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diff --git a/40586-rst/40586-rst.rst b/40586-rst/40586-rst.rst deleted file mode 100644 index 2e52a7a..0000000 --- a/40586-rst/40586-rst.rst +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7143 +0,0 @@ -.. -*- encoding: utf-8 -*-
-
-=================================
-BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER CLASSMATES
-=================================
-
-.. meta::
- :PG.Title: Billie Bradley and Her Classmates
- :PG.Id: 40586
- :PG.Released: 2012-08-26
- :PG.Rights: Public Domain
- :PG.Producer: Roger Frank
- :PG.Producer: the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
- :DC.Creator: Janet D. Wheeler
- :DC.Title: Billie Bradley and Her Classmates
- The Secret of the Locked Tower
- :DC.Language: en
- :DC.Created: 1921
- :coverpage: images/cover.jpg
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-.. pgheader::
-
-.. role:: lg
- :class: larger
-
-.. role:: sm
- :class: smaller
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-.. container:: titlepage center white-space-pre-line
-
- :lg:`BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER CLASSMATES`
-
- .. vspace:: 2
-
- :sm:`OR`
-
- .. vspace:: 2
-
- THE SECRET OF THE LOCKED TOWER
-
- .. vspace:: 2
-
- :sm:`BY`
-
- .. vspace:: 2
-
- JANET D. WHEELER
-
- .. vspace:: 2
-
- :sm:`AUTHOR OF “BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE,”`
- :sm:`“BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND,” ETC.`
-
- .. vspace:: 2
-
- ILLUSTRATED
-
- .. vspace:: 2
-
- NEW YORK
- CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
- PUBLISHERS
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-.. container:: verso center white-space-pre-line
-
- Cupples & Leon Company
- Publishers New York
-
- .. vspace:: 2
-
- Copyright, 1921
- Cupples & Leon Company
-
- .. vspace:: 2
-
- Billie Bradley and Her Classmates
- PRINTED IN U. S. A.
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-.. figure:: images/illus-fpc.jpg
- :align: center
- :alt: “They marched through crying “Way for the Queen.”
-
- They marched through crying “Way for the Queen.”
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-.. contents:: Contents
- :depth: 1
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-CHAPTER I—THIN ICE
-==================
-
-Click! click! click! went three pairs of skates
-as three snugly-dressed girls fairly flew along the
-frozen surface of the lake.
-
-“Isn’t it glorious?” cried the laughing, brown-eyed
-one, who was no other than Billie Bradley,
-as she threw back her head and sniffed the crisp,
-cold air. “Who ever heard of the lake freezing
-over in the middle of November? And the ice is
-pretty solid, too.”
-
-“In spots,” added Violet Farrington, a slender,
-dark girl with black hair and dark eyes.
-
-“What do you mean—‘in spots’?” asked the third
-of the trio, Laura Jordon. Laura was as fair as
-Violet was dark, and now her blue eyes darted an
-anxious glance at her chum. “Do you think we
-shall find any thin ice?”
-
-“I don’t know, of course,” Violet answered
-quickly. “But you notice Miss Walters told us to
-stay close to the shore, and that certainly looks as
-if she weren’t any too certain about the ice.”
-
-Miss Walters was the much-loved principal of
-Three Towers Hall, the boarding school which the
-girls were attending, and to the three chums, Miss
-Walters’ word was law.
-
-As Billie Bradley had said, Lake Molata, upon
-which Three Towers Hall was situated, had frozen
-over unusually early this year. Though it was
-not quite the middle of November, there had been
-several rather heavy snowfalls. The thermometer
-had fallen lower and lower till it had dropped below
-the freezing point, and after a few days of this
-falling weather a thin glaze of ice had begun to
-form over the still surface of the lake.
-
-At first the girls had not been too joyful, fearing
-that the ice was too fragile to last and that one good
-thaw would do away with it entirely.
-
-But the thaw had not come, and as day after day
-the prematurely cold weather continued, the girls
-at the Hall had grown more and more excited.
-Finally they could stand it no longer and dispatched
-a committee of three to Miss Walters—among whom
-had been Billie—asking for the unique privilege of
-skating over the frozen surface of Lake Molata in
-the middle of November.
-
-The petition had been granted, with the reservation,
-as Vi had said, that the girls should stay close
-to shore and not venture out into the uncertain center
-of the lake.
-
-When the jubilant committee of three had
-brought back the glad news to the eagerly waiting
-girls the dormitories had been the scene of wild but
-noiseless fancy dancing in celebration of the great
-event.
-
-Soon after was heard the clinking of skates and
-the babble of excited girls’ voices as those of the
-students who were lucky enough to have prepared
-their lessons for the next day, and so had the afternoon
-free, made ready for the fun.
-
-Then, down the sloping lawn of Three Towers
-Hall, the hard, crusted snow crackling merrily under
-their feet, down to the edge of the lake where
-skates were put on, mufflers tightened and woolly
-caps pulled well down to protect ears that already
-were feeling the nip of the cold, rushed the crowd
-of excited, happy girls.
-
-Fun! Any one who has tasted the joy of skating
-over freshly-frozen ice on a crisp winter day
-when the sun, pouring down, seems only to make
-the air more chill, any one who has tasted that joy,
-knows that there is no other sport like it.
-
-So, singly, in groups of two or three, in parties
-of four, the girls spread out over the lake, their
-gayly hued caps and sweaters making vivid patches
-of color on the surface.
-
-Although they had started out with the rest of
-the girls, Billie and Laura and Vi had become separated
-from them some way or other, and they now
-found themselves skimming merrily along with not
-another person in sight. This did not worry them,
-however, because they had learned by experience
-that whenever the three of them were together they
-were always sure of having a good time.
-
-“A week from now,” Billie cried, strands of hair
-escaping from under her tam-o’-shanter and whipping
-about her glowing face, “the lake will probably
-look as though we had dragged a farmer’s
-plow across it.”
-
-“A week from now we may not have any ice at
-all,” added Vi pessimistically.
-
-Laura, who was skating between them, let go
-their hands for a moment to fasten her sweater
-still more closely about her throat. The wind had
-stung her face to a vivid red.
-
-“I must say you both sound cheerful,” she said
-reproachfully, adding with a gay little toss of her
-head: “From the way this wind feels, I’d say we
-were going to have ice all winter.”
-
-“Don’t wake her up, she is dreaming,” sang
-Billie mockingly, adding, as Laura gave her a push
-that would have unbalanced a less skillful skater:
-“Who ever heard of Lake Molata being frozen over
-all winter?”
-
-“Well, who ever heard of its being frozen over
-in the middle of November?” Laura retorted, adding
-with a grin as Billie looked nonplussed: “I guess
-that will hold you for a while.”
-
-“Laura Jordon,” said Vi, folding her mittened
-hands and trying to look very prim and teacher-like,
-“report to Miss Walters immediately. That
-is the third time you have used slang this morning.”
-
-The girls giggled, and this time it was Vi who
-got the push.
-
-“Go long with you,” said Billie gayly. “You
-can’t imitate the Dill Pickles in a red sweater and
-a green cap.”
-
-The Dill Pickles, as my old readers will remember,
-were two teachers, Miss Ada and Miss Cora
-Dill, who had recently lived at the Hall. The two
-had done their best to make the girls’ lives miserable
-and had finally, after the students had revolted and
-marched out of the school, been sent away by Miss
-Walters.
-
-The vacancies had been filled by teachers who
-were as different from the Miss Dills in every way
-as they could be, and since then life at Three Towers
-Hall had been one happy round of study and fun
-for the girls.
-
-“Thank goodness the Dills have gone forever,”
-said Vi, in response to Billie’s observation.
-
-“Yes,” agreed Laura, reminiscently. “It was a
-lot of trouble, getting rid of them, but it was worth
-it.”
-
-“There are only nice teachers up at the Hall
-now,” said Billie, contentedly. “Especially Miss
-Arbuckle.”
-
-“Isn’t she ducky?” said Laura, enthusiastically,
-if disrespectfully. “I was afraid she might change
-her mind and take up her old job of governess to
-those two kiddies.”
-
-“I wouldn’t have blamed her much, if she had,”
-Vi said, with a chuckle. “She might make the little
-children behave, while with us——”
-
-“She hasn’t a chance,” giggled Billie.
-
-“Just the same,” put in Laura, with unusual gravity,
-“you notice that we all do what Miss Arbuckle
-says. She isn’t stern like Miss Race, either, nor
-nasty like the Dill Pickles used to be. I guess we
-just obey her because we all like her,” she finished
-simply.
-
-“That’s right, and——” Billie was saying when
-suddenly the ice cracked under her skates and with
-a cry she lunged forward. Luckily her feet struck
-on solid ice beyond the cracked part, and with difficulty
-she regained her balance.
-
-“The ice!” she gasped, as Laura and Vi stared
-at her. “I struck a thin spot, I guess. Goodness,
-that scared me!”
-
-“I should say so,” agreed Laura, with a little
-whistle of astonishment as she edged over to the
-treacherous place in the ice which was crisscrossed
-over with long cracks. “Look here, girls. I could
-almost push this ice through with my finger.”
-
-“Well, don’t try it,” advised Vi, backing away
-anxiously from the dangerous spot. “I wonder if
-there any more places like it.”
-
-“S’pose there are—lots of them,” said Billie, who
-had recovered from her fright and was disposed to
-treat the whole thing as a joke. “The thing for us
-to do is to keep out of their way, that’s all.”
-
-“Sounds easy,” grumbled Vi as they joined hands
-again and skated on more slowly over the frozen
-surface. “But how are we going to know where
-the thin places are unless we step on ’em—and fall
-through, maybe?”
-
-“P’r’aps we’d better go back if——” Billie was
-beginning uneasily when a sudden, terrified scream
-cut her short. It was a child’s scream and it was
-followed by another, and yet another.
-
-“Oh!” cried Laura wildly, “somebody’s getting
-killed.”
-
-CHAPTER II—NEARLY FROZEN
-========================
-
-The screams for help seemed to be quite near
-the girls, but whoever was in trouble was hidden
-from them by a sharp bend in the lake shore.
-
-Without further thought of danger to themselves,
-the chums skated forward swiftly, the long fringed
-ends of their scarfs flying out behind them and their
-bodies thrown eagerly forward.
-
-“Maybe somebody is drowning!”
-
-“It’s some great peril, you may be sure of that—otherwise
-they wouldn’t scream so.”
-
-“They are children!”
-
-“Yes, and little ones at that, if I am any judge of
-voices.”
-
-Thus talking excitedly the girls skated forward
-along the lake shore. Then came a sudden scream
-from Vi. She had skated too close to an overhanging
-tree and a branch caught in her hair as she
-tried to sweep past.
-
-“Wait! wait!” she cried. “Don’t leave me behind!”
-
-“What’s the trouble?” came simultaneously from
-the others.
-
-“I’m caught—my hair is fast in the tree.”
-
-“Pull yourself loose,” cried Billie. “Hurry, do!
-Oh, just listen to those cries!” she added, as scream
-after scream rent the wintry air.
-
-In frantic haste poor Vi tried to do as bidden.
-But the tree was a thorny one, and she had considerable
-trouble to liberate herself.
-
-Then came fresh trouble as Billie’s left skate became
-loosened.
-
-“I’ve got to fasten it,” she said, and bent down
-to do so. Then the classmates swept forward as
-before.
-
-They rounded the bend in the lake a minute later
-and then drew up suddenly as they came upon a
-singular scene.
-
-Three small children, a boy and two girls, were
-standing up to their waists in the icy water. Evidently
-they had ventured out upon the lake in a
-spirit of mischief, and had stepped upon thin ice
-which had given way beneath even their slight
-weight. Luckily they had not got far from the
-shore, for if the ice had broken through in a deeper
-part of the lake they must surely have been
-drowned. As it was, they were three very badly
-frightened children who were beginning to feel
-numb with the cold.
-
-At sight of the girls they began to wail afresh
-and held out their little arms imploringly.
-
-The sight was too much for Billie, and she began
-to edge her way cautiously along the thin ice, calling
-to the girls to follow her example.
-
-“Be careful,” she warned. “If we went through,
-too, it would be hard to get out, and while we were
-trying it the kiddies would probably freeze to death.
-Look out!” she exclaimed, as the ice cracked treacherously
-under her weight. “It is paper-thin right
-here.”
-
-And while the girls are busy at their work of
-rescue we will take a few minutes to tell those who
-are meeting Billie Bradley and her chums for the first
-time something of the good times the girls have had
-in other volumes of the series.
-
-In the first book, called “Billie Bradley and Her
-Inheritance,” the girls had many and varied adventures,
-some of which were thrilling and others
-only funny. Just when Billie was wondering how
-to raise one hundred dollars to pay for a statue
-which she had accidentally broken, a queer old aunt
-of hers, Beatrice Powerson by name, died and left
-to her an inheritance which had at first seemed a
-doubtful blessing, namely a rambling gloomy old
-homestead at a place called Cherry Corners.
-
-The house dated back to Revolutionary times and
-had many weird and romantic legends attached to
-it. The girls, anxious to see the old place for themselves,
-had decided to spend their vacation there,
-and a little later some boys had joined them.
-
-They had an unusual and exciting time of it and
-the climax of the whole outing was the finding of
-a shabby old trunk which was hidden away in the
-attic. This trunk contained five thousand dollars’
-worth of rare old coins and queer postage stamps,
-and this small fortune enabled Billie not only to replace
-the statue she had broken but gave her more
-than enough to send herself to Three Towers Hall
-and her brother Chet to Boxton Military Academy.
-
-But we forgot entirely to introduce the boys!
-And they at least considered themselves by far the
-most important part of the story. Here they are
-then—First of all comes Chetwood Bradley, Billie’s
-brother, whom his friends called Chet for short.
-Chet was a lovable boy, good-looking, quiet, reserved
-and devoted to Billie—whose real name, by
-the way, was Beatrice.
-
-Then there was Ferd Stowing, an all-around
-good-natured boy who always added a great deal
-to whatever fun was at hand. And last, but not
-least, Laura’s brother Teddy. Teddy was fifteen,
-as were the other boys, but, unlike them, he looked
-quite a good deal older than he was. He was tall,
-with wavy hair and handsome gray eyes and an
-athletic build which was the envy of most of the
-boys at North Bend, where the young folks lived.
-Teddy had always liked Billie a lot because, as he
-told his sister, Laura, Billie was the nearest like a
-boy of all the girls he knew. She liked sports almost
-as well as he did and so as a matter of course
-they played tennis and hiked and skated a good deal
-together.
-
-Returning from their vacation in the old homestead
-at Cherry Corners, the girls went straight to
-Three Towers Hall, the boarding school to which
-their parents were sending them, partly because the
-young folks wanted to go and partly because the
-high school at North Bend was hopelessly inefficient
-and unsatisfactory.
-
-At the same time, the boys departed for Boxton
-Military Academy which was only a little over a
-mile from the boarding school and which was also
-situated close to Lake Molata.
-
-The good times the young folks had at school
-are told in the second volume of the series entitled,
-“Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall.” The most
-startling thing that happened during the year was
-the capture of the man whom the boys and girls
-had named the “Codfish” on account of his peculiarly
-fish-like mouth. The latter had once attempted
-to steal Billie’s precious trunk, and had later
-on been suspected of planning and carrying out a
-robbery at Boxton Military Academy. Later, he
-had robbed Miss Race, one of the teachers at the
-Hall.
-
-The girls had made new friends—and enemies
-also,—at Three Towers Hall. Chief among the
-enemies were Amanda Peabody and her chum, Eliza
-Dilks. The girls were both sneaks and tattletales,
-and the former, being jealous of Billie and her
-chums, had done her best to make life unbearable
-for them at Three Towers. That the disagreeable
-girls had not succeeded, was not in the least their
-fault.
-
-Another enemy of Billie’s had been Rose Belser,
-a pretty, black-haired, very vain girl who was also
-jealous of Billie because of her unusual and immediate
-popularity with the girls. However, even
-Rose was won over to Billie’s side in the end and
-became sincerely repentant for her mean behavior.
-
-Connie Danvers, a pretty, fluffy-haired girl, became
-a staunch friend of the chums at once, and it
-was she who had invited Billie and Laura and Vi
-to spend their vacation at Lighthouse Island where
-her parents had a summer bungalow. Connie’s
-Uncle John, an interesting, bluff character, lived at
-the lighthouse on the island.
-
-The girls had become very much interested in a
-mystery surrounding Miss Arbuckle, one of the very
-nice new teachers who had come to Three Towers
-to replace the disagreeable “Dill Pickles.” They
-had also met a queer looking man one day when
-they were lost in the woods, and they had wondered
-about him a great deal.
-
-It seems Miss Arbuckle had been very greatly
-disturbed over the loss of an album, and when
-Billie, accidentally stumbling upon the book, had returned
-it to the teacher, the latter had wept with
-joy. Turning over the pages of the album until
-she came to the pictures of three beautiful children
-she had cried out: “Oh my precious children. I
-couldn’t lose your pictures after losing you.”
-
-Of course this exclamation, together with Miss
-Arbuckle’s strange conduct, considerably puzzled
-the girls, and they wondered about it all during the
-vacation at Lighthouse Island. Then one day a
-terrible storm came up and a ship was wrecked on
-one of the treacherous shoals which surrounded the
-island. The girls, helping in the work of rescue,
-discovered three children lashed to a rude raft, and
-after releasing the little victims, the girls had carried
-them to the Lighthouse to be cared for.
-
-Later, Billie saw a marked resemblance in the
-three children to the pictures of the children she
-had seen in Miss Arbuckle’s album, and what
-strange discovery this led to is told in the third volume
-of this series entitled “Billie Bradley on Lighthouse
-Island.”
-
-And now the girls were all back at Three Towers
-again in search of further education, likewise, they
-hoped, much fun and adventure.
-
-“Don’t come any farther,” Billie said to Laura
-and Vi, as she stretched herself out at full length
-on the ice and reached out to grasp one of the children
-in the water. “Lie down on the thick ice, both
-of you, and hold on to me just as hard as you can.
-When I say pull—pull!”
-
-Obediently Laura and Vi flopped down on the
-ice, each grasping one of Billie’s feet and holding
-on stoutly.
-
-“I’d like to see you get away from us now,”
-said Laura.
-
-Leaning over, Billie grasped the nearest child
-under the arms and tugged with all her strength.
-
-“Pull!” she gasped to the girls, “I’m slipping.”
-
-The girls pulled and dragged her, child and all,
-out on the more solid ice. They set the child on
-his poor shivering little feet and then went back
-for the next one. A moment more and all three of
-the little things were standing huddled together
-on the ice, shivering and crying miserably.
-
-“I wanna do home!” wailed the little boy. “I
-wanna do home.”
-
-CHAPTER III—POLLY HADDON
-========================
-
-“Where do you live?” asked Billie, turning to the
-oldest of the three children. “Tell us quick, so
-we can get you there.”
-
-“We live wiv our muvver, Polly Haddon,” said
-the little one quaintly, pointing with a shivering finger
-out across the lake. “We runned away dis
-mornin’.”
-
-“So we see,” said Laura, adding, as she turned
-to Billie: “I think I know where they live. Teddy
-pointed the house out to me one day when we were
-taking a hike through the woods. Said he and the
-boys had stopped there one day and had bought some
-waffles and real maple syrup from Mrs. Haddon.
-Of course, I don’t know whether it is the same one
-or not——”
-
-“Well, come on—we’ll find out,” said Billie, lifting
-the largest of the three children in her strong
-arms. “You and Vi can manage the other two
-kiddies, I guess. You lead the way, Laura, if you
-know where the house is.”
-
-“But hadn’t we better take our skates off and
-walk around?” suggested Vi.
-
-“We can make it quicker on skates,” said Billie
-impatiently, “because we can cut across the
-lake——”
-
-“But the ice!” Laura objected. “It may not be
-solid——”
-
-“We’ll have to take a chance on that,” Billie returned,
-adding with an exasperated stamp of her
-foot, “if you don’t hurry and show us the way,
-Laura, I’ll do it myself.”
-
-So Laura, knowing that nothing could change
-Billie’s mind when it was once made up, caught the
-little boy in her arms and started off across the
-lake, Billie and Vi following close behind her.
-
-Luckily the children were not heavy, being thin
-almost to emaciation, or the girls could never have
-made their goal. As it was, they had to stop several
-times and set the children down on the ice to
-rest.
-
-And more than once the treacherous ice cracked
-under their feet, frightening them horribly. They
-made it at last, however, and with a sigh of relief
-set the children on the ground while they fumbled
-with numbed fingers at their skate straps.
-
-“Is this where you live?” asked Billie of the
-elder of the two little girls. Billie had undone the
-last strap buckle and was peering off through the
-woods in search of some sort of habitation.
-
-“Yes,” answered the little girl through chattering
-teeth. “Our house is just a little way off, along
-that path.”
-
-She pointed to a narrow foot path, or rather, to
-the place where a foot path had once been. For
-now it was obliterated by snow and was indicated
-only very faintly by footprints recently made.
-
-Billie, seeing that the other girls were ready,
-caught up the little girl again, holding her close for
-warmth and started down the snow-covered path,
-Laura and Vi following.
-
-The snow was hard, which made the going a little
-easier, and in a minute or two they came in
-sight of a shabby cabin set in the heart of a small
-clearing.
-
-If the place had been a mansion, the girls could
-not have greeted the sight of it any more joyfully.
-They stumbled forward recklessly at the imminent
-risk of dropping the poor little children in the snow.
-
-Before they could reach the cottage the door of
-it opened and a woman stood on the threshold, hatless
-and coatless and staring at them anxiously.
-
-When she recognized the children she gave a
-gesture of relief and backed into the house, motioning
-to the girls to follow her.
-
-This the girls were not in the least reluctant to
-do, for they were chilled through, and the warmth
-of Mrs. Haddon’s kitchen was wonderfully comforting.
-
-They set the children on the floor, and the little
-ones ran straight to their mother. Polly Haddon
-dropped to her knees and put her arms around the
-three of them, cuddling them hungrily.
-
-“My precious little lambs, you frightened mother
-so!” she said. “She thought you were lost—but
-you are wet—or you have been!” She rose to her
-feet and faced the girls while the children clung to
-her skirts.
-
-“Where did you find my little ones?” she asked
-abruptly, looking anxiously from one to the other
-of them.
-
-“We found them up to their waists in icy water,”
-Billie explained, knowing that no time was to be
-lost if the children were to be saved from a bad
-cold. “They fell through the ice on the lake.”
-
-“Fell through the ice!” the woman repeated
-dumbly, then, seeming suddenly to realize the full
-seriousness of the situation, she roused herself to
-action.
-
-With a quick motion she swept the children
-nearer to the warmth of the coal stove, then started
-for a door at the opposite end of the room. Then as
-if she realized that something was due the girls,
-she paused and looked back at them.
-
-“Draw up chairs close to the fire and warm yourselves,”
-she directed. “You must be nearly frozen.”
-
-The girls managed to find three rather rickety old
-chairs, and these they drew as close to the stove
-as they could without scorching their clothes. They
-tried to draw the children into their laps, but the
-children were either too miserable to want to be
-touched by strangers or they had become a little
-shy. At any rate, they drew away so sharply that
-one of them nearly fell on the stove. This frightened
-them all and they began to cry dismally.
-
-The girls were glad when Mrs. Haddon returned
-with three shabby but warm little bath robes which
-she hung close to the stove. Then she undressed
-the children quickly, rubbed their little bodies till
-they were in a glow, then slipped them into the snug
-robes.
-
-And all the time she was doing it she kept up
-a running fire of conversation with the girls.
-
-“Thank goodness,” she said, “I only missed the
-children a little while ago. They have always been
-so good to play close to the house, and I was so busy
-I didn’t look out as usual. And to think that they
-ran away and fell into the lake! Well, it’s only
-one more trouble, that’s all. It’s funny how a person
-can become used to trouble after a while.”
-
-“But it would have been so much worse,” Billie
-suggested, gently, “if the kiddies had fallen through
-into deeper water.”
-
-“Eh?” said Mrs. Haddon, looking up at Billie
-quickly, then down again. “Yes, I suppose that
-would have been worse.” Then she added, with a
-bitterness the girls did not understand: “It isn’t
-often that the worst doesn’t happen to me.”
-
-Puzzled, the girls looked at each other, then
-around the bare, specklessly clean little kitchen.
-
-That Mrs. Haddon was very poor, there could
-be no doubt. The shabbiness of the place, her
-dress, and the children’s clothes all showed that.
-But could poverty alone account for the sadness in
-her voice?
-
-Mrs. Haddon had once been a very pretty woman,
-and she was sweet looking yet, in spite of the lines
-of worry about her mouth. She had lovely hair,
-black as night and thick, but she had arranged it
-carelessly, and long strands of it had pulled loose
-from the pins and straggled down over her forehead.
-At this moment, as though she felt the eyes
-of the girls upon her, she flung the untidy hair
-back with an impatient movement.
-
-“How old are the kiddies?” asked Laura, feeling
-that the silence was becoming awkward. “They
-look almost the same age.”
-
-“There isn’t more than a year’s difference between
-Mary and Peter here,” indicating the taller
-of the two little girls and the boy. “And Isabel is
-thirteen months younger than Peter. Mary is nine
-years old,” she added as a sort of afterthought.
-
-“Nine years old!” cried Vi, in surprise. “Why,
-that would make Peter eight and the little girl seven.
-I thought they were much younger than that.”
-
-“Yes,” added Laura, thoughtlessly, “they are very
-tiny for their age.”
-
-As though the innocent words had been a deadly
-insult, the woman rose from her knees and shot the
-girls so black a glance from her dark eyes that they
-were frightened.
-
-“My children are tiny—yes,” she said in a hard
-voice, repeating what Laura had said. “And no
-wonder they are small, when for years they have
-been half starved.”
-
-Then she turned quickly and herded the three
-frightened little ones out of the room.
-
-“You go to bed,” she said to them as they disappeared
-through the door.
-
-Left to themselves, the girls looked blankly at
-one another.
-
-“Billie, did you hear what I heard?” asked Laura,
-anxiously. “Did she really mean that the kiddies
-are so little because they don’t get enough to eat?”
-
-“Sounds that way,” said Billie pityingly. “Poor
-little things!”
-
-“We must find some way to help them,” Vi was
-beginning when Mrs. Haddon herself came into the
-room.
-
-She seemed to be sorry for what she had said,
-and she told them so. She drew up the only chair
-that was left in the bare little room and sat down,
-facing the chums.
-
-“You must have thought it very strange for me
-to speak as I did,” she began, and went on hurriedly
-as the girls seemed about to protest. “But
-I have had so much trouble for years that sometimes
-I don’t know just what I’m doing.”
-
-“Have you lived alone here for very long?” asked
-Billie, gently.
-
-“Ever since my husband died,” answered Polly
-Haddon, leaning back in her chair as though she
-were tired and smoothing her heavy hair back from
-her forehead. “He was an inventor,” she went on,
-encouraged by the girls’ friendly interest, to tell of
-her troubles. “For years he made hardly enough
-to keep us alive, and after the children came we had
-a harder pull of it than ever. Then suddenly,”
-she straightened up in her chair and into her black
-eyes came a strange gleam, “suddenly, my husband
-found the one little thing that was wrong with the
-invention he had been working on for so long—just
-some little thing it was, that a child could almost
-see, yet that he had overlooked—and we were
-fairly crazy with happiness. We thought we had
-at last realized our dream of a fortune.”
-
-She paused a moment, evidently living over that
-time in her mind, and the girls, fired by her excitement,
-waited impatiently for her to go on.
-
-“What happened then?” asked Vi.
-
-“Then,” said the woman, the light dying out of
-her eyes, leaving them tired and listless again, “the
-invention was stolen.”
-
-“Stolen!” they echoed, breathlessly.
-
-The woman nodded wearily. She had evidently
-lost all interest in her story.
-
-“My husband suspected a Philadelphia knitting
-company, whom he had told of his invention and
-who were very enthusiastic over it, of having some
-hand in the robbery. But when he accused them
-of it they denied it and offered a reward of twenty
-thousand dollars for the recovery of the models of
-the machinery.”
-
-“Twenty thousand dollars!” repeated Billie in
-an awed tone. “I guess they must have liked your
-husband’s invention pretty well to offer all that
-money for it.”
-
-The woman nodded, drearily, while two big tears
-rolled slowly down her face.
-
-“Yes, I think they would have accepted it and
-paid my husband almost anything he would have
-asked for it,” she answered.
-
-“But haven’t you ever found out who stole it?”
-asked Vi, eagerly. “I should think that the thief,
-whoever he is, would have brought the invention
-back because of the twenty thousand dollars.”
-
-The woman nodded again.
-
-“Yes, that was the queer thing about it,” she
-said. “When the knitting company first told us of
-the reward we were jubilant, my husband and I.
-We thought surely we would recover the precious
-invention then. But as the weeks went by and we
-heard nothing, the strain was too much. Poor
-Frank, after all those years of struggle, with victory
-snatched away at the last minute, when he had
-every right to think it in his grasp—my poor husband
-could fight no longer. He died.”
-
-With these words the poor woman bowed her
-head upon her hands and sobbed brokenly. The
-girls, feeling heartily sorry for her trouble but helpless
-to comfort her, rose awkwardly to their feet
-and picked up their skates from the floor where they
-had thrown them.
-
-Billie went over to the sobbing woman and patted
-her shyly on the shoulder.
-
-“I—I wish I could help you,” she ventured. “I—we
-are dreadfully sorry for you.”
-
-Then as the woman neither moved nor made an
-answer, Billie motioned to Laura and Vi and they
-stepped quietly from the room into the chill of the
-open, closing the door softly behind them.
-
-CHAPTER IV—GENEROUS PLANS
-=========================
-
-The girls talked a great deal of Mrs. Haddon
-and her trouble as they put on their skates and
-slowly skated back to the Hall.
-
-“It must be dreadful,” Laura was saying thoughtfully
-just as the three towers of the school loomed
-up before them, “not to have enough to eat. Just
-think of it, girls, to be hungry—and not have
-enough to eat!”
-
-No wonder this condition of affairs seemed unusually
-horrible, in fact almost impossible to luxury-loving
-Laura, whose father was one of the richest
-and most influential men in rich and influential
-North Bend. To Laura it seemed incredible that
-every one should not have enough and to spare of
-the good things that, rightly used, go to make happiness
-in this strange old world. She had never
-known what it was to have a wish that was not
-gratified almost on the instant.
-
-“Yes, it must be awful,” Billie answered soberly,
-in response to Laura’s exclamation. “And I’m
-sure,” she added decidedly, “that I won’t be able to
-enjoy another good meal until I know that those
-three poor little kiddies and Mrs. Haddon have had
-all they could possibly eat—for once, at least.”
-
-“What do you mean?” they asked, wonderingly.
-
-“We’ll pack a basket,” planned Billie, growing
-excited over the great idea which had just that minute
-occurred to her. “We’ll put everything in it
-that we can possibly think of, chicken sandwiches
-and a bottle of current jelly, a thermos bottle of hot
-coffee and another of milk for the children——”
-
-“Say wake up, wake up,” begged Laura, irreverently.
-“Where do you suppose we are going to get
-all this stuff anyway? It’s too late to go to
-town——”
-
-“Who said anything about going to town?” Billie
-interrupted impatiently. “I’m going straight to
-Miss Walters and tell her all about the Haddon
-family and ask her to let us raid the kitchen and
-make up the basket ourselves. We can pay for the
-things,” she added, as an afterthought.
-
-“It’s a bright idea—but it takes nerve,” said
-Laura slangily. “Miss Walters may not like the
-idea of feeding the countryside.”
-
-“I’m not asking her to feed the countryside,”
-Billie retorted, adding comfortably as a picture of
-Miss Walters, white-haired, blue-eyed and sweet,
-rose before her: “I’m sure she will let us do it just
-this once.”
-
-For Miss Walters, strict though she was at maintaining
-discipline in the school, was nevertheless generosity
-and kindness itself to every one about her.
-
-“But,” said Laura, uttering one last protest, “I
-don’t believe Mrs. Haddon would accept anything
-that looked like charity. She’s too proud.”
-
-“We won’t take any chances on her being too
-proud to accept it,” said Billie decidedly, adding with
-a chuckle: “We’ll do the way the boys used to do on
-Hallowe’en, ring the bell and run.”
-
-They had no other chance to talk, for in a minute
-they were surrounded by about a dozen of their
-classmates who all began scolding them at once
-about running away and demanded to know where
-they had been, so that plans for the Haddons were
-pushed temporarily into the background.
-
-Laughing and shouting to each other the girls
-took off their skates and scrambled up the long
-terraced hill that led to Three Towers.
-
-If the Hall and its surroundings were beautiful in
-the summer time, it was even more attractive in the
-winter. The ivy that covered the green-gray stone
-of the building was now frosted white with snow
-and ice, and this, catching the ruddy gleam of the
-afternoon sun, gave the Hall the appearance of a
-great, sparkling jewel.
-
-The three towers which gave the school its name
-made the place seem like some castle of old, and the
-surrounding trees and shrubbery, heavily coated with
-snow and icicles, gave to the old building just the
-air of mystery that it needed.
-
-The beauty of the familiar place struck Billie
-afresh, and she stopped short suddenly and gazed
-up at it with loving eyes.
-
-“Isn’t it lovely to have a place like this to come
-home to?” she said, as the girls looked at her inquiringly,
-“when you are tired and cold and——”
-
-“Hungry,” finished Laura, giving her a shove.
-“Giddap, Billie, you’re slowing down the works.”
-
-“Slang again,” sighed Vi, plaintively, as Billie
-obligingly “giddaped.” “If I should tell Miss Walters——”
-
-“You would never live to tell another tale,”
-prophesied Laura, amid a gale of laughter from the
-girls. “Two sneaks and tattletales are enough,”
-she added significantly, as she caught sight of
-Amanda Peabody and Eliza Dilks walking a little
-ahead of them.
-
-“I wonder where Connie and Nellie have kept
-themselves,” said Billie, as she with the other girls
-crowded through the wide door of the Hall.
-
-“They were up in the dorm, cramming for the
-exams when I saw them last,” said a tall girl at
-Billie’s elbow. She had evidently not been with
-the girls on the lake, for she wore no coat or hat
-and she carried a book under each arm as though
-she also had been studying.
-
-“Oh, hello, Carol!” greeted Billie, putting an arm
-about the tall girl and sweeping her toward the
-stairs. “So you’ve been grinding away as usual
-when you ought to have been out getting some good
-fresh air. My, you look as pale as a ghost.”
-
-For the tall girl, so studiously inclined, was none
-other than Caroline Brant, who had been such a
-good friend to Billie upon her arrival at Three
-Towers Hall the year before. The girls were all
-fond of Caroline, in spite of the undeniable fact
-that she was one of those usually despised students
-commonly known as “grinds.”
-
-“You know I don’t skate,” Caroline said in response
-to Billie’s accusation. “And I never could
-see why people prefer freezing their toes and noses
-to staying comfortably indoors.”
-
-“You’re an old lamb,” said Billie with a squeeze.
-“But there are lots of things that you never will
-see!”
-
-As Caroline had predicted, the chums found Connie
-Danvers and Nellie Bane in the dormitory, curled
-up uncomfortably on the bed, heads bent disconsolately
-over two thick and bulky history books.
-
-When the door burst open and the chums swung
-into the room, skates slung over shoulders, eyes
-bright and cheeks glowing from exercise, the two
-on the bed flung away their books and looked despairingly
-at the newcomers.
-
-“Great heavens, here they are back already,” cried
-Connie, running her hands wildly through her
-fluffy hair. “And I haven’t learned more than five
-dates so I can say them straight.”
-
-“And that’s just five more than I have learned,”
-cried Billie gayly, dropping her skates in a corner
-and flinging herself on the edge of the bed. “Come
-closer, girls,” she added, lowering her voice to a
-mysterious whisper while Nellie and Connie
-wriggled over to her. “I would whisper in thine
-ear. We have met with an adventure!”
-
-CHAPTER V—BEARDING THE LION
-===========================
-
-The one word “adventure” was enough to make
-the girls all interest at once. Caroline Brant wedged
-herself into a square inch of space on the bed between
-Connie and the bedpost, and as Rose Belser
-came in at that moment the girls motioned her to
-join them.
-
-“What’s up?” asked Rose, flinging off her cap
-and scarf as she came. “Billie been getting into
-mischief again? Or is it only trouble this time?”
-
-“Trouble, I guess,” said Billie, and then she told
-them the astonishing tale of what had happened that
-afternoon. But instead of being interested as she
-had expected them to be, the girls actually seemed
-disappointed.
-
-“Well, was that all you had to tell us?” asked
-Connie, when she had finished. “I’m surprised at
-you, Billie. I thought you had really done something
-exciting.”
-
-“Yes,” added Rose, in her aggravating little
-drawl, as she rose to get ready for dinner, “it was
-awfully good of you to rescue those three annoying
-little brats and return them to their distracted mother
-and all that. But I don’t see anything dreadfully
-hair-raising about it.”
-
-Rose read books that were too old for her and
-ran with girls who were too old for her and so she
-herself contrived to seem much older than she was.
-And sometimes Billie found this manner extremely
-irritating, in spite of the fact that she and Rose were
-friends—now.
-
-“I suppose it doesn’t seem very exciting to you,”
-she said, as she pulled off her cap and unwound the
-muffler from about her neck. “But I presume you
-would be a little bit more interested if it was *you*
-who didn’t have enough to eat.”
-
-“Don’t be mad at us, Billie,” Connie begged, patting
-Billie’s hand soothingly. “Of course we all
-feel sorry for the poor little kiddies and their mother
-and we want to help them all we can. But you can’t
-blame us for being disappointed when you said you
-had had an adventure.”
-
-“I wonder if you would call it an adventure,”
-mused Billie, more to herself than to them, “if
-one of us should find that stolen invention and claim
-the twenty thousand dollars reward for it!”
-
-Her classmates stopped what they were doing and
-stared at her.
-
-“Wh—what did you say?” demanded Connie.
-
-“You heard me,” said Billie, with a grin.
-
-“But, Billie, you know that’s absurd,” said Rose,
-in her best drawl. “How could we possibly hope to
-find a thing that has been missing for a couple of
-years?”
-
-“It may be absurd,” said Billie good-naturedly,
-pulling the ribbon from her curls and brushing them
-vigorously. “I think it sounds foolish myself. But
-while there’s life, there’s hope. Hand me that comb,
-will you, Vi?”
-
-A few minutes later the big gong sounded through
-the halls, announcing gratefully to the hungry girls
-that dinner was ready. And now that the vinegary
-Misses Dill had gone, delight reigned supreme in
-the dining hall.
-
-The girls had all they could possibly eat of good
-satisfying food and they were allowed to chatter
-as much as they would as long as they did not become
-too noisy.
-
-But although they had chicken for dinner and
-cranberry sauce and creamed cauliflower, things all
-of which she especially liked, Billie enjoyed it less
-than any meal she had ever eaten.
-
-Again and again before her eyes arose the
-reproachful images of the three little Haddons, undersized,
-undernourished, half-starved.
-
-She could hardly wait until dessert had been
-served, and then, with a murmured word to Laura
-and Vi, she excused herself from the table and went
-in search of Miss Walters.
-
-She found that lady in the act of drinking her
-after-dinner coffee in the privacy of her own little
-domain.
-
-Miss Walters had a suite of three rooms all to
-herself: a bedroom, a dressing-room and a sitting-room,
-and all three of the rooms were fitted up in
-a manner that befitted a queen.
-
-The sitting-room was done in mahogany and
-blue. An exquisite Persian rug of dull blue covered
-the floor and the rich mahogany furniture was all
-upholstered in blue velour. The curtain draperies
-were all of this same rich blue over cream-colored
-lace. In the center of the room was a huge mahogany
-library table upon which stood a handsome
-reading lamp with a blue silk shade.
-
-Billie, who had never been in this sanctum before
-and who had seen Miss Walters only in her office,
-was amazed when, in reply to her timid knock, the
-principal invited her to enter.
-
-For a moment she stood dumbly staring, while
-Miss Walters set down her cup and looked up with
-a smile. The smile changed to a look of surprise
-and then to annoyance as the principal saw who the
-intruder was.
-
-“It must be something very important to bring
-you here at this hour, Beatrice,” said Miss Walters,
-while poor Billie began to wish herself back in the
-security of dormitory C. She was too frightened to
-explain her presence, and yet she knew that Miss
-Walters expected an explanation. “What is it you
-wish?” asked the latter, impatiently.
-
-“I—I’m sorry,” said Billie at last, backing away
-toward the door. “I shouldn’t have come—but I
-thought—that is, I thought it was important.” She
-was half through the door by this time, and Miss
-Walters, her annoyance changing to amusement,
-took pity on her.
-
-“What was important?” she asked, adding, as
-Billie still continued to back away: “Come in here,
-Billie Bradley, and shut that door. There’s a draft
-in the hall.”
-
-Relieved at the use of the familiar name Billie,
-the girl obeyed, shutting the door softly, then turned
-imploringly to the teacher.
-
-“Sit down,” commanded the latter, pointing to
-one of the blue velour armchairs near by. “Now
-tell me the ‘important thing’ you came about while
-I finish my coffee.”
-
-Billie made poor work of her story at first, for
-she was still wondering how she had ever had the
-courage to approach Miss Walters in the privacy
-of her sanctum sanctorum, but as she went on she
-became less self-conscious and was encouraged by
-Miss Walters’ unfeigned interest.
-
-And when, at the end of the recital, Miss Walters
-reached over and patted her hand and told her she
-had been quite right in coming to her as she had,
-Billie was in the seventh heaven of delight.
-
-“With poverty behind them, fortune and comfort
-ahead, and then again, desolation!” Miss Walters
-mused, talking more to herself than Billie.
-“How the human mind can stand up under the strain
-is a mystery to me. Poor, starving little mites and
-pitiful, noble mother, fighting for her young with the
-only weapons she has. Lucky mother to have come
-to the notice of a girl like you, Billie Bradley,”
-she added, turning upon Billie so warm and bright
-a smile that the girl’s heart swelled with pride and
-adoration.
-
-“Then you will let us help the Haddons?” she
-asked breathlessly.
-
-“More than that,” smiled Miss Walters. “I will
-*help* you to help them. I think it is too late to
-follow out your plan of taking them something to-night.”
-But she added as she saw Billie’s bright
-face fall: “But we will pack a basket full to the
-brim with good things early to-morrow morning and
-you and Laura and Violet may take them to the
-cottage after breakfast. Only, you must walk
-around the lake. I could not take the chance of
-your skating after what happened this afternoon.”
-
-Billie stammered out some incoherent words of
-thanks, Miss Walters patted her cheek, and in another
-moment she found herself standing outside in
-the hall in a sort of happy daze.
-
-A girl passed her, eyed her curiously, went on a
-few steps and then came back. It was Eliza Dilks.
-
-“In Miss Walters’ room at night,” said the sneering
-voice that Billie knew only too well. “No wonder
-you get away with everything—teacher’s pet.”
-
-Billie started to retort angrily, but knowing that
-silence was the very worst punishment one could inflict
-upon Eliza she merely shrugged her shoulders,
-turned up her straight little nose as far as it would
-go and walked off, leaving Eliza fuming helplessly.
-
-When Billie reached the dormitory she found the
-girls waiting for her in an agitated group. There
-was not one of them who would have dared to approach
-Miss Walters after school hours unless it
-had been about a matter of life and death importance,
-and they had more than half expected that
-Billie would be carried back on a stretcher.
-
-When they found out what had really happened
-they welcomed Billie as a hero should be welcomed.
-They lifted her on their shoulders and carried her
-round the dormitory, chanting school songs till a
-warning hiss from one of the girls near the door
-sent them scuttling. By the time Miss Arbuckle
-reached the dormitory, they were bent decorously
-over their text-books, seeking what knowledge they
-might discover!
-
-Next morning, true to her word, Miss Walters
-herself superintended the packing of an immense
-basket with all the dainties at her command. There
-were chicken and roast beef sandwiches, half of a
-leg of lamb, two or three different kinds of jelly,
-some rice pudding left over from the night before,
-a big slab of cake, two quarts of fresh milk, and
-some beef tea made especially for the Haddons.
-
-And the girls, feeling more important than they
-had ever felt before in their lives, marched off after
-breakfast, during school hours—Miss Walters having
-personally excused them from class—joyfully
-bent upon playing the good Samaritan.
-
-“I never knew,” said Laura, as if she were making
-a great discovery, “that it could make you so happy
-to be kind to somebody else!”
-
-CHAPTER VI—TROUBLE
-==================
-
-It was the girls’ intention at first to leave the
-hamper of good things before the Haddons’ door so
-that Mrs. Haddon would have no chance of refusing
-the gift through pride.
-
-But when they came to the little cottage after half
-an hour of steady walking, they found to their dismay
-that Fate had taken a hand and spoiled all their plans.
-
-For Mrs. Haddon herself, a shawl over her head
-and looking even more worried and anxious than
-she had when they had seen her before, rounded the
-corner of the house and met them just as they
-reached the door.
-
-For a moment the girls had a panicky impulse to
-drop the basket and run, but on second thought they
-decided that that would be just about the worst thing
-they could possibly do. And while they were trying
-to think up something to say, Mrs. Haddon took
-the whole situation entirely out of their hands.
-
-At first she did not seem to recognize them, but
-the next instant her face lighted up with relief and
-she opened the door of the cottage, beckoning them
-to enter.
-
-“Just stay here in the kitchen a minute where it’s
-warm,” she directed them in a strained tone, and
-before the girls had time to draw their breath she
-had disappeared from the room, leaving the classmates
-alone.
-
-“Now we’ve gone and spilled the beans,” whispered
-slangy Laura, eyeing the blameless hamper
-disapprovingly as she warmed her chilled hands before
-the stove. “I don’t suppose she will touch a
-thing now, and after we went and walked all this
-way, and everything, too——”
-
-“Sh-h,” cautioned Billie, a hand to her lips.
-“She’s coming back.”
-
-At that moment Mrs. Haddon did indeed come
-back into the kitchen. She closed the door very
-gently behind her and then came quickly toward the
-girls.
-
-“Listen,” she said breathlessly. “I don’t know
-who sent you, just now. Maybe it was God.” She
-caught her breath on the words and the girls regarded
-her wonderingly and a little fearfully. For
-goodness’ sake! *what* was she talking about?
-
-“Anyway, you’ve come,” went on the woman,
-swiftly. “And if you want to, you can do me a great
-favor.”
-
-“What is it?” they asked together.
-
-“Run for the nearest doctor, one of you—or all
-of you,” said the woman, her words stumbling over
-one another in her agitation. “Peter, my little boy,
-is sick. If I don’t have a doctor very soon, he may
-die.”
-
-“Oh, where is the nearest doctor?” asked Billie,
-breathlessly, her eyes big with sympathy. “Tell me
-and I’ll go.”
-
-“Half a mile down the road!” said the woman.
-“Dr. Ramsey! In the big white house! These are
-his office hours. He should be at home. I just
-went to a neighbor’s, but she was not at home and
-I could not go myself. Peter would have been
-alone——”
-
-“I’ll go, and I’ll have him back here in half an
-hour,” promised Billie, running to the door as she
-spoke. But Laura grabbed her skirt and held on
-to it.
-
-“No, you stay here. I’ll go,” she said, thinking
-desperately of the food hamper and fearing that if
-Billie went for the doctor she would probably have
-to explain their mission.
-
-“I’ll go with you,” volunteered Vi, with the same
-thought in mind, and before Billie could do more
-than blink, her two chums had flashed through the
-door, closing it with a sharp little click behind them.
-Then it opened again for an instant and Laura put
-her pretty head inside.
-
-“You always could explain things so much better
-than the rest of us, Billie,” she said, by way of
-excuse, it is to be supposed—and then the door closed
-again.
-
-It was good for Billie at that moment that she
-had been blessed with a sense of humor. Otherwise,
-she might have been a little put out.
-
-As it was, she took it as a joke on her and turned
-back resignedly to her task of telling why they had
-come to proud Polly Haddon.
-
-The latter was pacing the floor anxiously. Then,
-as a little moan came from the next room, she flew
-to the patient, leaving Billie entirely alone.
-
-The latter regarded the hamper uncertainly for
-a moment, then, with a sigh, she lifted it from the
-floor to the rickety kitchen table.
-
-“I’ll let her see all the good things first,” she
-decided wisely, as she removed the cover from the
-basket, exposing to view its inviting contents.
-“Then maybe she’ll be too busy looking at them to
-be angry.”
-
-So busy was she that she did not hear Mrs.
-Haddon reënter the room. Neither did she know
-that the latter was staring unbelievingly over her
-shoulder till a slight exclamation of wonder made
-her start and whirl round suddenly.
-
-“Where did you get all that?” asked the woman,
-her eyes still fixed on the contents of the basket.
-“And what is it for?”
-
-“It’s—it’s for you—if you will take it, please,”
-stammered Billie, in her surprise and confusion saying
-what came first to her mind. “We—we thought
-maybe—maybe the kiddies would like the beef tea
-and milk and—and—things——” she finished
-weakly, thinking resentfully that the girls, or one
-of them anyway, might have stayed and helped her
-out.
-
-But after all, she need not have worried. For an
-instant the look that Billie had expected and dreaded
-flared into Polly Haddon’s eyes—a look of outraged
-pride. But then the woman thought of the
-children—and she had no pride.
-
-“You said you brought some beef tea?” she repeated,
-bending eagerly over the basket. “And milk?”
-
-“Two quarts of milk,” cried Billie, joyfully, the
-relief she felt singing in her voice. “And we made
-the beef tea fresh this morning. Why—why—what’s
-the matter?”
-
-For Polly Haddon’s black eyes had filled with
-tears and she had turned away impatiently to hide
-them. Beneath the worn old shawl, her thin shoulders
-shook in an effort to suppress her hysterical
-sobs.
-
-Then Billie ran to her and put her young arms
-around her and Polly Haddon, who had struggled
-so long and so bravely alone, clung to the girl hungrily
-while she fought for self-control.
-
-“It’s so long!” she said huskily, “so long since
-any one did anything for us—for my babies——”
-Her voice broke, and for a minute she just clung to
-Billie and let tears wash some of the bitterness from
-her heart. Then she straightened up suddenly, wiped
-the tears from her eyes with a handkerchief that
-Billie had slipped into her hand, and holding the
-girl off at arm’s length regarded her intently.
-
-“It seems,” said the woman softly, while Billie
-looked up at her out of clear, grave eyes, “that when
-things get as bad as they can be the Lord sends somebody
-to help. This time he sent you. Hark!
-What’s that?”
-
-It was only the restless turning of a feverish little
-body in bed, but the mother was instantly alert.
-
-“The beef tea!” she directed, and Billie quickly
-handed her one of the bottles. “He has had hardly
-any real nourishment since day before yesterday,”
-Polly Haddon went on as she poured the liquid
-into one of the pans on the stove and sniffed of it
-hungrily. “Strong beef tea is just what the little
-fellow needs.”
-
-Billie wondered while she watched Mrs. Haddon
-with pitying eyes. No nourishment for almost two
-days! Why, if they had not come the children might
-have starved to death!
-
-“Where are the two little girls?” she asked, remembering
-suddenly that she had seen no sign of
-them.
-
-Mrs. Haddon said nothing for so long that Billie
-began to think she had not heard her question. Then
-the woman turned and faced the girl, holding a
-steaming cup of beef broth in her hand.
-
-“I’ve kept them in bed, too,” she said. “I was
-afraid they had caught cold, and then, too—one
-feels less hungry if one doesn’t move about.”
-
-Then abruptly she turned and once more left the
-room. Billie would have followed, but the thought
-that perhaps Polly Haddon would not wish her to
-held her back. The woman had accepted the food
-for her children’s sake, because they were practically
-starving. But in spite of that she was very proud.
-Perhaps she would not wish to have Billie see the
-poverty-stricken bareness of the rooms beyond. So
-Billie stayed in the kitchen and waited.
-
-Her eyes strayed nervously to an alarm clock that
-ticked away on a shelf over the sink. She wished the
-girls would come with the doctor. If little Peter
-was as sick as his mother thought he was, every
-minute might be precious. And besides that, they
-must get back to school.
-
-Then she heard the girls’ voices mingled with the
-gruff tones of a man—the doctor, of course—and
-her heart jumped with relief. The next moment the
-door was flung open and Laura and Vi came in,
-followed by an immense man who seemed to completely
-fill the narrow doorway. Then Polly Haddon
-appeared in the doorway between the two rooms,
-an empty cup in her hand. At sight of the doctor
-she set down the cup and motioned him eagerly into
-the other room.
-
-The latter glanced curiously at Billie, flung his
-hat on the kitchen table in passing, and disappeared
-with Mrs. Haddon into the sick room.
-
-“Just luck that we happened to catch the doctor
-on his way out,” panted Laura, for the big man had
-hustled the girls back to the cottage on a run. “Say,
-Billie,” she added, her eyes lighting on the opened
-hamper, “I see you did the trick. Any bones
-broken?”
-
-“Tell us about it,” begged Vi.
-
-“I’ll tell you on the way home,” said Billie, her
-eye once more on the clock. “Miss Walters told us
-not to stay long, you know. We were to come right
-back.”
-
-“Gracious, look at the time!” cried Laura, in
-consternation, following Billie’s eyes to the clock.
-“Miss Walters will think we have eloped.”
-
-“I wish we could wait and see what the doctor
-says,” protested Vi, hanging back, and just then
-Billie raised a warning finger.
-
-“Listen,” she said.
-
-The doctor had raised his voice for a moment and
-his words came clearly to the girls where they stood
-near the door.
-
-“The boy is very sick, Mrs. Haddon,” he said.
-“It will take good nursing to pull him through and
-plenty of nourishing food.” He lowered his voice
-again and the rest of what he said was lost in a
-meaningless murmur.
-
-In the kitchen the girls stared at each other.
-
-“Plenty of nourishing food,” whispered Billie.
-“Where is he going to get it?”
-
-“I guess,” said Laura, as she opened the door,
-“it is up to us!”
-
-CHAPTER VII—SETTLING A SCORE
-============================
-
-The girls walked back to school in a rather
-thoughtful frame of mind. They were sorry for
-poor Mrs. Haddon, and they were worried about
-little Peter.
-
-“The sandwiches and milk and things that we
-brought this morning will last them a little while,”
-Billie said. “But I don’t suppose Miss Walters
-would want us to take them food every morning.”
-
-“Oh, and that reminds me!” cried Laura. “You
-haven’t told us yet what happened after we ran for
-the doctor and left you alone with Mrs. Haddon.”
-
-“There isn’t very much to tell,” said Billie. “She
-didn’t want to touch the basket at first, but when she
-thought of the kiddies she changed her mind. She
-said that the children hadn’t had any real nourishing
-food since the day before yesterday.”
-
-The girls were silent for a moment, letting this
-last remark of Billie’s sink in. Then it was Billie
-who broke the silence.
-
-“I wonder,” she said, “how they have ever managed
-to get along up to this time. They must have
-had something to live on.”
-
-“Why,” said Vi, wrinkling her forehead thoughtfully,
-“the doctor said something about Mrs. Haddon
-having to give up her work because of ill health.
-Didn’t he, Laura?”
-
-“Yes,” said Laura, stuffing her hands deeper into
-her pockets. “He seems dreadfully sorry about
-poor little Peter. I heard him mumble something
-about troubles always coming in a heap.”
-
-“Oh,” said Billie, with a big long sigh, “if somebody
-could only stumble across those inventions
-someway or other! Then we could all be happy
-again.”
-
-For a moment her classmates stared at Billie
-blankly. They had all but forgotten about the invention.
-Somehow, Mrs. Haddon’s tale of a nearly
-won fortune had seemed unreal and vague to them—almost
-like a fairy story. And now here was
-Billie bringing it all up again and even talking about
-finding that knitting machine model!
-
-“If it doesn’t always take you to think up impossible
-things, Billie Bradley,” said Vi.
-
-“Just the same,” Laura spoke up unexpectedly,
-“you must admit that lots of times Billie has done
-what we would think was impossible to do.”
-
-“Goodness, have you got ’em, too?” asked Vi,
-with a giggle. “We all know Billie’s a wonder, but
-I don’t think she is going to find an invention that
-has been missing for a long time. Probably it
-wouldn’t be any good, anyway. All rusted and
-everything.”
-
-“That wouldn’t make any difference,” Billie
-pointed out promptly. “As long as they had the
-model to copy from they could make any number of
-new machines just like it.”
-
-“All right, rave on, Macduff!” cried Laura, who
-was just beginning to read Shakespeare and who
-annoyed the other girls by insisting upon quoting
-him—incorrectly—upon all occasions. “If you can
-find this old thing and get a fortune out of it for
-Mrs. Haddon and the kiddies and twenty thousand
-nice little dollars for yourself, honey, nobody’ll be
-gladder than me.”
-
-“I,” corrected Violet sternly. “Don’t you know
-me is bad grammar?”
-
-“Well, me’s a bad girl,” said Laura irrepressibly,
-and the girls giggled.
-
-A few minutes later they came within sight of
-the school and found to their dismay that it was
-lunch hour.
-
-“Do you mean to say we have been gone all
-morning?” cried Laura, stopping short at the familiar
-sight of the girls pouring out on the campus
-for a breath of air before their studies should commence
-again. “Goodness, Miss Walters will murder
-us.”
-
-“Oh, come on,” cried Billie, hurrying the girls
-along. “Haven’t we been on an errand of mercy—and
-everything? She can’t kill us for that, even if
-we were a long time about it.”
-
-Greetings and laughing gibes were flung at the
-girls as they hurried across the snow-covered campus,
-but they did not stop to answer. They wanted
-to see Miss Walters, explain why they were so late,
-and get a bite of something to eat before the afternoon
-classes began.
-
-They had almost reached the door when a voice
-called to Billie from overhead. She looked up unsuspectingly
-and received an avalanche of snow right
-in the face, almost blinding her and sending her
-staggering back against her chums.
-
-Sputtering and choking, she dashed the snow from
-her eyes and looked up to see who had done such a
-mean thing. There at a window just over her head
-was the grinning face of Amanda Peabody. In a
-flash Billie realized that it had been Amanda who
-had pushed the snow from the window ledge upon
-her.
-
-“Want some more?” asked that disagreeable person
-in response to Billie’s stare. “There’s just a
-little bit left,” and she made a gesture as if to push
-the rest of the snow from the windowsill down upon
-Billie’s upturned face.
-
-But Billie did not wait to see whether she would
-really have done it. With a cry she made for the
-door of the school, pushing through a group of the
-girls who had gathered at the first sign of a fracas.
-Laura and Vi followed, fuming.
-
-As usual, instead of staying and facing the consequences
-of her own deeds, Amanda tried to get
-away. But Billie was too quick for her. The
-former reached the door of the room just as
-Amanda darted through it, bent upon escape.
-
-Her eyes blazing, Billie seized the girl’s arm and
-hurried her through the hall, Laura and Vi assisting,
-and a delighted crowd following close behind.
-
-“You let me go—you big cowards, you!” spluttered
-Amanda, almost crying with rage and fright.
-“You let me go, Billie Bradley! I’ll tell Miss Walters.”
-
-“Go ahead and tell Miss Walters, you miserable
-sneak!” cried Billie, giving the girl a contemptuous
-shake. “But you won’t tell her till I’m through with
-you.”
-
-“What are you going to do?” whined Amanda,
-too scared now even to bluster. “I won’t do it
-again, honest I won’t. Only let me go.”
-
-“Don’t you do it, Billie,” cried one of the girls in
-the following crowd. “Don’t let her off so easy.”
-
-But Billie had no intention of letting her enemy
-off easily. Having now reached the outside door,
-she shoved it open, at the same time motioning to
-Vi and Laura to let go of Amanda.
-
-Then she dragged the whimpering, whining girl
-over to a spot where the wind had formed the snow
-into a small drift. Into this she flung the protesting
-girl, and the next instant was upon her, washing
-her face with the snow, and it is safe to say that
-no girl ever had her face so thoroughly washed before.
-And the crowd of girls behind Billie cheered
-her on gleefully.
-
-There is no telling just how long Billie might have
-kept it up, for she was enjoying herself immensely,
-if Laura had not brought her to her senses. The
-latter leaned down, took a firm grip of the belt on
-Billie’s coat and jerked her to her feet.
-
-“Better let her go,” she warned. “We will have
-Miss Walters or one of the teachers out here in a
-minute. Come on, Billie. She’s had enough.”
-
-So Billie reluctantly stepped back while Amanda
-picked herself out of the snow, wiped her red and
-dripping face on her sleeve, and pushed through the
-laughing, mocking crowd of girls toward the school.
-
-She stopped just before she reached the door,
-however, and faced her tormentors, her face distorted
-with rage.
-
-“You think you’re smart, all of you!” she cried
-furiously, then added, as her eyes fell on Billie, who
-had drawn a handkerchief from her pocket and was
-wiping her hands carefully. “And you, Billie Bradley,
-standing there grinning! Some day I’ll make
-you grin out of the other side of your mouth. Just
-wait!”
-
-“Would you like your face washed again?” Billie
-demanded, darting forward threateningly. “Come
-on, let’s get it over with——”
-
-But Amanda did not wait for the threat to be
-carried out. She scuttled precipitately into the Hall
-amid delighted giggles from the girls.
-
-Amanda, fairly choking with rage at the laughter,
-stopped and shook her fist in the direction of it.
-Then, with all sorts of plans in her heart for “getting
-even,” she went on toward the dormitory.
-
-CHAPTER VIII—JUST LIKE BILLIE!
-==============================
-
-Several days followed during which the girls
-settled down earnestly to their studies. For scholarship
-was held very high at Three Towers Hall, and
-any one who did not stand well in class was apt to
-find herself not only in ill favor with the teachers
-but with the students as well.
-
-The girls had reported to Miss Walters the result
-of their visit to Polly Haddon, and the principal
-had seemed unusually interested and sympathetic.
-
-“Now that you girls have taken the Haddon family
-under your wing,” she had said, smiling at the
-chums, “I think we shall have to see the thing
-through—at least until the mother is strong enough
-to begin work again. But in the meantime,” she
-had added, with a nod of the head that meant
-dismissal, “I don’t want interest in the Haddon family
-to make my girls neglect their studies. I expect
-great things of you this year.”
-
-And so the girls, “feeling warm all over,” as
-they always did after a talk with Miss Walters, went
-back to their work, confident in the thought that the
-Haddons would not be left to starve, at least.
-
-“Saturday we will go over ourselves and see how
-little Peter is,” said Billie, as, pencil in hand, she
-prepared to wade into a geometry problem. “Listen,
-Laura,” she added, looking up at her friend
-hopefully, “if you will help me with this geometry
-I’ll coach you in history. Is it a go?”
-
-Laura declared it was a “go,” and so they settled
-down to work. But no amount of work could keep
-their thoughts from straying time and again to the
-Haddon family and the mystery of the stolen invention.
-
-As the girls who have read the former adventures
-of Billie Bradley already know, Billie and her chums
-had been admitted to the “Ghost Club,” a secret society
-to which only the most popular girls and those
-who stood highest in their studies were admitted.
-
-The membership had never exceeded fifteen, for
-the girls knew that to have too large a membership
-would only cheapen the club. Rose Belser was the
-president of it, and Connie Danvers and several
-other of the girls’ good friends were members.
-Caroline Brant had been asked to join long before,
-but had refused because she thought it would take
-too much time from her studies.
-
-Last year’s Commencement had taken two of the
-club’s members, so that now the girls were watching
-the freshmen for good material. They were very
-careful in choosing, however, for it was far easier
-to get members into the club than it was to get them
-out.
-
-The club was to have its first real meeting in two
-weeks, and it was at that meeting that the names of
-prospective members were to be tentatively submitted
-to the president. After that, a period of close
-watching, and then—the fun of initiations.
-
-But first came news that ran through the Hall like
-wildfire. Some of the boys from Boxton Military
-Academy were coming over to the big hill behind
-the Three Towers Hall for the first real sledding of
-the year, and they had invited as many of the girls
-as they knew—and their friends—to meet them
-there.
-
-Chet and Teddy and Ferd were coming over, of
-course, and as the day approached, anticipation grew
-accordingly until the girls could think and talk of
-nothing but the fun they were going to have.
-
-“I wonder if Teddy will bring Paul Martinson
-with him,” said Vi, after trying vainly for half an
-hour to fix her mind on an essay she must hand in
-the next morning. “He’s ever so much fun, don’t
-you think?”
-
-It was in Paul Martinson’s motor boat, which he
-had named the *Shelling* in honor of Captain Shelling,
-who was master of the Military Academy, that the
-boys had visited the girls on Lighthouse Island the
-summer before.
-
-Paul Martinson was a splendid-looking, fine boy
-whom all the girls liked—Rose Belser, in particular—but
-who, himself, seemed to prefer Billie. Like
-Teddy, Paul thought that Billie was the “very best
-sport” he knew, and declared that “a fellow can
-have more fun with her any day than he can with
-another boy.”
-
-Of course Teddy did not like this a bit. Having
-known Billie practically all his life, he naturally felt
-that he should have first right to her. And so there
-was a good-natured rivalry between the boys that
-amused Billie and Vi and Laura and rather piqued
-Rose Belser and Connie Danvers and some of the
-other girls at the school, who thought that Billie
-had more than her share.
-
-“For,” as Connie declared once to a sympathetic
-group of girls, “it’s ever so much more fun to be
-paddled around in a canoe by a boy than to have to
-paddle yourself, and it’s lots of fun to skate with
-them because they fairly haul you along. And here
-when we haven’t nearly enough to go around, Billie
-goes and takes two of the nicest ones. She’s a
-darling, of course, but I think she might be content
-with one!”
-
-And so when Vi had happened to mention innocently
-that Paul was ever so much fun, Rose
-Belser, who was preparing for a botany quiz at the
-other end of the room, looked up and made a face
-at her.
-
-“How do we know whether he’s any fun or not?”
-she said. “You had better ask Billie.”
-
-But Billie was too busy studying so that she might
-be free for the next day’s fun to hear, and Rose’s
-shot was lost.
-
-As though autumn had regretted giving way to
-winter so soon, it had been unexpectedly warm that
-day and the girls had worried for fear a thaw might
-spoil their sledding. But a cold wind rose in the
-night and the morning dawned clear and cold enough
-to suit even them.
-
-As soon as breakfast was over the coasters donned
-sweaters and caps and mufflers and ran down into
-the storeroom next the gymnasium to get their
-sleds. Then up once more and out into the bright
-morning sunshine, their cheeks glowing with health
-and their eyes sparkling with anticipation of the fun
-ahead of them!
-
-There were twenty-five of them in all, but as they
-filed out of the side door of the school they looked
-like a small army.
-
-“Isn’t it funny,” giggled Laura to Billie, “how
-many more of the girls turn out when they know
-the boys are going to be there?”
-
-“It’s sad but true,” admitted Billie, with an answering
-chuckle. “After that first heavy snowfall
-when we said something about an all-girls’ sledding
-party, they didn’t seem awfully anxious about it.
-Said it was too early in the season and they hated
-dragging sleds up the hill.”
-
-“Now I suppose they will expect the boys to do
-the dragging,” laughed Vi.
-
-When they had climbed almost to the top of the
-hill that made such a fine toboggan they heard the
-sound of boys’ voices.
-
-“Goodness, they must have started before breakfast,”
-said Connie Danvers, who was puffing with
-the effort to get her plump little body and her heavy
-sled up the steep incline. “Say, give me a lift, will
-you, Billie? This hill is so slippery.”
-
-“You mean that you’re getting too fat,” said
-Laura wickedly, as she reached over and grabbed
-Connie’s line. “I told you you were eating too much
-candy.”
-
-Billie reached the top of the hill first and with
-dancing eyes she looked down at the long, steep, ice-covered
-incline. The slight thaw of the day before
-had been the one thing needed to perfect the sledding.
-For the surface of the snow had melted, then frozen
-over again, forming a solid coat of ice.
-
-As she took this all in gleefully, the first of the
-boys emerged from the trees at the foot of the hill
-and an impish impulse seized her.
-
-With a shout of warning she pulled up her sled,
-flung herself upon it, gave a little push, and was off!
-Down the hill she hurtled at a terrific rate of speed,
-the glaze of ice forming almost no resistance to her
-flight.
-
-Taken by surprise, the boys had no more than
-time to get out of the way before she literally
-dropped among them.
-
-She swung off to the right, where an abrupt rise
-of ice-covered ground checked her speed, and, after
-almost reaching the top of this small hill, the back
-runners of the sled were caught in the ice and she
-was tumbled head over heels, to land in an undignified
-heap at the boys’ feet.
-
-Then she sat up, rubbed her head and smiled at
-them gleefully.
-
-“I went some that time, didn’t I?” she said.
-
-“Yes, and you might have broken your neck, too,”
-said Teddy, in an awfully gruff voice, as he took
-both her hands and pulled her to her feet. The other
-boys were looking on in admiration at Billie’s feat.
-“Don’t you know you should never have taken that
-turn to the right? That hill’s too steep.”
-
-“I know it is—*now*,” said Billie ruefully, feeling,
-for the first time the horrible suspicion that she had
-skinned her knee.
-
-“You should have taken one of these paths,”
-spoke up Chet, pushing his way through the crowd
-of boys and regarding Billie sternly, as an older
-brother should. “I thought you knew that.”
-
-“Of course I know that,” returned Billie, mimicking
-Chet’s tone to perfection. “But will you please
-tell me how I could take either one of the paths when
-both of them were chock full of boys?”
-
-The paths about which they spoke branched off
-from the foot of the hill. One had been an old
-wagon road which had become overgrown with
-bushes and stubble and the other was only a foot
-path. Nevertheless, either one was wide enough
-to permit easily a sled to pass through and the
-ground was level for a long enough distance to allow
-the sleds to come to an easy standstill.
-
-From the top of the hill the girls had been watching
-Billie’s escapade, and now as she started with
-the boys up the long slope they looked at one another,
-smiling.
-
-“Goodness, there she goes again!” sighed Connie
-plaintively. “She isn’t satisfied with two of the
-boys any more. Now she has the whole crowd of
-them!”
-
-CHAPTER IX—INTO SPACE
-=====================
-
-For a glorious hour the girls and boys enjoyed
-what was to them the best sledding of their lives.
-They coasted down the hill and dragged their sleds
-up again, shouting and calling to each other while
-their cheeks and, it must be admitted, sometimes
-their noses, too, glowed with the sting of the sharp
-wind and they had to stamp hard on the frozen
-ground to keep their toes from freezing.
-
-“The best sport ever!” cried Paul.
-
-“All to the merry,” came from Chet. “What do
-you say, girls?” and he turned to Billie and her
-classmates.
-
-What did they say? All shouted at once that such
-fine sport couldn’t possibly be beaten.
-
-“Can’t be beat!” sang out Chet gaily. “Just like
-old Ma Jackson’s rag carpet.”
-
-“Ma Jackson’s rag carpet? What do you mean?”
-asked Laura.
-
-“She couldn’t beat it for fear it would fall apart,”
-was the sly reply. And then the merry lad had to
-dodge a hard chunk of snow Laura threw at him.
-
-“Burr-r! isn’t it cold?” cried Billie, taking a mitten
-from one of her hands and blowing on her
-numbed fingers. “I’d never know what it was to
-feel cold if it weren’t for my fingers and toes.
-Teddy! Stop your pushing! What do you want
-now?”
-
-For Teddy had seized her by the shoulders and
-had sat her firmly down upon his big bobsled.
-
-“You’ve let Paul Martinson take you down three
-times to my once,” he accused her, while he settled
-himself comfortably behind her on the sled. “And
-now it’s my turn. Hey, look out there, you fellows—we’re
-off!”
-
-And before the astonished Billie could do more
-than utter a giggling protest, they were indeed “off,”
-flying down the ice-glazed hill at a rate that took her
-breath away.
-
-“Some speed, eh?” chortled Teddy in her ear.
-“This old boat of mine has got ’em all beat. I bet
-we could race them all to a standstill.”
-
-“Why don’t we try?” Billie yelled back at him.
-“It would be lots of fun. Oh, Teddy, look out!”
-she shrieked, for they had reached the foot of the
-hill and Teddy had skimmed so close to the trunk of
-a tree that Billie afterward declared they had scraped
-off a piece of bark.
-
-“Don’t worry,” Teddy said, reassuringly. “Nothing’s
-going to happen to you when you’re with your
-uncle Ted.”
-
-At which remark Billie could not help giggling to
-herself. “Boys did think they were so awfully
-much!” Then suddenly she cried out:
-
-“Teddy, that’s the wrong path! We have never
-been down it before.”
-
-“That’s why I’m trying it,” said Teddy recklessly,
-as he swung down the strange path that ran
-at right angles to the one they were on. “The
-ground slopes, too, so we ought to have some more
-fun.”
-
-Billie said nothing. She would not for the life
-of her have Teddy guess that she was afraid. They
-had never been down that path before, because never
-before had a sled had momentum enough to carry it
-that far.
-
-And the ground was sloping more and more and
-the sled was going faster and faster with each second.
-The path was by no means straight, either, and
-if Teddy had not been pretty good at keeping his
-head they would most surely have run into something
-and have had a nasty spill.
-
-“Oh, Teddy, can’t we stop?” asked Billie at last,
-unable to keep her fright all to herself. “We don’t
-know where this leads to. Can’t you stop, Teddy?”
-
-“Not very well,” answered the boy uneasily. “We
-will surely run on to level ground in a minute.
-Don’t worry.”
-
-But even as he spoke he jerked the sled around
-a sudden turn in the path and they came, apparently,
-to the end of the world. With a nasty little scraping
-sound the sled dived off into nothingness!
-
-It all happened so suddenly that Billie did not
-have even time enough to scream. She had a sickening
-feeling of falling through space, and then she
-struck something—something that yielded, luckily,
-under her weight, and she sank, down, down, down,
-coming to rest at last in a world where everything
-was white and slippery and cold—oh, *so* cold.
-
-She must have lost consciousness for a minute,
-for when she came to herself again in this strange
-new world she heard somebody calling her name
-wildly and a moment later Santa Claus poked his
-head over a snowbank and peered down at her.
-
-At least, she thought at first it was Santa Claus,
-because his face was so very red and the snow was
-clinging to his fuzzy cap in such a funny manner.
-
-But in a moment more she realized her mistake,
-for the red face and the funny hat disappeared and
-in their place were shoved two legs that she was
-very sure belonged to Teddy. And in a moment
-more Teddy himself slid down beside her.
-
-“Hello,” she greeted him with a smile. “I thought
-you were Santa Claus. Why weren’t you?”
-
-Teddy stared at her for a minute, anxiously.
-
-“I say,” he cried, taking one of her hands and
-rubbing it gently. “I guess that loop the loop of
-ours knocked you silly.”
-
-“I’m always silly,” was Billie’s amazing reply, as
-she sat up and began feeling herself all over carefully.
-“But it certainly did knock me!”
-
-“Are you all right?” demanded Teddy, watching
-her as she stretched out first one leg and then the
-other. “You didn’t break anything, did you?”
-
-“Nothing but my dignity,” she answered, with a
-giggle that brought an answering grin from the boy.
-“Teddy,” she demanded, turning to him suddenly,
-“what did happen, anyway?”
-
-“I’m sure I don’t know, except that we came to
-the end of that path and jumped off,” answered
-Teddy, feeling gingerly of his forehead on which
-Billie could see that a large purple lump was beginning
-to swell. “If I had had a chance to see what
-was coming I could have rolled off the sled and
-pulled you with me. But that turn in the road
-brought us right on top of it. It’s a sort of precipice,
-I guess,” he went on to explain, while Billie
-eyed with sympathy the swelling lump on his forehead.
-“It’s about fifteen feet high, I think, and if
-there hadn’t been snow on the ground we surely
-would have got hurt.”
-
-“If there hadn’t been snow on the ground, we
-wouldn’t have been sledding,” Billie pointed out,
-adding, so unexpectedly as to make Teddy jump:
-“Who hit you?”
-
-“Wh—what?” he gasped. Then seeing that her
-eyes were fixed on the bump that he was still fingering
-gingerly, Teddy’s face grew redder than it already was,
-if such a thing were possible, and his
-hand fell quickly to his side. “Oh, that!” he said,
-loftily, as if it were nothing at all. “I guess the
-runner of the sled gave me a whack just as we
-dumped over. It doesn’t hurt, though. Not a bit.”
-
-“I bet it does, too,” said Billie, as the boy pulled
-his cap down tight over the tell-tale spot. “Where is
-the sled, Teddy?” she added.
-
-“Out there, somewhere, sticking in a drift,” answered
-the boy. “I didn’t have time to pull it out
-because I thought you had been killed or something
-and I had to come to look for you.”
-
-“Thanks,” she laughed at him. Then her face
-became suddenly serious, and she struggled to her
-feet, trying to brush off the snow that seemed to
-cover her from head to foot. “How are we going
-to get out of this, Teddy?” she asked, looking at
-him seriously.
-
-“Ask me an easy one,” he returned, his good-looking
-face extremely anxious and puzzled. “The
-snow is awfully deep, and I don’t believe we could
-ever get up to that path again. It would take us
-a couple of hours to go around, and besides, I’m not
-sure just how to go.”
-
-“In other words,” said Billie, trying her best to
-speak gayly while her heart sank at this unusually
-long speech of Teddy’s, “we’re lost, aren’t we?”
-
-“I guess it amounts to that,” Teddy answered
-soberly, and for a long minute they just stood staring
-at each other.
-
-Then Billie gave herself an impatient little shake.
-
-“Help me out of this,” she said, as she tried to
-push through the heavy snow that seemed to press
-in upon her from every side. “I’d like to have a
-look around, anyway.”
-
-She found that even with Teddy’s help it was
-no easy task to clamber out of the snowdrift that
-she had fallen into, and both she and the boy were
-panting with exertion when they had finally managed
-to get out into the open.
-
-Even there they stood up to their waists in the
-clinging snow, and Billie, looking desolately out
-over the white expanse, began to realize that she
-was very, very cold.
-
-“There’s the sled,” said Teddy, pointing to two
-runners sticking out of the snow and marking the
-spot where the sled had struck. “Wait here and
-I’ll get it.”
-
-Billie watched him as he struggled through the
-drifts, and suddenly she was aware of an overwhelming
-desire to sit down where she was and cry.
-
-“But that wouldn’t do any good,” she told herself
-sharply, “even if this place does look more
-lonely than a desert. If we don’t get where it’s
-warm pretty soon we’ll turn into icicles ourselves, I
-guess.”
-
-The wind had become stronger and more biting,
-and Billie’s teeth had begun to chatter. She was
-glad when Teddy floundered back to her, the rope
-of his sled looped over one arm. He slipped the
-other arm through hers protectingly.
-
-“We’ll find a way out of this soon,” he said, comfortingly.
-“You just watch your uncle Teddy.”
-
-Billie tried to laugh but she could not, her teeth
-were chattering so.
-
-“You said that before,” she told him hysterically.
-“And we—we—went over the cliff!”
-
-CHAPTER X—THE CAVE
-==================
-
-The next minute Billie was sorry for what she
-had said. Teddy’s face clouded over and he looked
-at her unhappily.
-
-“You ought to know that I didn’t get you into this
-on purpose,” he muttered.
-
-“Oh, Teddy, d-dear, I didn’t mean it, you know
-I d-didn’t,” she stammered, trying hard to control
-the chattering of her teeth. “I’m a bad, mean, horrid
-girl. T-truly I didn’t mean it,” and she put her
-cold little hand penitently over his great big one.
-
-“I know you didn’t,” said Teddy, his face clearing
-instantly. “You’re cold and tired and all upset.
-Poor little kid, I wish I could do all the
-*feeling*.”
-
-“Well, I’m glad you can’t,” said Billie, snuggling
-up close to him for warmth. “For you have troubles
-enough of your own. Teddy!” She drew up suddenly
-and stared at an object that caught her eye.
-“What is that thing over there that looks like a
-tangle of twigs and leaves? No, not that way.
-Over there—to the left.”
-
-Teddy followed the direction of her pointing finger
-and his face lighted up with excitement. The
-“tangle of twigs and branches,” as Billie had described
-it, was close to the side of the fifteen-foot
-“precipice” over which he and Billie had plunged
-a little while before.
-
-The fact that the branches were not covered with
-snow certainly looked as if they had been put there
-rather recently in a crude effort to hide the entrance
-to something—perhaps a cave.
-
-“That’s worth having a look at,” he said, jerking
-the sled up to him and tightening his hold on Billie’s
-arm. “Can you make it, Billie? The snow seems
-to be deeper over this way.”
-
-“Oh, I can make it all right,” answered Billie,
-stoutly, as she clenched her teeth and shut her eyes
-and floundered on through the clinging snow. “I
-guess I’ve got to make it!” she added, to herself.
-
-They had almost reached their goal when suddenly
-they stepped into a hole hidden by the snow and
-sank down in the icy whiteness until Billie was
-almost up to her neck.
-
-“Gosh,” cried Teddy, as he struggled out to
-higher ground, pulling his thoroughly frightened
-companion after him, “I hope there aren’t many
-more places like that around here. We’ll make it
-all right, Billie. Say! you’re not crying, are you?”
-he broke off, with a boy’s utter terror of tears, as
-Billie dug two mittened and numbed hands into her
-smarting eyes.
-
-“No, I’m not crying,” she answered, giving him
-a rather watery smile. “I’m laughing. Can’t you
-see I am?”
-
-“Poor little kid,” said Teddy for the second time
-that afternoon, and the sympathy in his voice pretty
-nearly did send Billie into a downpour of tears.
-She was so thoroughly miserable that it was all she
-could do to keep from wailing her grief aloud. But
-Teddy had put one big protecting arm around her
-now and was half carrying her over to that strange
-object that looked so dark against the gleaming bank
-of snow.
-
-Then he let Billie go, and while she shivered by
-herself he laid hold of the branches and pulled with
-all his might.
-
-“Ooh, look out!” called Billie. “There might be
-a bomb or something at the other end. Oh-h!”
-The queer doorway gave so easily before the boy’s
-strength that he was sent staggering back against
-the snowdrift and sat down in it most uncomfortably.
-
-The next minute he was up again, had swept the
-branches and twigs aside, and was examining the
-exposed opening with all a boy’s eager curiosity.
-Billie peered eagerly over his shoulder.
-
-“What is it?” she asked, breathlessly.
-
-“It’s what I thought it was—a cave,” answered
-Teddy, joyfully. “Come inside, Billie. It will get
-you out of the wind anyway, and give you a chance
-to warm up.” He had put an arm about her again
-and was pushing her forward with his usual impetuosity,
-but Billie hung back.
-
-“We don’t know what’s in there,” she protested,
-but Teddy refused to listen to her.
-
-“We don’t know and we don’t care,” he informed
-her, masterfully, adding as she still hung back:
-“We’ll freeze to death out there, anyway.”
-
-“But, Ted, suppose some wild animal should be
-in there? You know that bears hide in hollow trees
-and caves——”
-
-“Bears sleep most of the winter. Besides, I don’t
-think there are any bears around here.”
-
-“But there might be a—a fox, or a wildcat.”
-
-“I’ll take a chance on that. You must remember,
-the average wild beast will get out of your way if
-you give it half a chance. Come on. As I said before,
-if you stay out here, in this icy wind, you’ll
-surely freeze to death.”
-
-This argument appealed to her, and, with a shivering
-look over her shoulder at the desert of whiteness
-behind, she stepped gingerly into the blackness
-of the cave.
-
-Then with a little nervous giggle she ran back
-again, got behind Teddy and pushed him before
-her.
-
-“Gentlemen first!” she said. “Anyway you’re
-bigger than I am, Ted.”
-
-So Teddy, feeling as important as a boy always
-feels when he is protecting a girl that he likes,
-walked boldly into the cave, stretching a hand behind
-him for Billie to cling to.
-
-“Come on, it’s all right,” he assured her. “You’ll
-get used to the darkness in a minute. The snow
-blinds you. Ouch! What was that?”
-
-Billie gave a little choked scream and would have
-run out into the open again, had not Teddy’s grip
-on her hand prevented.
-
-“Don’t get scared,” the boy said, and bent over
-to examine whatever it was he had stubbed his toe
-against. “I didn’t mean to yell like that, but, gosh,
-that thing did give my toe an awful wallop! I say,
-look at this!” and he held up an object that shone
-wanly white against the blackness of the cave.
-
-Billie, whose eyes had become a little accustomed
-to the darkness, saw that what Teddy held looked
-like an old, broken water pitcher.
-
-“A pitcher,” she said, adding disgustedly: “And
-that was what I was afraid of.”
-
-At the entrance, this queer hole in the mountain
-had been so low that the two had been forced to
-stoop down to avoid knocking their heads on the
-roof of it. But now, as they felt their way cautiously,
-they found to their surprise that they could
-stand upright. The walls also seemed to have
-widened out and they realized with a thrill of excitement
-that they were in a real cave, dug into the
-side of the mountain.
-
-In here it was darker than it had been at the
-entrance, and they had to feel their way about cautiously
-to avoid colliding with each other or the
-walls of the cave.
-
-It was surprisingly warm and snug in there also,
-for the thick snow wrapped them in the warmest
-and fleeciest of blankets, and the only place for old
-Jack Frost to come in was the narrow entrance of
-the cave.
-
-And once assured that the owner of the cave,
-whether man or animal, was at that moment not at
-home, Billie began to feel a sense of exquisite comfort.
-Her teeth had ceased to chatter, they were safe
-from the bitter north wind, and she had Teddy to
-take care of her. What more could any girl want?
-
-As for Teddy, he had evidently found something
-over in one corner of the cave that interested him
-immensely. He had stumbled by accident over what
-seemed to be a pile of old junk, and now he was
-down on his hands and knees trying to satisfy his
-curiosity by the sense of touch.
-
-“Now aren’t I the idiot!” he exclaimed suddenly,
-and Billie started at the sudden sound of his voice
-in the darkness. “Here I go feeling around like a
-blind man when I have some perfectly good matches
-in my pocket. Come on over, Billie, and see what
-I’ve found.”
-
-Guided by the flare of a match, Billie made her
-way across the cave and kneeled down beside the
-boy. Then they both stared in utter amazement at
-what they saw.
-
-Heaped up carelessly in the corner was a mass of
-so many and such queerly assorted articles that it
-is no wonder the boy and girl were puzzled.
-
-There was an old alarm clock, rusty with age and
-disuse, a mirror, several gaudy articles of jewelry
-that looked as if they might have been found in ten-cent
-prize packages, a telephone receiver, a broken
-fishing rod that stood lamely against the wall as
-though ashamed of its own decrepit state, a sawdust
-doll, an empty tin can that evidently had once contained
-bait, a talcum powder box full of scented
-violet talc—Billie smelled it—and—but it would
-take too long to name all the strange things that
-Billie and Teddy found there in the corner of the
-funny little cave.
-
-“Teddy,” murmured Billie as the boy’s match
-burnt out and he struck another one, “what do you
-think these things are for? Who do you suppose
-owns them?”
-
-“How should I know?” asked Teddy, getting to
-his feet and looking eagerly about the place, illumined
-fitfully by the flare of the match. “Somebody
-comes here often, that’s a sure thing. And judging
-by those things,” he waved toward the conglomeration
-of junk in the corner, “he must be pretty
-simple.”
-
-“Oh, Teddy!” breathed Billie, moving closer to
-him. “Suppose he should come and find us here?”
-
-Teddy looked down at her with a grin.
-
-“Why worry?” he asked. “Haven’t you got your
-Uncle Ted?”
-
-He had scarcely spoken when there came a terrifying
-sound. It was a snarl of rage, half-animal,
-half-human.
-
-The half-burned match dropped from Teddy’s
-fingers. They were in the dark.
-
-CHAPTER XI—THE SIMPLETON
-========================
-
-Billie did not cry out. She was either too frightened
-or too brave. But the next minute Teddy’s arm
-had reached out and caught her to him reassuringly.
-
-“It’s all right,” he whispered in her ear. “Just
-hold tight and keep still. I’ll do the talking.”
-
-Cautiously he drew her to the back of the cave,
-and there they turned and waited for whatever was
-to happen. They did not have to wait long.
-
-Some one or something was coming into the cave.
-There was a growling and muttering in the tunnel-like
-entrance and the sounds increased as the intruder
-came slowly nearer.
-
-Then there came a stumbling sound, followed by
-a coarse oath that made Billie clap her hands to her
-ears.
-
-“It’s a man, anyway,” Teddy whispered, adding
-maliciously: “Stubbed his toe on that old pitcher, I
-guess. Glad of it.”
-
-“Oh, Teddy, hush,” whispered Billie frantically.
-“He’ll hear you.”
-
-Evidently the intruder had heard them. He
-stopped short as though listening. Billie and Teddy
-could distinctly hear his heavy breathing while they
-held their own.
-
-Then a hoarse, strident voice challenged them.
-
-“Who are ye?” it cried, menacingly. “Whoever
-y’are ye’ve got to git out. I’ll teach ye to go breakin’
-into my cave and meddlin’ with my things. Come
-out o’thet, will ye?”
-
-For answer, Teddy lighted a match, holding it
-high above his head while he studied the intruder.
-The latter, evidently startled by the sudden light,
-staggered back a little and flung his hand before his
-eyes.
-
-The advantage was all Teddy’s, and for a moment
-it looked as though he would fling himself upon the
-little man who stood cowering there. But he hesitated,
-and while he hesitated the match burned out
-in his fingers and they were left in the dark once
-more.
-
-“Light another match, Teddy—quick,” whispered
-Billie, and he did.
-
-This time the man lowered his hands from before
-his eyes and stood blinking at them foolishly. He
-was so small and so slight and so puny looking in
-every way that the gruff voice with which he had
-greeted them in the beginning seemed little short of
-ridiculous.
-
-And while they stared at the little man and the
-little man stared at them, Teddy’s third match went
-out.
-
-“Gosh,” said he, groping in his pocket for another.
-“I only hope they hold out, that’s all. I’d
-hate to be left in the dark.”
-
-He found a match and lit it rather shakily, for
-the whole thing was beginning to get on his nerves.
-And as the uncertain light flared out once more he
-saw that their queer new friend was holding something
-out to him.
-
-“Don’t touch it,” whispered Billie at his elbow.
-“It might be——”
-
-“But it’s only a candle, Billie, and——” Teddy
-was beginning when the little fellow himself interrupted
-impatiently.
-
-“Light it, light it,” he commanded, glancing nervously
-over his shoulder into the spooky corners of
-the cave. “Your match will be burnt out and we
-will be left in the dark. The dark. I’m afraid of
-the dark. Hurry, hurry!”
-
-To Teddy and Billie at the same instant came the
-startling thought that the man was a lunatic. His
-looks, his voice, his manner, were all proof of it.
-
-And while Teddy lighted the candle with his one
-remaining match, Billie began to shiver wretchedly.
-If only they had not found the old cave everything
-would have been all right. They might even have
-been home by this time. For the moment she had
-forgotten how cold it was outside and that neither
-she nor Teddy knew the way home.
-
-While Teddy glanced about for some place to set
-the lighted candle, she furtively studied the simpleton,
-into whose hiding-place they had been unlucky
-enough to stumble.
-
-He was about twenty-one, she guessed, scarcely
-more than a boy. His features were as small as his
-body, his eyes little and red-rimmed and shifty, with
-an expression of vacancy that made Billie’s blood
-run cold. His hair, as nearly as she could tell in
-the flickering light, was red.
-
-And while Billie watched him, he watched Teddy,
-and she was surprised to see his vacant eyes suddenly
-fill with terror. Then, when Teddy turned
-back, after setting the candle on a projecting piece
-of rock, the simpleton came close to him, holding
-out shaking, imploring hands.
-
-“Have you come to take me away? Have you?”
-he asked wildly, and then as Teddy still continued
-to stare at him, he fell to the ground, groveling in
-the dirt at the boy’s feet.
-
-It was not a pretty sight, and with a little exclamation
-of disgust, Teddy reached down, gripped the
-fellow’s collar and jerked him to his feet.
-
-“For heaven’s sake, get up,” he cried. “What’s
-the matter with you, anyway? I’m not going to
-hurt you.”
-
-“You haven’t come to take me away? You won’t
-put me in prison?” whined the simpleton, shaking
-and trembling there before them till Billie put her
-hands before her eyes to shut out the sight of him.
-“I haven’t done anything! Truly I haven’t! Don’t
-put me in prison. Oh, I’m afraid of the dark. I’m
-afraid of the dark!”
-
-There is no telling how much longer he might
-have gone on in that manner had not Teddy put a
-hand over his mouth and shaken him into silence.
-Billie, cowering back against the wall, had begun
-to cry.
-
-“Now,” growled Teddy, giving one extra shake
-to the whining wretch, “suppose you keep still for
-a minute and try to understand what I am going to
-tell you. We didn’t come into your cave to get you,
-and we’re not going to hurt you if you will do what
-we tell you. We’re lost, and we want to get back
-to Three Towers Hall. Do you suppose you can
-tell us how?”
-
-The simpleton, relieved of his suspicion that they
-had come to do him harm, became suddenly sullen.
-Teddy had to repeat his question before the fellow
-answered.
-
-“I can,” he said then, “if I want to.”
-
-Teddy was about to answer angrily, but he remembered
-that he had heard somewhere that the
-only way you can get anything out of a weak-minded
-person is to humor him.
-
-So he controlled his temper and said that he hoped
-very much that the fellow would want to—and the
-sooner the better, or words to that effect.
-
-“What’s your name?” asked Billie suddenly. It
-was the first time she had spoken, and both Teddy
-and the simpleton started. The latter stared at her
-a moment open-mouthed, and then his manner underwent
-a bewildering change—became softer, more
-normal. Evidently he had not noticed before that
-she was a girl, for she had been nearly hidden behind
-Teddy.
-
-“What’s your name?” asked Billie again.
-
-“Nick Budd, ma’am,” answered the fellow, never
-taking his eyes from Billie’s pretty face. “Son of
-Tim Budd, the gardener up at Three Towers Hall.”
-
-“Oh!” cried Billie delightedly, while Teddy himself
-felt immensely relieved. “Then you will show
-us the way home, won’t you? We’ll be ever so much
-obliged to you.”
-
-“Yes’m,” said the poor simpleton, shuffling his
-feet as though embarrassed. “I’ll show you right
-away. But there’s a powerful lot o’ snow between
-us and the Hall,” he added, as he turned to leave
-the cave.
-
-Teddy started to take the candle to light them out,
-but the simpleton, as though he had eyes in the back
-of his head, turned upon Teddy furiously.
-
-“You let thet candle be,” he cried to the astonished
-boy, while Billie shrank back in fresh alarm.
-“You let thet candle be, I tell you! It’s my candle,
-ain’t it?”
-
-“Whew!” whistled Teddy, feeling a wild desire
-to shout, yet afraid to do it for fear of angering
-still more this poor idiot. “Yes, it’s your candle, old
-man. Be sure you take good care of it. It’s very
-precious.”
-
-The simpleton stared at him suspiciously for a
-moment, then turned his back and led the way out
-of the cave.
-
-“Oh, Teddy, I’m scared to death,” whispered
-Billie, as the boy grabbed tight hold of her hand and
-started to follow Nick Budd.
-
-“You needn’t be,” he whispered back to her. “I
-could clean up that little shrimp with one finger.”
-Which observation, though extremely slangy, was
-very comforting to Billie.
-
-They found the sled outside where Teddy had
-dropped it when they entered the cave, and then there
-began a long, hard struggle with the snow and the
-wind that the boy and girl were to remember long
-afterward.
-
-They did not talk much, for they were too busy
-trying to keep up with Nick Budd as he floundered
-through the snow, and breath was precious. However,
-Billie did find a chance to ask the question that
-had been looming bigger and bigger with each second.
-
-“Teddy, what do you suppose the boys and girls
-will think of our disappearing like that?” she asked
-him.
-
-“I suppose they’ll think we went off in an aeroplane
-or something,” he answered, trying to be funny
-and not succeeding very well.
-
-“Well,” sighed Billie, “I only hope they won’t go
-and say anything about it at school—not till we
-get back and have a chance to explain, anyway.”
-
-Teddy glanced at her quickly.
-
-“Nobody would be mean enough to do that,” he
-said, decidedly.
-
-“No-o, I guess not,” agreed Billie, but in her heart
-she was not at all sure. She was thinking of
-Amanda Peabody.
-
-CHAPTER XII—THE ACCUSATION
-==========================
-
-Nick Budd, plunging on in the snow ahead of
-the young folks, hardly once turned his head to look
-back. Evidently he had made this trip often and
-was used to wading through snow half-way to his
-waist, for he went so swiftly that Teddy was
-winded and Billie pretty nearly worn out when they
-at last reached the road.
-
-Oh, but what a relief it was to step out on its
-hard, crusty firmness after the yielding depth of
-the snow in the field!
-
-Then Nick Budd turned and addressed them for
-the first time since they had left the cave behind
-them.
-
-“This here is the road thet leads to Three
-Towers,” he told them, evidently in a sullen mood
-again. “Jest foller straight and ye’ll git thar.” And
-before either Teddy or Billie had a chance to thank
-him he turned back without another word and
-started to retrace his steps through the heavy snow,
-leaving the two standing in the middle of the road
-staring after him.
-
-Then Billie turned wonderingly to the boy.
-
-“Teddy, isn’t he the queerest thing?” she
-breathed.
-
-Teddy nodded.
-
-“He sure is,” he said, soberly, adding slowly:
-“I’m just wondering what made him so afraid that
-we were going to put him in prison. He was scared
-almost to death until we told him why we had
-come.”
-
-“But he’s a simpleton,” Billie pointed out. “Poor
-thing, I don’t suppose you could count on anything
-he says or does. People who aren’t ‘all there’ have
-moods, don’t they?”
-
-“Is that why you act so funny sometimes?” asked
-Teddy with a grin, and Billie pouted most becomingly.
-
-“I think you’re horrid,” she said, while Teddy’s
-grin became still wider. “Come on, let’s get back.
-I’m freezing to death. Don’t stand there grinning
-like an ape,” she commanded, with an impatient
-stamp of her foot. “You look silly.”
-
-“Like Nick Budd?” asked Teddy good-naturedly,
-and Billie had to smile. “Look here,” he added,
-jerking the sled toward him and motioning to Billie
-to sit on it. “We can get back much more quickly
-if you let me pull you. Get aboard, Miss Billie, and
-I’ll give you a regular sleighride.”
-
-“Oh fine!” cried Billie, as she settled herself comfortably
-on the big sled. “Only I’m ’fraid its rather
-a long pull, Teddy. You may get tired.”
-
-“Just watch me!” cried the boy, and galloped off
-at a great rate, the sled, with Billie clinging wildly
-to it, bumping and swaying over the hard and rough
-road.
-
-Meantime the other boys and girls had been considerably
-alarmed by Teddy’s and Billie’s abrupt
-disappearance. At first they had supposed that the
-two were simply playing a trick on them and would
-appear when they got good and ready.
-
-But as time passed and nothing happened they
-became worried, and even began to talk about a
-search party.
-
-“Though how they could have got lost, I don’t
-know,” Laura had said to an agitated group. “They
-certainly know their way about here well enough.”
-
-“Perhaps they got lost on purpose,” said a nasal
-voice, and Billie’s chums turned indignantly to face
-the speaker. It was Amanda, of course, and beside
-her, so close as to have earned her the title of Amanda’s
-“Shadow,” stood her friend and crony, Eliza
-Dilks.
-
-Laura was about to retort furiously when Billie’s
-brother Chet pushed her aside and faced Amanda.
-
-“If you were a boy, I’d know what to do to you
-for saying a thing like that,” cried the boy, such fury
-in his face that Amanda was frightened. “But since
-you’re a girl I’ll just tell you to lay off that line of
-talk. Billie Bradley is my sister.” As Chet said
-the last words proudly there was many a girl present
-who would have been glad to own a brother as
-loyal as Chet Bradley.
-
-As Amanda muttered something to herself and
-turned away angrily the boys and girls returned to
-the discussion of Billie’s and Teddy’s mysterious
-absence.
-
-“I think,” suggested Paul Martinson, his face
-looking extremely worried, “that we had better
-search through the woods thoroughly in case they
-are lost. Something must have happened to them
-to keep them away this long.”
-
-He had no sooner made the suggestion than it
-was carried into effect, and the girls and boys scattered
-through the woods in search of the two who
-had disappeared.
-
-They returned in a little while, however, dispirited
-and more anxious than ever. There was an attempt
-to go on with the fun in the hope that Teddy and
-Billie would return in a little while to laugh at their
-fears, but it was no use. The fun lagged, and finally
-the girls broke up the party altogether by declaring
-their intention of going back to the school.
-
-“Billie may be at the Hall now for all we know,”
-Connie said hopefully, as they started back along
-the road. “She may have been cold or something
-and asked Teddy to take her home.”
-
-“Humph,” sniffed Laura, “that sounds a lot like
-Billie.”
-
-Nevertheless they did hope that, foolish as it
-sounded, Billie had returned to the Hall before them.
-But when they reached there and found no sign of
-either her or Teddy they were puzzled and more
-worried than ever.
-
-The boys had gone on toward the Academy, and
-there was not one of them who was not disturbed
-in his mind. Teddy was as popular at the Academy
-as Billie was at the Hall, and, besides, Billie was a
-general favorite with all the lads.
-
-“I’ll wait a little while after I get back,” Chet
-told them as they tramped back silently, their sleds
-skidding along behind them, “and then I’ll call up
-the Hall. If Billie isn’t back by then we’ll have to
-notify the police—or something.”
-
-And at the Hall her classmates had decided to
-wait a little while also before they reported Billie’s
-disappearance to Miss Walters.
-
-Probably nothing serious had happened, they
-argued, and if Miss Walters were notified Billie
-might have a lot of explaining to do that otherwise
-she would be saved.
-
-But as the minutes sped by and still no sign of
-Billie, they fidgeted and squirmed and could set
-their minds to nothing.
-
-Then suddenly Connie Danvers rushed into the
-dormitory, her eyes blazing with wrath.
-
-“What do you suppose?” she cried, while the
-girls gathered round her. “I met Caroline Brant in
-the hall just now and she said that Amanda and
-the ‘Shadow’ were spreading the report that Billie
-and Teddy ran away on purpose.”
-
-“Oh, the sneak! The wretched little sneak!”
-cried Laura, making a dash for the door. But she
-stopped suddenly and ran back to Connie. “Has she
-gone to Miss Walters with that report?” she asked,
-her hands working as though she longed to get hold
-of Amanda.
-
-“I don’t think so,” replied Connie. “She hasn’t
-had time yet—Laura! where are you going?” for
-Laura had started for the door again.
-
-“To find Amanda, of course,” Laura cried over
-her shoulder, as she flung out of the room. “I’ll
-see that she doesn’t get to Miss Walters with that
-report.”
-
-“She has the right idea, girls,” said Vi excitedly.
-“We mustn’t let Amanda say such things about
-Billie. Why, if Miss Walters heard it, it would be
-dreadful.”
-
-“Come on then,” said Connie, adding recklessly:
-“We’ll see that Amanda doesn’t squeal if we have
-to gag her.”
-
-They found Amanda and her “Shadow” haranguing
-a group of the younger girls at the end of the
-hall on the first floor. Billie’s champions, coming
-upon the group suddenly, overheard the last of
-Amanda’s speech.
-
-“Of course her friends say that she didn’t do it
-on purpose,” the girl was saying. “But I know
-she did, and I’m going straight to Miss Walters and
-tell her about it.”
-
-Laura started toward the sneak, but she drew
-back so suddenly as nearly to lose her balance and
-had to be steadied by the girls behind her.
-
-For a familiar figure, hidden until that moment
-by the shadows about the great entrance door, suddenly
-swung into the light and faced Amanda.
-
-“Now, what you have said behind my back,” rang
-out a clear voice, “you can tell me to my face!”
-
-“It’s Billie,” gasped Laura, in joyful relief. “Say,
-but she looks good to me.”
-
-“Come on. I have a notion she may need a little
-help,” said Connie, as she made her way to Billie’s
-side, causing the freshmen who had been Amanda’s
-audience to scatter in panic. Laura and Vi and
-several others followed, but Billie did not seem to
-notice them.
-
-Her eyes were still upon Amanda. The latter,
-taken by surprise, at first looked about her for some
-means of escape. Then, seeing that she was cornered,
-she straightened up defiantly and the usual
-sneer overspread her mean features.
-
-“Oh, all right,” she said. “I’m not afraid to tell
-the truth if *you are*. Did you and Teddy Jordon
-have a good time when you ran away to-day?”
-
-“It’s false!” cried Billie furiously. “And I’ll
-make you take it back!”
-
-“What’s this? What’s this?” interrupted a cool
-voice behind them, and Billie turned with tears of
-rage in her eyes to face Miss Arbuckle.
-
-“Miss Arbuckle,” she pleaded tensely, “make her
-take it back—what she said about me. It isn’t true!
-Oh, it isn’t true!”
-
-CHAPTER XIII—BILLIE IS CHOSEN
-=============================
-
-Miss Arbuckle laid a kindly hand on Billie’s
-shoulder and looked at Amanda inquiringly. The
-latter was smiling triumphantly. Billie had done
-what she had hoped she would do. She, Amanda,
-would tell what in her mean little mind she really
-thought was the truth, and get Billie in bad with
-the powers-that-be.
-
-“What is this that you are telling about Beatrice,
-Amanda?” asked Miss Arbuckle, adding, impatient
-of Amanda’s grin: “Be quick about it.”
-
-“She and Teddy Jordon ran off together to-day
-and were gone for about three hours,” she said
-triumphantly. “Billie just came in.”
-
-Billie’s eyes, black in her white, set face, looked
-up at Miss Arbuckle steadily.
-
-“I didn’t do it, Miss Arbuckle,” she said, her lip
-quivering. “I—I couldn’t.”
-
-“I know you couldn’t, Billie Bradley,” said Miss
-Arbuckle, so unexpectedly that Amanda’s mouth
-dropped open from sheer surprise. “There must be
-some mistake.”
-
-“But they were away together for three hours,”
-Amanda repeated, angry at having this tempting
-morsel of revenge snatched away from her at the
-last minute. “I know it.”
-
-“That will do, Amanda,” said Miss Arbuckle
-sternly. “You have been guilty several times of
-starting stories about the girls that have had absolutely
-no foundation in truth. And I warn you that
-if you are caught again in this mischief it may mean
-serious trouble for you.
-
-“You say,” she added turning soberly to Billie,
-“that you and Teddy Jordon did *not* leave the other
-boys and girls this morning?”
-
-“Oh, yes, we did,” said Billie, so eager to explain
-that her words tripped all over themselves. “Only
-we didn’t do it on purpose.”
-
-Miss Arbuckle looked grave and Amanda’s triumphant
-leer returned.
-
-“Please let me explain——” began poor Billie,
-but the teacher interrupted her.
-
-“Yes, I want you to,” she said. “Only not just
-now. Come to me to-morrow morning at nine,
-Billie. And I want you to be there also, Amanda.
-In the meantime,” she added to the latter, “you will
-make no mention of this affair in any way. Do you
-understand?”
-
-Amanda nodded sullenly and at Miss Arbuckle’s
-command the small group of girls that had gathered
-dispersed to their various dormitories, talking
-excitedly of what had happened.
-
-Billie was too tired and cold and worn out with
-conflicting emotions to talk much at first. But
-under the tireless cross-questioning of the girls she
-gradually began to give them the story of her
-remarkable adventure.
-
-They were very much excited about Nick Budd
-and the cave, and declared that they must visit it
-and Billie must show them the way.
-
-But Billie, who was comfortably stretched out
-on her bed with Vi rubbing one half-frozen hand
-and Laura the other, absolutely denied that she
-would do anything of the sort.
-
-“It sounds very interesting now,” she said. “But
-I tell you I was scared to death while it lasted. I
-wouldn’t go back to that place for a million dollars.
-Oh, girls,” she added, stretching luxuriously, “you
-don’t know how heavenly it feels just to be where
-it’s warm.”
-
-“Didn’t Teddy keep you warm?” asked Rose
-Belser, wickedly, but just then the door opened and
-Amanda came into the room. Needless to say,
-Billie did not answer the question.
-
-Promptly at nine o’clock the next morning Billie
-went to Miss Arbuckle and told her the story of the
-yesterday’s adventure just as it had happened, and
-Miss Arbuckle, to Amanda’s immense disgust,
-believed her. A little talk by the teacher on the
-wisdom of taking fewer chances in the future ended
-the interview to which Billie had been looking forward
-with not a little dread. And Amanda found
-herself once more facing the problem of how “to
-get even with Billie Bradley.”
-
-The girls talked and wondered about the queer
-little cave and simple Nick Budd, but as the days
-went on and they were whirled into a veritable
-mælstrom of quizzes and examinations, they gradually
-forgot the incident.
-
-It seemed that the school work was to be unusually
-interesting that year. There were the usual
-number of essays to be written, and for one Miss
-Walters had offered a prize to the girl turning in the
-best work.
-
-The title of the essay was “The World’s Greatest
-Generals,” and any girl in the school was entitled
-to try for it. There were other prizes offered, too,
-but Billie, whose mark in English was usually the
-highest in her class, thought that she would try for
-the composition prize.
-
-Laura and Connie and Rose Belser were going
-to enter the lists with her, but Vi and Nellie Bane
-decided to try for the highest mark in geometry.
-
-“Working for a prize makes the work seem more
-like a game,” said Connie as she happily looked up
-her “greatest generals.” “I’m as excited as if I
-were going to a party.”
-
-“Well, you’d better not get too excited,” advised
-Vi, pulling a lock of her hair absently in order to
-solve a particularly steep problem in her beloved
-geometry. “Billie is sure to come off with the
-essay prize.”
-
-“Oh, she is, is she?” spoke up Rose, who had set
-her heart on the essay prize herself and who could
-never quite stifle her former jealousy of Billie.
-“Well, maybe she is, but I’m going to give her a
-run for her money just the same.”
-
-“Good!” cried Billie, looking up from her book
-and smiling sunnily at Rose. “That’s the kind of
-game I like to play.”
-
-“And how about us?” said Laura, smiling ruefully
-over at fluffy-haired Connie. “We don’t seem
-to be in this at all.”
-
-Besides their studies, the girls had the Ghost Club
-to think about and the importance of initiating new
-members. They had decided upon two of the freshmen
-for the honor, one, a fair-haired intelligent
-girl named Ann Fleming and the second a laughing
-imp of a girl with red hair and red-brown eyes who
-bore the name of Ada Slope.
-
-Both girls stood well in their studies and showed
-a remarkable popularity among their classmates
-considering the short time they had been at the Hall.
-
-And of course they were overwhelmed with joy
-when Billie drew them aside one day and ordered
-them to be in the gymnasium at not later than nine
-o’clock that night.
-
-They were there before nine, shivering in the
-darkness of the big gymnasium and wishing that
-this fearful business of being initiated were over
-and done with.
-
-A few minutes later the “ghosts” arrived and put
-the girls through a series of trials that tested their
-courage and endurance to the limit.
-
-They were made to “walk the plank” blindfolded;
-they were prepared for “branding with a red-hot
-poker” and then touched with a lump of ice that
-made them cry out in imagined pain; they were
-handed all sorts of slimy things, harmless in themselves
-but terrifying to the overstrained nerves of
-the girls.
-
-But they came out of the test with flying colors,
-and the members of the club were well satisfied with
-their choice.
-
-“And now,” said Rose Belser—who was still
-president of the club—as the handkerchiefs were
-removed from the eyes of the new members, “we are
-about to put to the test a new rule suggested by a
-fellow ghost.”
-
-The girls held their breath, for the announcement
-was a surprise to all but Billie, who had herself made
-the suggestion.
-
-“It occurred to this fellow-member of our illustrious
-club,” Rose went on in a deep voice, looking
-very weird and ghostly in her long white ceremonial
-robe, with only slits cut in it for the eyes and
-nose and mouth, “that it is only fair to the new
-members who have stood the test, to suggest some
-difficult feat for one of the old members to perform—this
-person to be chosen by the new members
-of the club.”
-
-The girls were silent for a moment, sitting there
-like so many actual ghosts in their white robes, and
-they thrilled with excitement as they realized the
-possibilities of the new rule if it should be accepted.
-
-It was fair, for it would give the girls who had
-gone through the hazing a chance to “get even,”
-and it would also be lots of fun for themselves.
-So when Rose called in a sepulchral voice for a vote,
-there was a unanimous cry of “aye.”
-
-Billie smiled under her white mask gleefully. She
-had known that the girls would be good sports.
-
-“The suggestion has been unanimously accepted,”
-Rose rumbled on in the deep voice she adopted for
-such occasions. “Fellow ghosts, we will now withdraw
-and give our fellow members a chance to consult
-upon this important topic.”
-
-“You don’t have to withdraw,” cried red-haired
-Ada Slope, with a giggle that she could not entirely
-suppress, despite the “seriousness of the occasion.”
-“I’ll give a nickel to any girl who will climb up into
-tower number three with only a candle to see by.”
-
-“And I’ll give a dime,” said Ann Fleming decidedly.
-
-A ripple of very human laughter ran through
-the ghosts, and Rose had to demand order three
-times before she was obeyed.
-
-“Very well,” she said then. “Our new members
-have decided. It now remains for them to select
-one among our number to do this mighty deed.
-Advance, new members of the Ghost Club!
-Choose!”
-
-Ann Fleming put out her hand and touched one
-white-robed figure.
-
-“I choose this one,” she said.
-
-“’Tis done!” cried Ada Slope, dramatically.
-
-Oh, poetic justice! For the chosen one was
-Billie!
-
-CHAPTER XIV—A BLOOD-STAINED HANDKERCHIEF
-========================================
-
-The next problem was to find the candle for the
-“ghost” to carry up to the gloomy heights of tower
-number three. Ada Slope, little minx that she was,
-had chosen this particular one of the three towers
-for which the Hall was named, because of a legend
-among the girls, starting from goodness knows
-where, that this tower was haunted.
-
-Now Billie was not by any means a coward, and
-she had proved by her behavior in the spooky old
-mansion at Cherry Corners that she was not inclined
-to belief in or fear of ghosts.
-
-Yet when Ada Slope ran hastily up to her room
-and returned bearing a tiny Christmas candle, which
-was all that Billie was to have to accompany her
-on her perilous journey, it must be admitted that her
-heart began to beat a little faster and she was guilty
-for a moment of wishing that Ada Slope had picked
-on any other girl but herself.
-
-However, she acted so perfectly that there was
-not one of her chums but who thought that she was
-delighted at the chance to explore the gloomy old
-tower—with one little candle for company!
-
-“Suppose—” she thought to herself as Laura
-lighted the candle for her—or at least she thought
-it was Laura; they all looked pretty much alike in
-their ghostly robes—“suppose it should go out when
-I reach the top of the tower and I should have to
-find my way back in the dark!”
-
-“Courage,” Rose Belser cried, as she pushed
-Billie toward the door, the candle flickering in her
-hand. “There are those who say that tower number
-three is haunted. But let me remind you, friend,
-that a ghost is never afraid of a ghost. Farewell!”
-
-This was not a very encouraging speech, though
-Billie could not help giggling about it as she climbed
-the back stairs to the first floor.
-
-The house was as still as death, for it was after
-ten o’clock now, and everybody, even Miss Walters,
-seemed to be in bed.
-
-Billie almost ran up the second and third flights,
-stumbling over her white robe and shielding the
-flickering candle with her hand for fear it would
-go out.
-
-When she reached the fourth floor, which was
-really the attic, she went more slowly, for the place
-was dark and “spooky”—so she said—and the noise
-of her footsteps frightened her. The tiny light of
-her candle seemed to make the shadowy corners of
-the place all the more startlingly black.
-
-Once she thought she heard a noise and stopped
-short, her heart beating suffocatingly in her throat.
-But it was only the wind sighing drearily around
-the place, and she went on again, more slowly now,
-starting at every real or imaginary sound.
-
-The stairway that led to the third tower was at
-the very end of the long attic, and as she came near
-to it Billie’s courage almost failed her. It seemed
-to her that something sinister and terrible was
-closing in around her, and she pressed her hand
-against her mouth to keep from screaming.
-
-She could see the dim outline of the stairway
-right before her, but she was afraid to go forward—and
-she dared not go back.
-
-What would the girls say if she went back to them
-and confessed that she had been too cowardly to
-stand the test? She would be disgraced forever in
-the eyes of her chums, her reputation for daring and
-bravery would be gone, she might even be asked to
-resign from the Ghost Club.
-
-For a long minute she stood there, fighting the
-desire to rush back to friends and human companionship.
-Then, with a sharp intake of breath, she
-forced herself to approach the stairs.
-
-With every step she stopped and listened, glancing
-about her fearfully. But nothing save the sound
-of her own rapid breathing broke the musty, heavy
-silence of the place.
-
-“I must go on, I must go on!” she kept telling herself
-over and over again. “To the very top of the
-tower—to the top of the tower——”
-
-What was that?
-
-A rattling, a scurrying, a scratching of tiny feet
-across the floor. Billie screamed, but stifled the
-sound half way by stuffing a handkerchief into her
-mouth. Her eyes were wide with terror, her hair
-began to stand on end, and with a little moan she
-made a rush for the stairs up which she had come
-a minute before.
-
-She had almost reached them when by the light
-of her candle she saw something running across the
-floor. It was a mouse. Weakly she leaned against
-the wall, trying to summon what remained of her
-courage.
-
-“They’re only mice, silly—they can’t hurt you,”
-she told herself, while her hand shook so that she
-could scarcely hold the candle. Then a sudden
-thought made her start back for the tower stairs
-almost on a run. The candle was burning low.
-She must hurry or she would be left in the dark.
-Just a quick dive up the stairs to the tower room and
-the deed would be done. She could go back then,
-to friends and lights and adulation. For she would
-be able to tell them proudly that she had done what
-no other girl had dared to do—climbed to the top
-of tower three.
-
-With such thoughts she bolstered up her courage
-and ran swiftly up the stairs. But the “swish” of
-her garments in that silent place frightened her and
-she stopped before she had quite reached the top.
-She listened intently.
-
-Was it imagination, or had she really heard that
-eerie whisper in her ear, felt the soft brushing of a
-dress against hers? Of course it was only imagination.
-She mustn’t think such things or she could
-never climb to the top of those hateful stairs. She
-must go on and on—to the top—the very top—Again
-that scurrying and squealing as she disturbed
-another nest of mice. She grasped the banister
-frantically to steady herself.
-
-She must go up—up——Finally she had reached
-the top of the stairs, and for one joyful minute she
-thought that she had climbed to the top of the tower.
-She could go back again to the girls—she had turned
-toward the stairs when her eye fell on an object that
-made her breath catch in her throat.
-
-Revealed by the uncertain flare of the candle was
-a ladder, leading apparently to some room above.
-Of course, that must be the tower room. Then she
-still had some climbing to do before her task was
-finished.
-
-Billie’s heart sank as she approached the ladder,
-stumbling over bits of junk and rubbish that littered
-the floor. She must hurry, too, for the candle was
-burning down and she must not be left in the dark
-in that place. She would go crazy—or something.
-
-Outside the wind was rising, and it wailed around
-the corners of the old building with an unspeakably
-weird and mournful sound that filled Billie with a
-dreadful premonition of evil.
-
-She really felt, as she hesitated at the foot of the
-ladder, that she must get back to the girls or she
-would go mad. Her knees were trembling so that
-she was afraid she could never climb the ladder to
-the top.
-
-But she must do it or go back to the girls disgraced.
-
-One hand grasped the rung above her head while
-the other held aloft the flickering candle and she
-began the difficult climb, hampered by the long white
-robe that clung like something alive about her
-ankles and by the necessity of holding the candle.
-
-Four rungs, five rungs, six rungs—was the ladder
-a mile long? she wondered, while the wind wailed
-still more dismally about the house.
-
-Then at last she reached the top. Her candle
-showed a small door not more than four feet high—the
-door to the tower room.
-
-Her hand felt for the knob. She grasped it.
-The door was locked. To make sure, Billie gave
-the door a vigorous shake, and as it did so something
-white and soft fluttered to her feet and fell on
-the top rung of the ladder.
-
-For a minute Billie felt faint and dizzy, and she
-had to cling to the ladder desperately to keep from
-falling.
-
-The next moment she saw that what had frightened
-her was only a handkerchief, and she stooped
-to pick it up. It was old and stained. What was
-that stain upon it?
-
-She brought the little square of linen closer to her
-eyes and then with a stifled scream she flung it from
-her while the candle fell from her nerveless fingers
-and went out, leaving her in the dark.
-
-The stain on the handkerchief was *blood*!
-
-Billie never remembers to this day how she got
-out of that awful place. Someway she half fell,
-half scrambled down the ladder, stumbled and fell
-and stumbled again in her mad rush across the pitch-black
-attic to the head of the stairs.
-
-Then down, down, down, a countless number of
-stairs that came up and hit her in the face—down,
-down to the gymnasium where thousands of ghostly
-figures rushed at her——
-
-“Oh, what could have happened to have frightened
-her so?” she heard a voice saying from a long,
-long distance, and she opened her eyes to find
-Laura’s white face bending anxiously over her while
-other white-faced girls stared at her pityingly.
-
-She struggled to her feet, but her knees wavered
-so that she sat down again quite suddenly.
-
-“What’s the matter with you all?” she asked, then
-as the memory of what had happened came back to
-her in a flood she shuddered and instinctively she
-looked down at her hands to see if they still held
-that piece of linen with the stains upon it.
-
-“Oh, I remember,” she murmured, as though
-talking to herself. The girls were watching her
-anxiously. “I threw it away.”
-
-“What, honey?” asked Laura gently.
-
-“The blood-stained handkerchief!”
-
-CHAPTER XV—A DISCOVERY
-======================
-
-It took the other girls some time to get the whole
-story from Billie, but when she had stammered it
-out to them they broke into a babel of excited
-exclamations that threatened to bring one of the
-teachers to their hiding place.
-
-It was Billie herself who thought of this danger
-and who finally managed to calm them down a
-little.
-
-“Not so loud,” she entreated, still feeling faint
-and shaky from her experience. “You know what
-will happen if somebody finds us here.”
-
-“But Billie,” protested Laura, though her voice
-sank to a more cautious whisper, “we’ve got to do
-something about it, you know. There may have
-been a murder or something up there.”
-
-“Perhaps we’d better all go back with Billie and
-try to get into that little room at the head of the
-ladder,” suggested one of the girls, but the mere
-idea made Billie shudder.
-
-“You can go,” she said decidedly. “But I’m
-through for to-night.”
-
-“Oh, well, if you won’t go,” said the girl dejectedly,
-“it’s all off, of course. We need a guide——”
-
-“I don’t see why,” protested Billie. “Nobody
-gave me a guide.”
-
-“No. And it was a shame to send you away up
-there all alone,” said Vi, putting a protecting arm
-about her. “It’s a wonder you didn’t die of fright.”
-
-“I suppose,” said Ann Fleming, thoughtfully,
-“we might tell one of the teachers about it—or
-Miss Walters, perhaps—and she could go with us
-up to the tower——”
-
-“Say,” interrupted Rose Belser with her most
-pronounced drawl, as she looked contemptuously
-upon the freshman who had proposed so foolish a
-thing, “it’s easy to see you haven’t been at Three
-Towers long, Ann. Now just what do you suppose
-would happen if we told Miss Walters that we were
-up after hours initiating and doing stunts?”
-
-“I—I didn’t think of that,” stammered Ann,
-completely crushed.
-
-“I thought you didn’t,” answered Rose dryly.
-
-For some time afterward the girls discussed in
-awed whispers the startling thing that had happened,
-and then somebody suddenly conceived the idea that
-it would not be a bad thing to go to bed.
-
-Billie was looking very white and shaky after her
-ordeal. Then, too, it was getting late, and there
-was always the chance of discovery by some “over-curious
-teacher.”
-
-“But I’ll never, never, sleep a wink,” said Vi, as
-they filed ghost-like out of the gymnasium. “I know
-I’ll be dreaming of blood-stained handkerchiefs all
-night long.”
-
-“And I don’t think it’s fair,” pouted Connie,
-“for Billie to have all the adventures. First she gets
-lost with Teddy and discovers a perfectly good cave,
-and then she unearths a thrilling mystery, like this.
-Too much good luck for one person.”
-
-“Good luck!” repeated Billie ruefully. “Well, if
-you call *that* good luck, I certainly would hate to
-be the one to find out what bad luck is.”
-
-“Hush,” ordered Rose, once more assuming the
-deep voice of the head of the ghosts. “Some one
-may hear you and we’ll all be shot at sunrise.”
-
-“I never get up that early,” giggled Laura.
-
-Many and varied were the plans the girls made
-for a storming of tower number three in the hope
-of solving the mystery of that little locked door and
-the blood-stained handkerchief. However, there
-seemed to be so many obstacles in the way of carrying
-out these plans that they reluctantly decided to
-give up the idea, at least for the time being.
-
-“And, anyway,” Laura had said in one of their
-discussions, “the blood stains on that handkerchief
-might not have meant anything mysterious at all.
-Maybe somebody had a nose-bleed.”
-
-“How romantic!” drawled Rose while the other
-girls giggled at the idea.
-
-Their studies and the race for prizes absorbed
-the classmates in the days that followed and gradually
-the mystery, if indeed it was a mystery, faded
-from their minds.
-
-Billie worked hard, and thought she was getting
-along finely. She commenced to grow a trifle pale,
-and at this Vi and Laura shook their heads.
-
-“Don’t overdo it, Billie,” said Vi.
-
-“No kind of prize is worth one’s health,” added
-Laura.
-
-“Don’t worry about me,” declared Billie, with a
-smile. “I know what you want to do—make me
-let up so you can pass me.”
-
-“Oh, you know better than that!” cried Laura.
-
-“Of course she does,” came from Vi. “Now remember,
-don’t study so hard that you get sick.”
-
-“No danger,” retorted Billie airily.
-
-It was nearly a week later when Billie suddenly
-realized that there was another thing they had
-almost forgotten, and that was Polly Haddon and
-her unhappy little family.
-
-“And poor little Peter!” said Vi penitently, when
-Billie spoke to her about it. “He must be either
-better or dead by this time.”
-
-“Suppose we go over to-morrow”—the next day
-being Saturday—Laura suggested. “We can walk
-to town first. Or maybe we can get Tim Budd to
-drive us over in the wagon. We can get some good
-canned stuff, soups and things, and take them over
-to the Haddons when we go.”
-
-The next day the girls sought out Tim Budd, who
-was the gardener at the Hall and who was also, alas!
-the father of poor, simple Nick Budd with whom
-Teddy and Billie had had so queer an experience.
-After a great deal of coaxing, they succeeded in getting
-the gardener to take them to town in the carryall.
-From this it may be seen that Tim acted as
-chauffeur also upon occasion.
-
-They were in hilarious spirits all the way to the
-town and back again, and it was not until they had
-almost reached Three Towers that Vi made a suggestion
-that somehow clouded their faces.
-
-“Suppose she won’t accept these things?” she
-said, giving the well-stocked basket at her feet a
-little shove. “You said yourself she was awfully
-proud, Billie.”
-
-Billie looked sober for a moment, but Laura, as
-ever, found something to laugh at.
-
-“Why worry about that?” said the incorrigible
-one, gaily. “If she doesn’t want ’em we’ll have a
-midnight feast and use them ourselves.”
-
-Tim Budd let them out at the Hall and they
-walked the rest of the way to the little cottage.
-Mrs. Haddon herself opened the door, but she
-looked so pale and wan that they hardly recognized
-her.
-
-The woman welcomed the girls absently, as if
-her mind were a great way off, but when her eyes
-fell on the basket a resigned little smile played about
-her lips.
-
-“More charity,” she muttered, as though to herself.
-“Well, I will take it because I must. But I’ll
-pay it back.” She turned proudly upon the girls
-and her fine eyes flashed. “No one can say of
-Polly Haddon that she left her debts unpaid.”
-
-Taken aback by this unexpected declaration, the
-girls said nothing, but shifted their feet uneasily,
-wishing fervently that Polly Haddon would turn the
-fire of her black eyes on something else.
-
-But almost instantly the woman’s mood became
-softer, and, seeing the girls’ embarrassment, she
-tried to put them at their ease.
-
-“Thank you so much,” she said. “Won’t you sit
-down? The basket is heavy and you have come a
-long way.”
-
-The girls, not knowing what else to do, sat down
-on the three spindly chairs awkwardly enough, and
-Laura and Vi sent distress signals Billie-wards.
-For Billie was always their spokesman.
-
-So Billie, who had been as much abashed as any
-of them at their rather queer reception, found her
-tongue with difficulty and asked Mrs. Haddon how
-Peter was.
-
-“He is dreadfully low,” Mrs. Haddon answered
-softly. Her head drooped wearily and her hands
-were crossed listlessly in front of her. “The doctor
-says it is not even an even chance whether he lives
-or dies.”
-
-The girls murmured their very real sympathy,
-and Billie started to ask another question when the
-door at the other end of the room opened and the
-two little girls, Mary and Isabel, entered.
-
-At sight of the visitors they looked startled and
-started to retreat, but their mother called to them.
-
-“Come here,” she said, and the children sidled
-slowly up to her where they stood, their large eyes
-fixed shyly on the girls. “Don’t you know these
-young ladies?” asked the mother, putting an arm
-about each of the poor little thin things caressingly
-and drawing them up close to her. “They are the
-ones who brought you home that day that you were
-naughty and ran away, and they have been very kind
-to us since.”
-
-There was a slight sound from the room beyond
-where poor little Peter lay so desperately ill, and
-Mrs. Haddon rose suddenly, leaving the two little
-girls and the three big girls together.
-
-It would have been hard to tell at first who was
-the most embarrassed. But as no children had ever
-known to resist Billie for very long, the two
-little Haddons were soon won over and chatted to
-the three big girls in careless, innocent child fashion.
-
-“We get good things to eat now,” said Isabel,
-confidentially, speaking of the thing that loomed
-biggest and most important in her starved little life.
-“A man comes almost every night with a basket—just
-like this,” and she eyed the basket which the
-girls had brought with hungry eyes.
-
-“Yes, an’ he’s a funny little man, too,” added
-Mary, her big eyes round with eagerness. “He has
-whiskers and he stoops—dreadful.”
-
-A glance of understanding passed between the
-chums.
-
-“That description——” Vi began.
-
-“Suits Tim Budd——” added Laura.
-
-“To a T,” finished Billie.
-
-CHAPTER XVI—CHRISTMAS CHEER
-===========================
-
-So Miss Walters was seeing to it that Polly
-Haddon received food regularly—“almost every
-night!” Of course Miss Walters had promised to
-look out for the family, but the girls had hardly
-expected her to be so generous.
-
-And while they were still turning the revelation
-over wonderingly in their minds, Polly Haddon
-called to them softly from the other room.
-
-It was a bare little room into which they stepped—barer
-and poorer than even they had imagined.
-And in the midst of a little iron bed lay Peter, so
-pathetically white and emaciated that it tore their
-hearts to look at him.
-
-“Is he very bad?” asked Billie, turning to weary-eyed
-Polly Haddon.
-
-“The doctor says he almost surely will die,”
-answered the latter in a toneless voice. “He has
-just one chance out of a hundred.”
-
-And as though speaking the doctor’s name had
-brought him there, the big man himself entered at
-that moment and the girls took that opportunity to
-say good-bye.
-
-“Poor little Peter,” sighed Billie, as they walked
-slowly homeward. “I suppose if he dies poor Mrs.
-Haddon will nearly die too.”
-
-“I wish there was something we could do,” said
-Vi, frowning.
-
-“I don’t know what more we could do than we
-have done,” said Laura gloomily.
-
-“Except,” said Billie thoughtfully, her eyes fixed
-on the far horizon, “find that invention of hers.
-I imagine that would make her so happy that she
-might even persuade poor little Peter to live.”
-
-“Good gracious!” cried Laura, throwing up her
-hands in a despairing gesture. “She’s raving again,
-girls, she’s raving again!”
-
-Billie laughed, but her eyes were still very thoughtful.
-
-But the holiday season was upon them and it
-was impossible for the girls to be gloomy or unhappy
-for very long. They wished with all their hearts
-that Polly Haddon and her pathetic little brood
-might be made happy and prosperous once more,
-but even while they were wishing they could not
-shake off the exultant thought that Christmas was
-coming. And Christmas to most of them meant
-home and family and turkeys and cranberry sauce
-and presents—oh, oodles of presents!
-
-“No holiday quite as good as good old Christmas,”
-observed Laura, gaily, as she danced around
-with a package she had just been doing up in a red
-ribbon.
-
-“I’m with you on that,” declared Billie. “Oh,
-do you know, sometimes I can hardly wait until
-Christmas comes!”
-
-“But you’ll wait just the same,” drawled Vi.
-“We all will.”
-
-“It’s waiting that makes it worth while,” declared
-Billie. “It’s like the small boy and the circus.
-Tell him in the morning that you will take him in
-the afternoon and it doesn’t amount to much. But
-tell him a month ahead and he’ll get a whole month’s
-fun out of it before it comes off.”
-
-“All right, Billie, I’ll tell you a secret,” whispered
-Vi, with a twinkle in her eyes. “About a year from
-now we’ll have another Christmas. Now is your
-time to start thinking about it.” And then there
-were giggles all around.
-
-“I’ll wait for one Christmas to be over before I
-think of the next,” declared Billie.
-
-Billie had asked Connie Danvers to come home
-with her for over the holidays, but Connie, after,
-writing eagerly home for permission, had had to
-refuse the invitation. Mrs. Danvers thanked Mrs.
-Bradley and Billie, but there was to be a big reunion
-of the Danvers family that Christmas and they had
-all counted on having Connie with them. If Billie
-could come home with Connie for Christmas—but
-here Billie shook her head decidedly, though the
-invitation was an enticing one. She knew that her
-mother would certainly want her at home for the
-most wonderful day in all the year.
-
-And so when the time came, the classmates went
-their several ways after many fond embraces had
-been exchanged—to say nothing of various mysterious
-little green- and red-ribboned parcels.
-
-The Christmas spirit is a wonderful thing, intangible,
-yet so real that even the most hardened old
-reprobate will thrill to the magic of it. And as these
-girls were neither hardened nor reprobates, they
-were kept in a continual state of excitement and joyful
-anticipation for two whole weeks before the
-great day arrived.
-
-Ever since the opening of Three Towers Hall in
-the fall, the girls had used their spare moments to
-sew on little mysterious things which were immediately
-hidden upon the arrival of any of their fellow
-students, and now these same pieces of needlework
-began to blossom forth in gay be-ribboned
-boxes that passed between the girls in a continual
-stream.
-
-Sometimes one would be found between the sheets
-of a girl’s bed when she jumped in at night and the
-touch of it would elicit a muffled shriek, to be followed
-by hysterical giggles when the gift was pulled
-from its hiding place and disclosed in all its glory to
-be admired and exclaimed over by the girls who had
-not been lucky enough to bark their shins on gifts
-of their own.
-
-And sometimes another be-ribboned parcel would
-find its way into the stocking of a lucky maiden
-while she slept or be discovered in an out-of-the-way
-corner of her desk, nearly covered by books and
-papers.
-
-And as the time drew still nearer, even interest
-in their studies flagged, and the teachers, wisely
-forbearing to force them, entered into the fun themselves,
-knowing that one could not study much while
-the Christmas cheer was in the air.
-
-The girls had fondly hoped that Teddy and Chet
-and Ferd would be able to make the return trip
-with them, but as Boxton Academy did not close
-for the holidays until the day after the official closing
-of Three Towers, the girls were forced to give
-up the idea.
-
-“Oh, well,” Billie said resignedly, “as long as they
-get there for Christmas it will be time enough.”
-
-The day of release came at last and found the
-three North Bend girls doing a two-step of impatience
-on the station platform, waiting for the train,
-which was already half an hour late.
-
-“Goodness, but your bag looks stuffed, Billie,”
-remarked Laura, stopping before Billie’s big suitcase
-whose bulging sides did look as though they might
-burst at any moment and disgorge the contents.
-
-“It has twenty presents in it,” confided Billie,
-surveying her fat property with a loving eye. “I
-only hope it holds out till we get home, that’s all!”
-
-Then the train puffed around the bend and slowed
-up to the station. And several hours later three very
-much flushed, very much excited, and very pretty
-young girls popped off the train at North Bend and
-straight into the arms of their doting families.
-
-“Merry Christmas!” they cried to every one in
-general and no one in particular. “Merry Christmas!
-Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Oh,
-isn’t it glorious to be at home!”
-
-The boys arrived the next day, and they all had a
-great reunion at Billie’s home, where they exchanged
-presents and talked in hushed tones of what they
-hoped that Santa Claus would bring them—to-morrow!
-For this was Christmas Eve!
-
-But the party broke up soon, and they all went
-to bed early so that they could get up at six o’clock
-the next morning—at the very latest.
-
-Oh, the fun of anticipating and the joy of Christmas
-Day. First of all, the bulging stocking with
-its lumps of coal and pieces of carefully wrapped
-sugar with really pretty things stuck in between.
-
-Then the mad rush for the Christmas tree and the
-admiring exclamations over its glittering beauty.
-And then—the opening of the gay, be-ribboned
-boxes. The laughter, the joy, the tears, as each
-little parcel disclosed something prettier or funnier
-or dearer than the last. It was all so wonderful
-that it was a pity it could not have lasted forever.
-
-Then, after Christmas, one glorious, ecstatic week
-of fun that passed like a day. There were dances
-and parties and sleighrides and so many other festivities
-that there was hardly a minute of the day
-that was not accounted for.
-
-It was not till the week was almost over that the
-girls thought penitently of the Haddons.
-
-“I wonder,” said Billie, as she turned over and
-over in her fingers a ten dollar gold piece that had
-been a gift from an aunt, “what kind of Christmas
-poor little Peter has had.”
-
-“Oh, for goodness’ sake, Billie!” Laura replied a
-little impatiently, “what is the use of spoiling all our
-fun by bringing up the unhappiness of some one
-else? We can’t help it if the Haddons haven’t had
-as nice a Christmas as we have. We certainly have
-done all we could.”
-
-But Vi had been eyeing Billie’s gold piece, and
-suddenly she had a bright idea all her own.
-
-“Listen,” she said, pulling out her pocket book
-and fumbling in it eagerly. She brought out a glistening
-five dollar gold piece. “We all got a little
-money in gold this Christmas. Suppose we do it up
-in a box and leave it at the Haddons’ door when we
-get back. We have enough money to get along with
-for the rest of the term, anyway.”
-
-For a moment Laura looked a little undecided, but
-Billie jumped up, ran over to Vi and hugged her.
-
-“You’re a perfect angel!” she cried. “That’s just
-exactly what I was thinking myself. Only I wasn’t
-going to ask you girls. I was just going to leave
-mine and say nothing about it.”
-
-“Oh, well,” grumbled Laura, taking her own
-bright coin from its hiding place and handing it over
-reluctantly. “If you girls are going to be foolish
-I suppose I’ve got to be too. Only it’s no joke,”
-she added, in a plaintive tone that made the girls
-giggle, “when you think of all the sodas and candy
-it would buy!”
-
-At last the long anticipated holidays were at an
-end and after a few days of readjustment at the
-school, the classmates settled down to work in earnest.
-For the rest of the semester was crowded with
-work and the prizes were held out as a glittering bait
-to spur them on to fresh endeavor.
-
-Only once, after their return to the Hall, the
-girls found time to run over to see the Haddons,
-hoping to be able to hide the generous gift they had
-decided to make in some inconspicuous place where
-it would not be discovered until they had had time
-to make their escape.
-
-Polly Haddon seemed very glad indeed to see
-them, but she had no good news to report of Peter.
-He was still very low, but the doctor, great man
-that he was, was bending every energy to bring him
-through.
-
-“But he will die,” said the mother, despairingly.
-“There is so little left of him now that I wonder
-that every breath he draws is not his last. Oh, my
-little boy! My poor little boy! I’ll not let him be
-taken from me!”
-
-They comforted her as best they could, and then
-Billie, to the astonishment of her chums, began asking
-questions about the knitting machinery model,
-the disappearance of which had so changed life for
-this distracted woman.
-
-“Was the model large or was it small, so that it
-could easily be stolen and hidden away?” she asked,
-while Polly Haddon looked up at her with something
-like surprise in her black eyes.
-
-“It was large,” she answered. “And rather
-heavy. It could not be easily stolen, and neither
-could it have been hidden away in any small place.
-That is why we wondered. But why do you ask?”
-
-“I don’t know,” answered Billie honestly. “Perhaps
-it is just because I would like to help you so
-much.”
-
-The woman reached over and patted her hand
-gently, but her eyes had become listless again.
-
-“You—everybody—have been so good to me,” she
-said, tonelessly. “I don’t know why you have been
-so good—no one ever was before. But there is one
-thing you can not do for me. You can not restore
-my poor husband’s invention, the loss of which
-caused his death. That would be a miracle. And in
-these days no one is working miracles.”
-
-Mrs. Haddon left the room for a moment, and in
-that moment Billie slipped the little box containing
-their three precious gold pieces behind the alarm
-clock that stood on a shelf over the sink.
-
-The woman returned before Billie had quite finished,
-but she was too worried and anxious and
-unhappy to notice anything unusual. And the little
-box was still safe in its hiding place when the girls
-took their leave a few minutes later.
-
-“Won’t she be surprised when she finds it?”
-crowed Vi delightedly. “I feel like Santa Claus.”
-
-“Well, you don’t look like it,” returned Laura,
-“Your face isn’t red enough.”
-
-CHAPTER XVII—BILLIE ON GUARD
-============================
-
-From this remark of Laura’s it may be easily
-seen that she was still a little grouchy about having
-to give up five dollars’ worth of sodas and candy.
-But away down in her heart she derived more real
-pleasure from the thought of what her gold piece
-would buy for the Haddons than she would out of
-a great deal more than five dollars’ worth of pleasure
-for herself.
-
-“Billie,” spoke up Vi suddenly after they had
-walked some little way in silence, “what did you ask
-Mrs. Haddon about that lost invention for?”
-
-“Yes, it sounded as if you really knew something
-about it,” Laura took her up eagerly. “You don’t,
-do you?”
-
-“Not a thing in the world,” Billie replied quickly.
-“Only,” she added slowly, the same thoughtful look
-in her eyes that had been there before, “so many
-queer things have happened to me lately that I’m
-getting sort of queer myself, I guess. I can’t help
-thinking about that cave Teddy and I found.”
-
-“Well, I don’t blame you for thinking of it,” said
-Laura, looking curiously at her chum. “I think of it
-myself—quite often. But what has that to do with
-the stolen machinery models?”
-
-“Nothing, of course,” said Billie, adding as the
-three towers of the grand old Hall loomed into
-view. “But I would like to have a look at the inside
-of that cave again. Maybe the models were taken
-there and broken up. The cave was full of junk.”
-
-Laura, really curious by this time, was about to
-put a question when she saw Amanda and the
-“Shadow” approaching, and the question died in her
-throat.
-
-The three classmates, who never deliberately
-“cut” anybody, nodded to the two girls in a friendly
-enough manner, but the latter looked straight at
-them and never so much as winked an eye.
-
-“Whew!” whistled Laura, softly, as the chums
-stopped and looked back after the unmannerly girls.
-“Cut, by jinks!”
-
-“And by Amanda, of all people!” added Vi, in the
-same tone.
-
-“Well, come on,” said Billie, and she turned and
-led the way up the steps. “There’s no use standing
-there and looking after them like a lot of wooden
-Indians. I’d like—” she added, her temper getting
-the better of her for the moment, “I would like to
-wring that girl’s neck.”
-
-“Do you know,” said Vi a few minutes later
-when they were washing themselves in the dormitory,
-“that Amanda has entered for the composition
-prize?”
-
-The girls looked at her unbelievingly.
-
-“Amanda!” cried Billie, laughing at the absurdity
-of the thing. “Why, Amanda can hardly write her
-own name. You know that.”
-
-“Of course I know it,” agreed Vi, scrubbing her
-face vigorously. “That’s why it seems so silly.
-Unless she has something up her sleeve,” she added
-meaningly.
-
-“How did you find out?” asked Laura, curling up
-on the bed and regarding her chum severely. “Did
-she tell you?”
-
-“Tell me!” repeated Vi with a chuckle. “That *is*
-a good one. No, I just happened to overhear her
-telling Eliza that she had entered for the composition
-prize and that she was going to give Billie
-Bradley the surprise of her life.”
-
-“She surely does love me,” sighed Billie, as she
-pulled her pretty curls into place. “I don’t see why
-she doesn’t pick on somebody else for a change.”
-
-“Well, you’d better look out, that’s all,” said Vi,
-wrinkling her forehead seriously. “I’m almost sure
-she is planning some crooked work, and it’s up to us
-to double cross her.”
-
-“Hear, hear!” cried Laura delightedly. “And Vi
-is the one who is always calling me down for using
-slang. Fine for a beginner, Vi darling. Keep it up.”
-
-The result of this revelation of Vi’s was to make
-the girls watch Amanda and the “Shadow” more
-carefully than ever before. And if it had not been
-for just this watchfulness there is no telling what
-might have happened to Billie Bradley, and through
-her, to her classmates.
-
-And this was the way it happened.
-
-Luckily for the three North Bend chums,
-Amanda and her “Shadow” shared the dormitory
-with them and Rose Belser. And so it was that
-Billie, coming in unexpectedly one day heard the
-very end of a sentence spoken in a loud whisper
-by Amanda. And though it was only the end of
-the sentence, it told a great deal to Billie, whose suspicions
-had already been aroused.
-
-“—at ten to-night, in Miss Race’s room,” were
-the words she caught. The fact that Amanda
-stopped speaking at sight of her and grew an
-unsightly brick red, gave Billie further proof that
-the girl was plotting mischief. Very probably the
-scapegoat was to be—herself.
-
-She gave no sign that she had heard anything
-out of the ordinary, but when she had found the
-book she had come for and was out in the hall once
-more, her heart was pounding heavily and her face
-was hot.
-
-Ever since they had come to Three Towers
-Amanda had done her best to discredit Billie. She
-had not succeeded so far, but some time she might.
-Was this the time? thought Billie, a dull rage taking
-possession of her.
-
-No! She would not let Amanda get the better
-of her. She would outwit her, now that she had
-been warned. Then a dreadful thought came to
-her.
-
-Suppose Amanda, thinking she had given her
-secret away, postponed her miserable plot, whatever
-it was, until another time? No wonder Billie
-answered questions queerly that afternoon, so
-queerly, in fact, that one teacher asked her if she
-were ill and would like to be excused!
-
-But Billie did not want to be excused—that would
-mean more time to herself to think. And so she
-blundered through the miserable afternoon and her
-heart jumped with relief when the last gong sounded
-that meant liberty.
-
-Connie and Laura overtook her in the hall on the
-way to the dormitory and Laura looked actually
-anxious.
-
-“What was the matter with you this afternoon?”
-she asked. “Why, you answered ‘no’ three times
-when it should have been ‘yes,’ and it sounded so
-silly I’d have had to laugh if I hadn’t been scared
-to death!”
-
-“What is it, Billie?” added Connie, putting an
-arm about her friend. “You look dreadfully white.
-Aren’t you feeling well?”
-
-Then, pulling them into a secluded corner of the
-dormitory, Billie told them what she had heard, and
-as Vi came in just as she had finished, she had to tell
-it all over again, just for her benefit.
-
-Of course the girls were all angry, and Laura
-wanted to go and have it out with Amanda at once,
-but Billie, who had had all the afternoon to think
-out the best thing to do, commanded her to say
-nothing about it to any one.
-
-“Listen,” she said, tensely. “Somebody’s apt to
-come in at any minute, and then I can’t say it. This
-is what we will do to-night.
-
-“We’ll pull our nighties on over our clothes, get
-into bed and pretend to go to sleep. Then we’ll wait
-till Amanda starts whatever she’s going to do, and
-we’ll follow her and see what she’s up to.”
-
-“And then,” said Laura, driven to more forceful
-slang by the necessity for emphasis, “we’ll just about
-*settle* her!”
-
-True to their plans, they retired to the dormitory
-that night before Amanda or the “Shadow” or Rose
-Belser arrived there, and they hurriedly slipped their
-nightgowns over their clothes and got into bed.
-
-“Poor Connie’s wailing her heart out,” chuckled
-Laura, “because she’s in another dorm and can’t
-be in at the death. I say, Vi, push the collar of your
-dress down. It shows outside your nightie.”
-
-“Sh-h,” warned Billie. “I hear somebody coming——”
-
-The somebody proved to be no other than
-Amanda and Eliza, and when they entered they
-found Billie and Laura and Vi sleeping peacefully
-with a cherubic expression of utter innocence on
-their faces.
-
-It seemed to the girls that they had never lived
-through an hour so long as that between nine o’clock
-and ten that night. And it was with more than
-relief that they heard a slight stir at last and saw
-a shadowy figure slip out of bed and make noiselessly
-for the door. And while they held their
-breath for fear their breathing might betray them,
-they saw a second shadow flit after the first one.
-“The Shadow,” in fact!
-
-They waited till the conspirators had had time to
-get well down the hall, then they too slipped quietly
-out of bed, pulled their nightgowns off, and started
-in pursuit.
-
-“Sh,” whispered Billie. “Take your time. We
-want to let them do it before we catch them at it.”
-
-When they reached Miss Race’s door they were
-surprised to see a light in the room. Was it possible
-Amanda had been brazen enough to turn on
-the light herself?
-
-Cautiously Billie peeped into the room and saw
-that Amanda and Eliza were busily at work doing
-something to the teacher’s desk at the other end of
-the room. They were alone, so it must have been
-Amanda who had switched on the light. The girl
-was bold with the courage of stupidity.
-
-Laura uttered a stifled exclamation, and would
-have pushed past Billie but the latter held her back.
-For still another minute she hesitated, then called to
-the girls softly.
-
-“Now,” she said, and ran swiftly into the room,
-Laura and Vi beside her. So quickly and silently
-did they come that they were almost upon the two
-girls before either of them looked up. Then——
-
-“Amanda Peabody!” cried Billie, her voice
-choked with anger. “We’ve caught you this time!
-Now let’s see what you were doing!”
-
-CHAPTER XVIII—AMANDA’S REVENGE
-==============================
-
-Amanda’s jaw dropped and she sprang back
-while Eliza cowered behind her. The former held
-an ink bottle which she had been about to turn
-upside down in Miss Race’s desk.
-
-With a quick movement Laura snatched it from
-the girl’s hand and held it aloft triumphantly.
-
-“Look, Billie,” she said in a loud whisper.
-“Amanda was going to spill this in the desk and
-then blame it on you.”
-
-Amanda made a quick dart for the door, but
-Billie ran after her and pulled her back.
-
-“Not yet,” she said, grimly. “You’ll wait till
-we’re through with you or I’ll go to Miss Walters
-and report the whole thing. You had better not try
-to get funny.”
-
-Amanda started to bluster, but on second thoughts
-decided not to. Billie and her chums had the argument
-all on their side this time, and the thought
-made her fume inwardly.
-
-As for the “Shadow,” her homely face was pale
-with fright, and she stood motionless and scared
-on the spot where the girls had first discovered her.
-
-The plan of the two conspirators had evidently
-been to upset the teacher’s desk and then blame the
-whole thing on Billie. But how could Amanda hope
-to prove that Billie had done it all?
-
-Thus thought the girls as they rummaged through
-the desk in search of some further trick. And then,
-they found it.
-
-“Look at this!” cried Billie, holding aloft a little
-square of linen at sight of which Amanda grew
-more sullen and Eliza quaked. “It’s my handkerchief
-with my initials and my laundry mark on it.
-Those—those—girls—were going to leave it here
-after spilling the ink, and when Miss Race found it
-she would of course think that I was the guilty one.
-Oh—what shall we do to them?”
-
-She glared at the tricksters while Amanda tossed
-her head defiantly and Eliza shrank still farther back
-into the corner.
-
-“But that would have been so silly,” cried Laura,
-who had snatched the handkerchief from Billie and
-was examining it eagerly. Vi, in her turn was trying
-to pull it from her. “Miss Race would know
-that you would have sense enough not to give yourself
-away by leaving your handkerchief. Their
-heads sure are made of bone,” and she favored the
-girls with a contemptuous glance that was harder to
-bear than Billie’s anger.
-
-“I wouldn’t leave my handkerchief on purpose of
-course,” Billie pointed out. “I might have dropped
-it by accident, though.”
-
-“But how did they get the hanky,” wondered Vi,
-wide-eyed at this example of depravity.
-
-“Probably stole it out of my pocket when I
-wasn’t looking,” said Billie contemptuously, and at
-that Amanda made a show of defense.
-
-“You needn’t call me a thief, Billie Bradley!” she
-exclaimed, but Laura cut her short with a flippant
-observation.
-
-“Would you rather she would call Miss Walters?”
-she asked, which effectively closed the girl’s mouth.
-
-“Let’s make ’em clean up,” suggested Billie. “I’d
-call Miss Walters, only they’re not worth spoiling
-her sleep for. Come on over here, you two, and get
-busy.”
-
-“We won’t do it,” said Amanda, but as Billie
-started toward her she quite suddenly changed her
-mind.
-
-“Oh, all right,” she said angrily, as she flounced
-over to the desk, pulling the limp “Shadow” after
-her. “We’ll do it this time. But you just look out,
-Billie Bradley. I’ll make you pay for this.”
-
-Laura struck a dramatic attitude.
-
-“Look out,” she cried. “The worm is turning.
-Let us nip it in the bud!”
-
-It was all right for them to laugh at Amanda’s
-discomfiture then and treat the whole thing as a joke,
-but in the morning they were not quite sure that they
-had done the right thing.
-
-“I think we ought to have reported her to Miss
-Walters,” worried Vi. “Then she and the Shadow
-would have been expelled, or suspended at least,
-and we would have had no more trouble with them.
-As it is——”
-
-“Oh, don’t be an old gloom hound,” commanded
-Billie, seizing her chum round the waist and whirling
-her about the room in a fantastic dance.
-“They’ve never been able to do anything to us yet,
-so what’s the use of worrying?”
-
-“Sure,” agreed Laura, busy marking passages in
-her “Life of Washington.” “That’s what I say.
-We’re too many for ’em.”
-
-But in spite of their optimism, in their hearts
-the girls decided to watch Amanda and her cowardly
-“Shadow” more closely than ever in the
-future.
-
-And the girls would have been put even more on
-their guard if they could have peeped into the
-library one afternoon and overheard the curious
-conversation that took place between two girls seated
-in a far corner of the big room.
-
-“I’ve got it at last!” gloated one of the girls, who
-was no other than the plotting Amanda herself.
-Eliza, of course, was her inevitable companion.
-
-“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said
-the latter rather snappishly. For, since the fiasco
-in Miss Race’s room, she had not entered into
-Amanda’s schemes quite so whole-heartedly as she
-had before. “I don’t see why you should be so
-pleased about finding a musty old book.”
-
-“Of course you don’t see,” said Amanda, patronizingly.
-“That’s what I’m going to explain to you.”
-
-She paused a moment, regarding the “musty old
-book” in her hand lovingly. Eliza moved impatiently
-in the seat beside her and Amanda grinned at
-her.
-
-“You remember I told you I was going to try for
-the composition prize?”
-
-“Yes,” said Eliza crossly, adding with a frankness
-that might have been disconcerting to anybody
-but Amanda: “And I thought you were crazy even
-to think of it. You haven’t a chance in the world
-beside Billie Bradley or Rose Belser or any of those
-girls.”
-
-“I know I wouldn’t as a rule,” admitted Amanda,
-her small eyes gleaming with triumph. “But with
-this book,” she caressed the little volume fondly,
-“*they* won’t have a chance against *me*!”
-
-“And still I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re
-talking about,” snapped Eliza. “I wish you’d stop
-grinning to yourself and get to the point—if there
-is one,” she added under her breath.
-
-“All right,” said Amanda, too delighted with her
-own cleverness to notice her shadow’s bad temper.
-“Listen then, and I’ll tell you just how I came to
-think about it.
-
-“I was rummaging through some books on the
-top shelf one day, trying to find one I needed, when
-down behind the rest of them I happened to come
-across this little old book of biographies of the
-great generals of the world. It was covered with
-dust, and so old and shabby-looking that I was sure
-it hadn’t been touched in an age.”
-
-“Yes,” said Eliza impatiently, as Amanda paused
-for breath.
-
-“Of course that was before the composition prize
-was offered, so I put the book back where I found
-it and forgot all about it. But now——” she paused
-and the “Shadow” saw a gleam of light.
-
-“And now,” Eliza finished, “you think you are
-going to get material enough out of this musty little
-old book to take the prize away from Billie Bradley.
-I see.”
-
-“Oh no, you don’t see.” It was Amanda’s turn
-to be impatient. “I’m not going to try to write
-an original composition at all. Listen,” she lowered
-her voice to a whisper although they two were the
-only ones in the large room. “I’m going to copy
-it from this book—word for word!”
-
-For a moment Eliza stared at the grinning girl,
-pop-eyed. Then as the daring of the thing sank
-into her muddled brain she sank back in her chair
-and shook her head slowly.
-
-“Don’t do it,” she said. “If they should find
-out——”
-
-“But nobody’s going to find out,” cried Amanda,
-as gleeful as though the coveted prize were already
-in her hands. “This is an old book, and probably
-nobody in this place has even heard of it. Say,
-won’t that Bradley girl’s eyes stick out when she
-sees me walking off with the prize? Oh my, oh my!
-This is the time I’m going to settle *her*!”
-
-It was just about this time that a furor was
-caused in the school by the disappearance of articles
-belonging to the students.
-
-The articles were small and seldom valuable—so
-insignificant were some of them, in fact, that the
-owners never missed them until the report of
-numerous other losses spread through the school
-and woke them to the realization that they, too, were
-victims of the petty thief—whoever she was.
-
-For that the guilty one was one of their schoolmates
-there seemed to be little doubt. For what
-outsider would care for such things as pencils and
-erasers and old jackknives?
-
-It was true that one or two of the losses were
-valuable. A gold-mounted fountain pen for
-instance, which had been a Christmas present to
-one of the girls, who lamented her loss with “loud
-wailings and gnashings of teeth,” as Laura
-described it.
-
-It was when the excitement over this strange
-series of events was at its height that Billie drew
-Laura and Vi aside one day and whispered a
-startling decision in their ears.
-
-“Girls,” she said, “I’ve dreamed of that locked
-room in tower three two nights in succession, and
-I’ve found an old bunch of keys and one of them
-may fit. Are you willing to come with me? Or
-have I got to go alone?”
-
-CHAPTER XIX—THE TOWER ROOM
-==========================
-
-For a moment the girls looked as though they
-thought Billie had gone mad. The proposal had
-been made to them so suddenly that it took their
-breath away.
-
-“But, Billie, aren’t you afraid—after finding
-that blood-stained handkerchief and everything?”
-demanded Vi, round-eyed.
-
-“Of course I’m afraid! But I’m going just the
-same,” said Billie stoutly. “I’ve wondered and
-wondered about what might be in that locked room
-till I’m nearly crazy. And if you won’t go with me,
-I’m going alone,” she repeated.
-
-“Don’t be foolish,” commanded Laura. “If you
-go, of course we’ll go. But suppose none of your
-keys will fit?” she added, glancing at a half dozen
-rusty keys on a still more rusty key ring which
-Billie was jingling nervously. Billie had found the
-key ring on a nail in a dark corner of her locker the
-day before. She had been about to deliver it to the
-lost and found office when the inspiration had come
-to her. She would try the keys first to see if by
-any chance one of them could be used to unlock the
-little door in tower three. It would be time enough
-afterward to report her discovery.
-
-Now at Laura’s question she looked somewhat
-provoked.
-
-“Don’t you s’pose I’ve thought of that?” she said,
-adding, with a twinkling smile: “Somebody is
-always taking the joy out of life!”
-
-“We can try ’em, anyway,” said Laura doubtfully,
-still speaking of the keys. “But they don’t
-look very promising.”
-
-“But, girls,” Vi protested weakly, “suppose we
-should find something horrible up there—a skeleton
-or something?”
-
-“Well, the poor old skeleton couldn’t hurt us,”
-returned Laura, adding with a giggle: “Probably it
-would be glad to see us after being up there alone
-so long.”
-
-“But the blood-stained handkerchief”—Vi whispered.
-
-“Oh, that!” said Laura, with a lofty wave of her
-hand. “That’s nothing. I told you before that
-probably somebody had a nose-bleed.”
-
-Which made even Vi giggle and had the effect of
-stilling her fears for the time being, at least.
-
-They had hard work getting away from their
-classmates without arousing their suspicion, but
-they succeeded at last. The three girls ran lightly
-up the three flights of stairs that led to the musty
-old attic.
-
-Now that the moment was at hand they were
-more excited than nervous, and their hearts beat
-high with the hope that they might really find a
-mystery hidden behind that locked door. But what
-could it be?
-
-The queer sounds and heavy musty smell of the
-attic that had seemed so dreadful to Billie on that
-never-to-be-forgotten night seemed natural and even
-funny in the revealing daylight.
-
-The shadowy corners that had seemed so sinister
-when lighted only by one tiny flickering candle were
-only corners now, cobwebbed and dusty, to be sure,
-but harmless.
-
-Mice scuttled across the floor squeaking angrily
-at being disturbed, but although Vi screamed and
-Laura side-stepped nervously, Billie only laughed.
-To-day they were only little mice more afraid of
-her than she was of them. That night they had
-been monsters waiting to devour her.
-
-But just the same, some measure of her nervousness
-returned when they reached the stairway down
-which she had nearly tumbled in her wild flight.
-
-Laura and Vi seemed to share her uneasiness, for
-they stopped at the foot of the stairs and held back
-a little.
-
-“Who goes up first to meet the skeleton?” asked
-Laura, with an attempt at a laugh that sounded
-strained even to herself.
-
-“You do,” said Vi, adding maliciously: “You
-were the one who said he wouldn’t hurt us.”
-
-Seeing that Laura was about to argue the point,
-Billie pushed impatiently past them both and ran
-defiantly up the stairs. Laura, thus challenged, took
-the stairs two at a time after her and Vi followed
-reluctantly.
-
-“Look! There’s the handkerchief,” said Billie,
-kicking the tiny square of blood-stained linen over
-toward Laura, who jumped nervously out of the
-way.
-
-“Well, you needn’t wish it on me,” she said
-resentfully, picking up the handkerchief by the very
-tip of a corner and presenting it to Billie with a low
-bow. “Here, take back your gold——”
-
-“What are you two whispering about?” demanded
-Vi, petulantly, for by this time she was beginning to
-wish she had not come.
-
-At her question Laura whirled suddenly about
-and poked the blood-stained handkerchief directly
-beneath Vi’s startled nose.
-
-“There,” she said. “Want it?”
-
-Vi gave one look, screamed, and fled down the
-stairs. She had gone only halfway, however, when
-Laura overtook her and dragged her back.
-
-“None of that,” she cried. “You can’t back out
-now. Besides, we’re only beginning to have some
-fun.”
-
-“Fun!” groaned Vi, keeping a wary eye on the
-handkerchief that Laura still held. “Well, I’m glad
-I know what to call it.”
-
-“Come on,” said Billie, jingling her rusty keys
-and starting up the ladder. “Now we’ll see whether
-one of these keys will fit.”
-
-“I hope it doesn’t,” said Vi, under her breath, but
-Laura caught her up sharply.
-
-“What did you say?” she demanded.
-
-“Oh—nothing,” said Vi.
-
-By this time Billie was on the top rung of the
-ladder and her fingers trembled as she tried to fit
-the first of the keys into the lock. She had more
-courage than Vi, yet almost she echoed the other
-girl’s wish—that she would not be able to find a key
-to fit.
-
-She wanted to see what was on the other side of
-that locked door, yet for some reason—perhaps the
-blood-stained handkerchief—she was afraid to find
-out.
-
-She had tried every key till she came to the next
-to the last, while Laura and Vi fidgeted at the foot
-of the ladder.
-
-“Won’t they fit?” asked Laura, impatiently and in
-a high-strung tone.
-
-“Yes,” said Billie unexpectedly, as the key slipped
-into the lock and turned easily under the pressure
-of her fingers. She hesitated and looked down at
-the two girls before swinging the door wide.
-
-“Aren’t you coming?” she asked, and she could
-not, for the life of her, keep a little scared quality
-out of her voice.
-
-“Of course,” cried Laura, recovering from her
-surprise—for she had really not expected that any
-of Billie’s keys would fit—and ascending the ladder
-hand over hand. “‘Lead on, Macduff, to victory or
-to death!’”
-
-Vi groaned again and gingerly put a foot on the
-ladder. She did not know which was worse, to
-remain there by herself or to follow the girls to—goodness-knew-what.
-But the squeak of a mouse
-behind her made her decide in favor of company,
-and she scurried in a panic up the ladder.
-
-Meanwhile Billie and Laura were experiencing
-rather severe pangs of something—they could not
-have told whether it was disappointment or relief.
-
-They had braced themselves to find something
-horrible—or at least interesting—in the tower room,
-and they were rather taken aback at finding themselves
-confronted with a large amount of nothing
-at all.
-
-There seemed to be a great deal of junk scattered
-about, but in the gloom of the place they could not
-even make that out very clearly.
-
-There were windows all about the tiny room, but
-they were so encrusted with ancient dirt and cobwebs
-that the bright sunlight of the out-of-doors
-was reduced to a weird and spooky twilight, which
-seemed somehow to correspond to the forlorn
-aspect of the place.
-
-“Well,” said Laura, drawing a deep breath, “we
-come up here expecting to find something interesting
-and we get—stung!”
-
-“It does look that way,” admitted Billie ruefully.
-“Seems as if we might at least have met a good
-live ghost or two.”
-
-“Live ghost!” sniffed Laura crossly, for she was
-really feeling very much injured. “All the ghosts
-that I ever heard about were as dead as a doornail.”
-
-“For goodness’ sake, stop talking about dead people,”
-said Vi querulously from the doorway. “If
-there isn’t anything in here—and thank goodness
-there isn’t—let’s go back.”
-
-“Not yet,” said Billie. Her eyes, become more
-accustomed to the dim light, had lighted upon something
-interesting among the junk. What had caught
-her attention was a large, clumsy-looking thing like
-a queerly shaped wooden box. The girls watched
-her curiously as she bent over to examine it.
-
-“You haven’t found your ghost, have you?” asked
-Vi, in a voice that was meant to be sarcastic.
-
-“No,” said Billie, a thrill of wonder and excitement
-creeping into her voice. “But I may have
-found something! Girls, come here and have a
-look at this!”
-
-The girls picked their way over the rubbish that
-littered the floor. What had seemed like a peculiarly
-shaped box proved on closer inspection to be
-some cunningly fashioned wooden machinery.
-
-The girls looked at each other in awed silence.
-To them all in an instant had come the same thrilling
-thought.
-
-“The lost invention!” murmured Billie. “And we
-thought there was nothing here!”
-
-CHAPTER XX—STOLEN
-=================
-
-“Oh, but how do we know?” protested Laura.
-“It looks like machinery of some kind, but we have
-no way of proving that it is the stolen invention.”
-“No,” said Billie, still in a kind of daze. “It may
-be just some old worthless thing that has been put
-up here because it is of no use to anybody. But then
-again——”
-
-“Oh, I think Laura’s right,” put in Vi, to whom
-this new find of Billie’s was not very interesting. It
-seemed absurd to put any value on that queer-looking
-thing. And besides, she was anxious to get out
-of that musty, ill-smelling place. “I thought of
-Mrs. Haddon at first too, but——”
-
-“Hello! I wonder what this is,” Laura interrupted
-her. There had been some blue prints lying
-on the floor near the wooden machinery. In the
-poor light they had remained unnoticed until Laura
-had stumbled upon them quite by accident.
-
-In her eagerness, Billie forgot to be polite. She
-snatched the papers from her chum and made her
-way to the nearest dust-begrimed window.
-
-She scanned the prints eagerly and finally came to
-the thing she had so wildly hoped to find. It was
-only a name, but it told a great deal.
-
-The blue prints were evidently the design of some
-sort of machinery, and down at the foot of one page
-the designer had put his name—Henry Haddon.
-
-“Girls, girls, look!” cried Billie, almost beside
-herself with excitement at her discovery. “Now
-maybe you’ll dare to say I’m crazy and I don’t know
-what I’m talking about. I dreamed of it two nights
-in succession, and now my dream has come
-true——”
-
-“Well, for goodness’ sake, stop waving that thing
-around and tell us what you’re raving about,” commanded
-Laura, snatching the blue print from Billie
-in her turn, while Vi crowded close, looking curiously
-over her shoulder.
-
-“Here! At the bottom of this page!” crowed
-Billie, pointing out the name. “See it? Henry
-Haddon!”
-
-“Henry Haddon!” repeated Laura excitedly.
-“Then it looks as if that really were his invention.”
-
-“It is the knitting machinery model!” cried Vi,
-forgetting that a moment ago she had scoffed at
-the idea.
-
-“Of course it is, you gooses—I mean you geese,”
-cried Billie, incoherent in her happiness. “I told
-you so right along, didn’t I? Next time maybe
-you’ll believe your Uncle Billie.”
-
-“I—guess—yes!” said Laura, still staring at the
-blue prints as though she could not believe they were
-real. “You surely did have the right idea that time,
-Billie.”
-
-“Of course I did!” cried Billie impishly, bubbling
-over with excitement. “And now I’ve got an idea
-that’s righter yet. Let’s go to Mrs. Haddon and tell
-her about it.”
-
-“Agreed!” cried Laura. Then she glanced uncertainly
-at the blue prints. “Shall we take these
-along?” she asked.
-
-Billie hesitated, then shook her head.
-
-“No,” she said, “I think we had better leave
-everything just as we found it.”
-
-So Laura put the important papers back on the
-spot where she had found them, or as near to it as
-she could remember.
-
-She then backed out of the room and felt her way
-down the ladder. Vi followed, treading on her fingers,
-so that she let go and very nearly tumbled to
-the floor.
-
-Billie came last, for she was to lock the door.
-
-But a strange thing happened. Either excitement
-had made Billie’s fingers clumsy or something had
-really happened to the rusty lock. At any rate, she
-could not get the door locked again and after a few
-minutes of nervous fumbling, interspersed with
-remarks from the girls that were anything but
-encouraging, she gave up the attempt.
-
-“Oh, well, we’ll be back in a little while, anyway,”
-she said, as she came down swiftly hand over hand
-and dropped to the floor beside the girls. “Come on
-now, let’s hurry and find Mrs. Haddon.”
-
-They scurried down the stairs and were hurrying
-to their dormitory to get on coats and hats when a
-voice hailed them and they stopped impatiently to
-find Rose Belser hurrying toward them.
-
-“Have you heard the latest, girls?” asked the
-dark-haired girl excitedly, for once forgetting her
-sleepy drawl.
-
-“No,” said Billie, trying not to sound as impatient
-as she felt, while Laura and Vi frowned openly.
-
-“It’s up on the bulletin board,” Rose told them,
-too full of her own news to notice their annoyance.
-“Connie Danvers has lost a gold wrist watch and
-Miss Walters is very much upset about it. She
-says that the thief, whoever it is, must be found.
-And she has ordered that no girl leave the Hall until
-to-morrow morning.”
-
-The girls looked at each other and groaned.
-
-“Till to-morrow morning!” said Billie, her face as
-long as though a death sentence had just been pronounced
-upon her. “Oh, why couldn’t Connie have
-held on to her old watch!”
-
-Rose’s look of surprise was so genuine that it
-put Billie instantly on her guard. The chums were
-not ready yet to take anybody into their confidence
-about the new discovery.
-
-And so she covered her slip as well as she could,
-and they went on together to the dormitory, exclaiming
-sympathetically over Connie’s loss.
-
-The next morning came at last, however, and as
-it was Sunday, the girls were free to go as soon as
-the morning chapel hour was over. But as Miss
-Walters would not allow any girl to leave the building
-without special permission from her, the classmates
-were forced to go to her and tell her about
-their invasion of the tower room and their discovery.
-
-She was displeased that they had not asked her
-consent before taking such a step. But she was also
-very much interested in their story, and readily gave
-them her permission to go to Polly Haddon.
-
-“Bring her back with you, if you can,” she said,
-“and we will all go together to the tower room.”
-
-“Now for the fun!” cried Laura, as a few minutes
-later they stepped out into the crisp air. “Whew!
-I think we got off lots better than we expected. I
-thought Miss Walters would be awfully mad.”
-
-“Probably she would have been if she hadn’t had
-so many other things to worry about,” said Vi.
-
-“Poor Connie!” said Billie. “It surely is too bad
-about her watch. It was a beauty, and she was so
-proud of it.”
-
-“I hope Miss Walters finds the thief pretty soon,”
-said Laura, frowning. “Everybody thinks it is one
-of the girls, and I’m even beginning to feel guilty
-myself.”
-
-“Do you think——” Vi began, then flushed as the
-girls looked at her and stopped.
-
-“What?” asked Laura adding, as Vi still hesitated.
-“Come on—we won’t eat you.”
-
-“Nothing—only—I was wondering if the thief
-might not be Amanda.”
-
-“Oh, no,” cried Billie quickly. “I’m sure it
-couldn’t be, Vi.”
-
-The suggestion from Vi startled her, and it troubled
-her too, for the very reason that the same idea
-had been in her own mind.
-
-And suddenly Laura spoke up in support of Vi.
-
-“I shouldn’t wonder if Vi is right,” she said.
-“Amanda is mean enough for anything.”
-
-Billie had no answer for that, and so she said
-nothing. But she was more than ever troubled.
-
-As they neared the little white cottage that had
-seen so much trouble, they forgot Amanda in anticipation
-of Polly Haddon’s joy at the good news they
-were bringing her.
-
-They knocked on the door, and the moment it was
-opened pushed eagerly inside and turned to face the
-astonished widow.
-
-Billie started to speak, but Laura, with her usual
-impulsiveness, was before her.
-
-“We’ve got good news, Mrs. Haddon,” she
-blurted out. “We’ve found your lost invention.”
-
-Billie gasped with dismay as Mrs. Haddon turned
-deathly white and grasped the back of a chair for
-support.
-
-“Oh, Laura, you shouldn’t!” cried Billie, as she
-put an arm about the woman and helped her into a
-chair. “Get some water, quick! There’s a glass in
-the sink.”
-
-But Mrs. Haddon brushed her impatiently aside.
-
-“I’m not going to faint,” she said brusquely.
-“Tell me why you said that. Hurry!”
-
-But Laura thought she had done enough speechmaking
-for one day, and it was Billie who answered
-the woman’s questions.
-
-“It must be ours,” said the latter, at last. “I will
-go with you and make sure. Peter? Yes, he will
-be all right till I get back. He is much better. I
-will be ready in a moment.”
-
-She returned in less than a minute, a hat perched
-carelessly on her head and a shawl around her
-shoulders. Her eyes burned bright in her thin face.
-
-No one spoke on the way back. Mrs. Haddon,
-her lips set and her eyes fixed straight ahead, said
-not a word, and the girls were too awed by her emotion
-to break the silence.
-
-Miss Walters met them in the hall, said a few
-words to Mrs. Haddon, then, seeing that the woman
-was keyed to the breaking point, led the way straight
-to the tower room.
-
-The girls ran up the ladder ahead of the two
-older women. The latter followed more slowly.
-Billie pushed open the little door and entered the
-room.
-
-Then she started, gasped, rubbed her hand across
-her eyes to make sure she was not dreaming. For
-the spot where the queer wooden machinery had
-stood was empty. The invention was gone; and
-the blue prints were gone, too!
-
-CHAPTER XXI—MORE MYSTERY
-========================
-
-Billie Bradley turned cold all over. To have
-brought Polly Haddon here—to have practically
-promised her a fortune—and then to find—nothing!
-
-“Billie! They’re gone!” said a voice at her elbow,
-and she turned sharply to find Laura and Vi peering
-inquisitively over her shoulder.
-
-“I know they’re gone,” she cried, almost sobbing
-in her rage and disappointment “Oh, girls, what,
-can we do? We can’t tell Mrs. Haddon——”
-
-“What’s this you can’t tell me?” asked Polly
-Haddon herself, and Billie looked at the woman
-miserably.
-
-“The model,” she said, her voice almost inaudible.
-“It was here yesterday, and now it’s gone.”
-
-“*Gone!*” cried Miss Walters sharply. “How can
-that be? Is it possible that somebody else is in the
-habit of visiting this tower?”
-
-But Mrs. Haddon pushed her aside.
-
-“Do you mean that the model is gone—again—after
-bringing me here?” she cried wildly. “Oh, you
-could not be so cruel, you could not!” The last word
-caught in a sob, and Miss Walters put an arm about
-her compassionately.
-
-“Listen to me a moment,” she said, in a gentle
-voice of authority. “If the girls are certain that
-the machinery and the blueprints were here as late
-as yesterday——”
-
-“Oh, we are, we are!” cried Billie eagerly.
-
-“Then whoever has taken them since could not
-have got very far away with them in this short
-time,” she went on reassuringly. “Your husband’s
-invention—if indeed it was his model the girls found
-here—must still be in this neighborhood, perhaps
-in this very building. Though who,” she added
-thoughtfully, “in this place could wish to steal such
-a thing is indeed a mystery.”
-
-“Oh, Miss Walters!” cried Billie eagerly, “I’m
-sure nobody here in the Hall has stolen the invention.
-Nobody would have any use for it, and besides,
-it isn’t a thing that could be hidden very
-easily.”
-
-Suddenly Laura had what she thought was a
-bright idea.
-
-“Maybe somebody stole it who had a grudge
-against Mrs. Haddon,” she suggested.
-
-Miss Walters looked inquiringly at the woman
-who had drawn away from her embrace and was
-wiping her eyes resignedly.
-
-“Is there any one you know of who might hold
-a grudge against your family?” Miss Walters asked.
-
-Mrs. Haddon went over to one of the dust-begrimed
-windows and stood there for a moment
-looking out, her fingers tapping a restless tattoo on
-the windowpane. Then she slowly shook her head.
-
-“No, I can’t think of any one,” she said, adding
-bitterly: “We were too poor and unimportant to
-make enemies of any one. But what does it matter?”
-She turned quickly from the window with one
-of her fierce changes of mood. “The invention is
-gone. I was a fool to think that any good fortune
-would ever come to me. Let me go home.”
-
-She brushed fiercely past Miss Walters, but the
-latter put out a gentle hand and detained her.
-
-“Wait a little,” she begged. Her heart ached
-for the other woman’s suffering. “Come into my
-office with me while I make inquiries and find out
-if any suspicious person has been seen about here
-lately. I am confident,” she added with an assurance
-that reached the other woman, “that before
-long we shall be able to recover your property. Will
-you trust me and believe that I want to help you?”
-
-“Yes,” said Polly Haddon, faint hope once more
-stirring in her heart. “You are more than kind to
-me.”
-
-With what different emotions the classmates left
-the tower room from those with which they had entered
-it so hopefully only a few minutes before.
-
-The girls supposed that now that Miss Walters
-had taken charge of Mrs. Haddon’s affairs, they
-would have no further interest in the matter. But,
-to their surprise and gratification, Miss Walters motioned
-them into her office also.
-
-Then she summoned the teachers to her one after
-another and questioned them carefully as to whom,
-if anybody, had been seen around Three Towers
-since the afternoon before.
-
-Through it all Mrs. Haddon sat with an expression
-of utter hopelessness on her face. Evidently the
-faint hope that Miss Walters had for the moment
-revived had died away again.
-
-It seemed that none of the teachers had seen anything
-that might arouse suspicion, and even the girls
-were beginning to despair when they were at last
-given a clue to work on.
-
-It was Miss Arbuckle who gave it to them.
-
-She showed considerable surprise at first at being
-questioned. But after wrinkling her forehead
-thoughtfully for a few minutes she remembered
-having seen somebody loitering about the building
-late on the preceding afternoon.
-
-“Could you identify the person?” asked Miss
-Walters quickly, alert at once.
-
-“No,” said Miss Arbuckle, hesitantly, “I couldn’t
-be at all certain because it was dusk and I saw him
-only from the window. But it looked like that
-simple son of Tim Budd, the gardener.”
-
-“Nick Budd!” cried the three girls together, and
-at the name Polly Haddon also roused from her
-reverie.
-
-“You could not say certainly that it was Nick
-Budd?” said Miss Walters, questioningly.
-
-“No, I couldn’t,” returned Miss Arbuckle. “But
-I remember thinking at the time that the fellow was
-acting in a rather peculiar manner, and I even
-thought of reporting him. I was called away by
-some duties then, however, and when I looked from
-the window again he was gone.”
-
-“Nick Budd!” cried Polly Haddon, in an agitated
-tone, her hands clasping and unclasping in her lap.
-“You asked a while ago if there was anybody who
-might bear a grudge against my family, and I said
-there was no one. But I had forgotten poor foolish
-Nick Budd!”
-
-“Yes, Mrs. Haddon?” prompted Miss Walters,
-while the girls exchanged excited glances.
-
-“At one time my husband employed him as a
-handy man about the place,” the woman hurried on.
-“But after a while we noticed that things began to
-disappear—things that were worthless to any one
-else, but dear to us because of their associations.”
-
-The girls and Miss Walters were intensely interested
-now. They were thinking of the numerous
-petty thefts that had taken place in the Hall during
-the past few weeks. Could there be any connection
-between that and Polly Haddon’s story?
-
-“My husband charged the simpleton with taking
-the things,” the woman went on. “He did it gently
-enough, too, for he was sorry for the poor fellow,
-but Nick fell into one of his rages and slammed out
-of the house, muttering to himself. He never came
-back, and we never saw him again.”
-
-“Then this boy did have some reason for wishing
-to get even with your husband,” said Miss Walters,
-all interest. “It begins to look as if he were the one
-who stole your invention in the first place. And if
-this was really Nick Budd whom Miss Arbuckle
-saw loitering about the school yesterday, it is probable
-he had something to do with its second disappearance——”
-she broke off suddenly, for Polly
-Haddon had risen to her feet.
-
-The girls thought they had never seen such a
-picture of concentrated fury. She stood clutching
-the back of a chair fiercely and her eyes flashed fire.
-
-“If it is proved that Nick Budd did this thing,”
-she said in a low, tense voice, “I think I shall—shall——”
-
-“But you must remember that he is a simpleton
-and not accountable as sane people are,” put in Miss
-Walters hastily; but apparently the woman did not
-hear her.
-
-“We must catch Nick Budd and make him confess,”
-she said impatiently: “Then perhaps we shall
-find out where he has hidden my property.”
-
-“Miss Walters!” cried Billie excitedly, jumping
-up, and walking over to the principal, “I think I
-know where we can find everything that Nick Budd
-has ever stolen.”
-
-“What do you mean?” asked Miss Walters.
-“Speak quickly, Billie.”
-
-“In Nick Budd’s cave!” cried Billie, triumphantly.
-
-CHAPTER XXII—FIRST PRIZE
-========================
-
-“Billie, you’re a wonder! Come on, let’s go!”
-cried Laura, then clapped her hand over her mouth
-and turned a panicky red as she caught Miss Walters’
-eye upon her.
-
-But Miss Walters was looking through and beyond
-Laura, and her gaze came quickly back to
-Billie. Polly Haddon’s eyes were fixed on the girl,
-too, with passionate intensity.
-
-“Tell us what you mean, Billie,” commanded Miss
-Walters. “Quickly!”
-
-Billie, remembering suddenly that Miss Arbuckle
-was the only one of the faculty who knew of her
-adventure with Teddy, was embarrassed for a moment.
-But she plunged bravely in and told them
-the whole story from beginning to end, sparing no
-details.
-
-Miss Walters was intensely interested, and when
-she had finished even Polly Haddon looked encouraged.
-The latter wished to set forth at once in
-search of the cave, but Miss Walters proposed a
-plan that appealed to everybody, especially the hungry
-girls.
-
-“Wait and have lunch with me in my rooms,” she
-said to Mrs. Haddon. “For it is almost lunch time
-now. Then we can start to hunt for the cave as soon
-as we have finished.”
-
-Mrs. Haddon looked tempted, but she shook her
-head.
-
-“There are the children,” she said. “And little
-Peter. There is no one with them.”
-
-But Miss Arbuckle settled this objection by offering
-to go over and stay with the children and see
-that they were well taken care of during their
-mother’s absence.
-
-“I was a governess and sort of children’s nurse
-combined, at one time, you know,” and she smiled
-graciously upon the mother. “And I assure you
-that I know how to care for children.”
-
-Almost upon her words the lunch gong rang, and
-Miss Walters thereupon dismissed the girls to the
-dining-hall.
-
-“Remember, we will start directly after lunch,”
-she said to them as they fled.
-
-“Billy, it’s just like a story book or a movie!”
-cried Vi joyfully, as they took their places at the
-table among the noisy, chattering girls.
-
-“Are you certain you can find the cave again,
-Billie?” asked Laura, as she attacked her heaped-up
-plate of good things ravenously.
-
-Before Billie could answer Rose Belser leaned
-across the table and asked with a drawl where they
-had been keeping themselves all morning.
-
-“We’ve made a snowman,” she chuckled. “But
-we needed Billie’s artistic touch to make the face.
-I can’t get the nose to look right.”
-
-Instinctively the girls glanced out the window and
-saw that it was snowing. And they had never noticed
-it!
-
-“Why, it’s snowing, girls!” remarked Vi brilliantly.
-“It looks almost like a blizzard.”
-
-“Are you just waking up?” asked Connie Danvers,
-a little crossly. Connie was cross because it
-was the first time in her intimate friendship with the
-girls that they had had a secret from her. “Now I
-know you’re crazy.”
-
-Billie guessed at Connie’s grievance and, reaching
-over, she pressed the hand of her classmate under
-the table.
-
-“We’ll tell you all about everything to-night,” she
-promised, and Connie’s face brightened miraculously.
-
-The snowstorm did indeed look like the beginning
-of a blizzard, and as the girls went to get their wraps
-they worried not a little for fear this new development
-might put an end to their adventure.
-
-However, Miss Walters decided that they would
-try it, at least, and Mrs. Haddon was eagerly anxious
-to be off.
-
-“We’ll try anything once,” whispered Laura to
-Billie, as they went out into the already ankle-deep
-snow, the wind lashing bitingly against their faces.
-“Thank goodness, we can die but once!”
-
-“Die but once is right,” said Billie grumpily. She
-was worried for fear she would not be able to find
-the path leading to the cave.
-
-It would have been hard enough if the ground
-had been clear, but with the snow rapidly obliterating
-every landmark, it was well-nigh impossible.
-
-“I wish Teddy were here,” she said, half to herself,
-and her voice was very wistful.
-
-“Don’t you though!” echoed Laura, heartily. “It
-seems an age since we’ve seen any of the boys.”
-
-“Say, Billie,” broke in Vi, who was shivering in
-the bitter cold despite her warm furs, “are you sure
-you are going right? It wouldn’t be any fun to be
-lost in these lonely woods with maybe a blizzard
-coming on.”
-
-At this observation Billie stopped and turned to
-Miss Walters and Polly Haddon, who were following
-close behind.
-
-“I’m sorry,” she said, looking up at Miss Walters
-appealingly. “If it weren’t snowing I might be able
-to find the way, but as it is I’m afraid I would only
-get you all lost. I’m lost myself now.”
-
-“All right, honey. Don’t look so distressed about
-it,” said Miss Walters, patting her kindly on the
-shoulder. “You would have to know the way pretty
-well to be able to find it in this storm. We shall
-have to give it up to-day, and try again as soon as
-we can.”
-
-“Yes, that will be best,” said Polly Haddon,
-through chattering teeth. Her thin shawl formed
-scarcely any protection against the freezing weather.
-“Thank you all so much for bothering with my affairs.
-Now I must get back to the children. Good-bye.”
-
-Before they had fairly realized she was going,
-she was gone, and the girls and Miss Walters turned
-back to the Hall.
-
-“Bother the old snow,” said Laura crossly. “I
-always liked it before, but now I hate it.”
-
-They were all glad when the warmth of Three
-Towers Hall closed in about them again. Miss
-Walters said a few words to them about saying
-nothing of this affair to any one. Then she dismissed
-them to the dormitory while she herself hurried
-off to do a little work that she had neglected all
-day. For around examination time, Miss Walters
-was not always free, even on Sunday.
-
-Some of the girls had seen Billie and Laura and
-Vi come in with Miss Walters, and they demanded to
-know what “all the excitement was about.” And
-the fact that the girls would not talk made their
-classmates all the more curious.
-
-Connie was the only one to whom they would tell
-the story, for they knew that they could trust her as
-they trusted themselves.
-
-“And it’s still snowing,” mourned Billie, as she
-cleared a space on the misted window and looked
-out at the snow-covered world. “It looks as if we
-shouldn’t get out of here for weeks!”
-
-Billie’s gloomy prophecy was fulfilled. The storm
-developed into one of the worst blizzards that part
-of the country had ever known, and for almost two
-weeks the occupants of Three Towers were practically
-house-bound.
-
-It was good that the school boasted a well-stocked
-larder. Otherwise the girls might actually have gone
-hungry. And they wondered a great deal about
-Polly Haddon and her little brood.
-
-“Suppose she hasn’t enough in the house to eat?”
-worried Vi. “Why, they may starve!”
-
-“Maybe she used the gold pieces we left her to
-stock up when she saw the blizzard coming on,”
-suggested Billie, and the suggestion comforted them
-a great deal.
-
-The day was approaching when those competing
-for the composition prize were to hand in their essays.
-Billie and Laura and Connie and Rose Belser
-and the half dozen other girls who had entered the
-lists were writing like mad—and biting their pens
-to bits—in an effort to get their essays in on time.
-
-And in the heart of each was the fervent hope
-that she would be the winner. Only Amanda had
-no need to hope. She was sure! The prize was
-hers!
-
-She had carried out her intention of copying her
-essay straight from the little musty book. So sure
-was she that her ruse would not be detected that
-she had not bothered to alter a word. And while the
-others worked, she smiled.
-
-At last came the day when the finished essays were
-to be handed in, and all day long Miss Walters was
-closeted in her office with Miss Race and one or
-two of the other teachers, reading and tabulating the
-manuscripts as they came to her.
-
-So busy had Billie been in rewriting a phrase here,
-changing a word there, that she handed in her essay
-the very last of all—just a scant half hour before
-the time was up. But she was happy, because she
-knew that she had given her best effort.
-
-“I imagine we shall enjoy reading this,” Miss
-Walters remarked to her associates, tapping Billie’s
-manuscript with a thoughtful finger. “Billie Bradley
-has real literary talent.”
-
-The result of the contest was to be announced the
-next morning in the auditorium and the prizes to
-be awarded to the winners.
-
-When the longed-for, yet dreaded, moment arrived,
-the girls filed into the auditorium, the contestants
-near the front, and almost the entire school
-occupying the seats behind them.
-
-Billie’s heart was hammering so loudly that she
-glanced about her to see if anybody else seemed to
-notice it. But the majority of the girls were babbling
-away too excitedly to hear anything but themselves.
-
-Billie was surprised to see that even the girls
-who were expecting to hear their fate within the
-next few moments were talking—chattering away
-excitedly, to be sure—but still talking. As for herself,
-she was sure she could not have uttered a word
-just then if her life had depended upon it. She did
-want that prize so dreadfully!
-
-“Cheer up, Billie,” whispered Vi, slipping a loyal
-hand into hers. “You’re not afraid of missing the
-prize, are you? Why, you couldn’t miss it if you
-tried.”
-
-Billie did not say anything, but she gripped Vi’s
-hand hard. And she was still holding on to it when
-Miss Walters ascended the platform and a deep
-hush spread over the room.
-
-“As you all know,” came the clear, sweet voice
-of the head of Three Towers Hall, “I have come
-here this morning to announce the winners of the
-composition prize.
-
-“I and my associates have had difficulty in choosing
-the winning essays, for the reason that they are
-all so excellent. We are only sorry that we have
-not a prize to attach to each.”
-
-A buzz broke out in the audience, but when Miss
-Walters raised her hand it instantly died down
-again.
-
-“And now,” she said, “not to keep you any longer
-in suspense, we will announce the winners.”
-
-Billie’s grip on Vi’s hand tightened till it hurt.
-
-Then into the tense silence Miss Walters threw
-the bomb of her announcement.
-
-“The first prize goes to Amanda Peabody,” she
-said. “Will she please step up upon the platform?”
-
-CHAPTER XXIII—DISGRACED
-=======================
-
-For a moment there was intense silence while
-Amanda rose triumphantly and flounced up to the
-platform.
-
-Then an amazed, angry buzz rose from the
-audience of indignant girls. Amanda, who was
-proverbially stupid, to have taken the prize from
-some of the brightest girls in the school! It was
-impossible—incredible! And yet it was only too
-true!
-
-Miss Walters, with a few words of congratulation,
-handed the prize—a fine set of books—to
-Amanda, and the latter swept haughtily back to
-her seat, triumph in every line of her figure as she
-passed the other pupils.
-
-She had beaten Billie Bradley at last! And her
-revenge was sweeter than even she had dreamed it
-would be.
-
-But Billie, tears of anger and disappointment
-stinging her eyes, felt sure that she had not been
-beaten fairly. Amanda had played a trick on her,
-on the rest of the contestants for the prize, on Miss
-Walters herself. But, in Teddy’s vocabulary,
-Amanda had “gotten away with it.” The prize was
-in her possession.
-
-“It’s a shame,” she heard in angry protest all
-about her.
-
-“She never did it honestly.”
-
-“Somebody ought to tell Miss Walters. She
-doesn’t know Amanda as well as we do.”
-
-But Miss Walters had raised her hand for silence,
-and in a few seconds the angry murmurs died down
-again.
-
-“I have the pleasure of awarding the second
-prize,” the principal announced, “to Beatrice Bradley.
-Will you step up on the platform, Billie?”
-
-The second prize! She didn’t want the second
-prize, Billie told herself, when Amanda had come
-in first. To march up there on the platform with
-that girl’s gloating eyes upon her——
-
-But Vi and Laura were pulling her out of her
-seat, pushing her out into the aisle—and while Billie
-hesitated Miss Walters had impatiently repeated her
-summons.
-
-Someway Billie found her way to the platform,
-thanked Miss Walters incoherently for the fine volume
-of poetry which was the second prize, and
-stumbled back to happy oblivion among her schoolmates.
-
-“It’s a shame, honey,” Laura whispered in her
-ear, generously forgetting her own disappointment
-in Billie’s. “But never mind, you got the second
-prize anyway—which was more than the rest of us
-did,” she added, with a little stab of regret at her
-own failure.
-
-“And you would have won the first prize if it
-hadn’t been for that cat,” added Vi fiercely.
-
-Billie pressed their hands gratefully and glanced
-for the first time at her prize.
-
-“I’d like to throw it away!” she cried fiercely.
-
-“Sh-h,” whispered Vi, for Miss Walters was
-making an interesting announcement.
-
-“The winning compositions will now be read,”
-she said. “Miss Arbuckle has volunteered to give
-us that pleasure.”
-
-There was a great clapping of hands as Miss
-Arbuckle stepped on the platform and smiled down
-at them. For the little teacher was a great favorite
-with the girls.
-
-“We will read Amanda’s composition first,” she
-said, “as it has had the distinction of winning the
-first prize.”
-
-Again there was tense silence in the Hall. The
-girls were agog with curiosity to hear this wonderful
-composition which had been written by one of
-the notoriously stupid girls of the school.
-
-As for Amanda, she had not foreseen this event.
-She had not expected to hear her stolen composition
-read aloud, and before all this assembly of
-stern young critics. The prospect made her a trifle
-nervous, but her smile was as proudly triumphant
-as ever.
-
-Her chief concern was with Eliza. For the girl
-was so white and scared that she threatened to give
-the deception away.
-
-Amanda gave her a sharp nudge with her elbow.
-
-“Cheer up, will you?” she muttered fiercely.
-“You’re not at a funeral.”
-
-Miss Arbuckle began to read, and as she read
-the well-rounded phrases, the telling metaphors, the
-girls became more than ever stupefied with astonishment.
-
-“Could it be,” they asked themselves incredulously,
-“that Amanda had remarkable literary ability
-that they had never suspected? Could she really
-have written a thing like that?”
-
-The same thought seemed to be in Miss Arbuckle’s
-mind, for as she read on her brow became clouded
-and she paused now and then as though she were
-trying to recollect something.
-
-Finally she stopped altogether, looked across at
-Amanda for a thoughtful moment, then laid the
-manuscript down and turned to Miss Walters. She
-said something that the girls could not catch, then
-hurried from the room.
-
-This was something no one had counted upon.
-Amanda, her triumphant smile gone at last, quaked
-as she heard again the excited buzz of the girls
-about her.
-
-Miss Walters’ voice rose over the murmur, clear
-and very grave.
-
-“Miss Arbuckle thinks she has made a discovery,”
-she said. “She will be back in a moment, and
-until then I must ask that there be absolute silence
-in the room.”
-
-Miss Sara Walters possessed that rare gift of
-authority that needed no raising of the voice or
-undue emphasis to command obedience.
-
-Instantly the murmuring stopped and the girls
-waited in breathless silence for Miss Arbuckle’s return.
-
-They did not have to wait long. A moment later
-the teacher reëntered the room, holding a book in
-her hand, the sight of which made Amanda’s craven
-heart sink in consternation.
-
-The book looked like an exact copy of the one
-from which she had copied her “original” prize
-composition!
-
-“Miss Walters,” said Miss Arbuckle in a voice
-which indignation made vibrant, “I am sorry to have
-to admit that one of the students of Three Towers
-Hall has been guilty of so disgraceful an act. But
-the composition that I have just read, the essay
-that was handed in as original by Amanda Peabody,
-has been copied word for word from this
-book.
-
-“It is an old book that has been in my possession
-for years—was my father’s before it was mine—and
-doubtless the girl thought herself perfectly safe
-in copying from it. Here is the passage.” She
-had been marking a place with her finger, and now
-she opened the book at the place and handed it to
-Miss Walters to read.
-
-What a hideous minute for Amanda! If she had
-been awaiting a death sentence she could hardly
-have felt more terrified.
-
-To be publicly disgraced, to have all the girls
-laughing at her, gloating over her——
-
-With intense gravity Miss Walters closed the
-book and laid it on the table. Amanda knew that
-her moment had come.
-
-“Amanda,” said Miss Walters sternly, “will you
-please stand up in your place?”
-
-Amanda stood up, conscious of a score of curious
-and contemptuous glances focused upon her.
-Her heart was beating suffocatingly, her hands were
-clenched tight at her side.
-
-“You have been guilty to-day,” Miss Walters’
-clear voice pronounced sentence, “of blackening the
-good name of Three Towers Hall by a most disgraceful
-act. But by your wretched duplicity you
-have injured yourself far more than you have injured
-any one else. You will go to my office. I
-will see you there.”
-
-There was intense silence while Amanda, her
-head hanging, walked from the room. Then the
-eager murmur rose once more, but again Miss Walters
-lifted her hand for silence.
-
-“I am sorry,” she said. “More sorry than I can
-express that such a thing could have happened here.
-Of course the first prize will now go to Beatrice
-Bradley and I will decide later to whom the second
-prize belongs. That is all.” With a little gesture
-she dismissed them and she herself walked quickly
-from the room.
-
-Then the riot that had been suppressed so long
-broke loose and the girls formed into little groups
-talking excitedly and all at once about the dramatic
-turn events had taken.
-
-Billie, the center of a little group of her own, was
-fairly overwhelmed with congratulations.
-
-“We knew all along that you should have been
-the winner!”
-
-“To think that Amanda should try to get away
-with a thing like that!” said Laura, disgustedly.
-
-“She might have, just the same,” Connie reminded
-her. “It was just luck that Miss Arbuckle
-happened to have that book.”
-
-“My, but I bet you’re happy, Billie Bradley!”
-sighed Vi. “I shouldn’t let anybody speak to me
-if I were in your place.”
-
-“What’s the matter, honey?” asked Laura, regarding
-Billie’s sober face curiously. “I say, cheer
-up, old dear. What have *you* got to gloom about?”
-
-“I was just thinking about Amanda,” said Billie,
-with all her sweet sympathy for the unfortunate.
-“I was wondering how it would feel to be in her
-shoes now.”
-
-“Out, out upon such doleful thoughts,” Laura
-sang out airily. But Billie, who had turned toward
-the window, suddenly clutched her by the arm.
-
-“Look!” she said, excitedly. “There’s Nick
-Budd!”
-
-CHAPTER XXIV—TRIUMPH
-====================
-
-Before her classmates knew what she was about
-or had fairly taken in what she had said, Billie had
-darted from the room and was flying toward the
-dormitory.
-
-“She’s crazy again,” cried Vi. “Come on,” and
-she and Laura and Connie flew after her, overtaking
-her as she reached the stairs.
-
-“What’s the big idea?” gasped Laura, as they
-ran together down the hall toward the dormitory.
-“What do you expect to do to poor Nick—sandbag
-him?”
-
-“Something like that,” returned Billie, slipping
-hurriedly into her coat and hat and motioning impatiently
-for the girls to do the same. “If we can
-only get hold of him we may be able to frighten him
-into telling us where the machinery is.”
-
-“Oh, and maybe I’ll be able to get my watch
-back!” added Connie, pulling a dark cap down over
-her fluffy hair and carefully adjusting it at the right
-angle.
-
-“We won’t get anything if you don’t hurry,” said
-Billie, regarding her impatiently. “What do you
-think you’re going to, anyway? A party?”
-
-“You had better put on your leggings,” suggested
-Vi, looking doubtfully at the rubbers Billie had
-pulled on over her shoes. “The snow’s awfully
-deep.”
-
-“Haven’t time,” cried Billie, adding distractedly:
-“For mercy sake, hurry! While you girls are dolling
-up for a party, Nick Budd will be gone.”
-
-At this dreadful thought the girls stopped fussing
-and followed Billie hurriedly down the stairs. They
-slowed down in the lower hall, however, for there
-they were apt to meet a teacher, and undue haste
-might be thought suspicious by one of these “unreasonable
-beings.”
-
-At sight of Nick Budd, a plan had come to Billie.
-She remembered how terrified he had seemed when
-he had found Teddy and her in the cave that day
-and thought in his crazy mind that they had come
-to arrest him.
-
-So she was going to take a chance of so frightening
-him with a threat of arrest that he would confess,
-and perhaps even be prevailed upon to lead
-them to the cave.
-
-In case this plan should fail, she had not an idea
-in the world what she would do next. But the plan
-did not fail. It worked more perfectly than she
-had dared to hope.
-
-They caught up to the simpleton just as he was
-sneaking around to the janitor’s entrance of the
-school, and the fellow shrank from them like a
-frightened animal.
-
-“Wh-what do you want?” he stammered, his
-hands out as though to ward them off. “I haven’t
-done nothin’. Ye can’t arrest me. I haven’t done
-nothin’, I tell you.” His terror was pitiful, but
-Billie followed up her advantage ruthlessly while
-the girls stood by in admiring silence.
-
-“You *have* done something,” she told him sternly,
-while he cowered still further back from her.
-“You’ve stolen things—lots of things. And we *will*
-have you arrested——”
-
-“Oh no—oh no,” he cried out, fairly gibbering
-in his terror and slinking further back against the
-wall. “Ye’re tryin’ to scare me. I haven’t done
-nothin’, I tell ye.”
-
-But Billie took him by the sleeve and shook him
-as she would a bad child.
-
-“I tell you I *know*,” she cried, conviction in her
-tone that carried even to the poor muddled brain
-of the simpleton. “And I know where they are,
-too. They are in your cave, hidden away. Every-last-one-of-them!”
-
-Of course Billie was taking a big chance, but the
-shot went home.
-
-The simpleton stared at her for a moment out
-of his blood-shot eyes while his big mouth dropped
-open. Then he began to cry, great tears that ran
-down his grimy face and made crooked streaks
-upon it.
-
-It was an indescribably terrible and pitiful sight,
-the poor silly fellow in his abject terror, and ordinarily
-Billie would have felt sorry for him. But
-she thought of Polly Haddon, and the thought gave
-her courage. Polly Haddon had suffered, and now
-if it was this poor simpleton’s turn, it was no more
-than he deserved, after all.
-
-“Listen to me carefully,” she said, pulling at his
-sleeve again and speaking very distinctly. “If you
-will take us to the cave and promise to give back
-everything you have stolen to the people you have
-stolen from, we will try to keep you from being
-arrested.”
-
-“You won’t put me in jail?” jabbered the simpleton.
-“You won’t let the policemen get me?”
-
-Billie shook her head, adding quickly: “But you
-must take us to the cave right away and help us
-bring back the things you have stolen. Otherwise
-we will have you arrested to-night.”
-
-They were hardly prepared for his sudden acceptance
-of the ultimatum. He turned, with the
-swiftness that had surprised Billie and Teddy before,
-and strode off through the heavy snow, the
-girls, after a minute of indecision, following.
-
-“What do you suppose Miss Walters will say?”
-Laura whispered in Billie’s ear. “Do you suppose
-she will mind our running away like this?”
-
-“I don’t know,” answered Billie, adding with a
-hint of premature triumph in her voice: “I don’t
-imagine she will say anything though if we come
-home with the knitting machinery models, the blue
-prints, and an armful of stolen things besides.”
-
-“Oh, if I can only get back my watch, I’ll be
-happy,” sighed Connie, as she plodded along beside
-Vi.
-
-“‘If’ is right,” said Laura, ruefully. “We
-haven’t got anything yet, you know.”
-
-“Now who’s the wet blanket?” cried Billie gayly.
-She was feeling amazingly happy and confident all
-of a sudden. For had not she just won the first
-prize for the best composition? After that she felt
-that she could accomplish anything.
-
-It was no easy task to make their way through
-the woods. Nick Budd trudged along sturdily,
-hardly looking at the girls.
-
-“He may be simple-minded, but he is as strong
-as a horse—at least, when it comes to walking,” remarked
-Laura in a whisper.
-
-“Many simple-minded folks are strong,” answered
-Billie. “Why, some lunatics are noted for their
-strength—I once heard my father say so.”
-
-They had to pass over an exceedingly rough rise
-of ground and then down through a hollow where
-the bushes grew close together. Here the walking
-was very uneven and Connie gave a sudden cry of
-pain.
-
-“What’s the matter?” demanded Billie quickly,
-and came to a halt beside her classmate.
-
-“I slipped into a hole and I—I guess I wrenched
-my ankle,” and Connie made a wry face.
-
-“Can’t you go on?” questioned Vi.
-
-“I—I guess so, but I’ll do a little limping,” was
-Connie’s reply.
-
-“We’ll have to be careful,” warned Billie. “We
-don’t want to hurt ourselves if we can help it.”
-
-After an hour of trudging through the snow they
-came at last to the twig-entwined entrance to Nick’s
-cave. Luckily the simpleton had beaten a sort of
-path through the snow from Three Towers to the
-cave—a fact which showed that he had made frequent
-visits to the school—or the girls almost surely
-could not have made the trip.
-
-Nick pulled aside the twigs that concealed the
-entrance and dived inside, leaving the girls to follow
-as best they could.
-
-But the girls did not follow—immediately. They
-were no cowards, but the sight of that yawning dark
-mouth was enough to make them hesitate. And besides,
-there was a simpleton at the other end of that
-dark passage, a simpleton who might be mad enough
-by this time to do any desperate thing.
-
-“You go first, Billie,” Vi urged nervously. “He
-is afraid of you——”
-
-But at that moment a dancing light flickered down
-the dark passage and immediately Nick Budd himself
-appeared, carrying a lighted candle which he
-carefully shielded from the wind.
-
-The terror had not left his face, and he looked
-at Billie abjectly, like a beaten dog.
-
-“Will ye come in?” he asked in a barely audible
-voice. “Or shall I bring the things out here?”
-
-But as the latter course would give the simpleton
-an excellent chance to retain some of his loot, Billie
-replied firmly that they would come in and see for
-themselves.
-
-Vi made a noise that sounded something like a
-groan, and Connie echoed it pathetically. But they
-joined the queer little procession just the same, following
-Nick Budd down the dark passage to the
-still darker cave, guided only by the flaring light
-of his one candle.
-
-It was a dangerous thing for the girls to do.
-The simpleton, with the cunning of the mentally-deficient,
-might have decided to attack them all there
-in the darkness of the cave. And he would have
-had a good chance of doing it, too.
-
-But the gods that favor the daring watched over
-the girls that day and brought them safely through
-their adventure.
-
-Billie had evidently thoroughly cowed the simpleton,
-and his one thought was to get rid of his
-stolen goods as quickly as possible and thus evade
-the dreadful prison that loomed more horrible to
-him than death.
-
-There in a corner of the cave the girls found the
-knitting machinery model and the precious blue
-prints, besides a great pile of small trinkets that comprised
-pretty nearly everything that had been stolen
-from the girls during the last few weeks.
-
-They were no more eager to linger in the cave
-than Nick Budd was to have them. So they
-eagerly pocketed as many of the trinkets as they
-could—Connie snapping the precious recovered
-wrist watch about her wrist with as much joy as
-though it had been three times as valuable as it really
-was—and Billie, taking the candle from Nick Budd’s
-fingers, ordered him to carry the wooden machinery.
-She herself took charge of the blue prints.
-
-When they had reached the outside world once
-more, Billie blew out the candle, threw it into the
-cave, and readjusted the twigs at the entrance as
-best she could.
-
-Then she ordered Nick Budd to lead the way back
-to the Hall. This the simpleton did, although he
-sometimes staggered under the weight he carried and
-several times had to put his burden down.
-
-But in spite of the delays and the cold, the return
-journey seemed short to the girls, for they were triumphantly
-happy and chattered like magpies all the
-way back.
-
-“I’ve got my wrist watch! I’ve got my wrist
-watch!” crowed Connie over and over again till
-the girls got tired of hearing her and Laura asked
-her if she would mind changing her tune.
-
-“And won’t the girls be surprised when we tell
-them what sleuths we are,” added Vi.
-
-“Humph,” sniffed Laura. “Billie is the real detective.
-We’re only—what do you call ’em?—‘also
-rans.’ We come in at the end and clap noisily.”
-
-“Nonsense,” laughed Billie. “I couldn’t have
-done a thing without you girls. Look out,” she
-cried sharply, as Nick Budd stumbled and almost
-dropped his load. “If you should break that thing,
-Nick Budd, I’d murder you.” But this last was
-delivered in an undertone. The poor simpleton had
-troubles enough without being threatened.
-
-“Oh,” giggled Laura, incorrigibly, “ain’t she the
-vicious thing?”
-
-One would have thought that the girls had had
-about enough excitement that day, but it seemed
-that fate still held a little more in store for them.
-
-They were coming up the winding path that led
-to the Hall when they saw a black-clad figure that
-looked strangely familiar hurrying on before them.
-
-“Isn’t that Polly Haddon?” asked Vi, eagerly.
-“Yes, it is. Oh, what luck!”
-
-She was about to call out, but Billie stopped her.
-
-“We’ll want to break it to her gently,” she
-warned, but her warning came too late. Polly Haddon
-had heard their voices and had glanced back
-indifferently.
-
-Then, recognizing the girls, she turned and came
-hurrying toward them. At sight of her, Nick Budd
-dropped his burden in the snow and ran for all he
-was worth back the way he had come.
-
-Billie tried to put herself between Polly Haddon
-and that bulky object in the snow, but once more
-she was too late. For the woman had seen.
-
-With a little cry, Polly Haddon crumpled suddenly
-and lay out in the snow, as inert as a bundle
-of old clothes.
-
-“Good gracious!” cried Laura frantically. “Now
-just when everything is beautiful and lovely, she’s
-gone and died!”
-
-CHAPTER XXV—PRETTY FROCKS
-=========================
-
-But Polly Haddon had not died. One very seldom
-does—of happiness. Some way the girls managed
-to get her inside the Hall and administer hot
-drinks and hot food and in a surprisingly short time
-she was herself again.
-
-Not quite herself, for she was beautified and
-transfigured with happiness into a very different
-Polly Haddon from the one the girls had known.
-
-Miss Walters was summoned and made her come
-into her own private rooms. Of course the girls
-went also, and while Mrs. Haddon was stretched
-luxuriously on a couch in Miss Walters’ sitting-room,
-Billie told how she had frightened the simpleton
-into confessing his guilt and restoring the
-stolen goods.
-
-Billie was so modest about her leading part in
-the affair that Laura was forced to interrupt occasionally,
-and, disregarding Billie’s frowns, add a
-bit of explanation here and there that enabled her
-audience to visualize the thing just as it had happened.
-
-The machinery model had been brought inside and
-deposited in one of the study halls, and now Miss
-Walters asked Mrs. Haddon what she wished done
-with it.
-
-“We can keep it here for you, in the big school
-safe,” she suggested, “or we can have it carried
-over to your house, just as you wish.”
-
-“Oh no, leave it here,” said Polly Haddon quickly.
-“I will notify that Philadelphia knitting company
-that the invention has been recovered, and if they
-still wish to buy it, it probably will not remain here
-long. Oh, how can I thank you all——” her voice
-broke, and for a little while all of them felt a bit
-uncomfortable while Polly Haddon sobbed out her
-happiness and gratitude.
-
-It was over at last, however, and the girls were
-free to go back to their dormitory and the curiosity
-of their friends.
-
-Here, perched on the bed with Connie and Vi,
-Laura gave a graphic account of everything just as
-it had happened to a sympathetic audience of some
-twenty girls.
-
-She rang Billie’s praises to such an extent that
-the poor girl tried to hide herself in an inconspicuous
-corner, only to be dragged forth into the limelight
-again by a couple of laughing and heartless
-maidens.
-
-“You get up there where you belong,” cried one
-of them, shoving Billie up into the center of the bed
-which was already over-crowded with giggling girls.
-“Don’t you know that you’re a real, honest-to-goodness
-heroine?”
-
-“And for the second time to-day,” drawled Rose
-Belser, her eyes fixed a little enviously upon Billie’s
-pretty, flushed face. “Wasn’t it enough to win the
-prize, without going and getting yourself in the limelight
-*again*?”
-
-Laura and Vi flushed angrily, for there was a
-little malice under the question. But Billie took it
-all good-naturedly.
-
-“Well, I didn’t do it on purpose—not the last
-part, anyway,” she said.
-
-“We know you didn’t, honey,” said Connie, ruffling
-Billie’s dark curls fondly. “You’re just naturally
-talented.”
-
-“By the way,” asked Laura, after an interval
-of skylarking, “does anybody know what happened
-to Amanda?”
-
-“She was suspended,” replied one of the girls.
-
-“And I thought it was a pity she wasn’t expelled,”
-spoke up another.
-
-“Poor Eliza!” drawled Rose. “I wonder what
-she will do without her master.”
-
-“Does anybody know who won the second prize?”
-asked Laura carelessly.
-
-“What a queer question to ask,” said Caroline
-Brant, who had been dreaming about the thesis she
-was going to write and had hardly heard a word of
-the conversation. “*You* did, of course!”
-
-It took a little time for this to sink in, for Laura
-had long ago given up hope of winning a prize for
-herself. But when it did finally beat its way into
-her mind she straightway proceeded to turn the
-place upside down in her hilarity.
-
-She found Billie’s sewing basket, dumped out its
-contents, and turned it upside down on her head for
-a crown.
-
-Then she draped a bedspread about her shoulders,
-queen fashion, and two of her classmates caught up
-the dangling ends that formed a train.
-
-Then they marched through the halls crying,
-“Way for the queen!” and gathering a crowd of
-giggling girls as they went.
-
-“What’s it all about?”
-
-“Queen indeed! Just look at her with that workbasket
-on her head!”
-
-“They are having the sport because Laura took
-the second prize in that composition contest.”
-
-“Oh, that’s it, is it? Well, I’m glad they showed
-up Amanda—and Billie Bradley certainly deserved
-the first prize.”
-
-The merriment grew louder, and presently the
-crowd made Laura mount a stand and deliver what
-they called “an oration.”
-
-“Tell us about making linen dusters for the Laplanders,”
-suggested one girl.
-
-“Or overcoats for the heathens in Africa,” suggested
-another.
-
-“Or how to make sponge cake from live sponges.”
-
-“Or why Washington didn’t use submarines when
-his army crossed the Delaware.”
-
-“I can talk but I can’t make a speech,” declared
-Laura. “In other words, I could say something if
-I could only frame my speech, properly—that
-is——”
-
-“If she could only get her tongue to working,”
-broke in Vi, and at this the assembled girls roared.
-
-It was only when rumor said that Miss Walters
-was coming their way that the hilarious party broke
-up and scurried for home and safety.
-
-“Take off that ridiculous thing,” cried Billie, jerking
-at the bedspread, herself weak from laughing.
-“And give me back my work basket, woman, before
-Miss Walters catches you and sends you after
-Amanda.”
-
-“Goodness,” said Laura, meekly handing Billie
-her property, “do you think she would? It may
-suit Amanda fine to be suspended, but I’m more
-comfortable the way I am.”
-
-And so the time wore on with studies and lessons
-and fun until the girls woke up one day to
-find that the summer holidays were almost upon
-them.
-
-Mrs. Haddon had sold the knitting machinery
-model to the Philadelphia concern at a price that
-was a fortune to her.
-
-The little white cottage had been remodeled and
-furnished prettily, and Polly Haddon had grown
-prosperous and handsome and oh, so happy.
-
-But the most remarkable thing to the girls was
-the change in Mary and Isabel and Peter Haddon.
-The children, who had been such sorry little waifs
-in their poverty, had grown almost beautiful in the
-days of their prosperity. Polly Haddon’s pride in
-them and their pretty clothes was almost pathetic.
-
-The North Bend girls and Connie were often visitors
-at the little cottage, and sometimes the boys
-went with them on their visits and were treated to
-a dinner of waffles and maple syrup that, to quote
-Chet, “would make an Indian’s hair curl.”
-
-And now, as the girls realized how fast the time
-was flying, they conceived the idea of giving a party.
-Not a small party, but a real one with cake and ice-cream
-and snappers and everything.
-
-“I wonder,” breathed Vi daringly, “if Miss Walters
-would mind if we should ask a few of the boys—just
-a very few, you know.”
-
-“There would have to be enough to go around,”
-interposed Billie.
-
-“I should say so!” said Connie with emphasis.
-“Especially as Billie is sure to have at least two
-of them. I want to dance with Teddy and Paul
-Martinson once or twice myself, my dear,” she said,
-eyeing the laughing Billie sternly.
-
-“And I’m quite sure dear Rose will, too—especially
-Teddy,” murmured Laura, maliciously.
-
-They found that Miss Walters was quite willing
-to let them have the party and the boys, too—provided
-the latter did not stay too late—and then the
-plans began in earnest.
-
-They sent invitations to about twenty of the boys
-at the Academy and the invitations were accepted
-promptly and eagerly.
-
-About two days before the great event, the girls
-decorated the two big sitting-rooms on the ground
-floor which Miss Walters had said they could use,
-and when they had finished no ballroom ever looked
-prettier—even the girls said so.
-
-Then at last came the morning of the great day,
-then the afternoon and then—the evening—and time
-for the girls to dress.
-
-They had brought out their best party frocks for
-the occasion and the closest chums had compared
-colors carefully so that they would be sure not to
-“clash.” Billie was to wear pale green net with a
-touch of pink, Laura light blue, Connie had chosen
-a lovely rose pink that went well with her fluffy
-fairness, and Vi had decided on golden yellow that
-made her look like a queen. Rose Belser was
-dressed in an expensive black frock that was far
-too old for her but that set off her dark prettiness
-admirably.
-
-There was Nellie Bane in white, and a number
-of other girls were in pretty frocks of varied hues.
-All were flushed and laughing and excited, and
-their happiness made every one of them pretty.
-
-“Oh, aren’t I beautiful?” cried Laura with engaging
-frankness as she pirouetted before the mirror.
-Then she turned to Billie and hugged her rapturously.
-“And you’re gorgeous, honey,” she
-cried. “I see where we don’t get even a boy apiece
-to-night.”
-
-The boys arrived early. It was lucky that Billie
-could dance with only one boy at a time—or there
-might not have been “enough to go around.”
-
-“I say, Billie,” Teddy cried once, waltzing her
-over into a corner and gazing at her wonderingly,
-“I never knew you could look like that. What is
-it, anyway? This green and pink thing?” lifting a
-piece of filmy net gingerly between his thumb and
-finger.
-
-Billie looked up impishly in his face while one
-foot kept time with the music.
-
-“Don’t ask *me*,” she said. “It’s because I’m so
-happy, I guess. Oh, come on, Teddy, let’s dance!”
-
-It was some time later that the three classmates
-happened to find themselves together and alone.
-
-“Desoited!” cried Laura dramatically. “Where’s
-yours, Billie?”
-
-“Gone to get me some ice-cream,” said Billie.
-
-“Wonderful,” cried Laura. “So has mine!”
-
-“And mine!” added Vi.
-
-They giggled happily for a minute and then Billie
-reached out and put an arm about each of her chums.
-She hugged them close, regardless of pretty frocks.
-
-“Girls,” she said contentedly, “I think I’m the
-very happiest girl in the world.”
-
-“Except me,” said Laura.
-
-“And me!” echoed Vi. “And to think——” she
-added, after they had contentedly watched the happy
-crowd for a few moments. “To think that in a few
-short weeks vacation will be here.”
-
-“Well,” said Laura decidedly, “if we have any
-more fun this summer than we’ve had this winter,
-we’ll have to go *some*!”
-
-“We shall indeed,” said Billie, happily.
-
-.. vspace:: 2
-
-.. class:: center small
-
- THE END.
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-.. class:: center
-
- | :lg:`BILLIE BRADLEY SERIES`
- |
- | By JANET D. WHEELER
- |
- | *12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors*
- | *Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid*
-
-\1. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE, *or The Queer Homestead at Cherry Corners*
-
- Billie Bradley fell heir to an old homestead
- that was unoccupied and located far away in
- a lonely section of the country. How Billie
- went there, accompanied by some of her
- chums, and what queer things happened, go
- to make up a story no girl will want to miss.
-
-\2. BILLIE BRADLEY AT THREE-TOWERS HALL, *or Leading a Needed Rebellion*
-
- Three-Towers Hall was a boarding school for girls. For a short
- time after Billie arrived there all went well. But then the head of
- the school had to go on a long journey and she left the girls in charge
- of two teachers, sisters, who believed in severe discipline and in very,
- very plain food and little of it—and then there was a row! The girls
- wired for the head to come back—and all ended happily.
-
-\3. BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND, *or The Mystery of the Wreck*
-
- One of Billie’s friends owned a summer bungalow on Lighthouse
- Island, near the coast. The school girls made up a party and visited
- the Island. There was a storm and a wreck, and three little children
- were washed ashore. They could tell nothing of themselves, and
- Billie and her chums set to work to solve the mystery of their
- identity.
-
-\4. BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER CLASSMATES, *or The Secret of the Locked Tower*
-
- Billie and her chums come to the rescue of several little children
- who have broken through the ice. There is the mystery of a lost
- invention, and also the dreaded mystery of the locked school tower.
-
-\5. BILLIE BRADLEY AT TWIN LAKES, *or Jolly Schoolgirls Afloat and Ashore*
-
- A tale of outdoor adventure in which Billie and her chums have a
- great variety of adventures. They visit an artists’ colony and there
- fall in with a strange girl living with an old boatman who abuses her
- constantly. Billie befriended Hulda and the mystery surrounding
- the girl was finally cleared up.
-
-.. class:: center
-
- *Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue*
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-.. class:: center
-
- | :lg:`THE BARTON BOOKS FOR GIRLS`
- | By MAY HOLLIS BARTON
- |
- | *12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. With colored jacket*
- | *Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid*
-
-May Hollis Barton is a new writer for girls
-who is bound to win instant popularity. Her
-style is somewhat of a mixture of that of
-Louise M. Alcott and Mrs. L. T. Meade, but
-thoroughly up-to-date in plot and action.
-Clean tales that all girls will enjoy reading.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-\1. THE GIRL FROM THE COUNTRY, *or Laura Mayford’s City Experiences*
-
- Laura was the oldest of five children and when daddy got sick she
- felt she must do something. She had a chance to try her luck in New
- York, and there the country girl fell in with many unusual experiences.
-
-\2. THREE GIRL CHUMS AT LAUREL HALL, *or The Mystery of the School by the Lake*
-
- When the three chums arrived at the boarding school they found
- the other students in the grip of a most perplexing mystery. How
- this mystery was solved, and what good times the girls had, both in
- school and on the lake, go to make a story no girl would care to miss.
-
-\3. NELL GRAYSON’S RANCHING DAYS, *or A City Girl in the Great West*
-
- Showing how Nell, when she had a ranch girl visit her in Boston,
- thought her chum very green, but when Nell visited the ranch in the
- great West she found herself confronting many conditions of which
- she was totally ignorant. A stirring outdoor story.
-
-\4. FOUR LITTLE WOMEN OF ROXBY, *or The Queer Old Lady Who Lost Her Way*
-
- Four sisters are keeping house and having trouble to make both
- ends meet. One day there wanders in from a stalled express train an
- old lady who cannot remember her identity. The girls take the old
- lady in, and, later, are much astonished to learn who she really is.
-
-\5. PLAIN JANE AND PRETTY BETTY, *or The Girl Who Won Out*
-
- The tale of two girls, one plain but sensible, the other pretty but
- vain. Unexpectedly both find they have to make their way in the
- world. Both have many trials and tribulations. A story of a country
- town and then a city.
-
-.. class:: center
-
- *Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue*
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-.. class:: center
-
- | :lg:`THE RUTH FIELDING SERIES`
- |
- | By ALICE B. EMERSON
- |
- | *12mo. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors*
- | *Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid*
-
-Ruth Fielding was an orphan and came to
-live with her miserly uncle. Her adventures
-and travels make stories that will hold the interest
-of every reader.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-Ruth Fielding is a character that will live
-in juvenile fiction.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-1. RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL
-2. RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOODHALL
-3. RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP
-4. RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT
-5. RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH
-6. RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND
-7. RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM
-8. RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES
-9. RUTH FIELDING IN MOVING PICTURES
-10. RUTH FIELDING DOWN IN DIXIE
-11. RUTH FIELDING AT COLLEGE
-12. RUTH FIELDING IN THE SADDLE
-13. RUTH FIELDING IN THE RED CROSS
-14. RUTH FIELDING AT THE WAR FRONT
-15. RUTH FIELDING HOMEWARD BOUND
-16. RUTH FIELDING DOWN EAST
-17. RUTH FIELDING IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST
-18. RUTH FIELDING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
-19. RUTH FIELDING TREASURE HUNTING
-20. RUTH FIELDING IN THE FAR NORTH
-21. RUTH FIELDING AT GOLDEN PASS
-22. RUTH FIELDING IN ALASKA
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-.. class:: center
-
- | :lg:`THE BETTY GORDON SERIES`
- |
- | By ALICE B. EMERSON
- |
- | *12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors*
- | *Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid*
-
-A series of stories by Alice B. Emerson which
-are bound to make this writer more popular
-than ever with her host of girl readers.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-\1. BETTY GORDON AT BRAMBLE FARM, *or The Mystery of a Nobody*
-
- At twelve Betty is left an orphan.
-
-\2. BETTY GORDON IN WASHINGTON, *or Strange Adventures in a Great City*
-
- Betty goes to the National Capitol to find
- her uncle and has several unusual adventures.
-
-\3. BETTY GORDON IN THE LAND OF OIL, *or The Farm That Was Worth a Fortune*
-
- From Washington the scene is shifted to the great oil fields of
- our country. A splendid picture of the oil field operations of today.
-
-\4. BETTY GORDON AT BOARDING SCHOOL, *or The Treasure of Indian Chasm*
-
- Seeking treasures of Indian Chasm makes interesting reading.
-
-\5. BETTY GORDON AT MOUNTAIN CAMP, *or The Mystery of Ida Bellethorne*
-
- At Mountain Camp Betty found herself in the midst of a mystery
- involving a girl whom she had previously met in Washington.
-
-\6. BETTY GORDON AT OCEAN PARK, *or School Chums on the Boardwalk*
-
- A glorious outing that Betty and her chums never forgot.
-
-\7. BETTY GORDON AND HER SCHOOL CHUMS, *or Bringing the Rebels to Terms*
-
- Rebellious students, disliked teachers and mysterious robberies
- make a fascinating story.
-
-\8. BETTY GORDON AT RAINBOW RANCH, *or Cowboy Joe’s Secret*
-
- Betty and her chums have a grand time in the saddle.
-
-\9. BETTY GORDON IN MEXICAN WILDS, *or The Secret of the Mountains*
-
- Betty receives a fake telegram and finds both Bob and herself held
- for ransom in a mountain cave.
-
-.. class:: center
-
- *Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue*
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-.. class:: center
-
- | :lg:`THE RADIO GIRLS SERIES`
- |
- | BY MARGARET PENROSE
- |
- | *12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors*
- | *Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid*
-
-A new and up-to-date series taking in the
-activities of several bright girls who become
-interested in radio. The stories tell of thrilling
-exploits, out-door life and the great part the
-Radio plays in the adventures of the girls and
-in solving their mysteries. Fascinating books
-that girls of all ages will want to read.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-\1. THE RADIO GIRLS OF ROSELAWN, *or A Strange Message from the Air*
-
- Showing how Jessie Norwood and her chums became interested in
- radiophoning, how they gave a concert for a worthy local charity, and
- how they received a sudden and unexpected call for help out of the air.
- A girl wanted as witness in a celebrated law case disappears, and the
- radio girls go to the rescue.
-
-\2. THE RADIO GIRLS ON THE PROGRAM, *or Singing and Reciting at the Sending Station*
-
- When listening in on a thrilling recitation or a superb concert number
- who of us has not longed to “look behind the scenes” to see how it was
- done? The girls had made the acquaintance of a sending station manager
- and in this volume are permitted to get on the program, much to their
- delight. A tale full of action and fun.
-
-\3. THE RADIO GIRLS ON STATION ISLAND, *or The Wireless from the Steam Yacht*
-
- In this volume the girls travel to the seashore and put in a vacation
- on an island where is located a big radio sending station. The big
- brother of one of the girls owns a steam yacht and while out with a
- pleasure party those on the island receive word by radio that the yacht
- is on fire. A tale thrilling to the last page.
-
-\4. THE RADIO GIRLS AT FOREST LODGE, *or The Strange Hut in the Swamp*
-
- The Radio Girls spend several weeks on the shores of a beautiful lake
- and with their radio get news of a great forest fire. It also aids them
- in rounding up some undesirable folks who occupy the strange hut in the
- swamp.
-
-.. class:: center
-
- *Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue*
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-.. class:: center
-
- | :lg:`THE GIRL SCOUT SERIES`
- |
- | By LILIAN GARIS
- |
- | *12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors*
- | *Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid*
-
-The highest ideals of girlhood as advocated
-by the foremost organisations of America
-form the background for these stories and while
-unobtrusive there is a message in every volume.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-\1. THE GIRL SCOUT PIONEERS, *or Winning the First B. C.*
-
- A story of the True Tred Troop in a Pennsylvania town. Two runaway
- girls, who want to see the city, are reclaimed through troop influence.
- The story is correct in scout detail.
-
-\2. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT BELLAIRE, *or Maid Mary’s Awakening*
-
- The story of a timid little maid who is afraid to take part in other
- girls’ activities, while working nobly alone for high ideals. How she
- was discovered by the Bellaire Troop and came into her own as “Maid
- Mary” makes a fascinating story.
-
-\3. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT SEA CREST, *or The Wig Wag Rescue*
-
- Luna Land, a little island by the sea, is wrapt in a mysterious
- seclusion, and Kitty Scuttle, a grotesque figure, succeeds in keeping
- all others at bay until the Girl Scouts come.
-
-\4. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT CAMP COMALONG, *or Peg of Tamarack Hills*
-
- The girls of Bobolink Troop spend their summer on the shores of Lake
- Hocomo. Their discovery of Peg, the mysterious rider, and the clearing
- up of her remarkable adventures afford a vigorous plot.
-
-\5. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT ROCKY LEDGE, *or Nora’s Real Vacation*
-
- Nora Blair is the pampered daughter of a frivolous mother. Her dislike
- for the rugged life of Girl Scouts is eventually changed to
- appreciation, when the rescue of little Lucia, a woodland waif, becomes
- a problem for the girls to solve.
-
-.. class:: center
-
- *Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue*
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-.. class:: center
-
- | :lg:`THE LINGER-NOT SERIES`
- |
- | By AGNES MILLER
- |
- | *12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors*
- | *Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid*
-
-This new series of girls’ books is in a new
-style of story writing. The interest is in knowing
-the girls and seeing them solve the problems
-that develop their character. Incidentally, a
-great deal of historical information is imparted.
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-\1. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE MYSTERY HOUSE, *or The Story of Nine Adventurous Girls*
-
- How the Linger-Not girls met and formed their club seems commonplace,
- but this writer makes it fascinating, and how they made their club
- serve a great purpose continues the interest to the end, and introduces
- a new type of girlhood.
-
-\2. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE VALLEY FEUD, *or The Great West Point Chain*
-
- The Linger-Not girls had no thought of becoming mixed up with feuds or
- mysteries, but their habit of being useful soon entangled them in some
- surprising adventures that turned out happily for all, and made the
- valley better because of their visit.
-
-\3. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THEIR GOLDEN QUEST, *or The Log of the Ocean Monarch*
-
- For a club of girls to become involved in a mystery leading back into
- the times of the California gold-rush, seems unnatural until the reader
- sees how it happened, and how the girls helped one of their friends to
- come into her rightful name and inheritance, forms a fine story.
-
-\4. THE LINGER-NOTS AND THE WHISPERING CHARMS, *or The Secret from Old Alaska*
-
- Whether engrossed in thrilling adventures in the Far North or occupied
- with quiet home duties, the Linger-Not girls could work unitedly to
- solve a colorful mystery in a way that interpreted American freedom to
- a sad young stranger, and brought happiness to her and to themselves.
-
-.. class:: center
-
- *Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue*
-
-.. clearpage::
-
-.. class:: center
-
- | :lg:`THE CURLYTOPS SERIES`
- |
- | By HOWARD R. GARIS
- | *Author of the famous “Bedtime Animal Stories”*
- |
- | *12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Jacket in full colors*
- | *Price per volume, 65 cents, postpaid*
-
-.. vspace:: 1
-
-\1. THE CURLYTOPS AT CHERRY FARM, *or Vacation Days in the Country*
-
- A tale of happy vacation days on a farm.
-
-\2. THE CURLYTOPS ON STAR ISLAND, *or Camping out with Grandpa*
-
- The Curlytops were delighted when grandpa took them to camp on Star
- Island.
-
-\3. THE CURLYTOPS SNOWED IN, *or Grand Fun with Skates and Sleds*
-
- The Curlytops, with their skates and sleds, on lakes and hills.
-
-\4. THE CURLYTOPS AT UNCLE FRANK’S RANCH, *or Little Folks on Ponyback*
-
- Out West on their uncle’s ranch they have a wonderful time.
-
-\5. THE CURLYTOPS AT SILVER LAKE, *or On the Water with Uncle Ben*
-
- The Curlytops camp out on the shores of a beautiful lake.
-
-\6. THE CURLYTOPS AND THEIR PETS, *or Uncle Toby’s Strange Collection*
-
- An old uncle leaves them to care for his collection of pets.
-
-\7. THE CURLYTOPS AND THEIR PLAYMATES, *or Jolly Times Through the Holidays*
-
- They have great times with their uncle’s collection of animals.
-
-\8. THE CURLYTOPS IN THE WOODS, *or Fun at the Lumber Camp*
-
- Exciting times in the forest for Curlytops.
-
-\9. THE CURLYTOPS AT SUNSET BEACH, *or What Was Found in the Sand*
-
- The Curlytops have a fine time at the seashore, bathing, digging in the
- sand and pony-back riding.
-
-\10. THE CURLYTOPS TOURING AROUND, *or The Missing Photograph Albums*
-
- The Curlytops fall in with a moving picture company and get in some of
- the pictures.
-
-.. class:: center
-
- *Send For Our Free Illustrated Catalogue*
-
-.. vspace:: 6
-
-.. pgfooter::
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