DISCOVERED
“Look!” Carol pirouetted gracefully for the benefit of her friends.
“I’m speechless,” Janet said appreciatively.
“Wait until I get my sun glasses,” pleaded Phyllis. “I’m dazzled.”
Carol was arrayed in the scarlet lounging pajamas she had received for a
Christmas present. The Adventure Girls were all gathered in her and
Janet’s room viewing the display with mingled exclamations.
“And wait——” Carol murmured diving into the closet.
“More to come,” Madge said shaking her head. “If it is as terrific as
those pajamas, don’t show it to me. My nerves won’t stand it.”
“My riding habit,” Carol said proudly.
Janet laughed. “All you need now is the horse.”
“I’ve heard they have a merry-go-round in the next village park,”
Valerie put in. “Perhaps they would let you practice there.”
Carol made a little face at her. “Just the same, I am all prepared.”
“What time is it?” Phyllis asked suddenly. “Heavens! I have to go. I
promised Adele to go with her to the Glee Club meeting this afternoon.”
“Ah, our singer is blossoming out,” Janet said gleefully. “What did I
tell you!”
“I’ll go with you,” Gale said. “I have to see Professor Lukens about our
Chemistry assignment tomorrow.”
The two girls went down to the campus. Gale saw Phyllis safely to the
Glee Club meeting before she went on to the Chemistry Hall. The
corridors and rooms were for the most part empty. She went to the
classroom where the Professor often spent his afternoons going over
papers. He was not there so Gale went on to the laboratory.
At the door she drew back hastily into the corridor. Someone was in the
room but it was not the Professor. It was Miss Horton, the Dean’s
secretary, and the girl was fussing with the lock on the cabinet where
the experimental materials were kept. Gale watched her cautiously
through a crack in the door. The glass doors were suddenly opened. A
small glass vial found its way from the closet into the pocket of the
girl’s coat.
Gale turned and fled down the hall. Outside she waited. Miss Horton came
out. With a glance about she hurried down the steps and set off in the
direction of the Dean’s office. Gale followed, hurrying her steps to
keep the girl in sight. At the corner of the building Gale bumped into
Valerie.
“Going to a fire?” Valerie asked. “Say, Gale, do you know where I can
find——”
“Can’t stop now,” Gale said. “Val, something is going to happen. Find
Doctor Norcot. Bring her to the Dean’s office right away. Hurry!” Gale
urged when Valerie hesitated.
Valerie broke into a run. Gale hurried on her way. Miss Horton was
disappearing into the building. Gale followed and it was not until she
was in the building that she realized she had no definite idea at all
why she was so alarmed. True, it was strange that Miss Horton should
break into the Chemistry cabinet and take something—Gale wasn’t sure
what. Could it have been Miss Horton who hurled that acid out the window
at the Dean so many weeks ago? Could it have been Miss Horton who wrote
that mysterious note to the girls? Could she have cut the rope to set
Dean Travis’ canoe afloat?
Yes, all those things were quite possible. But what was she up to now?
There were a lot of things in that Chemistry cabinet—things which in
the wrong hands could cause a lot of damage.
On tiptoe Gale approached the door to the outer office. Miss Horton was
stirring a white liquid in a glass. On her desk was the discarded vial
from the Chemistry laboratory—empty! The contents had been put into the
glass with something else. Gale watched the silent actions of the girl
within the room. Miss Horton was nervous, erratic, in her movements. She
appeared slightly crazed with an inner obsession. The telephone rang,
the bell startling both Gale and the girl inside.
Miss Horton stared at the instrument for a moment then picked up the
receiver. She sank into her desk chair.
“Sarah! Why did you call? Of course I’m all right. Don’t worry. Do you
understand? Don’t worry! And Sarah—you will be Dean of Briarhurst
someday.”
With those words Miss Horton replaced the receiver. She looked about the
room and stood up. Grasping the glass again she walked toward the Dean’s
office. She opened the door and spoke. Gale could clearly hear her
words.
“This will help your headache, Dean Travis.”
Gale lost no time. She dashed wildly into the office, knocking the glass
from the Dean’s upraised hand, thinking at the same time what would
happen if she was wrong in her suspicions!
“Don’t drink it!” she cried.
The glass crashed to the floor and made a dark stain on the carpet. Miss
Horton gazed at Gale in horror, shrinking toward the door.
“Gale! What does this mean?” the Dean gasped.
“It means Miss Horton broke into the Chemistry laboratory and took a
vial—poison probably. She mixed it in that glass,” Gale continued
accusingly.
“Is this true?” the Dean asked, looking from Gale to her now sobbing
secretary.
The girl did not answer. Doctor Norcot and Valerie appeared in the
doorway.
“What is going on?” the Doctor demanded breathlessly. She held up the
empty vial which had been on the secretary’s desk. “Whom does this
belong to?”
“Gale——” Valerie said in mystification.
“It is all right now,” Gale said, “Miss Horton almost poisoned the Dean.
I followed her here from the Chemistry laboratory.”
“Yes, I meant to poison her,” Miss Horton said desperately,
hysterically. “If it hadn’t been for her my sister would be Dean of
Briarhurst. She worked years to have the position, she studied in
Europe, everything to fit herself for this. Then you came along,” the
girl said to Dean Travis, “and were appointed. It nearly broke my
sister’s heart.”
“You thought if you could get rid of me your sister would still have a
chance,” Dean Travis said slowly. “Is that it?”
“Yes. Now I’ve failed. You might as well know, I took the money from
your safe, too. I meant to put it back—but I couldn’t right away. Now
you will probably send me to prison.”
The Dean smiled in sympathetic understanding. “No, but if you return the
money, pack your things and leave tonight, we will forget the whole
incident.”
“Now,” Valerie pounced upon Gale when they were outside. “Tell me what
happened? It was all a mystery to me yet you seemed to know all about
things.”
“Simple,” Gale grinned. “Miss Horton’s sister wanted to be Dean at the
same time as Dean Travis. You know who won. Miss Horton evidently sought
revenge for her sister. She was doing these things to frighten Dean
Travis into leaving. Once she left, Miss Horton’s sister stood a good
chance of being appointed in her place.”
“But Dean Travis didn’t scare so easily, is that it?” Valerie asked.
“Right,” Gale agreed.
“So Miss Horton was going to murder the Dean,” Valerie shivered. “How
horrible!”
“She didn’t really know what she was doing,” Gale said.
“And the Dean forgave her as if it were nothing at all,” Valerie said.
“Attempted murder is a criminal offense.”
“Miss Horton was too scared to ever do anything like it again,” Gale
said. “There was no use punishing her farther. After all, no harm was
actually done.”
“You forget the note and the mysterious man that night back of the
Chemistry Hall,” Valerie reminded her. “And what of Phyl’s accident? Did
someone push the lumber that day?”
“That we will probably never know—about the man I mean,” Gale said.
“She must have had someone with her. But I think she wrote the note. As
for the lumber that caught Phyllis, I believe that really was an
accident.”
“Will the girls be surprised!” Valerie said. “Anyway, I’m glad I was in
at the finish.”
The girls were gathered in the living room of the sorority house. One of
the Seniors had a small radio and she was fussing with it while the rest
listened and idled away the time until dinner. Just as Gale entered and
joined Phyllis and Ricky a voice from the radio proclaimed:
“Flash! An unconfirmed report has just been received that Doctor Philip
Elton, the world renowned surgeon, is lost in the jungles of Brazil.
Doctor Elton sailed from Liverpool, England, a month ago for a vacation
cruise on his yacht, the _Tornado_.”
“Some fun,” Ricky commented. “I’ve heard all sorts of things about those
jungles.”
“Is he any relation to you?” Valerie asked of Phyllis smilingly. “Same
name.”
Gale held her breath until Phyllis had replied.
“Not that I know of,” Phyllis laughed. “No relation of mine is fortunate
enough to own a yacht.”
Gale moved away. If she stayed with the girls another minute she would
tell them the truth or burst!
“Hi, Gale!” A voice called. “Telephone!”
Gale shut the door to the small closet-like room which the girls had
converted into a telephone booth.
“Hello? Yes.”
It was Brent.
“Oh, Brent, I just heard the news about Doctor Elton. Phyllis heard it,
too, and she doesn’t suspect a thing.”
“I called to tell you,” Brent said. “David and I are flying down
tonight. The South American government is sending out a searching party
and we want to help.”
“Take care,” Gale pleaded. “The jungle is so dangerous.”
“Who was it?” Ricky demanded, when Gale emerged.
Luckily the dinner summons saved Gale the necessity of an explanation.
After dinner the girls retreated to their rooms to devote much needed
time to their studies.
Gale looked up from her books to Phyllis. Phyllis was bent over a
mathematics problem; her cane lay beside her chair and she looked very
tired.
“Do you ever hear from Miss Fields, Phyllis?” Gale asked suddenly.
Phyllis looked up in surprise. “She sends me a monthly allowance. That
is all, why?”
“I wondered. Did you always live with her, Phyl?” Gale continued slowly.
“I can’t remember anyone else,” Phyllis said. “Very faintly I recall a
big house and a dog. We used to have grand times together. But I never
had a dog in Marchton,” she said, “so perhaps it is all a dream.”
“Is Miss Fields your mother’s or your father’s sister?” Gale asked next.
She knew the woman was neither, but she wanted to have Phyllis’ thought
on the subject.
Phyllis twirled her pencil between her fingers. “Perhaps you will think
I’m funny, but sometimes I think she isn’t even my Aunt.”
“Why?” Gale asked intently.
Phyllis shrugged her shoulders. “I can’t explain it. The feeling is just
there. She never speaks about any of those things.”
“Hmmm,” Gale said.
“But this isn’t getting my mathematics done,” Phyllis sighed.
“Nor my Latin,” Gale agreed.
The girls resumed their studies, but Gale’s mind insisted on wandering
off to picture an airplane bearing two young men toward South America.
David and Brent were off to aid in the search for the famous
surgeon—Phyllis’ father! What if the Doctor wasn’t found? Gale looked
across at Phyllis. Practically all of Phyllis’ future hinged on the news
announcement they had heard downstairs and the girl did not know it!
“What are you going to do after college, Phyl?” Gale asked dreamily.
Phyllis laughed. “What’s the matter, isn’t the Latin interesting?”
“Terribly,” Gale smiled. “But what are you?”
“I haven’t the faintest idea,” Phyllis confessed.
“Neither have I,” Gale admitted, “unless it is to be a doctor. Anyway,
you can go back to your mathematics.” She turned her attention to her
book again, but she couldn’t concentrate on it. She wandered out of
their room and downstairs. She found the Senior still at her radio
listening to a popular comedian.
“Any more news flashes?” she asked.
“Nope.”
Gale went back upstairs. She was restless. She wished she was with Brent
and David. It was hard to wait for news. It was so much better to be in
the center of the activity. But now it was doubly hard for her because
she was the only one here who knew about Phyllis’ father. If there was
only someone she could talk it over with! But it was to be a secret and
she would keep it. Still, sometimes she felt she must tell Phyllis that
things would be brighter for her.
For days Gale’s suspense continued. She attended classes, basketball
games, club meetings, and every afternoon walked to the little village
for an evening paper. There was very little news printed about Doctor
Elton and his trip into the Brazilian jungle. Neither did Gale receive
any word from Brent. She had not heard a thing since the night he
telephoned her. Now she had an additional worry. Not only was she
concerned about Doctor Elton, but more so about Brent’s safety.
Day after day she scanned the newspapers, listened to news reports on
the Seniors’ radio and looked for a letter, but none of them yielded the
news she hoped for. She tried to conceal all anxiety from Phyllis and
the other Adventure Girls, but she wasn’t very successful. They could
not help but notice her sudden absorptions in newspapers and the radio.
However, try as they would, they could not drag forth any explanation.
Gale laughed all their questions aside.
Then one day came a thick letter from Brent. Gale received it in the
living room and raced to the privacy of the girls’ sanctum to read it.
Lying on the bed, her chin propped on her hands, the letter against the
pillow, Gale read it through once and then again. She rolled over on her
back and stared at the ceiling.
Doctor Elton was found and Brent and David were flying him to
Briarhurst. They would arrive on the seventeenth. This was already the
fifteenth! They had told the Doctor Phyllis’ story—also that she was
his daughter. Brent said very little of what a revelation it must have
been to the Doctor. She searched out a particular paragraph again.
“‘Doctor Elton is willing to perform Phyllis’ operation himself, but she
is not to know until afterward that he is her father. Why he makes that
reservation I do not know—unless it would be more of a trial and an
ordeal for her knowing who he was. So, Gale, dear, it is up to you to
get Phyllis ready to meet the Doctor. He wants to do things right
away.’”
“Why so deep in thought?” Phyllis asked, when she entered.
“Phyllis——” Gale sat up. “Phyl, suppose you had the chance to have the
operation that might make you all right again, would you go through with
it?”
Phyllis grew a little pale.
“What do you mean?”
“Just that,” Gale pursued. “Suppose the biggest doctor in the country
said you had a chance—a very good chance, if your leg was operated on
and reset, of walking again as you used to. Would you take it?”
“Would I take it?” Phyllis gasped incredulously. “Oh, Gale, need you
ask? I’d take any sort of chance—even the slimmest.”
“It means weeks again of convalescence—time in the hospital,” Gale
reminded her gently.
“But it would be worth it,” Phyllis said. “Gale, tell me what you mean!”
Gale hugged Phyllis rapturously. “It means, Phyl, that Doctor Elton, the
surgeon, is coming to Briarhurst to see you. He is going to perform it.”
“When?”
“He arrives day after tomorrow.”
“But the money?”
That momentarily stumped Gale.
“He is interested in you,” Gale explained lamely. “Brent met him and was
telling him about you and he——”
“An experiment, is that it?” Phyllis asked.
“Um—ah—sort of,” Gale agreed. “But think what it will mean, Phyl!
You’ll even be back on the hockey team next year,” she added gayly.
“Who will be on what hockey team?” Valerie asked, entering. “Greetings,
Madam President and Madam Pro Tem. What did I interrupt?”
Phyllis breathlessly told her and went off happily to tell Ricky.
“How come, Gale?” Valerie asked, mystified. “To have Doctor Elton, THE
Doctor Elton——”
“It is a long story,” Gale said, swallowing a lump in her throat. “I’ll
tell you sometime, Val, but the main thing now is Phyllis—she is so
happy.”
“It is going to take a lot of courage to go through it all again,” Val
said. “I suppose there is no doubt about the success of the operation?”
“If Doctor Elton can’t do it, it can’t be done,” Gale said firmly. “He
is the best, Val. Besides that, he is her——”
“Her what?” Valerie asked interestedly.
“Nothing,” Gale said hastily. “Here comes Phyl. Let’s go tell Doctor
Norcot and Dean Travis now,” she proposed.