A Dixie School Girl Part 18

Sally soon found Mrs. Bonnell and together they hurried up stairs. But Mrs. Bonnell was no more successful in getting a response to her calls than the girls had been.

"Sally, can you climb?" she asked.

"Yes, Mrs. Bonnell," answered Sally wholly bewildered.

"Then crawl through your window and along the roof to Beverly's. I'm not going to stir up a fuss unless I am compelled to. Look in and tell me what you see. Be careful, dear," she ended as Sally scuttled over the window sill. They leaned out to watch her. She gave a little cry when she discovered that the room was empty.

"What is it?" they asked in a breath.

"She--she isn't there at all," gasped Sally.

"Not there! Raise the window and go in and unfasten the door, Sally. Be quick for the breakfast bell will ring in a few minutes."

Sally did as bidden. The room was as undisturbed as it had been twelve hours before.

Aileen ran to the closet. "Her riding things are gone!" she cried.

"And Wesley just told me that Apache had been stolen in the night,"

wailed Sally.

"There is more to this than we thought," said Mrs. Bonnell considerably perturbed. "Now I _must_ report to Miss Woodhull."

She turned and hurried from the room but had not gone ten steps down the corridor when she met that lady with wrath and fire in her eye.

"What is this fresh annoyance concerning Beverly Ashby? Jefferson has just told me that her horse was stolen in the night. A likely story! It is some new deception upon her part. Such duplicity it has never been my misfortune to encounter. I wish to speak to her at once," stormed the princ.i.p.al, striding into the study.

Now to be responsible for a young girl not yet sixteen years of age, and one whose family is widely known throughout the entire state, and to discover that said young lady has been missing from beneath one's roof all night, is, to say the least, disconcerting. For the first time in her domineering life the Empress was thoroughly alarmed. Alarmed for Beverly's safety, the reputation of the school, and, last, but by no means least, for what such a denouement might bring to pa.s.s in the future financial outlook for her business. The school had paid well, but how long would its patronage continue if the facts of this case became widely known?

Miss Woodhull was an alien in the land of her adoption. She had never tried to be anything else. She had established herself at Leslie Manor because she wished to acquire health and wealth, and she had achieved her objects to a wonderful degree. But she had made no friends. She did not wish to make friends among the Southerners. She despised them and all their customs, and though in the beginning they had made many gracious overtures of friendship she had repulsed them at every turn. Consequently they soon began to regard her with indifference if not with contempt.

There was absolutely nothing in common between them. She was merely a business proposition in their midst. Their children could acquire beneath her roof the education they desired for them, and there it ended. If, as rumor stated, she really came of gentle Northern blood it must have received a very peculiar infusion in her immediate forebears. They missed something of the n.o.blesse oblige which was to them as a matter of course.

So with each pa.s.sing year the gulf had imperceptibly widened until Miss Woodhull was as much alone in hospitable Virginia as though she lived in Borneo.

Upon realizing that Beverly was really missing her first impulse was to phone to Kilton Hall, for, of course, she had risen early and rushed off to see Athol. Miss Woodhull's blood boiled at the thought! Kilton Hall of all places the one she detested most. It had been a thorn in her flesh from the moment she knew of its existence for its policy was diametrically opposed to her own. Still, inquiries must be made without further delay, but she would be discreet. So she called the school up by phone:

"Had they seen anything of a stray horse? One of her pupil's horses had escaped during the night and she was phoning in every direction in her endeavors to find it. It was Miss Ashby's horse and he might have made his way as far as the hall."

"No, there was no stray animal there, but Dr. Kilton would have a thorough search made in their neighborhood."

But Dr. Kilton was a far cry from being a fool. Why should Miss Woodhull think a runaway horse had run all that distance? And if he _had_ Dr.

Kilton was fully convinced that he had not run riderless. He had not forgotten that October runaway. Moreover, he had detected a repressed excitement in the voice over that phone. He very quietly conferred with Mrs. Kilton and that lady was quite as quick-witted as her spouse. They decided to maintain a discreet silence, but to make some quiet inquiries.

A few hours later Smedes, the Doctor's body servant, was sent upon an errand to the little village nearest Leslie Manor, and Smedes knew every servant at that school. When he returned Dr. and Mrs. Kilton became considerably wiser regarding the true facts of the case, but decided to say nothing to Beverly's brother for the present. But they kept in constant communication with Leslie Manor, via Smedes and Jefferson.

Far and wide did Leslie Manor send messages and messengers. No horse was to be found. In the school chaos reigned, and the usual Sunday decorum and peace went by the board completely. Some of the girls were rebellious, some hysterical, some scolded and some wept silently, and to a unit they all blamed Miss Woodhull for the situation. Mrs. Bonnell and several of the teachers were wholly indignant that she had not instantly communicated with Beverly's family, as was obviously her duty. Mrs. Bonnell openly urged it. Miss Woodhull pooh-poohed the idea. "Beverly would come back when she recovered from her fit of sulks, and would be properly punished for her conduct by expulsion. She had already transgressed to a degree to warrant it, and had been warned the evening before to that effect. ("Ah,"

breathed Mrs. Bonnell at this admission). Communicate with Beverly's people? Absurd! Why magnify such a trivial matter? Girls had made believe to run away from the school before, and would doubtless do so again. They invariably ran back again and Beverly would do likewise when she got ready. She was probably with some friend in the neighborhood. She was in the habit of forming friendships with all sorts and conditions of people.

That her horse was also gone might be a mere coincidence, or else she was trying to frighten them all, and would come riding back by sundown. She was capable of almost any insubordination, and rising at dawn and riding off somewhere was merely a fresh demonstration of it."

That Miss Woodhull was merely "whistling to keep her courage up" all well knew.

But sunset failed to bring the runaway, and Kilton Hall knew of this fact right speedily. Then Athol was called to the Doctor's study and the facts told him. The boy was thunderstruck, and blurted out:

"It's that old harridan!" then blushed crimson. Dr. and Mrs. Kilton did not reprove the outbreak, but pardoned it upon the ground of excitement.

"You would better call up your uncle at once, Athol. I do not wish to interfere, or criticise, but I know what I should wish if it were my daughter," said Mrs. Kilton.

"Thank you ever so much, Mrs. Kilton, I'll do it right off," and he hurried into the little room at the end of the hall where the phone stood, Mrs. Kilton following, while the Doctor wondered what the next move must be. A moment later he joined them. Athol soon had Woodbine on the wire and then ensued a funny, one-sided conversation.

"Oh, Uncle Athol, is that you?"

"Say, have you,--that is,--has Bev sent any message to you today? What!

She's there, in bed? Great Scott! When did she come?"

"Three-thirty this morning on Apache? And all in? Gee! But she's all right now? You have just been hearing the whole story from her? She did those thirty-five miles in three hours? Jimminy Christmas! Say, she's a pippin! Bully girl! I knew that pie-face over at her school would queer the whole show. Say, Uncle Ath, I'd just like to put one over on her for fair. What did she do to Bev, anyhow?"

"She never! What, told her she _lied_!" Athol very nearly kicked over the little phone stand.

"And Bev wouldn't stand for it and lit out? Snappy work! I say, Uncle Ath, let me come home, please, and hear all about it. I'll blow up if you don't say yes, honest, I shall. The Doctor won't let me? You bet he will.

He and Mrs. Kilton are right here beside me and almost dancing up and down. They're peaches."

"Oh, I beg your pardon!" he jerked over his shoulder. "But they are all right. They've been almost worried to death. They heard of it early this morning and wanted to get word to you right off, but didn't dare b.u.t.t in, you see....

"Yes, they have just said I may come and I'll be down on the first train in the morning. I mustn't say a word to _Arch_. Oh, Uncle Ath! Well, I won't if you say not but I reckon I'll burst if I don't tell him. You don't want the old maid to get wise that Bev's at Woodbine? Going to give her a little dose of discipline? Oh, I say, Uncle Ath, give her all that's coming to her. She rates it all right, all right. She's made things just too darned hot for Bev, and a whole bunch of the girls up there. Everybody hates her."

"Eh?" as Mrs. Kilton's hand was laid warningly upon his shoulder. Dr.

Kilton had turned hastily away. He could not trust his countenance, nor did he wish to hear too much. The boy which had never died in him was rebelling in sympathy with Athol.

A few more sentences and Athol hung up the receiver, and sought the Doctor. He was boiling with rage.

"Brace up, old chap. It's nothing serious, you may be sure of that, or your uncle would have sent for you at once. And, remember, mum's the word."

"Yes, sir. I'll remember, sir. And thank you a whole lot, sir, for letting me phone. I'll hold my jaw--I mean I won't say a single word."

"A pretty state of things, I'll be bound," stormed Dr. Kilton when Athol had gone. "Why that woman----" he did not complete his sentence.

"I wish she would sell out and go to live in Jericho, or some other remote place!" cried Mrs. Kilton, petulantly. Then added eagerly: "Oh Avary, perhaps she will--after all this. It will stir the whole countryside."

CHAPTER XIX

FOR HAPPIER DAYS