Billie Bradley and the School Mystery: or, The Girl From Oklahoma

She flung herself to her knees beside Miss Walters, and buried her face in her lap, harsh sobs tore at her aching throat.

Miss Walters stroked the dark hair and glanced with gentle meaning at the other girls.

“You may go now,” she said. “I’ll send Edina down to you. She will feel better presently.”

As the girls passed from the office to be met by a group of deeply moved and silenced students in the outer hall, Amanda Peabody was heard to mutter vindictively:

“Billie Bradley has all the pull in this place! She can get away with anything!”

It was the night of the big dance at Boxton Military Academy. Billie was there and Laura and Vi and, yes – oh, of course – Edina Tooker.

Billie was a dream – Teddy told her so – in a rose-colored chiffon evening dress. Scarcely less lovely were Laura in a dainty lavender chiffon dress and Vi in a clinging crêpe that brought out her pretty figure to perfection.

Edina in her gold-colored taffeta with gold slippers on her feet, her hair a shining, blue-black cap for her shapely head, was quite the rage with the young cadets at Boxton. She could not dance very well, but she was learning. In truth, there appeared to be no dearth of dancing instructors, prominent among these being the good-looking Paul Martinson.

Billie and her chums discussed these – and other things – during a temporary lull in the festivities. Teddy and Chet and Ferd Stowing had gone to fetch ice-cream and some of those “ducky little almond-flavored cakes.”

“Well,” said Laura as she patted a soft bow of her chiffon frock into place, “I can only remark what I believe a gentleman called Shakespeare has already remarked before me, ‘All’s well that ends well!’”

“Which sentiment we echo heartily,” agreed Billie. “I crave your indulgence for a moment while I sum up our reasons for gratitude. First of all, Maria Tatgood and her mother are safe in jail where they will steal no more Gift Club funds. The two hundred dollars has been recovered – ”

“It was generous of Edina to make up the missing sixty dollars from the check her father sent her,” interpolated Vi.

“Well, Edina has plenty of money now, you know. She’ll never miss that sixty dollars. Paw Tooker will probably be a millionaire before his new gusher stops gushing, and what’s Paw’s seems to belong equally to his beloved Edina. But to continue with the list of our blessings. With the two hundred and sixty dollars, we have been able to buy Miss Geraldine Gay a most gorgeous wedding present – ”

“She was delighted with it, wasn’t she?”

“Why wouldn’t she be? There is no finer grandfather’s clock around here.”

“When is she to be married?”

“Not before the Thanksgiving holidays. The new teacher comes then.”

“That’s not so far away. We’re not too awfully forehanded with our gift.”

“To continue with the list of our blessings,” reiterated Billie dreamily: “Our friend and fellow student, Violet Farrington, has recovered from her backslidings in math to the extent of working off an onerous condition – ”

“And it is a blessing, believe me!” said Vi fervently. “With that condition off my shoulders, I feel as though I could begin to look about and enjoy myself.”

“Here come the boys with our ice-cream.”

“I hope they have brought dozens of cakes!”

“Before they get here,” said Laura hurriedly, “there is just one little point I’d like cleared up.”

“Any little thing we can do,” murmured Billie.

“It’s about that five dollar gold piece that Edina spent in the shoe shop to buy a pair of shoes. If that was Nellie Bane’s five dollar gold piece – ”

“It wasn’t. It was Edina’s. She had kept it as a lucky piece but, being short of funds, was forced to use it to buy shoes. Any more questions?”

“How about Nellie’s gold piece, then?”

“It was part of the sixty dollars spent by Maria Tatgood’s mother; she admitted as much when pressed. Now, no more questions, please. Let joy be unconfined!”

“It is a lovely party, isn’t it?” breathed Vi.

With her eyes on Edina Tooker’s happy face, Billie Bradley answered:

“Yes, it is. The very nicest, ever!”

THE END