The Orchard Secret

by Cleo F. Garis

  CHAPTER XXIV The Dean Explains

  The mysteriously tolled bell had ceased ringing now. Fascinated, thegirls remained at the window looking at the prone black figure of Rev.Dr. Bordmust lying on the edge of the sinister orchard. That the orchardwas sinister at least Arden, Sim, and Terry were ready to testify.

  The last cry for help from the aged chaplain and the final echo of thetolling bell came together.

  "What shall we do, Arden?" murmured Terry.

  "We must do something!" insisted Jane.

  "Yes, it's sort of up to us, since we're here on the scene," agreed Sim.

  "The dean will have to know about this," suggested Terry.

  "But there's something else to do first," spoke Arden.

  "What?" chorused her chums.

  "That poor man is hurt," went on Arden. "He needs help, and we must hurryto get it. I'll tell you what. We three," she motioned to herself and herroommates, "are already campused. Whatever happens can't make muchdifference to us, even if we're caught now. We'll go out and see what wecan do to help poor Henny, and you others go tell Tiddy."

  "A good idea!" assented Sim. "Jane, you and the others can take the foodwith you when you go to tell Tiddy. It's a wonder she or some of theothers haven't been aroused already by the bell. But when you go to her,hide the food, somehow. No use wasting it after all the trouble we hadgetting it."

  "No, indeed," said Ethel Anderson.

  Quickly the two groups separated. Arden, Sim, and Terry hurried out of arear door, which they unlocked, while Jane and the others, stuffing thepies, chickens, and bottles of milk under their big sweaters, hastened totake word to the dean.

  Arden, Sim, and Terry ran with all the frightened speed they could summonacross the damp grass of the rear campus toward the edge of the orchard.By another gleam of moonlight they had a glimpse of the chaplain resuminghis painful crawling after a period of rest following his cries for help.

  When he saw the girls running toward him, Dr. Bordmust, as if giving upthe fight, now that assistance was at hand, collapsed on the leaf-strewnground.

  Terry was the first to reach him.

  "Are you hurt, Dr. Bordmust?" she asked. "What happened?"

  "Do tell us! Tell us how we can help you," appealed Sim.

  "Are you badly injured?" faltered Arden.

  "My leg--I think my right leg is broken," he faltered. "It is verypainful. I cannot bear my weight on it. That is why I had to crawlalong."

  "Did you fall?" asked Arden.

  "Not exactly. I was struck by something--something attacked me as I waswalking through the orchard. It was some great, black, rushing shape thatthrew itself upon me. I went down heavily--I could feel the bones of myleg snap. I--I must have lost consciousness--for a time, at least. When Icame to, I found myself lying beneath a tree. I managed to get this far,and then the pain----"

  "We heard you call for help," said Sim.

  "You heard me--up in your room?" His voice was querulous.

  The girls did not care to go into particulars.

  "We have sent someone to bring help," said Arden, kneeling down besidethe aged chaplain. "But can we do anything to ease you until help comes?"

  "Rest yourself, Dr. Bordmust," Sim begged. She sat down in the wet grassand lifted the tired white head into her lap.

  "You--you are very kind, young ladies," the chaplain murmured. "I shallsee that----"

  "What's the matter?" suddenly cried Arden as she saw his head sag queerlyto one side.

  "He's fainted, I guess," answered Sim.

  "Oh, dear!" wailed Terry. "The poor man! But here come the girls and thedean, I think, and two men. Now we'll be all right."

  "At least he will, though as for us----" Arden did not finish.

  An excited throng of students and others hurried toward the three alarmedfreshmen surrounding the chaplain. The dean, rather neatly dressed inspite of the hurry under which she had donned her garments, was in thelead.

  Behind her was Miss Lucant, the college infirmarian. Then came Jane andher chums with the gardener, Anson Yaeger, and his helper, Tom Scott,bringing up in the rear.

  "You certainly got a lot of help in a short time, Jane," whispered Ardenas the girls mingled.

  "Oh, the dean was quick enough once she was awake. She sent me for MissLucant and had one of the girls telephone to the gardener's house torouse him. Tiddy certainly got organized quickly!"

  Miss Anklon, who even had the forethought to bring a flashlight with her,focused it on the pale face of the chaplain, who still was stretched onthe ground, his head in Sim's lap.

  "Take him to the infirmary at once!" the dean ordered."Anson--Tom--you'll have to get some sort of a stretcher to carry him.That leg, to me, looks to be broken."

  "It is," said Arden.

  The dean flashed a look and a gleam of light on her but said nothing, nordid she ask how Arden knew.

  "I'll have to run back and get a board--or something," said Anson. "Astretcher is what we need, but----"

  "We can pull a door off the old tool-shed!" suggested Tom Scott.

  "Do that," advised the dean. "Lose no time."

  Tom Scott hurried off in the darkness, before Anson could make up hismind what to do, and soon came back with a light door. On this Dr.Bordmust was carefully rolled, Sim pulling off her sweater to make apillow for his head, and then the gardener and his assistant started onthe melancholy journey to the college hospital.

  Having seen this procession on its way, the dean spoke sharply to thenervous girls.

  "Go at once to your rooms," she ordered. "We shall have something to sayabout this in the morning."

  Realizing that they could do nothing more, and feeling that they musthave excited the dean's curiosity by all being dressed at that hour ofthe night, Arden and the others hurried into the dormitory and dispersedto their various rooms.

  Meanwhile Dr. Bordmust, who had recovered consciousness, was taken to theinfirmary, where Anson and Tom carefully undressed him and put him inbed, with an elderly teacher, who was also a nurse, to look after him. Aphysician was hurriedly summoned from town and set the broken leg. Thismuch the girls guessed from observation and rumors that floated along thecorridor's grapevine route. For none of those engaged in the raid feltlike going to bed at once.

  And as the food had escaped the watchful eyes of the dean, it having beensuccessfully hidden under sweaters, it was available for thepost-midnight feast which was soon under way. Nor was the usual cautionnecessary, with the excitement over the chaplain's strange adventurestill seething.

  As the girls ate they talked, naturally, each of the two groups tellingthe other their parts in the affair. They all admitted it was a queermystery.

  "Do you think the bell had anything to do with it?" Sim wanted to know.

  "It might have been rung to draw our attention away from the orchard,"suggested Arden.

  "But no one was paying the least bit of attention to the orchard in thefirst place," objected Terry.

  "But why was Henny there in the orchard at midnight?" Jane Randallpropounded. "He had no business there."

  "No more than we had in the kitchen," suggested Arden.

  "But he _was_ there," declared Mary Todd.

  "And something attacked him," said Sim.

  "And if you ask me," said Arden positively, "I think that whatever it wasthat came at us, the night we had to get apples for the sophs, attackedour chaplain."

  "Well, what was that?" demanded Ethel.

  "I don't know," Arden had to admit.

  The girls were silent a moment, and then Sim asked:

  "Did you have much trouble rousing Tiddy?"

  "Yes," Jane answered, "she sleeps like a horse. We couldn't make herunderstand for the longest time. She never even noticed how we all bulgedwith food, and I think she didn't hear the bell at all."

  So they talked until there was nothing left to eat though there was stillmuch to wonder at. Arden hid the milk bottl
es in a closet. Jane Randallopened the door and was followed out by the other visitors to 513, whostole silently down the dark corridors and to their own rooms.

  In spite of all the excitement, Arden and her roommates were soon soundasleep.

  The next day the very walls of Cedar Ridge must have vibrated, so greatwas the talk. Rumors of the wildest sort were passed from girl to girl.Arden and her friends were a little afraid to tell of their part in thenight's adventure and so listened to the various stories and volunteerednothing.

  At lunch, when the whole college was assembled, Tiddy rang her littlebell, and immediately a deep hush followed the talk, laughter, andclatter of dishes.

  "Young ladies," began the dean, "so ridiculous are the rumors that arerife here today that I feel I must do a little explaining. Rev. Dr.Bordmust, while strolling through our orchard last night, was attacked bya huge black ram which knocked him down, and in the fall our chaplain'sright leg was broken below the knee. The ram, which it is learned is asavage beast, broke loose from a near-by farm."

  There were uneasy twistings and turnings on the part of the girls, andmany whispered comments, despite the frowning warnings of variousteachers scattered about the room.

  "But you need have no further fears," the dean went on. "The beast hasbeen caught and penned up securely. It will be kept under restraint fromthis time on. So no one need have any fears of going into our orchard--ifshe has occasion to go there."

  "So this is what the taxi-man must have been hinting at," thought Arden."Though why he didn't dare speak of it I can't imagine. And I suppose itwas the ram that knocked me down. I was lucky!"

  "This is the explanation of the greater part of the night's alarm, youngladies," continued the dean. "It is all very simple. It is unfortunatethat Dr. Bordmust was injured, but he is now resting comfortably, andanother clergyman has been temporarily engaged, so there will be chapelservice--as usual." The dean smiled with dry humor, having noted flashesof joy on the faces of several students at the idea of escaping frommorning devotions.

  "Dr. Bordmust has asked me, as a favor to him," stated the dean, "not topunish the girls who were out of their rooms against rules after hours.They kindly went to his assistance and summoned much-needed help. I amhappy to accede to our chaplain's request, for I know the wholeundergraduate body is extremely fond of him. I will ask no questions ofthose girls. In fact, I hereby publicly thank them for their greatpresence of mind. There is only one thing I must insist on."

  There was a portentous pause, and the dean ended the silence by saying:

  "If the ringing of the alarm bell was done as a joke--please don't repeatit." She smiled benignly. "Now you may go on with your lunch."