy!" chorused the girls. "We're late now. Oh,
+George, can't you fix it?"
+
+"Betty, don't you know anything about cars?" appealed Miss Anderson,
+who had discovered that Betty was apt to be invaluable in an emergency
+of any kind.
+
+Betty had to confess that her experience had been confined to horses. The
+Littell girls had been used to cars all their lives, but like the
+majority of such fortunates, knew nothing about them beyond the colors
+suitable for upholstery.
+
+"I've helped my dad with his car," ventured Norma diffidently. "This
+isn't the same make, but perhaps I can tell what the matter is."
+
+The beautiful, expensive school bus was in fact another type than the
+shabby, rattly affair Dr. Guerin made spin over the rough country roads.
+However, Betty remembered at least one night, and she knew her experience
+had been duplicated by many others, when the noise of the asthmatic
+little car had been like sweetest music in her ears.
+
+The doctor's daughter took off her plain jacket, rolled back her white
+cuffs, and bent over the engine. George regarded her respectfully, and
+Miss Anderson and the girls watched anxiously. If Norma could not send
+them on their way it meant the trip must be given up.
+
+Norma put her slim hands down among the oily plugs, selected a tool from
+the kit George held out to her, and did something mysterious to the
+"innards."
+
+"Start her," she commanded briefly.
+
+Obediently George took the wheel and touched the self-starter. The engine
+purred contentedly.
+
+"By gum!" cried George inelegantly, "she's done it!"
+
+He produced a towel from the box for Norma, who managed to rub off most
+of the grease from her hands. She put on her jacket and climbed into her
+place between Betty and her sister. George proceeded to make up for lost
+time at a speed that left them breathless.
+
+"Here's the girl who got us here!" said Betty to Bob, when the group of
+cadets met their bus at the athletic field where several cars were drawn
+up on the sidelines.
+
+"Then she shall have my fur coat and my best curly chrysanthemum,"
+announced Tommy Tucker gallantly, throwing a handsome raccoon fur coat
+over Norma's shoulders and presenting her with a magnificent yellow
+chrysanthemum.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE NUTTING PARTY
+
+
+To the boy's surprise Bobby, who was usually aloof and liked to tease
+him, squeezed his arm surreptitiously.
+
+"You're a dear!" she told him enthusiastically.
+
+"Girls are a queer lot," the dazed youth confided to Bob, as they went
+back to their quarters. "Here I handed over my coat to that Norma Guerin
+and gave her the flower I'd been saving for Bobby, just to pay Bobby back
+for being so snippy to me over at school. And she calls me a dear and is
+nicer to me than she's been in months!"
+
+Bob briefly outlined something of the Guerin history, for Betty had told
+him of the lost treasure in her hurried note, and hinted his belief that
+the girls had very little money in comparison to Shadyside standards.
+
+"Shucks--money isn't anything!" was Tommy's answer to the recital, with
+the easy assurance of a person who has never been without a comfortable
+competence. "They're nice girls, and we'll pass the word that the boys
+are to show them a good time."
+
+As a result, when after the conclusion of the game, the girls and Miss
+Anderson were ushered upstairs into the cozy suite of rooms the cadets
+occupied, Norma and Alice found themselves plied with attentions. Miss
+Anderson poured the hot chocolate and made friends with the shy Sydney
+Cooke, who had been dreading this visit all the afternoon. Indeed his
+chums had threatened to lock him in the clothes closet in order that they
+might be sure of his attendance.
+
+Winifred Marion Brown, in addition to his ability as a checker player,
+was a good pianist, and he obligingly played for them to dance. The piano
+belonged to the Tucker twins. Norma and Alice were "rushed" with
+partners, and they quite forgot their clothes in the enjoyment of dancing
+to irresistible music.
+
+Libbie had brought a book of poems for Timothy Derby, who solemnly loaned
+her one of his in exchange. This odd pair remained impervious to all
+criticisms, and certainly many of those voiced were frank to the point of
+painfulness.
+
+"But their natures can not understand the lyric appeal," said Libbie
+sadly. Her English teacher moaned over her spelling and rejoiced in
+her themes.
+
+Finally Miss Anderson insisted they must go, and the bouquet of flowers
+on the tea table was plucked apart to reveal nine little individual
+bouquets, one for each guest.
+
+"Good-bye, and thank you for a lovely party," said Miss Anderson gaily.
+
+"Do you know?" blurted Teddy Tucker, "you're my idea of a chaperone! Most
+of 'em are such dubs and kill-joys!"
+
+Which tactful speech proved to be the best Teddy could have made.
+
+A week of small pleasures and hard study followed this "glorious Friday
+afternoon."
+
+Bobby, for a wonder, remembered her promise of good behavior, and by
+herculean effort managed to be on the "starred" list for the Saturday set
+aside for the nutting expedition.
+
+"We'll go after lunch," planned Betty. "Miss Anderson says if we strike
+off toward the woods at the back of the school we ought to come to a
+grove of hickory nut trees."
+
+The eight girls, ready for their tramp, came in to lunch attired in heavy
+wool skirts and stout shoes and carried their sweaters. Ada Nansen
+glanced complacently at her own suede pumps and silk stockings.
+
+"It's hard to tell which is really the farmer's daughter to-day," she
+drawled. "Perhaps we all ought to assume that uniform out of kindness."
+
+Ada sat at the table directly behind Norma, and not a girl at either
+table could possibly miss the significance of her remarks. Their import,
+it developed, had been plain to Miss Lacey who, on her way to her own
+table, had overheard. Miss Lacey was a quiet, rather drab little woman,
+misleading in her effacement of self. She knew more about her pupils than
+they often suspected.
+
+"Ada," she said quietly, stopping by the girl, "you may leave the table.
+If you will persist in acting like a naughty little six year old girl,
+you must be treated as one."
+
+Ada flounced out of her chair and from the room. Her departure created a
+ripple of curiosity. It was most unusual for a girl to be dismissed from
+table, and had Ada only known it, she had drawn the attention of the
+whole school to herself.
+
+Miss Lacey went on to her seat, without a glance at the flushed faces of
+Norma and Alice.
+
+"Some day," said Bobby furiously, "I'm going to throw a plate at
+that girl!"
+
+"No, you're not," contradicted Betty. "Then Mrs. Eustice would rise up
+and send you from the room and you'd feel about half the size Ada does
+now. For mercy's sake, don't descend to anybody's level--make 'em come up
+to fight on yours."
+
+They were all glad to get through the meal and find themselves outdoors.
+It was a perfect autumn day, warm and hazy, and the red and gold of the
+leaves showed burnished from the hillside. They tramped rather silently
+at first, and then, as the tense mood wore off, their tongues were
+loosened and they chattered like magpies.
+
+"Here's a tree!" shouted Louise and Frances, who were in the lead.
+
+When they had picked all the nuts on the ground, Bobby essayed to climb
+the tree. She made rather sad work of the effort, for a shag-bark
+hickory is not the easiest tree in the world to climb, and after she had
+torn her skirt in two places and mended it with safety pins, she gave up
+the attempt.
+
+"Let's walk further," she suggested. "We'll mark our trail as we go like
+the Indians."
+
+This idea caught the fancy of the girls, and they marked an elaborate
+trail, building little mounds at every turn and leaving odd arrangements
+of stones to mark their passing.
+
+"Come on, I'll race you," shouted Bobby suddenly. "I feel just like
+exercising."
+
+Betty wondered what she called the scramble through the woods, but she,
+too, was ready for a run. They set off pellmell, laughing and shouting.
+
+"Look out!" shrieked Betty, stopping so suddenly that Libbie and Louise
+fell against her. "Look! I almost ran right into it!"
+
+She pointed ahead to where the ground fell away abruptly. A great chasm,
+like an angry scar, was cut through the earth, and on the side opposite
+to the girls a steep hill came down in an uncompromising slant.
+
+"What a dandy hill for coasting!" ejaculated Bobby. "Let's come up here
+this winter. We can steer away from this hole."
+
+"That's no hole," said Norma Guerin, in an odd voice. "That's Indian
+Chasm. And it's miles long."
+
+Betty stared at her. She had thought Indian Chasm many miles away.
+
+"I didn't realize we had walked so far," said Norma, apparently reading
+her thoughts. "But I know I am right. Here are the woods and the steep
+hill, just as grandma has described them a hundred times. This is
+Indian Chasm."
+
+The girls looked at her curiously. Betty had not told them the story,
+believing that Alice and Norma should have that sole right. Now Norma
+rapidly sketched the outlines for them and they listened breathlessly,
+for surely this true story was more thrilling than any piece of fiction,
+however highly colored.
+
+"I never heard of anything so romantic!" was Libbie's comment.
+
+To which Bobby retorted with cousinly severity:
+
+"Romantic? Where do you see anything romantic in a band of Indians
+scalping a peaceful white family?"
+
+"Oh, Bobby!" protested Norma, laughing. "They didn't scalp grandma. They
+stole everything she had."
+
+"And is all that stuff down there now?" asked Constance Howard,
+round-eyed. "Perhaps if we look we can see something."
+
+There was a concerted rush to the chasm's edge, and the eight girls
+plumped down flat on their stomachs, determined to see whatever there was
+to be seen.
+
+The sides of the earth fell away sharply, down, down. Betty shouted, and
+the empty echo of her voice came back to her.
+
+"The ground's so shaly and crumbly," she said thoughtfully, "that it
+would be impossible to let a man down with a rope--the earth would cave
+in and bury him."
+
+"I think I see a diamond," reported Libbie. "Don't you see something
+glittering down there?"
+
+"Can't even see the bottom," said Bobby curtly. "Much less a diamond. Oh,
+girls, to think of those valuables at the bottom of a chasm like this
+and none of us able to think up a way to get 'em out."
+
+"Well, lots of people have tried," said Alice reasonably. "If grown-up
+men couldn't salvage 'em for grandma, I guess it's nothing to our
+discredit that we can't get them."
+
+"We might push Libbie in," suggested Bobby wickedly. "Then she could tell
+us how deep it is."
+
+This had the effect of sending Libbie scurrying away from the
+dangerous place, and the others followed her more slowly to resume the
+search for nuts.
+
+"I wish we could think of a way, Norma, dear," said Betty.
+
+"Oh, I don't care--not so very much," answered Norma bravely. But then
+she sighed deeply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+CAUGHT IN THE STORM
+
+
+The Shadyside gymnasium was equipped with a fine pool, and it was the
+school's boast that every girl learned to swim during her first term.
+Perhaps the proximity of the lake and the lure of the small fleet of
+canoes and rowboats tied up at the wharf had something to do with the
+success of the swimming classes. No girl who could not swim was permitted
+on the lake, alone or with a companion.
+
+Betty and her chums awaited their final tests eagerly--so excited the
+last day or two they could scarcely keep their minds on their books or
+sit in patience through a recitation--and passed them with flying colors.
+Constance Howard was an excellent swimmer, and it was the sight of her
+paddling gracefully about the lake on sunny Saturday afternoons that
+spurred the seven who could not swim on to greater effort.
+
+"Come on," cried Betty gaily, taking the gymnasium steps two at a time.
+"Come, girls--this afternoon we go rowing. I've my 'stiffcut,' as Mr.
+Peabody used to call it, and we've all passed. Oh, it's cloudy!"
+
+She looked at the sky disappointedly. When they had gone into the pool an
+hour before the sun had been shining brightly, but now the gray clouds
+were thick overhead and the air was chilly.
+
+"Who cares for the weather?" said Bobby scornfully. "Guess it will take
+more than a little rain to stop me! I've been crazy to take a row-boat
+out for three weeks."
+
+"Perhaps it will clear," contributed the optimistic Louise.
+
+But after lunch the sky was still overcast.
+
+"Don't be silly--it won't rain," urged Bobby, as her chums demurred.
+"Next Saturday it may be too cold. Oh, come on, girls."
+
+Thus incited, they went down to the wharf and made their choice of boats.
+Norma and Alice wanted to take out a canoe, and they offered to paddle
+for Libbie, who seemed disinclined to exercise. Betty had wondered once
+or twice if the girl were ill, for she seemed very nervous, jumped if a
+door slammed or some one spoke to her suddenly, and in the morning looked
+as if she had not slept well.
+
+Betty and Bobby selected a flat-bottomed row-boat and for passenger they
+took Frances, who offered to help row if they became tired.
+
+Louise and Constance chose another canoe.
+
+They headed north, and once out in the center of the lake, paddled
+and rowed steadily. Betty's rowing experience was limited, but Bobby
+was proud of her "stroke," and soon taught her chum the secret of
+handling the oars.
+
+"Ship ahoy!" shouted Bobby presently.
+
+Libbie jumped and looked ahead anxiously.
+
+"It's only the boys," she said dully.
+
+An eight-oared rowing shell shot down to them, and the freckled-faced
+coxswain, Gilbert Lane, one of the boys the girls had met at Bob and
+Tommy's "party," grinned cheerfully.
+
+"Where you going?" he asked, resting a friendly hand on the
+rowboat's rim.
+
+Bobby described an arc with her oar that incidentally showered the
+questioner with shining water drops.
+
+"We're out for adventure," she answered airily.
+
+"Just got our swimming certificates to-day," volunteered Betty.
+
+Bob flashed her a congratulatory smile.
+
+"Race you to the end of the lake?" suggested Tommy Tucker.
+
+Bobby regarded him with magnificent scorn.
+
+"As if eight of you couldn't beat two!" she said significantly. "I never
+heard such talk! Why you'd have a walk!" she added.
+
+The boys shouted with laughter.
+
+"You're a poet, Bobby," declared Tommy. "Tennyson had nothing on
+you--had he, Libbie?"
+
+Libbie turned her dark eyes on him and frowned a little.
+
+"I wasn't listening," she said indifferently.
+
+"Well, anyway, row up to the end of the lake, will you?" suggested
+Gilbert. "With drill night ahead of us, we want a little brightness to
+remember the day by."
+
+Canoes, rowboat and shell swept on up the lake, and when the scrubby
+pines that bordered the narrow peak of the north shore were in sight,
+Bobby glanced back over her shoulder at Betty.
+
+"You're spattering me," she complained.
+
+"I thinks it's beginning to rain," said Betty mildly, and even as she
+spoke, Louise called to them:
+
+"Girls, it's beginning to pour!"
+
+A sudden blast of wind struck them, blowing the rain against their backs.
+
+"Keep on rowing!" shouted Bob's voice. "We'll have to land and walk back.
+You girls can never beat back against this storm. We're almost to the
+shore now."
+
+A few minutes more and the boats touched shore. The boys were out in an
+instant and helped the girls to land.
+
+"We'll carry up the boats--don't you think that is best, Tommy?" shouted
+Bob. "If we carry them up high enough and leave them, they will be
+perfectly safe."
+
+The wind and the rain made shouting necessary if one's voice were to
+carry above the storm. The boys lifted the light boats and carried them
+into the woods, turning them over so that the keels were up.
+
+"Now the question is," said Bob, who seemed by common consent to have
+been elected leader, "shall we walk along the shore and get drenched, or
+take a chance of finding our way through the woods?"
+
+To their astonishment, Libbie burst into a fit of hysterical weeping.
+
+"Don't go through the woods," she begged, her teeth chattering. "We'll
+fall into that awful Indian Chasm."
+
+Bobby's heart reproached her for her thoughtless joke and she put an arm
+around her cousin.
+
+"Libbie, you never thought I was serious about pushing you into the
+chasm, did you?" she asked anxiously. "Is that what has been making you
+act so queerly ever since? I was only fooling."
+
+So, thought Betty, Bobby, too, had noticed Libbie's unnatural behavior.
+
+"Oh, it isn't that," sobbed Libbie. "I can't explain--but if we go
+through the woods, I'm sure I shall go crazy."
+
+"Well, then, that settles it," said Bob comfortably. "Better to be
+drowned than to go crazy. Can you turn up your sweater collars, girls? I
+wish we'd brought some raincoats along."
+
+Splashing and stumbling, they followed Bob down to the shore and began
+the weary walk that would lead them back to the school. After fifteen
+minutes' steady walking they came to a dense undergrowth that was
+impossible to penetrate.
+
+"No use, we'll have to make a cut through the woods," announced Bob. "Up
+this way and over, ought to bring us out right."
+
+He was so cheerful and patient that the tired, rain-soaked girls could
+not do otherwise than follow his example. Libbie was crying silently, but
+the others tramped along cheerfully, singing, at Betty's suggestion, old
+college and school songs.
+
+"Look here, Bob," said Tommy Tucker in an undertone, "I don't think we're
+going in the right direction. Don't you say it would be better to take
+the girls to that deserted cabin we found the other day and leave them
+there while we explore a bit? They're getting soaked through, and Libbie
+Littell is fixing to have hysterics. Leave a couple of the boys with 'em,
+so they won't be afraid, and then we'll locate the right trail and take
+'em over it home in a hurry."
+
+This suggestion sounded like good, common-sense to Bob, and he said so.
+
+"Betty could walk ten miles and be all right," he declared proudly, "and
+I think Bobby is good for a hike, too. But Frances Martin can't see when
+the rain gets on her glasses, and, as you say, something is the matter
+with Libbie. So let's make for the cabin, quick."
+
+The Salsette boys had explored the woods pretty thoroughly, and on a
+recent expedition Bob and his chums had stumbled on an old one-room
+cabin, buried deep in the woods and evidently unoccupied for years. It
+was not far from the end of the lake, and toward it they now led the
+girls, explaining as they went what they intended to do.
+
+"We'll be all right," said Betty at once. "I think if Libbie can sit down
+and rest she'll feel better, too. And if you all want to go and hunt for
+the trail, you needn't worry about us."
+
+"Oh, Sydney and I intend to stay," Gilbert Lane assured her quickly. (The
+boys had settled that among themselves.) "We'll be handy in case any
+Indians or the like come after you."
+
+Betty gave him a warning glance, for Libbie looked frightened. Surely
+something was wrong with the girl!
+
+The cabin door was open and the interior was comparatively dry. There was
+no furniture, but three or four old packing boxes furnished the girls
+with seats. Bob and five of his friends disappeared, whistling. Gilbert
+and Sydney were investigating the ramshackle fireplace to see what the
+prospects were for starting a fire when a shriek from Libbie brought them
+to their feet.
+
+"A ghost!" cried the girl. "A ghost! Over there in the corner!"
+
+Frances Martin gave a cry, and Betty and Bobby went white. Even Gilbert
+afterward confessed that his scalp prickled when a figure stepped forward
+from a narrow closet against the wall.
+
+"Ugh! Howdy!" he grunted, and they saw that he was a very old and very
+dirty Indian.
+
+"Rain," he said slowly, pointing to the door. "Stop soon now. Go
+get supper."
+
+He shuffled over the doorsill and at the edge he turned.
+
+"Howdy!" he said, apparently with some vague idea of farewell.
+"Much rain!"
+
+Petrified, they watched him hobble away through the woods.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+LIBBIE'S SECRET
+
+
+Gilbert Lane was the first to recover his voice.
+
+"Well, what do you know about that!" he ejaculated. "The old bird was
+here all the time."
+
+"Are--are--are there any more of them?" stammered Louise.
+
+"No, that old fellow is the only Indian for miles around," said Gilbert
+carelessly. "He was left behind, the fellows at school say, when that
+band stole the Macklin treasure. They had a grudge against him, it seems,
+and they tripped him and left him with a broken leg. He worked around on
+different farms for years and now does a day's work often enough to keep
+him in food. Queer old dick, I guess."
+
+"What makes you girls look so funny?" demanded Sydney. "You're not afraid
+now, are you? That Indian won't come back--he was more afraid of us than
+we were of him. I figure out he was asleep when we came in and the noise
+woke him up. What are you smiling about?"
+
+"My grandmother is Mrs. Marcia Macklin," explained Norma. "And you see
+it was her gold and silver and jewels the Indians stole. I wonder what he
+would have said if we had told him?"
+
+"Gee, is that so?" asked Sydney, ignoring the latter half of Norma's
+sentence. "And is all that stuff down in the chasm yet?"
+
+"As far as we know, it is," said Norma. "And likely to remain there," she
+added, with a sigh.
+
+Bob and the boys returned in less than half an hour, to announce that
+they had found the right road and were prepared to pilot the girls
+expeditiously homeward. Libbie's cheeks were unnaturally flushed and she
+looked miserable, but she refused to let Bob and Tommy carry her by
+forming a "chair" with their hands.
+
+"I'm all right," she insisted hoarsely. "I only want to get home."
+
+Knowing the way positively saved much fumbling and time, and soon the
+familiar buildings of Shadyside loomed up before them. The boys had a
+long tramp still before them, and if they were not to be late for supper,
+must walk briskly. They continued on their way, while the girls ran up
+the steps of the dormitory building.
+
+"There's no use talking, Libbie, you've got to see the infirmary nurse,"
+said Bobby resolutely. "I promised your mother to look after you, and if
+you're going to be sick you'll at least have the proper care. Wait till
+we get into some dry things, and I'll take you."
+
+Libbie looked rebellious, but she made no verbal protest, and when they
+were once more in dry clothes Bobby marched her cousin to the immaculate
+infirmary. She returned alone, saying that the nurse had detained Libbie
+for observation over night.
+
+"She thinks she's getting a heavy cold, but it may be more serious,"
+Bobby reported. "Well, anyway, I've done my duty. But romantic people are
+always forgetting to wear their rubbers."
+
+Betty had just drowsed off to sleep that night, the girls having gone to
+bed immediately after the study hour, for the afternoon in the wind and
+rain had made them extraordinarily sleepy, when a soft knock on the door
+startled her.
+
+She slipped out of bed and ran to the door, opening it carefully so
+as not to wake Bobby. Miss Morris, the school nurse, and Miss Lacey
+stood there.
+
+"Elizabeth isn't worse," said Miss Morris hastily, noting Betty's look of
+alarm. "But she is very restless and wants to see you. Miss Lacey says
+you may come up. Get your dressing gown and slippers, dear."
+
+Betty obeyed quickly. Libbie was probably lonely, she reflected.
+
+The infirmary consisted of three connecting rooms, fitted with two
+single beds in each, and Libbie happened to be the only patient. She was
+sitting up in bed, well wrapped up, when Betty saw her, her eyes
+unnaturally bright, her cheeks very red.
+
+"Now I'll leave you two girls together for exactly half an hour," said
+the nurse kindly. After that Elizabeth must go to sleep."
+
+"Is the door shut--shut tight?" demanded Libbie feverishly, grasping
+Betty's hand with both her hot, dry ones.
+
+"Yes, dear, yes," affirmed Betty soothingly. "What's the matter,
+Libbie--is your throat sore?"
+
+"Oh, Betty, I'm in such terrible trouble!" gasped Libbie, her eyes
+overflowing. "I'm so frightened!"
+
+"Tell me about it, dear," soothed Betty. "I'll help you, you know I will.
+Has it anything to do with school?"
+
+She was totally unprepared for Libbie's next words.
+
+"I have to have some money--a lot of money, Betty. I've spent my last
+allowance and I can't write home for more because they will ask me why
+I want it. I've borrowed so much from Louise that I can't ask her
+again! I ought to pay it back. But I've got to have twenty dollars by
+to-morrow night."
+
+"What for? What's the matter?" asked Betty, in alarm.
+
+"You'll promise not to tell Bobby?" demanded Libbie intensely. "Promise
+me you won't tell Bobby? She'd scold so. And Mrs. Eustice would expel me.
+If you won't tell Bobby or Mrs. Eustice, Betty, I'll tell you."
+
+Betty was now thoroughly aroused. She knew that impulsive novel-reading
+Libbie went about with her pretty head filled with all sorts of trashy
+ideas, and she didn't know what lengths she might have gone to. If Mrs.
+Eustice would expel her, the affair must be serious indeed.
+
+"I'll promise," said Betty rashly. "Tell me everything, Libbie, and if I
+can I'll help you."
+
+"Well, you remember when we went nutting?" said Libbie. "I carried a
+bottle with me with--with my name and address written on a slip of paper
+inside. I read about that in a book. And I said to leave an answer in the
+same bottle. I--I buried it just at the foot of the hill, before we began
+to climb. Louise was with me, but she was hunting for specimens for her
+botany book."
+
+"So that's why you hung back, was it?" said Betty. "I wish to goodness
+Louise was more interested in what is going on around her. She might
+have stopped you. Go on--what happened to your silly bottle?"
+
+"I buried it," repeated Libbie, "and two days after I went out and dug it
+up. And there was an answer in it."
+
+"What did it say?" demanded Betty practically.
+
+"I've got it here--" Libbie reached under her pillow and pulled out a
+slip of paper.
+
+"It says 'Leave ten dollars in this same place to-night, or Mrs. Eustice
+shall hear of this.' And, of course," concluded Libbie, "I put ten
+dollars in the bottle, because whoever found it had the slip with my name
+on it to show Mrs. Eustice."
+
+Betty studied the paper. The handwriting was a strong backhand, not at
+all an illiterate hand.
+
+"Oh, dear, what shall I do?" wailed Libbie. "He keeps asking for more,
+and I won't have any money till the first of the month. I only meant
+to do like the girl in the book--have a thrilling unknown
+correspondent. I never knew he would ask for money! Suppose he is a
+horrid, dirty tramp and he comes and tells Mrs. Eustice he found my
+note? I should die of shame!"
+
+"I'll have the money ready for you in the morning," said Betty firmly. "I
+have that much. But, of course, he'll keep demanding more. I do hope,
+Libbie, that if you ever get out of this mess, you'll be cured of some of
+your crazy notions!"
+
+"Oh, I will," promised Libbie earnestly. "I will be good, Betty. Only
+don't tell Bobby."
+
+She was manifestly relieved by her confession, and when Miss Morris came
+in to send Betty back to her own room, Libbie curled down contentedly for
+a restful night.
+
+Not so poor Betty. She turned and tossed, wondering how she could get
+more money for her chum without arousing suspicion.
+
+"What ever made her do a thing like that!" she groaned. "Of all the wild
+ideas! The twenty will take every cent I have. I must see Bob and borrow
+from him."
+
+Libbie was much improved in the morning--so well, in fact, that after
+breakfast in bed she was permitted to dress and go to her room, though
+strictly forbidden to attend classes or go out of doors. Betty brought
+her the twenty dollars and when school was in session, the benighted
+Libbie sped out to her buried bottle and put the money in it, regaining
+her room without detection.
+
+Two days later there was another demand for money, and two days after
+that, another. Libbie visited the bottle regularly, afraid to let a
+day pass lest the blackmailer expose her to the principal. Betty had
+seen Bob at a football game, and had borrowed fifteen dollars from
+him. She could not write her uncle, for communication with him was
+uncertain and her generous allowance came to her regularly through his
+Philadelphia lawyer.
+
+"He wants twenty-five dollars by to-morrow night!" whispered Libbie,
+meeting Betty in the hall after her last visit to the buried bottle. "Oh,
+Betty, what _shall_ we do?"
+
+Both girls had watched patiently and furtively in their spare time in an
+effort to detect the person who dug up the bottle, but they had never
+seen any one go near the spot.
+
+As it happened, when Libbie whispered her news to Betty, they were both
+on their way to recitation with Miss Jessup whose current events class
+both girls nominally enjoyed. To-day Betty found it impossible to fix
+her mind on the brisk discussions, and half in a dream heard Libbie
+flunk dismally.
+
+When next she was conscious of what was going on about her--she had been
+turning Libbie's troubles over and over in her mind without result--Miss
+Jessup was speaking to her class about the "association of ideas."
+
+"We won't go very deeply into it this morning," she was saying, "but
+you'll find even the surface of the subject fascinating."
+
+Then she began a rapid fire of questions to which Betty paid small
+attention till the sound of Ada Nansen's name aroused her.
+
+"Key, Ada?" asked Miss Jessup.
+
+The answers were supposed to indicate definite ideas.
+
+"Key hole," said Ada promptly.
+
+"Purse?"
+
+"Money."
+
+"Bee?" asked Miss Jessup.
+
+To her surprise and that of the listening class, nine-tenths of whom were
+forming the word "honey" with their lips, Ada answered without
+hesitation, "Bottle."
+
+"You must have thought I meant the letter 'B,'" said the teacher lightly,
+passing on to the next pupil.
+
+Betty heard the dismissal bell with real relief. She cornered Libbie in
+the hall as the class streamed out and announced a decision.
+
+"I'll have to go see Bob--I'll paddle one of the canoes," she said
+hurriedly.
+
+"If any one asks for me, say I'm out on the lake."
+
+Betty was now an expert with the paddle, and the trip across the lake was
+easy of accomplishment. She had the great good fortune to meet Bob
+returning from a recitation, and though surprised to see her, he knew she
+must have come by boat or canoe. The boys had gone the next day and
+brought back the canoes from the woods where they had placed them during
+the storm.
+
+"I'm ever so sorry, Bob," said Betty earnestly, "But--could you lend me
+twenty-five dollars?"
+
+Bob whistled.
+
+"I could," he admitted cautiously. "What's it for, Betsey?"
+
+"That," said Betty, "is a secret."
+
+Bob glanced at her sharply. His chin hardened.
+
+"Come down here where we won't be interrupted," he said, leading the way
+to the wharf. "You'll have to give me a good reason for wanting the
+money, Betty."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+BOB'S SOLUTION
+
+
+"If you wanted twenty-five dollars and I had it," said Betty
+persuasively, "I'd give it to you without asking a solitary question."
+
+Rob's lips twitched.
+
+"But, Betty--" he began. Then--"Oh, do play fair," he urged. "You're
+younger than I am. Uncle Dick expects me to look after you. Goodness
+knows I don't want to pry into your affairs, but when you borrow fifteen
+dollars and then want twenty-five the same week, what's a fellow to
+think? If some one is borrowing from you, it's time to call a halt;
+you're not fair to yourself."
+
+Betty looked startled. How could Bob possibly guess so near the truth?
+She began to think that the better part of wisdom was to confide in this
+keen young man.
+
+"Come on, Betty, tell me what you want it for, and you shall have twice
+twenty-five," said Bob earnestly. "I've most of my allowance in the
+school bank. It's all yours, if you'll let me have an inkling of the
+reason you need money."
+
+"Well," said Betty, slowly, "I didn't promise I wouldn't tell--only
+that I wouldn't tell Bobby or Mrs. Eustice. It's Libbie who has to have
+the money."
+
+She sketched Libbie's story for him rapidly, Bob listening in silence. At
+the end he asked a single question.
+
+"Have you any of those notes asking for money?"
+
+"Here's one." Betty thrust her hand into the pocket of her sweater and
+pulled out the crumpled paper that Libbie had shaken out of the bottle
+that morning.
+
+"Were they all written on this same kind of paper?" asked Bob,
+reading the note.
+
+"Ye-s, that is, I think so," hesitated Betty. "I really haven't
+noticed. Why?"
+
+"Because I don't think any man wrote this," announced Bob confidently.
+"I think some girl at school has done it, either as a joke or to
+torment Libbie."
+
+"But it's grown-up writing," protested Betty. "Though, come to think of
+it, we don't know any of the girls' handwriting," she added thoughtfully.
+
+"What girl would be likely to do it?" asked Bob. "Can you recall a
+practical joker? This is copy book paper torn from an ordinary theme
+book. Yes, I'll bet a cookie a girl wrote it."
+
+"Ada Nansen or Ruth Gladys Royal might do it to plague Libbie," said
+Betty slowly. "They don't like any of our crowd, and Libbie is so good
+at French she turns Ada green with envy. The more I think of it, the
+surer I am it is Ada. Ruth doesn't dislike any one actively enough to
+exert herself."
+
+"Ada Nansen?" repeated Bob. "Isn't she that girl we saw on the train and
+who plumped herself down in my seat? I thought so--I remember you told
+me. Well, from the sidelight I have on her character, I believe she is
+the one at the bottom of this. That will explain, too, why you never
+catch any one digging up the bottle--she knows exactly when you are busy
+and when you are not."
+
+"Bottle!" said Betty explosively, to Bob's amazement. "Oh, Bob! this
+morning Miss Jessup was talking to us about association of ideas, and she
+asked Ada what bee meant to her. We thought she'd say 'honey,' of course,
+but she said 'bottle.' Doesn't that show--"
+
+"I should say it did!" Bob's voice was eager. "She took it for the letter
+'B' and bottle was in her mind. You may depend upon it, that girl is at
+the back of all this fuss! Gee, when I've nothing else to do, I'm going
+to study up on this association of ideas stuff."
+
+"You don't need it--you can get at things without a bit of trouble,"
+Betty assured him affectionately.
+
+"How will you go about pinning down Ada?" Bob asked anxiously.
+
+"I'll cut out Latin to-morrow afternoon when she has a study period,"
+planned Betty. "She'll think Libbie is reciting, and she'll not think of
+me at all, and I'll slip out and watch to see if she goes near the
+bottle. But what can I do if she does prove to be the right one? She'll
+tell Mrs. Eustice, and poor Libbie will be in a peck of trouble. I really
+think Mrs. Eustice would send her home if she knew."
+
+"And serve Libbie right for being such an idiot!" pronounced Bob
+severely. "However, I think she has been pretty thoroughly punished
+through fear. I only wish you'd told me this before, Betty, because I
+know exactly how you can deal with Ada."
+
+"You do? Oh, Bob, what should I ever do without you!" cried Betty,
+forgetting that a few moments before she had berated him for his
+insistence. "Tell me, quick."
+
+"Well, a crowd of us fellows happened to be over in Edentown last Friday
+night, and we saw Ada and Ruth at the movies," said Bob. "They didn't see
+us, for we sat back. They were the only girls from Shadyside, and Tommy
+and I decided they had sneaked out after dinner and walked all that
+distance. Now threatening isn't a very nice performance, Betty, but
+sometimes you have to meet like with like. I think, if when you see Ada
+digging up the bottle, you go to her and say that unless she returns the
+money and Libbie's first note to you and promises to let the matter
+drop--forever--you will expose her Edentown trip to Mrs. Eustice, she
+will listen to reason."
+
+"So do I," agreed Betty. "I don't think she has touched the money--she
+has plenty. But I must have the note so that Libbie can destroy it. Mrs.
+Eustice never lets us go to town at night, and I'm sure Ada and Ruth had
+to go down the fire-escape. Goodness, didn't they take a chance of being
+discovered!"
+
+"Well, as I've already missed half an algebra recitation, and you know
+you have no business over here at this time of day, I move we begin our
+penance," suggested Bob. "Paddle home, Betsey, and if our hunch turns out
+wrong, we'll tackle another one."
+
+"Oh, it won't--I'm sure you're right," said Betty gratefully. "Thank you
+ever so much, Bob. And the next time I'll tell you everything at the
+very first."
+
+"Don't let me hear of another time," Bob called after her, with
+mock severity.
+
+"Well, I never!" gasped Libbie, astonished, when Betty told her of Bob's
+suspicions. "Oh, Betty, wouldn't it be wonderful if it should be true!"
+
+"I'm going to cut Latin this afternoon and find out," said Betty
+vigorously. "If Miss Sharpe asks for me, you don't know where I am; she
+never does anything but give you double lines to translate."
+
+Betty knew that Ada had a study period, which she usually spent in her
+room, directly after lunch.
+
+Directly after she left the dining room that noon Betty sped away to the
+foot of the hill. There were several stubby bushes about half-filled with
+wind-blown leaves and old rubbish and affording an excellent screen.
+Betty crouched down behind one of these.
+
+She had not long to wait. Ada, in her beautiful mink furs, which she
+clung to persistently, though the fall weather so far had been very mild,
+was presently seen coming across the grass. She walked straight to the
+spot where the bottle was buried, and, stooping down, brushed away the
+leaves and dirt. She lifted the bottle.
+
+"Pshaw, it's empty!" she said aloud.
+
+"Yes, it's empty," echoed Betty, stepping out from behind the bush. "And
+you are to give the money back to me, and Libbie's note with it."
+
+"Is that so?" said Ada contemptuously. "I have something to say
+about that. I intend to see that that note reaches the proper
+person--Mrs. Eustice."
+
+Betty took a step nearer, her dark eyes blazing.
+
+"I can play the kind of game you play--if I must," she said in a
+curiously repressed tone. "What about the trip you and Ruth Gladys made
+to Edentown last Friday night?"
+
+Ada glared at her.
+
+"Were you there? How did you know?" she stammered jerkily. "If you were
+up to the same trick, you'll look nice tattle-telling on us, won't you?"
+
+"I wasn't there, but I have witnesses whom I can summon to say you
+were," declared Betty, wishing her voice did not tremble with
+nervousness. "You were the only girls from Shadyside, and you must have
+climbed down the fire--"
+
+Ada raised her hand that held the bottle.
+
+"You--you tell-tale!" she screamed threateningly.
+
+Betty flung up her arm to knock the bottle aside, missed Ada's hand and
+hit her shoulder. Ada went down, Betty on top of her.
+
+"Girls! For mercy's sake!" Miss Anderson stood beside them, scandalized.
+"Betty, get up. Ada, what are you thinking of? I saw you from the gym
+windows. You'll have the whole school out here presently. Betty, I
+thought you had Latin at this period?"
+
+"I have," admitted Betty, so meekly that Miss Anderson looked away lest
+she laugh. "Only I had to see Ada."
+
+"I don't know what you were quarreling about," said Miss Anderson, with
+characteristic frankness. "But I do know that both of you are old enough
+to know better than to revert to small-boy tactics. You've a hole in your
+stocking, Betty, that would do credit to a little brother."
+
+"I ripped it on that stone," said Betty regretfully.
+
+Ada stood sullenly, unconscious of two dead leaves hanging to her hat
+which completely destroyed her usual effect of studied elegance.
+
+"Go on in, Betty," said the physical culture teacher, who labored under
+no delusions about the duties of a peacemaker. To tell the truth, she did
+not believe in forced reconciliation. "Ada will come with me."
+
+"Ada has something I want," said Betty stubbornly. "She has to promise to
+give it to me first."
+
+Ada looked at the resolute little figure facing her. Betty, she knew, was
+capable of doing exactly what she had said. Mrs. Eustice had no more
+rigid rule than the one against going to town, day or night, without
+permission. Ada gave in.
+
+"I'll leave it in your room before dinner--you didn't think I carried it
+with me, did you?" she snapped.
+
+"Both?" said Betty significantly, meaning the note and the money.
+
+"Everything!" cried the exasperated Ada, on the verge of angry tears.
+
+"Then you have my promise never to say a word," Betty assured her
+blithely.
+
+"Do you want this bottle?" Miss Anderson called after her, as she started
+for the school.
+
+Miss Anderson had been studying both girls as she waited quietly.
+
+Now Betty turned, smiled radiantly, and took the bottle the teacher held
+out to her. With careful aim, worthy of Bob's training, she fixed her eye
+on a handy rock, hurled the bottle with all her strength, and had the
+satisfaction of seeing it dashed into a thousand fragments as it struck
+the target squarely.
+
+Then she trotted sedately on to her delayed recitation, and Miss Anderson
+and the scowling Ada followed more slowly.
+
+Just before dinner that night there came a knock on Betty's door, and
+Virgie Smith, one of Ada's friends, thrust a package at Bobby, who had
+answered the tap.
+
+Betty managed to turn aside her chum's curiosity and to get away to
+Libbie and give her the note. They burned it in the flame of a candle,
+and counted the money. It was all there, folded just as Libbie had
+placed it in the bottle. Evidently Ada had never carried it.
+
+Libbie paid Louise the money she had borrowed of her and gave Betty the
+amount she owed her, most of which was Bob's.
+
+"Now do try to be more sensible, Libbie," pleaded Betty, turning to go
+back to Bobby. "When you want to do something romantic think twice and
+count a hundred."
+
+"I will!" promised Libbie fervently. "I'll never be so silly
+again, Betty."
+
+But dear me, she was, a hundred times! But in a different way each time.
+Libbie would be Libbie to the end of the chapter.
+
+Betty, rushing back to brush her hair for dinner, heard a sound
+suspiciously like a sob as she passed Norma Guerin's door. It was
+unlatched, and as no one answered when she tapped Betty gently pushed it
+open and stepped into the room.
+
+Norma lay on her bed crying as though her heart would break, and Alice,
+looking very forlorn and solemn, was holding a letter in her hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE SECOND DEGREE
+
+
+"My patience, what a world of trouble this is!" sighed Betty to herself,
+but aloud she said cheerily: "What's the matter with Norma?"
+
+Norma sat up, mopping her eyes.
+
+"Oh, Betty," she choked, "I don't believe Alice and I can come back
+after Christmas! They've had a fire in Glenside and a house dad owns
+there burned. He hasn't a cent of insurance, and the mortgagee takes
+the ground. So that's the rental right out of our income. Besides,
+grandma has had an operation on her eyes and she has to spend weeks in
+an expensive Philadelphia hospital. Even with the small fees the
+surgeons charge because of dad, the board will amount to more than he
+can afford to pay. Alice and I ought to be learning stenography or
+something useful."
+
+"Well, now, your father would say," suggested Betty, with determined
+optimism, "that the Christmas vacation is too far off to make any plans
+about what you're going to do afterward. You know Bobby Littell has set
+her heart on you and Alice spending the recess with them in Washington.
+Anyway, lots of things can turn up before Christmas, Norma--even the
+treasure!"
+
+Norma tried to smile.
+
+"I dream about that chasm nearly every night," she said. "Sometimes I
+think the Indians came back and got the stuff, Betty. They're so clever
+about climbing, and I know they wouldn't easily give up."
+
+"Nonsense!" chided Betty. "The treasure is there, and we've just got to
+think up a way to get it out. At all costs you mustn't cry yourself sick
+about the future--you'll spoil all the fun awaiting you in the weeks
+before Christmas. And you know you can't study as well when you're
+depressed, and, goodness knows! one has to study at Shadyside."
+
+"I've a headache now," confessed Norma, pushing her tumbled hair out
+of her eyes. "I can't go down to dinner--I'm a perfect sight. There's
+the bell!"
+
+"Just lie down and try to rest," advised Betty, smoothing the tangled
+covers with a deft hand. "I'll bring you up some supper on a tray. Aunt
+Nancy thinks you're an angel on general principles, and she has a special
+soft spot in her heart for you because her mother used to cook for your
+grandmother. Come on, Alice, we'll turn the light out and let her rest
+her eyes."
+
+"I do wish some one would think up a way to get those pearls and the
+gold," fretted Betty, turning restlessly on her pillow that night. "If
+Norma and Alice are ever going to be well-off now is the time. When
+they're so old they can't walk, money won't do 'em any good!"
+
+Which showed that Betty, for all her sound sense, was still a little
+girl. Very old ladies, who can not walk, certainly need money to make
+them comfortable and keep them so.
+
+The next night was Friday, and Betty welcomed the prospect of the second
+degree necessary to stamp the freshmen as full-fledged members of the
+Mysterious For. The week had been noticeably tinged with indigo for at
+least two of Betty's friends, and she hoped the initiation might take
+their minds from their troubles.
+
+The second degree, it was whispered about among the girls, was bound to
+be a "hummer."
+
+"They say it's a test of your character," said Bobby, with a shiver.
+"Somehow, Betty, my character oozes out of my shoes when it knows it
+should be prancing up to the firing line."
+
+"I guess you imagine that," smiled Betty. "Speak sternly to it, Bobby,
+and explain that funking is out of the question."
+
+However, more girls than Bobby found it necessary to clutch at their
+oozing courage when, upon assembling in the large hall, the lights
+suddenly went out. In the shadows, four white veiled figures were seen
+slowly to mount the platform.
+
+"To-night," said one of them, stretching out a long arm and pointing
+toward the fascinated and expectant audience, "we are your fates! You
+have come to the final tests. We have no choice in these tests, nor have
+you. You are to come forward, one at a time, and take a slip from this
+basket here on the table. Go directly to your room after drawing your
+slip, and there open it and follow the directions explicitly. Come to the
+platform in the order in which you are seated, please."
+
+The lights did not come on, and one by one the girls stumbled up the
+steps to the platform, felt around in the basket, and drew a slip. Then
+they hurried away to their rooms to see what was to happen next.
+
+Bobby and Betty could hardly wait to open their notes, and before they
+had them fairly digested, Frances and Libbie and Constance and Louise and
+the Guerin girls were crowding in to compare notes.
+
+"I have to go and ask Miss Prettyman if I may telephone to Salsette
+Academy and ask for a lost-and-found notice on their bulletin board,"
+wailed Bobby. "I'm supposed to have lost a pair of gloves at the last
+football game. I always have the worst luck! Can't you imagine how Miss
+Prettyman will lecture me? She'll say that at my age I ought to have
+something in my head besides excuses to talk to the boys!"
+
+The girls laughed, recognizing the ring of prophecy in Bobby's speech.
+
+"That's nothing--I'm to row Dora Estabrooke twice around the lake,"
+mourned Louise. "She weighs two hundred, if she weighs a pound. Thank
+goodness, I don't have to do it to-night."
+
+Norma was instructed to walk three times around the cellar, chanting
+"Little Boy Blue" before ten o'clock that night. Frances Martin, to her
+horror, was enjoined to produce six live angle worms the following
+morning--"and you know I despise the wiggling things," she wailed. Alice
+Guerin, the silent member of the octette, was condemned to recite "The
+Children's Hour" in the dining room "between cereal and eggs." And
+Constance Howard was told she must add up an unbelievably long column of
+figures and present the correct answer within half an hour. Constance's
+_bete noir_ was figures, and already these long columns danced dizzily
+before her eyes.
+
+"You needn't tell me that chance made such canny selections," observed
+Betty. "One of those girls manipulated the right notes into our hands.
+Libbie, what does yours say?"
+
+Libbie handed her slip of paper to Betty without a word.
+
+"Go to bed at once," the latter read aloud.
+
+There was a gale of laughter. Libbie, the curious, who dearly loved to
+hear and see, to be sent off to bed in the middle of the most wildly
+exciting night they had known in weeks!
+
+"Hurry," admonished Bobby. "You're disobeying by staying up this long.
+Where's your character, Libbie?"
+
+Libbie scowled, but departed, grumbling that she didn't see why she
+couldn't stay up and watch Norma walk down in the cellar.
+
+"Mine is the most spooky," said Betty, when the door had closed behind
+Libbie. "Listen--I'm to climb the water tower at midnight and leave this
+card there to show I have complied."
+
+She held out a little plain white card in a green envelope.
+
+"Hark! was that somebody at the door?" asked Bobby, and she ran over to
+it lightly and jerked it open.
+
+The corridor was empty.
+
+"We're all nervous," remarked Betty lightly. "I'll set the alarm for
+eleven-forty-five and put the clock under my pillow so Miss Lacey won't
+hear it. I'll lie down all dressed, and then I won't have to use a light.
+She might see that through the transom."
+
+"Don't you want some of us to go with you?" asked Constance. "We needn't
+go up into the tower, if you say not. But at least we could go that far
+with you; you might fall off the roof."
+
+"No, please, I'd rather go alone," said Betty firmly. "It's a test, you
+see, and the idea isn't to make it easy. I'll be all right, and in the
+morning the girls will find the card and know I didn't flunk."
+
+After the girls had gone away to their own rooms the clock was set for a
+quarter of twelve, but Betty and Bobby decided that they might as well
+stay awake till midnight. They would lie down on their beds--Betty
+insisted that Bobby should undress and go to bed "right"--and wait for
+the time to come. Within twenty minutes they were both sound asleep.
+
+The muffled whir of her alarm clock awakened Betty. For a moment she was
+dazed, then recollection cleared her mind. She slipped to the floor
+without waking Bobby and softly tiptoed from the room.
+
+A dim light burned in the corridor, and Betty knew the way to the water
+tower. To reach it, one had to mount to the roof of the dormitory
+building. Betty experienced a little difficulty with the obstinate catch
+of the scuttle cover, but she finally mastered it and stepped out on the
+tarred graveled roof. The water tower, a huge tank on an iron framework,
+had a little enclosed room built directly under it reached by an iron
+ladder. Here the engineer kept various plumbing tools. It was in this
+room that Betty was to leave the card.
+
+The night wind blew damp and keen, and the stars overhead seemed very far
+away. Betty had no sense of fear as she began to climb, mounting slowly
+and feeling for each step with her hands. The friendly dark shut in
+around her and somewhere in the distance a train whistle tooted shrilly.
+
+She knew she had reached the last step when her hands encountered wood,
+and she felt about till she touched the knob of the door. It opened at
+her touch and she pulled herself in over the sill.
+
+"Now the card," she whispered, feeling in her pocket.
+
+A gust of wind fanned her cheek and something clicked.
+
+The door had blown shut!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+DRAMATICS
+
+
+There are pleasanter places to be at midnight than the dark room of a
+strange water tower, but Betty was not frightened. She tripped over some
+tool as she felt for the door and discovered that she had lost her sense
+of direction completely.
+
+"I'm all turned around," was the way she expressed it. "I must start and
+go around the sides, feeling till I come to the door."
+
+Following this plan, she did come to the door and confidently turned the
+knob. The door stuck and she rattled the knob sharply. Then the
+explanation dawned on her.
+
+The door was locked!
+
+Could it have a spring lock? she wondered. Then she remembered a day
+when, on exploration bent, a group of girls had made the trip to the roof
+and the kindly Dave McGuire had taken a key from his pocket and unlocked
+the door of the little room for the more adventurous ones who wanted to
+climb up and see the inside.
+
+"It was a flat key, like a latch key," Betty reflected. "The girls must
+have had the door unlocked for me to-night, but I don't think they would
+follow me and lock it. That would be mean!"
+
+However, the door was locked and she was a prisoner. It was inky black
+and at every step she seemed to knock over something or stumble against
+cold iron. Gradually her eyes became accustomed to the lack of light, and
+she made out the outlines of something against the wall.
+
+"Why, there is a window--I remember!" she said aloud. "I wonder if I can
+reach it."
+
+Cautiously she felt her way around and stretched up tentative fingers.
+She could barely touch the lower frame.
+
+Then, for the first time, Betty felt a little shiver of fear and
+apprehension. It was close in the tower room, and the smell of oil and
+dead air began to be oppressive. She had no wish to shout, even if she
+could be heard, a doubtful probability, for she had no mind to be rescued
+before the curious eyes of the entire school.
+
+"I'll get out of it somehow, if I have to stay here all night," she told
+herself pluckily. "Oh, my goodness, what was that?"
+
+A tiny sawing noise in one corner of the room sent Betty scurrying to
+the other side. She would have indignantly denied any fear of mice or
+rats, but the bravest girl might be excused from a too close
+acquaintance thrust upon her in the dark. Betty had no wish to put her
+fingers on a mouse.
+
+"How can I get out?" she cried aloud, a little wildly. "I can't breathe!"
+
+In the uncanny silence that followed the sound of her voice, the sawing
+noise sounded regularly, rhythmically. In desperation Betty seized an
+iron crowbar she had backed into on the wall, and hurled it in the
+direction of the industrious rodents.
+
+"Now I've done it," she admitted, as with a clatter and a bang that, she
+was sure, could be heard a mile away, an evident avalanche of tools
+tumbled to the floor. Her crowbar had struck a box of tools.
+
+But the silence shut down again after that. Betty did not realize that
+the water tower was so isolated that even unusual noises inside it would
+not carry far, and with the door and the window both closed the room was
+practically sealed.
+
+The sawing noise was not repeated, there was that much to be grateful
+for, Betty reflected. She wondered if she could batter down the door.
+
+"I'll try, anyway," she thought wearily.
+
+And then she could not find the crowbar! Around and around she went,
+feeling on the floor for the tools that had clattered down with such a
+racket and for the iron bar she had hurled among them. Not one tool could
+she put her hands on.
+
+"I must be going crazy," she cried in despair. "I couldn't have dreamed
+those tools fell down, and yet where could they have gone? There's no
+hole in the floor--"
+
+Now Betty's nerves were sorely tried by the lonely imprisonment, the bad
+air, the heat, and the darkness, and it is not to be wondered at that her
+usual sound common sense was tricked by her imagination. Her fancy
+suggested that the weight of the tools might have torn a hole in the
+floor, they might have dropped through to the roof, and Betty herself
+might be in momentary danger of stepping into this hole.
+
+Nonsense? Well, wiser minds have conceived wilder possibilities under
+similar trying conditions.
+
+"I won't walk another step!" cried poor Betty, as she visioned this
+yawning hole. "Not another step. I'll wait till it's light."
+
+But she waited, fifteen, twenty, thirty minutes, and the darkness if
+anything grew blacker. She had no idea how long she had been locked in
+the room, and she could not calculate how far off the morning might be.
+
+"I'll put my hands out before me and creep," she said finally. "That
+ought to be safe. Perhaps I can find something to stand on to reach that
+window. I guess I could drop to the roof from there."
+
+Stiffly and painfully, she began to crawl, holding out her hands before
+her and starting back time and again as she fancied she felt an opening
+just ahead. But when she brought up against a step ladder she forgot her
+fears in the joy of her discovery.
+
+It was a short ladder, but she dragged it over to the window and put it
+in place and mounted it, all in the twinkling of an eye. By stretching to
+her full height, she was able to raise the creaky window, but to her
+dismay the roof offered a very long drop. She had not realized how high
+she had climbed.
+
+"Dave was fussing with ropes and buckets the other day," she recalled.
+"Now I wonder--wouldn't it be the best luck in the world if I could
+find a rope?"
+
+Hope was singing high in her heart now, but she almost despaired of such
+good fortune after a diligent search. Then something told her to feel
+about again on the floor. Round and round she went, getting her fingers
+into spider webs and sticky substances that renewed her inward shudders
+because she could not identify them. And when she found the rope, a tarry
+coil, she also solved the mystery of the tools. They had fallen down
+behind the coil of rope and were effectively fenced off from the circle
+of floor explored by the bewildered Betty.
+
+It was the work of a moment to tie one end of the rope to a heavy staple
+driven under the window sill, and then, closing her eyes to the pitch
+black void beneath her, Betty let herself slide down to the roof. Her
+hands were cruelly scratched by the rope fibres and she was too tired to
+care about the evidences of her flight.
+
+"If anybody wants to know about that rope and the locked door, let 'em!"
+she sighed defiantly.
+
+Bobby woke up as Betty came in the door, and then there were questions
+galore to be answered. Betty was covered with dust and her clothing was
+torn and rumpled. Bobby declared she looked as if she had been to war.
+
+"I feel it," admitted Betty. "Let me take a hot bath and get into bed.
+And, Bobby, promise me on your word of honor that you'll call me in the
+morning. Whoever locked me in expects me to stay there till I'm missed,
+and I want to walk into breakfast as usual."
+
+She half regretted her instructions when Bobby called her at seven the
+next morning, but Betty was nothing if not gritty, and she sleepily
+struggled into her clothes. Ada Nansen's look of utter astonishment when
+she saw Betty come into the dining room with the rest for breakfast told
+those in the secret what they had already suspected.
+
+"Bobby must have heard her listening at our door last night," said
+Betty. "What am I going to do? Why nothing, of course! That was part of
+the stunt, or at least I'm going to consider it so. My card is there, so
+they'll know I fulfilled my part."
+
+Dave McGuire scratched his head when he found the rope and the open
+window, but he wisely said nothing. He had two keys, and one he had
+loaned at the request of the senior class president to a fellow student.
+The other key, for emergency use, hung on a nail in the fourth story
+hall. That was the key Dave found in the door lock when he made his early
+morning tour of inspection. "But the young folks must be having their
+fun," he said indulgently, "and, short of burning down the place, 'tis
+not Dave McGuire who will be interfering with 'em."
+
+Mid-term tests were approaching. Bobby, who, with all her love of fun,
+was a hard student, felt prepared and went around serenely. Constance
+Howard had, most humanly, neglected, so far as the teacher of mathematics
+permitted, the study that was hardest for her, her algebra. She now spent
+hours in "cramming" on this, meanwhile complaining to those of her
+special chums who would listen to her of "the unfairness of being made to
+study algebra."
+
+"I can add--with the use of my fingers--and subtract and divide and
+multiply--at least I know the tables up through the twelves. Of what use
+will a's and b's and x's, y's and z's ever be to me?"
+
+"Constance, you know that's nonsense," Bobby told her. "We're every one
+of us here because we want to play a bigger part in life than the
+two-plus-two-is-four people, and we've got to dig in and prepare
+ourselves. If you'd do your work when you ought to, you wouldn't be in
+such an upset state now."
+
+"Yes'm," grinned Constance, and went back to her belated work.
+
+Betty had found that her year away from school had made it hard for her
+to concentrate her mind on her studies, and while she had not
+deliberately neglected her work, as Constance had in her algebra, she had
+not always kept up to the highest pitch. She was working furiously now,
+with the tests to face so soon, and with it went the resolve to be more
+studious from day to day during the rest of the school year. The
+concentration was becoming easier, too, as the term advanced, and, the
+teaching at Shadyside being of the best, she felt sure she would feel
+that she had accomplished something by the end of the year.
+
+The Dramatic Club of Shadyside woke to ambition as the term progressed.
+Soon after the mid-term tests, which all the girls, even Constance,
+passed successfully, by dint of threat and bribery, each student was
+"tried out" and her ability duly catalogued.
+
+Betty liked to act, and proved to have a natural talent, while Bobby,
+professing a great love for things theatrical, was hopeless on the stage.
+Her efforts either moved her coaches to helpless laughter or caused them
+to retire in indignant tears.
+
+"She is--what you call it?--impossible!" sighed Madame, the French
+teacher, shaking her head after witnessing one rehearsal in which Bobby,
+as the villain, had convulsed the actors as well as the student audience.
+
+"Well then, I'll be a stage hand," declared Bobby, whose feelings
+were impervious to slights. "I'm going to have something to do with
+this play!"
+
+Ada Nansen was eager to be assigned a part--the players were chosen on
+merit--and she aspired modestly to the leading role, mainly because, the
+girls hinted, the heroine wore a red velvet dress with a train and a
+string of pearls.
+
+But Ada, it developed, was worse than Bobby as an actress. She was
+self-conscious, impatient of correction, and so arrogant toward the other
+players that even gentle Alice Guerin was roused to retort.
+
+"I haven't been assigned the maid's part yet!" she flashed, when Ada
+ordered her to remove several stage properties that were in the way.
+
+"Give it to her, Alice!" encouraged the mischievous Bobby. "That girl
+would ruffle an angel."
+
+Alice and Norma were both valuable additions to the Dramatic Club
+ranks. Norma especially proved to be a find, and she was given the
+hero's part after the first rehearsal while Alice was the heroine's
+mother. Betty, much to her surprise, was posted on the bulletin board
+as the "leading lady."
+
+Down toward the end of the list of the cast was Ada Nansen's name as
+"the maid."
+
+"She'll be furious," whispered Bobby. "Miss Anderson told Miss Sharpe,
+when she didn't think I could hear, that Ada wasn't really good enough to
+be the maid, but that they hoped she would sing for them between the
+acts. Miss Anderson said if they didn't let her have some part she'd be
+so sulky she wouldn't sing."
+
+A rehearsal was held in the gymnasium after school that afternoon, and as
+she went through her first act Betty was uncomfortably conscious of Ada's
+glowering eyes following her. When the cue was given for the maid, Ada
+did not move.
+
+"That's your cue, Ada," called Miss Anderson patiently.
+
+"I've resigned, Miss Anderson," said Ada clearly. "It's a little too
+much to ask me to play maid to two charity students."
+
+Norma and Alice shrank back, but Betty sprang forward.
+
+"How dare you!" she flared, white with rage. "How dare you say such a
+thing! It's untrue, and you know it. Even if it were so, you have no
+right to say such an outrageous thing."
+
+Betty was angrier than she had ever been in her life. She possessed a
+lively temper and was no meeker than she should be, but during the past
+summer she had learned to control herself fairly well. Ada's cruel taunt,
+directed with such a sneer at the Guerin sisters that every girl knew
+whom she meant, had sent Betty's temper to the boiling point.
+
+"Easy, easy, Betty," counseled Miss Anderson, putting an arm about the
+shaking girl. "You're not mending matters, you know."
+
+Then she turned to Ada, who was now rather frightened at what she had
+done. She had not meant to go so far.
+
+"Ada," said Miss Anderson sharply, "you will apologize immediately before
+these girls for the injustice you have done to two of them. What you have
+just said is nothing more nor less than a lie. I will not stoop to put my
+meaning in gentler phrases. Apologize to Norma and Alice at once."
+
+Ada set her lips obstinately. The teacher waited a moment.
+
+"I will give you just three minutes," she declared. "If at the end of
+that time you still refuse to obey me, I will send for Mrs. Eustice."
+
+Ada shuffled her feet uneasily. She had no fancy to meet Mrs. Eustice,
+whose friendship for the Guerins was well known. Mrs. Eustice had a
+hot white anger of her own that a pupil who once witnessed it could
+never forget.
+
+"Well, Ada?" came Miss Anderson's voice at the end of the three minutes.
+
+Ada hastily stumbled through a shame-faced apology, painful to listen
+to, and then, the angry tears running down her face, turned and dashed
+from the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+ANOTHER MYSTERY
+
+
+"Ready, Betty," said Miss Anderson briskly. "You enter at the left and
+begin 'I thought I heard voices--' Don't look toward the auditorium.
+Remember you are supposed to be in a small room."
+
+Betty managed to command her voice, and the rehearsal went on. Miss
+Anderson herself took the part of the maid and, as she had foreseen,
+by the time they had finished the hour they were in a normal, happy
+frame of mind.
+
+No reference was ever made by any one to Ada's speech, but she never
+appeared at another rehearsal. After two weeks' diligent practice, the
+players were pronounced perfect and a night was set for the performance
+of "The Violet Patchwork."
+
+"Why don't we go to the woods and get some leaves to trim the assembly
+hall?" suggested Betty two days before the time for the play. "Mrs.
+Eustice's sister is coming to see her, and some other guests, and we want
+it to look nice. We might get some nuts, too. Aunt Nancy promised us nut
+cake with ice cream if we'll get her enough."
+
+"All right, I like to go nutting," agreed Bobby. "But, for goodness'
+sake, if we're going to walk a hundred miles this time, let's have
+something to eat with us. Sandwiches and a regular spread. How many have
+boxes from home?"
+
+A canvass showed that a round dozen of the girls had been favored that
+week, and, at Bobby's suggestion, they donated their goodies to "the
+common cause."
+
+"Not all the girls will want to go," said Betty. "Some are such poor
+walkers, they'll decline at the first hint of a hike. Every one in the
+V.P. will want to go, I think, and that's eleven. Then, counting the
+girls with boxes and the others who have asked to come, we'll have
+twenty. Twenty of us ought to manage to bring home enough leaves to trim
+the hall respectably."
+
+"We might ask for a holiday!" Bobby's face beamed at the thought. "We
+haven't had a day off in weeks, and Mrs. Eustice said a long time ago she
+thought we'd earned one. Will you do the asking, Betty?"
+
+Betty was accustomed to "doing the asking," and she said she would once
+more if Norma Guerin would go with her. Wherever possible, Betty drew
+Norma into every school activity, and she persistently refused to allow
+her friend to talk as though the Christmas holidays would end their days
+at Shadyside. Alice worried less than Norma, but both girls grieved at
+the thought of the sacrifice those at home were making for them and felt
+that they could not accept it much longer without vigorous protest.
+
+Betty and Bobby, on the other hand, were determined to see to it that
+the sisters spent their holidays in Washington, and while Bobby
+cherished wild plans of filling a trunk with new dresses and hats and
+forcing it in some manner upon her chums, Betty concentrated her
+attention on the subject of cash. She intended to consult her uncle, in
+person if possible, and if that proved impossible, by letter, and Bob as
+to the feasibility of persuading Norma and Alice to borrow a sum
+sufficient to see them through to graduation day at Shadyside. Betty was
+sure her uncle and Bob, in both of whom she had infinite faith, could
+manage this difficult task satisfactorily, though the Guerin pride was a
+formidable obstacle.
+
+Acting immediately on the decision to ask for a holiday, Betty and Norma
+went down to the office and preferred their request, which was cordially
+granted after an explanation of its purpose.
+
+"All day to-morrow off!" shouted Betty, bursting in upon the six girls
+assembled to hear the result.
+
+"We may go after breakfast and needn't come back till four o'clock when
+Miss Anderson has called a dress rehearsal," chimed in Norma.
+
+Libbie and Louise were dispatched to notify the other girls and to
+give strict instructions to those who had boxes not to eat any more of
+the contents.
+
+"Elsie Taylor had already eaten six eclairs when I requisitioned her box
+for the picnic," said Constance Howard. "It's lucky we're going tomorrow,
+or there wouldn't be much left to eat."
+
+Betty and Bobby each had a box from Mrs. Littell, who sent packages of
+sensible goodies regularly to her girls in turn.
+
+"I hope the sandwiches will keep fresh enough," worried Betty.
+
+But she might have saved her worry.
+
+Just as she and Bobby were going to bed that night Norma and Alice came
+in, wrapped in their kimonos, each carrying a large box under her arm.
+
+"What do you suppose?" asked Norma. "Good old Aunt Nancy heard we were
+going after nuts for her cake and leaves for the hall, and she's made us
+dozens of sandwiches. She said she did it because Mrs. Eustice reserved
+one of the best seats for her at the play. Anyway, we'll be glad to have
+them, shan't we? And, oh yes, Aunt Nancy says she'll make us a cake as
+big as 'a black walnut tree' and two kinds of ice cream!"
+
+"And she brought the sandwiches up to Norma and Alice because she
+was determined they should have something for the picnic," thought
+Betty after the girls had gone. "Talk about tact! Aunt Nancy has the
+real thing."
+
+The girls were all up early the next morning, and soon after breakfast
+they were on their way to the woods. Many of those who were not of the
+nutting party went to Edentown, some took canoes and went paddling,
+others "puttered" around the school grounds, enjoying the beautiful
+autumn weather and the luxury of a holiday.
+
+Ada Nansen and her friends had elected to go to Edentown, and passed the
+nutting party on the way. Betty took one glance into the bus and then
+looked at Bobby. That young person promptly giggled.
+
+"Did you see what I saw?" she asked.
+
+"Poor Ada!" said Betty. "She does have troubles of her own!"
+
+For of all the teachers, Miss Prettyman alone had been available as
+chaperone, and to go to town under Miss Prettyman's eagle eye was
+anything but an exciting experience. She was usually bent on "improving"
+the minds of her charges, and she improved them with serene disregard of
+the victims' tastes and interests. Betty and Bobby had seen her sitting
+bolt upright in the bus, reading a thin volume of essays while Ada
+scowled at the happy crowd tramping in the road.
+
+The woods reached, they separated, some to gather branches of leaves and
+others intent on filling their sacks with nuts. The boxes of lunch were
+neatly piled under a tree, and sweaters were left with them, for it was
+comfortably warm even in the shadiest spots.
+
+"I don't believe we will have many more days like this," remarked Frances
+Martin, her nearsighted eyes peering into a hollow tree stump. "Girls,
+what have I found--a squirrel?"
+
+"Plain owl," laughed Betty. "Isn't he cunning?"
+
+They crowded around to admire the funny little creature, and then,
+admonished by Bobby, whom Constance declared would make a good drill
+sergeant, set busily to work again. Nuts were not plentiful, but they
+filled half a sack, and then, a large pile of flaming branches having
+been gathered, they decided to drag their spoils back to the tree and to
+have lunch.
+
+"Girls, girls, girls!" shrieked Libbie, who was in the lead, "our lunch
+is gone--every crumb of it!"
+
+Sure enough, the sweaters were all tossed about in confusion and the
+boxes had disappeared.
+
+"Who took it?" demanded Bobby wrathfully. "You needn't tell me that
+lunch walked off!"
+
+High and clear and shrill, a familiar whistle sounded back of them.
+
+"That's Bob!" Betty's face brightened. "Listen!"
+
+She gave an answering whistle, and Bob's sounded again.
+
+There was a scrambling among the bushes, and a group of cadets burst
+through. Bob and the Tucker twins were first, and after them came Gilbert
+Lane and Timothy Derby and Winifred Marion Brown.
+
+"Hello, anything the matter?" was Bob's greeting. "You look rather glum."
+
+"So would you," Betty informed him, "if you were starving after a
+morning's work and your lunch was stolen."
+
+"Gee, that is tough!" exclaimed Bob sympathetically. "Who stole it?"
+
+"We don't know," volunteered Bobby. "But all those boxes couldn't take
+wings and fly away."
+
+"You go back and get the fellows," Bob commanded Tommy Tucker. "We were
+having a potato roast down by the lake, and while the potatoes were
+baking some of us came up for more wood," he explained to the girls. "We
+thought we heard voices, and so I whistled."
+
+Tommy Tucker was flying down to the lake before half of this explanation
+was given.
+
+"Have you a holiday, too?" Betty asked. "We're out to get decorations for
+the play."
+
+"It's the colonel's birthday," explained Bob, "and the old boy gave us
+the day off. Here come the fellows."
+
+Half a dozen more cadets joined them, all boys the girls had met at the
+games. They were loud in their expressions of sympathy for the
+disappointed picnickers and promptly offered their potatoes as
+refreshments when they should be done.
+
+"Oh, we're going to get that lunch back," announced Bob Henderson
+confidently. "Look here!"
+
+He pointed to some footprints in a bit of muddy ground.
+
+"Cadet shoes!" cried Tommy Tucker. "Jimminy Crickets, I'll bet it's that
+Marshall Morgan and his crowd!"
+
+"But this is a girl's shoe," protested Betty, pointing to another print.
+"See the narrow toe?"
+
+"Ada Nansen or Ruth Royal!" guessed Bobby quickly. "They're the only ones
+who won't wear a sensible shoe."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+JUST DESERTS
+
+
+"Who," demanded Betty, "is Marshall Morgan?"
+
+"He's a pest," said Tommy, with characteristic frankness. "He has one
+mission in life, and that is to plague those unfortunates who have to be
+under the same roof with him. He never does anything on a large scale,
+but then a mosquito can drive you crazy, you know."
+
+"Dear me, he ought to know Ada," rejoined Bobby. "Perhaps he does. She is
+a pestess, if there is such a word."
+
+"There isn't," Betty assured her. "Anyway, this won't get our lunch back.
+What are you going to do, Bob?"
+
+"A little Indian work," was Bob's reply. "We'll send out scouts to locate
+the thieves and then we'll surround them and let the consequences fall."
+
+"I'll be a consequence," declared Bobby vindictively. "I'll fall on Ada
+with such force she'll think an avalanche has struck her."
+
+Bob sent some of the boys to trace the steps, and while they were gone
+outlined his plans to the others. Once they knew where the marauders
+were, they were to spread out fan-shape and swoop down upon the enemy.
+
+"I figure they'll get a safe distance away and then stop to eat the
+lunch," said Bob. "It is hardly likely that they will take the stuff back
+to school with them."
+
+"But Ada went to Edentown," protested Libbie. "We saw her in the bus,
+didn't we, girls? And Ruth, too."
+
+"They could easily come back in the same bus," said Betty. "Indeed, I'm
+willing to wager that is just what they did. Miss Prettyman as a
+chaperone probably killed any desire Ada had to go shopping."
+
+The scouts came back after fifteen or twenty minutes to report that they
+had discovered the invaders camped under a large oak tree and preparing
+to open the boxes.
+
+"They were laughing and saying how they'd put one over on you," said
+Gilbert Lane.
+
+"Well, they won't laugh long," retorted Bob grimly. "How many are there?"
+
+"Marshall Morgan, Jim Cronk, the Royce boys, all three of 'em, Hilbert
+Mitchell and George Timmins," named Gilbert, using his fingers as an
+adding machine. "Then there are nine girls."
+
+"Has one of them a brown velvet hat with a pink rose at the front and
+brown gaiters and mink furs and a perfectly lovely velvet handbag?" asked
+Betty. "And did you see a girl with black pumps and white silk stockings
+and a blue tricotine dress embroidered with crystal beads?"
+
+The boys looked bewildered.
+
+"Don't believe we did," admitted Gilbert regretfully. "But one of 'em
+called a skinny girl 'Ada' and somebody is named 'Gladys.'"
+
+"Never mind the clothes," Bobby told him gratefully. "We knew those two
+were mixed up in this."
+
+They started cautiously, mindful of Bob's instructions not to make a
+noise, and succeeded, after ten or fifteen minutes creeping, in getting
+within hearing distance of the despoilers.
+
+"You girls will have to tend to your friends," grinned Bob. "You can't
+expect us to discipline them. But we'll give the boys something to
+remember!"
+
+The party spread out, and at his signal whistle they sprang forward,
+shouting like wild Indians. Straight for the oak tree they charged and
+closed in on the group beneath it. Those seated there rose to their feet
+in genuine alarm.
+
+"Rush 'em!" shouted Bob.
+
+Pushing and scrambling, those in the attacking party began to force the
+others down the narrow path. The boys were struggling desperately and
+the girls were resisting as best they could and some were crying.
+
+"Let us out!" wept Ada. "Ow! You're stepping on me! Let us out!"
+
+She kicked blindly, and fought with her hands. The first person she
+grasped was Ruth, who was nearly choked before she could jerk her fur
+collar free.
+
+"I will get out!" panted Ada. "Push, girls!"
+
+The circle opened for them, and following Ada they dashed through
+straight into a tangle of blackberry bushes. Half mad with rage and blind
+from excitement they ploughed their way through, fighting the bushes as
+though they were flesh and blood arms held out to stop them. When they
+were clear of the thicket their clothes were in tatters and their faces
+and hands scratched and bleeding cruelly.
+
+There was nothing for them to do but to go back to the school and try to
+invent a plausible story for their condition. All the cold cream in the
+handsome glass jars on Ada's dressing table could not heal her smarting
+face and thoughts that night.
+
+Bob and his friends continued on their resolute way, pushing the luckless
+cadets before them. Once out of the woods, they seized them by the jacket
+collars and rushed them down to the lake and into the icy waters. They
+generously allowed them to come out after a few minutes immersion, and
+the sorry, dripping crew began the long run that would bring them to dry
+clothes and, it is to be hoped, mended ways.
+
+"Now the potatoes are done," Bob reported, after examining the oven
+hollowed out and lined with stones. "Why not combine forces and eat?"
+
+Every one was famished, and they found plenty of good things left in the
+boxes. The uninvited guests could not have had those packages open long
+before they were overtaken.
+
+After a hearty picnic meal the boys helped the girls gather up their
+branches and walked with them to the point where their boats were tied.
+They had rowed over because of the attraction of the woods--Salsette
+being located on the flat side of the lake--and now they must go back for
+the afternoon drill that was never omitted even for such an important
+occasion as the colonel's birthday.
+
+Ada and her chums did not come down to dinner that night, and so did not
+help with the decorating of the hall. That was pronounced an unqualified
+success, as was the performance of "The Violet Patchwork" the following
+night and the nut cake and the chocolate and the pistache ice-cream that
+was served at the close.
+
+Both audience and players were treated to two surprises in the course of
+the evening. Bobby was responsible for one and, much to the astonishment
+of the school, Ada Nansen and Constance Howard for the other.
+
+True to her promise, the dauntless Bobby had accepted the humble role of
+stage hand rather than have no part in the play, and she trundled scenery
+with right good will and acted as Miss Anderson's right hand in a mood of
+unfailing good humor. There was not an atom of envy in Bobby's character,
+and she thought Betty the most wonderful actress she had ever seen.
+
+"You look lovely in that dress," she said, as Betty stood awaiting her
+cue at the opening of the second act.
+
+Betty smiled, took her cue and walked on the stage.
+
+A ripple of laughter that grew to hilarity greeted her after the first
+puzzled moment.
+
+"Oh, oh!" cried Madame hysterically, in the wings. "See, that Bobby! Some
+one call her! She is walking with the tree!"
+
+The rather primitive arrangements of the background provided for the play
+called for a girl to stand behind each tree in the formal garden scene as
+support. In her admiration of Betty, Bobby had unconsciously edged after
+her to keep her in sight, and the startled audience saw the heroine being
+persistently pursued by a pretty boxwood tree. Bobby was recalled to
+herself, the tree became rooted in its place, and "The Violet Patchwork"
+proceeded smoothly.
+
+Between the third and fourth acts, the lights went out at a signal and
+to the general surprise--for the players had known nothing of what was
+to come--a velvety voice rolled out in the darkness singing the words
+of "A Maid in a Garden Green," a song a great singer had made popular
+that season.
+
+"It's Ada," whispered the school with a rustle of delight. "No one else
+can sing like that."
+
+They encored her heartily, and she responded. Then the lights flared up
+and died down again for the last act.
+
+"Constance got her to do it," whispered Betty to Bobby. "I heard Miss
+Anderson telling Miss Sharpe. Ada's face is so scratched she couldn't, or
+rather wouldn't, show herself, and Constance said why not sing in the
+dark the way they do at the movies? That tickled Ada--who'd like to be a
+movie actress, Connie says--and she said she would."
+
+"Constance Howard has a way with her," remarked Bobby sagely. "Any one
+that can persuade Ada Nansen to do anything nice is qualified to take a
+diplomatic post in Thibet."
+
+Soon after the play the weather turned colder and skating and coasting
+became popular topics of conversation. There was not much ice-skating,
+as a rule, in that section of the country, but snow was to be expected,
+and more than one girl had secret aspirations to go from the top of the
+hill back of the school as far as good fortune would take her.
+
+"Coasting?" Ada Nansen had sniffed when the subject was mentioned to her.
+"Why, that's for children! Girls of our ages don't go coasting. Now at
+home, my brother has an ice-boat--that's real sport."
+
+"Well, Ada, I suppose you think I'm old enough to be your grandmother,"
+said Miss Anderson, laughing. "I wonder what you'll say when I tell you
+that I still enjoy a good coast? If you girls who think you are too old
+to play in the snow would only get outdoors more you wouldn't complain of
+so many headaches."
+
+But Ada refused to be mollified, and she remained indifferent to the
+shrieks of delight that greeted the first powdering of snow. Thanksgiving
+morning saw the first flakes.
+
+The holiday was happily celebrated at Shadyside, very few of the girls
+going home. Mrs. Eustice preferred to add the time to the Christmas
+vacation, and the girls had found that this plan added to their
+enjoyment. Aunt Nancy and her assistants fairly outdid themselves on the
+dinner, and that alone would have made the day memorable for those with
+good appetites, and where is the school girl who does not like to eat?
+
+The Dramatic Club gave another play to which the Salsette boys were
+invited as a special treat, and a little dance followed the play.
+
+"You're a great little actress, Betty," Bob told her when he came to
+claim the first dance. "I'm almost willing to let you steer the new
+bobsled the first time it snows."
+
+The bobsled, built by Bob and his chums, was an object of admiration to
+half of Salsette Academy. It was large and roomy and promised plenty of
+speed. The boys, of course, were wild to try it, and Betty and Bobby, who
+had been promised one of the first rides, joined them in earnestly
+wishing for snow. Betty had a sled of her own, too, a graceful, light
+affair her uncle had sent her.
+
+The desired snow did not come for several days. Instead the weather grew
+still and cold and the girls were glad to stay indoors and work on their
+lessons or on things they were making for Christmas gifts.
+
+"You may not have much money to spend, Norma," remarked Bobby one
+afternoon, "but then you don't need it. Just look at the things you can
+do with a crochet hook and a knitting needle."
+
+Norma, bent over a pretty lace pattern, flushed a little.
+
+"I'd like to be able to give grandma the things she needs far more than a
+lace collar," she said quietly.
+
+Betty knew that Mrs. Macklin was still in the Philadelphia hospital.
+Every letter from Glenside now meant "a spell of the blues" for Norma,
+who was beginning to have dark circles under her eyes. She looked as
+though she might lie awake at night and plan.
+
+When the girls put away their books and their sewing to go down to
+dinner, a few uncertain feathery flakes were softly sifting down and late
+that night it began to snow in earnest, promising perfect coasting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+BETTY GOES COASTING
+
+
+It did seem a shame that lessons should be as exacting as ever when
+outside the trees bent beneath their white burden and eager eyes were
+fixed longingly on the hill back of the school.
+
+"You can't coast through the woods, anyway, Betty," Libbie whispered in
+the French period. "You may be a wonder, but how can you go through the
+tree stumps?"
+
+"Don't intend to," whispered back Betty. "There's a cleared space in
+there--I'll show you."
+
+"Young ladies, if you please--" suggested Madame politely, and the girls
+jerked their thoughts back to translation.
+
+The moment lessons were over that afternoon, they dashed for their sleds.
+The eight who chummed together had four sleds between them which was
+enough for the enjoyment of all. Constance Howard had seen so little snow
+in her life spent in California that she was very much excited about it
+and had bought her sled in August to be ready for the first fall. Bobby
+had been to Edentown and bought a little toy affair, the best she could
+get there, and Frances Martin had sent home for her big, comfortable
+Vermont-made sled that made up in dependability what it lacked in varnish
+and polish. Counting Betty's, this gave them four sleds.
+
+There was a conventional hill half a mile away from the school, toward
+which most of the girls turned their steps. On the first afternoon it was
+crowded. The Salsette cadets had come coasting, too, for on their side of
+the lake there was not so much as a mound of earth, and whoever would
+coast must perforce cross the lake.
+
+"We'll go up to the woods," announced Betty. "There will be more room,
+and it's much more exciting to go down a steep hill."
+
+So it proved. The cleared space to which Betty had referred demanded
+careful steering, and Frances Martin at the first glance relinquished the
+control of her sled.
+
+"I can't judge distances," she explained, touching her glasses, "and
+I'd be sure to steer straight for a tree. Libbie, you'll have to be
+the skipper."
+
+So Libbie took Frances, Betty took Bobby, Constance took Norma on her
+sled, and Alice steered for Louise, using Bobby's sled.
+
+Such shrieks of laughter, such wild spills! If Ada Nansen had been there
+to see she would certainly have been confirmed in her statement that
+coasting was "for children." They were coming down for the sixth time
+when Bob Henderson, the Tucker twins and Timothy Derby appeared.
+
+"We thought we'd find you here!" was Bob's greeting. "Trust Betty to pick
+out a mystic maze for her coasting. It's a wonder some of you girls
+haven't shot down into Indian Chasm!"
+
+"Well, I like a steep coast," said Betty defensively. "I wouldn't give a
+cent a hundred for a little short coast down a gentle slope. Want me to
+take you down on my sled, Bob?"
+
+"I don't believe I do, thank you just the same," returned Bob politely.
+"Six of you can pile on the bob, though, and I'll give you a thrilling
+ride, safety guaranteed. Who wants to come?"
+
+It ended by all taking turns, and by that time it was half-past four and
+they must start back to school.
+
+"I'm coming to-morrow," declared Betty. "I think winter is the nicest
+time of the whole year."
+
+"You say that of every season," criticised Bobby. "Besides, I think it
+will rain to-morrow; it is much warmer than when we came out."
+
+Bobby proved a good weather prophet for the next day was warmer and
+cloudy, and when lessons for the day were over at half-past two, a fine
+drizzle had begun to fall.
+
+"Just the same I'm going," persisted Betty, pulling on her rubbers and
+struggling into a heavier sweater. "The snow hasn't all melted, and
+there will be enough for a good coast. I think you're a lazy bunch to
+want to stay cooped up in here and knit. A little fresh air would be good
+for you, Norma."
+
+"I've a cold," said Norma, in explanation of her red eyes. "Anyway, I
+don't feel like playing around outdoors. And Alice has gone to bed with a
+headache and I'd rather not leave her."
+
+Some had studying to do and others refused to be moved from their fancy
+work, so Betty and her sled finally set off alone. She knew, of course,
+that Norma's red eyes were the result of crying, as was Alice's headache.
+They had definitely decided the night before that they would not return
+to Shadyside after the Christmas holidays.
+
+"I think this is a funny world," scolded Betty to herself, as she reached
+her favorite hill and put her sled in position. "Here are Norma and
+Alice, the kind of girls Mrs. Eustice is proud to have represent the
+school, and they can't afford to take a full course and graduate. And Ada
+Nansen, who is everything the ideals of Shadyside try to combat, has
+oceans of money and every prospect of staying. She'll probably take a
+P.G. course!"
+
+A wild ride through the slushy snow made Betty feel better, and when, as
+she dragged the sled up again, Bob's whistle sounded, the last trace of
+her resentment vanished.
+
+"Something told me you'd be out hunting a sore throat to-day," declared
+Bob, in mock-disapproval. "The fellows all said there wouldn't be enough
+snow to hold up a sparrow."
+
+"Silly things!" dimpled Betty. "There's plenty of snow for a good coast.
+Take me, Bob?"
+
+"Well, if you'll come on over where there's a decent hill," Bob
+assented. "With only two on the bob, we want to get some grade. Here,
+I'll stick your sled in between these two trees and you can get it when
+we come back."
+
+Together they pulled the heavy bobsled up the hill and crossed over the
+hollow, taking a wagon trail that led up over another hill.
+
+"It's a long walk," admitted Bob, panting. "But wait till you see the
+ride we're going to get."
+
+They reached the top of Pudding Hill presently, and Betty looked down
+over a rolling expanse of white country covered closely by a lowering
+gray sky that looked, she said to herself, like the lid of a soup kettle.
+
+"Bully coast!" exclaimed Bob with satisfaction, swinging the bodsled into
+position. "All ready, Betsey?"
+
+"Just a minute," begged Betty, with a delightful little shiver of
+excitement as she tucked in her skirts and pulled her soft hat further
+over her eyes. "Ye-s, now I guess I'm fixed."
+
+They started. The wind sang in their ears and sharp particles of snow
+flew up to sting their faces. Zip! they had taken one hill, and the
+gallant bobsled gathered momentum. Betty clung tightly to Bob.
+
+"All right?" he shouted, without turning his head.
+
+"It's fine!" shrieked Betty. "It takes my breath away, but I love it!"
+
+The bobsled seemed fairly to leap the series of gentle slopes that lay at
+the foot of the long hill, and for every rise Betty and Bob received a
+bump that would have jarred the bones of less enthusiastic sportsmen.
+Then, suddenly, they were in the hollow, and the next thing they knew
+Betty lay breathless in a soft snow bank and Bob found himself flat on
+his back a few feet away. The sled had overturned with them.
+
+"Betty! are you hurt?" cried Bob, scrambling to his feet. "Here, don't
+struggle! I'll have you out in a jiffy."
+
+He pulled her from the bank of snow and helped her shake her garments
+free from the white flakes.
+
+"I'm not hurt a bit, not even scratched," she assured him. "Wasn't that a
+spill, though? The first thing I knew I was sailing through space, and
+I'm thankful I landed in soft snow. Where's the sled? Oh, over there!"
+
+"Want to quit?" asked Bob, as she began to help him right the overturned
+sled. "We can walk over to where we left your sled, you know, Betty."
+
+"And miss the coast?" said Betty scornfully. "Well, not much, Bob
+Henderson. It takes more than one upset to make me give up coasting."
+
+She seated herself behind Bob again, and with a touch of his foot they
+began the descent of the second hill. The snow had melted more here, and
+in some spots the covering was very thin. Bob found the task of steering
+really difficult.
+
+"I don't think much of this," he began to say, but at the second word the
+bobsled struck a huge root, the riders were pitched forward, and for one
+desperate moment they clung to the scrubby undergrowth that bordered what
+they supposed was the side of the road.
+
+Then their hold loosened and they fell.
+
+Slipping, sliding, tumbling, rolling, a confused sound of Bob's shouts in
+her ears, Betty closed her eyes and only opened them when she found that
+she was stationary again. She had no idea of where she was, nor of how
+far she had fallen.
+
+"Bob?" she called timidly at first, and then in terror. "Bob!"
+
+"Look behind you," said Bob's familiar voice.
+
+Betty turned her head, and there was Bob, grinning at her placidly. His
+cap was gone and several buttons were ripped bodily from his mackinaw,
+but he did not seem to be injured and when he pulled Betty to her feet,
+that young person found that she, too, was unhurt.
+
+"What happened?" she asked. "Where are we?"
+
+"The bobsled balked," explained Bob cheerfully. "Guess it knew where we
+were heading for better than I did. Anyway, you and I took a double
+header that was a beauty. If you want to see where we came down, just
+look up there."
+
+Betty followed the direction of his finger and saw a trail gashed in the
+snow, a trail that twisted and turned down the steep, forbidding sides
+of a frowning gorge. Was it possible that they had fallen so far and
+escaped injury?
+
+"Know where you are?" asked Bob, watching her.
+
+Betty shook her head.
+
+"I must have been away off the road," explained Bob. "Betsey, you and I
+are standing at the bottom of Indian Chasm."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE TREASURE
+
+
+Indian Chasm!
+
+Betty stared at Bob in dismay. Afterward she confessed that her first
+thought was of Indians who might capture them.
+
+"Indian Chasm," repeated Bob firmly. "Come on, Betty, we mustn't stand
+here. If you once get cold, there's no way to warm you up. We must walk,
+and try to find a way out."
+
+Betty stumbled after him, her mind a bewildered maze. She could not yet
+grasp the explanation that Bob, turned about by their spill in the
+hollow, had followed an old trail instead of the hill road. The trail had
+led straight to the border of the chasm.
+
+Bob ploughed along, head bent, a heavy sense of responsibility keeping
+him silent. He knew better than Betty the difficulties that in all
+probability lay before them.
+
+He glanced back at Betty, wearily toiling after him.
+
+"Want to rest a moment?" he suggested. "Sit on that rock till you begin
+to feel chilly."
+
+Betty accepted the suggestion gratefully. She was very tired and she was
+hungry. Her rubbers had been torn on the stones she had encountered in
+her fall and her shoes were damp.
+
+"What a funny rock," she said idly.
+
+It was a huge slab that had once been a part of another huge rock
+which still stood upright. Some force of nature had slit the two like
+a piece of paper--from the looks of it, the break was a recent
+one--and had forced a section outward, making it look like a wall
+about to topple over.
+
+Rested a little, Betty rose and walked around to the other side of the
+rock on which she sat, moved by an impulse of curiosity. She went close
+to the rock that stood upright like a sentinel.
+
+"What's the matter?" called Bob as she started back.
+
+"I--I thought I kicked against something," answered Betty. "There, did
+you hear that?"
+
+"Something clinked," admitted Bob. "Wait, I'll help you look."
+
+He ran around to her and together they began to dig in the snow and
+dead leaves.
+
+"Bob! Bob!" Betty's voice rose in delight. "Look!"
+
+She held up a small rusty iron box that, as she tilted it, yawned to
+disgorge a shower of gold coins.
+
+"The Macklin treasure! We've found it!" cried Betty, beginning to dig
+like an excited terrier. "Help me hunt, Bob! It must be Mrs. Macklin's
+treasure, mustn't it?"
+
+"Looks that way," admitted Bob.
+
+As he spoke he drew something from under the shadow of the rock that
+settled the question immediately. Something that sparkled and glittered
+and slipped through his cold red fingers like glass.
+
+"The emeralds!" breathed Betty. "Oh, Bob, aren't they beautiful!"
+
+"Look, Betty! That slab was forced outward not long ago. Before that this
+treasure was concealed in a narrow crack between the two rocks. That's
+why no one was able to find it when the search was made soon after the
+loss! Isn't it great that we have found it?"
+
+In a frenzy now, they dug, and when there seemed to be nothing more
+hidden under the accumulation of dirt and leaves, the two stared at each
+other in delighted amazement. At their feet lay little jewel bags
+containing the pearls of which Norma had talked, the rose topazes, the
+dozen cameos. Magnificent diamonds sparkled in a rusty case, ear-rings
+and rings lay in a little heap, and a handful of uncut stones was wrapped
+in a bit of chamois skin. Solid silver pitchers and goblets and trays,
+sadly battered by being flung against the rocks, lay just as they had
+fallen until Bob and Betty had uncovered the leaves which, had so long
+covered them.
+
+"How are we going to get it out of here?" asked Betty, when they had
+satisfied themselves there was nothing left undiscovered.
+
+"That's the pressing question," confessed Bob. "Incidentally, we have to
+get ourselves out, too. I think we'd better walk on a bit, and look for
+some trail out. One lucky thing, no one will take the treasure while
+we're scouting."
+
+"Where do you suppose that goes to?" said Betty, when they had been
+tramping about five minutes.
+
+She pointed to a rocky formation that led off into the side of the chasm.
+It was evidently the mouth of a cave.
+
+"I don't know, of course," admitted Bob. "But I think we had better take
+a chance and follow it. It will be dark, but so will the chasm in another
+half hour. I'll go first and you come after me."
+
+It was inky black in the cave, and there was no assurance that it would
+lead them anywhere and every prospect that they would have to retrace
+their steps. He was careful to hint nothing of this to Betty, however,
+and she, on her part, determinedly stifled any complaint of weariness
+that rose to her lips.
+
+It was an experience they both remembered all their lives--that slow,
+halting groping through the winding cavern, where the rocky walls
+narrowed or widened without warning and the roof rose to great heights or
+dropped so low they must crawl on hands and knees. The thought of the
+found treasure sustained them and gave them courage to keep on.
+
+"I see a light!" cried Bob after what seemed to Betty hours of this.
+"Betty, I do believe we've come to an opening!"
+
+The pin-spot of light grew and broadened, and, as they approached it,
+they saw it was the winter sky. The sun was setting, for the clouds had
+cleared, and never was a sight half so beautiful to the anxious eyes that
+rested on it. What did it matter that they were miles from the school, or
+that both were wet and cold and tired to the point of collapse? Just to
+get out of that awful chasm was enough.
+
+"I'll go get your sled and pack the stuff on that," proposed Bob, "I
+don't suppose it would hurt to leave it there all night, but somehow I
+can't. Will you go on ahead, Betty? You're so tired."
+
+"I'm going back with you," said Betty firmly. "I couldn't rest one
+minute, knowing you were crawling through that awful cave again. Oh, yes,
+I'm coming with you, Bob--you needn't shake your head like that."
+
+Bob realized that it was useless to try to persuade her to go on to the
+school alone. His common sense told him that it would be wiser to leave
+the treasure where it was and come after it the next day, but common
+sense does not always win out. It was actually impossible for Bob or
+Betty to abandon the Macklin fortune now that they had found it.
+
+Bob found Betty's sled, after some search, where they had left it
+between two trees, and together they began to thread the tortuous maze
+of the cave again, Bob going ahead and dragging the sled after him.
+Betty thought despairingly that she had never known what it meant to be
+tired before.
+
+"I'll wrap the little things in my middy tie," she said when they came
+out in the chasm at last and found the heap of treasure where they had
+piled it, "and we can fasten down the rest of the stuff with the belt
+from my coat."
+
+Their fingers were stiff with cold, but they managed to get everything on
+the sled and lash it securely with a rope and the leather belt from
+Betty's coat. Then, once more, they started back through the cave.
+
+The sled was heavy and the way seemed twice as long as the first time
+they had followed it, but they kept doggedly on. It was dark when they
+emerged on the familiar hillside.
+
+"Sit on the sled, and I'll pull you, Betty," offered Bob, looking a
+little anxiously at his companion's white face.
+
+But Betty resolutely refused, and she trotted beside him all the way,
+helping to pull the sled, till the gray buildings of Shadyside loomed up
+before them.
+
+She insisted that Bob must come in with her, and they told their story to
+Mrs. Eustice, breathlessly and disconnectedly, to be sure, but the rope
+of emeralds and the gleaming diamonds filled in all gaps in the
+narrative. Before she went to sleep Betty had the satisfaction of knowing
+that Norma and Alice had been told the good news and that a telegram was
+speeding off to the home folks.
+
+The discovery and recovery of the missing treasure created a wave of
+excitement when it became generally known. A few girls, who valued
+worldly possessions above everything else, made overtures of friendship
+to the sisters whom previously they had ignored. Their old friends
+heartily rejoiced with them and Norma and Alice went about in a dream of
+bliss compounded of joy for their grandmother and parents, plans for new
+frocks and the proposed holiday trip to Washington.
+
+"It's the nicest thing that ever happened," Betty wrote her uncle. "Now
+Norma and Alice can graduate from Shadyside, and Grandma Macklin can
+spend the rest of the winter in Florida and dear Doctor and Mrs. Guerin
+can doctor and nurse half the county for nothing, if they please."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Doctor Guerin and his wife wrote that Norma and Alice should go happily
+with the Littell girls for a visit and forget the "no longer depressing
+question of finances." Both Doctor and Mrs. Guerin were enthusiastic in
+their praise of Betty and Bob, who began to feel that too much was made
+of their lucky discovery, especially when, at the direction of Mrs.
+Macklin, the Macklin family's old lawyer (who had taken charge of the
+recovered treasure and appraised it at nearly twice its value when lost)
+sent Betty a pair of the diamond earrings and Bob one of the priceless
+old silver platters.
+
+"But you not only found it, you went through a lot to bring it to us,"
+said Norma affectionately. "No, Betty, you and Bob can't wriggle out of
+being thanked."
+
+The finding of the treasure was not the last of Betty's adventures. What
+happened to her and her chums the following summer will be related in the
+next volume of this series.
+
+The remaining days of the term fairly flew, and almost before they
+realized it, school closed for the Christmas holidays. A merry party
+boarded the train for the Junction, where they could make connections for
+Washington, one crisp, sunny December morning.
+
+"Every one here?" demanded Bobby Littell. "I don't want to run the risk
+of arriving home short a guest or two."
+
+"I'm willing to be kidnapped," suggested Tommy Tucker, who knew the story
+of Betty's first meeting with Bobby.
+
+Both girls laughed, and Betty was still smiling as she held out her
+ticket to the conductor.
+
+"Have a good time, young 'uns," chirped the grizzled little man cheerily.
+"Only one thing's more fun than goin' to school, and that's goin' home
+from school for a spell of play."
+
+And with this happy prospect before her, let us leave Betty Gordon.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Betty Gordon at Boarding School, by Alice Emerson
+
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