hing
like their normal spirits. It is true that none ate very much, but
tongues flew fast in comment and conjecture.

"How could it have happened?" was the many-times-repeated question. Was
it the janitor's fault? He must have forgotten to turn off the drafts
perhaps, and the accumulated gas had exploded.

"Probably something was wrong with the safety valve," conjectured Rhoda,
building better than she knew.

"Well," said Nan, as at last they rose from the table, "I hope they'll
find out what did cause it so that it will never happen again."

Naturally, there were no more lessons that afternoon. The girls gathered
in groups in the corridors or in each others' rooms excitedly discussing
the stirring events of the morning.

Nan lay upon the couch in her room, resting after her exertions, when
Grace, who had been telephoning to Walter, came in bursting with news.

"What do you think I heard downstairs!" she cried before she was fairly
in the room. "Doctor Beulah thinks that it wasn't an accident at all,
but that the whole thing was caused by some one tampering with the
boiler."

The girls all spoke at once.

"Oh, that couldn't be!"

"Who'd have any object in doing a thing that might have cost lives?"

"Isn't it awful!"

"Anyway," Grace went on as soon as they gave her a chance to speak,
"they say that a heavy cord had been tied to the valve to keep it down
and the broken ends of the cord were found hanging from it."

The girls were stupefied with astonishment.

Suddenly Laura started up and walked excitedly about the room.

"There's this much about it!" she exclaimed. "If some one did do it
purposely, Doctor Beulah will soon find out when it was done, and why it
was done--_and who did it, too_," she added significantly.

Laura knew by the expression on all the faces that the same thought
that had been in her mind when she spoke those last words was in the
minds of the other girls, too.

If two very depressed and frightened girls in another room could have
heard them, their spirits would have sunk still lower.

"What did I tell you!" cried Cora wildly. "I begged you not to do it.
And what did you make by it? Disgraced yourself and only made Nan
Sherwood more popular than ever."

For once, Linda was silent. Cora made the most of her chance to get back
at Linda for her high-handed treatment of her. She went on mercilessly:

"I was so ashamed of you," she said. "You made such a show of yourself.
I didn'