Chapter IV
TROUBLE AHEAD
Gale tucked her books under her arm and started down the steps ofHappiness House.
"Gale! Wait!" Adele Stevens called and fell into step beside her. "EvenSeniors go to classes sometimes," she smiled. "Nice morning, isn't it?"
"Very," Gale agreed.
"Last night was a nice night, too," the Senior said, with twinklingeyes.
Gale laughed. "Yes. The sound of a million bells always lendsenchantment to an autumn night."
Adele laughed, too. "You and Phyllis have been good sports, Gale. Don'tthink we haven't noticed it."
"We've gotten fun out of it, too," Gale said.
"You are the kind of girls we want in Happiness House," the Seniordeclared. "But," she frowned, "Gale, we are sorry for some things----"
"Freshmen expect a lot," Gale said, smiling.
"I mean--such as Marcia Marlette."
"Oh." Gale looked across the campus, letting her eyes dwell on the redand golden brown of the leaves stirring in the breeze.
"Gale, don't ever think that the things she does have the approval ofthe whole sorority," Adele continued seriously. "She is one of ourmembers, true. She was elected to our house when she was a Freshman. Nowwe can't exactly put her out--it wouldn't be the nice thing to do andshe won't quit of her own accord. She knows we don't like what she hasbeen doing lately. Our sorority house is Happiness House. We want tokeep it that. We don't want quarrels or bickering. We want friendshipbetween the girls, friendship that lasts much longer than our collegedays. Do you see what I mean?"
Gale nodded. "I think so."
"Well, I leave you here. Remember, Gale, you and Phyllis are the sort ofgirls 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 herclass. Slowly Gale strolled along to her own class. She liked AdeleStevens.
"Was our noble president giving you some good advice?" a voice askeddryly.
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," Marcialaughed. "Freshmen always take to Adele. They plan to be like her, butthen Freshmen are idealistic and----"
"I've got to go," Gale said, and hastily ran up and into the nearestbuilding. Inside she stood in the shadows until Marcia had turned awayand was almost out of sight. Then she came out and went on morepeacefully to her own class.
Gale was finding college life more and more interesting. She did want tomake something of her life and she seriously thought of studyingmedicine. She didn't want to be a nurse--rather a doctor. The othergirls were inclined to treat such ambition with lightness. They didn'tthink much of women doctors, but Gale was still determined. Whether shewould achieve her doctor's degree was dim in the future, but at leastshe had chosen to take the pre-medical course at college. She figuredthat was a step in the right direction.
Her favorite subject right now was Chemistry. She found ProfessorLukens, the Chemistry teacher, willing to answer all and any questions.Often she lingered after classes for a further talk or experiment. Onone occasion Doctor Norcot was there and the three of them had a mostinteresting talk until the Dean and Professor Powell, assistantChemistry teacher, arrived.
"I came for you," the Dean said to the Doctor. "My secretary wassuddenly taken ill. She is in the infirmary and the nurse advisedcalling you."
"I'll come at once," the Doctor said.
Gale, too, gathered up her books and made her way to the door. There theDean 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. Theystopped on the steps outside to talk before separating. Gale was talkingto 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 stepsat their feet. The three bent over it before the Doctor whirled and raninto the building.
"A test tube of acid!" Gale cried in amazement. "I wonder how that cameto fall out the window?"
"Fall? Perhaps it was thrown," the Dean murmured, looking up at thewindows to the Chemistry room which fronted on the campus.
"Thrown!" Gale gasped. "But if that had hit one of us--the way acidburns we might have been scarred for life! No one would do such athing!"
"No," the Dean agreed unenthusiastically, "no one would do such athing."
Gale looked at her strangely. The Dean was white, whether with fear oranger, Gale did not know. From the Dean, Gale looked at the shatteredglass and up at the window. Doctor Norcot was leaning out, lookingdirectly down at them. She disappeared and a few minutes later rejoinedthem on the campus. Her face was sternly set and she answered the Dean'squestioning glance with a shake of her head.
"There was no one in the room--and the test tubes and materials are alllocked 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 fieldin back of the tennis courts where the Freshman class was practicinghockey. So deeply in thought was she that she passed several girls fromthe sorority house without recognizing them at all. That night shetalked 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 todo!"
Gale frowned. "That is what she said. Remember, too, that somebody cuther 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 hunchthat the three incidents are tied together in some way."
"Ah! Mystery at Briarhurst!" Phyllis said gayly. "But both things mighthave been accidental, you know."
"I don't think so," Gale said firmly. "A rope doesn't cut itself andsecondly, a test tube of acid doesn't walk from a locked closet and fallout 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 studieswere forgotten, the open text book on her desk did not exist. "Heavenlynight, Phyl."
From the campus below floated up a chorus of friendly voices. TheSeniors 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 leaningwith her on the window sill.
"What? The song?"
"No, I mean us. We've been here three weeks now and like it more everyday. 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 slaveaway over their books. We are to remain indoors." She continued withtwinkling eyes, "How shall we get out? By the back door?"
Gale switched out the light. On tiptoe the girls went to the rearstairs. With the silence of shadows they descended to the ground. Onceoutside they stood for several minutes in the shadows of the building,waiting for the Seniors to disappear from view. Finally they were safelyaway from the sorority house. Quickly they ran to the dormitory buildingwhere Janet and Carol were housed. Once there, another problem presenteditself.
"How'll we get in?" Phyllis wanted to know.
There were two Juniors sitting on the steps in front of the building sothat was closed to them. Gale pointed suggestively to a trellis fromwhich only lately the dried vines had been cut to leave room for newgrowth in the spring.
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"Acrobats, eh?" Phyllis giggled. "Well, why not? We used to climb ropesin gym at High School. I guess we can climb that to the second floor. Itis a good thing they don't live on the fourth," she added in a stagewhisper as she rested halfway to their goal.
Carol and Janet were bent over their books. Out of the corner of her eyeCarol 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 afterPhyllis. "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 amcramming 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 theSophomores 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.
"I'll bring them here," Madge offered.
Neither the hot chocolate nor the cookies lasted very long when once thesix girls set seriously about the task of devouring them.
"You know," Janet said, munching the icing off her cookie before she atethe rest of it, "I heard that one of the Chemistry teachers is sendingthe Dean candy and flowers."
"Mmmmm," Carol hummed.
"Romantic idiots!" Madge called them. "Because the Dean is young andgood looking you think there is a romance."
"Well, why not? Even college professors aren't immune to it. Look atGale----" Janet offered mischievously. "Even she was conquered by abirdman."
"That isn't all about the Dean," Valerie said in a whisper and theothers leaned forward in interest. "I heard someone is trying to murderher--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 withrenewed interest. "How?"
"No one knows," Valerie replied. "The maid saw the curtains blazing inthe library. She called the caretaker and he ripped them down andstamped the fire out. There was nothing they could have caught firefrom. It must have been done deliberately."
"But who?" Carol scoffed. "Why?"
"Things like that aren't done," Janet added. She looked at Phyllis andGale. "You two look as though you actually believed it."
"Tell them what you know, Gale," Phyllis advised. "But," she added, "youmustn't go around telling the other girls. We can't prove anything--itis only what we think."
"We'll be as mum as mice," Carol promised. "If we have been missinganything, tell us!"
Gale told them of the things she had discovered and of the things shesuspected. The other girls were astounded.
"We will have to appoint ourselves solvers of the mystery," Carolsuggested.
"We are the best mystery-solvers at Briarhurst," added Janet. "But wheredo 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. DeanTravis might not like our bothering with her affairs. After all, itisn'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 minutesago."
"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 adeep breath of relief. They had gotten out of the dormitory housewithout detection, but now to get back into their own room!
They sped across the campus, keeping in the shadows. Almost at the verydoor of the sorority house they were forced to halt. Crouching in theshadows of the shrubbery they waited while two figures strolled towardthem. Two women stopped directly in front of them. One was speaking andthey recognized the voice of the Dean.
"But don't you see--that candy was meant for me. If Miss Horton becameill eating it----"
The doctor nodded. "You had a narrow escape. You don't know who sent itto you?"
They continued on their way and the girls glanced at one another. Whenthey had safely and secretly entered Happiness House by the rear doorwhich they had left unlocked when they went out and were again in theirroom Phyllis smiled:
"I guess your hunch was correct."
"Mmm," Gale murmured, staring into the darkness as she lay in bed. "Doyou suppose they were talking about her secretary? If so, she became illeating candy that was originally sent to the Dean."
"Poisoned?" Phyllis hazarded.
"I don't know." Gale raised herself on one elbow and looked across atPhyllis. "Do you remember Janet saying one of the Chemistry teachers wassending her candy?"
"Say----" Phyllis sat up suddenly. "Chemistry Professor, acid, poisonedcandy--they all fit together."
"We aren't sure the candy was poisoned, but that is what I wasthinking," Gale murmured. "However, there are four Chemistryprofessors."
"The question is which one of them threw the acid and poisoned thecandy," Phyllis agreed. She yawned. "I am afraid the puzzle will have towait until morning. This detective is getting sleepy."
Gale wanted to lie awake and think over the puzzling circumstancessurrounding the Dean and her reign at Briarhurst, but she didn't, and itwas to be many weeks before the mysterious occurrences were solved.