Part 8 (1/2)
”It feels warm and I'm going to open a window,” went on Laura, and, suiting the action to the word, she shoved up a window that was handy.
”Br-r-r!” came from several of the others.
”My, but that's cold!”
”We'll all get sick!”
”I know a way to fix Laura!” cried Rhoda, and, as she spoke, the girl from Rose Ranch leaned out of the window and reached upward.
”What are you going to do?” asked Bess.
”Get an icicle for her,” answered Rhoda, and a moment later brought to view an icicle she had broken away from a projection above the window.
The icicle was all of a foot and a half long and an inch or more in thickness.
”No, you don't!” cried Laura, leaping away as Rhoda came after her with the bit of ice. ”Don't you dare to put that thing down my neck!”
”It will cool you off, Laura,” said Rhoda; but just then she slipped and went down, shattering the icicle into fragments.
”No more noise,” whispered Bess, closing the window.
At that moment, Nan's clock, sounding the first stroke of midnight, startled the girls.
”The hour indeed waxeth late,” whispered Laura, and vanished.
One by one the others noiselessly followed. There was the almost inaudible sound of softly closing doors, and quiet reigned over Lakeview Hall.
In Nan's room for the second time that night there was the sound of measured breathing, but this time it was genuine.
CHAPTER VIII
ON THE ROAD
”Ugh!” s.h.i.+vered Nan the next morning when she came into the room after her bath. ”This isn't Palm Beach, is it, Bess? More like the North Pole, eh?”
”Palm Beach,” echoed Bess disgustedly, as she reluctantly slipped out of her warm bed and reached for her bathrobe. ”It reminds me of it--it's so different. When that horrid old rising gong sounded, I was dreaming that I was there standing on the beach ready for a swim. I can feel that warm sand about my feet now,” and she gave her cold little feet a vicious shove into her far from warm bedroom slippers.
”I don't believe Grace has slept much,” smiled Nan.
”I know she hasn't,” returned Bess, as she hurriedly dressed. ”I'm sure I wouldn't have slept a wink if I had been in her place. I believe I'd just die if I were.”
”Then,” returned Nan cheerfully, fastening the last snapper in her belt, ”I'm exceedingly glad you're not in Grace's place, for I prefer to see you alive a little longer.”
They found Grace and Rhoda already in the lower hall, and knew by their flushed faces that last night's news was still the fascinating topic of conversation. All joined in, and were soon so absorbed that Laura's voice made them start.
”Beginning where you left off last night?” she was asking. ”I don't believe Grace went to bed at all, but just sat up and antic.i.p.ated all night long.”
”Not quite so bad as that,” laughed Grace. ”I went to bed, but I confess that I was too excited to sleep very much.”
”It's perfectly safe to say that all of us dreamed of Palm Beach, anyway,” Bess conjectured.