CHAPTER XX--STOLEN
"Oh, but how do we know?" protested Laura. "It looks like machinery ofsome kind, but we have no way of proving that it is the stoleninvention." "No," said Billie, still in a kind of daze. "It may be justsome old worthless thing that has been put up here because it is of nouse to anybody. But then again----"
"Oh, I think Laura's right," put in Vi, to whom this new find ofBillie's was not very interesting. It seemed absurd to put any value onthat queer-looking thing. And besides, she was anxious to get out ofthat musty, ill-smelling place. "I thought of Mrs. Haddon at first too,but----"
"Hello! I wonder what this is," Laura interrupted her. There had beensome blue prints lying on the floor near the wooden machinery. In thepoor light they had remained unnoticed until Laura had stumbled uponthem quite by accident.
In her eagerness, Billie forgot to be polite. She snatched the papersfrom her chum and made her way to the nearest dust-begrimed window.
She scanned the prints eagerly and finally came to the thing she had sowildly hoped to find. It was only a name, but it told a great deal.
The blue prints were evidently the design of some sort of machinery, anddown at the foot of one page the designer had put his name--HenryHaddon.
"Girls, girls, look!" cried Billie, almost beside herself withexcitement at her discovery. "Now maybe you'll dare to say I'm crazy andI don't know what I'm talking about. I dreamed of it two nights insuccession, and now my dream has come true----"
"Well, for goodness' sake, stop waving that thing around and tell uswhat you're raving about," commanded Laura, snatching the blue printfrom Billie in her turn, while Vi crowded close, looking curiously overher shoulder.
"Here! At the bottom of this page!" crowed Billie, pointing out thename. "See it? Henry Haddon!"
"Henry Haddon!" repeated Laura excitedly. "Then it looks as if thatreally were his invention."
"It is the knitting machinery model!" cried Vi, forgetting that a momentago she had scoffed at the idea.
"Of course it is, you gooses--I mean you geese," cried Billie,incoherent in her happiness. "I told you so right along, didn't I? Nexttime maybe you'll believe your Uncle Billie."
"I--guess--yes!" said Laura, still staring at the blue prints as thoughshe could not believe they were real. "You surely did have the rightidea that time, Billie."
"Of course I did!" cried Billie impishly, bubbling over with excitement."And now I've got an idea that's righter yet. Let's go to Mrs. Haddonand tell her about it."
"Agreed!" cried Laura. Then she glanced uncertainly at the blue prints."Shall we take these along?" she asked.
Billie hesitated, then shook her head.
"No," she said, "I think we had better leave everything just as we foundit."
So Laura put the important papers back on the spot where she had foundthem, or as near to it as she could remember.
She then backed out of the room and felt her way down the ladder. Vifollowed, treading on her fingers, so that she let go and very nearlytumbled to the floor.
Billie came last, for she was to lock the door.
But a strange thing happened. Either excitement had made Billie'sfingers clumsy or something had really happened to the rusty lock. Atany rate, she could not get the door locked again and after a fewminutes of nervous fumbling, interspersed with remarks from the girlsthat were anything but encouraging, she gave up the attempt.
"Oh, well, we'll be back in a little while, anyway," she said, as shecame down swiftly hand over hand and dropped to the floor beside thegirls. "Come on now, let's hurry and find Mrs. Haddon."
They scurried down the stairs and were hurrying to their dormitory toget on coats and hats when a voice hailed them and they stoppedimpatiently to find Rose Belser hurrying toward them.
"Have you heard the latest, girls?" asked the dark-haired girlexcitedly, for once forgetting her sleepy drawl.
"No," said Billie, trying not to sound as impatient as she felt, whileLaura and Vi frowned openly.
"It's up on the bulletin board," Rose told them, too full of her ownnews to notice their annoyance. "Connie Danvers has lost a gold wristwatch and Miss Walters is very much upset about it. She says that thethief, whoever it is, must be found. And she has ordered that no girlleave the Hall until to-morrow morning."
The girls looked at each other and groaned.
"Till to-morrow morning!" said Billie, her face as long as though adeath sentence had just been pronounced upon her. "Oh, why couldn'tConnie have held on to her old watch!"
Rose's look of surprise was so genuine that it put Billie instantly onher guard. The chums were not ready yet to take anybody into theirconfidence about the new discovery.
And so she covered her slip as well as she could, and they went ontogether to the dormitory, exclaiming sympathetically over Connie'sloss.
The next morning came at last, however, and as it was Sunday, the girlswere free to go as soon as the morning chapel hour was over. But as MissWalters would not allow any girl to leave the building without specialpermission from her, the classmates were forced to go to her and tellher about their invasion of the tower room and their discovery.
She was displeased that they had not asked her consent before takingsuch a step. But she was also very much interested in their story, andreadily gave them her permission to go to Polly Haddon.
"Bring her back with you, if you can," she said, "and we will all gotogether to the tower room."
"Now for the fun!" cried Laura, as a few minutes later they stepped outinto the crisp air. "Whew! I think we got off lots better than weexpected. I thought Miss Walters would be awfully mad."
"Probably she would have been if she hadn't had so many other things toworry about," said Vi.
"Poor Connie!" said Billie. "It surely is too bad about her watch. Itwas a beauty, and she was so proud of it."
"I hope Miss Walters finds the thief pretty soon," said Laura, frowning."Everybody thinks it is one of the girls, and I'm even beginning to feelguilty myself."
"Do you think----" Vi began, then flushed as the girls looked at her andstopped.
"What?" asked Laura adding, as Vi still hesitated. "Come on--we won'teat you."
"Nothing--only--I was wondering if the thief might not be Amanda."
"Oh, no," cried Billie quickly. "I'm sure it couldn't be, Vi."
The suggestion from Vi startled her, and it troubled her too, for thevery reason that the same idea had been in her own mind.
And suddenly Laura spoke up in support of Vi.
"I shouldn't wonder if Vi is right," she said. "Amanda is mean enoughfor anything."
Billie had no answer for that, and so she said nothing. But she was morethan ever troubled.
As they neared the little white cottage that had seen so much trouble,they forgot Amanda in anticipation of Polly Haddon's joy at the goodnews they were bringing her.
They knocked on the door, and the moment it was opened pushed eagerlyinside and turned to face the astonished widow.
Billie started to speak, but Laura, with her usual impulsiveness, wasbefore her.
"We've got good news, Mrs. Haddon," she blurted out. "We've found yourlost invention."
Billie gasped with dismay as Mrs. Haddon turned deathly white andgrasped the back of a chair for support.
"Oh, Laura, you shouldn't!" cried Billie, as she put an arm about thewoman and helped her into a chair. "Get some water, quick! There's aglass in the sink."
But Mrs. Haddon brushed her impatiently aside.
"I'm not going to faint," she said brusquely. "Tell me why you saidthat. Hurry!"
But Laura thought she had done enough speechmaking for one day, and itwas Billie who answered the woman's questions.
"It must be ours," said the latter, at last. "I will go with you andmake sure. Peter? Yes, he will be all right till I get back. He is muchbetter. I will be ready in a moment."
She returned in less than a minute, a hat perched carelessly on her headand a shawl around her sho
ulders. Her eyes burned bright in her thinface.
No one spoke on the way back. Mrs. Haddon, her lips set and her eyesfixed straight ahead, said not a word, and the girls were too awed byher emotion to break the silence.
Miss Walters met them in the hall, said a few words to Mrs. Haddon,then, seeing that the woman was keyed to the breaking point, led the waystraight to the tower room.
The girls ran up the ladder ahead of the two older women. The latterfollowed more slowly. Billie pushed open the little door and entered theroom.
Then she started, gasped, rubbed her hand across her eyes to make sureshe was not dreaming. For the spot where the queer wooden machinery hadstood was empty. The invention was gone; and the blue prints were gone,too!