e Towers immediately."

"We'll have to get our baggage," Billie suggested timidly.

"Your baggage?" queried Miss Walters absently, her mind on what she
would do when she reached Three Towers.

"Yes, we left our bags in our rooms upstairs."

"Your rooms?" Miss Walters asked, then added with a compassionate smile
that made her seem more beautiful than ever to the adoring girls: "Why,
of course, you poor children! I forgot that you expected to stay over
night. All right, run up and get your bags while I see the room clerk
and about getting us back to Three Towers."

The girls never forgot that triumphant ride back to Three Towers through
the snow. Nor did they forget what happened afterward.

Miss Ada and Miss Cora Dill and the other teachers saw them coming, and
Miss Cora's lips tightened grimly. She was the first to greet Miss
Walters at the door.

"Go up to your dormitories, girls," said Miss Walters, hardly glancing
at the teachers. "We will have lunch in half an hour--a real lunch. Just
a minute," she called, as the girls started jubilantly off. "I'd like to
speak to Beatrice Bradley in my private office immediately."

Billie came back, wondering just what was going to happen next, while
Laura picked up the suitcase she had dropped and hurriedly followed the
other girls.

Then Miss Walters turned to the teachers.

"Will you all come with me into my office?" she asked. "There is a very
important matter which I must attend to before I do anything else."

She walked down the corridor to her office and opened the door. Then she
motioned them inside, stepped in after them and closed the door
decidedly.

"Sit down, please," she said, and when they were all seated she sat down
at her desk and regarded them gravely. "As you know," she said, "an
unheard-of thing happened this morning, and I must have the testimony
of every one before I can decide one way or the other."

Then very quietly she told of her meeting with the girls that morning
and repeated almost word for word the story of what had happened during
her absence as told by Billie and supported by the other girls.

The faces of Miss Ada and Miss Cora had been growing redder and redder,
and now as Miss Walters finished and looked about her Miss Cora burst
out angrily.

"I hardly expected that you would listen to the girls' account of it,
Miss Walters," she said. "What they have said is not true."

"Pardon me, Miss Walters," Miss Race broke in, and the