Gale nodded. “I think so.”
“Well, I leave you here. Remember, Gale, you and Phyllis are the sort of girls we want in Happiness House—and we hope you want to stay there.”
Gale watched the Senior enter the Hall where she was to attend her class. Slowly Gale strolled along to her own class. She liked Adele Stevens.
“Was our noble president giving you some good advice?” a voice asked dryly.
Gale merely glanced at Marcia Marlette as the girl walked beside her. “Yes.”
“Thought so. I suppose you think she is just the noblest person,” Marcia laughed. “Freshmen always take to Adele. They plan to be like her, but then Freshmen are idealistic and——”
“I’ve got to go,” Gale said, and hastily ran up and into the nearest building. Inside she stood in the shadows until Marcia had turned away and was almost out of sight. Then she came out and went on more peacefully to her own class.
Gale was finding college life more and more interesting. She did want to make something of her life and she seriously thought of studying medicine. She didn’t want to be a nurse—rather a doctor. The other girls were inclined to treat such ambition with lightness. They didn’t think much of women doctors, but Gale was still determined. Whether she would achieve her doctor’s degree was dim in the future, but at least she had chosen to take the pre-medical course at college. She figured that was a step in the right direction.
Her favorite subject right now was Chemistry. She found Professor Lukens, the Chemistry teacher, willing to answer all and any questions. Often she lingered after classes for a further talk or experiment. On one occasion Doctor Norcot was there and the three of them had a most interesting talk until the Dean and Professor Powell, assistant Chemistry teacher, arrived.
“I came for you,” the Dean said to the Doctor. “My secretary was suddenly taken ill. She is in the infirmary and the nurse advised calling you.”
“I’ll come at once,” the Doctor said.
Gale, too, gathered up her books and made her way to the door. There the Dean joined her.
“Gale, I haven’t seen you for a week or more.”
“No,” Gale agreed.
The Freshman went down the stairs with the Dean and the Doctor. They stopped on the steps outside to talk before separating. Gale was talking to the Dean when the Doctor suddenly pushed them roughly to one side.
“Look out!” she shouted.
There was a tinkle of glass and a dark stain spread on the stone steps at their feet. The three bent over it before the Doctor whirled and ran into the building.
“A test tube of acid!” Gale cried in amazement. “I wonder how that came to fall out the window?”
“Fall? Perhaps it was thrown,” the Dean murmured, looking up at the windows to the Chemistry room which fronted on the campus.
“Thrown!” Gale gasped. “But if that had hit one of us—the way acid burns we might have been scarred for life! No one would do such a thing!”
“No,” the Dean agreed unenthusiastically, “no one would do such a thing.”
Gale looked at her strangely. The Dean was white, whether with fear or anger, Gale did not know. From the Dean, Gale looked at the shattered glass and up at the window. Doctor Norcot was leaning out, looking directly down at them. She disappeared and a few minutes later rejoined them on the campus. Her face was sternly set and she answered the Dean’s questioning glance with a shake of her head.
“There was no one in the room—and the test tubes and materials are all locked in the closet.”
The Dean flashed a glance at Gale, The Doctor smiled in understanding.
“Shall we go on to the infirmary now?” she asked.
A few minutes later Gale was walking across the campus toward the field in back of the tennis courts where the Freshman class was practicing hockey. So deeply in thought was she that she passed several girls from the sorority house without recognizing them at all. That night she talked the whole affair over with Phyllis.
“Do you think the Dean actually suspects that the acid was thrown?” Phyllis asked in consternation. “That is an awful thing for anybody to do!”
Gale frowned. “That is what she said. Remember, too, that somebody cut her canoe adrift and she was almost caught in the rapids.”
“It would seem somebody doesn’t like the new Dean,” Phyllis murmured. “Do you know what was wrong with her secretary?”
Gale shook her head. “No, but I am going to find out. I have a hunch that the three incidents are tied together in some way.”
“Ah! Mystery at Briarhurst!” Phyllis said gayly. “But both things might have been accidental, you know.”
“I don’t think so,” Gale said firmly. “A rope doesn’t cut itself and secondly, a test tube of acid doesn’t walk from a locked closet and fall out the window.”
“Then you think someone is really trying to injure the Dean?”
“It looks like it,” Gale said. She crossed to the window. Her studies were forgotten, the open text book on her desk did not exist. “Heavenly night, Phyl.”
From the campus below floated up a chorus of friendly voices. The Seniors were singing their sorority song:
“Secure in love and laughter,
Our voices blend on high,
We link our hands in friendship,
The girls of Omega Chi.”
“So far so good,” Phyllis said, putting her arm about Gale and leaning with her on the window sill.
“What? The song?”
“No, I mean us. We’ve been here three weeks now and like it more every day. At least I do,” she added.
“Let’s go and see Janet and Carol,” proposed Gale mischievously.
“It is study hour,” Phyllis returned. “Freshmen are supposed to slave away over their books. We are to remain indoors.” She continued with twinkling eyes, “How shall we get out? By the back door?”
Gale switched out the light. On tiptoe the girls went to the rear stairs. With the silence of shadows they descended to the ground. Once outside they stood for several minutes in the shadows of the building, waiting for the Seniors to disappear from view. Finally they were safely away from the sorority house. Quickly they ran to the dormitory building where Janet and Carol were housed. Once there, another problem presented itself.
“How’ll we get in?” Phyllis wanted to know.
There were two Juniors sitting on the steps in front of the building so that was closed to them. Gale pointed suggestively to a trellis from which only lately the dried vines had been cut to leave room for new growth in the spring.
“Acrobats, eh?” Phyllis giggled. “Well, why not? We used to climb ropes in gym at High School. I guess we can climb that to the second floor. It is a good thing they don’t live on the fourth,” she added in a stage whisper as she rested halfway to their goal.
Carol and Janet were bent over their books. Out of the corner of her eye Carol saw a head slowly appearing at the open window.
“Help! Burglars!” she shrieked.
“Shshsh,” Phyllis laughed. “It is only us.”
“Such hospitality,” Gale said disgustedly, climbing into the room after Phyllis. “You should have a stepladder at least for your callers.”
“Our callers don’t usually enter through the window,” Janet returned. “Am I glad to see you! I was about to burst with all the biology I am cramming into my head.”
“I don’t see how she does it,” added Carol lightly. “Bugs, bugs——”
“Speaking of bugs,” Janet put in, “when does the Freshman team play the Sophomores in hockey?”
“Next week,” Phyllis answered.
Noiselessly the door opened. Valerie and Madge stole into the room.
“Ah, a family reunion,” Janet beamed. “We will have to celebrate. Carol, get the chocolate.”
“We have a box of cookies in our room,” added Madge generously.
“Ah, perhaps we had better go to your room,” Carol declared brightly.<
br />
“I’ll bring them here,” Madge offered.
Neither the hot chocolate nor the cookies lasted very long when once the six girls set seriously about the task of devouring them.
“You know,” Janet said, munching the icing off her cookie before she ate the rest of it, “I heard that one of the Chemistry teachers is sending the Dean candy and flowers.”
“Mmmmm,” Carol hummed.
“Romantic idiots!” Madge called them. “Because the Dean is young and good looking you think there is a romance.”
“Well, why not? Even college professors aren’t immune to it. Look at Gale——” Janet offered mischievously. “Even she was conquered by a birdman.”
“That isn’t all about the Dean,” Valerie said in a whisper and the others leaned forward in interest. “I heard someone is trying to murder her—or something.”
“What do you mean?” Gale asked tensely. “Tell us!”
“I heard,” Valerie said, “that her house was set afire yesterday.”
“What?” Both Phyllis and Gale were on the edge of their chairs with renewed interest. “How?”
“No one knows,” Valerie replied. “The maid saw the curtains blazing in the library. She called the caretaker and he ripped them down and stamped the fire out. There was nothing they could have caught fire from. It must have been done deliberately.”
“But who?” Carol scoffed. “Why?”
“Things like that aren’t done,” Janet added. She looked at Phyllis and Gale. “You two look as though you actually believed it.”
“Tell them what you know, Gale,” Phyllis advised. “But,” she added, “you mustn’t go around telling the other girls. We can’t prove anything—it is only what we think.”
“We’ll be as mum as mice,” Carol promised. “If we have been missing anything, tell us!”
Gale told them of the things she had discovered and of the things she suspected. The other girls were astounded.
“We will have to appoint ourselves solvers of the mystery,” Carol suggested.
“We are the best mystery-solvers at Briarhurst,” added Janet. “But where do we begin? There aren’t any clues or anyone to suspect.”
“Good detectives find those things,” Madge informed her.
“But for goodness sake,” cautioned Phyllis, “be careful about it. Dean Travis might not like our bothering with her affairs. After all, it isn’t our business, you know.”
“We’ll make it our business,” Gale proposed.
“And it might mean adventures for us,” added Valerie.
“We have been falling rather low on adventures,” commented Janet. “Things have been too quiet. We must stir something up.”
“We will do that, never fear,” prophesied Carol.
“And now we have to go back to the sorority house,” Phyllis said, consulting Janet’s desk clock. “Lights-out bell rang twenty minutes ago.”
“Perhaps we can use the front door instead of the window this time,” suggested Phyllis.
Gale and her friend cautiously descended to the campus and there took a deep breath of relief. They had gotten out of the dormitory house without detection, but now to get back into their own room!
They sped across the campus, keeping in the shadows. Almost at the very door of the sorority house they were forced to halt. Crouching in the shadows of the shrubbery they waited while two figures strolled toward them. Two women stopped directly in front of them. One was speaking and they recognized the voice of the Dean.
“But don’t you see—that candy was meant for me. If Miss Horton became ill eating it——”
The doctor nodded. “You had a narrow escape. You don’t know who sent it to you?”
They continued on their way and the girls glanced at one another. When they had safely and secretly entered Happiness House by the rear door which they had left unlocked when they went out and were again in their room Phyllis smiled:
“I guess your hunch was correct.”
“Mmm,” Gale murmured, staring into the darkness as she lay in bed. “Do you suppose they were talking about her secretary? If so, she became ill eating candy that was originally sent to the Dean.”
“Poisoned?” Phyllis hazarded.
“I don’t know.” Gale raised herself on one elbow and looked across at Phyllis. “Do you remember Janet saying one of the Chemistry teachers was sending her candy?”
“Say——” Phyllis sat up suddenly. “Chemistry Professor, acid, poisoned candy—they all fit together.”
“We aren’t sure the candy was poisoned, but that is what I was thinking,” Gale murmured. “However, there are four Chemistry professors.”
“The question is which one of them threw the acid and poisoned the candy,” Phyllis agreed. She yawned. “I am afraid the puzzle will have to wait until morning. This detective is getting sleepy.”
Gale wanted to lie awake and think over the puzzling circumstances surrounding the Dean and her reign at Briarhurst, but she didn’t, and it was to be many weeks before the mysterious occurrences were solved.
CHAPTER V
The Hockey Game
The Freshman class proved to have a very fine hockey team. The girls, including Phyllis, Gale, Ricky and Gloria, were all very agile, swift and determined. The spirit of coöperation which existed between the members of the team was largely responsible for their victories. They made goal after goal in perfectly timed coöperation. They triumphed over the Sophomore team with such a crushing score that the whole Freshman class was delighted and held a party in their honor.
Then came the election of class president. Phyllis, to her astonishment and delight, was elected the Freshman president. Valerie was elected secretary. Altogether, the Adventure Girls were delighted to think two of their number held offices in the class.
The room in Sunshine Alley became the headquarters for all sorts of meetings to discuss class activities. There was scarcely any time at all when someone wasn’t there.
Still, with the activities of her office, Phyllis found time to practice with the Freshman hockey team. They practiced often and diligently. The team was next scheduled to play the Junior class and that, they were sure, would be more difficult than the Sophomores. For one thing, Marcia Marlette was on the Junior team. That fact made Gale sure of a difficult encounter.
As the days went by the Adventure Girls could discover nothing new about the strange events that had occurred to the Dean. Gradually their interest began to fade. Occasionally Gale saw the Dean and Doctor Norcot, but even she learned nothing new.
Gale left the Chemistry class on this afternoon without a moment’s wasted time and went to the gymnasium and the lockers. There the girls were gathering for the pending hockey game between the two classes. Some of the girls were already in their playing suits and Gale hastened into hers. Phyllis helped her into the pads which, as goalie, Gale needed. Phyllis, in her position of forward, preferred to wear as little protection as possible. She considered herself agile enough to dodge the flying sticks when in a tussle for the ball and was of the opinion that the shin-guards only deterred her when she was in a hurry.
There was a big turnout for the game. Janet and Carol had elected to try out for the cheer leaders’ club and they were on duty this afternoon to see that their class should get a large measure of support from the fans.
Gale and the opposing Junior took their positions at the goals. The teams were in line and the game began. The fans cheered lustily on the slightest provocation but there was no goal scored.
Marcia Marlette was playing a brilliant game, even the Freshmen had to admit that. She was here and there and everywhere. She had the ball headed toward the goal every chance she got. Once Gale parried a desperate shot of Marcia’s that would have meant the first score had it been a little harder and a little straighter.
But the Junior team did not have the same spirit of coöperation that characterized the younger girls. Marcia was playing for personal glory. The girls could all
see that. More than once, if Marcia had passed the ball to a team mate who was in the clear, a score might have been made, but she preferred to play it herself and each time irrevocably lost.
Such was not the case with Phyllis and her team mates, however. They did not hesitate to pass to one another. They were not playing for their own brilliant performances, rather for the game. They wanted their team to win and they did everything in their power to make it so. So unconquerable was their enthusiasm that the score mounted in favor of the Freshmen. Goal after goal was made.
“Lucky for us, Marcia isn’t particularly brilliant,” Janet told Carol on the sidelines. “If she didn’t want to be the whole show herself, the Juniors would easily win over us.”
“Treason in the Freshman class!” Carol frowned upon her. “Don’t you think we have a good team?”
“Of course,” Janet said. “But look at Marcia. She is casting daggers from her greenish eyes at Phyl. One would think there was no one else on the field but Marcia and Phyllis. They have been watching and checkmating each other all afternoon.”
“She would dearly love to wrap her stick around Phyllis’ neck—or Gale’s,” giggled Carol. “There they go!”
Marcia and a class mate were dribbling the ball ever closer to the Freshman goal. Gale was on guard. Phyllis and Ricky swept in to rescue the ball and save the game.
There was a sudden mix-up of flying sticks, arms and legs. Two of the players sprawled into the goalie. Gale had a fleeting vision of Marcia Marlette striking out viciously with her stick before she went down under the impact of another Junior.
Gale scrambled to her feet. The others did likewise—that is all but Phyllis. She lay perfectly still, her one leg twisted under her. Janet and Carol dashed out from the sidelines. A sudden hush had fallen over the spectators.
“Phyl!” Gale cried and dropped beside her friend.
The Second Girl Detective Megapack: 23 Classic Mystery Novels for Girls Page 281