“O, that would not do at all if she did not send for me.”
“Just to stay outside the door, then!”
The two girls went downstairs together, Isabel to her doom, as she said, and Cathalina for moral support outside the door. Presently, Isabel came out, flushed and relieved, to join Cathalina and walk with her up to her suite. “What did Miss Randolph do?”
“She was just as nice as could be, said she had heard some of us were frightened last night and wanted me to tell her all about it. So I did. And all she said to me was that I’d better not say anything about it to frighten all the girls and that there wasn’t any such thing as a ghost, and that anyhow she is going to put on an extra night watchman, and have somebody go through the halls occasionally at night, ‘Not to make you feel that there is any danger, but that you are being watched over,’ she said. Isn’t she wonderful?” Miss Randolph had gained another staunch supporter in Isabel.
“How do you suppose she found out? I’m going to ask every one who told her so early.”
“Neither Hilary or I did, I’m sure.” And when later in the day the six girls met, not one of them was found to have taken the news to Miss Randolph.
“Somebody must have overheard the girls talking and told her. Or perhaps some one else was awake last night and knew it was Isabel.” So concluded Cathalina and the rest agreed.
“But who was the ‘woman in black’? because I really saw one!” declared Isabel. “I’m going to be a Sherlock Holmes from now on,—that is, if I have time!” she wisely added.
CHAPTER XIV
OFF TO THE CITY
As the “Fudge Club” opposition to Hilary as captain of the Junior Academy basketball team did not prove serious, she had been elected with very little campaigning on the part of her friends; for it was clear to all the girls that she was the best one for the office.