The screams for help seemed to be quite near the girls, but whoever was
in trouble was hidden from them by a sharp bend in the lake shore.
Without further thought of danger to themselves, the chums skated
forward swiftly, the long fringed ends of their scarfs flying out behind
them and their bodies thrown eagerly forward.
"Maybe somebody is drowning!"
"It's some great peril, you may be sure of that--otherwise they wouldn't
scream so."
"They are children!"
"Yes, and little ones at that, if I am any judge of voices."
Thus talking excitedly the girls skated forward along the lake shore.
Then came a sudden scream from Vi. She had skated too close to an
overhanging tree and a branch caught in her hair as she tried to sweep
past.
"Wait! wait!" she cried. "Don't leave me behind!"
"What's the trouble?" came simultaneously from the others.
"I'm caught--my hair is fast in the tree."
"Pull yourself loose," cried Billie. "Hurry, do! Oh, just listen to
those cries!" she added, as scream after scream rent the wintry air.
In frantic haste poor Vi tried to do as bidden. But the tree was a
thorny one, and she had considerable trouble to liberate herself.
Then came fresh trouble as Billie's left skate became loosened.
"I've got to fasten it," she said, and bent down to do so. Then the
classmates swept forward as before.
They rounded the bend in the lake a minute later and then drew up
suddenly as they came upon a singular scene.
Three small children, a boy and two girls, were standing up to their
waists in the icy water. Evidently they had ventured out upon the lake
in a spirit of mischief, and had stepped upon thin ice which had given
way beneath even their slight weight. Luckily they had not got far from
the shore, for if the ice had broken through in a deeper part of the
lake they must surely have been drowned. As it was, they were three very
badly frightened children who were beginning to feel numb with the cold.
At sight of the girls they began to wail afresh and held out their
little arms imploringly.
The sight was too much for Billie, and she began to edge her way
cautiously along the thin ice, calling to the girls to follow her
example.
"Be careful," she warned. "If we went through, too, it would be hard to
get out, and while we were trying it the kiddies would probably freeze
to death. Look out!" she exclaimed, as the ice cracked treacherously
under her weight. "It is paper-thin right here."
And while the girls are busy at their work of rescue we will take a few
minutes to tell those who are meeting Billie Bradley and her chums for
the first time something of the good times the girls have had in other
volumes of the series.
In the first book, called "Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance," the
girls had many and varied adventures, some of which were thrilling and
others only funny. Just when Billie was wondering how to raise one
hundred dollars to pay for a statue which she had accidentally broken, a
queer old aunt of hers, Beatrice Powerson by name, died and left to her
an inheritance which had at first seemed a doubtful blessing, namely a
rambling gloomy old homestead at a place called Cherry Corners.
The house dated back to Revolutionary times and had many weird and
romantic legends attached to it. The girls, anxious to see the old place
for themselves, had decided to spend their vacation there, and a little
later some boys had joined them.
They had an unusual and exciting time of it and the climax of the whole
outing was the finding of a shabby old trunk which was hidden away in
the attic. This trunk contained five thousand dollars' worth of rare old
coins and queer postage stamps, and this small fortune enabled Billie
not only to replace the statue she had broken but gave her more than
enough to send herself to Three Towers Hall and her brother Chet to
Boxton Military Academy.
But we forgot entirely to introduce the boys! And they at least
considered themselves by far the most important part of the story. Here
they are then--First of all comes Chetwood Bradley, Billie's brother,
whom his friends called Chet for short. Chet was a lovable boy,
good-looking, quiet, reserved and devoted to Billie--whose real name, by
the way, was Beatrice.
Then there was Ferd Stowing, an all-around good-natured boy who always
added a great deal to whatever fun was at hand. And last, but not least,
Laura's brother Teddy. Teddy was fifteen, as were the other boys, but,
unlike them, he looked quite a good deal older than he was. He was tall,
with wavy hair and handsome gray eyes and an athletic build which was
the envy of most of the boys at North Bend, where the young folks lived.
Teddy had always liked Billie a lot because, as he told his sister,
Laura, Billie was the nearest like a boy of all the girls he knew. She
liked sports almost as well as he did and so as a matter of course they
played tennis and hiked and skated a good deal together.
Returning from their vacation in the old homestead at Cherry Corners,
the girls went straight to Three Towers Hall, the boarding school to
which their parents were sending them, partly because the young folks
wanted to go and partly because the high school at North Bend was
hopelessly inefficient and unsatisfactory.
At the same time, the boys departed for Boxton Military Academy which
was only a little over a mile from the boarding school and which was
also situated close to Lake Molata.
The good times the young folks had at school are told in the second
volume of the series entitled, "Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall."
The most startling thing that happened during the year was the capture
of the man whom the boys and girls had named the "Codfish" on account of
his peculiarly fish-like mouth. The latter had once attempted to steal
Billie's precious trunk, and had later on been suspected of planning and
carrying out a robbery at Boxton Military Academy. Later, he had robbed
Miss Race, one of the teachers at the Hall.
The girls had made new friends--and enemies also,--at Three Towers Hall.
Chief among the enemies were Amanda Peabody and her chum, Eliza Dilks.
The girls were both sneaks and tattletales, and the former, being
jealous of Billie and her chums, had done her best to make life
unbearable for them at Three Towers. That the disagreeable girls had not
succeeded, was not in the least their fault.
Another enemy of Billie's had been Rose Belser, a pretty, black-haired,
very vain girl who was also jealous of Billie because of her unusual and
immediate popularity with the girls. However, even Rose was won over to
Billie's side in the end and became sincerely repentant for her mean
behavior.
Connie Danvers, a pretty, fluffy-haired girl, became a staunch friend of
the chums at once, and it was she who had invited Billie and Laura and
Vi to spend their vacation at Lighthouse Island where her parents had a
summer bungalow. Connie's Uncle John, an interesting, bluff character,
lived at the lighthouse on the island.
The girls had become very much interested in a mystery surrounding Miss
Arbuckle, one of the very nice new teachers who had come to Three Towers
to replace the disagreeable "Dill Pickles." They had also met a queer
looking man one day when they were lost in the woods, and they had
wondered about him a great deal.
It seems Miss Arbuckle had been very greatly disturbed over the loss of
an album, and when Billie, accidentally stumbling upon the book, had
returned it to the teacher, the latter had wept with joy. Turning over
the pages of the album until she came to the pictures of three beautiful
children she had cried out: "Oh my precious children. I couldn't lose
your pictures after losing you."
Of course this exclamation, together with Miss Arbuckle's strange
conduct, considerably puzzled the girls, and they wondered about it all
during the vacation at Lighthouse Island. Then one day a terrible storm
came up and a ship was wrecked on one of the treacherous shoals which
surrounded the island. The girls, helping in the work of rescue,
discovered three children lashed to a rude raft, and after releasing the
little victims, the girls had carried them to the Lighthouse to be cared
for.
Later, Billie saw a marked resemblance in the three children to the
pictures of the children she had seen in Miss Arbuckle's album, and what
strange discovery this led to is told in the third volume of this series
entitled "Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island."
And now the girls were all back at Three Towers again in search of
further education, likewise, they hoped, much fun and adventure.
"Don't come any farther," Billie said to Laura and Vi, as she stretched
herself out at full length on the ice and reached out to grasp one of
the children in the water. "Lie down on the thick ice, both of you, and
hold on to me just as hard as you can. When I say pull--pull!"
Obediently Laura and Vi flopped down on the ice, each grasping one of
Billie's feet and holding on stoutly.
"I'd like to see you get away from us now," said Laura.
Leaning over, Billie grasped the nearest child under the arms and tugged
with all her strength.
"Pull!" she gasped to the girls, "I'm slipping."
The girls pulled and dragged her, child and all, out on the more solid
ice. They set the child on his poor shivering little feet and then went
back for the next one. A moment more and all three of the little things
were standing huddled together on the ice, shivering and crying
miserably.
"I wanna do home!" wailed the little boy. "I wanna do home."