Before her classmates knew what she was about or had fairly taken in
what she had said, Billie had darted from the room and was flying toward
the dormitory.
"She's crazy again," cried Vi. "Come on," and she and Laura and Connie
flew after her, overtaking her as she reached the stairs.
"What's the big idea?" gasped Laura, as they ran together down the hall
toward the dormitory. "What do you expect to do to poor Nick--sandbag
him?"
"Something like that," returned Billie, slipping hurriedly into her coat
and hat and motioning impatiently for the girls to do the same. "If we
can only get hold of him we may be able to frighten him into telling us
where the machinery is."
"Oh, and maybe I'll be able to get my watch back!" added Connie, pulling
a dark cap down over her fluffy hair and carefully adjusting it at the
right angle.
"We won't get anything if you don't hurry," said Billie, regarding her
impatiently. "What do you think you're going to, anyway? A party?"
"You had better put on your leggings," suggested Vi, looking doubtfully
at the rubbers Billie had pulled on over her shoes. "The snow's awfully
deep."
"Haven't time," cried Billie, adding distractedly: "For mercy sake,
hurry! While you girls are dolling up for a party, Nick Budd will be
gone."
At this dreadful thought the girls stopped fussing and followed Billie
hurriedly down the stairs. They slowed down in the lower hall, however,
for there they were apt to meet a teacher, and undue haste might be
thought suspicious by one of these "unreasonable beings."
At sight of Nick Budd, a plan had come to Billie. She remembered how
terrified he had seemed when he had found Teddy and her in the cave that
day and thought in his crazy mind that they had come to arrest him.
So she was going to take a chance of so frightening him with a threat of
arrest that he would confess, and perhaps even be prevailed upon to lead
them to the cave.
In case this plan should fail, she had not an idea in the world what she
would do next. But the plan did not fail. It worked more perfectly than
she had dared to hope.
They caught up to the simpleton just as he was sneaking around to the
janitor's entrance of the school, and the fellow shrank from them like a
frightened animal.
"Wh-what do you want?" he stammered, his hands out as though to ward
them off. "I haven't done nothin'. Ye can't arrest me. I haven't done
nothin', I tell you." His terror was pitiful, but Billie followed up her
advantage ruthlessly while the girls stood by in admiring silence.
"You _have_ done something," she told him sternly, while he cowered
still further back from her. "You've stolen things--lots of things. And
we _will_ have you arrested----"
"Oh no--oh no," he cried out, fairly gibbering in his terror and
slinking further back against the wall. "Ye're tryin' to scare me. I
haven't done nothin', I tell ye."
But Billie took him by the sleeve and shook him as she would a bad
child.
"I tell you I _know_," she cried, conviction in her tone that carried
even to the poor muddled brain of the simpleton. "And I know where they
are, too. They are in your cave, hidden away. Every-last-one-of-them!"
Of course Billie was taking a big chance, but the shot went home.
The simpleton stared at her for a moment out of his blood-shot eyes
while his big mouth dropped open. Then he began to cry, great tears that
ran down his grimy face and made crooked streaks upon it.
It was an indescribably terrible and pitiful sight, the poor silly
fellow in his abject terror, and ordinarily Billie would have felt sorry
for him. But she thought of Polly Haddon, and the thought gave her
courage. Polly Haddon had suffered, and now if it was this poor
simpleton's turn, it was no more than he deserved, after all.
"Listen to me carefully," she said, pulling at his sleeve again and
speaking very distinctly. "If you will take us to the cave and promise
to give back everything you have stolen to the people you have stolen
from, we will try to keep you from being arrested."
"You won't put me in jail?" jabbered the simpleton. "You won't let the
policemen get me?"
Billie shook her head, adding quickly: "But you must take us to the cave
right away and help us bring back the things you have stolen. Otherwise
we will have you arrested to-night."
They were hardly prepared for his sudden acceptance of the ultimatum. He
turned, with the swiftness that had surprised Billie and Teddy before,
and strode off through the heavy snow, the girls, after a minute of
indecision, following.
"What do you suppose Miss Walters will say?" Laura whispered in Billie's
ear. "Do you suppose she will mind our running away like this?"
"I don't know," answered Billie, adding with a hint of premature triumph
in her voice: "I don't imagine she will say anything though if we come
home with the knitting machinery models, the blue prints, and an armful
of stolen things besides."
"Oh, if I can only get back my watch, I'll be happy," sighed Connie, as
she plodded along beside Vi.
"'If' is right," said Laura, ruefully. "We haven't got anything yet, you
know."
"Now who's the wet blanket?" cried Billie gayly. She was feeling
amazingly happy and confident all of a sudden. For had not she just won
the first prize for the best composition? After that she felt that she
could accomplish anything.
It was no easy task to make their way through the woods. Nick Budd
trudged along sturdily, hardly looking at the girls.
"He may be simple-minded, but he is as strong as a horse--at least, when
it comes to walking," remarked Laura in a whisper.
"Many simple-minded folks are strong," answered Billie. "Why, some
lunatics are noted for their strength--I once heard my father say so."
They had to pass over an exceedingly rough rise of ground and then down
through a hollow where the bushes grew close together. Here the walking
was very uneven and Connie gave a sudden cry of pain.
"What's the matter?" demanded Billie quickly, and came to a halt beside
her classmate.
"I slipped into a hole and I--I guess I wrenched my ankle," and Connie
made a wry face.
"Can't you go on?" questioned Vi.
"I--I guess so, but I'll do a little limping," was Connie's reply.
"We'll have to be careful," warned Billie. "We don't want to hurt
ourselves if we can help it."
After an hour of trudging through the snow they came at last to the
twig-entwined entrance to Nick's cave. Luckily the simpleton had beaten
a sort of path through the snow from Three Towers to the cave--a fact
which showed that he had made frequent visits to the school--or the
girls almost surely could not have made the trip.
Nick pulled aside the twigs that concealed the entrance and dived
inside, leaving the girls to follow as best they could.
But the girls did not follow--immediately. They were no cowards, but the
sight of that yawning dark mouth was enough to make them hesitate. And
besides, there was a simpleton at the other end of that dark passage, a
simpleton who might be mad enough by this time to do any desperate
thing.
"You go first, Billie," Vi urged nervously. "He is afraid of you----"
But at that moment a dancing light flickered down the dark passage and
immediately Nick Budd himself appeared, carrying a lighted candle which
he carefully shielded from the wind.
The terror had not left his face, and he looked at Billie abjectly, like
a beaten dog.
"Will ye come in?" he asked in a barely audible voice. "Or shall I bring
the things out here?"
But as the latter course would give the simpleton an excellent chance to
retain some of his loot, Billie replied firmly that they would come in
and see for themselves.
Vi made a noise that sounded something like a groan, and Connie echoed
it pathetically. But they joined the queer little procession just the
same, following Nick Budd down the dark passage to the still darker
cave, guided only by the flaring light of his one candle.
It was a dangerous thing for the girls to do. The simpleton, with the
cunning of the mentally-deficient, might have decided to attack them all
there in the darkness of the cave. And he would have had a good chance
of doing it, too.
But the gods that favor the daring watched over the girls that day and
brought them safely through their adventure.
Billie had evidently thoroughly cowed the simpleton, and his one thought
was to get rid of his stolen goods as quickly as possible and thus evade
the dreadful prison that loomed more horrible to him than death.
There in a corner of the cave the girls found the knitting machinery
model and the precious blue prints, besides a great pile of small
trinkets that comprised pretty nearly everything that had been stolen
from the girls during the last few weeks.
They were no more eager to linger in the cave than Nick Budd was to have
them. So they eagerly pocketed as many of the trinkets as they
could--Connie snapping the precious recovered wrist watch about her
wrist with as much joy as though it had been three times as valuable as
it really was--and Billie, taking the candle from Nick Budd's fingers,
ordered him to carry the wooden machinery. She herself took charge of
the blue prints.
When they had reached the outside world once more, Billie blew out the
candle, threw it into the cave, and readjusted the twigs at the entrance
as best she could.
Then she ordered Nick Budd to lead the way back to the Hall. This the
simpleton did, although he sometimes staggered under the weight he
carried and several times had to put his burden down.
But in spite of the delays and the cold, the return journey seemed short
to the girls, for they were triumphantly happy and chattered like
magpies all the way back.
"I've got my wrist watch! I've got my wrist watch!" crowed Connie over
and over again till the girls got tired of hearing her and Laura asked
her if she would mind changing her tune.
"And won't the girls be surprised when we tell them what sleuths we
are," added Vi.
"Humph," sniffed Laura. "Billie is the real detective. We're only--what
do you call 'em?--'also rans.' We come in at the end and clap noisily."
"Nonsense," laughed Billie. "I couldn't have done a thing without you
girls. Look out," she cried sharply, as Nick Budd stumbled and almost
dropped his load. "If you should break that thing, Nick Budd, I'd murder
you." But this last was delivered in an undertone. The poor simpleton
had troubles enough without being threatened.
"Oh," giggled Laura, incorrigibly, "ain't she the vicious thing?"
One would have thought that the girls had had about enough excitement
that day, but it seemed that fate still held a little more in store for
them.
They were coming up the winding path that led to the Hall when they saw
a black-clad figure that looked strangely familiar hurrying on before
them.
"Isn't that Polly Haddon?" asked Vi, eagerly. "Yes, it is. Oh, what
luck!"
She was about to call out, but Billie stopped her.
"We'll want to break it to her gently," she warned, but her warning came
too late. Polly Haddon had heard their voices and had glanced back
indifferently.
Then, recognizing the girls, she turned and came hurrying toward them.
At sight of her, Nick Budd dropped his burden in the snow and ran for
all he was worth back the way he had come.
Billie tried to put herself between Polly Haddon and that bulky object
in the snow, but once more she was too late. For the woman had seen.
With a little cry, Polly Haddon crumpled suddenly and lay out in the
snow, as inert as a bundle of old clothes.
"Good gracious!" cried Laura frantically. "Now just when everything is
beautiful and lovely, she's gone and died!"