CHAPTER XXV
THE END OF A PERFECT YEAR
Helen Cameron came running over the hill and down the sloppy paththrough the grove. When she reached the Stone Face where Ruth and thestrange girl were standing, she cried:
"What _is_ the matter with you, Ruthie Fielding? Come on over to theboat. Miss Mallory sent me after you.... Why! who's this?"
"Don't you remember this girl, Helen?" asked Ruth, seriously.
"Why! it's the girl who was camping in the snow, isn't it?" said Helen,curiously eyeing the stranger. "How-do?"
But the other was not pleased to allow the situation to develop intomerely a well-bred meeting of three former acquaintances. She did notvouchsafe Helen a glance, but said, directing her words toward Ruth:
"I want that vase. It doesn't belong to you."
"Goodness, Ruthie!" put in her chum, for the first time seeing theobject in Ruth's hands. "What is that thing?"
"I just dug it up here. It is the Egyptian vase taken from the Ardmorelibrary last year I believe."
"It doesn't matter where it came from. I want it," cried the strangegirl, and she stepped forward quickly as though to seize the muddy vase.
But Helen sprang forward and pushed her back.
"Hold on! I guess if Ruth's got it, you'll have to wait and proveproperty," said Helen. "How about it, Ruth?"
"She must tell us all about it," said Ruth, firmly. "Perhaps I may lether have it--if she tells us the truth."
"The truth!" exclaimed Helen.
"I won't tell you a thing!" cried the strange girl. "You haven't anyright to that vase."
"Nor have you," Ruth told her.
"Well----"
"Nor has Margaret Rolff," went on Ruth, coolly. "I take it you areacting for her, aren't you?"
"Why," cried Helen, beginning to understand. "That is the girl who leftArdmore last year?"
"And came to the Red Mill after spending the summer at a camp on theLumano and helped Aunt Alvirah," Ruth added, with a smile.
"Well, I never! Not Maggie?" demanded Helen.
"I think I am right," Ruth said quietly. "Am I not?" to the other girl."Our Maggie is Margaret Rolff, and _you_ must be her sister. At least,you look enough like her to be some relative."
The other made a gesture of resignation and dropped her hands. "I mightas well confess it," she admitted. "You are Ruth Fielding, and Margytold me long ago you might be trusted."
"And this is my particular friend, Helen Cameron," Ruth said, "who is tobe fully trusted, too."
"I suppose so," said the girl. "My name is Betty. I'm Margy's youngersister. Poor Margy. She never was very strong. I mean that she wasalways giving in to other people--was easily confused.
"She's bright enough, you know," pursued the other girl, warmly; "butshe is nervous and easily put out. What those girls did to her last yearat this college was a shame!"
Another hail from behind the hill warned Ruth that she must attend MissMallory's command or there would be trouble.
"We cannot wait to hear it all, Miss--Betty, did you say your name was?Where are you staying?"
"I have been working in Greenburg all winter. We're poor girls and haveno parents. Margy is with me now," said the girl. "And I want that vase.I want it for Margy. She will never be satisfied until she can give itback to the dean of the college herself and explain how she came to hideit, and then forgot where she hid the vase."
"Tell me where to find you in Greenburg," said Ruth, hastily. "No! I'llnot let you have the vase now. I will not show it to anybody else,however, and we'll come over to town this evening and bring it with us,and talk with Maggie."
"Oh, Miss Fielding----"
"That must satisfy you," said Ruth, firmly; and Betty Rolff had to besatisfied with this promise. She told the chums where she and Margaretwere staying and then Ruth and Helen ran back to their friends, Ruthconcealing the hastily wiped silver vase under the loose front of herblouse.
"Goodness!" she said to Helen, "I hope nobody will see it. Do I bulge_much_?"
There was so much excitement among the crew of the freshman eight,however, that Ruth's treasure-trove was not discovered. Under MissMallory's direction they launched the shell again, climbed aboard, andmade a safe passage to the dock.
A notice was put up that very evening, however, to the effect that noneof the racing shells were to be taken out unless the launch was mannedand went with the frailer craft.
The students of Ardmore were allowed to leave the college grounds in theevening if they were properly chaperoned. And when Ruth went to MissCullam and explained a little of what was afoot, the mathematicsinstructor was only too glad to act in the capacity of chaperon.
Helen had telephoned for a car, and the three rode down to Greenburgimmediately after dinner. Ruth carried the recovered vase, just as shehad dug it out of the hole by the Stone Face on Bliss Island, wrapped ina paper. She had not had time either to clean it or to examine it morethoroughly.
They easily found the boarding house, the address of which Betty Rolffhad given to Ruth. It was a respectable place, but was far fromsumptuous. It was evident, as Ruth had been previously informed, thatthe Rolff girls were not very well off in this world's goods.
When the visitors climbed to the second floor bedroom where the sisterswere lodged, Miss Cullam took the lead, walked straight in, seizedMargaret Rolff in her arms and implanted a kiss upon the pale cheek ofthe girl who had for so many months been Aunt Alvirah's assistant at theRed Mill.
"You poor girl!" said the mathematics teacher. "What you must have beenthrough! Now, I am delighted to see you again, and you must tell me allabout it--how you came to take the vase, and bury it, and all."
There was a good deal of talk on both sides before all this that MissCullam asked was explained. But the facts were made clear at last.
In the first place, Margaret Rolff had always been very much afraid ofthe dark and of being alone at night. But she wanted so much to become amember of the Kappa Alpha that she did not try to cry off when shereceived her instructions as a candidate for membership in thatsorority.
The first part of her initiation test was easy enough. She secured theEgyptian vase from the reception room of the library without beingapprehended. Then she was rowed across the lake to the island by severalblack-robed and hooded figures whom she did not know.
Left with a flashlight and a spade to bury the stolen vase within ashort distance of the Stone Face, Margaret had tried her best to controlher nerves and do as she was commanded. But she could never reallyremember whether she had buried the vase or not. The idea had been forher to bury it, and then another candidate would be made to search forit the next night.
Everything about the initiation went wrong, however, because Margaretlost her nerve. The members of the sorority could not find the placewhere the candidate had really dug her hole and buried the vase. AndMargaret had fled in a panic from the college before further inquirycould be made.
"All this time," explained the practical sister, Betty, "Margy haswanted to know if she did bury the vase or not. She felt she had stolenfrom the college and could be punished for it. I think those girls thatset her the task should be punished."
"They have been," said Miss Cullam, grimly. "Yet, it was really amisunderstanding all around. Now, let me see that vase, Ruth Fielding."
The latter was glad to do this. The teacher opened the package andimmediately turned the vase upside down and shook it. There wasevidently something inside, and after some work with the handiest of allfeminine tools, a hatpin, a soggy mass of paper was dislodged from theEgyptian vase.
"The missing examination papers, girls!" sighed Miss Cullam, with muchsatisfaction. "There, Margaret! You may have the vase and return it toDr. Milroth to-morrow if you like. And I hope you will return to thecollege and be with us next year.
"I have what _I_ am after and feel more contented in my mind than I havefor some months. Dear me, girls! you don't at all understand what anumber of trials and perplexities a
re heaped upon the minds of us poorteachers."
* * * * *
There were many other incidents occurring at Ardmore before the end ofwhat Helen Cameron declared was a "perfect year." But nothing createdmore interest than the recovery of the Egyptian vase with the missingexamination papers, unless it was the boat races. Though to a few,perhaps, certain plans for the coming summer overtopped even these inimportance. These were such a very great secret that the chums scarcelydared discuss them.
But those readers who may so desire will read about the happenings thatdeveloped from these plans of Ruth and her friends in the subsequentvolume of the series, entitled, "Ruth Fielding in the Saddle; or,College Girls in the Land of Gold."
First of the races was that with the first eight of Beardsley; and thecrew of Ardmore won. Then came the trial between Ardmore and HamptonCollege, and the former won that as well.
Ardmore was in high fettle at that. _The Jasper_ was quite asenthusiastically complimentary now as it had been critical after therace with Gillings, for in winning the race against Hampton College, theArdmore crew had been forced to row through very rough water.
Commencement came in June, and two days before the graduation exercisesof the senior class, the local aquatic sports were held. The mainincident of this carnival was the race between the class eights.
The shells were started at twenty-yard intervals, and in the order ofthe classes. The freshman eight, in which rowed Ruth, Helen and Jennie,had practised vigorously all these weeks and now they displayed thevalue of their exertions.
Within the first quarter they "bumped" the sophomore eight. This crewdropped out of the race immediately and the freshmen spun ahead, Ruthsetting a wonderfully effective stroke, and little Trix Davenportswaying her body in time with the motion of the boat and shoutingencouragement through her megaphone.
On and on crept the freshman eight until there was barely a hand'sbreadth between the nose of their shell and the stern of the juniorcraft. The crowd along shore cheered the younger girls vociferously, andalthough they did not quite "bump" the juniors before crossing the mileline----
"We came so near it there was no fun in it!" declared Jennie Stone,delightedly. "Oh, girls! some of us are going to be great rowists aftera few more years at Ardmore."
"Dear me," panted Helen, making the last pun of the term. "It should becalled _Hard_-more. I never worked so hard in my life as I have thisfirst year at college."
"But it will never hurt us," laughed Ruth, later. "We have got onfamously."
"_You_ have, my dear," interposed Helen. "You stand A, number one inclasses. And look at that new play of yours--a big success! Money isrolling in on you----"
"Think a little of yourself," proposed Ruth. "Don't you consider yourtime well spent here, my dear chum?"
"Sure! It _is_ the end of a perfect year," agreed Helen.
"And think of me--_little_ me!" cried Jennie Stone, bursting into thechums' study at that moment, and in time to hear the last of theconversation. "Do you know what's happened, girls?"
"No! What?" demanded the curious Helen.
"I have lost another pound," said the ex-fat girl, in a sepulchralvoice.
THE END