Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance | Page 3

her foot upon a steam radiator pipe and was trying to clamber to the top of a bookcase.
It was a tall bookcase, and on the top of it stood a marble statue.
"Billie, look out!" screamed Violet as the bookcase shook and the statue seemed about to topple over by reason of Billie's wild scrambling.
"You won't catch me this time," Billie was defying them, when--the awful thing happened!
The marble statue toppled once more, trembled as though it were not quite sure whether to fall or stay where it was, then came tumbling to the floor with a crash.
The girls cried out, and then stood dumbly looking at the pieces.
CHAPTER II
THAT HUNDRED DOLLARS
Billie Bradley clambered down from her perch in awed silence.
"Girls," she said, her voice very low and solemn, "that 'Girl Reading a Book' statue was worth a hundred dollars."
The girls started, and Laura cried out:
"How do you know it cost that much?"
"I heard Miss Beggs say so," Billie replied dully. "Now I certainly have done it. Girls, what shall I do?"
"It--it couldn't be put together again, could it?" suggested Violet weakly, leaning down to examine the pieces.
"Of course it couldn't," sniffed Laura, adding suddenly: "I suppose we could run away and nobody would know the dif--"
"Look," cried Billie, excitedly pointing to one of the windows.
Following the direction of her glance the girls were just in time to see the freckled face and mean little eyes of Amanda Peabody disappear from the window.
"Oh, that sneak!" cried Laura in a rage, rushing across to the window while the other girls followed close at her heels. "I wish I were a boy and she were another one. I'd just show her!"
"Well, now she will tell and we couldn't run away even if we wanted to," said Billie, sinking down on a bench and looking at them wistfully. "Of course we wouldn't really have wanted to," she added, after a minute of uncomfortable silence. "Only it makes me mad to have to do the right thing. Oh, I don't see why somebody doesn't run that Amanda person out of town," she went on, doubling up her fists and looking as if it might have been just as well for that "Amanda person" that she was not there at the minute.
"Teddy says he calls her 'Nanny,'" said Violet, with a flash of humor, "because it 'gets her goat.'"
"Sounds just like Ted," said Billie, with a smile. Then her face sobered again as she realized the gravity of the situation.
"Of course I'll have to make it good," she said, going over to the pieces again and regarding them mournfully. "But how in the world am I ever going to get together a hundred dollars? It might just as well be a thousand as far as I'm concerned." The last was a wail.
"Won't your father give you the money?" asked Laura, for to Laura's father a hundred dollars was only a drop in the bucket.
But Billie only shook her head while her face became still more grave.
"He would if he could," she said, "but I heard him say only the other day that times are hard and everything is terribly expensive, and I know he is worried. Oh, girls, I'm in a terrible fix!"
"I know you are, honey," said Violet, coming over and putting a comforting arm about her. "But there must be some way that we can fix things all right."
"I'd like to know how," grumbled Laura, who had chosen to take the gloomy view. "We might," she added generously, after a moment's thought, "say that I broke it--"
"Laura--dear!" cried Billie, not quite sure whether to be offended or grateful for the generous suggestion. "It's wonderful of you, of course, but you know I couldn't do that."
"And there's Amanda Peabody," added Violet. "She wouldn't let us get away with anything like that."
At which Laura nodded again, still more gloomily.
"Well," cried Billie, straightening up suddenly and trying to look hopeful, "I suppose it won't do any good to stand here and look at the pieces. Besides," she added with a start, "we've been here a terribly long time, and we don't want the janitor to lock us in."
They started for the door on the run, but Billie suddenly turned, ran back and began gathering up the pieces of the broken statue.
"What are you going to do?" asked Violet, regarding her curiously.
"What does it look as if I were doing?" asked Billie, reaching for an old newspaper that lay in the forgotten paper basket. "I might as well have the evidence of my crime. Anyway, I want to take them to Miss Beggs."
"Do you know where she lives?" asked Laura, stooping and helping Billie at her task.
"She sent me there one time to get some papers," Billie explained, as she rose to her feet, clutching the newspaper package.