Miss Arbuckle laid a kindly hand on Billie's shoulder and looked at
Amanda inquiringly. The latter was smiling triumphantly. Billie had done
what she had hoped she would do. She, Amanda, would tell what in her
mean little mind she really thought was the truth, and get Billie in bad
with the powers-that-be.
"What is this that you are telling about Beatrice, Amanda?" asked Miss
Arbuckle, adding, impatient of Amanda's grin: "Be quick about it."
"She and Teddy Jordon ran off together to-day and were gone for about
three hours," she said triumphantly. "Billie just came in."
Billie's eyes, black in her white, set face, looked up at Miss Arbuckle
steadily.
"I didn't do it, Miss Arbuckle," she said, her lip quivering. "I--I
couldn't."
"I know you couldn't, Billie Bradley," said Miss Arbuckle, so
unexpectedly that Amanda's mouth dropped open from sheer surprise.
"There must be some mistake."
"But they were away together for three hours," Amanda repeated, angry at
having this tempting morsel of revenge snatched away from her at the
last minute. "I know it."
"That will do, Amanda," said Miss Arbuckle sternly. "You have been
guilty several times of starting stories about the girls that have had
absolutely no foundation in truth. And I warn you that if you are caught
again in this mischief it may mean serious trouble for you.
"You say," she added turning soberly to Billie, "that you and Teddy
Jordon did _not_ leave the other boys and girls this morning?"
"Oh, yes, we did," said Billie, so eager to explain that her words
tripped all over themselves. "Only we didn't do it on purpose."
Miss Arbuckle looked grave and Amanda's triumphant leer returned.
"Please let me explain----" began poor Billie, but the teacher
interrupted her.
"Yes, I want you to," she said. "Only not just now. Come to me to-morrow
morning at nine, Billie. And I want you to be there also, Amanda. In the
meantime," she added to the latter, "you will make no mention of this
affair in any way. Do you understand?"
Amanda nodded sullenly and at Miss Arbuckle's command the small group of
girls that had gathered dispersed to their various dormitories, talking
excitedly of what had happened.
Billie was too tired and cold and worn out with conflicting emotions to
talk much at first. But under the tireless cross-questioning of the
girls she gradually began to give them the story of her remarkable
adventure.
They were very much excited about Nick Budd and the cave, and declared
that they must visit it and Billie must show them the way.
But Billie, who was comfortably stretched out on her bed with Vi rubbing
one half-frozen hand and Laura the other, absolutely denied that she
would do anything of the sort.
"It sounds very interesting now," she said. "But I tell you I was scared
to death while it lasted. I wouldn't go back to that place for a million
dollars. Oh, girls," she added, stretching luxuriously, "you don't know
how heavenly it feels just to be where it's warm."
"Didn't Teddy keep you warm?" asked Rose Belser, wickedly, but just then
the door opened and Amanda came into the room. Needless to say, Billie
did not answer the question.
Promptly at nine o'clock the next morning Billie went to Miss Arbuckle
and told her the story of the yesterday's adventure just as it had
happened, and Miss Arbuckle, to Amanda's immense disgust, believed her.
A little talk by the teacher on the wisdom of taking fewer chances in
the future ended the interview to which Billie had been looking forward
with not a little dread. And Amanda found herself once more facing the
problem of how "to get even with Billie Bradley."
The girls talked and wondered about the queer little cave and simple
Nick Budd, but as the days went on and they were whirled into a
veritable maelstrom of quizzes and examinations, they gradually forgot
the incident.
It seemed that the school work was to be unusually interesting that
year. There were the usual number of essays to be written, and for one
Miss Walters had offered a prize to the girl turning in the best work.
The title of the essay was "The World's Greatest Generals," and any girl
in the school was entitled to try for it. There were other prizes
offered, too, but Billie, whose mark in English was usually the highest
in her class, thought that she would try for the composition prize.
Laura and Connie and Rose Belser were going to enter the lists with her,
but Vi and Nellie Bane decided to try for the highest mark in geometry.
"Working for a prize makes the work seem more like a game," said Connie
as she happily looked up her "greatest generals." "I'm as excited as if
I were going to a party."
"Well, you'd better not get too excited," advised Vi, pulling a lock of
her hair absently in order to solve a particularly steep problem in her
beloved geometry. "Billie is sure to come off with the essay prize."
"Oh, she is, is she?" spoke up Rose, who had set her heart on the essay
prize herself and who could never quite stifle her former jealousy of
Billie. "Well, maybe she is, but I'm going to give her a run for her
money just the same."
"Good!" cried Billie, looking up from her book and smiling sunnily at
Rose. "That's the kind of game I like to play."
"And how about us?" said Laura, smiling ruefully over at fluffy-haired
Connie. "We don't seem to be in this at all."
Besides their studies, the girls had the Ghost Club to think about and
the importance of initiating new members. They had decided upon two of
the freshmen for the honor, one, a fair-haired intelligent girl named
Ann Fleming and the second a laughing imp of a girl with red hair and
red-brown eyes who bore the name of Ada Slope.
Both girls stood well in their studies and showed a remarkable
popularity among their classmates considering the short time they had
been at the Hall.
And of course they were overwhelmed with joy when Billie drew them aside
one day and ordered them to be in the gymnasium at not later than nine
o'clock that night.
They were there before nine, shivering in the darkness of the big
gymnasium and wishing that this fearful business of being initiated were
over and done with.
A few minutes later the "ghosts" arrived and put the girls through a
series of trials that tested their courage and endurance to the limit.
They were made to "walk the plank" blindfolded; they were prepared for
"branding with a red-hot poker" and then touched with a lump of ice that
made them cry out in imagined pain; they were handed all sorts of slimy
things, harmless in themselves but terrifying to the overstrained nerves
of the girls.
But they came out of the test with flying colors, and the members of the
club were well satisfied with their choice.
"And now," said Rose Belser--who was still president of the club--as the
handkerchiefs were removed from the eyes of the new members, "we are
about to put to the test a new rule suggested by a fellow ghost."
The girls held their breath, for the announcement was a surprise to all
but Billie, who had herself made the suggestion.
"It occurred to this fellow-member of our illustrious club," Rose went
on in a deep voice, looking very weird and ghostly in her long white
ceremonial robe, with only slits cut in it for the eyes and nose and
mouth, "that it is only fair to the new members who have stood the test,
to suggest some difficult feat for one of the old members to
perform--this person to be chosen by the new members of the club."
The girls were silent for a moment, sitting there like so many actual
ghosts in their white robes, and they thrilled with excitement as they
realized the possibilities of the new rule if it should be accepted.
It was fair, for it would give the girls who had gone through the hazing
a chance to "get even," and it would also be lots of fun for themselves.
So when Rose called in a sepulchral voice for a vote, there was a
unanimous cry of "aye."
Billie smiled under her white mask gleefully. She had known that the
girls would be good sports.
"The suggestion has been unanimously accepted," Rose rumbled on in the
deep voice she adopted for such occasions. "Fellow ghosts, we will now
withdraw and give our fellow members a chance to consult upon this
important topic."
"You don't have to withdraw," cried red-haired Ada Slope, with a giggle
that she could not entirely suppress, despite the "seriousness of the
occasion." "I'll give a nickel to any girl who will climb up into tower
number three with only a candle to see by."
"And I'll give a dime," said Ann Fleming decidedly.
A ripple of very human laughter ran through the ghosts, and Rose had to
demand order three times before she was obeyed.
"Very well," she said then. "Our new members have decided. It now
remains for them to select one among our number to do this mighty deed.
Advance, new members of the Ghost Club! Choose!"
Ann Fleming put out her hand and touched one white-robed figure.
"I choose this one," she said.
"'Tis done!" cried Ada Slope, dramatically.
Oh, poetic justice! For the chosen one was Billie!