Fire engine horses could not have sprung into their harness quicker than Dee and I did into our clothes. In a twinkling we were wrapped in our warm sweaters and had donned hats and rubbers, the last not only because of the snow but to deaden our footsteps down the long corridors. I got ready a moment sooner than Dee and I struck a match and read one of the cards Dum had stuck under the little clay brownies: "To Miss Peyton as a parting token of appreciation of her discipline." I gasped with astonishment. Dum was crazy surely, perfectly daft.
"What is on the card?" asked Dee anxiously.
"Oh, just some of Dum's nonsense! Hurry!" I did not think I had better tell Dee. It sounded like a last farewell.
We found the front door unlocked. She had certainly gone out recently, as the watchman made his rounds every hour and it was then 12:20 by the big clock in the hall. I know the wisest thing for us to have done would have been to warn the watchman and let Miss Peyton know, but somehow I felt that we could cope with Dum by ourselves; and I also knew that the offense that Dum was guilty of was a very serious one and might mean that she would be expelled from Gresham.
"The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a luster of midday to objects below."
So, thank goodness, the prints of Dum's tennis shoes were quite plain to us. I was relieved to see that they went toward the village. I had had a nameless fear of the lake. On we sped! Once we saw where poor Dum had evidently paused and then turned back for a few yards. That encouraged me more than anything we had found out yet. She was softening and relenting.
"What do you suppose she means to do, Page?" panted Dee.
"She is trying to make that 12:40 train to Richmond. There she is!"
We had turned a sharp corner and there about a hundred yards ahead of us was Dum. She had almost reached the crossing where Captain Leahy had his unique abode. One minute more would land her at the station, and already we could hear the far-off whizzing of the approaching express. There was a light in the little gatehouse and just at that moment the dear old man emerged and began to let down his gate.
"Well, Saints preserve us! And what maid travels so late? Why, if she isn't one of the sponsors of Oliver." Dum stopped stockstill in the road.