“You mean her leg——”
“Crushed under the lumber this afternoon,” the Doctor said. “Not too badly crushed but enough to undo the healing of these past weeks.”
“Poor Phyllis!” Gale whispered.
“Do you think she would want to go home until she is well again?” the Dean asked as she walked to the door with Gale.
Gale shook her head. “No,” she said decidedly. “Phyllis wouldn’t want to go home.” Strange, perhaps, that she should choose to stay here, but even the college infirmary was brighter, more cheerful than the house on the hill to which Phyllis would have to go.
“Come and have your dinner with me,” the Dean invited.
“Thanks, no,” Gale said when they were on the campus. “I—I’d rather be alone, thank you. I have to write Phyllis’ aunt again,” she sighed.
The Dean turned toward her office and Gale toward Happiness House. She walked along, hands in her pockets, deep in thought until at last she reached the sorority house. She met Adele Stevens and Ricky and conveyed to them the news of Phyllis. After her dinner she went upstairs to study but she found she could not concentrate.
Phyllis was on her mind. Alternated with thoughts of her friend were remembrances of the conversation they had had with the Dean that afternoon. She was completely at sea as to who could be doing the mysterious things. Quite suddenly she sat erect before her desk and stared with narrowed eyes at the wall opposite. That had been a goodly pile of lumber this afternoon. It had been piled, perhaps a bit precariously, but nevertheless it had not wavered until that moment before it fell. Could it be—was it possible—that someone had pushed it? The pile really had needed but a bit of pressure to send it over. Who had exerted that bit of pressure?
At first Gale laughed at herself. It was a wild idea! No one would do that! But the more she thought about it the more plausible it became. She had thought no one would throw acid out the Chemistry Hall window—but evidently someone had!