Marjorie Dean, College Sophomore Part 22

"You are a great success, Jeremiah." Ronny continued to laugh as Jerry performed an infantile solo with a white celluloid rattle. "Where is Marjorie? I asked you once but you didn't answer."

"Read that. Marjorie said I was to show it to the Lookouts." Jerry picked up the letter from the chiffonier and handed it to Ronny.

"How unfortunate!" was Ronny's exclamation as she hastily read the note.

"When did she leave here? I am glad she put on her costume before she went. She can go straight to the gym, provided she isn't detained over there."

"She left here at five minutes past seven," Jerry answered. "I felt cross about it, too. It seems as though Marjorie is always picked-out to do something for someone just about the time she has planned to have a good time herself."

"What do you suppose has happened to Miss Towne? She was your freshie catch. It's a wonder she didn't ask you to go to her instead of Marjorie."

"Well, she didn't. I have tried to behave like a father to her but she doesn't seem to notice it," Jerry returned humorously. "You see they all gravitate straight to Marjorie. There's something about her that inspires confidence in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of timid freshies."

"She is the dearest girl on earth." Ronny spoke with sudden tenderness.

"Are you going out on the campus to parade? I am not particularly anxious to go."

"Then we won't go, for I don't care about it, either." A double rapping on the door sent Jerry scurrying to it. Katherine and Lucy walked in, arms twined about each other's waists. They were a pretty pair of school girls in their short bright gingham dresses, ruffled white ap.r.o.ns and white stockings and tennis shoes. Hair in two braids, broad-brimmed flower-wreathed hats and school knapsacks swinging from the shoulder completed their simple but effective costumes.

They came in for a lively share of approbation from Jerry and Ronny, of whom they were equally admiring in turn. Inquiring for Marjorie, they were shown the note and Jerry again went over the information she had given Ronny.

"That note doesn't sound a bit like Anna Towne," Lucy said in her close-lipped manner as she laid it down. "I know her quite well, for she takes biology and has come to me several times for help. She is awfully proud and tries never to put one to any trouble."

"This may be something that has come upon her so suddenly she hasn't known what to do except to send for Marjorie," hazarded Katherine. "I agree with you, Lucy. It does not sound like her."

Another series of knocks at the door broke in upon the conversation.

"Wonder if that's Muriel." Jerry turned to the door. "She may have changed her mind about not letting us know what she was going to mask as."

The door opened. Jerry gave an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of undiluted surprise. The girl who stood on the threshold was Anna Towne.

"Come in, Miss Towne." Jerry stepped aside for her unexpected caller to enter. "Have you seen Marjorie?"

"Why, no. I haven't seen anyone except the maid who answered the door. I came over to see if I could go to the masquerade with you girls. Phyllis and a crowd of Silvertons went out to parade. I didn't care about it, so I thought I would come over here."

"Wha-a-t!" Jerry was almost shouting. Ronny, Katherine and Lucy were the picture of blank amazement.

"What's the matter?" Anna Towne flushed deeply. She did not understand the meaning of Jerry's loud exclamation. Perhaps she had presumed in thus breaking in upon the chums.

"Matter! I don't know what's the matter, but I am going to find out.

Read this note. You didn't write that, now did you?" Jerry thrust the note into Anna's hands.

The room grew very still as she fastened her attention upon the communication, supposedly from herself.

"Of course I never wrote it." Anna looked up wonderingly. Almost instantly her expression changed to one of alarm. "There is no one living at 852 on our street," she a.s.serted. "My landlady has not moved.

I still live at 856. I haven't had any trouble. I came here dressed for the masquerade. I'm wearing a Kate Greenaway costume. See. She took the silk scarf from her head disclosing a Kate Greenaway cap.

"No one living there!" came in a breath of horror from Ronny. It was echoed by the other three Lookouts. "Then _who_ wrote that note and _what_ has happened to Marjorie?"

"I am going to find out pretty suddenly." Jerry sprang to her dress closet for her fur coat and overshoes. "Go and get ready to go over to that house, girls. One, two, three, four--We are five strong. Get your wraps and meet me downstairs. I am going to see if I can't find Leila and Vera. You had better wait for me here, Miss Towne. I'll be back directly."

Ten minutes later a bevy of white-faced girls met in the lower hall.

Leila and Vera were among them. Jerry had met them just in the act of leaving for the gymnasium.

"I'd go for my car but if would take longer to get it than for us to walk. We must make all haste. Now I have an idea of my own about this. I am not far off the truth when I say the Sans are to blame for the whole thing. I would rather think it was they than that the note had been written by some unknown person." Leila's blue eyes were dark with emotion. "And that beloved child trotted blindly off by herself never dreaming that the note was a forgery. Well, I might have done the same."

"I think you are right, Leila. The Sans have planned some kind of seance at that empty house to scare Marjorie. Probably they have dressed up in some hideous fashion. They could easily get away with it on account of the masquerade. The sooner we get there the better. We may be able to catch them, unless they have got hold of her and hustled her off somewhere else." Ronny's voice was not quite steady on the last words.

The seven worried rescuers were now crossing the campus and making for the campus entrance nearest the direction of Miss Towne's boarding house. They were swinging along at a pace that would have done credit to an army detachment on a hike.

"She wouldn't stand for that. She would fight every inch of the ground before she would go a step with that gang." Jerry spoke with a confidence born of her knowledge of Marjorie.

"They might be too many for her," reminded Leila. "What's to prevent them from throwing a shawl or something over her head so that she would be more or less helpless? I would not put it past Leslie Cairns."

"They wouldn't dare be rough with her or hurt her, would they?"

questioned Anna Towne.

"No; but this empty house proposition is about as bad as I would care to tackle. They certainly have nerve." Jerry's plump features had lost their infantile expression. Here face was set in lines of belligerence.

She was ready to pitch into the Sans the minute she caught sight of them.

"This is the street. We are not far from the house now," informed Anna, as the seven turned into the humble neighborhood in which her boarding house was located.

"Look!" Jerry, who was leading with Ronny, stopped and pointed. "There is a _light_ in that house. Let's stop a minute and decide what to do."

"We had better go around to the rear of the house and see if we can't get in by the back door," suggested Vera. "After all, we are only seven in number, and we don't know what awaits us. We are fairly sure that she is in the clutches of the Sans. Even so, they are sure to have the front door locked. They are stupid enough to forget all about the back door.

They are not expecting any interference."

"You girls go around to the back. I am going up on the veranda. I shall try the front door. If it is unlocked I will let you know. I'd rather walk in on them that way, if we can. Now for some scouting. Don't make a sound if you can help it, girls. We want to take them by surprise."

Separating from her companions, who stole noiselessly to the shadowy rear of the house, Jerry cautiously invaded the front porch. The shade which had been raised a little when Marjorie had come to the house was now drawn. Still she could see that the room on the right was lighted.

With the stealth of a burglar she tried the door. It was locked. She listened at it, then stood up with a triumphant smile. From within she could hear the sound of voices.

As softly as she had stolen up on the porch, she now withdrew. Her feet on the ground, she ran like a deer for the rear of the house. There she beheld dimly a group of figures drawn into a compact bunch near the back steps.

"Front door's locked. How about the back one?" she breathed.

"It's unlocked. Ronny just tried it," Leila whispered. "She says she can open it and go inside without making a sound."

"Of course. She's a great dancer, you know, and light as a feather in stepping. Oh, fudge! You don't know. At least you didn't until I told you. I have given away Ronny's secret. She made us promise not to tell it right after the beauty contest. I don't care. I am glad you know it.

I have always wished you and Helen and Vera could see her dance. She is a marvel."

At this juncture Ronny joined them. In the darkness she did not see Leila's Cheshire cat grin, born of Jerry's unintentional betrayal. Leila had often remarked to Marjorie, who had told her of Ronny's concealment of her real ident.i.ty at Sanford High School, that Veronica was a good deal of a mystery still.

"That you, Jeremiah?" was Ronny's whispered inquiry. "I am going to slip in the back way and find out what is going on. Was the front door locked?"

"Yes; but I could hear voices from where I stood on the veranda. I couldn't sort 'em out so as to know who was who."

"I'll soon find out whose they are." Ronny shut her lips in sharp determination. "Now for the great venture." Immediately she glided away, and mounted the steps with the noiseless tread of an apparition. The tense watchers heard no sound as she opened the door and stepped inside.