Project Gutenberg's Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island, by Janet D. Wheeler This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island The Mystery of the Wreck Author: Janet D. Wheeler Release Date: June 12, 2008 [EBook #25762] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE *** Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net The girls came out upon the point where the lighthouse stood. (See Page 175) BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND OR THE MYSTERY OF THE WRECK BY JANET D. WHEELER AUTHOR OF “BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE,” “BILLY BRADLEY AT THREE TOWERS HALL,” ETC. ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY PUBLISHERS BILLIE BRADLEY SERIES BY JANET D. WHEELER 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance Or The Queer Homestead at Cherry Corners Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall Or Leading a Needed Rebellion Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island Or The Mystery of the Wreck CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY Publishers New York Copyright, 1920, CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island PRINTED IN U. S. A. Contents CHAPTER PAGE I Lost 1 II The Hut in the Woods 9 III Ferns and Mystery 17 IV At the School Again 25 V Much Ado About Nothing 33 VI Found—One Album 41 VII Strange Actions 49 VIII An Invitation 57 IX Amanda Again 63 X Two of a Kind 71 XI At Home 79 XII Preparing for the Trip 86 XIII Pleasure Draws Near 95 XIV The Light on Lighthouse Island 102 XV Connie's Mother 110 XVI Clam Chowder and Salt Air 118 XVII Fun and Nonsense 125 XVIII Uncle Tom 133 XIX Paul's Motor Boat 141 XX Out of the Fog 150 XXI The Boys are Interested 158 XXII The Fury of the Storm 166 XXIII Fighting for Life 174 XXIV Three Small Survivors 182 XXV The Mystery Solved 191 BILLIE BRADLEY ON LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND 1 CHAPTER I LOST Splash! went a big drop just on the exact tip of Laura Jordon’s pretty, rather upturned nose. She put her hand to the drop to be sure she had not been mistaken, then turned in dismay to her companions. “Girls,” she cried, “it’s raining!” If she had said the world was coming to an end her companions could not have looked more startled. Then Billie Bradley cocked an eye at what she could see of the sky through the trees and held out one hand experimentally. “You’re crazy,” she announced, turning an accusing eye upon Laura. “It’s no more raining than you are. And, anyway, haven’t we troubles enough without your going and making up a new one?” “M-making up!” Laura stuttered in her indignation. “If you don’t believe me, just look at my nose.” “I don’t see what your nose has to do with it,” Billie began scornfully, but the third of the trio, Violet Farrington, by name, interrupted. “Laura’s right,” she cried. “I just felt a great big drop myself. Now, what ever are we going to do?” Vi dropped down in a pathetic little heap on a convenient rock, looking up at her chums wistfully. Violet Farrington was always a little wistful when in trouble, like a small girl who can never understand why she is being punished. But just now this wistfulness irritated Billie Bradley, who was very much given to quick action herself, and she turned upon Vi rather snappily. “Well, you needn’t just sit there like a ninny,” she cried. “Get up and help us think what we can do to get out of this mess.” “Mess is right,” said Laura Jordon gloomily. And it must be admitted that the girls were in rather a trying situation. Their botany teacher at Three Towers Hall, where they were students, had sent them into the woods to gather some rare ferns which they were to use in the botany class the next day. That was all very well; for if there was anything the girls loved it was a trip into the woods. They had started off in hilarious spirits; and then—the impossible thing had happened. They had gathered the ferns, turned to go back to Three Towers, and found, to their absolute dismay, that they did not know which way to go. There was no getting over the fact. They were absolutely and completely lost! For almost an hour now they had been wandering around and around, getting deeper into the woods every minute, until they had finally begun to feel really frightened. Suppose they couldn’t find Three Towers before dusk? Suppose they should be forced to stay in the woods all night? These and a hundred other thoughts had chased themselves through their heads, but they had said nothing of their fears to each other. The girls were thoroughly “game.” But now had come this new complication. It had begun to rain. Hopelessly lost in the woods and a storm coming on! It was a situation to try the patience of a saint. And the girls were not saints. They were just happy, fun-loving, lovable specimens of young American girlhood who could upon occasion show rather alarming flashes of temper. “I’m not a ninny,” Vi protested hotly; but Billie was already started on a different train of thought. She caught Vi’s wrist in hers and her eyes were big and round as she looked from her to Laura. “Suppose,” she said in a whisper, “we should meet the Codfish!” Vi shivered nervously, but it was Laura’s turn to be cross. “Don’t be silly,” she said. “Don’t you know that the Codfish is safe in jail, and has been there for a long time? Now who’s making up something to worry about, I’d like to know.” “But thieves do break out of jail,” Billie insisted. “And the Codfish is just the kind who would do it.” “Goodness, Billie, what an idea!” said Vi breathlessly. “I never even thought about his escaping. And I suppose,” she added, beginning to feel deliciously goose-fleshy, “that we’d be the very first ones he’d go for. Revenge, you know— that’s what they are always after in the stories.” “I hate to interrupt you,” Laura broke in as sarcastically as she could. “But if you two want to stand there all day talking about the Codfish and revenge, you can, but I’m going to find some way out of this place. Goodness, I felt another drop. And there’s another!” “Well, you needn’t count them,” Billie remarked briskly, bringing an hysterical giggle from Vi. “Come on, there must be a path of some kind around here.” “I suppose there is, but if we can’t find it, it won’t do us much good,” said Laura, looking about her helplessly. “Well, we certainly won’t find it by standing still,” snapped Billie. “Come on. I feel it in my bones that Three Towers is 2 3 4 5 somewhere off in this direction.” And she led the way into the woods, the girls following dispiritedly. And while the three chums are searching for the path, the opportunity will be taken to recount to new readers some of the adventures and queer experiences the girls had had up to the present time. In the first book of this series, entitled, “Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance,” Billie had been left an old homestead at Cherry Corners in the upper part of New York State. The strange legacy had come to Billie from an eccentric aunt, Beatrice Powerson, for whom Billie had been named. For Billie’s real name was not Billie at all, but Beatrice. It will be remembered that the girls had decided to spend their vacation there, and that the boys, Billie’s brother Chetwood, Laura’s brother Teddy, and another boy, Ferd Stowing, had joined them there and that queer and exciting adventures had followed. The most wonderful thing of all had been the finding of the shabby old trunk in the attic whose contents of rare old coins and postage stamps had brought Billie in nearly five thousand dollars in cash. The money had enabled Billie to replace a statue which she had accidentally broken a little while before and had also given her the chance to go to Three Towers Hall, a good boarding school, and Chet the opportunity to go to the Boxton Military Academy, which was only a little over a mile from Three Towers Hall. The good times the girls had at school—and some bad times, too—have been told of in the second book of the series, called, “Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall.” In North Bend, where the girls had always lived, there lived also two other girls, Amanda Peabody and Eliza Dilks. These girls were sneaks and tattletales of the worst order and were thoroughly disliked by all the girls and boys with whom they had come in contact. When the chums had heard that Amanda was to accompany them to Three Towers they were absolutely dismayed, for they expected that she would spoil all the fun. Amanda had done her best to live up to the expectations of the girls, but try as she would, she had not been able to spoil entirely the fun. And this very failure had, of course, made her and her chum, Eliza Dilks, furious. Both Three Towers Hall and Boxton Military Academy had been built on the banks of the beautiful Lake Molata, and the girls and boys had spent many happy hours rowing upon the lake in the fall and skating upon it in the winter. But the most amazing thing that had happened to them at Three Towers had been the capture of the man the girls called “The Codfish.” This rascal had attempted to steal Billie’s precious trunk in the beginning, but Billie and the boys had given chase in an automobile and had succeeded in recovering the trunk. They had also succeeded in getting a good look at the man, whose hair was red, eyes little and close together, mouth wide and loose-lipped. It was this last feature that had given the thief his name with the boys and girls. For the mouth certainly resembled that of a codfish. Later the “Codfish” had turned up again near Three Towers Hall, had robbed one of the teachers of her purse when she was returning from town, and had later succeeded in making off with a great many valuables from Boxton Military Academy. The girls never forgot how, with the aid of the boys, they had captured the Codfish and turned him over to the police. Though, as Laura said, the thief had been in jail for some time, the chums had never stopped thinking and wondering about him. But never before had the possibility of his escaping been thought of. But now, as they made their way through the forest that was growing darker and darker, they could not shake off the thought of him. They glanced often and uneasily into the shadowy woodland and drew closer together as if for protection. The rain was beginning to come a little faster now, and their clothes felt damp. Even Billie’s courage was beginning to fail. Suddenly Laura stopped stock still and looked at them impatiently. “There’s not a bit of use our going on like this,” she said. “For all we know we may be getting farther away from the path every minute.” “And my feet hurt,” added Vi pathetically. Suddenly Billie called to them. She had gone on a little ahead and, peering through the dusk, had seen the outline of something dark, a black smudge against the gray of the woods. “Girls, come here quick!” she cried, and half-fearing, half-hoping, they knew not what, the others ran to her. CHAPTER II THE HUT IN THE WOODS 5 6 7 8 9 “What is it?” Laura cried. For answer Billie pointed through the gloom. “There! See it?” she cried excitedly. “It’s some sort of little house, I guess—a hut or something.” “A house!” cried Laura joyfully. “Glory be, let’s go! What’s the matter?” she asked, as the other girls hung back. “Better not be in too much of a hurry,” Billie cautioned her. “The place looks as if it were empty; but you never can tell.” “Well, there’s something I can tell,” Laura retorted impatiently. “And that is, that I’m getting soaking wet.” She started on again, but Billie called to her to stop. “Don’t be crazy, Laura,” she whispered. “We’re all alone in the woods, and it’s almost night. How do we know who may be in that shack?” “Oh, Billie, suppose it were the Codfish!” whispered Vi, and Laura looked disgusted. “It isn’t apt to be the Codfish,” returned Billie. “But whoever it is, I think we’d better be careful. We’ll go up to it softly and look about a bit. Please don’t any one speak until we’re sure it’s all right.” The girls were used to obeying Billie, even impulsive Laura, so now they followed softly at her heels, stepping over twigs so as to make no noise. “Goodness! anybody would think we were thieves ourselves,” Laura giggled hysterically, and Billie looked back at her warningly. It was a strange thing and strangely made, this remote little shelter in the woods. It probably had some sort of framework of wood inside, but all the girls could see from the outside was a rude structure entirely covered by moss and interwoven twigs. In fact, unless one looked closely, one might think that the little hut was no hut at all, but part of the foliage itself. The girls could find no windows, but as they moved cautiously around the hut Billie came upon a small door. The latter was hardly more than four feet high, and the girls would have to stoop considerably to get through it. “For goodness sake, open it, Billie,” Laura whispered close in her ear. “It’s beginning to pour pitchforks and I’m getting soaking wet. I don’t care if a hyena lives in there, I’m going in too.” Billie wanted to laugh, but she was too wet and nervous. So she opened the little door cautiously and peered inside. For a minute she could not tell whether the hut was empty or not, for it was very very dark. But as her eyes became accustomed to the darkness she felt sure that the place was empty. “Come on,” she called over her shoulder to the girls, her voice still cautiously lowered. “I can’t see very well, but I guess there’s nobody at home.” The girls had to stoop almost double to enter the tiny door, but once inside they were surprised to find that they could stand upright. They were in almost entire darkness, the only patch of light coming from the little door that Vi had left open. Suddenly they began to feel panicky again. “If we could only get a light,” whispered Vi. “Goodness, listen to the child,” said Laura scornfully. “She wants all the comforts of home—ouch!” Her toe had come in contact with something hard. “What’s the matter?” cried Billie startled. “Matter enough,” moaned Laura. “I’ve broken my toe!” “Oh well, if that’s all,” said Billie, but Laura began to laugh hysterically. “Oh yes, that’s all,” she cried. “I only wish it had happened to you, Billie Bradley!” If all wishes could be fulfilled as quickly as that of Laura’s there would be few unsatisfied people in the world, for before it was out of her mouth Billie uttered a sharp cry of pain, and, lifting a smarting ankle in her hand, began to rub it gently. “Did you do it, too?” cried Laura joyfully, adding with a good imitation of Billie: “Oh well, if that’s all—” “Oh for goodness sake, keep still,” cried Billie, from which it will be seen that Billie was not in the best of tempers. “This place must be full of stuff. Goodness, why didn’t we think to bring matches with us!” “Because we went out to get ferns, not to burn up the woods,” said Laura, with a chuckle. “Goodness!” cried Vi suddenly out of the darkness. “It is—no it isn’t—yes it is——” “For goodness sake, what’s the matter with her?” asked Laura, getting hysterical again. “Has trouble turned her head?” “No. But something’s turned yours,” Vi’s voice came indignantly back at her. “I’ve found something, I have. But I’ve a good mind not to tell you what it is.” 10 11 12 “Violet, my darling,” cried Laura, fondly. “Don’t you see me on my knees?” “Yes,” said Vi, and suddenly there was a flare of light in the room that illuminated the faces of the girls and made Billie and Laura jump. “I see you,” said Vi calmly, and stood laughing at them while the flickering match in her hand died down to a little glimmer and went out. “So that’s what you found—matches,” cried Billie joyfully, while Laura just kept on gaping. “Oh, Vi, you’re a darling, and I forgive you for scaring us almost to death. Come on, light another one so we can see where we are.” Vi obediently lighted another match, a box of which she had found quite by accident, and the girls looked about them curiously. And as they looked their curiosity and wonder grew. Billie was wild with impatience when the match in Vi’s hand flickered and went out again. “Here, give them to me,” she cried. “I thought I saw something. Look out, don’t spill them, Vi!” “I should say not—they’re all we have,” chimed in Laura. The match flared up in Billie’s hand, and this time it was her turn to make a discovery. The discovery was a pair of thick white candles, each set in a white china dish and pushed to one end of a rudely-made table. Quick as a flash, Billie put the match to the wick of one candle, and then, with a sigh of excitement, blew out the match that was almost burning her fingers. “Girls,” she cried, looking about her eagerly, “isn’t this the queerest, funniest little place you ever saw? And it’s so complete.” Excitedly she crossed the little hut, whose floor was nothing but solid, trampled-down earth, and began to examine a rude-looking cot that ran along all one side of the queer little place. “And here’s a pantry!” exclaimed Vi excitedly. “Look, girls, shelves and cans of things and—and—everything!” The interior of the place was made of rough boards, rudely thrown together as if by an amateur. Why the person who had made the little cabin had not laid boards for his floor, nobody could tell. Perhaps he had run short of lumber or perhaps he preferred the hard earth floor. As Vi had said, in one corner some boards had been nailed up to form shelves, and there were several tins of canned goods upon the shelves. Quite evidently this must be the queer owner’s pantry. Besides this, the cot, the table, and an oddly-shaped chair, which had evidently been made from an old soap box, made the only furnishings of the place. “I wonder,” said Billie, looking about her while a sort of awe crept into her voice, “what the person is like that lives here. He must be very queer, to say the least.” “Oh,” cried Vi, all her old fears coming back again. “Girls, I’d almost forgotten the Codfish. Do you suppose—” “No, we don’t,” said Laura shortly, wishing that the very mention of the Codfish would not send the cold chills all over her. “Goodness, just listen to that rain,” she added, shivering. “I guess we’re in for a night of it.” “But we can’t stay here all night,” said Billie anxiously. “Suppose the owner should come back,” added Vi, her teeth beginning to chatter. “Well, he could only kill us if he did,” said Laura gloomily. “Besides, there are three of us to his one,” said Billie, trying to speak lightly. But Laura spoiled the attempt by adding more gloomily than ever: “How do we know there’s only one of him?” “Well it doesn’t look as if a whole family resided here.” “That’s so too—but there may be two, at least.” Again the girls looked around the queer place. They saw a few tools as if somebody had spent time in woodworking. There were shavings and parts of cut tree branches and strips of bark. “I’ll wager he’s a queer stick—whoever he is,” was Billie’s comment. “And what will he say if he finds us here, prying into his private affairs?” came from Laura, with something of a shiver. “Oh!” All uttered a little cry as a crash of thunder reached them. Then the rain seemed to come down harder than ever. “Just listen to that!” “It’s good we are under cover. If we weren’t we’d be drowned!” The rain came in at one corner of the shelter, forming a pool on the hard floor. But it did not reach the girls, for which they were thankful. “I wonder how long it will last,” sighed Vi presently. 13 14 15 16 “Maybe all night,” returned Billie. “Oh, do you really think it will last that long?” came pleadingly. “You know as much about it as I do.” “What will they think of our absence at the Hall?” broke in Laura. “They may send out a searching party——” began Billie. “Hush,” cried Vi suddenly, and her tone sent the gooseflesh all over them again. “I hear something. Don’t you think we’d better put something against the door?” CHAPTER III FERNS AND MYSTERY “Th-there’s nothing to put against the door,” stammered Billie nervously. “I might put out the light though.” She started for the candle, but Laura put out a hand and stopped her. “No,” she said. “I’d rather see what’s after us, anyway. I hate the dark.” The noise that Vi had heard was a slow measured step that sounded to the girls’ overwrought nerves more like the stealthy creeping of an animal than the tread of a man. But whoever or whatever it was, it was coming steadily toward the hut—that much was certain. The girls drew close together for protection and watched the little door wide-eyed. “It sounds like a bear,” whispered Vi hysterically. “Silly,” Laura hissed back at her. “Don’t you know that bears don’t grow in this part of the country?” “But if it was a man,” Vi argued, “he wouldn’t be walking so slowly—not in this kind of weather.” “Hush,” commanded Billie. “He’s almost here.” “If it’s the Codfish—” Vi was saying desperately, when the little door opened and she clapped her hand to her mouth, choking back the words. Some one was coming through the door, some one who had to bend so much that for a startled moment the girls were not at all sure but what it was an animal, after all, and not a man that they had to reckon with. Then the visitor stood up and they saw with real relief that it was a man after all. As a matter of fact, after the first startled minute it was the newcomer who seemed frightened and the girls who tried to make him feel at home. At first sight of the girls the man staggered backward and came up with a thump against the wall of the hut. From there he regarded them with eyes that fairly bulged from his head. “Hullo!” he muttered, “who are you?” The girls stared for a moment, then Laura giggled. Who could be frightened when a person wanted to know who they were? He was a queer looking man. He was tall, over six feet, and so thin that the skin seemed to be drawn over the bones. His shoulders slumped and his arms hung loosely, whether from weariness or discouragement or laziness, the girls found it impossible to tell. But it was his eyes that they noticed even in that moment of excitement. They were big, much too big for his thin face, and so dark that they seemed deep-sunken. And the expression was something that the girls remembered long afterward. It was brooding, haunted, mysterious, with a little touch of wildness that frightened the girls. Yet his mouth was kind, very kind, and looking at it, the girls ceased to be afraid. “Who are you?” the man repeated, and this time Billie found her voice. “We—we got lost,” she said hesitatingly, speaking more to the kind mouth of the man than to the strange, wild eyes. “It began to rain——” “And we found this little place,” Laura caught her up eagerly, “and came inside to keep from drowning to death.” “We hope you don’t mind,” Vi finished, with her pleading smile which sometimes won more than all Billie’s and Laura’s courage. “Mind,” the man repeated vaguely, passing a hand across his eyes as if to wake himself up. “Why should I mind? It isn’t very often I have company.” 17 18 19 The girls thought he spoke bitterly but the next minute he smiled at them. “I’m sorry I can’t ask you to sit down,” he said, so embarrassed that Billie took pity on him. “We don’t want to sit down,” she said, smiling at him. “We’re too nervous. Do you suppose the rain will ever stop?” The man shook out his clothing and sent a shower of spray all about him. He was soaking, drenching wet, and suddenly, looking at him, Billie had a dreadful thought. Suppose the man was not quite right in his mind? She had a horror of crazy people. But what sane man would build himself a cabin in the woods like this in the first place, and then go roaming around in the rain without any protection? A memory of the slow, measured steps they had heard approaching the cabin made her shudder, and instinctively she drew back a little and snuggled her hand into Laura’s. If he was not crazy he was probably a criminal of some sort, and neither thought made Billie feel very comfortable. Three girls alone in the woods with a crazy man or a criminal, with the darkness coming on—— Something of what she was thinking occurred to Laura and Vi also, and they were beginning to look rather pale and scared. As for the man—he hardly seemed to know what to do next. He took off his dripping coat, threw it in a heap in one corner and turned back uncertainly to the girls. “No, I don’t think it will stop raining for some time,” he said, seeming to realize that Billie had asked a question which he had not answered. “And it is getting pretty dark outside. You say you are lost?” “Yes,” said Billie, wishing she had not told the man that part of their troubles; but then, what else could she do? “We were sent into the woods to find rare ferns——” “Ferns!” broke in the man, his deep eyes lighting up with sudden interest. “Ah, I could show you where the rarest and most beautiful ferns in the country grow.” “You could!” they cried, growing interested in their turn and coming closer to him. “Are you—a—naturalist?” asked Vi a little uncertainly, for she knew just enough about naturalists to be sure she was not one. “I guess you might call me that,” said the man. “I’ve had plenty of time to become one.” Again the girls had that strange feeling of mystery surrounding the man. He walked over to the other end of the room and before the girls’ amazed eyes took out what they had thought to be part of the table. It was a very cleverly hidden receptacle, and as the girls looked down into it they saw that it was half filled with curious little fern baskets. “I make them,” the man explained, as they looked up at him, puzzled. “And then I sell them in the town—sometimes.” His mouth tightened bitterly, and he hastily returned the baskets to their hiding place. Then he turned and faced them abruptly. “Where do you come from?” he asked almost sharply. “We come from Three Towers Hall,” answered Billie. “Three Towers!” The man looked very much interested. “Are you—er—teachers there or pupils?” “Teachers! Hardly,” and Billie had to smile. “We are not old enough for that. We are pupils.” “Do you like the place?'” “Very much.” Again there was a pause, and it must be admitted that, for a reason they could not explain, the girls felt far from comfortable. Oh, if only they were back at the boarding school again! “I don’t know a great deal about the school,” said the man slowly. “I suppose there are lots of girls there.” “Over a hundred,” said Laura, thinking she should say something. “And quite a few teachers, too?” “Oh, yes.” Then the man asked quite a lot of other questions and the girls answered him as best they could. The man continued to look at them so queerly that Billie was convinced that there was something wrong with him. But what was it? Oh, if only the storm would let up, so they could start back to the school! But even when the rain stopped, how could they get back? They were lost, and at night the way would be even harder to find than in the daytime. No, they were completely in this man’s power. If he put them on the right path to Three Towers all well and good. If not——But she refused to think of that. “I’m sure it isn’t raining hard any more,” Laura broke in on her thoughts. “Don’t you think we could go now?” 20 21 22 23 “Even if it hasn’t stopped raining we don’t mind,” added Vi eagerly. “We’re wet now, and we won’t mind being a little bit wetter.” For an answer the man opened the door and crawled out into the open. In a moment he was back with what seemed to the girls the best news they had ever heard. “The rain is over,” he said, “but the foliage is still dripping. If you really don’t mind getting wet——” “Oh, we don’t!” they cried, and were starting from the door when Vi suddenly remembered something. “The ferns!” she cried. “Where are they?” The girls searched frantically about, knowing that their botany teacher would reprimand them if they did not bring back the ferns, and finally found them on the floor where somebody had brushed them in the excitement. Then they crept out through the door, their strange acquaintance lingering behind to put out the light, and found themselves in the cool darkness of the forest. “Do you suppose he will really take us back?” Vi whispered, close to Billie’s ear. “He’d better!” said Billie, clenching her hands fiercely against her side. “If he doesn’t I’ll—I’ll—murder him!” “Goodness, don’t talk of murder,” cried Laura hysterically. “It’s an awful word to use in the dark, and everything!” CHAPTER IV AT THE SCHOOL AGAIN “There’s only one word worse,” said a gloomy voice so close behind them that Vi clapped a hand to her mouth to keep from crying out. “And that,” the gloomy voice went on, “is theft!” The girls never afterward knew what kept them from breaking loose and running away. Probably it was because they were paralyzed with fright. While they had thought the man was still in the hut he had come softly up behind them and had overheard the last, at any rate, of what they had said. Billie, as usual, was the first to recover herself. “Will you take us to Three Towers now?” she asked in a voice that she hardly recognized as her own. “Do you know the way?” “Yes,” he answered, adding moodily, as though to himself: “Hugo Billings ought to know the way.” Billie caught at the name quickly, for she had been wondering what this strange person called himself. “Hugo Billings!” she said eagerly. “Is that your name?” The man had started on ahead of them through the dark woods, but now he stopped and looked back and Billie could almost feel his eyes boring into her. “Did I say so?” he asked sharply, then just as quickly turned away and started on again. “Goodness, I guess he must be a crazy criminal,” thought Billie plaintively, as she and her chums followed their leader, stumbling on over rocks and roots that sometimes bruised their ankles painfully. “I suppose there are some people that are both. Anyway, he must be a criminal, or he wouldn’t have been so mad about my knowing his name.” The rest of that strange journey seemed interminable. There were times when the girls were sure the man who called himself Hugo Billings was not taking them toward Three Towers Hall at all. It seemed impossible that they could have wandered such a long way into the woods. Then suddenly their feet struck a hard-beaten path and they almost cried aloud with relief. For they recognized the path and knew that the open road was not far off. Once on the open road, they could find their way alone. Abruptly the man in front stopped and turned to face them. Once more the girls’ hearts misgave them. Was he going to make trouble after all? Why didn’t he go on? And then the man spoke. “I won’t go any farther with you,” he said, and there was something in his manner of speaking that made them see again in imagination the tired slump of his shoulders, the wild, haunted look in his eyes. “I don’t like the road. But you can find it easily from here. Then turn to your right. Three Towers is hardly half a mile up the road. Good night.” He turned with abruptness and started back the way they had come. But impulsively Billie ran to him, calling to him to stop. Yet when he did stop and turned to look at her she had not the slightest idea in the world what she had intended 24 25 26 27 to say—if indeed she had really intended to say anything. “I—I just wanted to thank you,” she stammered, adding, with a swift little feeling of pity for this man who seemed so lonely: “And if there’s anything I can ever do to—to—help you——” “Who told you I needed help?” cried the man, his voice so harsh and threatening that Billie started back, half falling over a root. “Why—why,” faltered Billie, saying almost the first thing that came into her mind. “You looked so—so—sad——” “Sad,” the man repeated bitterly. “Yes, I have enough to make me sad. But help!” he added fiercely. “I don’t need help from you or any one.” And without another word he turned and strode off into the darkness. After that it did not take the girls long to reach the road. They felt, someway, as if they must have dreamed their adventure, it had all been so strange and unreal. And yet they knew they had never been more awake in their lives. “Please don’t talk about it now,” begged Vi when Laura would have discussed it. “Let’s wait till we get in our dorm with lights and everything. I’m just shivering all over.” For once the others were willing to do as the most timid of the trio wished, and they hurried along in silence till they saw, with hearts full of thankfulness, the lights of Three Towers Hall shine out on the road before them. “Look, I see the lights!” “So do I!” “Thank goodness we haven’t much farther to go.” “It’s all of a quarter of a mile, Vi.” “Huh! what’s a quarter of a mile after such a tramp as we have had?” came from Billie. “And after such an experience,” added Laura. “We’ll certainly have some story to tell.” “I want something to eat first.” “Yes, and dry clothes, too.” “What a queer hut and what a queer man!” “I’ve heard of people being lost before,” said Billie, as they ran up the steps that led to the handsomest door in the world, or at least so they thought it at that moment. “But now I know that what they said about it wasn’t half bad enough.” “But not every one finds a hut and a funny man when they get lost,” said Vi. “Well, you needn’t be so conceited about it,” said Laura, pausing with her hand on the door knob. “The girls probably won’t believe us when we tell them.” But Laura was wrong. The girls did really believe the story of Hugo Billings and the hut and became tremendously excited about it. At first they were all for making up an expedition and going to see it—the only drawback being that the chums could not have directed them to it if they would. And they would not have wished to, anyway. They had rather good reason to believe that Hugo Billings would not want a lot of curious girls spying about his quarters, and, being sorry for him and grateful to him for helping them out of their fix, they absolutely refused to have anything to do with the idea. They were greeted with open arms on the night of their return. Miss Walters, the much-beloved head of Three Towers Hall, said that she had been just about to send out a searching party for them. They were late for supper, but that only made their appetites better, and as they were favorites of the cook they were given an extra share of everything and ate ravenously, impatient of the questions flung at them by the curious girls. “Thank goodness the Dill Pickles aren’t here,” Laura said to Billie between mouthfuls of pork chop. “Think of coming home with our appetites to the kind of dinners they used to serve us.” “Laura! what a horrible thought,” cried Billie, her eyes dancing as she helped herself to two more biscuits. “That’s treason.” For the “Dill Pickles” were two elderly spinsters who had been teachers at Three Towers Hall when Billie and her chums had first arrived. Their tartness and strictness and miserliness had made the life of the girls in the school uncomfortable for some time. And then had come the climax. Miss Walters, having been called away for a week or two, Miss Ada Dill and Miss Cora Dill, disrespectfully dubbed by the girls the twin “Dill Pickles,” had things in their own hands and proceeded to make the life of the girls unbearable. They had taken away their liberty, and then had half starved them by cutting down on the meals until finally the girls had rebelled. With Billie in the lead, they had marched out of Three Towers Hall one day, bag and baggage, to stay in a hotel in the 28 29 30 town of Molata until Miss Walters should get back. Miss Walters, coming home unexpectedly, had met the girls in town, accompanied them back to Three Towers and, as one of the girls slangily described it, “had given the Dill Pickles all that was coming to them.” In other words, the Misses Dill had been discharged and the girls had come off victorious. Now there were two new teachers in their place who were as different from the Dill Pickles as night is from day. All the girls loved them, especially a Miss Arbuckle who had succeeded Miss Cora Dill in presiding over the dining hall. So it was to this that Laura had referred when she said, “Thank goodness the Dill Pickles are gone!” After they had eaten all they could possibly contain, the girls retired to their dormitories, where they changed their clothes, still damp from their adventure, for comfortable, warm night gowns, and held court, all the girls gathering in their dormitory to hear of their adventures, for nearly an hour. At the end of that time the bell for “lights-out” rang, and the chums found to their surprise that for once they were not sorry. What with the adventure itself and the number of questions they had answered, they were tired out and longed for the comfort of their beds. “But do you suppose,” said Connie Danvers as she rose to go into her dormitory, which was across the hall, “that the man was really a little out of his head?” “I think he was more than a little,” said Laura decidedly, as she dipped her face into a bowl of cold water. “I think he was just plain crazy.” Connie Danvers was a very good friend of the chums, and one of the most popular girls in Three Towers Hall. Just now she looked a little worried. “Goodness! first we have the Codfish,” she said, “and then you girls go and rake up a crazy man. We’ll be having a menagerie next!” CHAPTER V MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING It was the spring of the year, a time when every normal boy and girl becomes restless for new scenes, new adventures. The girls at Three Towers Hall heard the mysterious call and longed through hot days of study to respond to it. The teachers felt the restlessness in the air and strove to keep the girls to their lessons by making them more interesting. But it was of no use. The girls studied because they had to, not, except in a few scattered cases, because they wanted to. One of the exceptions to the rule was Caroline Brant, a natural student and a serious girl, who had set herself the rather hopeless task of watching over Billie Bradley and keeping her out of scrapes. For Billie, with her love of adventure and excitement, was forever getting into some sort of scrape. But these days it would have taken half a dozen Caroline Brants to have kept Billie in the traces. Billie was as wild as an unbroken colt, and just as impatient of control. And Laura and Vi were almost as bad. There was some excuse for the girls. In the first place, the spring term at Three Towers Hall was drawing to a close, and at the end of the spring term came—freedom. But the thing that set their blood racing was the thought of what was in store for them after they had gained their freedom. Connie Danvers had given the girls an invitation to visit during their vacation her father’s bungalow on Lighthouse Island, a romantic spot off the Maine coast. The prospect had appealed to the girls even in the dead of winter; but now, with the sweet scent of damp earth and flowering shrubs in the air, they had all they could do to wait at all. The chums had written to their parents about spending their vacation on the island, and the latter had consented on one condition. And that condition was that the girls should make a good record for themselves at Three Towers Hall. And it is greatly to be feared that it was only this unreasonable—to the girls—condition that kept them at their studies at all. It was Saturday morning, and Billie, all alone in one of the study halls, was finishing her preparation for Monday’s classes. She always got rid of this task on Saturday morning, so as to have her Saturday afternoon and Sunday free. She had never succeeded in winning Laura and Vi over to her method, so that on their part there was usually a wild scramble to prepare Monday’s lessons on Sunday afternoon. 31 32 33 34 35 As Billie, books in hand and a satisfied feeling in her heart, came out of the study room, she very nearly ran into Miss Arbuckle. Miss Arbuckle seemed in a great hurry about something, and the tip of her nose and her eyes were red as though she had been crying. “Why, what’s the matter?” asked Billie, for Billie was not at all tactful when any one was in trouble. Her impulse was to jump in and help, whether one really wanted her help or not. But everybody that knew Billie forgave her her lack of tact and loved her for the desire to help. So now Miss Arbuckle, after a moment of hesitation, motioned Billie into the study room, and, crossing over to one of the windows, stood looking out, tapping with her fingers on the sill. “I’ve lost something, Billie,” she said, without looking around. “It may not seem much to you or to anybody else. But for me—well, I’d rather have lost my right hand.” She looked around then, and Billie saw fresh moisture in her eyes. “What is it?” she asked gently. “Perhaps I—we can help you find it.” “I wish you could,” said Miss Arbuckle, with a little sigh. “But that would be too good to be true. It was only an old family album, Billie. But there were pictures in it that I prize above everything I own. Oh, well,” she gave a little shrug of her shoulders as if to end the matter. “I’ll get over it. I’ve had to get over worse things. But,” she smiled and patted Billie’s shoulder fondly, “I didn’t mean to burden your young shoulders with my troubles. Just run along and forget all about it.” Billie did run along, but she most certainly did not “forget all about it.” “Funny thing to get so upset about,” she said to herself, as she slowly climbed the steps to her dormitory. “A picture album! I don’t believe I’d ever get my nose and eyes all red over one. Just the same, I’d like to find it and give it back to her. Good Miss Arbuckle! After the Dill Pickles, she seems like an angel.” She was still smiling over the thought of what had happened to the Dill Pickles when she opened the door of the dormitory and came upon her chums. Laura and Vi and a dark-haired, pink-cheeked girl were sitting on one of the beds in one corner of the dormitory, alternately talking and gazing dreamily out of the window to Lake Molata, where it gleamed and shimmered in the morning sunlight at the end of a sloping lawn. The dark-haired, pink-cheeked girl was Rose Belser. Rose Belser, being jealous of Billie’s immense popularity at Three Towers Hall the term before, had done her best to get the new girl into trouble, only to be won over to Billie’s side in the end. Now she was as firm a friend of Billie’s as any girl in Three Towers Hall. “Well!” was Laura’s greeting as Billie sauntered toward them. “Methinks ’tis time you arrived, sweet damsel. Goodness!” she added, dropping her lazy tone and sitting up with a bounce, “I don’t see why you have to go and spoil the whole morning with your beastly old studying. Think of the fun we could have had.” “Well, but think of the fun we’re going to have this afternoon,” Billie flung back airily, stopping before the mirror to tuck some wisps of hair into place, while the girls, even Rose, who was as pretty as a picture herself, watched her admiringly. “It’s almost lunch time.” “You don’t have to tell us that,” said Vi in an aggrieved tone. “Haven’t we been waiting for you all morning?” “Oh, come on,” said Billie, as the lunch gong sounded invitingly through the hall. “Maybe when you’ve had something to eat you’ll feel better. Feed the beast——” “Say, she’s calling us names again,” cried Laura, making a dive for Billie. But Billie was already flying down the steps two at a time, and when Billie once got a head start, no one, at least no one in Three Towers Hall, had a chance of catching up with her. It seemed to be Billie’s day for bumping into people—for at the foot of the stairs she had to clutch the banister to keep from colliding with Miss Walters, the beautiful and much loved head of the school. At Billie’s sudden appearance the latter seemed inclined to be alarmed, then her eyes twinkled, and as she looked at Billie she chuckled, yes, actually chuckled. “Beatrice Bradley,” she said, with a shake of her head as she passed on, “I’ve done my best with you, but it’s of no use. You’re utterly incorrigible.” Billie looked thoughtful as she seated herself at the table, and a moment later, under cover of the general conversation, she leaned over and whispered to Laura. “Miss Walters said something funny to me,” she confided. “I’m not quite sure yet whether she was calling me names or not.” “What did she say?” asked Laura, looking interested. “She said I was incorrigible,” Billie whispered back. “Incorrigible,” there was a frown on Laura’s forehead, then it suddenly cleared and she smiled beamingly. “Why yes, don’t you remember?” she said. “We had it in English class the other day. Incorrigible means wicked, you 36 37 38 39 know—bad. You can’t reform ’em, you know—incorrigibles.” The last word was mumbled through a mouthful of soup. “Can’t reform ’em!” Billie repeated in dismay. “Goodness, do you suppose that’s what she really thinks of me?” “I don’t see why she shouldn’t,” Laura said wickedly, and Billie would surely have thrown something at her if Miss Arbuckle’s eye had not happened at that moment to turn in her direction. Miss Arbuckle’s eye brought to Billie’s mind the teacher’s trouble, and she confided it in a low tone to Laura. “Humph,” commented Laura, her mind only on the fun they were going to have that afternoon, “I’m sorry, of course, but I don’t believe any old album would make me shed tears.” “Don’t be so sure of that, Laura.” “What? Cry over an old album?” and Laura looked her astonishment. “But suppose the album had in it the pictures of those you loved very dearly—pictures perhaps of those that were dead and gone and pictures that you couldn’t replace?” “Oh, well—I suppose that would be different. Did she say anything about the people?” “She didn’t go into details, but she said they were pictures she prized above anything.” “Oh, perhaps then that would make a difference.” “I hope she gets the album back,” said Billie seriously. Then Laura promptly forgot all about both Miss Arbuckle and the album. A little while later the girls swung joyfully out upon the road, bound for town and shopping and perhaps some ice cream and—oh, just a jolly good time of the kind girls know so well how to have, especially in the spring of the year. CHAPTER VI FOUND—ONE ALBUM “I’m sorry Connie couldn’t come along,” said Laura, drinking in deep breaths of the fragrant air. “Yes,” said Billie, her eyes twinkling. “She said she wished she hadn’t been born with a conscience.” “A conscience,” said Vi innocently. “Why?” “Because,” said Billie, her cheeks aglow with the heat and exercise, her brown hair clinging in little damp ringlets to her forehead, and her eyes bright with health and the love of life, “then she could have had a good time to-day instead of staying at home in a stuffy room and writing a cartload of letters. She says if she doesn’t write them, she’ll never dare face her friends when she gets home.” “She’s a darling,” said Laura, executing a little skip in the road that sent the dust flying all about them. “Just think—if we hadn’t met her we wouldn’t be looking forward to Lighthouse Island and a dear old uncle who owns the light ——” “Anybody would think he was your uncle,” said Vi. “Well, he might just as well be,” Laura retorted. “Connie says that he adopts all the boys and girls about the place.” “And that they adopt him,” Billie added, with a nod. “He must be a darling. I’m just crazy to see him.” Connie Danver’s Uncle Tom attended the lighthouse, and, living there all the year around, had become as much of a fixture as the island itself. Connie loved this uncle of hers, and had told the girls enough about him to rouse their curiosity and make them very eager to meet him. The girls walked on in silence for a little way and then, as they came to a path that led into the woods, Laura stopped suddenly and said in a dramatic voice: “Do you realize where we are, my friends? Do you, by any chance, remember a tall, thin, wild-eyed man?” Did they remember? In a flash they were back again in a queer little hut in the woods, where a tall man stood and stared at them with strange eyes. Laura and Vi started to go on, but Billie stood staring at the path with fascinated eyes. “I wonder why,” she said, as she turned slowly away in response to the urging of the girls, “nothing ever seems the same in the sunlight. The other night when we were running along that path we were scared to death, and now——” 40 41 42 “You sound as if you’d like to stay scared to death,” said Laura impatiently, for Laura had not Billie’s imagination. “I guess I don’t like to be scared any more than any one else,” Billie retorted. “But I would like to see that man again. I wonder——” she paused and Vi prompted her. “Wonder what?” she asked. “Why,” said Billie, a thoughtful little crease on her forehead, “I was just wondering if we could find the little hut again if we tried.” “Of course we couldn’t!” Laura was very decided about it. “We were lost, weren’t we? And when the man showed us the way back it was dark——” “The only way I can see,” said Vi, who often had rather funny ideas, “would be to have one of us stand in the road and hold on to strings tied to the other two so that if they got lost——” “The one in the road could haul ’em back,” said Laura sarcastically. “That’s a wonderful idea, Vi.” “Well, I...