CHAPTER XXII.

THE BITER BITTEN.

For five minutes they waited in silence. It seemed to them much longer than that when, quietly as she had gone, Ronny re-appeared on the top step of the dingy little porch.

"She's in there," were her first words on reaching the waiting group.

"We are just in time to make it interesting for the Sans. Now listen to my plan. What we are to do is this. I have this long black cloak and my mask. It's black too. I am going to scare those girls within an inch of their wretched lives. They are masked and in dominoes. You can imagine what Marjorie went through for a minute. I know a dance called the dance of the vampire bat. It is terribly, _horribly_ gruesome. I am going to prance in on them with that. I have danced it in this very cloak. See how full it is." Ronny held up a fold for inspection. "I can make it look like wings. Then with the dance goes a very scary noise, half sigh, half whistle. By that dim candlelight in there it will be awful.

Marjorie won't be scared. She has seen me dance it.

"The rest of you follow me," Ronny continued rapidly. "Leila you come first, right behind me. Stop at the door where you can't be seen from inside of the front room and line up behind Leila, girls. Count fifty, Leila, after I am fairly in the room, then start that awful banshee wail you know how to give. At the first sound of it I am going to blow out the candle. Then the Sans are going to take to the woods. The minute I blow the last candle I shall grab Marjorie by the hand and flee for the back door. As soon as Leila has wailed twice every one of you make the most horrible sound you know as loudly as you can and hustle for the back door howling as you go. They will all try to get out the front door and in the darkness they will have a fine time of it. If they get a few b.u.mps and scratches in the dark it will serve them precisely right. What you must be sure of is to get out of their way the instant the last candle is put out by yours truly. The whole thing must be carried out like a flash. I depend on your support."

"You are a wonder," chuckled Leila. "My stars, what a party we shall have, with vampire bats, banshees and the like. We shall howl our best for Beauty. Vera makes a fine banshee, too. Now lead us on and confusion to the enemy."

Headed by Ronny the rescuing procession stole up the steps. They landed in the kitchen of the house and made their way through it and into the room adjoining which communicated with the short hall on both sides of which the two front rooms were situated.

Due to Leslie Cairns' shrewd business methods the "high tribunal" stood in no fear of interruption. Leslie, finding the house vacant, had rented it of the agent for six months. She had stated that a few of the students intended to fit it up as a private gymnasium. As the agent's mind dwelt only on the glorious fact that he had been handed six months'

rental in advance, after charging a rate per month which was three times more than the house was worth. Beyond that he was not interested in the tenants.

The august tribunal had taken pains to lock the front door after them.

Due to a squabble among themselves on their arrival at the house, the back door had remained unlocked. Dulcie Vale had been roughly ordered by Leslie to see to it. Dulcie was sulking, however, at Leslie's high-handed manner. She resolved to take her time about it. Then her interest centered on something else, momentarily, and she forgot it.

About the time that the worried rescuers were starting from Wayland Hall, Marjorie was throwing fearless defiance in the faces of her captors. Her contemptuous arraignment, ending with an allusion to the affair on the campus of the previous March, was highly displeasing to her masked listeners. Angry murmurs arose from behind masks and several sibilant hisses cut the storm-laden air.

"Ssss! Death! Show no mercy!" were some of the pleasant returns that met Marjorie's ear.

The Scarlet Mask, thus-called, made a sudden move toward Marjorie as though to lay violent hold upon her. The other masked figures also took a step nearer. Marjorie braced herself to meet an attack, if it came to that. There was a steady light in her brown eyes which the Scarlet Mask did not miss seeing. She contented herself with stopping short directly in front of Marjorie and staring fixedly at her. The effect of two malignant eyes peering through the eye-holes of the hideous false face would have been terrifying to a timid girl. Marjorie was not to be intimidated.

"Prisoner, your remarks are unseemly and ill befit your serious situation." It was evident the wily intention of the Scarlet Mask to ignore the guilty truth which Marjorie had flung at the masked a.s.semblage. "You are one against many. It is not the purpose of the high tribunal to allow you to escape. You are at our mercy until such time as we shall choose to release you. You are pleased to pretend that our ident.i.ty is known to you. You little know those before whom you now stand. You are in the presence of a group of stern avengers, sworn to see justice done to those whom you have maligned. Were we to remove our masks you would find yourself in the company of strangers. We know you.

You do not know us. I warn----"

"Save your warnings, Miss Cairns. I am not in the least interested in them," interrupted Marjorie with dry contempt. "You might be able to make a child of nine years believe you. I doubt even that. I have heard of this foolishness. Malicious as it is intended to be, it is too trivial to be deceiving. You will kindly unlock the front door and let me go."

A subdued chorus of derisive laughter, mingled with hisses arose from the "stern avengers." One of the tallest stepped out from the circle, which they had gradually been forming about Marjorie, and bowed low before the Scarlet Mask.

"I recommend, your highness, that the prisoner be taught at once proper respect for the high tribunal of the Scarlet Mask." The request was made in a voice that aspired to ba.s.s depths. It fell short enough of them for Marjorie to identify it as feminine, although she did not know to whom it belonged. She had had so slight an acquaintance with the Sans from the beginning.

"The prisoner will be taught proper respect immediately," vindictively a.s.sured the Scarlet Mask. Up went a scarlet-draped arm in an imperious gesture to a domino directly behind Marjorie.

Like a flash, Marjorie whirled about to guard herself. It was precisely what the Scarlet Mask wished her to do. In the instant she turned the figure nearest the leader whisked something white from the voluminous folds of her domino. Marjorie felt herself being enveloped from head to waist in what seemed to be the heavy open meshes of a veil. It was, in reality, a large piece of fish net. She struggled furiously to free herself from it. While she struggled with two of the figures who were attempting to hold her, a third was busy securing the net in a hard knot at her back. As Marjorie was wearing a fur coat and cap, her attire was sufficiently bulky to prevent the net from being drawn very close. She had taken off her mask the moment she had left the campus behind her, so she could at least breathe without difficulty.

Not content with the indignity they had trickily put upon her, two of the dominoes caught her by the shoulders and began forcing her toward a corner of the room. The others followed, closing in upon the trio, so that the silent, but still wrathfully-struggling prisoner would have no chance to make a sudden dash for the door when released.

The Scarlet Mask, now at the edge of the crowd which hemmed Marjorie in, elbowed a rough way to where she stood.

"How do you like our methods now, prisoner?" was the satirical question.

"You are going to leave us _at once_, are you? Why don't you go? 'You will kindly unlock the front door,' etc. Oh, my! Naturally we would be keen on doing so after the pains we took to secure your distinguished attendance here tonight. How very sweet you look behind a veil. Too bad you don't wear one all the time. You would----"

"May it please your highness," interrupted a domino in hollow tones, "the time is going. I would advise that we leave here at once with the prisoner. A ride in the still night air may cool her fevered brain so that when we return with her she will be in a more reasonable mood."

"I am also of that opinion," agreed a second. Several other voices rose in approval of the plan.

The Scarlet Mask turned on them in a hurry. Not only angry at being interrupted in her hara.s.sing of the prisoner, she did not propose to take any dictation from her companions.

"Who is running this affair?" she asked in the familiar tones of Leslie Cairns, minus her drawl. "This little, puffed-up hypocrite is not going to leave here until she promises to mind her own business hereafter.

She is also going to promise not to tell where she has been tonight. She may think she won't, but she will, or spend the rest of the night alone here."

A murmur of dissenting voices at once ascended. Half a dozen dominoes tried to force an opinion upon the Scarlet Mask at once. Eager to be heard, there was small attempt made at disguising voices.

"You idiots!" Leslie rebuked in a rage, when finally able to make herself heard. "Have you no sense? Listen to me." Whereupon she centered her displeased attention on her helpers and berated them roundly for daring to set up an opinion contrary to her own.

The dissenting dominoes were not to be silenced thus easily and a spirited altercation began. There were several of the masked company who were hotly against a punishment such as their leader proposed to visit upon Marjorie. Meanwhile, the cause of the altercation listened to what went on with emotions which were a mingling of wrath and amus.e.m.e.nt. If she had needed evidence to convince her that her captors were the Sans, she had it now. She knew from Leila that the Sans were noted for quarreling among themselves.

After the violent manner in which she had been jerked into the untenanted house, she had not doubted that she might meet with further rough treatment. She knew that Leslie Cairns was quite apt to go as far as she dared. She resolved to show, no fear of her captors. She disliked intensely the idea of hand to hand encounter with them. It was utterly beneath her standards. Still she did not hesitate to warn them that she would defend herself if forced to do so. Once she was free of them she had not decided what she would do, further than that she would set off for the gymnasium post haste. Even before the unmasking her chums would miss her. If only she could reach the dance prior to that!

"S--hh! Keep your voices down!" warned a domino who had taken no part in the ill-natured discussion. "I believe you can be heard clear out in the street."

"Mind your business," snapped the Scarlet Mask. "I pay the rent here.

It's n.o.body's business how much noise we make. Who amounts to a b.u.t.ton on this alley? Don't be so cowardly. Even Bean has more nerve than you."

This produced a laugh at "Bean's" expense. Behind her enforced veil Marjorie could not repress a noiseless chuckle. How she wished that someone would hear her captors and come to her a.s.sistance. No such thing was likely to happen.

The admonishing domino, hitherto peaceful, now took umbrage. "You can't tell me to mind my own business or call me a coward," she stormily hurled at the scarlet executive. "You make me exceedingly weary!" Her further candid opinion was not calculated to flatter.

"What you need is a midnight session here with Miss Bean," declared the Scarlet Mask, with a touch of cool purpose which caused the angry domino to flare up afresh.

"Try it, and see what happens to you," was her instant retort.

"Oh, forget it. I merely said you needed it. I didn't say you would be left here. You are the last person I expected would go back on me." This with intent to mollify.

"Well, you shouldn't have----" The somewhat placated rebel suddenly paused. "Hark!" She held up a hand for silence. "I thought I heard a noise."

"Someone going by in the street," the Scarlet Mask a.s.serted, after listening attentively for a moment. At the e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n "Hark!" the eyes of the other maskers had been directed with one accord to the door.

After a brief interval of uneasy silence the discussion regarding the prisoner was resumed.

The recently ruffled avenger who had given the alarm still continued to watch the door. She was not satisfied with her leader's explanation of the sound. Thus she was the first to note a shadow fall athwart the doorway. Her eyes widened with fear to behold an odd, black, winged shape hover an instant on the threshold, then flit noiselessly into the room. It did not advance on the group collected in one corner of the room. It lurched and dipped toward the windows like a huge sable hawk about to swoop down on a chicken yard.

CHAPTER XXIII.

APPARITION OF THE NIGHT.

"A-h-h-h!" gasped the startled watcher, pointing in horror.

"Wh-h-s-s-ss!" The gruesome apparition uttered a sighing, hissing sound which increased in a weird, half-m.u.f.fled whistle. Simultaneous with the whistle it darted to the nearest candle, extinguishing it with one whining "Puf-f-f!" With horrid grotesquerie it flapped toward another candle, bent on putting it out.