"Billie, you're a wonder! Come on, let's go!" cried Laura, then clapped
her hand over her mouth and turned a panicky red as she caught Miss
Walters' eye upon her.
But Miss Walters was looking through and beyond Laura, and her gaze came
quickly back to Billie. Polly Haddon's eyes were fixed on the girl, too,
with passionate intensity.
"Tell us what you mean, Billie," commanded Miss Walters. "Quickly!"
Billie, remembering suddenly that Miss Arbuckle was the only one of the
faculty who knew of her adventure with Teddy, was embarrassed for a
moment. But she plunged bravely in and told them the whole story from
beginning to end, sparing no details.
Miss Walters was intensely interested, and when she had finished even
Polly Haddon looked encouraged. The latter wished to set forth at once
in search of the cave, but Miss Walters proposed a plan that appealed to
everybody, especially the hungry girls.
"Wait and have lunch with me in my rooms," she said to Mrs. Haddon. "For
it is almost lunch time now. Then we can start to hunt for the cave as
soon as we have finished."
Mrs. Haddon looked tempted, but she shook her head.
"There are the children," she said. "And little Peter. There is no one
with them."
But Miss Arbuckle settled this objection by offering to go over and stay
with the children and see that they were well taken care of during their
mother's absence.
"I was a governess and sort of children's nurse combined, at one time,
you know," and she smiled graciously upon the mother. "And I assure you
that I know how to care for children."
Almost upon her words the lunch gong rang, and Miss Walters thereupon
dismissed the girls to the dining-hall.
"Remember, we will start directly after lunch," she said to them as they
fled.
"Billy, it's just like a story book or a movie!" cried Vi joyfully, as
they took their places at the table among the noisy, chattering girls.
"Are you certain you can find the cave again, Billie?" asked Laura, as
she attacked her heaped-up plate of good things ravenously.
Before Billie could answer Rose Belser leaned across the table and asked
with a drawl where they had been keeping themselves all morning.
"We've made a snowman," she chuckled. "But we needed Billie's artistic
touch to make the face. I can't get the nose to look right."
Instinctively the girls glanced out the window and saw that it was
snowing. And they had never noticed it!
"Why, it's snowing, girls!" remarked Vi brilliantly. "It looks almost
like a blizzard."
"Are you just waking up?" asked Connie Danvers, a little crossly. Connie
was cross because it was the first time in her intimate friendship with
the girls that they had had a secret from her. "Now I know you're
crazy."
Billie guessed at Connie's grievance and, reaching over, she pressed the
hand of her classmate under the table.
"We'll tell you all about everything to-night," she promised, and
Connie's face brightened miraculously.
The snowstorm did indeed look like the beginning of a blizzard, and as
the girls went to get their wraps they worried not a little for fear
this new development might put an end to their adventure.
However, Miss Walters decided that they would try it, at least, and Mrs.
Haddon was eagerly anxious to be off.
"We'll try anything once," whispered Laura to Billie, as they went out
into the already ankle-deep snow, the wind lashing bitingly against
their faces. "Thank goodness, we can die but once!"
"Die but once is right," said Billie grumpily. She was worried for fear
she would not be able to find the path leading to the cave.
It would have been hard enough if the ground had been clear, but with
the snow rapidly obliterating every landmark, it was well-nigh
impossible.
"I wish Teddy were here," she said, half to herself, and her voice was
very wistful.
"Don't you though!" echoed Laura, heartily. "It seems an age since we've
seen any of the boys."
"Say, Billie," broke in Vi, who was shivering in the bitter cold despite
her warm furs, "are you sure you are going right? It wouldn't be any fun
to be lost in these lonely woods with maybe a blizzard coming on."
At this observation Billie stopped and turned to Miss Walters and Polly
Haddon, who were following close behind.
"I'm sorry," she said, looking up at Miss Walters appealingly. "If it
weren't snowing I might be able to find the way, but as it is I'm afraid
I would only get you all lost. I'm lost myself now."
"All right, honey. Don't look so distressed about it," said Miss
Walters, patting her kindly on the shoulder. "You would have to know the
way pretty well to be able to find it in this storm. We shall have to
give it up to-day, and try again as soon as we can."
"Yes, that will be best," said Polly Haddon, through chattering teeth.
Her thin shawl formed scarcely any protection against the freezing
weather. "Thank you all so much for bothering with my affairs. Now I
must get back to the children. Good-bye."
Before they had fairly realized she was going, she was gone, and the
girls and Miss Walters turned back to the Hall.
"Bother the old snow," said Laura crossly. "I always liked it before,
but now I hate it."
They were all glad when the warmth of Three Towers Hall closed in about
them again. Miss Walters said a few words to them about saying nothing
of this affair to any one. Then she dismissed them to the dormitory
while she herself hurried off to do a little work that she had neglected
all day. For around examination time, Miss Walters was not always free,
even on Sunday.
Some of the girls had seen Billie and Laura and Vi come in with Miss
Walters, and they demanded to know what "all the excitement was about."
And the fact that the girls would not talk made their classmates all the
more curious.
Connie was the only one to whom they would tell the story, for they knew
that they could trust her as they trusted themselves.
"And it's still snowing," mourned Billie, as she cleared a space on the
misted window and looked out at the snow-covered world. "It looks as if
we shouldn't get out of here for weeks!"
Billie's gloomy prophecy was fulfilled. The storm developed into one of
the worst blizzards that part of the country had ever known, and for
almost two weeks the occupants of Three Towers were practically
house-bound.
It was good that the school boasted a well-stocked larder. Otherwise the
girls might actually have gone hungry. And they wondered a great deal
about Polly Haddon and her little brood.
"Suppose she hasn't enough in the house to eat?" worried Vi. "Why, they
may starve!"
"Maybe she used the gold pieces we left her to stock up when she saw the
blizzard coming on," suggested Billie, and the suggestion comforted them
a great deal.
The day was approaching when those competing for the composition prize
were to hand in their essays. Billie and Laura and Connie and Rose
Belser and the half dozen other girls who had entered the lists were
writing like mad--and biting their pens to bits--in an effort to get
their essays in on time.
And in the heart of each was the fervent hope that she would be the
winner. Only Amanda had no need to hope. She was sure! The prize was
hers!
She had carried out her intention of copying her essay straight from the
little musty book. So sure was she that her ruse would not be detected
that she had not bothered to alter a word. And while the others worked,
she smiled.
At last came the day when the finished essays were to be handed in, and
all day long Miss Walters was closeted in her office with Miss Race and
one or two of the other teachers, reading and tabulating the manuscripts
as they came to her.
So busy had Billie been in rewriting a phrase here, changing a word
there, that she handed in her essay the very last of all--just a scant
half hour before the time was up. But she was happy, because she knew
that she had given her best effort.
"I imagine we shall enjoy reading this," Miss Walters remarked to her
associates, tapping Billie's manuscript with a thoughtful finger.
"Billie Bradley has real literary talent."
The result of the contest was to be announced the next morning in the
auditorium and the prizes to be awarded to the winners.
When the longed-for, yet dreaded, moment arrived, the girls filed into
the auditorium, the contestants near the front, and almost the entire
school occupying the seats behind them.
Billie's heart was hammering so loudly that she glanced about her to see
if anybody else seemed to notice it. But the majority of the girls were
babbling away too excitedly to hear anything but themselves.
Billie was surprised to see that even the girls who were expecting to
hear their fate within the next few moments were talking--chattering
away excitedly, to be sure--but still talking. As for herself, she was
sure she could not have uttered a word just then if her life had
depended upon it. She did want that prize so dreadfully!
"Cheer up, Billie," whispered Vi, slipping a loyal hand into hers.
"You're not afraid of missing the prize, are you? Why, you couldn't miss
it if you tried."
Billie did not say anything, but she gripped Vi's hand hard. And she was
still holding on to it when Miss Walters ascended the platform and a
deep hush spread over the room.
"As you all know," came the clear, sweet voice of the head of Three
Towers Hall, "I have come here this morning to announce the winners of
the composition prize.
"I and my associates have had difficulty in choosing the winning essays,
for the reason that they are all so excellent. We are only sorry that we
have not a prize to attach to each."
A buzz broke out in the audience, but when Miss Walters raised her hand
it instantly died down again.
"And now," she said, "not to keep you any longer in suspense, we will
announce the winners."
Billie's grip on Vi's hand tightened till it hurt.
Then into the tense silence Miss Walters threw the bomb of her
announcement.
"The first prize goes to Amanda Peabody," she said. "Will she please
step up upon the platform?"