BACK TO NORMAL.
Arrived at Greycliff Hall, the senior academy girls were tucked into bed
like babies—every one of them. Hot baths, hot drinks, warm blankets and
disagreeable doses prescribed by the doctor, aroused some protest from a
few who thought that they did not need them, but protests were of no
avail. It had turned decidedly cool after the storm, and there was a
frost that night. Dorothy, Eloise, Lilian and Cathalina were taken to
the “pest-house,” as the girls called the little hospital quarters, for
especial care by the nurse. Eloise was quite herself now, but with a
splitting headache. The physician was still watching her and Dorothy
Appleton, who was now conscious but seemed quite ill. “I find no serious
injury,” said the doctor to Miss Randolph, “and I think that the girls
will get over the shock in a few days, but we shall watch them closely
and keep the nurse with them.”
Isabel and Avalon and other friends of the senior academy girls were
fairly used up with the strain and the relief which came with the safe
return of the whole company. The office was busy with receiving and
sending telegrams. A correct and reassuring account was sent to the
papers and letters were written the next day to anxious parents. For the
first time in her career, Miss Randolph took to her bed and spent the
entire Sabbath there, though giving directions, writing and reading
messages.
“She looked ten years older after those dreadful hours of anxiety,” said
one of the teachers to Dr. Matthews.
“Yes?” replied he. “Fortunately there is too much school work ahead for
us to stay under this depression. The girls are safe and in a day or two
we shall all be back to normal, Miss Randolph included.” Dr. Matthews
was much amused over his new nickname, which was reported to him shortly
after it had been bestowed. He had been accustomed to that of “Dad
Matthews,” the little school paper occasionally using it in some
informal account. “I was always regarded, it seems, in a paternal
light,” said he, “and now I am ‘Revere’d!”
A few colds, one sore throat, and much lassitude for a few days, were
about the only results of the exposure. The senior academy classes were
entirely suspended on Monday and Tuesday, but by the end of the week
every thing was in running order once more, Lilian and Cathalina in
their classes as usual, Eloise back in the suite, and Dorothy fast
getting well. Other classes were having beach parties and picnics, but
alas, there was no “Greycliff” to take them out from shore any distance.
The fall weather was still beautiful, with plenty of sunshine, the air
crisp and cool.
One Saturday early in October, the Psyche Club was starting on a beach
party and deciding where to go when Isabel said, “Do you remember that
day when I was pretending to look all around for the ‘gentlemen’?”
“Yes,” said Eloise.
“Well, when I was peeking around the part of the cliff that juts out so
far I saw a place farther down where there seemed to be a nice, flat
shelf just above the boulders. It would not be a very comfortable walk,
but I don’t think that it would take _very_ long.”
“It was quite a little climb over the rocks to the place where we were,
you know,” said Eloise.
“Yes,” said Lilian, “and I don’t believe the girls ever go there. The
sandy beach is so much nicer. But we would be sure of being by
ourselves.”
“Do you think that we could find wood for a fire there?” asked
Cathalina.
“O, yes; probably there would be more than we usually find, if the girls
were not in the way of going there.”
“Let’s do it, then,” said Betty. “Nobody has much to carry. I can put my
milk bottle in my sweater pocket.”
“So can I,” said several others.
“Divide the sandwiches and things and let everybody carry her own lunch
this time.”
Soon the girls were climbing over and past the rocks, gravel and bushes
under the cliffs, and at last came to the broad shelf which Isabel had
seen. It was not very high, but above the wash of the waves in a storm.
Around on the side of the cliff above the shelf there was an opening to
some sort of a cave, but the entrance looked dark and gloomy and none
too clean.
“Some day when we have on our oldest duds and bring our flashlights,”
said Avalon, “it will be fun to explore that cave. There aren’t any wild
animals around here, are there?”
“None that I ever heard of,” said Hilary, “but there might be a few
snakes.”
“Excuse _me_, then,” Cathalina remarked. “But they say that the Cliffs
are full of caves, something like that one at the island.”
The girls found plenty of drift wood, but instead of building their fire
on the wide shelf of rock, as they had intended, they found it easier to
collect the material and build the fire on the beach below, where the
boulders were few.
“It looks as if the rocks had been cleared away on purpose,” said Helen
as she speared a piece of bacon and held it over the fire.
“Why, look at this, girls,” directed Isabel, who was reaching behind a
big rock for a piece of drift wood. “It’s an iron ring fastened here and
a piece of old rope in it!”
The girls all stepped over to look at the ring. “That’s funny,” said
Pauline. “It looks as if there were a sort of path up to the shelf too.”
“Nonsense! We made that sliding down,” said Isabel.
“Have a piece of bacon, Juliet?” offered Pauline.
“What a place for mermaids this is, a rocky cave, a shelf or boulder to
sit and comb their locks.”
“Not a very good beach to run around on, though.”
“Mermaids don’t run around, Avalon; they swim or wiggle around on their
fishy fins like seals, I suppose.”
“‘Fishy fins,’—that’s good, Pauline,” said Lilian. “May I use that for
my next ‘pome’?”
“Yes, fair poetess, I go around dropping pearls of wisdom for my
friends! Everything Lil hears is for the paper now, girls.”
“Copy, Pauline, is what we call it.”
“Last year Lil was going to be a singer, I believe.”
“I still am, but it doesn’t hurt to know a few other things.”
“One more sandwich around, girls,” said Eloise, “and then I’m going to
call the Psyche Club to order. Wash your milk bottles in the lake and
wipe them off with the sandwich papers till they can be better washed in
the Greycliff kitchens!”
The last crumb of lunch was finished when Eloise, president of the
Psyche Club, rapped with a pebble upon a larger stone to call the
meeting to order. “You remember that these meetings were not to be
formal, but some order has to be followed if we get things done, so I
will call for reports from the committees! Who was to ask Miss West
about the name and motto?”
“I said I would,” said Betty. “Cathalina asked me to talk with Patty.
She thought that the name Psyche Club was all right, but did not care
for the ‘nothing less than Olympus’ idea, and asked why we didn’t get
something that would better express the central,—or the real meaning of
our name, like ‘faith, love, immortality,’ and if we wanted it in Latin,
she suggested ‘Fides, Amor, Immortalitas.’”
“O, that is good!” exclaimed Pauline. “I wonder why we did not think of
that ourselves. I move, madam president, that we accept Miss Patty’s
suggestion and that the motto of the Psyche Club be ‘Fides, Amor,
Immortalitas.’”
“How about the name itself?” asked Eloise.
“I’ll add that to the motion, that the name be ‘Psyche Club.’”
“It has been moved and seconded that our name shall be ‘Psyche Club’ and
that our motto shall be ‘Fides, Amor, Immortalitas.’ Is there a second
to the motion?”
“I second the motion,” called Isabel.
“Any remarks?”
No remarks were forthcoming. The motion was presented and carried
unanimously. Cathalina’s report on pins created great interest. “I’ll
show you the booklet I got with designs when we get back, but none of
them just suited me, so I made one up. Please don’t say you like it if
your idea is different. Some were too big and others too small. I tried
to work out a design that would be delicate and yet have room for our
names and ‘Greycliff,’ as you said.”
“I think it’s _beautiful_,” said Juliet, and her opinion was echoed
around the circle.
“Then there is nothing more to be done, is there?” inquired the
president. “Some day when we feel like it we can get up a little
constitution if anybody wants one, or if the society becomes a school
society.”
“Time will tell,” said Pauline. “Mercy sakes, what’s coming, girls?”
Scarcely had they all turned to look than a boat shot into the cove
headed for the remains of the picnic fire, it seemed. Its one occupant
was dressed in rubber coat and helmet as if for a storm, took in the
startled company of girls, gave them a keen look from a pair of flashing
eyes, smiled a little and with a few strokes of the oars had turned and
left the cove as suddenly as he had entered it, before the girls could
do more than stare.
“Now why did he do _that_?” asked Isabel rather belligerently.
“Perhaps he saw that we were scared,” suggested Cathalina.
“We weren’t scared, were we?”
“Startled and surprised, anyhow.”
“But he went as if he didn’t want to come here when we were around. I
believe he had some private business here,” said Hilary. “It’s funny.
And then there’s that ring.”
“Is there any way to get up to the top of the cliffs here? Maybe people
sometimes come here for a short cut.”
“Maybe so, Pauline; anyhow, let’s leave before any more mysterious
strangers appear. Some way I didn’t like his looks, if he did smile at
us!”
“Neither did I, Hilary,” said Betty. “It made me feel funny, some way
and I thought of that time I met the brother of Louise the night of our
ghost party last year.”
“He came in a motor boat, didn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“This man had a rowboat. I wonder where he came from. Greycliff, very
likely, the village, I mean.”
“Isn’t the road to Greycliff up there along the cliffs?”
“No; it turns away from the lake shore and there are big thick woods
that you could get lost in, they say.”
“By the way, girls,” said Juliet, “we haven’t heard anything of the
‘Woman in Black’ this year, have we?”
“Wow!” said Betty, half in fun, but with a “creepy” feeling, as she said
it. “Come on, girls, it gets dark earlier now, and I don’t want to talk
about the ‘Woman in Black’ or any kind of ghostesses till we get back
home.”
“What’s that about the ‘Woman in Black’?” inquired Pauline.
“Ask Isabel; she saw her, so she says.”