A PRISONER OF WAR
It was a bad night for all the girls, but for Billie Bradley it was a
nightmare. Miss Cora Dill had thrust her into a little room just big
enough to contain a couch, a table, and one or two chairs.
When Billie had asked for a light the door had been slammed in her face
and she had heard the key turn in the lock.
So she was a prisoner--and in disgrace. All her dreams had come to that.
Miss Cora had said she would be expelled from Three Towers Hall when
Miss Walters heard what she had done.
But in her heart Billie did not believe that. The hope that when Miss
Walters was told everything she would side with the girls was the only
thing that kept her from being absolutely miserable. For Miss Walters
was always fair.
Billie had never been afraid of the dark. She was not really afraid of
it now. But as the hours crept by and the place became still with the
stillness of midnight, she began to feel uneasy and very, very
lonesome.
The silence was so deep that she was afraid to move for fear of breaking
it, but at last, because her limbs were cramping and she was beginning
to feel chilled, she rose from the couch where she had been sitting and
began moving cautiously about the room.
She stubbed her toe against one chair and almost fell over the other,
making so much noise that her heart stood still and she looked fearfully
over her shoulder. Finally she came over to the couch again and sank
down upon it, feeling that she must cry or die.
But she did not do either, just sat there thinking and thinking what she
could do next. She would have to sleep, she supposed, although Miss Cora
had not given her any nightgown and there were no bedclothes.
Then a happy thought struck her, and she turned down the cover of the
couch and found, as she had hoped, that the couch was made up as a bed.
There were several rooms like this in Three Towers--rooms used only when
there was an overflow of students. Billie remembered having heard the
girls speak of them as "cubby holes."
But Billie was tired and unhappy, and all of a sudden her only wish was
to get within the protection of those covers. Perhaps it would not then
seem so lonesome and she was cold.
After that she knew no more till morning.
It was a dark, dreary morning with a bite in the air that felt like
snow. There was no sign of sunshine anywhere, either outside or inside
of Three Towers Hall.
The girls rose reluctantly, and there was rebellion in their eyes. They
were on the verge of revolt, and it needed only one more unfair act on
the part of Miss Cora or Miss Ada Dill to start the ball rolling.
"Are we going down to breakfast?" asked Laura, as the breakfast gong
rang.
"I suppose we'd better," answered Caroline Brant, her eyes looking tired
and red-rimmed under the spectacles. "We have to eat, anyway. After we
get through we can come up here and decide what we're going to do."
"Well, I know one thing we're going to do," said Laura fiercely. "If the
Dill Pickles don't let Billie come back to us, or at least tell us where
she is, I'm going to set the place on fire, that's all."
"That wouldn't help Billie any," said Rose, as they turned from the
room.
Breakfast was gloomier than ever that morning. The girls were heavy-eyed
and sullen, and Miss Cora, presiding grimly at the head of the table,
looked, as one of the older girls said, "like a death's head at the
feast."
"But where was the feast?" another girl retorted.
In fact this meal was scantier than any that had gone before, and if it
had not been for the night's raid the girls would have been in a pretty
bad way.
Amanda and the "Shadow" were there, and if looks could kill, they would
have both died on the spot. But there was no sign of Billie. The girls
had hardly thought there would be, but they had hoped.
A little while later there was another mass meeting held in dormitory
"C," and it was Rose Belser this time who took the floor.
"We simply can't stand it any longer, girls," she told them, her black
eyes snapping. "Wasn't that a wonderful breakfast we had this morning?
It makes you sick to think of it. And we don't even know whether Billie
got as much as we did. We've got to do something right away. We can try
to get word to Miss Walters. I have her address, but I don't know how
we're ever going to----"
She was interrupted by a familiar whistle from somewhere outside, and
the girls ran over to the window. Sure enough, there were Chet and
Teddy, looking, to the girls, like a couple of heaven-sent messengers,
standing underneath the window, skates flung over their shoulders,
looking up toward them expectantly.
"Wait a minute," Laura called down, "Don't dare go away from there.
You're angels, and have come just when we wanted you most."
She turned a radiant face to the girls and began to speak hurriedly.
"I had it all figured out last night, girls," she said, while they
listened eagerly. "When you told me you knew Miss Walters' address,
Rose, I thought of the boys right away. There was just a chance that
they might come over this morning or this afternoon. And now they're
here."
"Well?" they asked, puzzled.
"Oh, don't you see?" Laura clapped her hands impatiently. "The 'Dill
Pickles' won't let any of us send word to Miss Walters, but the boys can
do it for us."
Before she had finished a dozen girls were scrambling for pencil and
paper, Laura was pushed into a chair by the table and was commanded to
write and write quickly.
And Laura obeyed while the girls fairly hung over her, offering
suggestions, and all talking at once until it was a wonder she could
write anything at all.
She told the boys briefly what had happened and begged them to send word
to Miss Walters at once. Then they tied the precious piece of paper
around an inkwell--who cared for the wreck of a mere inkwell at a time
like this?--and threw it out of the window.
Teddy picked it up wonderingly and unwound the paper, while Chet peered
over his shoulder and the girls watched breathlessly from above. When
Teddy came to the part about Billie's capture he was all for storming
the castle, meeting the "Lions in their den, the Pickles in their hall,"
and rescuing the heroine without delay. But Chet held him back.
After that they had what seemed to be a rather heated argument, but Chet
finally got the best of it, and after a wave to the girls, who were
fairly hanging out of the dormitory windows, the two boys started off
and disappeared around the corner of the building.
The girls watched them out of sight, then turned to each other with
shining eyes.
"That ought to bring Miss Walters back in a hurry," said Vi. "Then
everything will be all right."
"Yes, but we may starve before she gets here," said one of the girls
gloomily.
"And Billie! Oh, girls, we've just got to get her out!" added Laura.
"Nobody knows where she is or what they're doing to her."
Without warning, the door opened and Billie herself flew in upon them.
"Girls," she cried breathlessly, "can't you hide me somewhere?
I've--I've--escaped!"
"Escaped!" they cried, crowding around her, all asking questions at
once, feeling her, to be sure that it was really she, until Billie made
frantic signs for them to be quiet.
"Girls," she cried, "please stop talking and listen to me. Miss Cora
will find that I'm gone in a minute, and she's sure to come right here
for me."
"Well, she won't get you, that's one sure thing," cried Laura staunchly.
"But tell us about it," urged another girl. "Did they have you locked
up?"
"Yes," said Billie, adding with a shiver: "And I had a terrible night.
But this morning Miss Cora herself brought me some breakfast--I wish you
could have seen it--and she was just saying some nice mean things to me
when Miss Race called her away for something, said it was important.
Miss Cora went out without locking the door. So I didn't stop for
anything, I just ran. I had something I wanted to tell you."
"Good old Miss Race," Connie interrupted, her eyes shining. "I bet she
just did it on purpose."
"But listen," Billie broke in hurriedly. "I thought of something while I
was locked up, and I want to tell you about it before they catch me
again. It's about getting news to Miss Walters. The boys will probably
be around this morning, and if you could let them know----"
"But we've already done that," interrupted a score of eager voices, and
Billie clapped her hands delightedly.
"Good!" she cried. Then her face sobered again and she looked nervously
toward the door. "I suppose Miss Cora will be along in a minute, and
she'll want to lock me up again. And I suppose she'll be so mad at my
getting away that she won't give me anything to eat now."
But suddenly Rose jumped to her feet, face flushed, eyes shining. This
was her chance to square herself with Billie and all the rest.
"Tell me something, girls," she cried. "Are we going to let Miss Cora
have Billie? Are we?"
"We are not!" they cried lustily; and Billie suddenly saw them through a
mist of tears.