"Something awful must have occurred!" cried Helen Cameron.
Ruth did not remain at the window for more than a moment after seeing
the girls engaged in the initiation disperse, and hearing their screams.
She drew back from the crowding group and darted out of the room.
Fortunately neither the French teacher, nor the matron, had yet been
aroused. If the girls came noisily into the dormitory building, Ruth
knew very well that "the powers that be" must of necessity take
cognizance of the infraction of the rules.
The girl from the Red Mill sped down the broad stairway and out of the
house. Some of the fastest runners among the frightened girls were
already panting at the steps.
"Hush! hush!" commanded Ruth. "What is the matter? What has happened?"
"Oh! it's the ghost!" declared one girl.
"So's your grandmother's aunt!" snapped another. "Somebody shoved Sarah
into the water. It was no ghost."
It was Madge Steele who last spoke, and Ruth seized upon the senior,
believing she might get something like a sensible explanation from her.
"You girls go into the house quietly," warned Ruth, as they scrambled up
the stone steps. "Don't you _dare_ make a noise and get us all into
trouble."
Then she turned upon Madge, begging: "Do, _do_ tell me what you mean,
Madge Steele. _Who_ pushed Sarah?"
"That's what I can't tell you. But I heard Sarah yelling that she was
pushed, and she did most certainly fall right into the fountain when she
climbed up there beside the statue."
"What a ridiculous thing!" giggled Ruth. "Somebody played a trick on
her. I guess she was fooled instead of the candidates being startled,
eh?"
"I saw somebody--or something--drop off the other side of the fountain and
run--I saw it myself," declared Madge.
"Here comes Sarah," cried Ruth, under her breath. "And I declare she
_is_ all wet!"
Sarah Fish was actually laughing, but in a hysterical way.
"Oh, dear me! was ever anything so ridiculous before?" she gasped.
"Hush! Don't get Miss Picolet after us," begged Madge.
"What really happened?" demanded Ruth, eagerly.
"Why--I'll tell you," replied Sarah, whose gown clung to her as though it
had been pasted upon her figure. "See? I'm just _soaked_. Talk about
sprinkling those silly lambs of candidates! Why, _I_ was immersed--you
see."
"But how?"
"I slipped over there before the procession started from these steps. I
was watching the girls, and listening to them sing, and didn't pay much
attention to anything else.
"But when I dodged down into the little garden, I thought I heard a
footstep on the flags. I looked all around, and saw nothing. Now I know
the person must have already climbed up on the fountain and gotten into
the shadow of the statue--just as I wanted to do."
"Was there really somebody there?" demanded Madge.
"How do you think I got into the fountain, if not?" snapped Sarah Fish.
"Fell in."
"I did not!" cried Sarah. "I was pushed."
"'Did She Fall, or Was She Pushed?'" giggled Madge. "Sounds like a
moving picture title."
"You can laugh," scoffed Sarah. "I wonder what you'd have done?"
"Got just as wet as you did, most likely," said Ruth, calming the
troubled waters. "Do go on, Sarah. So you really _saw_ somebody?"
"And felt somebody. When I climbed up to get a footing beside the
sitting figure, so that the girls would not see me, somebody shoved
me--with both hands--right into the fountain."
"That's when you squalled?" asked Madge.
"Yes, indeed! And I rolled out of the fountain just as the--the person
who pushed me, tumbled down off the pedestal and ran."
"For pity's sake!" ejaculated Ruth. "Do tell us who it was, Sarah."
"Don't you think I would if I could?" responded Sarah, trying to wring
the water out of her narrow skirt.
Through the gloom appeared another figure--the too, too solid figure of
Jennie Stone.
"Oh--dear--me! Oh--dear--me!" she panted. And then seeing Sarah Fish
dripping there on the walk, Heavy fell upon the steps and giggled. "Oh,
Sarah!" she gasped. "For once, your appearance fits your name, all
right. You look like a fish out of its element."
"Laugh----"
"I have to," responded Heavy.
"Well, if it were you----"
"I know. I'd be floundering there in the water yet."
"But tell me!" cried Ruth, under her breath. "Was it a girl who pushed
you into the fountain, Sarah?"
"It wore skirts--I'm sure of that, at least," grumbled Sarah.
"But it ran faster than any girl I ever saw run," vouchsafed Heavy.
"_Did_ you see her just skimming across the campus toward the main
building? Like the wind!"
"It must be one of our girls," declared Madge.
"All right," said Heavy. "But if so, it's a girl I never saw run before.
You can't tell me."
"You had better go in and get off your clothes, Sarah," advised Ruth.
Then she looked at Madge. Madge was one of the oldest girls at
Briarwood. "Let's go and see if we can find the girl," Ruth suggested.
"I'm game," cried Madge, as the other stragglers mounted the steps and
disappeared behind the dormitory building door.
Both girls hurried down the walk under the trees to the main building.
In one end of this Mrs. Tellingham and the Doctor had their abode. In
the other end was the dining-room, with the kitchens and other offices
in the basement. Besides, Tony Foyle, who was chief man-of-all-work
about the Hall, and his wife, who was cook, had their living rooms in
the basement of this building.
Ruth and Madge hoped to investigate the matter of the mysterious
marauder without arousing the little old Irishman, but already they saw
his lantern behind the grated window in the front basement, and, as the
two girls came nearer, they heard him grumblingly unchain the door.
"Bad 'cess to 'em! I seen 'em cavortin' across the campus, I tell ye,
Mary Ann! There's wan of thim down here in the airy----"
It was evident that the old couple had been aroused, and that Tony was
talking to his wife, who remained in the bedchamber. Ruth seized Madge's
wrist and whispered in her ear:
"You run around one way, and I'll go the other. There must be _somebody_
about, for Tony saw her----"
"If it _is_ a girl."
"Both Sarah and Heavy say it is. I'm not afraid," declared Ruth, and she
started off alone at once.
Madge disappeared around the corner. Ruth had darted into the heavily
shaded space between the end of the main building and the next brick
structure. There were no lights here, but there was a gas lamp on a post
beyond the far corner, and before she was half way to it, she saw a
shadow flit across the illuminated space about this post, and disappear
behind a clump of snowball bushes.
Ruth ran swiftly forward, dodged around the other end of the clump of
thick bushes, and suddenly collided with somebody who uttered a muffled
scream. Ruth grabbed the girl by both shoulders and held on.
It was like trying to hold a wildcat. The girl, who was considerably
smaller, and far slighter than Ruth, struggled madly to escape. She did
not say a word at first, only straining to get away from Ruth's strong
grip.
"Now stop! now wait!" panted Ruth. "I want to know who you are----"
The other tugged her best, but the girl of the Red Mill was very strong
for her age, and she held on.
"Stop!" panted Ruth again. "If you make a noise, you'll bring old Tony
here--and then you _will_ be in trouble. I want to know who you are and
what you were doing down there at the fountain--and why you pushed Sarah
into the water?"
"And I'd like to push _you_ in!" ejaculated the other girl, suddenly.
"You let go of me, or I'll scratch you!"
"You can't," replied Ruth, firmly. "I'm holding you too tight."
"Then I'll bite you!" vowed the other.
"Why--you're a regular wild girl," exclaimed Ruth. "You stop struggling,
or I'll shout for help, and then Tony will come running."
"D--don't give me away," gasped the strange girl, suddenly ceasing her
struggles.
"Do you belong here?" demanded Ruth.
"Belong here? Naw! I don't belong nowheres. An' you better lemme go,
Miss."
"Why--you _are_ a strange girl," said Ruth, greatly amazed. "You can't be
one of us Briarwoods."
"That ain't my name a-tall," whispered the frightened girl. "My name's
Raby."
"But what were you doing over there at the fountain?"
"Gettin' a drink. Was _that_ any harm?" demanded the girl, sharply. "I'd
found some dry pieces of bread the cook had put on top of a box there by
the back door. I reckoned she didn't want the bread, and _I_ did."
"Oh, dear me!" whispered Ruth.
"And dry bread's dry eatin'," said the strange girl. "I had ter have a
drink o' water to wash it down. And jest as I got down into that little
place where I seed the fountain this afternoon----"
"Oh, my, dear!" gasped Ruth. "Have you been lurking about the school all
that time and never came and asked good old Mary Ann for something
decent to eat?"
"Huh! mebbe she'd a drove me off. Or mebbe she'd done worse to me," said
the other, quickly. "They beat me again day 'fore yesterday----"
"Who beat you?" demanded Ruth.
"Them Perkinses. Now! don't you go for to tell I said that. I don't want
to go back to 'em--and their house ain't such a fur ways from here. If
that cook--or any other grown folk--seen me, they'd want to send me back.
I know 'em!" exclaimed the girl, bitterly. "But mebbe you'll be decent
about it, and keep your mouth shut."
"Oh! I won't tell a soul," murmured Ruth. "But I'm so sorry. Only dry
bread and water--"
"Huh! it'll keep a feller alive," said this strangely spoken girl. "I
ain't no softie. Now, you lemme go, will yer? My! but you _are_ strong."
"I'll let you go. But I do want to help you. I want to know more about
you--_all_ about you. But if Tony comes----"
"That's his lantern. I see it. He's a-comin'," gasped the other, trying
to wriggle free.
"Where will you stay to-night?" asked Ruth, anxiously.
"I gotter place. It's warm and dry. I stayed there las' night. Come! you
lemme go."
"But I want to help you----"
"'Twon't help me none to git me cotched."
"Oh, I know it! Wait! Meet me somewhere near here to-morrow morning--will
you? I'll bring some money with me. I'll help you."
"Say! ain't you foolin'?" demanded the other, seemingly startled by the
fact that Ruth wished to help her.
"No. I speak the truth. I will help you."
"Then I'll meet you--but you won't tell nobody?"
"Not a soul?"
"Cross yer heart?"
"I don't do such foolish things," said Ruth. "If I say I'll do a thing,
I will do it."
"All right. What time'll I see you?"
"Ten o'clock."
"Aw-right," agreed the strange girl. "I'll be across the road from that
path that's bordered by them cedar trees----"
"The Cedar Walk?"
"Guess so."
"I shall be there. And will you?"
"Huh! I kin keep my word as well as you kin," said the girl, sharply.
Then she suddenly broke away from Ruth and ran. Tony Foyle came
blundering around the corner of the house and Ruth, much excited,
slipped away from the brush clump and ran as fast as she could to meet
Madge Steele.
"Oh! is that you, Ruth?" exclaimed the senior, when Ruth ran into her
arms. "Tony's out. We had better go back to bed, or he'll report us to
Mrs. Tellingham in the morning. I don't know where the strange girl
could have gone."
Ruth did not say a word. Madge did not ask her, and the girl of the Red
Mill allowed her friend to think that her own search had been quite as
unsuccessful. But, as Ruth looked at it, it was not _her_ secret.