CHAPTER XX—STOLEN“Oh, but how do we know?” protested Laura. “It looks like machinery of some kind, but we have no way of proving that it is the stolen invention.” “No,” said Billie, still in a kind of daze. “It may be just some old worthless thing that has been put up here because it is of no use to anybody. But then again——”“Oh, I think Laura’s right,” put in Vi, to whom this new find of Billie’s was not very interesting. It seemed absurd to put any value on that queer-looking thing. And besides, she was anxious to get out of that musty, ill-smelling place. “I thought of Mrs. Haddon at first too, but——”“Hello! I wonder what this is,” Laura interrupted her. There had been some blue prints lying on the floor near the wooden machinery. In the poor light they had remained unnoticed until Laura had stumbled upon them quite by accident.In her eagerness, Billie forgot to be polite. She snatched the papers from 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 so wildly 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, and down at the foot of one page the designer had put his name—Henry Haddon.“Girls, girls, look!” cried Billie, almost beside herself with excitement at her discovery. “Now maybe you’ll dare to say I’m crazy and I don’t know what I’m talking about. I dreamed of it two nights in succession, and now my dream has come true——”“Well, for goodness’ sake, stop waving that thing around and tell us what you’re raving about,” commanded Laura, snatching the blue print from Billie in her turn, while Vi crowded close, looking curiously over her shoulder.“Here! At the bottom of this page!” crowed Billie, pointing out the name. “See it? Henry Haddon!”“Henry Haddon!” repeated Laura excitedly. “Then it looks as if that really were his invention.”“It is the knitting machinery model!” cried Vi, forgetting that a moment ago 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? Next time maybe you’ll believe your Uncle Billie.”“I—guess—yes!” said Laura, still staring at the blue prints as though she could not believe they were real. “You surely did have the right idea 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. Haddon and 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 found it.”So Laura put the important papers back on the spot where she had found them, or as near to it as she could remember.She then backed out of the room and felt her way down the ladder. Vi followed, treading on her fingers, so that she let go and very nearly tumbled to the floor.Billie came last, for she was to lock the door.But a strange thing happened. Either excitement had made Billie’s fingers clumsy or something had really happened to the rusty lock. At any rate, she could not get the door locked again and after a few minutes of nervous fumbling, interspersed with remarks from the girls that were anything but encouraging, she gave up the attempt.“Oh, well, we’ll be back in a little while, anyway,” she said, as she came down swiftly hand over hand and dropped to the floor beside the girls. “Come on now, let’s hurry and find Mrs. Haddon.”They scurried down the stairs and were hurrying to their dormitory to get on coats and hats when a voice hailed them and they stopped impatiently to find Rose Belser hurrying toward them.“Have you heard the latest, girls?” asked the dark-haired girl excitedly, for once forgetting her sleepy drawl.“No,” said Billie, trying not to sound as impatient as she felt, while Laura and Vi frowned openly.“It’s up on the bulletin board,” Rose told them, too full of her own news to notice their annoyance. “Connie Danvers has lost a gold wrist watch and Miss Walters is very much upset about it. She says that the thief, whoever it is, must be found. And she has ordered that no girl leave 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 a death sentence had just been pronounced upon her. “Oh, why couldn’t Connie have held on to her old watch!”Rose’s look of surprise was so genuine that it put Billie instantly on her guard. The chums were not ready yet to take anybody into their confidence about the new discovery.And so she covered her slip as well as she could, and they went on together to the dormitory, exclaiming sympathetically over Connie’s loss.The next morning came at last, however, and as it was Sunday, the girls were free to go as soon as the morning chapel hour was over. But as Miss Walters would not allow any girl to leave the building without special permission from her, the classmates were forced to go to her and tell her about their invasion of the tower room and their discovery.She was displeased that they had not asked her consent before taking such a step. But she was also very much interested in their story, and readily gave them her permission to go to Polly Haddon.“Bring her back with you, if you can,” she said, “and we will all go together to the tower room.”“Now for the fun!” cried Laura, as a few minutes later they stepped out into the crisp air. “Whew! I think we got off lots better than we expected. I thought Miss Walters would be awfully mad.”“Probably she would have been if she hadn’t had so many other things to worry about,” said Vi.“Poor Connie!” said Billie. “It surely is too bad about her watch. It was 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 feel guilty myself.”“Do you think——” Vi began, then flushed as the girls looked at her and stopped.“What?” asked Laura adding, as Vi still hesitated. “Come on—we won’t eat 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 the very 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 enough for anything.”Billie had no answer for that, and so she said nothing. But she was more than 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 good news they were bringing her.They knocked on the door, and the moment it was opened pushed eagerly inside and turned to face the astonished widow.Billie started to speak, but Laura, with her usual impulsiveness, was before her.“We’ve got good news, Mrs. Haddon,” she blurted out. “We’ve found your lost invention.”Billie gasped with dismay as Mrs. Haddon turned deathly white and grasped the back of a chair for support.“Oh, Laura, you shouldn’t!” cried Billie, as she put an arm about the woman and helped her into a chair. “Get some water, quick! There’s a glass in the sink.”But Mrs. Haddon brushed her impatiently aside.“I’m not going to faint,” she said brusquely. “Tell me why you said that. Hurry!”But Laura thought she had done enough speechmaking for one day, and it was Billie who answered the woman’s questions.“It must be ours,” said the latter, at last. “I will go with you and make sure. Peter? Yes, he will be all right till I get back. He is much better. I will be ready in a moment.”She returned in less than a minute, a hat perched carelessly on her head and a shawl around her shoulders. Her eyes burned bright in her thin face.No one spoke on the way back. Mrs. Haddon, her lips set and her eyes fixed straight ahead, said not a word, and the girls were too awed by her 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 way straight to the tower room.The girls ran up the ladder ahead of the two older women. The latter followed more slowly. Billie pushed open the little door and entered the room.Then she started, gasped, rubbed her hand across her eyes to make sure she was not dreaming. For the spot where the queer wooden machinery had stood was empty. The invention was gone; and the blue prints were gone, too!
CHAPTER XX—STOLEN“Oh, but how do we know?” protested Laura. “It looks like machinery of some kind, but we have no way of proving that it is the stolen invention.” “No,” said Billie, still in a kind of daze. “It may be just some old worthless thing that has been put up here because it is of no use to anybody. But then again——”“Oh, I think Laura’s right,” put in Vi, to whom this new find of Billie’s was not very interesting. It seemed absurd to put any value on that queer-looking thing. And besides, she was anxious to get out of that musty, ill-smelling place. “I thought of Mrs. Haddon at first too, but——”“Hello! I wonder what this is,” Laura interrupted her. There had been some blue prints lying on the floor near the wooden machinery. In the poor light they had remained unnoticed until Laura had stumbled upon them quite by accident.In her eagerness, Billie forgot to be polite. She snatched the papers from 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 so wildly 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, and down at the foot of one page the designer had put his name—Henry Haddon.“Girls, girls, look!” cried Billie, almost beside herself with excitement at her discovery. “Now maybe you’ll dare to say I’m crazy and I don’t know what I’m talking about. I dreamed of it two nights in succession, and now my dream has come true——”“Well, for goodness’ sake, stop waving that thing around and tell us what you’re raving about,” commanded Laura, snatching the blue print from Billie in her turn, while Vi crowded close, looking curiously over her shoulder.“Here! At the bottom of this page!” crowed Billie, pointing out the name. “See it? Henry Haddon!”“Henry Haddon!” repeated Laura excitedly. “Then it looks as if that really were his invention.”“It is the knitting machinery model!” cried Vi, forgetting that a moment ago 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? Next time maybe you’ll believe your Uncle Billie.”“I—guess—yes!” said Laura, still staring at the blue prints as though she could not believe they were real. “You surely did have the right idea 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. Haddon and 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 found it.”So Laura put the important papers back on the spot where she had found them, or as near to it as she could remember.She then backed out of the room and felt her way down the ladder. Vi followed, treading on her fingers, so that she let go and very nearly tumbled to the floor.Billie came last, for she was to lock the door.But a strange thing happened. Either excitement had made Billie’s fingers clumsy or something had really happened to the rusty lock. At any rate, she could not get the door locked again and after a few minutes of nervous fumbling, interspersed with remarks from the girls that were anything but encouraging, she gave up the attempt.“Oh, well, we’ll be back in a little while, anyway,” she said, as she came down swiftly hand over hand and dropped to the floor beside the girls. “Come on now, let’s hurry and find Mrs. Haddon.”They scurried down the stairs and were hurrying to their dormitory to get on coats and hats when a voice hailed them and they stopped impatiently to find Rose Belser hurrying toward them.“Have you heard the latest, girls?” asked the dark-haired girl excitedly, for once forgetting her sleepy drawl.“No,” said Billie, trying not to sound as impatient as she felt, while Laura and Vi frowned openly.“It’s up on the bulletin board,” Rose told them, too full of her own news to notice their annoyance. “Connie Danvers has lost a gold wrist watch and Miss Walters is very much upset about it. She says that the thief, whoever it is, must be found. And she has ordered that no girl leave 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 a death sentence had just been pronounced upon her. “Oh, why couldn’t Connie have held on to her old watch!”Rose’s look of surprise was so genuine that it put Billie instantly on her guard. The chums were not ready yet to take anybody into their confidence about the new discovery.And so she covered her slip as well as she could, and they went on together to the dormitory, exclaiming sympathetically over Connie’s loss.The next morning came at last, however, and as it was Sunday, the girls were free to go as soon as the morning chapel hour was over. But as Miss Walters would not allow any girl to leave the building without special permission from her, the classmates were forced to go to her and tell her about their invasion of the tower room and their discovery.She was displeased that they had not asked her consent before taking such a step. But she was also very much interested in their story, and readily gave them her permission to go to Polly Haddon.“Bring her back with you, if you can,” she said, “and we will all go together to the tower room.”“Now for the fun!” cried Laura, as a few minutes later they stepped out into the crisp air. “Whew! I think we got off lots better than we expected. I thought Miss Walters would be awfully mad.”“Probably she would have been if she hadn’t had so many other things to worry about,” said Vi.“Poor Connie!” said Billie. “It surely is too bad about her watch. It was 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 feel guilty myself.”“Do you think——” Vi began, then flushed as the girls looked at her and stopped.“What?” asked Laura adding, as Vi still hesitated. “Come on—we won’t eat 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 the very 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 enough for anything.”Billie had no answer for that, and so she said nothing. But she was more than 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 good news they were bringing her.They knocked on the door, and the moment it was opened pushed eagerly inside and turned to face the astonished widow.Billie started to speak, but Laura, with her usual impulsiveness, was before her.“We’ve got good news, Mrs. Haddon,” she blurted out. “We’ve found your lost invention.”Billie gasped with dismay as Mrs. Haddon turned deathly white and grasped the back of a chair for support.“Oh, Laura, you shouldn’t!” cried Billie, as she put an arm about the woman and helped her into a chair. “Get some water, quick! There’s a glass in the sink.”But Mrs. Haddon brushed her impatiently aside.“I’m not going to faint,” she said brusquely. “Tell me why you said that. Hurry!”But Laura thought she had done enough speechmaking for one day, and it was Billie who answered the woman’s questions.“It must be ours,” said the latter, at last. “I will go with you and make sure. Peter? Yes, he will be all right till I get back. He is much better. I will be ready in a moment.”She returned in less than a minute, a hat perched carelessly on her head and a shawl around her shoulders. Her eyes burned bright in her thin face.No one spoke on the way back. Mrs. Haddon, her lips set and her eyes fixed straight ahead, said not a word, and the girls were too awed by her 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 way straight to the tower room.The girls ran up the ladder ahead of the two older women. The latter followed more slowly. Billie pushed open the little door and entered the room.Then she started, gasped, rubbed her hand across her eyes to make sure she was not dreaming. For the spot where the queer wooden machinery had stood was empty. The invention was gone; and the blue prints were gone, too!
“Oh, but how do we know?” protested Laura. “It looks like machinery of some kind, but we have no way of proving that it is the stolen invention.” “No,” said Billie, still in a kind of daze. “It may be just some old worthless thing that has been put up here because it is of no use to anybody. But then again——”
“Oh, I think Laura’s right,” put in Vi, to whom this new find of Billie’s was not very interesting. It seemed absurd to put any value on that queer-looking thing. And besides, she was anxious to get out of that musty, ill-smelling place. “I thought of Mrs. Haddon at first too, but——”
“Hello! I wonder what this is,” Laura interrupted her. There had been some blue prints lying on the floor near the wooden machinery. In the poor light they had remained unnoticed until Laura had stumbled upon them quite by accident.
In her eagerness, Billie forgot to be polite. She snatched the papers from 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 so wildly 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, and down at the foot of one page the designer had put his name—Henry Haddon.
“Girls, girls, look!” cried Billie, almost beside herself with excitement at her discovery. “Now maybe you’ll dare to say I’m crazy and I don’t know what I’m talking about. I dreamed of it two nights in succession, and now my dream has come true——”
“Well, for goodness’ sake, stop waving that thing around and tell us what you’re raving about,” commanded Laura, snatching the blue print from Billie in her turn, while Vi crowded close, looking curiously over her shoulder.
“Here! At the bottom of this page!” crowed Billie, pointing out the name. “See it? Henry Haddon!”
“Henry Haddon!” repeated Laura excitedly. “Then it looks as if that really were his invention.”
“It is the knitting machinery model!” cried Vi, forgetting that a moment ago 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? Next time maybe you’ll believe your Uncle Billie.”
“I—guess—yes!” said Laura, still staring at the blue prints as though she could not believe they were real. “You surely did have the right idea 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. Haddon and 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 found it.”
So Laura put the important papers back on the spot where she had found them, or as near to it as she could remember.
She then backed out of the room and felt her way down the ladder. Vi followed, treading on her fingers, so that she let go and very nearly tumbled to the floor.
Billie came last, for she was to lock the door.
But a strange thing happened. Either excitement had made Billie’s fingers clumsy or something had really happened to the rusty lock. At any rate, she could not get the door locked again and after a few minutes of nervous fumbling, interspersed with remarks from the girls that were anything but encouraging, she gave up the attempt.
“Oh, well, we’ll be back in a little while, anyway,” she said, as she came down swiftly hand over hand and dropped to the floor beside the girls. “Come on now, let’s hurry and find Mrs. Haddon.”
They scurried down the stairs and were hurrying to their dormitory to get on coats and hats when a voice hailed them and they stopped impatiently to find Rose Belser hurrying toward them.
“Have you heard the latest, girls?” asked the dark-haired girl excitedly, for once forgetting her sleepy drawl.
“No,” said Billie, trying not to sound as impatient as she felt, while Laura and Vi frowned openly.
“It’s up on the bulletin board,” Rose told them, too full of her own news to notice their annoyance. “Connie Danvers has lost a gold wrist watch and Miss Walters is very much upset about it. She says that the thief, whoever it is, must be found. And she has ordered that no girl leave 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 a death sentence had just been pronounced upon her. “Oh, why couldn’t Connie have held on to her old watch!”
Rose’s look of surprise was so genuine that it put Billie instantly on her guard. The chums were not ready yet to take anybody into their confidence about the new discovery.
And so she covered her slip as well as she could, and they went on together to the dormitory, exclaiming sympathetically over Connie’s loss.
The next morning came at last, however, and as it was Sunday, the girls were free to go as soon as the morning chapel hour was over. But as Miss Walters would not allow any girl to leave the building without special permission from her, the classmates were forced to go to her and tell her about their invasion of the tower room and their discovery.
She was displeased that they had not asked her consent before taking such a step. But she was also very much interested in their story, and readily gave them her permission to go to Polly Haddon.
“Bring her back with you, if you can,” she said, “and we will all go together to the tower room.”
“Now for the fun!” cried Laura, as a few minutes later they stepped out into the crisp air. “Whew! I think we got off lots better than we expected. I thought Miss Walters would be awfully mad.”
“Probably she would have been if she hadn’t had so many other things to worry about,” said Vi.
“Poor Connie!” said Billie. “It surely is too bad about her watch. It was 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 feel guilty myself.”
“Do you think——” Vi began, then flushed as the girls looked at her and stopped.
“What?” asked Laura adding, as Vi still hesitated. “Come on—we won’t eat 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 the very 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 enough for anything.”
Billie had no answer for that, and so she said nothing. But she was more than 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 good news they were bringing her.
They knocked on the door, and the moment it was opened pushed eagerly inside and turned to face the astonished widow.
Billie started to speak, but Laura, with her usual impulsiveness, was before her.
“We’ve got good news, Mrs. Haddon,” she blurted out. “We’ve found your lost invention.”
Billie gasped with dismay as Mrs. Haddon turned deathly white and grasped the back of a chair for support.
“Oh, Laura, you shouldn’t!” cried Billie, as she put an arm about the woman and helped her into a chair. “Get some water, quick! There’s a glass in the sink.”
But Mrs. Haddon brushed her impatiently aside.
“I’m not going to faint,” she said brusquely. “Tell me why you said that. Hurry!”
But Laura thought she had done enough speechmaking for one day, and it was Billie who answered the woman’s questions.
“It must be ours,” said the latter, at last. “I will go with you and make sure. Peter? Yes, he will be all right till I get back. He is much better. I will be ready in a moment.”
She returned in less than a minute, a hat perched carelessly on her head and a shawl around her shoulders. Her eyes burned bright in her thin face.
No one spoke on the way back. Mrs. Haddon, her lips set and her eyes fixed straight ahead, said not a word, and the girls were too awed by her 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 way straight to the tower room.
The girls ran up the ladder ahead of the two older women. The latter followed more slowly. Billie pushed open the little door and entered the room.
Then she started, gasped, rubbed her hand across her eyes to make sure she was not dreaming. For the spot where the queer wooden machinery had stood was empty. The invention was gone; and the blue prints were gone, too!