ALMOST A DISASTER
"I wouldn't risk it if I were you, Linda," Cora persisted.
"Oh, what's the use of talking to you!" exclaimed Linda angrily. "You
haven't got enough sense to understand. I wish I hadn't told you a word
about it," and she turned her back upon her chum and refused to say
another word.
Cora, daring for once to be angry in her turn, left the room, and Linda
soon forgot her in gloating over the fright she was plotting for Nan.
The next morning after the eleven o'clock recitation had begun, Linda
made a pretext for leaving the room. She slipped down into the basement
and then came back to her seat to await developments.
Meanwhile, the well-ordered routine of Lakeview Hall was proceeding as
usual. The hands of the great clock in the English recitation room
pointed to a quarter of twelve, and sidelong looks were being cast at it
in pleasurable anticipation of the noon hour.
Bang!
Suddenly the crash of a loud explosion filled every one with terror. The
building trembled to its foundations. Clouds of steam poured up from the
basement.
A wild cry rent the air.
"What's that?"
"Sounded like an explosion to me."
"Maybe it's an earthquake."
"Oh, see the smoke."
"The school must be on fire!"
"I'm going to get out of here!"
"Oh, yes, let me out; I don't want to be burnt alive!"
"Fire! Fire! The Hall is on fire!"
In an instant a panic was on. The teachers alone and some of the older
girls kept their heads. The younger pupils rushed for the doors in a
frenzy of fright.
The English teacher ran to one of the doors of her recitation room and
held it fast. But there was another door in the room, and toward this
the frightened girls poured in a mad stampede. Just outside was the
stairway with several sharp turns, and if the fugitives jammed up on one
of the landings it might mean maiming or death for some of them.
Quick as a flash, Nan Sherwood acted. She sprang to the danger door,
slammed it shut and put her back against it. The tide surged up against
her. The younger girls clawed at her, scratched her hands, did all in
their power to force her away from the door. But she held her place with
desperation, though her clothes were torn, and her hands were bleeding.
Then through the crowd came Linda Riggs, bowling the smaller girls out
of her way, her face as pale as death and her eyes almost bulging out of
her head with fright.
"Let me get out, Nan Sherwood!" she screamed, tearing at her with all
her might. "Let me out! Let me out! I'll die! I won't stay here to be
burned to death! Get away from that door! Let me get out!"
She tore at Nan and struck her in the face. She was a strong girl, and
doubly strong now in her rage and fright. But Nan braced herself and
still held the door, though her strength was fast ebbing.
Just then help came. Rhoda Hammond and Bess Harley caught hold of Linda
and pulled her away. They thrust her into a seat and held her down,
while Laura and others of the older girls pacified and soothed the
younger ones.
The worst was over. The steam had thinned out and drifted away. The
pupils slowly went back to their seats at the command of the teacher and
sat there, sobbing and moaning and weak from excitement. But the panic
had been quelled.
Now that the crisis had passed, Nan felt her strength leaving her, and
she had scarcely enough left to get back to her seat. She almost fell
into it when at last she reached it.
Just then, Dr. Prescott, who from the moment of the first alarm had been
in other parts of the building, helping to quell the excitement, entered
the room. She took her stand beside the teacher and held with her a
brief conversation in which she learned what had occurred in the room.
Then she spoke a few quiet words of assurance, telling the girls that
there had not been, and was not now, any danger and warmly commending
the bravery and self-control of the teacher and the older girls. She
then dismissed them.
A refreshing half-hour in their rooms did the girls a world of good, and
when the lunch gong sounded they gathered about the table in something
like their normal spirits. It is true that none ate very much, but
tongues flew fast in comment and conjecture.
"How could it have happened?" was the many-times-repeated question. Was
it the janitor's fault? He must have forgotten to turn off the drafts
perhaps, and the accumulated gas had exploded.
"Probably something was wrong with the safety valve," conjectured Rhoda,
building better than she knew.
"Well," said Nan, as at last they rose from the table, "I hope they'll
find out what did cause it so that it will never happen again."
Naturally, there were no more lessons that afternoon. The girls gathered
in groups in the corridors or in each others' rooms excitedly discussing
the stirring events of the morning.
Nan lay upon the couch in her room, resting after her exertions, when
Grace, who had been telephoning to Walter, came in bursting with news.
"What do you think I heard downstairs!" she cried before she was fairly
in the room. "Doctor Beulah thinks that it wasn't an accident at all,
but that the whole thing was caused by some one tampering with the
boiler."
The girls all spoke at once.
"Oh, that couldn't be!"
"Who'd have any object in doing a thing that might have cost lives?"
"Isn't it awful!"
"Anyway," Grace went on as soon as they gave her a chance to speak,
"they say that a heavy cord had been tied to the valve to keep it down
and the broken ends of the cord were found hanging from it."
The girls were stupefied with astonishment.
Suddenly Laura started up and walked excitedly about the room.
"There's this much about it!" she exclaimed. "If some one did do it
purposely, Doctor Beulah will soon find out when it was done, and why it
was done--_and who did it, too_," she added significantly.
Laura knew by the expression on all the faces that the same thought
that had been in her mind when she spoke those last words was in the
minds of the other girls, too.
If two very depressed and frightened girls in another room could have
heard them, their spirits would have sunk still lower.
"What did I tell you!" cried Cora wildly. "I begged you not to do it.
And what did you make by it? Disgraced yourself and only made Nan
Sherwood more popular than ever."
For once, Linda was silent. Cora made the most of her chance to get back
at Linda for her high-handed treatment of her. She went on mercilessly:
"I was so ashamed of you," she said. "You made such a show of yourself.
I didn't think you could be such a coward."
"Well," whined Linda, "I had more to live for, with all my money, than
they had."
"That sounds like you," gibed Cora disgustedly. "Well, I pity you if
Doctor Beulah finds out you did it. And she will, you can just depend on
that."
In the meantime Bess, with some other girls, visited the basement to
look at the wreckage. When she came back she had a queer look on her
face. She called Nan to one side.
"See what I found," she said and held out a small handkerchief with a
daisy worked in one corner. "It was in the basement, close to the
wrecked boiler."
Nan looked at the bit of linen and started. She remembered having seen
Linda Riggs with such a handkerchief more than once.
"But Linda may have dropped it down there since the explosion," she
said, quickly.
"I guess not!" drawled Bess. "This looks like a bit of real evidence to
me."
"Oh, Bess--don't say anything--at least not till you are sure."
"I won't. But I'll remember it."
At this moment the gong sounded a summons to the main assembly hall, a
summons which the girls obeyed with alacrity.
Knowing as they did that an examination of the steam plant had been
going on, and their interest and curiosity quickened by the rumors they
had heard, it was not long before every seat was filled and all eyes
turned expectantly on Dr. Prescott. She sat there, rather pale, but
dignified and well poised.
"What is she going to say?" each girl asked herself. The tension was at
its height, the silence could almost be felt, when Dr. Prescott began to
speak.
"A thorough examination has shown us," she began, "that the steam plant
is very badly damaged, though we hope that it may be possible to repair
it in a short time. But the investigation," she went on, "has revealed
the almost unbelievable fact that there was no accident, but a
deliberate plan or trick. Who conceived it or why, is not yet known, but
we will spare no effort to find the guilty party and bring him or her
to punishment. I am very thankful that the injury was confined to the
steam plant and that no one was hurt, as might easily have been the
case.
"I am very proud of the presence of mind and bravery shown by the
teachers and many of the students. Many of the younger girls and all the
older ones, with one shameful exception"--she paused, and all eyes were
turned on Linda, who sat cowering in her seat--"showed remarkable
self-possession, and I take this opportunity to thank them all. I
hesitate to mention any names, but I must single out Nan Sherwood, who,
by her prompt action and cool courage, contributed in so large a measure
to avert the dreadful consequences of a panic."
With these words she dismissed them.
As the girls left the assembly hall they broke out into a Babel of
excited comment. Dr. Prescott, crossing the hall on the way to her
office, placed her arm over Nan's shoulders and thanked her personally.
Nan's heart swelled at the earnest words of praise, for Dr. Prescott's
good opinion was highly valued.
"Of course," the doctor added with a whimsical smile, "the three-day
sentence is remitted for you and your friends."
She passed on.
"Isn't she just splendid!" exclaimed Grace.
"And how nicely she seemed to manage the whole situation," remarked
Rhoda.
"She's a peach!" declared Laura, slangily.
"I should say she is! And so is somebody else I know," agreed Bess, as
she drew Nan's arm through hers.