Jane Allen, Junior Part 11

Instinctively the two chums turned from the broad stone steps into the left path that ran away from a brilliant arc light into Elm Shadows. Silently both girls exchanged confidences, for Jane's arm around Judith's waist was comprehensive, and each little hug told a story of its own.

"Dear heart!" breathed Judith. "I would just have died if you hadn't rescued me when you did. And I know the others--ran away."

"Judy, love," returned Jane, "they didn't know where you were, really. And those country officers have threatened us before, you know. I suppose they are a little bit jealous that we girls and not their boys, are scattered over the landscape with yells and other appropriate noises. Sit down" (they had reached a birch bench), "I must tell you about Lenox Hall."

"I know about the noises and I do believe they are really uncanny,"

said Judith, "but what can we do away over at this end of the campus?"

"Go over to the other end, of course," said straightforward Jane, "and I have promised to lay those ghosts tonight."

"Tonight!" sighed Judith, dropping her head on Jane's shoulder.

"Not you, of course. You shan't come," protested Jane. "I only wanted to plan things with you. A warm bed and a nice cup of malted milk will be about all for you this night, Judy dear." The head, as black as Judith's own in the shadows, tried to fold itself on a cheek if no closer, but the attempt scarcely felt comfortable, and Jane just blew a kiss into Judith's ear, then straightened up again.

"As if I would miss that!" murmured Judith. "I am dog-tired, d.i.n.ksy, but ghosts! Oh, boy! Lead me to 'em!" and the courage of youth defied that day's record for Judith Stearns.

"We must hurry; see the lights in the girls' rooms, and you know they are bound to slight work tonight. This is what I suppose we will have to do. A few of us--you, if you insist, Dozia and Winifred, and I will somehow get out after Miss Fairlie has made the rounds. I don't know how we'll do it, but we have got to try. Then over at Lenox we may hide in the shrubbery and wait for the ghosts.

I am perfectly sure they will come along the path from the gate keeper's cottage. Either they are inside or permitted to enter, and it isn't likely that ordinary spooks come through such walls as ours."

"All right. I'll be there if I don't fall asleep over my trig. But I do think being arrested is awfully wearying--I could dream here in spite of the howling winds. Jane Allen, do you realize this is a cold, bleak, dreary night, and you are tempting ghosts to parade in- -bathing suits or nighties?"

"It is cold; take an end of my scarf and hurry in. May a kind thought prompt us how to elude the wary Fairlie. Take care you don't seem sociable when she taps. It would be fatal if she should enter for a 'cozy little chat.' She has done it, you know."

"Do I know it? Do you think I shall ever forget the cozy little chat she dropped in for, when my alcohol lamp thrust under the couch threatened to burn down the place? I have never been friendly with the inspector since."

Judith ceased speaking suddenly and Jane clutched her arm as voices were heard somewhere. Yes--two girls were leaving Headley Hall and now came close enough to Jane and Judith to send even their subdued voices ahead in the darkness.

"You're a baby," one said. "And you nearly spoiled it all this afternoon."

"I never thought it would be this way. I'm so sorry I--" said the second voice.

"Goodness sake, stop whimperin'. Aren't you satisfied? Hush, there's someone on the bench."

"Shirley and Sarah," whispered Jane in Judith's ear.

But the two figures on the path had turned, and were now lost in the darkness along the lonely hedged-in walk.

"Imagine!" said Judith indignantly. "Those two little freshmen away over here instead of being at their books!"

"And did you notice Shirley was blaming little Sarah for whimpering?

I tell you, Judith, there is something queer about that Shirley. She has money yet she came in on a scholarship. Then, there was the registered package of jewelry that brought disaster upon you and the messenger boy, Tim. He said it was addressed to Sarah. She surely shows a woeful lack of luxury, yet someone was sending her jewelry."

"And Dol Vin was receiving their mail, including the box," Judith summed up.

"I am sure it was Sarah I heard sobbing in that back room," insisted Jane.

"There are the girls looking for us. We will have to plead headaches and need of fresh air, for you know I promised them the real story of my incarceration," sighed Judith, following Jane's lead toward the group of searchers who came down the path calling and whistling for Jane and Judith.

"Do tell it to them, they have been so splendid," pleaded Jane.

"Besides, we have a night's work before us if we can escape on the ghost hunt, and a good yarn will do a lot to settle all our nerves.

Remember, you are not to come unless you simply can't stay in bed, and if you remain in our building you may be able to allay suspicion when Fairlie comes snooping. 'Lo girls!" to the whistlers. "Here we are! Judy needed the air."

With an all star cast and such headliners as were scheduled for Jane and her const.i.tuents on that particular night, it was not easy to antic.i.p.ate the outcome. If the ghosts would only do their part and appear on time!

CHAPTER XI

A TWICE TOLD TALE

Judith tried to beg off on her story of the great adventure, but the girls were insistent. "Just tell us what happened when you got inside the Beauty Shop," begged Velma, who had secret dreams of C.

O. D. dimples and longed to hear of such possibilities.

"It was like a screen comedy," replied Judith, who had been beautifully pillowed up and otherwise made comfortable on Janet's solo-couch. The audience was scattered around on cushions, on the floor, on chairs, and even on the one narrow window sill. Queening it from her pillows Judith looked quite Romanesque, with Jane perched on a cretonne pedestal above the divan's level, waving her riding crop regally. The pedestal really was a specially favored trunk of Jane's which had escaped storage quarters and served many useful and practical purposes, the present being one in point.

"You were saying," Jane reminded Judith, placing a firm hand on the heaving breast solemnly, "that the rush in was like a movie scene."

"I said comedy, dear; there's a difference. First, Dol opened the pigeon holed door, then Sarah Howland tumbled in howling--she was honestly very much frightened, next went Shirley Duncan. She seemed wild to get under cover. Then I tripped along--"

"Not scared or anything?" from Nettie.

"Not a bit scared but mad as fury," declared Judith, "for there was old Sour Sandy at my heels taking such long and such big steps I felt every next foot would crush me into the brand new door mat."

"Poor Judy," soothed Jane. "And no one to say thee nay!"

"Say me nix," moaned Judith. "I would have had thee say other things than that. But to the tale. Have you ever seen a mouse run from a cat and a dog after the cat and a boy after the dog? You know that famous picture, I see. Well, when the messenger boy got away somewhere about Dol's establishment, and Sarah went next, then went Shirley and, Little Me, followed by that giant Sour Sandy! Well, girls, I have to admit that for a few minutes I couldn't see a thing but Dol Vin's eyes. She had me hypnotized," and Judith paused to make sure of the dramatic impression.

"I can see her glare!" declared Jane. "Dol's eyes were made for n.o.bler tasks than matching hair shades."

"And mixing flesh tints," contributed Dozia, who just then managed to purloin a sample of the fudge.

"Are you girls sure that keyhole is sealed and the door still impregnable?" demanded Judith the narrator, with a sweeping glance about the room.

Winifred Ayres dropped to the door sill and spread herself across it while Dozia moved her chair to the jam in order to plank her shoulders over the keyhole.

"Air tight," announced Jane, "and every girl here is pledged, Judy.

You may proceed with absolute safety."

"The responsibility is yours, Jane, for we had an awful time for a brief interval under the doughty Dol's roof. Things flew--"

"Hair brushes and sponges?" prompted Janet, eager for sensation.

"Can't say as to the missiles," replied Judith, showing signs of relaxing into indifference, "but the way that black head yelled, and Sarah sobbed, and Shirley--I guess she shouted. I know her noise was next loudest to Sour Sandy's and that was some racket!"

"But what was it all about?" demanded Janet.