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BILLIE BRADLEY AT THREE TOWERS HALL
Or, Leading a Needed Rebellion
by
JANET D. WHEELER
Author of "Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance," "Billie Bradley on
Lighthouse Island," Etc.
Illustrated
New York
George Sully & Company
Publishers
Copyright, 1920, by
George Sully & Company
[Illustration: The girls swept past them, and ran down the steps of the
school.]
CONTENTS
I ALMOST A FORTUNE
II THE WRECK
III RECOVERED TREASURE
IV THE "CODFISH"
V AMANDA SURPRISES
VI OFF FOR THREE TOWERS HALL
VII MISS WALTERS
VIII THE DILL PICKLES
IX A NEW ACQUAINTANCE
X LAKE MOLATA
XI LIGHTS OUT
XII TOO MUCH TO EAT
XIII FOUR ENEMIES
XIV BILLIE SNORES SUCCESSFULLY
XV A PLOT FAILS
XVI MYSTERY
XVII THE QUARREL
XVIII THE "CODFISH" AGAIN
XIX ROBBED!
XX CHET PLAYS THE HERO
XXI RAIDING THE PANTRY
XXII A CHALLENGE
XXIII A PRISONER OF WAR
XXIV THE CAPTURE
XXV HAPPY AGAIN
BILLIE BRADLEY AT THREE TOWERS HALL
CHAPTER I
ALMOST A FORTUNE
"Oh, Dad, I can't believe it's true!"
In the rather dim light of the gloomy old room the boys and girls looked
queer--almost ghostly. They were gathered about a shabby old trunk, and
beside this trunk a man was kneeling. As Billie Bradley spoke, the man,
who was her father, rose to his feet and thoughtfully brushed the dust
from his clothes. Then he stood looking down at the hundreds and
hundreds of postage stamps and old coins that filled the queer old
trunk.
"Is it really true, Dad?" Billie continued, shaking her father's arm
impatiently while the other young folks looked eagerly up at him.
Mr. Bradley nodded slowly.
"Yes, you really have made a find this time, Billie," he said. "Of
course I'm not an expert, but I'm sure the coins in that old trunk are
worth three thousand dollars, and the postage stamps ought to bring at
least two thousand more----"
"At least two thousand more!" broke in Chet Bradley, excitedly. "Does
that mean that Billie may get more for the postage stamps?"
"I shouldn't wonder," replied Mr. Bradley, nodding his head. "However,"
he added, smiling round at the girls and boys, "you'd better not count
on anything over five thousand."
"But five thousand dollars!" interrupted Laura Jordon, in an awed voice.
"Just think of it, Billie! And because your Aunt Beatrice left you this
house and everything in it, every last cent of that five thousand
belongs to you."
"Yes," said Teddy Jordon, turning to Billie with a chuckle. "I suppose
you won't look at any of us now you've got this money. How does it feel,
Billie?"
"I--I don't know, yet," stammered Billie, still staring at the wonderful
trunk. "You'll just have to give me time to get used to it, that's all."
As those readers who have read the first book of this series, entitled
"Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance," will probably have gathered, the
girls, Billie Bradley, Laura Jordon and Violet Farrington, and their boy
relatives and chums, Chet Bradley, Ferd Stowing and Teddy Jordon, were
still at the old homestead at Cherry Corners where so many weird and
mysterious experiences had befallen them.
For the benefit of those who are meeting the girls and boys for the
first time, what had happened up to the time of this story will be
sketched over briefly.
The young folks had grown up in North Bend, a town of perhaps twenty
thousand people, and about forty miles by rail from New York City. The
girls had seen the great metropolis several times, though their visits
had been all too short to satisfy their eager curiosity.
Billie Bradley was called the most popular girl in North Bend, and,
indeed, after one had been with Billie five minutes, one would never
again wonder where she got the title.
Whether it was her sparkling brown eyes with the imp of mischief always
lurking in them, or her merry laugh that made every one want to laugh
with her, or the adventurous spirit that made her eager to embark on any
kind of lark, it would be hard to tell--perhaps her popularity arose
from a combination of all of these. But the fact remains that everybody
loved her and she had not an enemy, except, perhaps, Amanda Peabody--but
more of _her_ later!
Then there was Laura Jordon, Billie's best chum, blue-eyed and
golden-haired, who, despite the fact that her father was very wealthy
and owned the thriving jewelry factory in North Bend, was not the
slightest bit spoiled or conceited. She adored Billie, and although the
two would sometimes enter into rather heated discussions, it was usually
Laura who gave in to Billie in the end.
The last of the trio, but decidedly not the least, was Violet
Farrington, who, tall and dark and less hasty and impetuous than the
other two, often found the doubtfully blessed office of peacemaker
thrust upon her. And though her slowness and tendency to hang back
sometimes exasperated her chums, they nevertheless were very fond of
her--and showed it.
Chetwood Bradley, known as Chet to his friends, was Billie's
brother--and very proud of it. He was a splendid, fine looking, rather
thoughtful boy whom everybody liked.
Ferd Stowing was a comical, jolly, all-around good fellow, who, though
he was not related to any of the girls, had been drawn into the group
through his friendship for the boys, Chet and Teddy.
And--Teddy! Teddy, who was the handsomest and gayest of all the boys,
had been Billie's friend and playmate ever since they could remember.
Either of them would have felt lost without the friendship of the other.
Teddy was Laura's brother and had starred in almost all the sports in
which the lads of North Bend had taken part--a fact which did not make
Billie like him any the less.
Just the summer before this story opens, Billie, going back with Violet
and Laura to the grammar school from which they had just graduated, had,
in a moment of thoughtless skylarking, broken a handsome and expensive
statue that belonged to her English teacher--Miss Martha Beggs.
The accident was nothing short of a tragedy to Billie, for her father,
Martin Bradley, a real estate and insurance agent in North Bend, having
most of his capital tied up in property and being at the time engaged in
fighting a rather losing fight with the high cost of living was in no
position to pay a hundred dollars--which was what the statue was worth.
Billie's worry was deepened by the fact that she would not be able to go
with Laura and Violet to Three Towers Hall, a boarding school to which
she had wanted to go all her life. The high school in North Bend was
notoriously poor and inefficient, and the girls had set their hearts on
attending Three Towers in the fall. And now, because of the broken
statue, Billie could not go.
Then had come news of Beatrice Powerson's death. Beatrice Powerson was
an aunt of Billie's mother for whom Billie had been named. Then came the
strange inheritance which the queer old lady, who had spent her life
traveling, had left to Billie--the old homestead at Cherry Corners which
dated back to revolutionary times and had been the scene of more than
one Indian attack.
Readers of the first book of this series will remember how the girls and
boys had decided to spend their vacation there, the many queer and
spooky experiences they had had, and finally the shabby old trunk which
Billie had found stowed away in a corner of the attic--a shabby old
trunk that contained riches; at least, so it now seemed to the boys and
girls. Five thousand dollars in the shape of old coins and postage
stamps.
Billie had sent the wonderful news post-haste to her family, and Mr.
Bradley had hurried out to the old house to see if Billie's discovery
was really worth anything.
And now he had just given the result of his investigation to six pairs
of ears. To be exact it had better be made seven, for Mrs. Maria
Gilligan, Mrs. Jordon's housekeeper and the girls' chaperone on this
expedition, was looking on with interest from the doorway.
Five thousand dollars, perhaps more. This almost certainly meant that
not only could Billie go to Three Towers Hall, but Chet would be able to
go with the other boys to a military academy which was only a little
over a mile from Three Towers.
"Oh, Daddy, I'm so glad you came!"
Billie squeezed her father's arm ecstatically.
"I'll say we are," said Ferd Stowing, staring down at the queer little
trunk as though he already could see it full to the brim with shining
new gold pieces from the mint instead of the old coins and rare postage
stamps that were its present contents.
"How soon," he asked, turning to Mr. Bradley, "will you be able to get
real money for these?"
"Probably almost as soon as we can get the trunk to North Bend," said
Mr. Bradley. "The bank----" But Billie would not let him finish.
"Oh, Daddy, let's hurry!" she cried; then as her chums stared at her in
surprise she rushed over to the trunk and slammed the lid shut. "What
are you waiting for?" she cried, stamping her foot impatiently as she
turned to face them. "If _you_ want to stand around looking foolish, all
right. But _I'm_ going home."
"Say! wait a minute," cried Teddy, stopping her as she started from the
room. "Perhaps your father----"
"I was going to suggest," said Mr. Bradley, looking at his watch, "that
we catch the eight o'clock train for North Bend. Is that at all
possible, Mrs. Gilligan?" he asked, turning apologetically to Mrs.
Gilligan.
However, before Mrs. Gilligan could reply, his daughter answered for
her.
"Of course it is," she cried. "We girls were beginning to pack anyway.
Come on, girls, what we need is action," and without giving them a
chance to protest she fell upon the girls and dragged them from the
room.
The boys looked after them with laughing eyes, and Mr. Bradley remarked
with a smile: "My young daughter seems to be unusually happy about
something."
"No wonder," said Chet, shaking his head ruefully. "I'd be happy, too,
if anybody thought enough of me to give me five thousand dollars."
The rest of that afternoon was one wild scramble for the girls and boys,
but at the end they made their train with, as the train was late, a few
minutes to spare.
The boy who had driven them and their luggage to town was the same who
had taken the girls and their chaperone to the old homestead at Cherry
Corners upon their arrival over a month before.
As he turned away and went back to his antiquated wagon, he shook his
head soberly.
"Gosh," he said, "I do be sorry to see 'em go. When they first came it
sure did turn my heart cold to see three girls an' a woman goin' into
that there haunted house. At night it was, too! But it seems they've
come out all right, after all. Guess they must 'a' scared the ghosts
away. Well, you've sure got to hand it to 'em." And he shook his head
sagely as the springs of the old wagon creaked under him. "Giddap,
Napoleon!" And a few minutes later wagon and driver were enveloped in
the gray mist of the evening.
"If we only get the train!" Such had been Billie's thought throughout
the drive to the station. Her mind was on getting home and turning the
precious old coins and postage stamps into real money. Then she could
arrange about going to Three Towers Hall and about sending her brother
to Boxton Military Academy.
Fortunately the train was only ten minutes late, and presently they were
safely aboard and on the way to North Bend.
Half an hour passed. Boys and girls were chatting gaily, the others
congratulating Billie over and over again on her good fortune.
"Just like a page out of the Arabian Nights----" Teddy was saying when
his words were cut short most unexpectedly.
There was a jar and a crash, a shock and another crash, and then the
lights in the car went out, leaving the passengers in darkness.