Janet was not always as submissive a follower as Gladys Merle would wish.
“Well, hearsay is not enough for me if it is for you. I shall not associate with that girl until I know who she is, nor with any of the rest of them!” Gladys declared with a toss of her head.
“I have an aunt living near Sunnyside,” Anita said. “I’ll write her and ask about these new girls.”
“But Madame Deriby reads every letter that goes out of this school, and she never would permit us to write and inquire about the social standing of these new pupils,” Janet Nagel declared.
“Indeed, is that so?” Gladys Merle inquired with a slight lift of her brow. “I am quite sure that Madame Deriby does not read all of my letters, Miss Nagel. There are other ways of mailing them than in the school box, as perhaps you do not know.” Then turning to Anita she said, “Go up to your room and write that letter and then you and I will slip out to the front gate and put it in the letter box.”
Anita went and soon returned with the letter concealed in her pocket. They waited their chance and when all of the girls, with the teacher in charge, were interested in a basket-ball contest, they slipped out of the basement door and ran as fast as they could down the dark shrubbery-edged path to the gate which seemed very far away at night. Suddenly they heard footsteps crunching on the gravel walk. They darted behind a bush to hide and none too soon, for in another moment two figures appeared. One of them was Patrick O’Neil and the other was Billie, who assisted him in the gardens and stables.
“It’s mighty queer!” the boy was saying. “I am sure I saw somebody on the walk a minute ago, but now there isn’t anybody there.”
“Probably ’twas just shadows,” Patrick replied. “When the moon goes in and out behind the clouds, the way it’s doin’ to-night, it’s ghostly-lookin’ here under the trees.”
“I don’t believe it was shadows,” Bill insisted. “It might be robbers or something. I’m going to hunt among the bushes. Give me your flashlight.”
Gladys and Anita clung to each other scarcely daring to breathe. There was a moment of suspense and then Patrick said: “Guess I didn’t bring it. Thought I put it in my coat pocket. Come along, Bill. I tell you ’twasn’t nothing but shadows.”