CHAPTER XIX
A LAST CHANCE
Helen’s choice of closed windows in preference to invading companies of moths and June-bugs had made the room so insufferably warm that between heat and excitement Betty could not get to sleep. Instead she tossed restlessly about on her narrow couch, listening to the banging of the trolleys at the next corner and wishing she were still sitting on the breezy front seat, as the car dashed down the long hill toward the station. At length she slipped softly out of bed and opened the door. Perhaps the breeze would come in better then. As she stood for a moment testing the result of her experiment, she noticed with surprise that Eleanor’s door was likewise open. This simple fact astonished her, because she remembered that on the hottest nights last fall Eleanor had persisted in shutting and locking her door. She had acquired the habit from living so much in hotels, she said; she could never go to sleep at all so long as her door was unfastened. “Perhaps it’s all right,” thought Betty, “but it looks queer. I believe I’ll just see if she’s in bed.” So she crept softly across the hall and looked into Eleanor’s room. It was empty, and the couch was in its daytime dress, covered with an oriental spread and piled high with pillows. “I suppose she stopped on the campus and got belated,” was Betty’s first idea. “But no, she couldn’t stay down there all night, and it’s long after ten. It must be half past eleven. I’ll–I’d better consult–Katherine.”
She chose Katherine instead of Rachel, because she had heard Eleanor speak about going to Paradise, and so could best help to decide whether it was reasonable to suppose that she was still there. Rachel was steadier and more dependable, but Katherine was resourceful and quick-witted. Besides, she was not a bit afraid of the dark.
She was sound asleep, but Betty managed to wake her and get her into the hall without disturbing any one else.
“Goodness!” exclaimed Katherine, when she heard the news. “You don’t think—”
“I think she’s lost in Paradise. It must have been pitch dark down there under the trees even before she got started, and you know she hasn’t any sense of direction. Don’t you remember her laughing about getting turned around every time she went to New York?”
“Yes, but it doesn’t seem possible to get lost on that little pond.”
“It’s bigger than it looks,” said Betty, “and there is the mist, too, to confuse her.”
“I hadn’t thought of that. Does she know how to manage a boat?”