"For pity"s sake!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Ruth. "Do tell us who it was, Sarah."
"Don"t you think I would if I could?" responded Sarah, trying to wring the water out of her narrow skirt.
Through the gloom appeared another figure-the too, too solid figure of Jennie Stone.
"Oh-dear-me! Oh-dear-me!" she panted. And then seeing Sarah Fish dripping there on the walk, Heavy fell upon the steps and giggled. "Oh, Sarah!" she gasped. "For once, your appearance fits your name, all right. You look like a fish out of its element."
"Laugh--"
"I have to," responded Heavy.
"Well, if it were you--"
"I know. I"d be floundering there in the water yet."
"But tell me!" cried Ruth, under her breath. "Was it a girl who pushed you into the fountain, Sarah?"
"It wore skirts-I"m sure of that, at least," grumbled Sarah.
"But it ran faster than any girl I ever saw run," vouchsafed Heavy.
"_Did_ you see her just skimming across the campus toward the main building? Like the wind!"
"It must be one of our girls," declared Madge.
"All right," said Heavy. "But if so, it"s a girl I never saw run before.
You can"t tell me."
"You had better go in and get off your clothes, Sarah," advised Ruth.
Then she looked at Madge. Madge was one of the oldest girls at Briarwood. "Let"s go and see if we can find the girl," Ruth suggested.
"I"m game," cried Madge, as the other stragglers mounted the steps and disappeared behind the dormitory building door.
Both girls hurried down the walk under the trees to the main building.
In one end of this Mrs. Tellingham and the Doctor had their abode. In the other end was the dining-room, with the kitchens and other offices in the bas.e.m.e.nt. Besides, Tony Foyle, who was chief man-of-all-work about the Hall, and his wife, who was cook, had their living rooms in the bas.e.m.e.nt of this building.
Ruth and Madge hoped to investigate the matter of the mysterious marauder without arousing the little old Irishman, but already they saw his lantern behind the grated window in the front bas.e.m.e.nt, and, as the two girls came nearer, they heard him grumblingly unchain the door.
"Bad "cess to "em! I seen "em cavortin" across the campus, I tell ye, Mary Ann! There"s wan of thim down here in the airy--"
It was evident that the old couple had been aroused, and that Tony was talking to his wife, who remained in the bedchamber. Ruth seized Madge"s wrist and whispered in her ear:
"You run around one way, and I"ll go the other. There must be _somebody_ about, for Tony saw her--"
"If it _is_ a girl."
"Both Sarah and Heavy say it is. I"m not afraid," declared Ruth, and she started off alone at once.
Madge disappeared around the corner. Ruth had darted into the heavily shaded s.p.a.ce between the end of the main building and the next brick structure. There were no lights here, but there was a gas lamp on a post beyond the far corner, and before she was half way to it, she saw a shadow flit across the illuminated s.p.a.ce about this post, and disappear behind a clump of s...o...b..ll bushes.
Ruth ran swiftly forward, dodged around the other end of the clump of thick bushes, and suddenly collided with somebody who uttered a m.u.f.fled scream. Ruth grabbed the girl by both shoulders and held on.
It was like trying to hold a wildcat. The girl, who was considerably smaller, and far slighter than Ruth, struggled madly to escape. She did not say a word at first, only straining to get away from Ruth"s strong grip.
"Now stop! now wait!" panted Ruth. "I want to know who you are--"
The other tugged her best, but the girl of the Red Mill was very strong for her age, and she held on.
"Stop!" panted Ruth again. "If you make a noise, you"ll bring old Tony here-and then you _will_ be in trouble. I want to know who you are and what you were doing down there at the fountain-and why you pushed Sarah into the water?"
"And I"d like to push _you_ in!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the other girl, suddenly.
"You let go of me, or I"ll scratch you!"
"You can"t," replied Ruth, firmly. "I"m holding you too tight."
"Then I"ll bite you!" vowed the other.
"Why-you"re a regular wild girl," exclaimed Ruth. "You stop struggling, or I"ll shout for help, and then Tony will come running."
"D-don"t give me away," gasped the strange girl, suddenly ceasing her struggles.
"Do you belong here?" demanded Ruth.
"Belong here? Naw! I don"t belong nowheres. An" you better lemme go, Miss."
"Why-you _are_ a strange girl," said Ruth, greatly amazed. "You can"t be one of us Briarwoods."
"That ain"t my name a-tall," whispered the frightened girl. "My name"s Raby."
"But what were you doing over there at the fountain?"
"Gettin" a drink. Was _that_ any harm?" demanded the girl, sharply. "I"d found some dry pieces of bread the cook had put on top of a box there by the back door. I reckoned she didn"t want the bread, and _I_ did."
"Oh, dear me!" whispered Ruth.
"And dry bread"s dry eatin"," said the strange girl. "I had ter have a drink o" water to wash it down. And jest as I got down into that little place where I seed the fountain this afternoon--"
"Oh, my, dear!" gasped Ruth. "Have you been lurking about the school all that time and never came and asked good old Mary Ann for something decent to eat?"
"Huh! mebbe she"d a drove me off. Or mebbe she"d done worse to me," said the other, quickly. "They beat me again day "fore yesterday--"
"Who beat you?" demanded Ruth.
"Them Perkinses. Now! don"t you go for to tell I said that. I don"t want to go back to "em-and their house ain"t such a fur ways from here. If that cook-or any other grown folk-seen me, they"d want to send me back.
I know "em!" exclaimed the girl, bitterly. "But mebbe you"ll be decent about it, and keep your mouth shut."
"Oh! I won"t tell a soul," murmured Ruth. "But I"m so sorry. Only dry bread and water-"
"Huh! it"ll keep a feller alive," said this strangely spoken girl. "I ain"t no softie. Now, you lemme go, will yer? My! but you _are_ strong."