SOMETHING MORE THAN GHOSTS
Helen pinched Ruth's arm. It was plain that her guards did not hold
Helen as tightly as they did Ruth. And why was _that_? Ruth thought.
Could it be possible that her chum had had warning of this midnight
visitation?
Not that Ruth felt very much fear of the outcome of the exercises; but
the possibility that her old friend had kept any secret knowledge of
the raid from her troubled Ruth immensely. Since they had come among
the girls of Briarwood Hall--and that so few hours before--Ruth felt
that she and Helen were not so close together. There was danger of
their drifting apart, and the possibility troubled Ruth Fielding
exceedingly.
The thought of it now, however, was but momentary. Naturally she was
vitally interested in what was about to be done to her by the party of
hazers.
"I am pained," said the girl sitting on the table, "that one of the
neophytes comes before us with a bigger mouthful than she can swallow.
If she understands fully that a single word above a whisper--or any
word at all unless she is addressed by the Sisters--will be punished by
her being instantly corked up again, the gag may be removed. Do you
understand, Neophyte? Nod once!"
Ruth, glad to get rid of the unpleasant mouthful on any terms, nodded
vigorously. Immediately her captors let go of her arms and one of them
pulled the "stopper" out of her mouth.
"Now, remember!" uttered the girl on the table, warningly. "A word
aloud and the plug goes back." Helen giggled again, but Ruth didn't
feel like laughing herself. "Now, culprits!" continued the leader of
the hazing party, "you must be judged for your temerity. How _dared_
you come to Briarwood Hall, Infants?"
"Please, Ma'am," whispered Helen, who seemed to think the whole affair
a great lark, "our guardians sent us here. We are not responsible."
"You may not so easily escape responsibility for your acts," hissed the
girl on the table. "Those who enter Briarwood Hall must show
themselves worthy of the high honor. It takes courage to come under
the eye of Mrs. Tellingham; it takes supernatural courage to come under
the eye of Picolet!"
"If she wasn't out of the house to-night you may believe we wouldn't be
out of bed," murmured another of the midnight visitors, whom Ruth was
quite sure was Belle Tingley.
"And I hope you made no mistake about _that_, Miss!" snapped the girl
on the table. "_You_ went to her door."
"And knocked, and asked for toothache drops," giggled another of the
shrouded figures.
"And she wasn't there. I pushed the door open," muttered the other
girl. "I know she went out. I heard the door open and shut half an
hour before."
"She's a sly one, she is," declared the girl on the table. "But,
enough of Picolet. It is these small infants we have to judge; not
that old cat. We say they have shown temerity in coming to
Briarwood--is it not so, friends and fellow members--ahem! is it not
so?"
There was a responsive giggle from the shrouded figures about the room.
"Then punishment must be the portion of these Infants," declared the
foremost hazer. "They claim that they were sent here against their
will and that it was not reckless bravery that brought them to these
scholastic halls. Let them prove their courage then--what say the
Sisters?"
The Sisters giggled a good deal, but the majority seemed to be of the
opinion that proof of the Infants' courage should be exacted.
"Then let the Golden Goblet be brought," commanded the leader, her
voice still carefully lowered, for even if Miss Picolet was out of the
dormitory, Miss Scrimp, the matron, was asleep in her own room,
likewise on the lower floor of the building. Somebody produced a vase
which had evidently been covered with bright gold-foil for the
occasion. "Here," said the leader, holding the vase out to Helen.
"Take this Golden Goblet and fill it at the fountain on the campus.
You will be taken down to the door by the guards, who will await your
return and will bring you back again. And remember! Silence!"
The lights all around the campus had gone out ere this. There was no
moon, and although it was a clear night, with countless stars in the
heavens, it seemed dark and lonely indeed down there under the trees
between the school buildings.
"Do not hesitate, Infant!" commanded the leader of the hazing party.
"Nor shall you think to befool us, Miss! Take the Golden Goblet, and
fill and drink at the fountain. But leave the goblet there, that we
may know you have accomplished the task set you!"
This was said most solemnly; but the solemnity would not have bothered
Helen Cameron at all, had the task been given to somebody else! The
thought of venturing out there in the dark on the campus rather quelled
her propensity for giggling.
But there seemed to be no way of begging off from the trial. Helen
cast a look of pleading at her chum; but what could Ruth do? She was
surprised that the task had not been given to her instead; she believed
that these girls were really more friendly in feeling toward Helen than
toward herself. At least, it was Mary Cox on the table, and Mary Cox
had shown Helen much more attention than she had Ruth.
Two of the sheeted visitors seized Helen again and led her softly out
of the room. A sentinel had been left in the corridor, and the word
was whispered that all was silent in the house; Miss Scrimp was known
to be a heavy sleeper, and the French teacher was certainly absent from
her room.
The girls led Helen downstairs and to the outer door. This opened with
a spring lock. The guards whispered that they would remain to await
her return, and the new girl was pushed out of doors, with nothing over
her nightgown but a wrapper, and only slippers on her feet.
Although there was little breeze now, it was not cold. But it was dark
under the trees. Ruth, who could look out of the windows above,
wondered how her chum was getting on. To go clear to the center of the
campus with that vase, and leave it at the foot of the figure
surmounting the fountain, was no pleasant experience, Ruth felt.
The minutes passed slowly, the girls in their shrouds whispering among
themselves. Suddenly there came a sound from outside--a pattering of
running feet on the cement walk. Ruth sprang to the nearest window in
spite of the commands of the hazing party. Helen was running toward
the house at a speed which betrayed her agitation. Besides, Ruth could
hear her sobbing under her breath:
"Oh, oh, oh!"
"You've scared her half to death!" exclaimed Ruth, angrily, as the
girls seized her.
"Put in the stopper!" commanded the girl who had seated herself on the
table, and instantly the ball of rags was driven into Ruth's mouth
again and she was held, in spite of her struggles, by her captors.
Ruth was angry now. Helen had been tricked into going to the fountain,
and by some means the hazers had frightened her on her journey. But it
was a couple of minutes before her chum was brought back to the room.
Helen was shivering and sobbing between the guards--indeed they held
her up, for she would have fallen.
"What's the matter with the great booby?" demanded the girl on the
table.
"She--she says she heard something, or saw something, at the fountain,"
said one of the other girls, in a quavering voice.
"Of course she did--they always do," declared the leader. "Isn't the
fountain haunted? We know it is so."
This was all said for effect, and to impress _her_, Ruth knew. But she
tried to go to Helen. They held her back, however, and she could not
speak.
"Did the Neophyte go to the fountain?" demanded the leader, sternly.
Helen, in spite of her tears, nodded vigorously.
"Did she drink of the water there?"
"I--I was drinking it when I--I heard somebody----"
"The ghost of the very beautiful woman whose statue adorns the
fountain," declared Mary Cox, if it were she, in a sepulchral voice.
Ruth knew now why the story of the fountain had been told them earlier
in the evening, but personally she had not been much impressed by it
then, nor was she frightened now. She was only indignant that Helen
and she should be treated so--and by these very girls for whom her chum
had conceived such a fancy.
Helen was still trembling. They let her sit down upon her bed, and
Ruth wanted to go to her more than ever, and comfort her. But the girl
on the table brought her up short.
"Now, Miss!" she exclaimed. "You are the next. The first Infant has
left the Golden Goblet at the fountain--you _did_ leave it there;
didn't you, you 'fraid-cat?" she demanded sharply, of Helen. Helen
bobbed her head and sobbed. "Then," said the leader of the hazing
party, "you go and bring it here."
Ruth stared at her in surprise. She did not move.
"Take out her gag. Lead her to the door. If she does not come back
with the Golden Goblet, lock her out and let her cool her temper till
morning on the grass," said the girl on the table, cruelly. "And if
she stirs up trouble, she'll wish she had never come to Briarwood!"