vily as she had the night before.

But suddenly Ruth was aware that there was somebody besides herself awake
in the room. She sat up abruptly in bed and reached to seize Jennie's
plump shoulder. Ruth had to confess she was much excited, if not
frightened.

Then, before she touched the still sleeping Jennie Stone, Ruth saw the
intruder. The door from the anteroom was ajar. A steaming agateware can
of water stood on the floor just inside this door. Before the bureau which
boasted a rather large mirror for a country hotel bedroom, pivoted the
thin figure of Arabella Montague Fitzmaurice Pike!

From the neatly arranged outer clothing of the two girls supposedly asleep
in the big four-poster, Bella had selected a skirt of Ruth's and a
shirt-waist of Jennie's, arraying herself in both of these borrowed
garments. She was now putting the finishing touch to her costume by
setting Ruth's cap on top of her black, fly-away mop of hair.

Turning about and about before the glass, Bella was so much engaged in
admiring herself that she forgot the hot water she was supposed to carry
to the various rooms. Nor did she see Ruth sitting up in bed looking at
her in dawning amusement. Nor did she, as she pirouetted there, hear her
Nemesis outside in the hall.

The door suddenly creaked farther open. The grim face of Miss Susan
Timmins appeared at the aperture.

"Oh!" gasped Ruth Fielding aloud.

Bella turned to glance in startled surprise at the girl in bed. And at
that moment Miss Timmins bore down upon the child like a shrike on a
chippy-bird.

"Ow-ouch!" shrieked Bella.

"Oh, don't!" begged Ruth.

"What is it? Goodness! _Fire!_" cried Jennie Stone, who, when awakened
suddenly, always remembered the dormitory fire at Briarwood Hall.

"You little pest! I'll larrup ye good! I'll give ye your nevergitovers!"
sputtered the hotel housekeeper.

But the affrighted Bella wriggled away from her aunt's bony grasp. She
dodged Miss Timmins about the marble-topped table, retreated behind the
hair-cloth sofa, and finally made a headlong dash for the door, while
Jennie continued to shriek for the fire department.

Ruth leaped out of bed. In her silk pajamas and slippers, and without any
wrap, she hurried to reach, and try to separate, the struggling couple
near the door.

Miss Timmins delivered several hearty slaps upon Bella's face and ears.
The child shrieked. She got away again and plunged into the can of hot
water.

Over this went,