Nan Sherwood at Rose Ranch | Page 8

swiftly in Rhoda's ear:
"Don't fight against it. It's only fun."
"Fun!" repeated Rhoda in disgust.
But she gave over struggling. Laura blindfolded her quickly and
securely. Of course she might have torn the bandage off, for her hands
were free. But she waited more calmly now for what might come next.
CHAPTER IV

WALKING THE PLANK
Nan Sherwood knew very well that there was no intention of really
injuring the new girl; therefore she made no objection to what was done.
Indeed, she helped haze Rhoda Hammond, but more for the sake of
seeing that the Western girl was not taken advantage of in any way than
for the fun of the prank.
Nan did not know what Amelia and Laura had planned to do to the new
girl, but knowing the older girls as well as she did, she was sure that
nothing very bad was intended.
Somebody found an old striped silk parasol with some of the panels
split, and this was opened and given to Rhoda to carry. The line of
march was then taken up, with the victim directly behind the Mistress
of Ceremonies and Laura and Nan shutting off all chance of Rhoda's
escape.
The latter's cheeks were very red and her teeth gripped her lower lip
tightly. Bess mentioned, giggling, that Rhoda looked already as though
she were going through the fiery trial!
Nan realized it would have gone much better for the Western girl if she
had taken it smiling. She feared that Rhoda's attitude would make the
hazing more severe and more prolonged. She wished she knew what
was in the minds of Laura and Amelia Boggs regarding the new girl.
The procession marched through Corridor Four to the rear stairway.
Amelia stalked ahead, carrying the broom, her "wand of office." The
stairway led threateningly near to Mrs. Cupp's room.
"Don't dare breathe even, while we are going down," hissed Laura.
"Silence!" reiterated Amelia.
They descended carefully--all but the prisoner. But when she made too
much noise Laura poked her.

"Here!" the red-haired girl muttered, "make believe you are stealing
upon a band of Indians to scalp 'em--the poor things! You don't walk
like a prairie rose. You stamp along more like a charging buffalo."
"Goodness!" sighed Lillie Nevins, in the rear, "how much our Laura
knows about the West, doesn't she?"
At the titter which followed this remark, their leader hissed for silence
again. The procession was now winding down the stairway to the rear
of Mrs. Cupp's office. They were bound for the basement, it seemed.
For a moment Nan Sherwood wondered if the older girls intended to
reach the subterranean passage which connected the trunk room with
the boathouse at the foot of the cliff. Then she remembered that the
trunk room would be locked at this hour and that Mrs. Cupp had the
key.
But the gymnasium was down here, too. The cellars under the school
were enormous. Castle-like, the great, rambling building had been
constructed by a man with more imagination than money. The latter ran
out before his castle on the cliff was completed. After years of
emptiness, Dr. Beulah Prescott had obtained it and made it into what it
now was--a school for girls.
The great gymnasium was not locked. Laura ran quickly when they
entered the dusky place, and punched the light buttons.
"What do you suppose Mrs. Gleason will say?" whispered Grace
Mason. Mrs. Gleason was the athletic instructor.
"She won't say a thing if she doesn't know," declared Bess promptly.
Some one closed the door, and Nan saw then that there were at least
twenty girls in the room. Some had joined the procession from other
corridors. Now they all began to gabble at once, and Amelia pounded
frantically for order.
Nan saw that the bandage was sufficiently tight across Rhoda's eyes.

Then she led her into the middle of the great room. Amelia was
beckoning.
There had been repairs going on in the gymnasium during the holidays,
and a good deal of the paraphernalia had been disarranged. It was
evident, too, that the workmen were not entirely through. A long plank,
used by the men as a scaffolding, stretched from one set of horizontal
bars to another on the platform at one end of the room.
Laura called the other girls and in whispers directed them to gather all
the mattresses and pile them on the platform under the somewhat
insecure plank. Amelia, her eyes sparkling through the holes in the
pillow-slip, held Nan and the prisoner back.
"Sawney," the tall girl said sternly, "as you have filed objections to
being tried by fire according to the ancient and honorable custom of
Lakeview lambkins, you shall be treated as a robber--No! A pirate. You
shall be made to walk the plank."
"Well," said