by
the arm and shook her soundly, then thundered:

"If you was a boy I'd yank you out o' that cab and whale you well, for
that's what you rate. Since you're a fool-girl I can't. Now stop that
hullabaloo instanter. We'll get you back to the school and nobody'll
know a thing if you keep your senses. Nelly here ain't anxious to have
that school and her friends figurin' in the newspapers. Now you mind
what I'm tellin' you. I've stood for all the nonsense I'm going to, and
I promise to get you home without you're being missed, but if you let
out another peep I'll march you straight to the Admiral's office, and
don't you doubt my word for a single minute." Then Shelby remounted
Shashai, and leading Star, the odd procession started back, Shelby
cudgeling his brain to devise a way of getting the romantic maiden in as
secretly as he had promised. He need not have worried about that. The
inmates of Columbia Heights were meantime having lively experiences of
their own.

CHAPTER XVII

A SEND-OFF WITH FIREWORKS

When Lily Pearl fled from Stella's room leaving the overturned fairy
lamp to bring about the climax of that evening, her one thought was to
get to bed, and hardly had she tumbled into it than sleep brought
oblivion of all else. Lily Pearl was a somnolent soul in many senses.

Mrs. Vincent was busy in her study at the other end of the house. Miss
Sturgis was dining with friends. Fraeulein, who was a romantic creature,
was seated under a huge copper beech tree entertaining a Herr Professor
straight from the Vaterland. The other teachers were either out or in
their rooms in other parts of the building, and the servants had drifted
out through the rear grounds. Consequently, the fairy lamp had things
pretty much its own way and it embraced its opportunity.

What prompted Polly to go upstairs just at that crisis she could never
have told, but she did, and a second later Peggy followed her. The
moment the girls reached their corridor the odor of smoke assailed
their nostrils. For an instant they stopped and looked at each other,
then Peggy cried:

"Polly, something's afire. Quick, the bugle call!" Polly bounded forward
and, as upon another occasion back in Montgentian she had roused the
neighborhood and saved the situation, now she sounded her bugle call,
but this time it was "fire call," not "warning." Clear, high and sharp
the notes rang through the house. Mrs. Vincent down in her study sprang
to her feet. The