ailed. Alice
Guerin, the silent member of the octette, was condemned to recite "The
Children's Hour" in the dining room "between cereal and eggs." And
Constance Howard was told she must add up an unbelievably long column of
figures and present the correct answer within half an hour. Constance's
_bete noir_ was figures, and already these long columns danced dizzily
before her eyes.

"You needn't tell me that chance made such canny selections," observed
Betty. "One of those girls manipulated the right notes into our hands.
Libbie, what does yours say?"

Libbie handed her slip of paper to Betty without a word.

"Go to bed at once," the latter read aloud.

There was a gale of laughter. Libbie, the curious, who dearly loved to
hear and see, to be sent off to bed in the middle of the most wildly
exciting night they had known in weeks!

"Hurry," admonished Bobby. "You're disobeying by staying up this long.
Where's your character, Libbie?"

Libbie scowled, but departed, grumbling that she didn't see why she
couldn't stay up and watch Norma walk down in the cellar.

"Mine is the most spooky," said Betty, when the door had closed behind
Libbie. "Listen--I'm to climb the water tower at midnight and leave this
card there to show I have complied."

She held out a little plain white card in a green envelope.

"Hark! was that somebody at the door?" asked Bobby, and she ran over to
it lightly and jerked it open.

The corridor was empty.

"We're all nervous," remarked Betty lightly. "I'll set the alarm for
eleven-forty-five and put the clock under my pillow so Miss Lacey won't
hear it. I'll lie down all dressed, and then I won't have to use a light.
She might see that through the transom."

"Don't you want some of us to go with you?" asked Constance. "We needn't
go up into the tower, if you say not. But at least we could go that far
with you; you might fall off the roof."

"No, please, I'd rather go alone," said Betty firmly. "It's a test, you
see, and the idea isn't to make it easy. I'll be all right, and in the
morning the girls will find the card and know I didn't flunk."

After the girls had gone away to their own rooms the clock was set for a
quarter of twelve, but Betty and Bobby decided that they might as well
stay awake till midnight. They would lie down on their beds--Betty
insisted that Bobby should undress and go to bed "right"--and wait for
the time to come. Within twenty minutes they were both sound asleep.