Tom and Colonel Marchand who came from their room
only partly dressed.

The critical Miss Timmins had darted downstairs, evidently in pursuit of
her unfortunate niece. The guests crowded to the back window.

"Where did she go?" demanded Tom, who had heard some explanation of the
early morning excitement. "Is she running away?"

"What a child!" gasped Aunt Kate.

"My waist!" moaned Jennie.

"Look at Ruth's skirt!" exclaimed Helen.

"I do not care for the skirt," the girl of the Red Mill declared. "It is
Bella."

"Her aunt will about give her those 'nevergetovers' she spoke of,"
chuckled Tom.

"_Ma foi!_ look you there," exclaimed Colonel Marchand, pointing through
the window that overlooked the rear premises of the hotel.

At top speed Miss Timmins was crossing the yard toward the big hay barn.
Bella had taken refuge in that structure, and the housekeeper's evident
intention was to harry her out. The woman grasped a clothes-stick with
which she proposed to castigate her niece.

"The cruel thing!" exclaimed Helen, the waters of her sympathy rising for
Bella Pike now.

"There's the poor kid!" said Tom.

Bella appeared at an open door far up in the peak of the haymow. The hay
was packed solidly under the roof; but there was an air space left at
either end.

"She has put herself into the so-tight corner--no?" suggested the young
Frenchman.

"You've said it!" agreed Tom. "Why! it's regular movie stunts. She's come
up the ladders to the top of the mow. If auntie follows her, I don't see
that the kid can do anything but jump!"

"Tom! Never!" cried Ruth.

"He is fooling," said Jennie.

"Tell me how she can dodge that woman, then," demanded Tom.

"Ah!" murmured Henri Marchand. "She have arrive'."

Miss Timmins appeared at the door behind Bella. The spectators heard the
girl's shriek. The housekeeper struck at her with the clothes stick. And
then----

"Talk about movie stunts!" shouted Tom Cameron, for the frightened Bella
leaped like a cat upon the haymow door and swung outward with nothing more
stable than air between her and the ground, more than thirty feet below!

CHAPTER VIII

THE AUCTION BLOCK

Helen Cameron and Jennie Stone shrieked in unison when Miss Susan Timmins'
niece cast herself out of the haymow upon the plank door and swung as far
as the door would go upon its creaking hinges. Ruth seized Tom's wrist in
a nervous grip, but did not utter a word. Aunt Kate turned away and
cove