Annie"s cowl had slipped back and above her mask her pretty hair, the colour of ripe wheat, showed plainly, making no doubt of her ident.i.ty. I looked back at the mysterious eyes and an almost uncontrollable desire to go off into hysterics seized me. I suddenly remembered the hop at Willoughby and how I had sat out a dance with Wink White the night he proposed. The mystery was solved.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Stephen White!" I gasped. "I know you now and I know that that good dancer floating around with Annie Pore is Harvie Price, and that that little square figure with Mary Flannagan is no other than Shorty Hawkins. Don"t you know that if Miss Plympton finds out about this that every last one of our crowd will get shipped without a character to stand on?"
I know Wink wanted to giggle when I talked about a character to stand on, but he was too much in awe of my anger to giggle or do anything but plead with me to forgive him.
"You see, dear Page----"
"I am not "dear Page" and I don"t see!" I e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed.
"But it was this way. I came over from the University with Harvie Price to see you, and when I got here, found out the old rules were so strict and ridiculous that I could not get near you in any other way----"
"Well, getting near me was not necessary," I stormed.
"You had better calm yourself or you will give the whole game away,"
admonished Wink; so I did try to compose myself and speak in a whisper.
"Well, you had better get a move on you and depart as rapidly as possible."
"Page, please don"t be mad with me. I thought it would just be a lark and you, of all persons, would think it was a good joke," and the eyes through the holes looked very sad and pleading.
"Well, you don"t know me. I like a joke as well as any one in the world, but to get in a mixup at boarding school because of a lot of boys is not in my line. It would be harder on Annie Pore than any of us because her father is so severe. He would never forgive her if she should get in a real sc.r.a.pe."
"But it isn"t your fault. You were none of you aware of our intention of coming."
"That makes not a whit of difference to Miss Plympton. She never believes us, no matter what we say. It is twenty-three minutes to nine and you had better grab Harvie and Shorty and beat it. At nine sharp if you don"t take your mask off some one will pull it off."
"Well, I don"t care if they do; I am going to get a dance with the Tucker twins if I have to be thrown out. Which is Miss Dee?"
As I had a secret desire to turn Stephen White"s supposed affection for me into the proper channel, namely, in the direction of Dee, who was much more suited to him than I was, I could not resist the temptation of telling him, although in doing so I certainly placed myself in a position precarious, to say the least. I was aiding and abetting him in this attempt to hood-wink the school of Gresham. I was also getting the twins into the sc.r.a.pe with me by pointing them out to this terrible person, a male in a girl"s school. I did not think of this until I had told Wink that all of our quintette had big black V"s on our backs and he had made for the twirling twins and broken in on them. He got Dee, just by luck, and Dum sank on the bench by me.
"Dum, do you know who that is that just got Dee?" I asked.
"No, I have been wondering who she is and who that tall girl is with Annie Pore."
"Well, get ready to hear something, but don"t faint or scream," and I whispered to her the names of the venturesome boys. She only gasped and then went off into convulsions of laughter. "It is all very funny," I continued, "but tell me, what are we going to do if Miss Plympton finds it out?"
"But she mustn"t. We must get them out of here before we unmask. Don"t you think Annie knows by this time that that is Harvie she is dancing with, and do you think for an instant that Mary and Dee are not on?"
The music stopped just then and our quintette with the partners collected in our corner. Annie was trembling with fright, but was evidently having a pretty good time in spite of her fears, and Mary was in a gale only equalled to Tom Hawkins"s.
"Don"t stop for adieux," I admonished. "Remember if you are caught all the blame will fall on us, and while I like all of you well enough, I have no desire to be expelled for the sake of having danced with you."
This was rather sobering to their gaiety, and after whispered directions of how best to get out of the building, the three ghostly figures glided off. I was awfully afraid that some one had overheard, but no one seemed to be especially interested in us just then and I could but pray that we had been un.o.bserved.
As Wink had pressed my hand in farewell, he had begged for forgiveness and had said he intended to see us again by hook or crook. He was to be at Hill Top until Sunday night.
"It will be in church, then," I had declared, because I was determined that I was not going to get into any more of a sc.r.a.pe than I was already in. I was very much relieved that the boys were gone, and my anger cooled down, although I was certainly disgusted that they had so little considered us in this mad escapade. I don"t see why the pastors and masters of the young make it such a crime for boys and girls to have a good time together if they are off at boarding school. How much better it would have been if Miss Plympton had just invited the boys of Hill Top to come to the party and let us dance all we wanted to. There is certainly no harm in it in the summer, and why should there be harm in it then?
At nine the masks were off and then we had the slight refreshments (very slight), followed by rather tame dancing until the ten o"clock gong warned us that in a few minutes lights would be out.
CHAPTER VII.
WHEN GHOST MEETS GHOST.
"Gee, but I"m hungry!" exclaimed Dum, as we trailed our sheeted forms up the stairs. "Did you ever see such slim eats in all your life? Why, my cake was cut so thin and my ice cream was so scant, they could not have pa.s.sed muster even at a church fair!"
"Shh! Don"t say a word, but I"ve got a box under my mattress. You let Annie and Mary know, while I see Jean Rice and Nancy Blair. We"ll meet in the Gym at eleven. I believe we will be safe from old Mr. Ryan. He is sure to keep away from there as he knows that the skull lanterns are still up. We had better not try to have the spread in our room as we are so close to teachers. Tell Mary and Annie to get their dummies ready and tell Dee to start on ours. I"ll be up just as soon as I put Jean and Nancy on."
Jean Rice and Nancy Blair were two girls we had been seeing a good deal of. They were full of fun and while they were rather a frivolous pair, they were nice and good tempered and always ready for a lark. You could count on them to join in on any hazardous expedition.
When eleven o"clock struck we were ready to repair to the Gym for our secret repast. We kept on our sheets and masks as part of the fun. We had made our dummies ready and tucked them in their little downies before we ventured forth. The corridors were dark and silent. The Gym was at the far end of the building from us, down two flights of stairs.
We judged it prudent to separate and go one by one a few seconds apart as, if we should by chance run against any one in authority, it was easier for one to escape than five. I went first, the box of fried chicken clasped in my arms: Dum followed me with the beaten biscuit; then came Mary with ham sandwiches; and Annie close behind her, carefully hugging the caramel cake, too timid to let the s.p.a.ce be too great between her and her friend. Dee valiantly brought up the rear with stuffed eggs and pickles.
We found three girls instead of two waiting in the gymnasium. I thought Jean and Nancy had brought a friend and went up to make her welcome.
They had lighted some of the pumpkin and skull lanterns and were standing with an air of expectancy.
"h.e.l.lo, girls!" I whispered, "you beat us to it, didn"t you? Which of you is which?"
"You tell us who you are first," demanded one of the figures, "and then we will tell you."
"I am Page Allison. I bet you are Nancy Blair."
There was a giggle from the masks. It was another bunch of Juniors on pleasure bent. They were waiting for five more girls and were going to have a spread and a ghost dance.
It turned out that what one might call the cream of the Junior cla.s.s was gathered there. If we got caught, it meant the whole cla.s.s in disgrace, as it would be a well-known fact that the members of the cla.s.s who were missing were so only because they were not asked to be present. It gave us a great feeling of security to be fifteen strong. We were seven and these eight more girls brought the number of law breakers up to fifteen.
There were only twenty-five Juniors in the school and that left ten girls who were either too goody-goody to be included or not sufficiently attractive, which is not in itself a crime but is certainly unfortunate.
The spread was wonderful. The little dabs of ice cream and cake we had been served at the party had only whetted our appet.i.tes and in no way diminished them. We ate in silence broken by whispers and giggles. We hoped the teachers and Miss Plympton were safe in their downies and we trusted in Mr. Ryan"s superst.i.tious nature to keep him out of the Gym.
The ghost dance began later and was kept up buoyantly, without music except a weird rhythmic whistling that the dancers themselves furnished.
This whistling is done by sucking in and never blowing out and the effect is most uncanny. It is very hard on your wind to whistle this way, but when your breath gives out, your partner picks up the tune where you leave off and keeps the ball rolling.
The last candle burned down to its socket and guttered out, and then the spectres flitted back to their rooms. It was pitch black in the corridors and Annie was afraid to go alone, so we formed a cordon by catching hold of hands and crept along, keeping close to the walls. I was in front and once when we were quite near our rooms I came bang against a human hand groping along the wall towards me. I stopped dead still! It was all I could do to keep from squealing right out, but a sound of scurrying down the hall rea.s.sured me. It was just a student as afraid of being caught as I was.
"Who goes there?" I demanded in stern and grown-up tones.
No answer but more scurrying and in a moment the sound of a door cautiously closed.
"Some poor girl scared to death," I thought. We found our rooms in the dark and with the help of an electric search light, the pride of Dee"s heart, we s.n.a.t.c.hed our poor dummies out of their warm beds and were soon snuggled down in their places.
"How do you reckon it happened there were no lights in the halls?"
whispered Dum.
"Nancy Blair told me she had turned them out on purpose," said Dee. "She said she knew we would get caught if there was any light."