she
would."

The girls stared for a minute--then seized eagerly on the plan.

"But how can we get word to her if we haven't her address?" Connie
Danvers asked. But Rose answered her impatiently.

"I've thought of that," she said, then went on to explain while the
girls listened eagerly how she had taken some letters to the mail box
for Miss Race, and, happening to glance down, had seen that the top one
was addressed to Miss Walters.

Luckily she remembered the address, and now when one of the girls handed
her a slip of paper she wrote it down feverishly.

"But how are we going to get word to her?" asked one of the girls, and
they looked at each other helplessly. "'The Pickles' won't let anybody
outside the Hall, and they'll look over all the mail."

They were still trying to think of a plan when a step in the hall--a
step that sounded very much like Miss Ada Dill's firm tread--sent them
scattering.

A little later silence settled like a cloud over the dormitories, but
few of the girls slept. They were thinking--thinking----

By and by Laura leaned across and whispered to Vi.

"Asleep?" she asked.

"No, I can't sleep," said Vi miserably. "I keep thinking of Billie and
where they've put her and--and--everything."

"Well, I've thought of a real plan," whispered Laura mysteriously.

"You have?" cried Vi, sitting up in her turn. "What is it?"

But in the darkness Laura shook her head.

"Not now," she said. "I'll tell you in the morning."

CHAPTER XXIII

A PRISONER OF WAR

It was a bad night for all the girls, but for Billie Bradley it was a
nightmare. Miss Cora Dill had thrust her into a little room just big
enough to contain a couch, a table, and one or two chairs.

When Billie had asked for a light the door had been slammed in her face
and she had heard the key turn in the lock.

So she was a prisoner--and in disgrace. All her dreams had come to that.
Miss Cora had said she would be expelled from Three Towers Hall when
Miss Walters heard what she had done.

But in her heart Billie did not believe that. The hope that when Miss
Walters was told everything she would side with the girls was the only
thing that kept her from being absolutely miserable. For Miss Walters
was always fair.

Billie had never been afraid of the dark. She was not really afraid of
it now. But as the hours crept by and the place became still with the
stillness of midnight, she began to feel uneasy and very, very
lone