Janet D. Wheeler

“ Gilligan proceeded to fry, and enjoyed themselves immensely.
"Shall we eat in the kitchen?" asked Violet, pausing with a pile of plates in her hand. "Or shall we be very proper and eat in the dining-room?"
"Oh, the kitchen's a lot more cheerful," said Billie, shivering a little in spite of herself as she thought of the dark, rather dreary room just the other side of the door.
"Besides, what we want we want in a hurry," said Laura, taking the dishes from Violet and setting them decidedly on the table. "To-morrow will be time enough to put on airs. Just now all I want to do is to eat!" ”

“ 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!" ”

“ One day while Billie and Edina were rowing in desultory fashion some distance from the dock, they were overhauled by Ray Carew and Rose Belser in a boat, the twin of theirs.
“Give you a race,” called Rose, as she had called many times before when Laura or Vi had been in the boat with Billie. However, Edina was neither Laura nor Vi, a fact of which Rose Belser was well and mischievously aware. Edina rowed with a stroke all her own and possessed a positive genius for entangling her oar with that of her stroke mate. ”

“ Such were some of the remarks passed around as the ship on the shoal slipped slowly from view.
The girls clung to each other in an agony of suspense. Never had they dreamed that they would witness such a dreadful catastrophe as was now unfolding before them.
“Oh, Billie, this is dreadful!” groaned Laura, her face white with terror.
“I can hardly bear to look at it,” whimpered Vi. “Just think of those poor people! I am sure every one of them will be drowned.”
“Some of them must have gotten away in the small boats,” answered Billie.
“I didn’t see any of the boats,” protested Connie. ”

“ Gilligan, the gleam deepening in her eyes.
"But how did you catch it?" asked Violet, for the girls, all except Billie, who had originated the idea, were as much in the dark as the boys.
"With a trap," said Billie, her own eyes beginning to sparkle.
"But who thought of it?" Violet insisted, ignoring the sarcasm.
"You see before you the girl who invented it," said Billie with a chuckle.
"Great pumpkins, another inventor!" groaned Ferd, and sent them off into a spasm of laughter.
"Oh, tell us about it, Billie," Laura entreated. "You can be the most aggravating thing!" ”

“ A smooth velvety lawn sloped down straight to the water, and the girls cried out at this, their first glimpse of Lake Molata. Through the trees, the water of the lake glistened and shimmered and danced while the soft rippling sound of tiny wavelets lapping at the bank seemed to call to them invitingly.
"Oh, g-girls, it's lovelier even than we pictured it!" cried Laura, stammering in her eagerness. "Aren't you just c-crazy to get out on that water?"
"Yes. But look!" cried Billie, grasping her arm and pointing to the front door of Three Towers Hall. ”

“ At sight of her he straightened up and an answering smile flashed across his thin face, making him look so different that the girls were amazed.
But when they looked back at him again a few seconds later his smile had gone and he was staring after them gloomily.
“Goodness, I never saw a person look so sad in all my life,” murmured Vi, as a turn in the road hid the man from view.
“Well, I have,” said Billie. “And that’s Miss Arbuckle!”
“There must be some sort of mystery about them both,” remarked Laura. “Maybe that man has a whole lot on his mind.” ”

“ Then Billie said in a clear, hard voice:
“Are you suggesting that I stole the Gift Club money, Amanda Peabody?”
“Because if you are,” cried Laura fiercely, “I’ll settle with you now, you miserable sneak, once and for all!”
“Girls! Girls!” pleaded Ray Carew. “Don’t let’s fight among ourselves. What Amanda just said is too silly to notice. I think you had better apologize, Amanda. You won’t be very popular until you do.” ”

“ At first the boys talked and the girls listened. But gradually the bits of fancy work were laid aside, the girls joined in the conversation, while eyes shone bright and faces glowed with anticipation of what the autumn held in store for them.
And while Laura and Violet and the two boys were talking happily and all at once, Teddy took the opportunity to whisper in Billie's ear:
"I suppose, being a young lady with a large fortune," he said teasingly, delighting in the color that rose to her face, "you won't find time to recognize your old friends any more." ”

“ Connie Danver’s Uncle Tom attended the lighthouse, and, living there all the year around, had become as much of a fixture as the island itself. Connie loved this uncle of hers, and had told the girls enough about him to rouse their curiosity and make them very eager to meet him.
The girls walked on in silence for a little way and then, as they came to a path that led into the woods, Laura stopped suddenly and said in a dramatic voice:
“Do you realize where we are, my friends? Do you, by any chance, remember a tall, thin, wild-eyed man?” ”

“ Out there in that wilderness, at three o'clock in the morning, a noise that sounded something like a motor car and yet was unlike anything they had ever heard before, might have frightened more experienced people than three fourteen-year-old girls.
"H-here it comes!" whispered Violet, clutching at Laura's arm, while Laura in her turn clutched at Billie's. "It's coming closer! Oh, girls—is it in the house?"
"Sh!" cried Billie. "It's a machine—it must be a machine—out on the road." ”

“ Laura commanded her, stealing a chocolate from Vi's sweater pocket. "What have you got to say for yourself?"
"Yes, what do you mean by getting up such a disgraceful affair as happened here last night?" added Nellie Bane in such an exact imitation of Miss Ada's manner that the girls giggled delightedly.
"Look out," cried Connie Danvers, in a whisper, for Amanda and the "Shadow" had just come into the room. "If you are not careful our wicked plot will yet be discovered."
"What is it you wanted to say, Billie?" asked Caroline in her matter-of-fact tone. ”

“ Miss Johnson,”—a teacher of English at Three Towers Hall—“said it was too flippant.” Laura finished with a chuckle, for Connie had read that composition to Billie and her chums the evening before, sitting cross-legged, like a young Chinese idol, on Billie’s bed. It had been flippant—like Connie—and full of fun. The girls had laughed uproariously.
“Miss Johnson is dried up and old, a hopeless spinster,” was Vi’s merciless indictment of the English teacher. “She can’t be expected to recognize honest fun when she sees it.” ”

“ They were standing just outside the store where their last purchases had been made when Billie, looking down the street, gave a cry of delight.
“Look who’s coming!” she exclaimed.
“It’s the boys!” cried Vi. “Mercy, girls, we might just as well have spent the rest of our money, the boys will treat us to the ice cream.”
“Goodness, Vi! do you want to spend your money whether you get anything you really need or wish for or not?” inquired Billie, with a little gasp.
“What in the world is money for if not to spend?” asked Vi, making big and innocent eyes at Billie. ”

“ Out from the bushes straight in front of them sprang the figure of a man. And at the same moment Chet and Teddy rounded the curve of the road.
The man straightened and looked wildly from one group to the other, and then made as though to double on his tracks and dive into the woods again.
"Stop that man!" shouted Teddy. "He robbed our Academy! That's right, girls—head him off!"
For Billie, with a gasp of astonishment, had recognized the Codfish, and seeing what he was about to do had darted forward straight in his path. ”

“ The girls groaned.
"But they give such a ghostly, flickering light," protested Violet, as if it were in some way Mrs. Gilligan's fault. "I know I'll never be able to stand it," and she glanced nervously over her shoulder.
"Well, could you stand the dark any better?" asked Mrs. Gilligan practically, as she began to light the candles one after another. "There will probably be other candelabra in the house, and if you get enough of them burning there's nothing in this world that is prettier. For myself I just love candle light."
"Yes, when you're in civilization," put in Laura. ”

“ When we return to Three Towers Hall to-morrow you are going to be everybody’s ideal of what a perfect, modern schoolgirl should be!”
Edina’s gratitude, her eager anticipation, warmed Billie’s heart. She carried her mood of elation to bed with her and woke with it in the morning.
“To-day is going to be one of the most interesting I have ever lived through,” she thought. “The look on the girls’ faces when they see my new edition of Edina will be worth all the trouble. Only,” her face clouded, “I wish Laura and Vi could share the fun with me.” ”

“ Then one noon time Laura came running into the dormitory, her eyes big and round with excitement.
"What do you think?" she cried, while the girls gathered round her. "I heard Miss Cora and Miss Ada talking together. I was in the lab and they were in the hall and they didn't know I was anywhere around."
"Well?" asked the girls impatiently as she paused for breath.
"They were talking about our meals," Laura went on. "They said we got altogether too much to eat."
"Too much to eat!" echoed the girls, looking at one another wonderingly.
"Why, we don't get any more than we want," said Billie. ”

“ Chet yelled back. "We're looking for your aeroplane ghost.
Can't you hear it?"
"Yes. But, oh, Chet," Billie's voice was tremulous, "the piano is playing itself again. Won't you come down? We're afraid to stay here all alone."
"Great Scott! all the spirits are roaming at once," cried Teddy, straining his eyes to see through the darkness as the humming of the motor came nearer.
"There, isn't that it?" cried Ferd, pointing eagerly through the trees toward a little patch of sky, palely illumined with stars. ”

“ By the time they had reached Miss Arbuckle and the finding of her album in the woods they were feeling delightfully thrilly and farther away from sleep than ever.
“It really must be a mystery,” Connie was saying, snuggling deeper into the covers and staring at Billie’s pretty face and tousled hair weirdly illumined by the pale moonlight that sifted through the window, when there came a tap on the door. And right upon the tap came Mrs. Bradley, wearing a loose robe that made her look mysteriously lovely in the dim light. She sat down on the edge of the bed and regarded the girls smilingly. ”

“ Billie dragged Edina to her dormitory, hoping to protect the girl, only to find her own friends lying in wait for her.
There was a crowd already gathered there, a crowd that increased in numbers rapidly. At sight of it, Edina shrank within herself and would have fled cravenly had it not been for Billie’s grip upon her hand.
“No use running away,” Billie whispered fiercely. “It’s far better to stay and face the music.”
Ray Carew pushed her way to Billie’s side. She eyed Edina coldly. ”

“ Connie said in an excited whisper.
"And to think it's Billie's 'Codfish', the man who stole her trunk!" said another. "I'm scared to death!"
"D-don't you t-think we'd better go back?" asked Vi, her teeth chattering.
"I guess so," agreed Connie, looking fearfully about her. "He may be in the woods now. He may even be listening to what we say!"
This was enough for the girls. Without even a backward glance they scurried across the lawn like so many little white phantoms and in at the side door of Three Towers Hall. ”

“ But what," she asked, looking curiously at Billie, "did your brother mean by saying not to scare away the ghosts before he gets there?"
"Oh," laughed Billie, "he has a sort of idea that the house at Cherry Corners is inhabited by spirits—just because mother said that the halls and rooms were spooky. He will be terribly disappointed if he doesn't see half a dozen ghosts."
"Well, I wouldn't," said Violet with a shudder, for now that they were on the way to their adventure, her courage was beginning to fail.
"Ghosts!" repeated Mrs. Gilligan, with a fun-loving light in her eyes. ”

“ I can’t believe yet that it isn’t a dream.”
“You want to be careful,” said Teddy, staring straight before him, “if you go in bathing at all. There are awfully strong currents around there, you know.”
“Oh, of course I know all about that,” returned Billie, with the air of one who could not possibly be taught anything. “Connie says her Uncle Tom knows of a darling little inlet where the water’s so calm it’s almost like a swimming pool. Of course we’ll do most of our swimming there. Oh, Teddy, you ought to see my new bathing suit!” ”