CONCLUSION
The special policemen sent out to the Putnam estate were not doomed to disappointment. After an hour's waiting, their patience was rewarded, and the two housebreakers appeared upon the scene. Before they could do any damage they were apprehended and a bag containing a complete outfit of burglar's tools was taken away from them. They fought desperately, but without avail, and were marched to jail to await their hearing.
Judge Putnam was greatly agitated over the affair. He had a large sum of money in the house, not to mention old family silver and other valuables.
"I realize I've had a narrow escape," he exclaimed to the chief the next day. "I might have been murdered in cold blood. I'll have a burglar alarm put in at once and a telephone, too. I had no business to let all the servants except old James go for the night. Who did you say brought the news? Tom Harlowe's little girl? She always was a wide awake youngster. I wonder what I can do for her to show her that I appreciate her bravery?"
"I don't believe she'd accept anything, Judge," replied the chief.
"She's not that sort."
"We shall see. We shall see," said the judge, rubbing his hands. "I have a plan I think she'll listen to."
In the meantime, on reaching home Grace had been cried over by her mother and put to bed as though she were a baby. The story had been told by her chums throughout the school the next day, and Grace found herself the "observed of all observers."
"Any of you would have done the same," she said when surrounded by a bevy of admiring schoolmates.
"That's what you always say," exclaimed Nora. "But let me tell you I should have been in hysterics if I had been left alone in the dark twelve miles from nowhere."
Judge Putnam did not at once make his plan known to Grace. He called, thanking her and complimenting her on her bravery and presence of mind.
"I shall have something to ask you when school closes, my dear child,"
he said as he rose to go. "Something that concerns you and your friends, and you mustn't say 'no' to an old man."
"What on earth does he mean?" said Grace to her chums, as she repeated the judge's words. "I shall be eaten up with curiosity until school closes."
"Wish to goodness it was over now," growled Nora O'Malley. "I don't believe the last of June will ever come."
The morning after commencement, eight highly excited girls gathered on the Harlowe's veranda. Grace had received a note from Judge Putnam requesting that the Phi Sigma Tau call upon him at ten o'clock that morning.
"Do hurry," said Jessica, as they neared the judge's beautiful home.
"The sooner we get there the sooner we'll know."
"Good morning, young ladies," said the judge, bowing with old-time gallantry as James ushered the eight girls into the library. "You look like a garden of roses. There's nothing like youth; nothing like it. Sit down and make yourselves comfortable while I tell you why I asked you to come and see an old man."
"You are just like Mrs. Gray, Judge," said Grace, "always imagining yourself old, when you know you're just a great big boy."
"Very pretty, my dear," chuckled the judge. "But if I am as young as you say, then I must do something to keep young. Now, the way I propose doing it is this: I have a camp up in the Adirondacks that needs attention, so I wrote my youngest sister about it and she agrees with me. She is going up there this week with a couple of servants to open the bungalow and put it in readiness for eight girls who call themselves the Phi Sigma Tau, providing their fathers and mothers can spare them for a few weeks. Do you think they will care to go?"
"Oh-h-h-h! How lovely!" breathed the eight girls in concert.
"Care to go? Well I should say so. It will be the greatest lark ever,"
cried Grace.
"If you know any young men who can make themselves useful, we might invite them. I don't like the idea of being the only boy, you know."
"David and Tom," said Grace and Anne.
"Hippy can go, I'm sure," said Nora.
"Not to mention Reddy and Arnold Evans," murmured Jessica, with a glance at Miriam.
"It looks as though I shall not lack masculine company," remarked the judge, with twinkling eyes. "Tell your parents that my sister will write them."
"I move that we give three cheers and the High School yell for Judge Putnam, and then go straight home and get proper permission," cried Grace.
The cheers were given with a will, and after shaking hands with the judge, the girls said good-bye.
"How did Judge Putnam know about the Phi Sigma Tau; even to its name?"
asked Marian Barber curiously.
"Lots of people know of it," remarked Eva Allen.
"Girls," said Grace earnestly, "don't you think our society has been a success so far?"
"Yes, indeed," was the united answer.
"Our sorority has made us fast friends, loyal to each other, through good and evil report," she continued. "Let us resolve now, that during our senior year we will stand firmly together, and make the Phi Sigma Tau represent all that is best and most worthy in High School life."
When next we meet Grace Harlowe and her girl chums, they will have entered upon their senior year at High School. In "GRACE HARLOWE'S SENIOR YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; Or, The Parting of the Ways," we shall learn how the Phi Sigma Tau kept their sorority pledge. Eleanor Savell will again seek revenge, and Grace Harlowe will once more prove herself equal to the occasion. Those who have followed the "High School Girls" through three years of school life cannot fail to be interested in what befell these lovable everyday girls during their senior year.
THE END