Back at School with the Tucker Twins Part 21

"The fire alarm, as all of you perhaps know, is six short taps of the gong--a pause--and six more. When the alarm rings, which of course it will do without warning, I expect every pupil in the school to get out of the building with as little noise and confusion as possible. Indeed I demand no noise at all and no confusion. No one is to go to her room for any purpose whatsoever if the fire alarm should ring while she is in cla.s.s or otherwise employed. If she should be in her room, she is to leave it as expeditiously as possible and not return to it until permission is given."

"And let my deer skin and pictures burn up?" exclaimed Dum under her breath. "Nit!"

"'Tain't a real fire, goosey!" said Dee.

"Yes, but it might be."

"Silence!" tapped Miss Plympton. "Now I have warned you of an alarm in the near future and I want to see who is to show the most presence of mind. I want to see who will be out of the building first but with no noise or confusion."

"You notice she didn't say how she required us to get out of the building, by what route, I mean, and you watch me! I am going to get out my own way," Dum whispered to me as we were dismissed to our cla.s.s rooms.

"Well, I'm game. I'll go any way you do."

"Good! I bet you will, and of course Dee will, too."

We feverishly awaited the threatened alarm and the fire drill that was to follow. Gresham was a big building and the 125 girls in it should be able to get out without any great confusion.

"If they only ring it while we are in our rooms we can work our scheme and beat all the girls to the open," said Dum.

We had decided not to let Mary and Annie in on our plan as Annie was trying very hard not to get any demerits. Mr. Pore treated bad marks on a report very seriously, while our dear fathers did not look upon a bad mark as something that could not be lived down.

"DONG! DONG! DONG! DONG! DONG! DONG!" a pause and then six more dongs.

It was a few minutes before supper, so close to it, in fact, that for a moment we thought it was the gong for that frugal repast. We were just trying to doll up a bit after a very strenuous game of tennis, the first of the season as the courts had not been fit to use because of the many rains we had been deluged with. We had had some sheets tied together for days, ever since Miss Plympton had given warning about the fire drill.

We had determined to astonish and delight her by the quiet and orderly way we would get out of the building. Dum began rapidly taking down pictures and wrapping them up in her beloved deer skin, the one she had shot and Zebedee had tanned and made into a rug for her. Dee tied the sheets tightly to the radiator while I gathered up the bits of jewelry and knotted them in a handkerchief. This we had rehea.r.s.ed and knew how to do it in a moment. When Dee got the sheets tied, we were ready for the descent. Dum was to go first, as it was her scheme. With her bundle flung over her back by a strap, she grasped the improvised life line and slid safely to the ground. I followed, giggling so I came very near losing my grip. When I got to the end of the last sheet, I must say I hated to let go. I looked down and the ground seemed miles away. It was really only about six feet. Dee had taken up more in the knot she had tied around the radiator than we had allowed for in our calculations.

"Drop," came hoa.r.s.ely from Dum. So drop I did, wrenching my ankle painfully in the fall.

Dee came down like a movie actress and then we scurried around the house in time to beat all the whole school out on the lawn. My ankle hurt like fury but I grinned and bore it. While Miss Plympton had not designated the manner of our exit from the building, we well knew that if she got on to our mode of egress we would hear from her and that not in endearing terms.

She was standing near the great front door on the gallery, but it was dusk and we were able to sidle close to the wall and have all the appearance of coming out of the building.

"Why, young ladies, you are very prompt," she said approvingly. "Are the inmates on your floor out of their rooms?"

"We--we--we don't know."

"We reckon they are."

"We did not stop to see."

The girls by this time came trooping out, some of them half dressed, getting ready for supper as they were when the gong sounded. They were very gay until they saw Miss Plympton; then they sobered down.

Several of the more excitable ones were weeping, certain it was a real fire.

Mary and Annie were the very last to appear. They, it seemed, had lost much time trying to find us. They were sure we would not have gone without warning them and so would not desert us.

"We looked everywhere for you!" cried Mary when she spied us. "Where on earth have you been?"

"Shhh! We'll tell you later!" I whispered.

Annie was much flushed and excited and looked as though she, too, had feared it was a real fire.

"I hated to leave my box," she said to me in a low tone. "You see, those are all the clothes I have and all I'll be likely to have for many a day. I was afraid it was a real fire and was very much frightened about you, my friends." The poor little thing burst out crying and we all turned in and comforted her till she began to laugh.

All this time my ankle was killing me. I stood on one foot but the throbbing was intense, and then I knew the time was coming when Miss Plympton would order us back into the building, and how I was to walk I did not see. It had been all I could do to get from around the corner of the school after my fatal drop, and now that the excitement that had buoyed me up had subsided and I knew I was going to have to walk on cold facts, I did not see how it could be done. I was game, game enough for anything. What I dreaded most of all was giving Tweedles away. Miss Plympton had seen us arrive together and if I had a sprained ankle, whatever I had done to get it they must have done, too.

"As soon as Lady Plympton gives the command, fly up to 117 and pull in the sheets," I whispered to Dum. "I've hurt my ankle and shall have to take things easy. Dee will help me get in, and please whisper to Mary Flannagan to get on my other side." I thought it better to have Dee stay behind where some sort of ready finesse might be needed.

They got me in--I don't know just how. I have never imagined greater agony than I went through. I never uttered a single groan, however, although I felt like shrieking. Before we made our painful way to the stairs, Miss Plympton disappeared into the office, and then Mary and Dee picked me up bodaciously, making a chair with their hands, and they got me up to 117 in short order. The girls who were on our corridor just thought it was part of our monkey s.h.i.+nes and did not question the reason.

When I got to 117, of course I fainted. That was what I had been expecting to do all the time. It was a mercy I had not done it before. I had felt the cold sweat breaking out on my upper lip, which is a sure forerunner of a faint. I had never really fainted before. I had been knocked silly several times, once on the ice when Mabel Binks had b.u.mped into me and knocked me down, but this faint was one that was simply the outcome of pain.

It was a blessed relief from the agony I had been in and I did not thank whoever it was that put household ammonia under my nose and doused my head with cold water. I felt as though I should like to stay faint forever.

"Did you get the sheets in out of the window?" I stammered when I struggled back to life.

"Yes! Yes!" and a relieved giggle from Dum.

Dee was busy turning over the leaves in her "First Aid to the Injured."

"Let her lie down, put a pillow under her heart! There! Now which foot is it?"

"Never mind which foot it is now! There goes the supper gong! Annie, you and Mary had better skidoo out of this room or you'll get so many demerits you won't be out of bounds to go home in June. Dee, you just unlace my left shoe and let me keep it upon the bed. Dum, please get out my nightie for me and then all of you go down to supper and tell the powers that be that poor little Page Allison was so excited over the fire drill that she had hysterics and had to go to bed without her supper." The long speech was too much for me and I came near going off again. "Go on! If you don't, we'll all get found out and then what?"

Tweedles said they had never sat through such an interminable meal as that one.

"Nothing but soda biscuit and stewed prunes and corn beef has.h.!.+ But you would have thought it was the finest course dinner it took so long!"

gasped Dee. "Let me see your poor foot. Gee, it's swollen!"

"Isn't it a blessing it's Sat.u.r.day night and no study hour? Now Dee and I can wait on you and get you comfy."

"But, Dum, I don't want to keep you from dancing in the Gym. It is lots of fun and you know it."

"Fun much! How could I enjoy myself when I know you are up here suffering?"

"Well!" said Dee, consulting her book again, "the first thing is to soak it in very hot water, as hot as you can stand it. Go on, Dum, and fill our pitcher before the once-a-weekers get started on their tub night orgy." We always called the girls who took baths only on Sat.u.r.day night the "once-a-weekers."

My injured member was put to soak in such hot water that I trembled for my toe nails. Dee stood by with a pitcher ready to pour more in and "hot" it up as soon as it got to the bearing point. After a good half hour of soaking, Dee poured cold water over it and then put on as neat a bandage as any surgeon could have done I feel sure. It seemed too tight to me, but Dee insisted that it would loosen up and I must bear it tight.

"You know if a doctor had hold of you he would put it in plaster. I am afraid maybe we ought to 'fess up and call in a doctor. It might be a very serious thing to neglect it."

"Nonsense! I trust your bandaging more than I would old Dr.

Stick-in-the-mud's, here at Gresham. You know he would not do anything quite so modern as put it in plaster."

Dee carried the bandage well up on my leg to keep it from puffing out over the top and then I was put tenderly to bed.

"I can't see that because I've got a sore foot it is any reason I should have to go hungry," I whined. "I am so empty I could easily eat up my bandage."