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