"What do you want us to do, Billie?" asked Laura eagerly.

"Listen and I'll tell you." She leaned forward and one could almost have heard a pin drop in the room. "There's only one way I know of that we can get food that 'The Pickles' don't give to us."

"And that?"

"Is to raid the pantry and storeroom," said Billie, her eyes gleaming.

"We'll probably find plenty of cooked things in the pantry, and if we don't, we'll go on into the storeroom and get canned sardines and vegetables and soup. I know I don't care what I eat, as long as I get enough of it."

The girls were silent a minute, staring at Billie half hopefully, half fearfully. To raid the pantry and storeroom? It had never been done in all the history of Three Towers. It would be open rebellion! And yet they were hungry--terribly hungry--two of them had been faint and sick from lack of food.

"Will you do it?" asked Billie, her eyes blazing at them.

"We will!" they almost shouted, and then rose such a pandemonium that Billie, trying to scream above the noise, found her voice drowned completely.

After a minute they quieted down a little--enough to listen to her, anyway.

"Please don't make so much noise," she begged. "We'll be likely to make our raid a great deal easier if we wait until the cooks are gone and the teachers are in bed. We don't care if we are caught, but we don't want to be caught until after we've had something to eat."

The girls realized the common sense in this, but it was all they could do to be patient and wait. The thought of something to eat--all they wanted to eat--after a week of starvation made them ravenous, furiously impatient of delay.

The time pa.s.sed at last, however, and when the "lights out" gong sounded through the hall the girls were apparently in bed and fast asleep.

Hardly five minutes had pa.s.sed before the doors of the different dormitories opened, and the girls crept singly or in twos and threes toward the farther end of the hall until all the hundred-odd girls of Three Towers were gathered there except two. Two of them had stayed behind, and so absorbed were the other girls that they never noticed the absence of Amanda Peabody and Eliza Dilks.

It may be that Rose noticed, for as she left the dormitory she looked over at them and smiled a little. She had guessed at the truth.

For Amanda and Eliza disliked Billie so bitterly that they would even go hungry for the chance of getting even with her. Miss Ada and Miss Cora would be very glad to know who had been the ring-leader in the rebellion!

In the meantime the girls, satisfied that every one was present, had started softly down the back stairs which led them by the shortest way to the kitchen.

As Billie had said, they did not care if they were discovered, except that if they were caught they would probably have a harder time getting what they wanted.

Billie was in the lead with Vi and Laura close behind her. They hardly made any noise at all, and before they knew it they were facing the closed door that led to the kitchen.

Billie swung it open cautiously and looked inside. The kitchen was dark, but she knew where the electric switch was, and the next minute the room was flooded with light.

The sudden glare rather frightened the girls, and they hesitated for a moment--but only a moment. They were terribly hungry, and just across the kitchen was the pantry, and back of that, the storeroom.

"Come on, girls," Billie whispered. "Here's where we get the best of 'The Pickles.'"

They found cold ham in the refrigerator, they found bread and b.u.t.ter and crackers and jam. In the twinkling of an eye all these dainties had disappeared, and they were looking around for more.

Next they raided the storeroom. They found tiers upon tiers of canned goods, and Billie, because she was the first to find a can-opener, was p.r.o.nounced "official can-opener," and opened cans till her arm ached.

But how good that stolen food tasted! They ate ravenously. They ate with knives and forks and spoons, and when these ran short, they even ate with their hands. And by and by the brightness came back to their eyes, the color to their cheeks, and they chattered like joyful magpies.

When they could eat no more, they filled their pockets with biscuits and crackers and started back the way they had come.

But they only started, for as Billie opened the door that led to the stairs she found herself face to face with Miss Cora, Miss Ada, Miss Race and several of the junior teachers.

In the background--triumphant smiles upon their faces--lurked Amanda Peabody and Eliza Dilks.

CHAPTER XXII

A CHALLENGE

The girls stood still, awaiting they did not know what, while Miss Ada and Miss Cora swept into the room followed by the other teachers, Amanda and the Shadow. The Misses Dill carried their noses high in the air, and there was a grim expression around their mouths. But as the girls glanced from them to Miss Race they saw that the latter looked troubled.

"Amanda and Eliza did it," Laura whispered fiercely in Billie's ear.

"They waited behind and told on us--the sneaks! Oh, how I wish----"

"Silence!" cried Miss Cora Dill, glaring at Laura. "If there is any talking done in this place to-night, I expect to do it."

She paused a minute, sweeping the girls with an icy glance, then her eyes rested accusingly upon Billie.

"Three Towers," she said then, "has never before been the scene of such a disgraceful happening. It is preposterous, unthinkable! I shudder to think of what will happen when Miss Walters hears the truth.

"And of course," she added, her eyes still fixed upon Billie, "you girls would never have thought of such a thing if you hadn't been put up to it. Fortunately, I have been able to learn the name of the--person," the word held so much of contempt that Billie's face burned, "who started this disgraceful affair."

By one accord the girls turned accusing eyes upon Amanda and Eliza, but the latter only tossed their heads and looked defiant.

"Beatrice Bradley"--Miss Cora almost spit out the name--"step forward, if you please."

Poor Billie wanted desperately to run away somewhere and hide. But she held her head high, and her eyes met Miss Cora's squarely.

"I want you to tell the truth," said Miss Cora, angered by what she took to be the insolence of the girl. "Did you or did you not propose this outrageous affair?"

But this was more than the girls would stand for. Before Billie had a chance to answer there arose from different parts of the room a score of voices raised in protest.

"We all did it."

"Billie isn't any more to blame than the rest of us."

"It isn't fair."

"We were all in it together."

Billie had so many defenders that the noise they made completely drowned Miss Cora's voice and prevented her from speaking for several moments. This, of course, only served to make her angrier than before.

"I didn't ask you all to talk," she said, when at last she could make herself heard. "It seemed to me I was speaking to Beatrice Bradley. I will ask it once more," turning to Billie, who was rather white now.

"Were you or were you not the ring-leader of this affair?"

There was absolute quiet in the room while the girls waited miserably for Billie's answer. They knew her well enough to know what it would be, even before she spoke.