Laura started toward the sneak, but she drew back so suddenly as nearly to lose her balance and had to be steadied by the girls behind her. For a familiar figure, hidden until that moment by the shadows about the great entrance door, suddenly swung into the light and faced Amanda. “Now, what you have said behind my back,” rang out a clear voice, “you can tell me to my face!” “It’s Billie,” gasped Laura, in joyful relief. “Say, but she looks good to me.” “Come on. I have a notion she may need a little help,” said Connie, as she made her way to Billie’s side, causing the freshmen who had been Amanda’s audience to scatter in panic. Laura and Vi and several others followed, but Billie did not seem to notice them. Her eyes were still upon Amanda. The latter, taken by surprise, at first looked about her for some means of escape. Then, seeing that she was cornered, she straightened up defiantly and the usual sneer overspread her mean features. “Oh, all right,” she said. “I’m not afraid to tell the truth if _you are_. Did you and Teddy Jordon have a good time when you ran away to-day?” “It’s false!” cried Billie furiously. “And I’ll make you take it back!” “What’s this? What’s this?” interrupted a cool voice behind them, and Billie turned with tears of rage in her eyes to face Miss Arbuckle. “Miss Arbuckle,” she pleaded tensely, “make her take it back—what she said about me. It isn’t true! Oh, it isn’t true!” CHAPTER XIII—BILLIE IS CHOSEN Miss Arbuckle laid a kindly hand on Billie’s shoulder and looked at Amanda inquiringly. The latter was smiling triumphantly. Billie had done what she had hoped she would do. She, Amanda, would tell what in her mean little mind she really thought was the truth, and get Billie in bad with the powers-that-be. “What is this that you are telling about Beatrice, Amanda?” asked Miss Arbuckle, adding, impatient of Amanda’s grin: “Be quick about it.” “She and Teddy Jordon ran off together to-day and were gone for about three hours,” she said triumphantly. “Billie just came in.” Billie’s eyes, black in her white, set face, looked up at Miss Arbuckle steadily. “I didn’t do it, Miss Arbuckle,” she said, her lip quivering. “I—I couldn’t.” “I know you couldn’t, Billie Bradley,” said Miss Arbuckle, so unexpectedly that Amanda’s mouth dropped open from sheer surprise. “There must be some mistake.” “But they were away together for three hours,” Amanda repeated, angry at having this tempting morsel of revenge snatched away from her at the last minute. “I know it.” “That will do, Amanda,” said Miss Arbuckle sternly. “You have been guilty several times of starting stories about the girls that have had absolutely no foundation in truth. And I warn you that if you are caught again in this mischief it may mean serious trouble for you. “You say,” she added turning soberly to Billie, “that you and Teddy Jordon did _not_ leave the other boys and girls this morning?”