"Oh, but how do we know?" protested Laura. "It looks like machinery of
some kind, but we have no way of proving that it is the stolen
invention." "No," said Billie, still in a kind of daze. "It may be just
some old worthless thing that has been put up here because it is of no
use to anybody. But then again----"
"Oh, I think Laura's right," put in Vi, to whom this new find of
Billie's was not very interesting. It seemed absurd to put any value on
that queer-looking thing. And besides, she was anxious to get out of
that musty, ill-smelling place. "I thought of Mrs. Haddon at first too,
but----"
"Hello! I wonder what this is," Laura interrupted her. There had been
some blue prints lying on the floor near the wooden machinery. In the
poor light they had remained unnoticed until Laura had stumbled upon
them quite by accident.
In her eagerness, Billie forgot to be polite. She snatched the papers
from her chum and made her way to the nearest dust-begrimed window.
She scanned the prints eagerly and finally came to the thing she had so
wildly hoped to find. It was only a name, but it told a great deal.
The blue prints were evidently the design of some sort of machinery, and
down at the foot of one page the designer had put his name--Henry
Haddon.
"Girls, girls, look!" cried Billie, almost beside herself with
excitement at her discovery. "Now maybe you'll dare to say I'm crazy and
I don't know what I'm talking about. I dreamed of it two nights in
succession, and now my dream has come true----"
"Well, for goodness' sake, stop waving that thing around and tell us
what you're raving about," commanded Laura, snatching the blue print
from Billie in her turn, while Vi crowded close, looking curiously over
her shoulder.
"Here! At the bottom of this page!" crowed Billie, pointing out the
name. "See it? Henry Haddon!"
"Henry Haddon!" repeated Laura excitedly. "Then it looks as if that
really were his invention."
"It is the knitting machinery model!" cried Vi, forgetting that a moment
ago she had scoffed at the idea.
"Of course it is, you gooses--I mean you geese," cried Billie,
incoherent in her happiness. "I told you so right along, didn't I? Next
time maybe you'll believe your Uncle Billie."
"I--guess--yes!" said Laura, still staring at the blue prints as though
she could not believe they were real. "You surely did have the right
idea that time, Billie."
"Of course I did!" cried Billie impishly, bubbling over with excitement.
"And now I've got an idea that's righter yet. Let's go to Mrs. Haddon
and tell her about it."
"Agreed!" cried Laura. Then she glanced uncertainly at the blue prints.
"Shall we take these along?" she asked.
Billie hesitated, then shook her head.
"No," she said, "I think we had better leave everything just as we found
it."
So Laura put the important papers back on the spot where she had found
them, or as near to it as she could remember.
She then backed out of the room and felt her way down the ladder. Vi
followed, treading on her fingers, so that she let go and very nearly
tumbled to the floor.
Billie came last, for she was to lock the door.
But a strange thing happened. Either excitement had made Billie's
fingers clumsy or something had really happened to the rusty lock. At
any rate, she could not get the door locked again and after a few
minutes of nervous fumbling, interspersed with remarks from the girls
that were anything but encouraging, she gave up the attempt.
"Oh, well, we'll be back in a little while, anyway," she said, as she
came down swiftly hand over hand and dropped to the floor beside the
girls. "Come on now, let's hurry and find Mrs. Haddon."
They scurried down the stairs and were hurrying to their dormitory to
get on coats and hats when a voice hailed them and they stopped
impatiently to find Rose Belser hurrying toward them.
"Have you heard the latest, girls?" asked the dark-haired girl
excitedly, for once forgetting her sleepy drawl.
"No," said Billie, trying not to sound as impatient as she felt, while
Laura and Vi frowned openly.
"It's up on the bulletin board," Rose told them, too full of her own
news to notice their annoyance. "Connie Danvers has lost a gold wrist
watch and Miss Walters is very much upset about it. She says that the
thief, whoever it is, must be found. And she has ordered that no girl
leave the Hall until to-morrow morning."
The girls looked at each other and groaned.
"Till to-morrow morning!" said Billie, her face as long as though a
death sentence had just been pronounced upon her. "Oh, why couldn't
Connie have held on to her old watch!"
Rose's look of surprise was so genuine that it put Billie instantly on
her guard. The chums were not ready yet to take anybody into their
confidence about the new discovery.
And so she covered her slip as well as she could, and they went on
together to the dormitory, exclaiming sympathetically over Connie's
loss.
The next morning came at last, however, and as it was Sunday, the girls
were free to go as soon as the morning chapel hour was over. But as Miss
Walters would not allow any girl to leave the building without special
permission from her, the classmates were forced to go to her and tell
her about their invasion of the tower room and their discovery.
She was displeased that they had not asked her consent before taking
such a step. But she was also very much interested in their story, and
readily gave them her permission to go to Polly Haddon.
"Bring her back with you, if you can," she said, "and we will all go
together to the tower room."
"Now for the fun!" cried Laura, as a few minutes later they stepped out
into the crisp air. "Whew! I think we got off lots better than we
expected. I thought Miss Walters would be awfully mad."
"Probably she would have been if she hadn't had so many other things to
worry about," said Vi.
"Poor Connie!" said Billie. "It surely is too bad about her watch. It
was a beauty, and she was so proud of it."
"I hope Miss Walters finds the thief pretty soon," said Laura, frowning.
"Everybody thinks it is one of the girls, and I'm even beginning to feel
guilty myself."
"Do you think----" Vi began, then flushed as the girls looked at her and
stopped.
"What?" asked Laura adding, as Vi still hesitated. "Come on--we won't
eat you."
"Nothing--only--I was wondering if the thief might not be Amanda."
"Oh, no," cried Billie quickly. "I'm sure it couldn't be, Vi."
The suggestion from Vi startled her, and it troubled her too, for the
very reason that the same idea had been in her own mind.
And suddenly Laura spoke up in support of Vi.
"I shouldn't wonder if Vi is right," she said. "Amanda is mean enough
for anything."
Billie had no answer for that, and so she said nothing. But she was more
than ever troubled.
As they neared the little white cottage that had seen so much trouble,
they forgot Amanda in anticipation of Polly Haddon's joy at the good
news they were bringing her.
They knocked on the door, and the moment it was opened pushed eagerly
inside and turned to face the astonished widow.
Billie started to speak, but Laura, with her usual impulsiveness, was
before her.
"We've got good news, Mrs. Haddon," she blurted out. "We've found your
lost invention."
Billie gasped with dismay as Mrs. Haddon turned deathly white and
grasped the back of a chair for support.
"Oh, Laura, you shouldn't!" cried Billie, as she put an arm about the
woman and helped her into a chair. "Get some water, quick! There's a
glass in the sink."
But Mrs. Haddon brushed her impatiently aside.
"I'm not going to faint," she said brusquely. "Tell me why you said
that. Hurry!"
But Laura thought she had done enough speechmaking for one day, and it
was Billie who answered the woman's questions.
"It must be ours," said the latter, at last. "I will go with you and
make sure. Peter? Yes, he will be all right till I get back. He is much
better. I will be ready in a moment."
She returned in less than a minute, a hat perched carelessly on her head
and a shawl around her shoulders. Her eyes burned bright in her thin
face.
No one spoke on the way back. Mrs. Haddon, her lips set and her eyes
fixed straight ahead, said not a word, and the girls were too awed by
her emotion to break the silence.
Miss Walters met them in the hall, said a few words to Mrs. Haddon,
then, seeing that the woman was keyed to the breaking point, led the way
straight to the tower room.
The girls ran up the ladder ahead of the two older women. The latter
followed more slowly. Billie pushed open the little door and entered the
room.
Then she started, gasped, rubbed her hand across her eyes to make sure
she was not dreaming. For the spot where the queer wooden machinery had
stood was empty. The invention was gone; and the blue prints were gone,
too!