But in her heart Billie did not believe that. The hope that when Miss Walters was told everything she would side with the girls was the only thing that kept her from being absolutely miserable. For Miss Walters was always fair.

Billie had never been afraid of the dark. She was not really afraid of it now. But as the hours crept by and the place became still with the stillness of midnight, she began to feel uneasy and very, very lonesome.

The silence was so deep that she was afraid to move for fear of breaking it, but at last, because her limbs were cramping and she was beginning to feel chilled, she rose from the couch where she had been sitting and began moving cautiously about the room.

She stubbed her toe against one chair and almost fell over the other, making so much noise that her heart stood still and she looked fearfully over her shoulder. Finally she came over to the couch again and sank down upon it, feeling that she must cry or die.

But she did not do either, just sat there thinking and thinking what she could do next. She would have to sleep, she supposed, although Miss Cora had not given her any nightgown and there were no bedclothes.

Then a happy thought struck her, and she turned down the cover of the couch and found, as she had hoped, that the couch was made up as a bed.

There were several rooms like this in Three Towers--rooms used only when there was an overflow of students. Billie remembered having heard the girls speak of them as "cubby holes."

But Billie was tired and unhappy, and all of a sudden her only wish was to get within the protection of those covers. Perhaps it would not then seem so lonesome and she was cold.

After that she knew no more till morning.

It was a dark, dreary morning with a bite in the air that felt like snow. There was no sign of sunshine anywhere, either outside or inside of Three Towers Hall.

The girls rose reluctantly, and there was rebellion in their eyes. They were on the verge of revolt, and it needed only one more unfair act on the part of Miss Cora or Miss Ada Dill to start the ball rolling.

"Are we going down to breakfast?" asked Laura, as the breakfast gong rang.

"I suppose we'd better," answered Caroline Brant, her eyes looking tired and red-rimmed under the spectacles. "We have to eat, anyway. After we get through we can come up here and decide what we're going to do."

"Well, I know one thing we're going to do," said Laura fiercely. "If the Dill Pickles don't let Billie come back to us, or at least tell us where she is, I'm going to set the place on fire, that's all."

"That wouldn't help Billie any," said Rose, as they turned from the room.

Breakfast was gloomier than ever that morning. The girls were heavy-eyed and sullen, and Miss Cora, presiding grimly at the head of the table, looked, as one of the older girls said, "like a death's head at the feast."

"But where was the feast?" another girl retorted.

In fact this meal was scantier than any that had gone before, and if it had not been for the night's raid the girls would have been in a pretty bad way.

Amanda and the "Shadow" were there, and if looks could kill, they would have both died on the spot. But there was no sign of Billie. The girls had hardly thought there would be, but they had hoped.

A little while later there was another ma.s.s meeting held in dormitory "C," and it was Rose Belser this time who took the floor.

"We simply can't stand it any longer, girls," she told them, her black eyes snapping. "Wasn't that a wonderful breakfast we had this morning?

It makes you sick to think of it. And we don't even know whether Billie got as much as we did. We've got to do something right away. We can try to get word to Miss Walters. I have her address, but I don't know how we're ever going to----"

She was interrupted by a familiar whistle from somewhere outside, and the girls ran over to the window. Sure enough, there were Chet and Teddy, looking, to the girls, like a couple of heaven-sent messengers, standing underneath the window, skates flung over their shoulders, looking up toward them expectantly.

"Wait a minute," Laura called down, "Don't dare go away from there.

You're angels, and have come just when we wanted you most."

She turned a radiant face to the girls and began to speak hurriedly.

"I had it all figured out last night, girls," she said, while they listened eagerly. "When you told me you knew Miss Walters' address, Rose, I thought of the boys right away. There was just a chance that they might come over this morning or this afternoon. And now they're here."

"Well?" they asked, puzzled.

"Oh, don't you see?" Laura clapped her hands impatiently. "The 'Dill Pickles' won't let any of us send word to Miss Walters, but the boys can do it for us."

Before she had finished a dozen girls were scrambling for pencil and paper, Laura was pushed into a chair by the table and was commanded to write and write quickly.

And Laura obeyed while the girls fairly hung over her, offering suggestions, and all talking at once until it was a wonder she could write anything at all.

She told the boys briefly what had happened and begged them to send word to Miss Walters at once. Then they tied the precious piece of paper around an inkwell--who cared for the wreck of a mere inkwell at a time like this?--and threw it out of the window.

Teddy picked it up wonderingly and unwound the paper, while Chet peered over his shoulder and the girls watched breathlessly from above. When Teddy came to the part about Billie's capture he was all for storming the castle, meeting the "Lions in their den, the Pickles in their hall,"

and rescuing the heroine without delay. But Chet held him back.

After that they had what seemed to be a rather heated argument, but Chet finally got the best of it, and after a wave to the girls, who were fairly hanging out of the dormitory windows, the two boys started off and disappeared around the corner of the building.

The girls watched them out of sight, then turned to each other with shining eyes.

"That ought to bring Miss Walters back in a hurry," said Vi. "Then everything will be all right."

"Yes, but we may starve before she gets here," said one of the girls gloomily.

"And Billie! Oh, girls, we've just got to get her out!" added Laura.

"n.o.body knows where she is or what they're doing to her."

Without warning, the door opened and Billie herself flew in upon them.

"Girls," she cried breathlessly, "can't you hide me somewhere?

I've--I've--escaped!"

"Escaped!" they cried, crowding around her, all asking questions at once, feeling her, to be sure that it was really she, until Billie made frantic signs for them to be quiet.

"Girls," she cried, "please stop talking and listen to me. Miss Cora will find that I'm gone in a minute, and she's sure to come right here for me."

"Well, she won't get you, that's one sure thing," cried Laura staunchly.

"But tell us about it," urged another girl. "Did they have you locked up?"

"Yes," said Billie, adding with a shiver: "And I had a terrible night.

But this morning Miss Cora herself brought me some breakfast--I wish you could have seen it--and she was just saying some nice mean things to me when Miss Race called her away for something, said it was important.

Miss Cora went out without locking the door. So I didn't stop for anything, I just ran. I had something I wanted to tell you."

"Good old Miss Race," Connie interrupted, her eyes shining. "I bet she just did it on purpose."

"But listen," Billie broke in hurriedly. "I thought of something while I was locked up, and I want to tell you about it before they catch me again. It's about getting news to Miss Walters. The boys will probably be around this morning, and if you could let them know----"

"But we've already done that," interrupted a score of eager voices, and Billie clapped her hands delightedly.

"Good!" she cried. Then her face sobered again and she looked nervously toward the door. "I suppose Miss Cora will be along in a minute, and she'll want to lock me up again. And I suppose she'll be so mad at my getting away that she won't give me anything to eat now."