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BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER CLASSMATES
OR
THE SECRET OF THE LOCKED TOWER
BY
JANET D. WHEELER
AUTHOR OF "BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE,"
"BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Cupples & Leon Company
Publishers New York
Copyright, 1921
Cupples & Leon Company
Billie Bradley and Her Classmates
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
[Illustration: They marched through crying "Way for the Queen."]
Contents
CHAPTER I--THIN ICE
CHAPTER II--NEARLY FROZEN
CHAPTER III--POLLY HADDON
CHAPTER IV--GENEROUS PLANS
CHAPTER V--BEARDING THE LION
CHAPTER VI--TROUBLE
CHAPTER VII--SETTLING A SCORE
CHAPTER VIII--JUST LIKE BILLIE!
CHAPTER IX--INTO SPACE
CHAPTER X--THE CAVE
CHAPTER XI--THE SIMPLETON
CHAPTER XII--THE ACCUSATION
CHAPTER XIII--BILLIE IS CHOSEN
CHAPTER XIV--A BLOOD-STAINED HANDKERCHIEF
CHAPTER XV--A DISCOVERY
CHAPTER XVI--CHRISTMAS CHEER
CHAPTER XVII--BILLIE ON GUARD
CHAPTER XVIII--AMANDA'S REVENGE
CHAPTER XIX--THE TOWER ROOM
CHAPTER XX--STOLEN
CHAPTER XXI--MORE MYSTERY
CHAPTER XXII--FIRST PRIZE
CHAPTER XXIII--DISGRACED
CHAPTER XXIV--TRIUMPH
CHAPTER XXV--PRETTY FROCKS
CHAPTER I--THIN ICE
Click! click! click! went three pairs of skates as three snugly-dressed
girls fairly flew along the frozen surface of the lake.
"Isn't it glorious?" cried the laughing, brown-eyed one, who was no
other than Billie Bradley, as she threw back her head and sniffed the
crisp, cold air. "Who ever heard of the lake freezing over in the middle
of November? And the ice is pretty solid, too."
"In spots," added Violet Farrington, a slender, dark girl with black
hair and dark eyes.
"What do you mean--'in spots'?" asked the third of the trio, Laura
Jordon. Laura was as fair as Violet was dark, and now her blue eyes
darted an anxious glance at her chum. "Do you think we shall find any
thin ice?"
"I don't know, of course," Violet answered quickly. "But you notice Miss
Walters told us to stay close to the shore, and that certainly looks as
if she weren't any too certain about the ice."
Miss Walters was the much-loved principal of Three Towers Hall, the
boarding school which the girls were attending, and to the three chums,
Miss Walters' word was law.
As Billie Bradley had said, Lake Molata, upon which Three Towers Hall
was situated, had frozen over unusually early this year. Though it was
not quite the middle of November, there had been several rather heavy
snowfalls. The thermometer had fallen lower and lower till it had
dropped below the freezing point, and after a few days of this falling
weather a thin glaze of ice had begun to form over the still surface of
the lake.
At first the girls had not been too joyful, fearing that the ice was too
fragile to last and that one good thaw would do away with it entirely.
But the thaw had not come, and as day after day the prematurely cold
weather continued, the girls at the Hall had grown more and more
excited. Finally they could stand it no longer and dispatched a
committee of three to Miss Walters--among whom had been Billie--asking
for the unique privilege of skating over the frozen surface of Lake
Molata in the middle of November.
The petition had been granted, with the reservation, as Vi had said,
that the girls should stay close to shore and not venture out into the
uncertain center of the lake.
When the jubilant committee of three had brought back the glad news to
the eagerly waiting girls the dormitories had been the scene of wild but
noiseless fancy dancing in celebration of the great event.
Soon after was heard the clinking of skates and the babble of excited
girls' voices as those of the students who were lucky enough to have
prepared their lessons for the next day, and so had the afternoon free,
made ready for the fun.
Then, down the sloping lawn of Three Towers Hall, the hard, crusted snow
crackling merrily under their feet, down to the edge of the lake where
skates were put on, mufflers tightened and woolly caps pulled well down
to protect ears that already were feeling the nip of the cold, rushed
the crowd of excited, happy girls.
Fun! Any one who has tasted the joy of skating over freshly-frozen ice
on a crisp winter day when the sun, pouring down, seems only to make the
air more chill, any one who has tasted that joy, knows that there is no
other sport like it.
So, singly, in groups of two or three, in parties of four, the girls
spread out over the lake, their gayly hued caps and sweaters making
vivid patches of color on the surface.
Although they had started out with the rest of the girls, Billie and
Laura and Vi had become separated from them some way or other, and they
now found themselves skimming merrily along with not another person in
sight. This did not worry them, however, because they had learned by
experience that whenever the three of them were together they were
always sure of having a good time.
"A week from now," Billie cried, strands of hair escaping from under her
tam-o'-shanter and whipping about her glowing face, "the lake will
probably look as though we had dragged a farmer's plow across it."
"A week from now we may not have any ice at all," added Vi
pessimistically.
Laura, who was skating between them, let go their hands for a moment to
fasten her sweater still more closely about her throat. The wind had
stung her face to a vivid red.
"I must say you both sound cheerful," she said reproachfully, adding
with a gay little toss of her head: "From the way this wind feels, I'd
say we were going to have ice all winter."
"Don't wake her up, she is dreaming," sang Billie mockingly, adding, as
Laura gave her a push that would have unbalanced a less skillful skater:
"Who ever heard of Lake Molata being frozen over all winter?"
"Well, who ever heard of its being frozen over in the middle of
November?" Laura retorted, adding with a grin as Billie looked
nonplussed: "I guess that will hold you for a while."
"Laura Jordon," said Vi, folding her mittened hands and trying to look
very prim and teacher-like, "report to Miss Walters immediately. That is
the third time you have used slang this morning."
The girls giggled, and this time it was Vi who got the push.
"Go long with you," said Billie gayly. "You can't imitate the Dill
Pickles in a red sweater and a green cap."
The Dill Pickles, as my old readers will remember, were two teachers,
Miss Ada and Miss Cora Dill, who had recently lived at the Hall. The two
had done their best to make the girls' lives miserable and had finally,
after the students had revolted and marched out of the school, been sent
away by Miss Walters.
The vacancies had been filled by teachers who were as different from the
Miss Dills in every way as they could be, and since then life at Three
Towers Hall had been one happy round of study and fun for the girls.
"Thank goodness the Dills have gone forever," said Vi, in response to
Billie's observation.
"Yes," agreed Laura, reminiscently. "It was a lot of trouble, getting
rid of them, but it was worth it."
"There are only nice teachers up at the Hall now," said Billie,
contentedly. "Especially Miss Arbuckle."
"Isn't she ducky?" said Laura, enthusiastically, if disrespectfully. "I
was afraid she might change her mind and take up her old job of
governess to those two kiddies."
"I wouldn't have blamed her much, if she had," Vi said, with a chuckle.
"She might make the little children behave, while with us----"
"She hasn't a chance," giggled Billie.
"Just the same," put in Laura, with unusual gravity, "you notice that we
all do what Miss Arbuckle says. She isn't stern like Miss Race, either,
nor nasty like the Dill Pickles used to be. I guess we just obey her
because we all like her," she finished simply.
"That's right, and----" Billie was saying when suddenly the ice cracked
under her skates and with a cry she lunged forward. Luckily her feet
struck on solid ice beyond the cracked part, and with difficulty she
regained her balance.
"The ice!" she gasped, as Laura and Vi stared at her. "I struck a thin
spot, I guess. Goodness, that scared me!"
"I should say so," agreed Laura, with a little whistle of astonishment
as she edged over to the treacherous place in the ice which was
crisscrossed over with long cracks. "Look here, girls. I could almost
push this ice through with my finger."
"Well, don't try it," advised Vi, backing away anxiously from the
dangerous spot. "I wonder if there any more places like it."
"S'pose there are--lots of them," said Billie, who had recovered from
her fright and was disposed to treat the whole thing as a joke. "The
thing for us to do is to keep out of their way, that's all."
"Sounds easy," grumbled Vi as they joined hands again and skated on more
slowly over the frozen surface. "But how are we going to know where the
thin places are unless we step on 'em--and fall through, maybe?"
"P'r'aps we'd better go back if----" Billie was beginning uneasily when
a sudden, terrified scream cut her short. It was a child's scream and it
was followed by another, and yet another.
"Oh!" cried Laura wildly, "somebody's getting killed."