“If you please, Miss Debbs, I can tell you where Edina Tooker has been and why she was late for the supper hour!”
Here was drama! There was the sound of a concerted gasp as all eyes swerved to Billie. Edina Tooker put up a trembling hand to her shining black hair and also gazed at Billie.
Miss Debbs looked outraged, but interested.
“What do you mean, Beatrice Bradley? Explain!” she commanded.
Without hesitation, Billie told in a low, clear voice of the trip up to Goldenrod Point, as it was called by the students of Three Towers, of her fall over the cliff, a fall which had almost had disastrous consequences, of Edina Tooker’s brave and efficient help in a moment of extreme peril, and of her own eventual return to safety.
She ended boldly, carried away by her own eloquence:
“I think, instead of a discredit mark, Edina Tooker deserves a medal for heroism. I know if I had my way she should have it!”
Billie made a gesture toward the door and paused, feeling rather foolish. Edina Tooker had disappeared!
Many pairs of eyes followed Billie’s glance toward the door and a babble of excited voices arose.
“Where has she gone?”