are gone!"

After they had eaten all they could possibly contain, the girls retired
to their dormitories, where they changed their clothes, still damp from
their adventure, for comfortable, warm night gowns, and held court, all
the girls gathering in their dormitory to hear of their adventures, for
nearly an hour.

At the end of that time the bell for "lights-out" rang, and the chums
found to their surprise that for once they were not sorry. What with the
adventure itself and the number of questions they had answered, they were
tired out and longed for the comfort of their beds.

"But do you suppose," said Connie Danvers as she rose to go into her
dormitory, which was across the hall, "that the man was really a little
out of his head?"

"I think he was more than a little," said Laura decidedly, as she dipped
her face into a bowl of cold water. "I think he was just plain crazy."

Connie Danvers was a very good friend of the chums, and one of the most
popular girls in Three Towers Hall. Just now she looked a little worried.

"Goodness! first we have the Codfish," she said, "and then you girls go
and rake up a crazy man. We'll be having a menagerie next!"

CHAPTER V

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

It was the spring of the year, a time when every normal boy and girl
becomes restless for new scenes, new adventures. The girls at Three
Towers Hall heard the mysterious call and longed through hot days of
study to respond to it.

The teachers felt the restlessness in the air and strove to keep the
girls to their lessons by making them more interesting. But it was of no
use. The girls studied because they had to, not, except in a few
scattered cases, because they wanted to.

One of the exceptions to the rule was Caroline Brant, a natural student
and a serious girl, who had set herself the rather hopeless task of
watching over Billie Bradley and keeping her out of scrapes. For Billie,
with her love of adventure and excitement, was forever getting into some
sort of scrape.

But these days it would have taken half a dozen Caroline Brants to have
kept Billie in the traces. Billie was as wild as an unbroken colt, and
just as impatient of control. And Laura and Vi were almost as bad.

There was some excuse for the girls. In the first place, the spring term
at Three Towers Hall was drawing to a close, and at the end of the spring
term came--freedom.

But the thi