"I'm glad I came just when I did," she said. "I was tempted to stay longer, but something told me that I might be needed, and that something was right. Come, girls, we'll hire all the taxis in town if we have to, and private automobiles, too, and get back to Three Towers immediately."
"We'll have to get our baggage," Billie suggested timidly.
"Your baggage?" queried Miss Walters absently, her mind on what she would do when she reached Three Towers.
"Yes, we left our bags in our rooms upstairs."
"Your rooms?" Miss Walters asked, then added with a compassionate smile that made her seem more beautiful than ever to the adoring girls: "Why, of course, you poor children! I forgot that you expected to stay over night. All right, run up and get your bags while I see the room clerk and about getting us back to Three Towers."
The girls never forgot that triumphant ride back to Three Towers through the snow. Nor did they forget what happened afterward.
Miss Ada and Miss Cora Dill and the other teachers saw them coming, and Miss Cora's lips tightened grimly. She was the first to greet Miss Walters at the door.
"Go up to your dormitories, girls," said Miss Walters, hardly glancing at the teachers. "We will have lunch in half an hour--a real lunch. Just a minute," she called, as the girls started jubilantly off. "I'd like to speak to Beatrice Bradley in my private office immediately."
Billie came back, wondering just what was going to happen next, while Laura picked up the suitcase she had dropped and hurriedly followed the other girls.
Then Miss Walters turned to the teachers.
"Will you all come with me into my office?" she asked. "There is a very important matter which I must attend to before I do anything else."
She walked down the corridor to her office and opened the door. Then she motioned them inside, stepped in after them and closed the door decidedly.
"Sit down, please," she said, and when they were all seated she sat down at her desk and regarded them gravely. "As you know," she said, "an unheard-of thing happened this morning, and I must have the testimony of every one before I can decide one way or the other."
Then very quietly she told of her meeting with the girls that morning and repeated almost word for word the story of what had happened during her absence as told by Billie and supported by the other girls.