by Clair Blank
Chapter VI
A NOTE
"Surprise!" Phyllis said gaily.
Gale stared in amazement. Phyllis was in her own bed in their room inSunshine Alley yet she hadn't been there that morning. Doctor Norcotstood beside the bed smiling. Adele Stevens was on the other side.
"Phyl!" Gale stuttered. "What--why--how--my dear, I'm so glad to seeyou!"
"She wouldn't give me a moment's peace until I said she could come backhere," Doctor Norcot explained, smiling.
"I'll get well twice as quickly here," Phyllis declared. "I feel ahundred per cent better already."
"Sunshine Alley will cure her," Adele Stevens laughed.
When the doctor and Adele were gone Gale sat beside Phyllis and huggedher.
"Gee, I'm glad to have you back. If you hadn't come soon I would betalking to myself."
"Tell me everything that has happened in these weeks," Phyllis demanded."Who has done what and why?"
"Well, the teacher gave us a corking examination in Biology today but Idon't know why," Gale laughed.
"I suppose it was to see how brilliant you were," Phyllis smiled. "Gale!Guess what! Monday I start classes again. I'll have to go on crutchesfor a while but at least I won't have to stay in one room any longer.Isn't it marvelous?"
"We'll have a party and celebrate," Gale proposed. "I'll tell Janet andCarol to come over. Let them climb our trellis this time. I'll makefudge and----"
"Wait a minute! You take my breath away," Phyllis declared. "Oh, Gale,you have no idea how lonesome it was over there in the infirmary."
"I know how lonesome it was here," Gale countered. "This was bad enough.All by myself at night, I'd dream I saw ghosts--I almost moved over tothe infirmary to be with you," she laughed.
"I hear that the Dean has started the work on the stables for the horseswe are to have in the spring," Phyllis said. "We will have a lot of funriding. Remember that summer in Arizona?"
"We'll have fun if we can stay on the horses," Gale giggled. "Ricky isan authority on the subject and she doesn't know we can ride so she hasbeen giving us some lessons."
"Without horses?"
"We use chairs and things," Gale explained, "but a real live horse willbe more difficult to handle than a chair with a pillow on it."
"Rightly spoken, my friend," Ricky herself declared, enteringunannounced at that moment. "Phyllis! You're back! Gee! Hi, Glory," sheshouted across the hall to her roommate, "look who is here! Our starhockey player is back!"
Sunshine Alley became alive with figures eager to welcome Phyllis back.The Freshman president had been sadly missed.
That night the room was the scene of a secret rendezvous of theAdventure Girls. Valerie and Madge had managed to unobtrusively sneakout of their dormitory house with Janet and Carol. A light hidden undera tilted wastepaper basket enabled just enough light to escape to dispelthe darkness while the girls sat around and talked in whispers and ateGale's fudge.
"Has anybody heard anything more about strange things happening to theDean?" Phyllis asked.
The others shook silent heads. However, Janet spoke up.
"I was in French class late the other day and when I came out twoteachers were talking in the hall. I dropped my book accidentally andwhile I was picking it up I couldn't help but hear what they said. Itwas strange."
"Well? What did they say?" Carol inquired lazily.
"One said 'Then the President hasn't yet discovered who took the moneyfrom the fund?'"
"Yes?" Gale and Phyllis leaned forward.
"The other one said 'No.' Then they saw me and walked away."
"You scared them," Carol accused.
"What do you suppose they meant?" Madge murmured.
"By a simple act of deductive reasoning I have come to the conclusionthat there is a crook loose on the campus," Janet announced.
"Did you think of that all by yourself?" Carol chided.
"Someone took money from the school funds?" Gale murmured. "Things aregetting worse."
"Why don't they call a policeman?" Carol asked, juggling a book on herhead.
"And get the college name spread over every newspaper in the country?That would be a nice scandal for the school!" Janet scoffed.
"It's better than having our things disappear from under our verynoses," Carol retorted.
"No one has touched any of the students' things," Valerie reminded them."It seems to be the college and the Dean who are in difficulty."
"I wonder who is doing it?" Phyllis murmured. "It must be someone in thecollege."
"Did you see Marcia Marlette this afternoon?" Carol started to giggle."Where was she going? She was dressed in all her finery."
"She had everything on but the kitchen sink," added Janet with a laugh.
"I hear that Professor Lukens, the Chemistry teacher, has conferenceswith her after classes sometimes," Madge murmured.
"He has with Gale, too," Valerie smiled.
"Aha! Rivals!" Carol jeered and dodged a magazine thrown by Gale.
"How about the stables going up over behind the Chemistry Hall? Waituntil I dash down College Avenue on a pure white steed----" Carol begantheatrically.
"You will fall off," Janet said dryly.
Carol made a face at her. "How do you get down from a horse?" sheinquired sagely.
"Jump," offered Janet.
"Step down," Madge said.
"You don't, you get it from a duck," Carol said sweetly.
Janet choked on her fudge. Madge threw a handy pillow while Carol tookrefuge behind Phyllis.
"In case you don't know," she continued, "down is what you stuff pillowswith."
"You don't have to explain," Janet said distastefully. "After thatterrible pun I think I had better take you back to the dormitory. Comealong, infant."
"See you tomorrow, Phyl," Valerie said in parting.
"But I don't want to go to bed yet," protested Carol.
"Shshsh," Gale warned. She listened at the door. "Someone is coming."
"Where'll we hide?" whispered Janet frantically.
Carol dived under the bed. Janet did likewise while Valerie and Madgeran to the closet. Gale put the light out and hopped into her bed.Innocent silence settled down over the room. Footsteps halted at thedoor. Cautiously the doorknob turned, but the door did not open.Instead, something white was shoved under the door. When the footstepshad retreated along the corridor again the girls cautiously came out ofhiding.
"Now go ahead and sneeze!" Janet stormed at Carol. "If we had beendiscovered it would have been your fault. You always have to sneeze atthe strangest times!"
"I can't help it," Carol giggled. "You tickled me."
"We had better get out before we are discovered," Madge whisperedfearfully.
"Wait until we see what is in the note," Janet proposed. "Open it,Gale."
Gale lit the light again, under its protective shield, and picked up thesquare white envelope lying on the floor. She turned it over in herhand. There was no address upon it. She tore it open and while the othergirls waited read the few words. She stared retrospectively at thefloor.
"Well?" Carol hissed. "Is it a secret?"
"What? Oh----" Gale turned to the note again. "It says 'Do not interferein affairs that are none of your concern.'"
"Is that all?" Carol said in disappointment. "No--no threats?"
"What can it mean?" Phyllis whispered to Gale.
"Just what it says," Janet declared bluntly. "We are to mind our ownbusiness--or else."
"Or else what?" Carol demanded.
"Mind our own business," Madge repeated. "But what have we interferedin?"
"True," Valerie admitted. "We haven't done anything."
Gale sat on the bed beside Phyllis. "I wonder if this was meant only foryou and me--or for all of us," she murmured.
"No one knows we are here tonight--at least I hope no one knows," Janetsaid.
"It is obvious someone doesn't want us to
discover something," Phyllismurmured.
"But what?" Carol insisted. "Mixed up, I call it."
"You're always mixed up," Janet said loftily. "Can't you understand,darling, that whoever wrote this note is afraid of us?"
"We aren't that bad looking," Carol protested humorously. "What are theyafraid of?"
"I wish we knew," Gale said. "However, now that we are accused of pryinginto whatever it is, we will really do some prying."
"I'll sleep with my eyes and ears wide open," Carol promised.
The girls took their leave then, sneaking as noiselessly as possibledown the corridor and out the back door of the building. Gale wentdownstairs with them, locked the door and returned to her room. Shefound Phyllis still awake and pondering the strange note.
"Who left it, Gale?" she asked.
Gale shook her head. "I wish I knew. It might make things clearer."
"At any rate, we must know something that we shouldn't," Phyllis saidwisely. "What will we do about it?"
Gale ran restless fingers through her curls. "I don't know, Phyl. I wasbeginning to think things were calming down. Now this----"
"Stirs them up again," Phyllis said. "You had better go to bed, Gale,you are tired."
"And you, Phyl," Gale said contritely. "This has been a day for you,hasn't it? The Doctor would scold if she knew you have had scarcely anyrest since this morning."
"Bother the Doctor," Phyllis said fretfully. "Gale, promise me you won'tdo anything about that note until I can go with you."
Gale nodded slowly. "When I do something I'll tell you--but I don't knowwhat we could do," she added helplessly.