Billie Bradley and the School Mystery; Or, The Girl From Oklahoma

by Janet D. Wheeler

  CHAPTER II

  A DESPERATE FIX

  Laura and Vi dashed through the field of goldenrod to the spot wherethey had last seen Billie Bradley. They called to her and received afaint answer from somewhere far below.

  “She’s gone over the cliff!” gasped Vi.

  “There are rocks down there, too,” muttered Laura. She parted thebushes and peered below. “Billie, Billie! Where are you?”

  A voice responded gallantly, battling with fear:

  “I’m down here. My dress is caught on something. I daren’t move,for fear it will tear. If you could reach me a stick or a rope, orsomething----”

  “Sounds easy!” Laura sprang to her feet and looked wildly about her.“But where are we going to find the stick or the rope long enough toreach--Vi, what have you got?”

  Vi had dashed through the field of goldenrod to a wooded patch in thebackground. Now she returned, bearing a long, forked stick.

  “Looks like an uprooted tree,” gasped Laura hysterically.

  “So it is, I guess. If it’s only long enough to reach Billie!”

  The two girls flung themselves face downward on the edge of the cliff.They were almost afraid to part the bushes and look below for fearBillie had already disappeared.

  She was still there, clinging desperately to the rocky, moss-coveredface of the cliff. One hand clutched a runner of tough vine, the otherclawed helplessly at loose dirt. Her feet could find no hold whatever,but dangled, impotent and useless, over the glazed surface of a huge,flat rock.

  The thing that had saved her from being dashed upon the pointed rocksat the foot of the cliff was the clump of dwarfed bushes growingbetween the rocks in which her stout linen dress had caught and held.The dress still held. But if it gave way, or if the clump of bushesshould come loose from the rocks, what would happen to Billie Bradley?

  This agonized thought found an echo in the hearts of Laura Jordon andVi Farrington as they lay there on the edge of the cliff, staringdownward.

  Laura impatiently caught the long stick from Vi’s trembling hand.

  “I’m stronger than you are. Let me try!”

  At the spot where the two girls lay, Billie was almost directly beneaththem. If the stick proved long enough, it would be an easy matter forher to grasp it with her one free hand. If it proved long enough----

  Laura lowered the stick over the side of the cliff, hoping, praying,that it would reach Billie’s groping hand.

  There! It was extended to the utmost and still came a good two feetshort of the imperiled girl.

  “Vi, hold my feet!” commanded Laura. “Hold me so I can’t go overmyself. I’m going to try once more.”

  With Vi clinging to her feet, Laura wriggled further over the edge ofthe cliff. Having progressed as far as she could and being herself inimminent danger of losing her balance and plunging head downward uponthose sharp-pointed rocks, Laura clung there, stretching her musclesuntil they ached, striving to bring the stick within the grasp ofBillie’s groping fingers.

  The stick would not reach. Billie still hung there, at the mercy of thestout material in her dress, which might give way at any moment. Whatwere they to do?

  While the girls are striving desperately to find an answer to thisquestion, a moment will be taken to introduce Billie Bradley and herchums to those who have not already made their acquaintance.

  The three girls had been chums since those good old days when BillieBradley had inherited the queer old house at Cherry Corners, as relatedin the first volume of this series, entitled, “Billie Bradley and HerInheritance.” In the attic of the queer old house Billie and her chumshad discovered a small fortune in rare old postage stamps and coins.

  This lucky discovery later proved the open sesame to Three Towers Hall,the boarding school toward which Billie had long turned yearning, butnone-too-hopeful, eyes.

  Life at Three Towers had exceeded even Billie’s happy expectations.To be sure, there had been a few heartaches, a few defeats, but thesewere more than offset by the many victories, the many friends thatBillie won for herself in her new environment. Laura Jordon and VioletFarrington, long friends and admirers of Billie Bradley, found theirfriendship cemented into a firm bond by the mutually shared experiencesat Three Towers Hall.

  Later, Billie and her chums spent an exciting and decidedly worthwhilesummer at Lighthouse Island as the guests of Connie Danvers, whosefather owned a summer bungalow there.

  Back at Three Towers Hall again, the girls found themselves in themidst of a mystery, the solution of which brought undreamed-ofhappiness to a widow and her three children.

  There had been other vacations which the chums had shared, prominentamong them being that interesting and exciting summer spent at TwinLakes. Another, more recent adventure was that which befell them atTreasure Cove where the three girls and their friends unearthed an oldsea chest filled with rare silks, carved ivory, coins, and preciousgems.

  In the volume directly preceding this, entitled, “Billie Bradley atSun Dial Lodge,” Billie and her chums met with a series of alarmingbut fascinating adventures which finally led to the solution of anastonishing mystery.

  Billie, who had been christened Beatrice but was seldom called by themore formal name, was a dark-haired, dark-eyed, energetic young person,whose overflowing vitality constantly demanded action. She was theundoubted leader of her small group and it was a tribute to Billie’spersonality that her friends not only deferred to her, but liked doingit.

  Billie’s family was small, but suited her exactly. Martin Bradley,her father, was a real estate and insurance broker, at which he wasmoderately successful. Mrs. Bradley was a charming woman, loved by herfriends and adored by her family. There was a son, Billie’s brother,Chetwood, commonly known as Chet. Between this brother and sister wasa genuine regard and a similarity of tastes, a foundation for the bestkind of comradeship.

  Perhaps Billie’s very best chum was Laura Jordon. Laura was fair-hairedand blue-eyed and somewhat spoiled by being able to do as she likedabout almost everything. Teddy Jordon was fair-haired and blue-eyedlike his sister, a fine lad who was popular with boys and girls alike.Raymond Jordon, the father of the likable pair, owned a controllinginterest in the big jewelry factory at North Bend, thus providing hisoffspring with a bit more spending money than was strictly good forthem.

  Violet Farrington, another very good chum of Billie’s, was an onlychild but a very happy one, blessed with a pair of doting parents whomade up to her whatever lack the girl might otherwise have felt in herbrotherless and sisterless state.

  Beside Chet Bradley and Teddy Jordon, there was a third lad often foundin the company of Billie and her chums. His name was Ferd Stowing. Ferdwas a likable, easy-going young fellow with a commendable knack formaking other people comfortable.

  These three boys attended Boxton Military Academy, the school for boyson Lake Molata, directly across from Three Towers Hall. When at homethe sextette of young people lived at North Bend, a thriving townof some twenty thousand inhabitants. Forty miles of railroad traveltransported one from the heart of North Bend to the heart of New YorkCity. It was a pleasant place to live, as the boys and girls agreed.

  During their activities in and about North Bend and at Three TowersHall, the girls had encountered many adventures, some thrilling, somesad, but all more or less spiced with danger. None, however, had foundthem in such desperate fix as the one in which they were now involved.

  Billie hung over that precipitous drop to the rocks at the base of thecliff with only the stout cloth of her dress between her and almostcertain death.

  It was impossible to get her from above. The ground sloped abruptly andit was covered by flat rocks and moss so that it would be impossible togain a foothold.

  Laura sprang to her feet and looked about her desperately.

  “If we could only reach her from below, Vi! There’s just a chance wemight be able to climb up to her----”

  “There is a path to the lake,” said Vi, her teeth chattering withexc
itement. “But it’s all around Robin Hood’s barn. We haven’t time----”

  A faint cry reached them, tinged with desperation.

  “Girls, do hurry! I can’t cling here much longer! The cloth isbeginning to--tear!”