she with you?" asked Miss Bardsley wildly. "I opened your door
and called you both. Oh, girls, if you would only keep together, I could
tell if you were all here!"

"She was sleeping in the hospital!" cried Aldred, disregarding the
teacher's request, and tearing away to interrogate Mademoiselle--a vain
errand, for the unfortunate French governess had fallen in a dead faint
upon the grass.

Aldred grasped the fact only too speedily that there was but one
terrible answer to her question. _Mabel was in the burning house, for
nobody had gone to warn her!_ Without a moment's hesitation, she rushed
back to the front door. There was no alternative; the emergency was
all-compelling. Mabel was in imminent and pressing danger; no one
realized it, or had even missed her, and there was no time to appeal to
Miss Forster or Miss Bardsley. She, Aldred, alone and on her own
responsibility, must save her friend. There was not a second to be lost;
already it might be too late, for the blaze was fast making headway.
From the open door clouds of smoke belched forth as if from a furnace,
and Aldred was driven back with blinded eyes choking and gasping for
breath. It was her own fault. How stupid she was to forget, in her
excitement, what she had learnt at the fire-drill practice! Her dripping
pocket-handkerchief was still clasped, almost unconsciously, in her
hand; she tied it rapidly over her nose and mouth, then, dropping on to
her hands and knees, she began to crawl along the hall in the direction
of the staircase. The difference was marvellous. Down on the ground the
air was comparatively fresh and clear--she could see the bottom of the
umbrella stand and a pair of Miss Drummond's goloshes quite plainly;
while only a foot higher the atmosphere was dense and impenetrable. The
wet handkerchief also made breathing easier, and though her eyes were
smarting and the heat was very great, she found it quite possible to get
along. With half-closed eyelids, and her mouth well to the floor, she
crept up the stairs; each one seemed a victory gained, and a step nearer
to the accomplishment of her purpose. Oh, how many there were, and how
interminable was the passage at the top! The heat grew more intense, and
a roaring, crackling sound warned her that she was reaching the west
wing, where the flames were raging worst and had burst through the
windows.

The hospital was on the top story, so there was another staircase to be
mounted. Dared she do i