what?" demanded Helen, in amazement.

"Pickaxe handle--I believe it was," Ruth said thoughtfully. "It was
thrust out of the snow pile she had scraped away from the boulder. And,
moreover, the ground looked as though it had been dug into."

"Why, the ground is as hard as the rock itself," Helen cried. "There are
six or eight inches of frost right now."

"I guess that's so," agreed Ruth. "Perhaps that's why she built such a
big fire."

"What _do_ you mean, Ruth Fielding?" cried her chum.

"I think she wanted to dig there for something," Ruth replied
reflectively. "I wonder what for?"

When they had returned to Dare Hall and had got their things off and
were warm again, they looked out of the window. The campfire on the
island had died out.

"She's gone away, of course," sighed Ruth. "But I would like to know
what she was there for."

"One of the mysteries of life," said Helen, as she made ready for bed.
"Dear me, but I'm tired!"

She was asleep almost as soon as her head touched the pillow. Not so
Ruth. The latter lay awake some time wondering about the odd girl on the
island and her errand there.

Ruth Fielding had another girl's troubles on her mind, however--and a
girl much closer to her. The girl on the island merely teased her
imagination. Rebecca Frayne's difficulties seemed much more important to
Ruth.

Of course, there was no real reason for Ruth to take up cudgels for her
odd classmate. Indeed, she did not feel that she could do that, for she
was quite convinced that Rebecca Frayne was wrong. Nevertheless, she was
very sorry for the girl. The trouble over the tam-o'-shanter had become
the most talked-of incident of the school term. For the several
following days Rebecca was scarcely seen outside her room, save in going
to and from her classes.

She did not again appear in the dining hall. How she arranged about
meals Ruth and her friends could not imagine. Then the housekeeper
admitted to Ruth that she had allowed the lonely girl to get her own
little meals in her room, as she had cooking utensils and an alcohol
lamp.

"It is not usually allowed, I know. But Miss Frayne seems to have come
to college prepared to live in just that way. She is a small eater,
anyway. And--well, anything to avoid friction."

"Of course," Ruth said to Helen and Jennie Stone, "lots of girls live in
furnished rooms and get their own meals--working girls and students. But
it is not a system generally allowed at college