Ruth Fielding at Sunrise Farm, or, What Became of the Raby Orphans

The single gas jet burning at the end of the corridor was so dim and made so flickering a light that it added more to the shadows of the passage than it provided illumination. It was hard to discover which were realities and which shadows in the long gallery. Not a ray of light appeared at any of the transoms over the dormitory doors; yet that might not mean that there were no lights burning within the duo and quartette rooms in the East Dormitory of Briarwood Hall. There were ways of shrouding the telltale transoms and—without doubt—the members of the advanced junior classes had learned such little tricks of the trade of being a schoolgirl. At one door—and it was the portal of the largest "quartette" room on the floor—a tall figure kept guard. At first this figure was so silent and motionless that it seemed like a shadow only. But when another shadow crept toward it, rustling along the wall on tiptoe, the guard demanded, hissingly: "S-s-stop! who goes there?" "Oh-oo! How you startled me, Madge Steele!" "Sh!" commanded the guard. "Who goes there?" "Why—why—— It's I." "Give the password instantly. Answer!" commanded the guard again, and with some vexation. "‘I' isn't anybody." "Oh, indeed? Let me tell you that this ‘I' is somebody—according to the gym. scales. I gained three pounds over the Easter holidays," said "Heavy" Jennie Stone, who had begun her reply with a giggle, but ended it with a sigh. "Password, Miss!" snapped the guard, grimly.