The Orchard Secret Arden Blake Mystery Series #1

"Of course! We all heard it!" declared Sim. "A shout or groan in that dark orchard as if someone were suffering. Do you think there could have been a fight among the help? You k...

Rather timid, diffident, and certainly not as self-confident as they had been when the sneering sophomores had invaded their room, Arden, Terry, and Sim stood looking at one ano...

The moon looked down upon a strange party of girls a moment later, for they had all rushed out of the gymnasium after the ringing of the alarm bell. Blackened faces and slicked-...

Silence--a somewhat stunned and portentous silence--followed the dean's explanation and remarks. Then a buzz of talk began. It spread all through the room, for the orchard myste...

Waiting, with the deference they, as freshmen, guessed was due a sophomore, Arden, Terry, and Sim looked at Miss Everett. There was a smile on her lips, but there was no mirth i...

For a moment it seemed as if the young man was going to deny Arden's statement or at least flee from the scene. But again he smiled in a disarming and friendly fashion, shrugged...

"I don't know," Arden had to admit. "The girls say Dr. Bordmust is really queer at times. I suppose it is because he's such a profound student. He knows such a lot, all about Eg...

Scarcely realizing how they had changed their fright into action, Arden, Terry, and Sim found themselves running away as quickly as they could through the fast-gathering darknes...

Girls of various sizes, types, and descriptions were hurrying into the building, and their clothes, of all colors, gave a luster otherwise lacking in the dull, sand-colored stru...

Hardly realizing the good fortune that had come to them so unexpectedly, and while they were rejoicing over their letters and the prospects of the Thanksgiving holidays, with da...

The mysteriously tolled bell had ceased ringing now. Fascinated, the girls remained at the window looking at the prone black figure of Rev. Dr. Bordmust lying on the edge of the...

"I think you sophs are going a little too far in this hazing business." Terry spoke firmly. "We tried to be good sports about it, but we might have been hurt or killed--or somet...

Miles away from Cedar Ridge, Sim Westover idly turned the pages of a movie magazine. She was quite pleased with herself as she sat in a commuters' train, speeding toward Larchmo...

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...

"I'm sorry we must go so soon," Arden said to the somewhat puzzled boys. "But if we miss that train we'll probably be campused. I'm sure Sim has some good excuse for her absence...

Arden's slippered feet pad-padded up the dark stairs like small, softened trip-hammers as she hurried away from the telephone to inform Terry of the good news that Sim was safe...

Terry and Sim were in other rooms, so Arden did not see her chums until after the last class of the day. Then she met them on the steps of Bordmust, where they usually waited fo...

With great difficulty Arden concentrated on her French literature. Daudet's "My Old Mill," seemed very silly and unnecessary. Who cared about a sleepy French town, drowsing unde...

With startling suddenness, the night, aided by the dense fog, settled down over Cedar Ridge. Arden was alarmed. She had not thought it was so late, though she was quite sure the...

The three girls, toward whom he was unwittingly walking, looked wildly around for a place to hide. The platform was clear except for some benches, now holding only dripping fog...

Breakfast was, if anything, duller and more gloomy than usual. So many "shining morning faces" only made the three freshmen involved in the escapade of the night before more ner...

When it came to writing letters home, each girl approached her family from a different viewpoint, naturally. Arden, who was the most interesting writer of the three, was incline...

Class matters went all too slowly between the time of the tea dance announcement and the affair itself. Lessons were slighted with bold abandon as the girls made their preparati...

"It seems to me," remarked Terry disgustedly, as the agent pulled the door of the baggage room shut and his footsteps and those of the chaplain died away in faint echoes, "it se...

The three freshmen in 513 worked diligently and with a minimum of conversation. Now and then Arden inquired about the spelling of a word, or Terry put a question as to the corre...

While Sim, in the room the three girls shared, undressed with weary slowness, Terry and Arden sat like youthful inquisitors and shot question after question at her until the who...

The clatter of dishes and the clink of glasses vied with the chatter of eager young voices as the girls began their evening meal at Cedar Ridge. The dining room was brightly lig...

"It doesn't worry me much," declared Sim as she pulled on her stockings. "Because I think I'll go home the way I planned in a few days. I'll leave before I'm expelled for going...