CHAPTER IV
BATTLE
Even as Billie Bradley spoke, the strange girl disappeared into thewoods.
“Please don’t go! Please! You mustn’t until I’ve had a chance to thankyou!”
At the urgent request, or command, the girl reappeared, but withobvious reluctance. She stood awkwardly, rubbing one foot over theother.
“Don’t want any thanks,” she muttered. “Didn’t do nothing, nohow. Iguess--I guess--I’d better go now.”
Billie was nonplused by the strange behavior of this young person whohad just saved her life. The manner of the girl had altered completely.From being dictatorial, “bossy,” and almost offensively sure ofherself, she had become a shy and awkward country girl. Her eyesavoided Billie’s direct look, whether from shyness or sullenness, itwas impossible to tell.
Billie, painfully conscious of all her cuts and bruises, went up to thegirl and held out her hand.
“Whether you like it or not, I’m going to thank you. My life doesn’tmean a lot to you probably,” with a whimsical smile, “but it does to meand I am very properly grateful for it. How you can climb!” she addedwith genuine admiration. “If I could scale the side of a cliff likethat, I wouldn’t care whether I could solve a problem in algebra ornot.”
The girl flashed Billie a glance. There was both sullenness and shynessin it; which was odd, considering the dictatorial tone she had used toBillie a few moments earlier.
“Don’t be so nice to me,” she said, in a hard voice, “until you knowwho I am!”
Billie was given no opportunity to comment on this peculiar observationfor at the moment Vi and Laura dashed in from the woods, rushed toBillie and flung their arms about her. They had come by the woods path“around Robin Hood’s barn” and had reached her as soon as possible.
“Oh-h, look out! Don’t hug so tightly, darlings. I’m--to put itmildly--sensitive. Yes, I’m alive--as you see. No there are nobones broken--I think. But I’ll have to soak in arnica to-night.Bruises--hundreds of ’em. But I’m not complaining. I know how lucky Iam just to be alive!”
Animated by the same thought, Laura and Vi left off hugging Billie andturned to the strange girl.
“We don’t know how to thank you,” Vi began.
“If you knew how much I hate thanks you wouldn’t go to the bother,”responded the stranger ungraciously. “I don’t do such things forthanks. Well--good-by!” She turned abruptly and would have plunged intothe woods had not Billie called her.
“I don’t know why you have taken such a sudden dislike to me--to us,”she said. “I am sorry if I have done or said anything to offend you.After saving my life, I don’t like you to go away angry.”
“I’m not mad,” muttered the girl. “And I don’t dislike you. I thinkyou’re grand!”
Was ever such a contradictory, amazing creature? Billie stared at herin helpless bewilderment.
“Well, then!”
The girl suddenly flung up her head. Her round face was stern and hermouth was combative, but there were tears in her eyes!
“You won’t be so nice to me when you know who I am, I tell you,” sheblurted. “You’ll be like all the rest of the sneerin’, titterin’ lot of’em. I hate them, I hate every last one of them!”
This outburst amazed the three girls and roused their curiosity. Whatdid the strange creature mean?
“It’s true I don’t know your name or where you come from,” said Billie.“But I am sure I shall like you just as much and be just as grateful toyou for having saved my life, whoever you are.”
“Well, then, my name is Edina Tooker,” the girl threw out theinformation like a challenge. “And I’m livin’, just at present, atThree Towers Hall!”
The girls merely stared at her, doubting if they had heard aright. Theself-styled Edina Tooker laughed harshly.
“You see! A crazy lookin’ jay like me couldn’t be goin’ to your selectboarding school, could she? That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it? Oh,you don’t need to answer me! I can see it in your faces!”
There was a world of bitterness behind the girl’s harsh tone.
“She has been hurt,” thought Billie. “Pretty badly hurt and her prideis up in arms.”
Before she could speak Laura said impulsively:
“Why, you can’t be a student at Three Towers Hall. I’ve never even seenyou there!”
“I only come a few days ago,” the girl explained. “And after the firstday I--I kep’ close to my own room.”
That explained it, thought Billie. She had heard of the new girlfrom the wild open spaces who dressed like a freak, talked worse,and kept to her dormitory as though it were a burrow from which sheseldom emerged except to attend classes. Characteristically, theseuncomplimentary rumors had come to her through Amanda Peabody. Billiehad intended vaguely to look up the new girl to see if she could beof any help. Instead, the new girl had looked her up--and in a mostdramatic fashion!
“I know who you are,” Billie said, friendly eyes on the sullen face ofEdina Tooker. “I’m glad you introduced yourself. I was going to lookyou up, anyway.”
The sullen expression on Edina Tooker’s face did not lift. She regardedBillie suspiciously.
“What for?” she demanded. “So you could see what a freak I am and laughat me behind my back?”
This accusation was almost too much for even Billie’s good nature. Asharp retort rose to her lips--but got no further. She realized in timehow much this strange girl must have suffered to make her so bitter andresentful. She was showing tooth and claw because that was her onlymethod of defense. Like some wild creature of the woods, she was backedup against a wall, unable to distinguish friend from foe, fightingvaliantly and indiscriminately, fearing nothing but surrender.
Billie, holding a firm check upon her temper, replied gently:
“My main--in fact, my only idea in deciding to look you up was to seeif I could help you.”
“Why should you think I needed help?” retorted Edina Tooker harshly. “Isuppose you’d been hearin’ things about me--what a freak I am and all.”
“No one ever said you were a freak,” Billie pursued patiently. “But youwere a new girl from a distant city and I thought you might be glad tohave someone sort of--well, show you the ropes.”
The corners of Edina’s straight young mouth turned downward in a sneer.
“Sounds good, the way you tell it. But you can’t fool me. You’re allalike up to that school, with your highfallutin’ manners and uppityways. You’d come to see me, yes, so that you could laugh at me and talkabout me afterward. ‘Native,’ ‘barbarian,’ that’s a couple o’ the namesI’ve heard your swell friends call me. Mebbe you could add some to thestring.”
“If Billie can’t, I will!” cried Laura, with sudden fury. “You’renothing but a heathen and an ungrateful wretch! You don’t know whoBillie Bradley is, maybe, but I’ll teach you!”
“Hush, Laura, please! Come away!”
Laura would not be silenced. She brushed the interruption asideimpatiently and rushed on, her words pouring forth in a torrent:
“Billie Bradley is the most popular girl at Three Towers Hall. She doesalmost everything better than anybody else and yet the girls love herjust the same. Maybe you’ve got sense enough to know what that means.She’s a perfect peach and any girl she takes up may count herself inluck. You just think of that when you are all alone and try to realizewhat you’ve lost. Come on Billie, let’s get away from here!”
Laura turned away with one last, inimical look at Edina Tooker. Vijoined her, but Billie still lingered behind.
“I’m sorry you feel this way,” she said to the girl who had saved herlife. “I owe you a debt and I’d like to be friends.” Billie paused butas Edina remained silent with sullenly averted face, Billie went on tojoin Laura and Vi.
She did not know that the strange girl looked after her with eyessuddenly blurred by tears.
Billie Bradley and the School Mystery; Or, The Girl From Oklahoma Page 4