hem upstairs.

In the dormitories all was confusion. Sleep was out of the question,
and the girls gathered in excited groups discussing the terrible thing
that had happened to them, half wishing for Miss Walters, yet half
afraid to have her come back. Suppose she should side with the "Dill
Pickles"? Then all would indeed be lost.

But Billie was their chief worry.

"Why didn't she fib about it?" cried one girl, pacing up and down
excitedly. "We would all have backed her up. She knew that."

"But Billie doesn't fib," said Vi proudly. "And besides, it wouldn't
have done her any good. Amanda and the Shadow had already told, and they
were right here in the dorm when we were planning the raid."

Fiercely the girls looked around for the sneaks; but they were nowhere
to be seen.

"Probably 'The Pickles' are taking good care of the little darlings,"
sneered Laura. "Oh, how I'd like to get my hands on them!"

"What's the matter, Rose?" asked Caroline Brant suddenly. "Don't you
feel good?"

For Rose was sitting on the edge of her bed, her head bowed on her
clasped hands. At Caroline's question she raised her head and looked
around her miserably.

"No, I don't feel good. I--I have a headache," she said.

The girls regarded her curiously for a minute, and then forgot all
about her. They had worse things than headaches to worry about.

Rose did indeed have a headache, but the headache was mostly caused by a
heartache. She herself did not quite understand it.

Billie had at last been singled out from all the other girls for
punishment, would perhaps be expelled from Three Towers Hall, and where
she, Rose, should have been happy about it, she was only miserable.

Of course she had really had no hand in Billie's disgrace--this time.
But she had planned and schemed for it before, and that made her almost
as bad in her own eyes as those two wretched sneaks whom all the girls
hated and despised. If they could only know what had been in her mind
they would hate and despise her, too!

Her head felt hot and her lips were feverish. It was a terrible thing to
despise oneself. The only way she could ever put things straight again
was to find some way of getting Billie out of her scrape. She must think
of a plan!

Suddenly she jumped to her feet, and the girls turned startled eyes upon
her.

"I have it!" she cried. "We must get word to Miss Walters. If she could
know what an awful fix we're in, she'd come right back. I'm sure