Billie Bradley and the School Mystery: or, The Girl From Oklahoma. Wheeler Janet D.

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      “It isn’t fair! Laura and Vi were just as late as you.”

      “Debsy doesn’t like me,” whispered Billie, and her eyes twinkled. “She never has since the day I refused to use my hands when I recited ‘Lochinvar.’ I never could fling my hands about as she does. I’d feel a perfect fool.”

      “She’ll give you a discredit, sure,” worried Connie. “And you can’t afford too many, Billie, or you’ll be barred from tennis and rowing.”

      The words merely echoed the worry in Billie’s heart. To be barred from her beloved athletics was tragedy too dire to be considered. She knew, too, that a discredit beside her name so early in the term was enough to start her off “on the wrong foot.”

      While she was considering the advisability of taking the matter to Miss Walters, the wise and well-loved head of Three Towers Hall, she glanced up and met the gloating eyes of Amanda Peabody.

      “You think you’re smart,” the look seemed to say. “Yet here you are in bad at the very beginning of the term.”

      Amanda bent over and whispered something to Eliza Dilks. The two girls tittered and glanced sneeringly at Billie. Their enjoyment of her predicament was obvious, yet Billie continued to eat roast beef and the very excellent salad without appearing disconcerted in the least. It was this ability of hers to disguise her feelings that often infuriated Amanda and her toadying shadow to the point of open and indiscreet betrayal of their enmity toward Billie and her chums.

      One such occasion was this one. Amanda bent across the table toward Billie and said in a voice that was audible to every one:

      “Dare you to tell where you went this afternoon!”

      The gabble of voices settled into a momentary hush as the other girls regarded these ancient antagonists.

      Billie looked up and met the sneering gaze of Amanda Peabody with a smile.

      “I’ve not the slightest objection,” she answered calmly. “We went to gather goldenrod.”

      “Goldenrod!” ejaculated Amanda, with a titter. “That’s a good one!”

      “You might ask her where it is,” and Eliza Dilks nudged her crony with an oversharp elbow.

      “Where what is?” asked Billie.

      “The goldenrod. How much did you bring back with you?”

      Before Billie could reply there came a disturbance at the door. Innumerable pairs of bright, curious eyes were turned upon the fantastic figure in the doorway.

      Billie recognized the newcomer. It was Edina Tooker.

      CHAPTER VI

      BILLIE IS LOYAL

      Edina Tooker faced the battery of curious, amused glances like a thoroughbred. Even when a ripple of laughter ruffled the serene atmosphere of the room, she did not flinch nor cower. If anything, her back was held more stiffly erect, her head was flung back with a defiant gesture. Billie was reminded of an unbroken colt who feels the flick of the whip for the first time and is hurt and enraged by the pain even while he fails to understand the reason for his punishment.

      Billie was seized by an almost irresistible desire to go and range herself at this girl’s side, to beat down the ridicule that surged toward the defenseless stranger in a merciless tide.

      Edina Tooker wore a heavily pleated serge skirt, far too wide and too long to meet the demands of the prevailing fashion. Over this, accentuating her naturally bulky proportions, was a stiffly starched white shirtwaist, adorned by a flowing red tie.

      Her hair was naturally very thick and of that peculiar black which seems to hide a bluish tinge in its depths; but it was drawn back ruthlessly from her broad brow and round red face, drawn back so harshly that it pulled her heavy straight brows upward, giving an odd, almost diabolical, expression to her face.

      She wore “sensible” stockings that were very thick and durable and that served admirably to disguise the natural shapeliness of her limbs. On her feet were not shoes, but heavy boots that laced half-way up to her knees!

      Even Billie, sensible as she was to this strange girl’s suffering, resentful as she was of her friends’ amusement, knew Edina Tooker to be a figure of fun as she stood there in that assemblage of carefully cared for, tastefully yet simply dressed young people.

      “Why doesn’t she sit down?” thought Billie, in exasperation. “Why does she stand there and take the limelight? It’s idiotic!”

      The ripple of amusement continuing, Miss Debbs looked up from absorption in her meal and met the defiant gaze of Edina Tooker. Miss Debbs’ face grew red.

      “Another tardy one!” she exclaimed. “What do you mean, Edina Tooker, by reporting here at this late hour?”

      The girl’s face grew sullen. She scraped one clumsy boot over the other.

      “I couldn’t help it, Miss Debbs,” she said, in a voice scarcely audible. “I just come back.”

      “Came,” corrected Miss Debbs in her deep, husky voice. “Try to speak grammatical English, at least! May I ask,” she added sarcastically, “where you have been and why you have just come back?”

      The ripple of amusement rose again, surging toward the girl in the outlandish garb. Edina’s face was scarlet, her lip trembled in spite of a gallant effort at self-control.

      “I – I went for a walk,” she said.

      “Ah!” declaimed Miss Debbs in her best elocutionary style. “You went for a walk! May I ask where you went for a walk at this time of the evening, neglecting to return to Three Towers Hall until ten minutes past the supper hour?”

      Edina shifted from one foot to the other. Her scarlet face was pitiful to see. She tried to speak, but was apparently unable to bring forth a sound.

      Billie Bradley could bear it no longer. She got to her feet and faced the teacher.

      “If you please, Miss Debbs, I can tell you where Edina Tooker has been and why she was late for the supper hour!”

      Here was drama! There was the sound of a concerted gasp as all eyes swerved to Billie. Edina Tooker put up a trembling hand to her shining black hair and also gazed at Billie.

      Miss Debbs looked outraged, but interested.

      “What do you mean, Beatrice Bradley? Explain!” she commanded.

      Without hesitation, Billie told in a low, clear voice of the trip up to Goldenrod Point, as it was called by the students of Three Towers, of her fall over the cliff, a fall which had almost had disastrous consequences, of Edina Tooker’s brave and efficient help in a moment of extreme peril, and of her own eventual return to safety.

      She ended boldly, carried away by her own eloquence:

      “I think, instead of a discredit mark, Edina Tooker deserves a medal for heroism. I know if I had my way she should have it!”

      Billie made a gesture toward the door and paused, feeling rather foolish. Edina Tooker had disappeared!

      Many СКАЧАТЬ