The Mystery of Arnold Hall

by Helen M. Persons

  CHAPTER V MOSS

  One morning a couple of weeks later, Patricia was wakened suddenly by amarshmallow landing on her nose and scattering its fine, powdered sugarall over her face. Sitting up quickly, she saw through her open door Ruthand Jane in their room across the hall, sitting on their beds, doubled upwith laughter.

  "You fiends!" she cried softly. "Just you wait!"

  "What's the matter?" inquired Betty sleepily, from the other bed, withouteven opening her eyes.

  "Those Goths across the hall threw a marshmallow in my face!" repliedPatricia, seizing the unfortunate bit of confectionery and returning itwith such good aim that it struck Jane's hand and bounded off onto therug, where it deposited the rest of its sugar.

  "Get up, Lazy Bones!" ordered Jane. "We've got to go out for moss beforebreakfast."

  "I forgot all about it," groaned Patricia. "I wish that botany class wasin Hades."

  "I wish you'd all shut up," complained Betty. "I want to sleep; and,thank Heaven, I don't take botany."

  Patricia was soon ready, and the three girls stole softly down the halland tried the front door.

  "Who's that?" called Mrs. Vincent, who slept, not only with her dooropen, but also, so the girls said, with her eyes and ears wide as well.

  "Patricia, Ruth, and Jane going out for moss for botany class," answeredJane. "We'll be back before breakfast time."

  "Don't go far away."

  "Does she think we can find moss on the fire escape?" demanded Janescornfully.

  "Just where _are_ we going?" asked Patricia.

  "I think we'll cut through the back yard here into Foth Road and head outtoward the country."

  They went around the side of the dormitory, and, to their surprise, sawRhoda coming toward them across the back yard.

  "Aren't you up pretty early, Rhoda?" asked Jane casually, as the girlflushed and looked embarrassed.

  "Not so very," was the low reply. "I often run out here for a breath offresh air before starting my work."

  "How fussed she acted," commented Ruth, "just as if she'd been caughtdoing something she didn't want anybody to know about."

  "Yes, I noticed that too," said Patricia, carefully following hercompanions down the treacherous, broken stone ledges into the yard behindArnold Hall.

  "Why, Ruth," cried Jane, "'Big House' is occupied! I didn't know that;did you?" The girl regarded in surprise the three-story brick houseacross a narrow stretch of green lawn.

  "No, I didn't"--adding softly, "Come on; somebody is watching us fromthat bay window on the second floor."

  "How do you know?" demanded Jane, hurrying after her room mate.

  "I saw a woman's hand pull the curtain aside a little while we werewaiting for Pat to come down the steps."

  "It's a shame to spoil our short cut to Foth Road; for I suppose we can'tgo through there any more. That house was empty all last year," explainedJane, turning to Patricia, "which made it rather nice for us because,besides using the yard as a thoroughfare, we sometimes had little partiesthere or met our boy friends when we didn't want to go out the front waywith them. Oh, I assure you it was useful in lots of ways."

  They were out on the road by then, and walking briskly toward thecountry.

  "We'll never find any moss if we keep to the road," objected Ruth, afterthey had walked a mile in vain. "I should think we'd have to go into thewoods, see, over there."

  "Not I!" replied Jane. "I'm too afraid of snakes."

  Patricia laughed. "There aren't any snakes in a pine woods. They'remostly where there are lots of rocks."

  "Well, anyway we'll go a little farther and then I, for one, take to thewoods," decided Ruth. "We've got to find some moss soon, and go home; andI won't face Yates again with no specimens."

  "Isn't he the old pill, though?" said Jane to Patricia. "Did you ever seeanybody so cold and stone-like? Even when he says unpleasant things--and,oh, boy! can't he be disagreeable when he likes!--his face never changesfrom that set, gloomy expression."

  "He certainly is most peculiar," agreed Patricia, "and I don't like himeven _any_! For that matter, no love at all is lost between us; somethingin the way he looks at me tells me that."

  "Ah, here we are!" exclaimed Jane, pointing to an old shed a few feetfrom the road. On its roof, near the ridge pole, was a luxuriant growthof bright green moss.

  "How can we get at it?" asked Ruth, as they scrambled across a wire fenceand crossed a stretch of rough, coarse grass. "I'm no good at climbing."

  "Nor I," said Ruth. "How about you, Pat?"

  "I think I could get up far enough to reach it, if you girls will boost abit," replied Patricia.

  "It's O. K. with us, but for Heaven's sake be as quiet as possible. Wedon't want the dog set on us."

  "Oh, nobody's around so early as this; there's no window on this side ofthe shed, and the door is on the other. The farm house is back of thatclump of trees."

  "Easy telling you don't know anything about the country," said Janescornfully; "these farmers get up early."

  Stepping up on a log, which happened to lie conveniently close to thebuilding, Patricia, with the aid of the girls, got a firm grip on theedge of the roof and drew herself up to a point where she could lie flaton its weather-worn boards and stretch her long arms up toward thecoveted plants. With much effort, she succeeded in reaching the moss andin tearing up two big handfuls. Resting on her elbows for a moment toease the strain on her arms, she was horrified to feel the boardsunderneath them begin to sag; and, with a dull splintering of ancientwood, her hands and lower arms disappeared into a yawning cavity.Simultaneously, the moss dropped from her fingers into the depths below.

  A snort, a gasp, and a forceful exclamation from within the shed mingledwith Patricia's startled cry of "Girls, I'm falling in."

  "What shall we do? What shall we do?" demanded Ruth excitedly asPatricia, speechless with horror, gazed down through the hole over whichshe hung, and met the cold, grey eyes of Professor Yates! His immaculateshoulders and smooth black hair were covered with bits of moss.

  "Pull me down, quick!" cried the horrified Patricia, finally recoveringthe power of speech.

  "It will spoil your dress," warned Jane.

  "I don't care! Get me down, for Pete's sake!" retorted Patricia wildly.

  With their united efforts, the two girls succeeded in dragging Patriciasafely to the ground, minus the moss, and with several long scratches onher arms.

  "Where's the moss?" demanded Ruth in surprise.

  "All over Professor Yates!" gasped Patricia, hysterically.

  "What?" cried Ruth, while Jane looked as if she feared Patricia had losther mind.

  "He's in that shed!"

  "You're crazy!" retorted Jane, feeling her pulse.

  "Honest to goodness! Cross my heart!"

  At that moment, the object of their discussion strolled around the cornerof the shed. He had brushed himself off, and now looked as calm and neatas if he were in his classroom. His gaze traveled coldly from one toanother, then, looking directly at Patricia, he drawled: "To what am Iindebted for this most unconventional call?"

  "To your demand for specimens of moss today 'without fail,'" quoted Janeglibly.

  "A most novel situation, stealing it from my own roof, and ruining theroof in the bargain."

  "We had no idea it was your roof," retorted Patricia hotly, "and I had nointention of breaking through it. It was anything but a pleasantexperience, I assure you."

  "Of course we expect to assume any expense involved," put in Janesoothingly, as they turned to go.

  Professor Yates made no reply, but stood watching them scramble over thefence and start down the road toward college.

  "Wasn't that just terrible?" gasped Patricia "I'm certainly done for withhim now. Next time I do any climbing for specimens, you'll know it."

  "Whatever do you suppose he was doing out there?" demanded Ruth.

  "You heard him say it was his roof, d
idn't you?" retorted Jane. "Claricesaid once that he had an old place where he raises all kinds of truck forthe lab, but I didn't pay much attention to her. She talks so much thathalf the time I don't listen very attentively; and I haven't given it athought since."

  "Just wait until the girls hear about it!"

  "We're going to have a spread tonight; did you know it?" asked Jane."Doll's going out with one of her boy friends."

  "The dark youth who's a 'special' in some year or other?" asked Patricia.

  "Yes."

  "She'll have to keep better tabs on him," commented Ruth; "he's a bornflirt. I was at the Black Book the other night when he came in, and hetried to make a date with me."

  "Did he succeed?" asked Jane mischievously.

  "He did _not_! I can't bear him."

  "Do you realize, girls," inquired Ruth, "that we are still moss-less?"

  "Yes, and we'll continue to be, so far as I am concerned," retortedPatricia.

  "Oh, somebody in the lab will be sure to have some," said Jane easily,"and we'll just borrow a little of it. I don't feel equal to hunting anylonger."

  The spread was about to get under way at eight-thirty that evening. Mrs.Vincent and her youthful escort, Ivan Zahn, had departed for a concertwhich the college was giving to entertain the Freshman Class. Rhoda waslooking after the Black Book and the telephone; so the girls were quitefree to enjoy themselves, without responsibility. The new maid hadquickly become as much of a favorite as her predecessor; for she wasaccommodating and good-tempered, and the inhabitants of Arnold Hall,especially those on the first floor, treated her almost as one ofthemselves.

  "Did anybody telephone the Varsity Coffee Shoppe for the eats?" demandedHazel, coming out into the hall in a suit of bright red lounging pajamas.

  "Yes," answered Jane from her room, where she was putting frantic lastminute lines on a poster which was due the next morning.

  "Who took the order?" asked Frances, rushing in to borrow some thread torun up a rip in her coolie coat.

  "Al, and he said he'd send them right down," contributed Ruth from herbed, where she lay on her back trying to fix an important bit ofpsychology in her mind.

  "Oh, cut the study!" ordered Anne, entering with Lucile, Betty, andPatricia.

  "Got to get this tonight," cried Ruth, hanging onto the book which Annetried to take out of her hands.

  "No, you haven't; get up early in the morning and do it. Then it will beall the fresher in your mind."

  "Yes, you like early rising," laughed Betty.

  Anne continued to pull, and finally got Ruth off the bed. Katharine, whocame in at that moment, attracted by the noise, slipped past Ruth andAnne, flopped into the recently vacated bed, and pulled up the covers.

  "Of all things!" exclaimed Ruth indignantly, jerking away from Anne. "Getout of my bed!"

  Katharine extended a long, strong arm and pulled Betty in beside her,while Frances piled in on the other side.

  "Safety in numbers," laughed Katharine impishly. "Get us out if you can!"

  "I'll help you, Ruth!" shouted Clarice, dashing in with a glass of waterwhich she sprinkled freely on the three girls in the bed. With a cry ofprotest they sprang up and chased Clarice the length of the hall whereshe barricaded herself with a heavy chair in the corner beside thetelephone booth. At the other end of the hall, on a couple ofwell-stuffed white laundry bags which were ready for the collector in themorning, perched Hazel, swinging her red-clad legs and singing: "I want adrink! Kathy wants a drink! Francy wants a drink!"

  "Here's Al, girls!" called Clarice from her vantage point, where shecould see out onto the street.

  The feud was forgotten, as they all trooped forward to relieve Rhoda ofthe basket which the boy had brought. Sitting down on the runner whichextended the length of the hall, the girls quickly disposed of orangeade,sandwiches, cakes, and ice cream, not forgetting to give Rhoda a share. Asongfest followed, and a general romp the length of the alley was in fullswing when the front door opened suddenly and Mrs. Vincent walked in,alone.

  "Girls!" she cried sharply. "Stop that noise at once! You sound like alot of hyenas! I could hear you up to the corner!"

  "What brought her home so early?" muttered Betty to Patricia.

  "Must have had a scrap with Ivan," whispered Anne. "She's so cross."

  Just then the telephone rang, and Mrs. Vincent paused to gaze hopefullyat Rhoda who answered it.

  "Yes," said Rhoda, in a low tone. "Yes, I'll call her."

  With an oddly excited expression on her usually calm face, Rhoda turnedto Mrs. Vincent, saying, "Someone wants to speak with you."