The Orchard Secret Part 31

"Maybe the wind," suggested Mary Todd.

"The wind couldn't ring that old bell," declared Arden. "It's too heavy to be swayed by what little breeze there is tonight. And it's high up on the wall, under a sort of canopy. No, someone pulled that rope."

"But the rope is high up, out of reach from the ground," said Sim who had noticed that fact.

Puzzled, alarmed, and in momentary fear of being discovered in the midnight raid, the girls stood at the window. It was in a sort of extension of the building and faced the north, so that from it a view could be had of the rear college grounds leading down to the orchard.

It was at this scene the girls were now gazing, some illumination being furnished by a pale and watery moon now and then hidden by scudding clouds.

Suddenly Ethel Anderson clutched Arden by the arm, so violently as almost to cause the dropping of the chicken, and Ethel exclaimed:

"What's that dark thing on the lawn near the orchard?"

"Where?" asked several, crowding closer.

"There!" Ethel pointed at a moment when the moon came out of the clouds.

"Looks like a black dog, to me," Terry said. "Or perhaps----"

Terry's sentence was never finished, for Arden broke in with:

"It's a man! A man crawling on his hands and knees! It is! Look!"

The last wisp of cloud was wiped from the face of the moon. The form of the crawling man was seen plainly.

"Oh, heavens!"

"We must tell someone!"

"What'll we do?"

"We must wake Tiddy!"

"Oh, let's get out of here!"

"Who is it?"

Questions, exclamations, fearsome gasps and excited advice all tripped pell-mell from the girls.

Then, quickly, Arden took control of the situation.

"Hush, girls!" she calmly advised. "All of you keep quiet. Now, just a moment, please."

Her calm voice had its effect, and they all grew quiet, though there was not one whose breathing came naturally. Arden managed to raise the lower sash a little way.

And then, through this opening, as the girls watched the black, crawling figure, came a voice feebly calling:

"Help! Help! Help!"

"It's Henny!" exclaimed Terry as she and the others recognized the squeaky voice of the aged chaplain. "Dr. Bordmust; and he's hurt!"

CHAPTER XXIV The Dean Explains

The mysteriously tolled bell had ceased ringing now. Fascinated, the girls remained at the window looking at the p.r.o.ne black figure of Rev.

Dr. Bordmust lying on the edge of the sinister orchard. That the orchard was sinister at least Arden, Sim, and Terry were ready to testify.

The last cry for help from the aged chaplain and the final echo of the tolling bell came together.

"What shall we do, Arden?" murmured Terry.

"We must do something!" insisted Jane.

"Yes, it's sort of up to us, since we're here on the scene," agreed Sim.

"The dean will have to know about this," suggested Terry.

"But there's something else to do first," spoke Arden.

"What?" chorused her chums.

"That poor man is hurt," went on Arden. "He needs help, and we must hurry to get it. I'll tell you what. We three," she motioned to herself and her roommates, "are already campused. Whatever happens can't make much difference to us, even if we're caught now. We'll go out and see what we can do to help poor Henny, and you others go tell Tiddy."

"A good idea!" a.s.sented Sim. "Jane, you and the others can take the food with you when you go to tell Tiddy. It's a wonder she or some of the others haven't been aroused already by the bell. But when you go to her, hide the food, somehow. No use wasting it after all the trouble we had getting it."

"No, indeed," said Ethel Anderson.

Quickly the two groups separated. Arden, Sim, and Terry hurried out of a rear door, which they unlocked, while Jane and the others, stuffing the pies, chickens, and bottles of milk under their big sweaters, hastened to take word to the dean.

Arden, Sim, and Terry ran with all the frightened speed they could summon across the damp gra.s.s of the rear campus toward the edge of the orchard.

By another gleam of moonlight they had a glimpse of the chaplain resuming his painful crawling after a period of rest following his cries for help.

When he saw the girls running toward him, Dr. Bordmust, as if giving up the fight, now that a.s.sistance was at hand, collapsed on the leaf-strewn ground.

Terry was the first to reach him.

"Are you hurt, Dr. Bordmust?" she asked. "What happened?"

"Do tell us! Tell us how we can help you," appealed Sim.

"Are you badly injured?" faltered Arden.

"My leg--I think my right leg is broken," he faltered. "It is very painful. I cannot bear my weight on it. That is why I had to crawl along."

"Did you fall?" asked Arden.