"Well then, it"s lovely she is to have her wish," commented Betty brightly.
"Oh, goodness, I don"t see that we"re ever going to have four years,"
confessed Norma. "If you knew what they"ve given up at home to send us for this term! And though we wouldn"t say anything, mother and grandma worked so hard to get us ready, Alice and I are positively ashamed of our clothes. You see, Betty, I think when you"re poor, you ought to go where you"ll meet other poor girls. Alice and I ought to have entered the Glenside high school, I think. But when I said something like that to dad he said it would break mother"s heart. But if she knew how hard it was to be poor and to have to rub elbows with girls who have everything--"
"I don"t think you ought to feel that way," urged Betty. "You have something that no amount of money could buy for you, and no lack can take away--birth and breeding. And the training your mother wants you to have is worth sacrificing other things for. Ever since I heard Mrs. Eustice talk I feel that I know what makes her school really successful."
A soft tap fell on the door.
"Lights go off in ten minutes, girls," said Miss Lacey pleasantly.
"Do you know, Betty," confessed Norma hurriedly, "dad has lost quite a lot of money lately. He"s such a dear he never can bear to press payment of a bill and half the county owes him. And a friend got him to invest what he did have in some silly stock that never amounted to a hill of beans, as the farmers say. So it"s no wonder the Macklin fortune worries mother whenever she thinks of it; a family like ours could use money so easily."
"Most families are like that," said Betty, with a flash of Uncle d.i.c.k"s humor. "I didn"t like to ask, Norma, but your grandmother must have been wealthy."
"She was," confirmed Norma. "Not fabulously so, of course. But even in those days when lavish hospitality was common Grandma Macklin was famous for the way she ran the estate. She was left a widow when a very young woman, and mother was her only child. Her husband didn"t believe women knew very much about money, and he left his fortune mostly in bonds and jewels--the most magnificent diamonds in three counties, grandma says hers were. And she had a rope of emeralds and two strings of exquisitely matched pearls. Besides, there were rose topazes and lovely cameos and oh, goodness, I couldn"t repeat the list; Alice and I have been brought up on the story.
"Well, about the time mother had finished school, Grandma Macklin came to the end of her bank account. Several mortgages had been paid her in gold, and she kept this money with the jewelry and a lot of solid silver in a little safe in her room. Foolish, of course, but she says others did it in those days, too. She meant to take the gold and some of the diamonds to her lawyer and get a check which would take her and mother around the world on a luxurious cruise. And the day before she had the appointment with Mr. Davies--"
A soft blackness settled down over the girls like a blanket. The electric lights had gone out!
"Move closer, and I"ll finish," whispered Norma.
Betty snuggled up between the two, and shivered a little with excitement.
"The day before she was to drive to Edentown," repeated Norma, "a band of Indians from the reservation in the next state came through on their annual tramping trip and walked in on poor little grandma as she sat at her mahogany secretary turning over her jewels and counting her beautiful shining gold. Every darkey on the place fled in terror, and those rascally Indians simply scooped up everything in sight and locked grandma and mother in the room!"
"Couldn"t any one stop them?" demanded Betty eagerly. "Surely a band of Indians could have been easily traced. Didn"t any one try?"
"Oh, they tried," admitted Norma. "That"s the maddening part. Suppose I told you, Betty, that I know where grandma"s inheritance is this minute?"
CHAPTER XIII
THE MYSTERIOUS FOUR
"Well, for mercy"s sake!" said Betty in exasperation, "if you know where the property is, why don"t you claim it? Why doesn"t your mother?
Where is it?"
"At the bottom of Indian Chasm," declared Norma calmly.
"Where"s that?"
"I don"t know exactly," admitted Norma. "It"s around here somewhere. You see the Indians streaked for the woods, and mother got out by way of a window and ran to the next estate. The men and boys there armed themselves and took horses and chased the Redskins, and when they were almost up with them the robbers tossed everything down this great canyon in the earth. There was no way to get into it, and though they tried lowering men with ropes, they couldn"t find a solitary gold piece. As far as any one knows it is all at the bottom of the chasm now."
"And grandma had to mortgage the house and they couldn"t pay the interest and it was sold and all the lovely mahogany furniture," mourned Alice.
"And grandma and mother moved to New York and mother taught school and met dad, who was a medical student. And they were married when he graduated, and grandma came to live with "em."
Betty crept away to her own bed when the story was finished. Bobby was asleep, for which her chum was thankful. Betty wanted to think. Surely there must be a way to recover the Macklin fortune, if it was still down in the big chasm.
"I"ll tell Bob and we"ll go and find that place. Perhaps he can think of a plan," was Betty"s last thought before she went to sleep.
The next few days were very busy ones for every pupil. Ada and Ruth, in tears, submitted to having their wardrobes censored, and thereafter appeared in clothes that were not too striking.
The appointments with Mrs. Eustice materialized, and Betty, after her interview, was conscious of a sincere affection for the woman who seemed to understand girls so thoroughly.
Bobby was "crazy," to quote her own expression, about the gymnasium cla.s.ses, and Miss Anderson beamed approvingly upon her. Betty, too, was often to be found in the gymnasium after school hours, but Libbie had to be driven to regular exercise. She liked to dance, but unless some one was made responsible for her, she was p.r.o.ne to cut her regular gymnasium period and devote the time to some thrilling novel. When the other girls discovered this they good-naturedly made up a schedule for the week, a.s.signing a different day to every girl whose duty it should be to "seal, sign and deliver" the reluctant Libbie at the gymnasium door at the appointed time.
Mrs. Eustice, rather peculiarly some people thought--Ada Nansen"s mother among them--held the theory that school girls should spend a fair proportion of their time in study. She had small patience with the faddist type of school that abhorred "night work" and whose students specialized on "manners" to the neglect of spelling.
"I dislike the term "finishing school,"" she had once said. "I try to teach my girls that what they learn in school fits them for beginning life."
So from seven to half-past eight every night, except Friday, the pupils at Shadyside were busy with their books. They might study in their rooms, provided their marks for the preceding week were satisfactory, but those who fell below a certain percentage were sentenced to prepare their lessons in the study hall under the eye of a teacher.
The second Friday night of the term the new students were warned by little pink c.o.c.ked notes to remain in their rooms after dinner until they had been inspected by the "Mysterious Four."
"It"s a secret society," Bobby announced the moment she had read her note. "Well, let"s go upstairs and prepare to be inspected."
The eight gathered in Betty and Bobby"s room, and though they were expecting it, the knock, when it finally did come, made them all jump.
"Come--come in," stammered Betty and Bobby together.
Four veiled figures entered, each carrying something in her hand. They spoke in disguised voices, though as they were upper cla.s.smen they were fairly safe from recognition; the new girls were hardly acquainted among themselves and knew few of the older students by name.
"Freshmen," said the tallest figure, "when we enter, rise."
The eight leaped to their feet at a bound.
"Do you wish to become members of the Mysterious Four?" demanded the second figure.
"Oh, yes," chorused the willing victims.
"It is well," chanted the third figure.
"It is well," echoed the fourth.
"I don"t," said Libbie calmly.
"Don"t what?" questioned the tallest figure, evidently appointed chief spokesman.
"Want to be a member of the Mysterious Four," announced Libbie, who had an obstinate streak in her make-up.
"Unfortunately," the spokesman informed her, "you haven"t any choice in the matter; you"re elected one already."
While Libbie was thinking up an answer, which considering the finality of that statement, was not an easy matter, the tall draped figure went on to explain to the interested girls that there were two degrees to be undergone before one could be a full fledged member of the Mysterious Four.