CHAPTER XV
A PLOT FAILS
Caroline Brant had been watching from behind a pair of horn-rimmedspectacles, although nobody, not even Rose, could have told it.
She had seen Rose glance into the room, had noticed how queerly she hadlooked at Billie, and now, as Rose started across the corridor, Carolinewas at her heels, quick as a cat.
It was not till Rose's hand was on the knob of the door across the hallthat Caroline spoke.
All she said was, "Where are you going?" in a quiet little whisper, butRose whirled upon her fiercely.
"You're following me," she cried, almost forgetting to whisper in herfury. "What do you mean?"
"You'd better not make so much noise," said Caroline calmly. "We'll haveMiss Ada or Miss Cora down upon us if you're not careful."
"Miss Ada or Miss Cora," mimicked Rose, actually trembling with fear andrage at being caught. "What do I care for Miss Ada or Miss Cora!"
"Well, I care a lot, if you don't," retorted Caroline, urging theexcited girl back toward the lighted dormitory. "I don't know whatyou're so mad about anyway," she added, as Rose glared at her. "Yourtime for playing guard was up, and when I came over to tell you about itI found you were gone."
Caroline was fibbing--or, at least, partly so--but Rose had no way ofknowing that. What she did know was that she had made a goose of herselffor nothing, and all at once she hated Caroline more than she hatedBillie or any one else on earth.
But she did not dare show it. The only thing for her to do was to try topass the thing off the best she could. So when they reached the door shelooked up at Caroline with the best smile she could manage and triedhard to keep her voice steady.
"I'm sorry I spoke as I did," she said. "I was just going to slip intothe dorm and get a bottle of olives that fell under the bed. And whenyou spoke to me so suddenly it frightened me--that's all."
"It seems a pretty big chance to take--for a bottle of olives," saidCaroline gravely, and in spite of herself Rose flushed. Oh, how shehated "grinds" that wore horn-rimmed spectacles!
The two were greeted joyfully by the rest of the girls, who would neverknow just how near they had been to discovery.
"I guess the time's up for your watch, Rose," said Billie. "Come on,let's draw lots and see who's the next."
Laura made a dash for the glass bowl that served as a lottery butCaroline interrupted her.
"I'll stand watch for a while," she said, adding as the girls started toprotest: "It's hot in here and it's cool in the hall, and I need coolingoff. Will somebody hand me a sandwich once in a while?"
"I'll say we will," they cried, and immediately began plying her with somany sandwiches and pickles and biscuits that she laughingly protested.
"And don't make too much noise," she said, as she started for the door."You know Miss Ada may be a little suspicious that there's something upand come snooping around again."
"Well, you know the signal," Billie whispered after her. "Scratch twiceon the door."
Caroline nodded, glanced at Rose, and went out to her post, sandwiches,pickles, biscuits and all.
The rest of that evening was not very pleasant for either Caroline orRose. Caroline was wondering whether she ought to tell Billie and theother girls that she had found Rose sneaking, yes, actually sneaking,into the room across the hall when she should have been at her post.
"Of course, I don't know that she was going to do anything wrong," shekept telling herself, yet in her heart she knew that Rose had been up tosome mischief. "But it isn't fair to Billie not to say anything," sheworried. "I know Rose, and she's sure to try to get even some time, andBillie ought to be told to look out." And all the time she was thinking,her ears were strained for the slightest noise below stairs.
As for Rose, she would have pleaded a headache, for by that time shereally had one, and gone to bed, if she had not been afraid of beinglaughed at by the girls.
And so she stayed on and on, trying to act as if nothing were thematter, laughing and joking with the other girls, eating sandwiches andcake till she was sick of the very sight of them, while all the time shewas wondering, wondering, what Caroline was going to do.
"She can't really tell anything," she worried, while her head achedharder and harder. "I didn't really _do_ anything."
But all the time she knew that just leaving her post at the door when somuch depended upon the girls not being discovered was a terrible thingand one that the girls would find it hard to forgive should they findher out.
"If only Caroline doesn't say anything," she thought, adding spitefully:"And now I suppose I've got to be nice to the old thing, whether I wantto or not."
Meanwhile, the rest of the girls were having a gay time. Never had aforbidden feast gone off so beautifully before, and they were inhilarious spirits.
As the hour hand of the little clock on Nellie's dresser crept near tomidnight the girls packed up the fragments of the feast, and, after theyhad pushed the baskets out of sight under the beds, drew their chairstogether to form a semi-circle and began joyfully to tell the mostblood-curdling ghost stories they knew.
Each girl had to tell some story she had read or heard, or if she was sounfortunate as never to have read or heard any, was forced to make oneup "out of her own head."
The fun waxed fast and furious, each story being more hair-raising thanthe last until it came to Billie's turn.
"But I don't know any ghost stories, and I'm no good at making them up,"she protested when the girls looked at her expectantly. "I likeadventure stories about treasure hunting and robbers and murderers andthings----"
"Well, that'll do," said Laura joyfully, while the other girls shivereddelightedly and drew close together. "Tell us a murder story, Billie."
Billie was about to open her mouth in protest when Vi suddenly made asuggestion.
"I've got the very thing," she cried. "Tell the girls about the'Codfish,' Billie."
"'The codfish'?" they repeated, looking puzzled, while Rose added with alittle yawn: "Yes, do tell us about the codfish, Billie--it sounds sointeresting."
The tone more than the words made Billie angry, but before she had timeto retort the girls broke in, eagerly demanding the story of the"Codfish."
"We caught one one time on a family fishing trip," said one of thegirls, taking it for granted that this particular codfish was of theswimming variety, "and we had fried codfish steaks for a weekafterward."
Billie chuckled while Vi and Laura openly giggled.
"But this wasn't that kind of a fish," said Billie. "It was a man."
This was almost too much for the girls, who were beginning to think thatBillie and Laura and Vi had suddenly gone crazy, but Billie hurried onto explain about the "Codfish," growing more and more interested in herstory as she went on.
As for the girls, well, they simply hung on her words, and when she cameto the part where the thief had dropped her precious trunk in theroadway they exclaimed so loudly that Caroline had to warn them to bequiet. By this time the guard at the door had been removed, as there waslittle danger of discovery at so late an hour.
"Well," sighed Connie Danvers, when Billie had finished her story, "Iwish something like that would happen to me sometime. It sounds justlike a story book."
"But you should have caught him," Nellie objected. Though Nellie hadheard of Billie's wonderful good fortune in finding the old trunk, shehad never heard the details of the part the "Codfish" had played in ituntil to-night. "It gives me the shivers to think that an awful thinglike that, with red hair and a fishy mouth, should be wandering aroundloose."
"I'm sure I'll dream of him to-night," said one of the other girlsplaintively.
"Speaking of dreams," said Billie, getting to her feet so quickly thatshe almost upset the girl beside her, "don't you all think we'd betterget back to our dorm? It's after midnight, and--I'm awfully afraid ofMiss Ada."
"Well, I'm not--not after to-night," said Laura. "You surely did foolthe Pickle with your snoring, Billie."
/> "Yes. But next time somebody else will have to do the snoring," saidBillie, with a rueful little smile.
There followed whispered good-nights interspersed with giggles, andfinally the five girls from dormitory "C" tiptoed across the hall, and,silent as mice, crept into their own room.
Quickly they undressed and slipped into their white nightgowns,listening breathlessly every once in a while for some sound that mighttell of discovery.
None came, however; the big house was as silent as a tomb and Billie wasjust about to slip into bed when she happened to look out of the window.
The moon was bright, bathing the smooth lawn of Three Towers in a lightalmost as bright as day, so that Billie could not have been mistaken inwhat she saw.
A man ran quickly, furtively, across the lawn and disappeared in theshadow of the trees bordering the lake. Billie's heart amazingly skippeda beat and then stood still.
Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall; Or, Leading a Needed Rebellion Page 15
