The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Orchard Secret, by Cleo Garis

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Title: The Orchard Secret

Arden Blake Mystery Series #1

Author: Cleo Garis

Release Date: September 10, 2012 [eBook #40725]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ORCHARD SECRET***

E-text prepared by Stephen Hutcheson, Dave Morgan,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)

“Oh-h-h-h-e-e!” screamed Sim, “Oh, girls, look here!”
(Frontispiece) (The Orchard Secret)

THE
ORCHARD SECRET

By
CLEO F. GARIS

A. L. BURT COMPANY
Publishers
New York Chicago

The Arden Blake Mystery Series

BY CLEO F. GARIS

The Orchard Secret
Mystery of Jockey Hollow
Missing at Marshlands

COPYRIGHT, 1934, BY
A. L. Burt Company

The Orchard Secret

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I The Warning 7

II Fruit-Cake 15

III Black Danger 25

IV The Reward Circular 38

V Rescued 52

VI Apple Hazing 62

VII Terror in the Dark 72

VIII A Tea Dance 82

IX The Disappearance of Sim 91

X What to Do 98

XI Sim 107

XII Midnight Mishap 115

XIII Aftermath 123

XIV The Dean Decides 129

XV The Alarm Bell 136

XVI Arden’s Adventure 143

XVII In Danger 154

XVIII In Hiding 162

XIX Strange Talk 170

XX A Dire Threat 177

XXI A Bold Stroke 182

XXII Arden Admits It 190

XXIII The Injured Chaplain 196

XXIV The Dean Explains 203

XXV Arden Is Convinced 212

XXVI The Challenge 223

XXVII A Telegram 231

XXVIII A Disturbing Message 241

CHAPTER I
The Warning

For a few uncertain moments no one had spoken. The old flivver bumped over a little hill, and the girls seemed suddenly to realize they were entering upon that much anticipated new experience—college life.

“It’s lovely, isn’t it!” exclaimed Arden Blake, resting her hand on Terry’s shoulder. “Such beautiful pines—so tall and——”

“Mysterious!” supplied Sim Westover, making a dive for her compact.

“Thank you. I was about to say—stately,” remarked Arden with assumed superciliousness. “And see the deer behind the bush, a stone deer, I suppose.