Katherine Stokes

“ As she staggered after them, a grotesque figure, screaming hysterically, fought through the crowd, almost knocking Billie down. Even in that moment of danger she recognized Belle Rogers, every lock of whose golden hair was done up on red rubber curlers, the ends of which stuck straight up like scores of little devils’ horns.
“Take me down! Take me down!” Billie heard her scream. “I will not die in this horrible way! Somebody save me!”
Billie touched her on the shoulder.
“Don’t scream,” she said. “It only makes 99 things worse. The people who are left are going to get down by the windows. ”

“ The old boat seemed like a haven of rest when they pulled into the shelter of its alley for wagons and motor cars.
“Captain, why didn’t you tell us that this was the only ferry running?” demanded Ben of the wrinkled old man.
“Because I don’t never answer questions that ain’t first been put to me,” replied the laconic boatman.
“Don’t scold him,” said Billie, wiping streams of water from her face. “Any one who is obliged to live in a God-forsaken, wretched place like Seven League Island couldn’t be supposed to have any human interest. ”

“ A slender, very pretty girl, beautifully dressed, hurried out of the school building and called:
“Oh, Miss Campbell, may I speak with you a moment?”
“We might have known it,” cried Nancy Brown savagely. “If Billie Campbell hadn’t owned a motor car, Belle Rogers would never have given herself the trouble even to speak to her.”
You perhaps know what a dangerous quality snobbishness is in a girl’s school. A very little of 10 it is like a drop of strong poison in a pail of water. It pollutes the whole pail. So it was at West Haven High School. ”

“ Merry, especially, felt stupid and uncomfortable in having to stand aside and let a girl do all the work.
“Of course, I can,” replied Billie, trying to speak cheerfully, as a low cannonading of thunder rumbled in the distance. “I have done it dozens of times, only it will take time, of course. The tools are under the seat. Hustle up, everybody. Charlie, you get the new tires. Ben, you help me.” ”

“ There were four other witches about the attic telling fortunes with cards and in other ways, two gray ones, a white one, and a green one, and there was an enormous gray cat with electric eyes and a tail four feet long that curled up over its back. At last from behind a curtain came the strains of weird music, and the witches and the gray cat danced a quadrille, the witches riding on their broomsticks in a circle, leaping over the cat as they advanced down the middle and finally ending with a romp when all the ghosts joined in and danced together. ”

“ Nancy did not take the trouble to turn around. Elinor went on playing and Mary reading. It was only one of Merry’s jokes, they thought. But Billie jumped up in amazement; for there actually stood Mrs. Ruggles in the flesh—very much in the flesh, in fact. She was dressed in decent black and wore a black bonnet, and Billie could not decide whether she resembled a queen disguised as a fish-wife or a fish-wife dressed as a lady.
“Why, it is Mrs. Ruggles,” cried Nancy, glancing over her shoulder. “Merry plays so many jokes that we can never tell when he is in earnest and when he isn’t. ”

“ When Billie heard the story, she was so angry with Mrs. St. Clair and Miss Gray and Fannie Alta that she took an imaginary aim and pitched both shoes across the room with all her force.
“Oh, my dear, my dear,” she cried, throwing her arms about her friend’s neck with affectionate fervor, “you have at least one devoted friend who will stand by you through everything.”
Mary was touched by Billie’s devotion and by and by the two girls dropped off to sleep in spite of their troubled hearts. ”

“ There is no better fire trap in the world than a wooden hotel at the seaside. The salt from the flying spray in winter storms has seasoned the wood into splendid burning material, and the breeze from the ocean fans the flames like a great natural bellows.
As Billie waked the other girls Miss Campbell came into the room, with a white, scared face. ”

“ Billie called over her shoulder.
“A locomotive with an engineer is a very different thing from a young girl guiding a scarlet comet,” the little lady answered; but as they left the street for the country road and Billie gradually increased the speed, Miss Campbell leaned back with a look of blissful enjoyment on her face.
“It is one of the most exhilarating things I have ever experienced,” she confided to Elinor.
At noon they stopped for lunch. The road now lay along a high cliff overlooking the ocean, which on this calm September morning was as serenely blue and still as a mill pond. ”

“ The janitor shuffled after her and turned on the light while Miss Gray opened Mary’s desk. She sighed deeply and shook her head.
“She must have got here before me,” she thought. “It was cruel to tempt the child at such a time as this when her mother is in great need of money. I felt so sure she would bring it straight to me and that was the only test I required. Oh, dear, what a crooked world this is. I am out fifty dollars. But how will the poor child ever explain all this money to her mother? ”

“ Fannie had already locked her own door and the girls retreated to their room, somewhat crestfallen, feeling very much like two fighters who had been worsted in battle. 226
When they had crawled into bed and settled themselves under the covers, Billie gave a deep sigh and whispered:
“Mary, dear, which one do you think it was?”
“There is only one thing that would make me think it was Belle,” replied Mary. “If she had really been asleep, she would have waked and come out to find what was the matter. She is the most deadly curious soul alive.” ”

“ If you have ever heard a fire bell boom out in the stillness, you will remember the terror which clutched your heart at the first ominous peal. It seemed to Billie, in going over it afterward, that the boom of that big fire bell was like the last trump on the day of judgment arousing the spirits of the dead. ”

“ It was decided then to take a spin in the car and the four friends were soon in their accustomed places on the red leather seats.
The scarlet car, full of young girls, was no longer an unusual sight in the town of West Haven, and people had ceased now to turn and stare at the “Motor Maids,” as Captain Brown had christened them one morning when they had taken him for a drive in the automobile.
Through the town they sped and out to the open road. The crisp autumn air nipped their cheeks and brought the color to their faces. ”

“ While she was gone, and she was away some time, the detective began to question Fannie. He was a very experienced man in his profession and he pressed her so skillfully that several times she tripped in her answers and finally grew excited.
“I tell you it is true,” she cried. “She not only is a thief, but she has a confederate. Billie Campbell is her assistant. Perhaps you think I took the necklace,” she burst out at last. “You have the right to search among my things. I had no way to know that suspicion rested on me. If I took the necklace, it will still be among my things.” ”

“ The cliff was honeycombed with small rocky chambers, and as they clambered, Indian file, along the narrow path which nature had so thoughtfully cut in the rocks they heard the boom of the incoming tide thundering through the caves on the beach.
“I suppose people could live in these little caverns,” 159 Percy continued, “if it wasn’t so all-fired lonely and inconvenient; but wait until you see Smugglers’ Cave. It has as many natural conveniences as a real house built by human beings.” ”

“ In the meantime, Belle Rogers was using all her arts on the unsuspecting Wilhelmina Campbell.
“We have never met,” she was saying, “but I heard you were going to enter our class and I wanted to be the first to welcome you.”
“Thank you,” said Billie, who had a boyish, direct way of answering people.
“We wanted to know,” went on Belle quickly, “if you wouldn’t become a member of our society, the Mystic Seven. It is the most exclusive and nicest society in the school; the seven nicest girls in West Haven. We are all intimate friends, you know.” ”

“ The adventure had been so exciting and was so quickly over that the girls hardly realized where they were when they found themselves in front of the house, standing in a half-bewildered group in the deepening twilight.
“Nobody shall take any more chances for my motor car,” whispered Billie. “You have all risked your lives enough as it is, and I’m deeply grateful. The men may be around there by the machine, so let’s make a break for the fields and go straight home.”
“No,” replied Ben stoutly; “it would be best for you girls to get away, but Charlie and I will finish the job. ”

“ Billie could hardly keep the corners of her mouth from curving with an irrepressible smile when she remembered those two front tusks of Mme. Alta’s, which seemed to be uncovered, ready for work at any moment.
“Are you sure it is not there still?” asked Elinor quietly. “I happened to look up when you came into the room. You simply flung open your locker door and then began to cry. Why don’t you look in your pockets before you decide that you have lost the money?”
Fannie flashed an angry glance at Elinor. ”

“ Ever since they were almost caught in Smugglers’ Cave, they have been very careful.
“I have made a great many people suffer,” Belle went on, “Mary and Billie and Mrs. Price and Mrs. St. Clair, and I have suffered, too, perhaps more than any of you. But I have learned a great deal. I never knew before what a wicked, spoiled girl I was. Mamma and papa never denied me anything in my life. I have been indulged and petted until I have been nothing but a bundle of selfishness. ”

“ Miss Campbell sat between Elinor and Mary in the back, while Nancy took the seat now understood to be hers always, beside her friend Billie, in front. The four Campbell servants, who had grown old in their mistress’s service, stood in a row on the gravel walk to witness the strange sight of their beloved “Miss Helen” sailing away in a red infernal machine, her blue automobile veil streaming out behind like a piece of flying cloud.
“Don’t go too fast, Billie,” she exclaimed, as they turned the corner of Cliff Street, and whirled down the steep, rather slippery Main street of West Haven. ”