The Orchard Secret

by Cleo F. Garis

  CHAPTER II Fruit-Cake

  Waiting, with the deference they, as freshmen, guessed was due asophomore, Arden, Terry, and Sim looked at Miss Everett. There was asmile on her lips, but there was no mirth in her words as she went on.

  "There's nobody in the world who could have a swim in that pool!" saidthe tall blonde girl, and one could only surmise whether there wasexultation or vindictiveness in her tones. "A swim in that pool! Don'tmake me laugh! Why, Tiddy, our revered head, uses it as a storehouse forcabbages, potatoes, and turnips that come out of the college garden.Swimming pool--ha!"

  "Then that accounts for the wheelbarrow," murmured Sim in a strainedvoice.

  "Wheelbarrow? Oh, yes," said Miss Everett. "They cart the cabbages,potatoes, and turnips to the pool in the wheelbarrow."

  "And apples?" asked Arden who, as were her chums, had been taken somewhataback by this information. Yet Arden couldn't help mentioning apples. Sheremembered the orchard, about which the taxi-man had so mysteriouslyhinted and toward which Tom, the porter, had been gazing so steadfastly.What was in the orchard, anyhow? Arden Blake wondered while she waitedfor the tall blonde girl's reply.

  "Yes, apples in season," granted Miss Everett. "There's a big orchardhere, a fine orchard, as orchards go, I suppose, though, really, I don'tknow much about them. But we have a crabbed old college farmer who seemswell up in that work. And there's Tom."

  "Where?" asked Terry for she saw no signs of the good-looking youngfellow in blue overalls.

  "Oh, I don't mean he's here now," Miss Everett made haste to reply, withsomewhat more interest in her voice. "But he too seems fascinated by ourorchard. He seems to know a lot about apples. Yes, they'll store some inthe swimming pool, but mostly potatoes, cabbages, and turnips go in therefor the winter. I hope you freshies will like vegetables, because you'regoing to get plenty of them here."

  "But what in the world is the matter with the swimming pool that theyhave to store vegetables in it?" asked Sim as they walked down a gloomycorridor.

  Arden felt her heart sinking. She dared not look at Sim.

  "What _isn't_ the matter with it?" sneered Miss Everett. "The pump isbroken, the concrete walls are full of cracks, the tile bottom is brokenin several places so that it won't hold water, and half the edge is goneon one side. It hasn't been kept in service for two years, I imagine."

  "Why?" asked Sim sharply.

  "No money. The depression--and other things, I suppose," answered theblonde guide. "And then, too, nobody here, that I know, goes in much forswimming. It isn't my line, I'm sure."

  Arden ventured to glance at Sim, who at that moment raised her eyebrowswith rather a breathless gesture and pushed her smart sport hat back onher head. But Sim did not further pursue the matter then.

  "Here's the recreation hall for your floor." Miss Everett indicated alarge bare room, the broad doors of which were partly open. "And downthis way," she went on, "is your room. You're free to do what you likeuntil you hear the bell, and then you're to report in the hall. Hazing,"she added ominously, "doesn't begin until next week."

  "Thank you for bringing us up here," the three chorused as they turnedtoward No. 513. But the tired sophomore had already vanished down thedusky corridor.

  For a few moments Arden, Sim, and Terry were too bewildered to speak asthey entered their room. Silently they noted that their bags were alreadythere. Tom must have ridden up with them on some sort of an elevator toarrive ahead of the girls.

  It was a long narrow room with three beds in a row, two on one side ofthe door and one on the other. There were three bureaus against theopposite wall, and there were three windows, close together, at one endof the apartment. A most attractive and home-like feature was a windowseat extending beneath the three casements. Three desks and a smallbookcase completed the furnishings.

  "Thank goodness, there's a large closet for our clothes!" exclaimed Sim,opening the door to disclose it.

  "I think it's lovely here," murmured Terry.

  Arden went to the windows and looked out through the gathering dusk. Shesaw down below, and a far distance it seemed, the cinder circle of thedrive with a fountain in the center. On a little plot of grass was thestone deer gazing, in a surprised manner, Arden thought, across thecampus toward the railroad tracks.

  Somewhere to the south of Pentville--and home--for all three freshmen.Just about this time the lights were being turned on. The respectivefathers would be shaking out their evening papers and the respectivemothers would be seeing to it that the dinners weren't late.

  With a start Arden turned away from the windows. She wasn't gettinghomesick, was she, so soon? She who had urged the others to come to CedarRidge! A typical freshman trick!

  But no! Sim and Terry seemed all right. Terry was combing her sandy hair,and Sim was rummaging in her suitcase.

  Not the prettiest of the three, Sim Westover had something about her thatleft a clear impression which could be remembered afterward. Her eyes,large and sparkling, were sea-gray in color, with long, dark-brownlashes. It was fitting that Sim's eyes should, somehow, be of a sea tint,for since she was a little girl she had spent all her summers at theshore, and she reveled in surf-bathing and swimming in deep water. Simmade no secret of the fact that some day she was going to be a championswimmer and diver. That, perhaps, was why she had so readily agreed toArden's proposal to come to Cedar Ridge when she saw the picture of theswimming pool in the prospectus. And that was why Sim was going to be sobitterly disappointed because the pool was out of use. A storage placefor vegetables.

  Poor Sim!

  Terry considered herself the luckiest in her family, for all her sistershad straw-colored brows and lashes that are often seen with reddish hair.

  Tall and muscular was Terry, and she had fine eyes with brown lashes andbrows. She played tennis and golf, rode, and was a good swimmer, though,as she admitted, not as "crazy" about it as was Sim. Sim was different.She was small, light-haired, and round of face. She was afraid that someday she would be fat. Perhaps that was why she paid so much attention towater sports.

  Arden smoothed her dark, softly curling hair, turned her blue eyes awayfrom the window view that was fast being obscured by the darknessoutside, and said:

  "Choose whichever beds you girls want. I'll take the one you leave. Andabout the pool----"

  "About the pool!" interrupted Sim. "I came here because of that, and nowit might as well not be here. I thought it was queer they'd leave awheelbarrow at the entrance. It couldn't be used in first-aid rescues; Iknew that!" She was almost sneering now, like Miss Everett.

  "Oh, but Sim!" burst out Arden. "The pool will be fixed. They've just gotto fix it! We'll have it repaired. If it's a little money they need,we'll get that, somehow. If you two will help----"

  "Of course we'll help," Terry was quick to offer. "But you'll never getthe money! How can you?"

  "I don't know, Terry, but there'll be a way, I'm sure." With a gayety shedid not feel, Arden stood on her large suitcase, raised one hand asthough drinking a toast, and exclaimed:

  "To the pool! May it never be a pool of tears!"

  "Oh, my word!" gasped Terry. "My word, Arden Blake! Get off thatsuitcase! You must be standing right on the fruit-cake!"

  "Fruit-cake!" echoed Sim. "Is there a fruit-cake? If there is, Arden, getoff it! For if some of the stories the old grads tell are true, we'll bemighty glad to have that fruit-cake before long."

  "Don't get excited, my pets!" mocked Arden, lightly descending. "It'sTerry's cake, but she didn't have room for it in her bag so I packed itin mine. But it's in a tin box. So you shall have your cake and also yourswimming pool, Sim, my dear!"

  Smiling, Arden opened the suitcase and took out a gold and red tin boxwhich she set in the center of the middle bureau. With the electricsswitched on, the red and gold box gave a high light to the room, a factto which Terry immediately called attention. She added:

  "As soon as we can go to town we must ge
t spreads for the beds and coversto match for the bureaus. And I'll have my globe sent up from home. Ialways think a globe makes a room look as though it were inhabited by astudent. And perhaps a lamp with a green shade. Oh, do let's hurry andunpack!"

  Terry was almost breathless, but her eyes were shining and Arden, who wasbeginning to worry over the responsibility she had assumed in urging herchums to come to Cedar Ridge, felt she would not have to be concerned forTerry, at least.

  "I'll take the bed nearest the door, as you know I'm apt to be a'leetle-mite' slow," drawled Terry. "You take the one nearest the window,Arden. Then you can look up at the stars."

  Sim laughed and said: "I'll take the middle bed so----"

  "So you can be the meat in the sandwich, little one!" interrupted Terry.

  "I'm not so little, Terry Landry! It's just because you're such agiantess!" declared Sim indignantly.

  "Stop teasing her, Terry! It'll soon be time to go to the Hall, and wehaven't so much as washed our faces. Besides----"

  Before Arden could finish her speech, the sort Terry called "Arden'sgood-will talk," there sounded a loud knock on the door.

  Without waiting to be invited, Toots Everett, the tall blonde guide,entered with two other girls.

  "Stand at attention, freshies!" Toots loudly commanded. "I am MissEverett. The girl on my right is Miss Darglan and on my left MissMacGovern. We three have picked you three to haze, when the proper timecomes. I'll take the red-head, Jessica," she said to the girl on herright.

  "I'll take the baby," decided the sophomore called Jessica. "That leavesthe black-haired goddess for you, Pip. Don't be too hard with her," shemocked. "She looks as if she had led a sheltered life."

  "But," began Sim, "we don't----"

  "We'll do the talking," interrupted Miss Everett coldly. "You girls willreport to us every day after classes, for a while. Your time is,henceforth, our time. We hope you have good constitutions. Our room is416 on the floor below. See that you keep it in good order!"

  "Oh, my friends, look!" suddenly exclaimed Pip MacGovern, indicating thefruit-cake in plain sight. "A goodie from home that we must not overlook.It is also to be hoped that you freshies brought a tea set and thewherewithals to go with it."

  "Yes," timidly admitted Terry, "we have----"

  She was interrupted by a surreptitious kick from Sim.

  "Good!" declared Toots. "I can see where you three will be very useful tous!" she exulted. "Does anyone care for a piece of cake?" she asked herchums. "Sometimes our dinners here leave much to be desired."

  She walked with exaggerated undulations toward the bureau, like a modelshowing a new gown, removed the red and gold cover from the box andsniffed appreciatively. Having no knife, Toots took the cake in bothhands and was about to break it as a boy breaks an apple when----

  Clang-clang! Clang-clang! Clang-clang! Clang-clang! Clang-clang!

  An insistent bell, so close to their door that it startled the threefreshmen, rang loudly. Arden, Sim, and Terry moved closer together as iffor protection.

  "What's that?" gasped Terry. "Fire?"

  "No, Brighteyes," mocked Toots. "That's the five-five-five. The bellcalling us to listen, most humbly, to Tiddy's welcome-home speech. Yourfruit-cake is saved, for the time being. But our time will come!"

  Whereupon Toots, followed by her fellow hazers, stalked out of the room,leaving Arden, Sim, and Terry staring wonderingly after them.

  "I--I think," murmured Terry, "that perhaps the bell was also meant forus."

  "Yes," agreed Sim, "it probably was. Well, here's where we go in off thedeep end!"

  As the three freshmen hastily made ready to attend in the recreationhall, and as the black gloom of night settled down over Cedar RidgeCollege, out in the old apple orchard a young man in blue overallswandered beneath the gnarled trees. He looked toward the brightly lightedwindows of the recreation hall and then, with a quizzical smile on hisbronzed face, while he stroked his mustache, he glanced toward the brokenswimming pool and walked softly away through the rows of fruit-ladenbranches.