for the loft and slip in behind the big dresser which is near the chimney.”
“But—” began Jack.
“Pat will tell you all about it later; for Mother asked her to stay to dinner. Wash a bit if you want to, and then go out to the living room. I’ll have to show up at the meeting for a while, I suppose, in case Jim takes a notion to look for me. Don’t want to arouse any suspicions.”
Still in somewhat of a daze, Jack made himself tidy and then went out to the living room. Aunt Betsy was busy in the kitchen, and Patricia sat alone by the bay window which overhung the side door by which they had entered. The girl smiled a bit shyly as Jack came in and crossed the room to her side.
“Have I you to thank for my rescue?” he asked, taking her hands in both of his.
“Well, partly,” she admitted. “But Ted helped a lot. He’s always been my stand-by in moments of difficulty.
“When you didn’t show up in Shakespeare class,” she continued, as Jack dropped down at the other end of the davenport, “I knew right away something must have happened. You see,” her head dropped a bit, “I heard something this morning about the possibility of your being out of the game; and, oh, it seemed only a joking reference, but I was too stupid, I guess, to have attached enough importance to it. I did wonder if I should say anything to you about it, put you on your guard; and now, oh, how I wish I had!”
“Don’t get all steamed up over it,” urged Jack; “it came out all right.”
“But it mightn’t have. If I hadn’t happened to go to the observatory perhaps nobody would have seen your flag; and—and then, if you’d been struck by that old bell, it would have been all my fault!”
“Nonsense!” cried Jack, laying his arm gently around her shoulders. He was distressed beyond measure by the girl’s self-accusation. “I was lying so flat that the bell probably would only have grazed me.”
Determinedly Pat pulled herself together and sat up very straight, winking hard and fast to keep back the tears which, much to her embarrassment, had welled up in her eyes.
“After Shakespeare class,” she continued, “I got away from the rest of the girls—I always want to be alone if I have anything to work out in my mind—and wandered about the most deserted parts of the campus trying to decide what to do. I don’t know all the ins and outs of college affairs yet, and I was afraid of telling my suspicions to the wrong person. As I passed the observatory, I remembered having left my fountain pen in the lecture room; so I ran up to get it. Nobody was in there, and I sat down by the window thinking that was a good place to be quiet. The sun shone full on the side of the chapel, and it was no time at all before I caught sight of the white flag waving in the breeze.
“I nearly broke all records running down the stairs and along the path toward the chapel. Not far from the building, I found your appeal for help. I felt sure it was your appeal. I tore off the cloth, so nobody else would find it, and ran for Ted. I knew he was in the library. I hadn’t thought about the meeting; but Ted did, right away, and realized what danger you were in. Ted grabbed up a couple of empty cartons that stood in the hall, ready to be thrown out, dumped them and ourselves into my car (which, fortunately, was standing in front of the library) and we just rushed to your rescue. Luckily, all the students were swarming over the front campus, waiting for the meeting; so no one, so far as we know, saw us.”
“But how did you get the key?” inquired Jack, still somewhat in the dark as to details.
“Oh, Ted has a master key. He has to get into Forestry Hall at all sorts of odd times. He was sure his key could be used on the belfry door, and he was right. If it hadn’t fitted, he would have had to let Jake in on the rescue, but it was better not; the fewer people knew about it, the safer we were.”
“I wonder how I can get hold of those tickets for you. I might telephone—”
“Oh, no! No!” protested Patricia.
“What the deuce does he want you to do, Pat?” inquired Ted, strolling in just in time to hear his cousin’s vigorous refusal.
“Why, I could go over to your room in the morning and get them,” offered Ted, when Patricia had excitedly explained the subject of their discussion; “after the train goes, that is, for I’m not letting you out of my sight before that.”
“Dinner’s ready,” announced Mrs. Carter, appearing in the dining room doorway.
“And we’re ready for it, Auntie,” replied Patricia, jumping up.
“It’s no end good of you all to take me in like this,” began Jack, as they seated themselves at the little round table.
“For dear old Granard, I’ll live and die!” carolled Ted. “Now tell us all about the great abduction.”
Jack was in the middle of the story of his capture, when the telephone rang sharply.
THE MYSTERY OF ARNOLD HALL, by Helen M. Persons [Part 2]
CHAPTER XI
AUNT BETSY TO THE RESCUE
Ted sprang to answer the call.
“Yes. Ted. Yes, she is. Who is it, please? Just a minute.”
He turned, putting his hand over the transmitter: “Pat, Norman Young wants to speak to you.”
“Good Heavens!” responded his cousin, getting up so suddenly that her chair toppled over backwards and fell to the floor with a loud crash.
“He’ll think I’m throwing you to the phone,” commented Ted with a grin.
“Hush! You wanted to speak to me? What? He is? Why, how should I know?”
Pat was nervously clenching and unclenching her left hand as she talked, and frowning heavily.
“Certainly not! He’s probably out for the evening, and I don’t see that you or anybody else has a right to meddle with his things.”
“Don’t burn up, Pat,” advised her cousin.
“Well, perhaps,” she admitted grudgingly to the man at the other end of the telephone. “Certainly. No, you may not; my cousin will take me home. Goodbye.”
Patricia hung up the receiver with a bang, threw herself into the chair which Jack had meanwhile righted, leaned her elbows on the table and announced explosively: “If there’s anybody in this college whom I cordially dislike, it’s Norman Young!”
“Why, what did he have to say?” inquired Ted, calmly helping himself to another piece of beefsteak.
“He told me that Jack was missing, and wanted to know if I knew where he was. The nerve of him! Somebody sent him to Jack’s room, looking for Jack, and our smart Norman found an envelope on the desk addressed to me.”
“The tickets,” interpolated Jack.
“And he wanted to know,” went on Patricia, “if he should bring it to me!”
“Quite a meddler,” said Ted.
“After I put him in
