eflected.

The infirmary consisted of three connecting rooms, fitted with two
single beds in each, and Libbie happened to be the only patient. She was
sitting up in bed, well wrapped up, when Betty saw her, her eyes
unnaturally bright, her cheeks very red.

"Now I'll leave you two girls together for exactly half an hour," said
the nurse kindly. After that Elizabeth must go to sleep."

"Is the door shut--shut tight?" demanded Libbie feverishly, grasping
Betty's hand with both her hot, dry ones.

"Yes, dear, yes," affirmed Betty soothingly. "What's the matter,
Libbie--is your throat sore?"

"Oh, Betty, I'm in such terrible trouble!" gasped Libbie, her eyes
overflowing. "I'm so frightened!"

"Tell me about it, dear," soothed Betty. "I'll help you, you know I will.
Has it anything to do with school?"

She was totally unprepared for Libbie's next words.

"I have to have some money--a lot of money, Betty. I've spent my last
allowance and I can't write home for more because they will ask me why
I want it. I've borrowed so much from Louise that I can't ask her
again! I ought to pay it back. But I've got to have twenty dollars by
to-morrow night."

"What for? What's the matter?" asked Betty, in alarm.

"You'll promise not to tell Bobby?" demanded Libbie intensely. "Promise
me you won't tell Bobby? She'd scold so. And Mrs. Eustice would expel me.
If you won't tell Bobby or Mrs. Eustice, Betty, I'll tell you."

Betty was now thoroughly aroused. She knew that impulsive novel-reading
Libbie went about with her pretty head filled with all sorts of trashy
ideas, and she didn't know what lengths she might have gone to. If Mrs.
Eustice would expel her, the affair must be serious indeed.

"I'll promise," said Betty rashly. "Tell me everything, Libbie, and if I
can I'll help you."

"Well, you remember when we went nutting?" said Libbie. "I carried a
bottle with me with--with my name and address written on a slip of paper
inside. I read about that in a book. And I said to leave an answer in the
same bottle. I--I buried it just at the foot of the hill, before we began
to climb. Louise was with me, but she was hunting for specimens for her
botany book."

"So that's why you hung back, was it?" said Betty. "I wish to goodness
Louise was more interested in what is going on around her. She might
have stopped you. Go on--what happened to your silly bottle?"

"I buried it," repeated Libbie, "and two days after I went out and dug