The Orchard Secret Part 21

"What is it?" questioned several.

"Do we unmask now?" others wanted to know. They thought it a signal.

"I've never heard a bell ring like that since I've been here at Cedar Ridge," said a demure little soph.o.m.ore in a low voice.

"It hasn't rung--in a long time," said one girl in a low voice.

"But what is it?" Arden demanded.

"Why does it ring now?" Terry wanted to know.

"Come on!" called the impulsive Toots Everett. "There's something wrong somewhere."

"That old outside fire-alarm bell hasn't been tolled since we had the modern telephone system installed," said one of the teachers who was overtaken in the hall by a rush of students from the gymnasium. The dance was momentarily forgotten.

"Oh, a fire!" gasped Terry.

"Let's hurry out!" proposed Sim.

They were all hurrying.

CHAPTER XVI Arden's Adventure

The moon looked down upon a strange party of girls a moment later, for they had all rushed out of the gymnasium after the ringing of the alarm bell. Blackened faces and slicked-back hair, some in tattered garments and others in borrowed finery, soph.o.m.ores and freshmen crowded forward to that side of the building where hung the bell.

But when they reached the spot nothing was to be seen. The bell rope was still swaying as though recently tugged at, but the hands that had done it were not in evidence. The bell itself still faintly vibrated from the recent violent clanging.

"Well, at least here's something they can't blame us for," said Sim to the curious Arden and Terry. "We have perfect alibis and dozens of witnesses. This time somebody else can be campused."

"Of course, Sim," Terry agreed. "But the point is--who did it? It's rather a childish thing to do--going about pulling bells and then running away. It doesn't frighten anyone in the least, if that's what it was intended for."

"It was silly, that's true, Terry; but listen to this." Arden motioned for her two chums to come closer to her. "Come over here where the others won't hear. We don't want to have Tiddy blaming us for any more alarming stories."

"Arden! You have something to tell us, I know!" Terry was pulling Sim away from a group of chattering girls. "Come over here, Sim. Arden knows something!"

The three from 513 separated from the main crowd of disguised girls, and Arden began.

"I was dancing with Jane Randall when something made me look up at one of the high gym windows, and there I saw a strange, white face staring in at me."

"Arden--you didn't!" gasped Sim quickly. "Do you mean directly at you the face was staring?"

"It seemed so."

"Do you think that was the person who rang the bell?"

"That, my dear Watson, is just the point. It was such a short time after I saw the face that the bell rang, it couldn't have been done by the person who looked in at me through the window."

"How thrilling! For Pete's sake, don't let anyone know what you saw, Arden. If you do we'll be in more trouble!" Terry said.

"She's right," Sim agreed. "We'll keep it under our hats until we find out something more. The others are going back in, now. We'd better go in."

The soph.o.m.ores and freshmen, so rudely disturbed at their reconciliation party, having investigated as best they could in the uncertain moonlight, and having discovered nothing more than that the evidence of the swaying rope indicated the bell had rung (which evidence their ears already testified to), were returning to the gymnasium.

But before they went in, though just how it started no one appeared to know, they were all doing a sort of snake dance in the silvery sheen of the moonlight.

Twisting and turning, the line of masquerading girls in fantastic figures circled beneath the old alarm bell that hung on a projecting beam out from the side of the building. It thus projected to allow the sound of its alarm to vibrate freely in all directions. Above their heads and out of reach of the hands of the tallest of the girls, dangled the weathered rope attached to the bell.

"It must have been a very tall person who could reach that rope!" panted Terry as she circled with Sim.

"A veritable giant," was the answer. "None of the girls could have done it."

"No. That's what I thought."

"What are you talking about?" demanded Terry, who had been caught in the human maelstrom by some strange girl and whirled about.

"We don't quite know," said Arden.

Screaming and laughing, the soph.o.m.ores in the lead took the freshmen running across the campus and stopped in front of the dormitory.

"Good-night, freshies!" cried Toots and some of the leaders. "And happy dreams!"

"That means the end of hazing," said Arden. "It's always done this way."

"Thank goodness for that!" murmured Terry.

The party was over. Then the girls, soph.o.m.ores and freshmen, formed a friendly circle and sang "Autumn Leaves," the alma mater song. The girls'

voices carried softly through the moonlit night and even the most unromantic was impressed with the beauty of the words and melody.

Then, bidding one another good-night, the happy students hurried to their respective rooms, talking excitedly. And the dean and her helpers settled more comfortably in their beds, knowing that for another term this affair was successfully over.

The door of 513 shut on Arden, Sim, and Terry. For a moment they stood looking at one another, and then, as if by agreement, they began to laugh; hysterical laughs but none the less hearty.

"Oh, you do look such a sight, Sim!" Terry gasped.

"Why bring that up?" Sim chuckled.

"But we had a lovely time," Arden said. "Even if there was a mysterious bell ringing and a face----"

"Tell us more about that," begged Sim.

"I've told you all I know. I saw a face--an old man's, I'm sure, staring in at me from the window. Then the bell rang."

"But why?" demanded Terry.