RAIDING THE PANTRY
As a matter of fact, Teddy and Ferd and all the other boys, too, were
left out in the cold more than even they had expected.
Miss Race greeted rapturously the return of her money. And as for the
girls--well, they hung around Chet, showering him with questions and
praise until it was really a wonder they did not spoil him entirely.
But when the first excitement was over, the boys had gone home, and
everything was quiet again, they could not help feeling sorry that Chet
had not kept the Codfish when he had him. And Miss Walters, though she
said nothing to the girls, was more worried than any of them.
"Why, we'll be afraid to go out at all after dark," Billie said,
wide-eyed and excited.
"And I'm sure I'll dream of him every night," Laura added with a
shudder.
But as the days went by the girls found other things to worry about than
the Codfish. They were having more and more trouble with Miss Ada and
Miss Cora. Then one day there came news that brought the whole matter to
a head.
Miss Walters had received a telegram calling her away suddenly and had
no way of knowing just when she would be back.
And in the meantime--this part of the news the girls received in
horror-stricken silence--Miss Ada Dill and Miss Cora Dill were to be
left in entire charge of Three Towers Hall.
It was nothing less than tragedy to the girls, for they knew that now at
last the "Dill Pickles" had their chance. And they knew, too, that Miss
Ada and Miss Cora would make the most of it.
The day came when Miss Walters left, and the girls watched her go with
puckered brows and stormy eyes.
"The meals have been bad enough, goodness knows," Laura grumbled, as
they gathered up their books for the first class. "But now I suppose we
won't get anything to eat."
"We'll just be prisoners, that's all," said Billie, her eyes rebellious.
"I know Miss Cora's hated me from the very first, and now she'll be able
to do just about what she pleases to me. But if she gets too funny,
I'll--well, I don't know what I'll do," she ended rather helplessly.
And during the next week the girls' worst fears were realized. All the
liberty that they had enjoyed under Miss Walters was taken away from
them, and, as Billie had predicted, they were practically prisoners.
That they could have stood perhaps; at least until Miss Walters
returned. But that was by no means the worst of it.
The two Miss Dills had always said that the girls could get along just
as well on far less to eat. In fact, Miss Ada was positive they could
study better if "they didn't cram themselves so full of food." And now
they set to work to prove their theory.
The meals became skimpier and skimpier, until one day after the noon
meal the girls left the table feeling positively hungry.
The afternoon seemed unbearably long, and for the life of them they
could not keep their minds on their books. All they could think of was
delicious juicy steaks, French-fried potatoes, chicken pie and
strawberry short cake.
And when girl after girl failed in her recitations, Miss Cora and Miss
Ada scolded them so harshly and said such sarcastic things that it
brought the angry red to their faces. But, as the girls said later, they
were "almost too hungry to fight back."
Two more days passed with conditions getting worse and worse until the
girls were becoming weak from lack of food. Two of the younger girls
became faint and sick.
"We can't stand this much longer," said Billie.
The girls were gathered in Billie's dormitory after supper, and one by
one girls from the other dormitories joined them. It was fast becoming a
mass meeting.
"We simply can't stand it," Billie went on, her little fists clenched
angrily at her side. "It's all right if they want to take our liberty
away. We can stand that for a little while, until Miss Walters comes
back. But when they begin to starve us----"
"But what are we going to do?" asked one girl, helplessly.
"We could run 'em out, I suppose," said one of the older girls gloomily.
"But I suppose we'd be run out ourselves as soon as Miss Walters got
back."
"I don't see why Miss Walters left 'The Pickles' in charge, anyway,"
spoke up another of the girls fretfully. "She knew how horrid they were
and how they've all the time been picking on us girls."
"Well, I don't see that it makes any difference why Miss Walters did
it," Billie broke in, and there was something in her tone that made the
girls stop talking and look at her expectantly. "The fact is, she has
left the 'Dill Pickles' in charge and they're trying to starve us to
death. Now what I want to know is this: Are we just going to stand
around and let them do it? Or are we going to fight?"
"Fight!" they cried, their pale faces beginning to flush with hope.
"What do you want us to do, Billie?" asked Laura eagerly.
"Listen and I'll tell you." She leaned forward and one could almost have
heard a pin drop in the room. "There's only one way I know of that we
can get food that 'The Pickles' don't give to us."
"And that?"
"Is to raid the pantry and storeroom," said Billie, her eyes gleaming.
"We'll probably find plenty of cooked things in the pantry, and if we
don't, we'll go on into the storeroom and get canned sardines and
vegetables and soup. I know I don't care what I eat, as long as I get
enough of it."
The girls were silent a minute, staring at Billie half hopefully, half
fearfully. To raid the pantry and storeroom? It had never been done in
all the history of Three Towers. It would be open rebellion! And yet
they were hungry--terribly hungry--two of them had been faint and sick
from lack of food.
"Will you do it?" asked Billie, her eyes blazing at them.
"We will!" they almost shouted, and then rose such a pandemonium that
Billie, trying to scream above the noise, found her voice drowned
completely.
After a minute they quieted down a little--enough to listen to her,
anyway.
"Please don't make so much noise," she begged. "We'll be likely to make
our raid a great deal easier if we wait until the cooks are gone and the
teachers are in bed. We don't care if we are caught, but we don't want
to be caught until after we've had something to eat."
The girls realized the common sense in this, but it was all they could
do to be patient and wait. The thought of something to eat--all they
wanted to eat--after a week of starvation made them ravenous, furiously
impatient of delay.
The time passed at last, however, and when the "lights out" gong sounded
through the hall the girls were apparently in bed and fast asleep.
Hardly five minutes had passed before the doors of the different
dormitories opened, and the girls crept singly or in twos and threes
toward the farther end of the hall until all the hundred-odd girls of
Three Towers were gathered there except two. Two of them had stayed
behind, and so absorbed were the other girls that they never noticed the
absence of Amanda Peabody and Eliza Dilks.
It may be that Rose noticed, for as she left the dormitory she looked
over at them and smiled a little. She had guessed at the truth.
For Amanda and Eliza disliked Billie so bitterly that they would even go
hungry for the chance of getting even with her. Miss Ada and Miss Cora
would be very glad to know who had been the ring-leader in the
rebellion!
In the meantime the girls, satisfied that every one was present, had
started softly down the back stairs which led them by the shortest way
to the kitchen.
As Billie had said, they did not care if they were discovered, except
that if they were caught they would probably have a harder time getting
what they wanted.
Billie was in the lead with Vi and Laura close behind her. They hardly
made any noise at all, and before they knew it they were facing the
closed door that led to the kitchen.
Billie swung it open cautiously and looked inside. The kitchen was dark,
but she knew where the electric switch was, and the next minute the room
was flooded with light.
The sudden glare rather frightened the girls, and they hesitated for a
moment--but only a moment. They were terribly hungry, and just across
the kitchen was the pantry, and back of that, the storeroom.
"Come on, girls," Billie whispered. "Here's where we get the best of
'The Pickles.'"
They found cold ham in the refrigerator, they found bread and butter and
crackers and jam. In the twinkling of an eye all these dainties had
disappeared, and they were looking around for more.
Next they raided the storeroom. They found tiers upon tiers of canned
goods, and Billie, because she was the first to find a can-opener, was
pronounced "official can-opener," and opened cans till her arm ached.
But how good that stolen food tasted! They ate ravenously. They ate with
knives and forks and spoons, and when these ran short, they even ate
with their hands. And by and by the brightness came back to their eyes,
the color to their cheeks, and they chattered like joyful magpies.
When they could eat no more, they filled their pockets with biscuits and
crackers and started back the way they had come.
But they only started, for as Billie opened the door that led to the
stairs she found herself face to face with Miss Cora, Miss Ada, Miss
Race and several of the junior teachers.
In the background--triumphant smiles upon their faces--lurked Amanda
Peabody and Eliza Dilks.