A CHALLENGE
The girls stood still, awaiting they did not know what, while Miss Ada
and Miss Cora swept into the room followed by the other teachers, Amanda
and the Shadow. The Misses Dill carried their noses high in the air, and
there was a grim expression around their mouths. But as the girls
glanced from them to Miss Race they saw that the latter looked troubled.
"Amanda and Eliza did it," Laura whispered fiercely in Billie's ear.
"They waited behind and told on us--the sneaks! Oh, how I wish----"
"Silence!" cried Miss Cora Dill, glaring at Laura. "If there is any
talking done in this place to-night, I expect to do it."
She paused a minute, sweeping the girls with an icy glance, then her
eyes rested accusingly upon Billie.
"Three Towers," she said then, "has never before been the scene of such
a disgraceful happening. It is preposterous, unthinkable! I shudder to
think of what will happen when Miss Walters hears the truth.
"And of course," she added, her eyes still fixed upon Billie, "you girls
would never have thought of such a thing if you hadn't been put up to
it. Fortunately, I have been able to learn the name of the--person," the
word held so much of contempt that Billie's face burned, "who started
this disgraceful affair."
By one accord the girls turned accusing eyes upon Amanda and Eliza, but
the latter only tossed their heads and looked defiant.
"Beatrice Bradley"--Miss Cora almost spit out the name--"step forward,
if you please."
Poor Billie wanted desperately to run away somewhere and hide. But she
held her head high, and her eyes met Miss Cora's squarely.
"I want you to tell the truth," said Miss Cora, angered by what she took
to be the insolence of the girl. "Did you or did you not propose this
outrageous affair?"
But this was more than the girls would stand for. Before Billie had a
chance to answer there arose from different parts of the room a score of
voices raised in protest.
"We all did it."
"Billie isn't any more to blame than the rest of us."
"It isn't fair."
"We were all in it together."
Billie had so many defenders that the noise they made completely
drowned Miss Cora's voice and prevented her from speaking for several
moments. This, of course, only served to make her angrier than before.
"I didn't ask you all to talk," she said, when at last she could make
herself heard. "It seemed to me I was speaking to Beatrice Bradley. I
will ask it once more," turning to Billie, who was rather white now.
"Were you or were you not the ring-leader of this affair?"
There was absolute quiet in the room while the girls waited miserably
for Billie's answer. They knew her well enough to know what it would be,
even before she spoke.
Then Billie lifted her head and said quietly:
"Yes, Miss Dill, I was the one who started the trouble. I don't think
any of the girls would have thought of it if it hadn't been for me."
A ripple of protest rose behind her, but Miss Dill waved it down
angrily.
"Then by your own confession," she said, something of triumph gleaming
in her eyes, "you have not only broken all the rules of Three Towers but
you have incited the rest of the girls to do likewise. Have you anything
to say for yourself?"
"No, Miss Dill." Billie's voice was so low it could hardly be heard.
"You are not even sorry?" Miss Cora went on relentlessly.
"No," said Billie, lifting her head and looking Miss Cora straight in
the eyes. "We have been nearly starved since Miss Walters left, and some
of the girls have been sick from hunger." Her voice rose a little and
the color came back to her face as she flung out a challenge like a flag
of war. "I'm sorry, Miss Dill, but if I had to, I would do it all over
again."
Miss Cora looked as if she doubted the evidence of her ears, while a
murmur of applause went up from the girls. Oh, but they were proud of
Billie!
"You have heard what she said," Miss Cora Dill turned to the teachers
behind her. "Such insolence can only result in expulsion. Beatrice
Bradley, come with me. The rest of you," she turned fiercely upon the
other girls, "will go up to your dormitories. To-morrow I will deal with
you."
As Billie, dread in her heart at that awful word "expulsion," started
toward Miss Cora Dill, Caroline Brant caught her hand and whispered
reassuringly in her ear.
"Don't worry," she said. "They won't dare expel you. When Miss Walters
hears all about it she will be more than likely to expel them!"
Billie gave her a wan little smile, squeezed her hand gratefully, and
was promptly taken into custody by Miss Cora. Then the teachers stood
aside while the rest of the girls filed past them upstairs.
In the dormitories all was confusion. Sleep was out of the question,
and the girls gathered in excited groups discussing the terrible thing
that had happened to them, half wishing for Miss Walters, yet half
afraid to have her come back. Suppose she should side with the "Dill
Pickles"? Then all would indeed be lost.
But Billie was their chief worry.
"Why didn't she fib about it?" cried one girl, pacing up and down
excitedly. "We would all have backed her up. She knew that."
"But Billie doesn't fib," said Vi proudly. "And besides, it wouldn't
have done her any good. Amanda and the Shadow had already told, and they
were right here in the dorm when we were planning the raid."
Fiercely the girls looked around for the sneaks; but they were nowhere
to be seen.
"Probably 'The Pickles' are taking good care of the little darlings,"
sneered Laura. "Oh, how I'd like to get my hands on them!"
"What's the matter, Rose?" asked Caroline Brant suddenly. "Don't you
feel good?"
For Rose was sitting on the edge of her bed, her head bowed on her
clasped hands. At Caroline's question she raised her head and looked
around her miserably.
"No, I don't feel good. I--I have a headache," she said.
The girls regarded her curiously for a minute, and then forgot all
about her. They had worse things than headaches to worry about.
Rose did indeed have a headache, but the headache was mostly caused by a
heartache. She herself did not quite understand it.
Billie had at last been singled out from all the other girls for
punishment, would perhaps be expelled from Three Towers Hall, and where
she, Rose, should have been happy about it, she was only miserable.
Of course she had really had no hand in Billie's disgrace--this time.
But she had planned and schemed for it before, and that made her almost
as bad in her own eyes as those two wretched sneaks whom all the girls
hated and despised. If they could only know what had been in her mind
they would hate and despise her, too!
Her head felt hot and her lips were feverish. It was a terrible thing to
despise oneself. The only way she could ever put things straight again
was to find some way of getting Billie out of her scrape. She must think
of a plan!
Suddenly she jumped to her feet, and the girls turned startled eyes upon
her.
"I have it!" she cried. "We must get word to Miss Walters. If she could
know what an awful fix we're in, she'd come right back. I'm sure she
would."
The girls stared for a minute--then seized eagerly on the plan.
"But how can we get word to her if we haven't her address?" Connie
Danvers asked. But Rose answered her impatiently.
"I've thought of that," she said, then went on to explain while the
girls listened eagerly how she had taken some letters to the mail box
for Miss Race, and, happening to glance down, had seen that the top one
was addressed to Miss Walters.
Luckily she remembered the address, and now when one of the girls handed
her a slip of paper she wrote it down feverishly.
"But how are we going to get word to her?" asked one of the girls, and
they looked at each other helplessly. "'The Pickles' won't let anybody
outside the Hall, and they'll look over all the mail."
They were still trying to think of a plan when a step in the hall--a
step that sounded very much like Miss Ada Dill's firm tread--sent them
scattering.
A little later silence settled like a cloud over the dormitories, but
few of the girls slept. They were thinking--thinking----
By and by Laura leaned across and whispered to Vi.
"Asleep?" she asked.
"No, I can't sleep," said Vi miserably. "I keep thinking of Billie and
where they've put her and--and--everything."
"Well, I've thought of a real plan," whispered Laura mysteriously.
"You have?" cried Vi, sitting up in her turn. "What is it?"
But in the darkness Laura shook her head.
"Not now," she said. "I'll tell you in the morning."