Arrived at Greycliff Hall, the senior academy girls were tucked into bed like babies—every one of them. Hot baths, hot drinks, warm blankets and disagreeable doses prescribed by the doctor, aroused some protest from a few who thought that they did not need them, but protests were of no avail. It had turned decidedly cool after the storm, and there was a frost that night. Dorothy, Eloise, Lilian and Cathalina were taken to the “pest-house,” as the girls called the little hospital quarters, for especial care by the nurse. Eloise was quite herself now, but with a splitting headache. The physician was still watching her and Dorothy Appleton, who was now conscious but seemed quite ill. “I find no serious injury,” said the doctor to Miss Randolph, “and I think that the girls will get over the shock in a few days, but we shall watch them closely and keep the nurse with them.”

Isabel and Avalon and other friends of the senior academy girls were fairly used up with the strain and the relief which came with the safe return of the whole company. The office was busy with receiving and sending telegrams. A correct and reassuring account was sent to the papers and letters were written the next day to anxious parents. For the first time in her career, Miss Randolph took to her bed and spent the entire Sabbath there, though giving directions, writing and reading messages.

“She looked ten years older after those dreadful hours of anxiety,” said one of the teachers to Dr. Matthews.

“Yes?” replied he. “Fortunately there is too much school work ahead for us to stay under this depression. The girls are safe and in a day or two we shall all be back to normal, Miss Randolph included.” Dr. Matthews was much amused over his new nickname, which was reported to him shortly after it had been bestowed. He had been accustomed to that of “Dad Matthews,” the little school paper occasionally using it in some informal account. “I was always regarded, it seems, in a paternal light,” said he, “and now I am ‘Revere’d!”

A few colds, one sore throat, and much lassitude for a few days, were about the only results of the exposure. The senior academy classes were entirely suspended on Monday and Tuesday, but by the end of the week every thing was in running order once more, Lilian and Cathalina in their classes as usual, Eloise back in the suite, and Dorothy fast getting well. Other classes were having beach parties and picnics, but alas, there was no “Greycliff” to take them out from shore any distance. The fall weather was still beautiful, with plenty of sunshine, the air crisp and cool.

One Saturday early in October, the Psyche Club was starting on a beach party and deciding where to go when Isabel said, “Do you remember that day when I was pretending to look all around for the ‘gentlemen’?”

“Yes,” said Eloise.

“Well, when I was peeking around the part of the cliff that juts out so far I saw a place farther down where there seemed to be a nice, flat shelf just above the boulders. It would not be a very comfortable walk, but I don’t think that it would take very long.”

“It was quite a little climb over the rocks to the place where we were, you know,” said Eloise.

“Yes,” said Lilian, “and I don’t believe the girls ever go there. The sandy beach is so much nicer. But we would be sure of being by ourselves.”

“Do you think that we could find wood for a fire there?” asked Cathalina.

“O, yes; probably there would be more than we usually find, if the girls were not in the way of going there.”

“Let’s do it, then,” said Betty. “Nobody has much to carry. I can put my milk bottle in my sweater pocket.”

“So can I,” said several others.

“Divide the sandwiches and things and let everybody carry her own lunch this time.”

Soon the girls were climbing over and past the rocks, gravel and bushes under the cliffs, and at last came to the broad shelf which Isabel had seen. It was not very high, but above the wash of the waves in a storm. Around on the side of the cliff above the shelf there was an opening to some sort of a cave, but the entrance looked dark and gloomy and none too clean.

“Some day when we have on our oldest duds and bring our flashlights,” said Avalon, “it will be fun to explore that cave. There aren’t any wild animals around here, are there?”

“None that I ever heard of,” said Hilary, “but there might be a few snakes.”

“Excuse me, then,” Cathalina remarked. “But they say that the Cliffs are full of caves, something like that one at the island.”

The girls found plenty of drift wood, but instead of building their fire on the wide shelf of rock, as they had intended, they found it easier to collect the material and build the fire on the beach below, where the boulders were few.

“It looks as if the rocks had been cleared away on purpose,” said Helen as she speared a piece of bacon and held it over the fire.

“Why, look at this, girls,” directed Isabel, who was reaching behind a big rock for a piece of drift wood. “It’s an iron ring fastened here and a piece of old rope in it!”

The girls all stepped over to look at the ring. “That’s funny,” said Pauline. “It looks as if there were a sort of path up to the shelf too.”

“Nonsense! We made that sliding down,” said Isabel.

“Have a piece of bacon, Juliet?” offered Pauline.

“What a place for mermaids this is, a rocky cave, a shelf or boulder to sit and comb their locks.”

“Not a very good beach to run around on, though.”

“Mermaids don’t run around, Avalon; they swim or wiggle around on their fishy fins like seals, I suppose.”

“‘Fishy fins,’—that’s good, Pauline,” said Lilian. “May I use that for my next ‘pome’?”

“Yes, fair poetess, I go around dropping pearls of wisdom for my friends! Everything Lil hears is for the paper now, girls.”

“Copy, Pauline, is what we call it.”

“Last year Lil was going to be a singer, I believe.”

“I still am, but it doesn’t hurt to know a few other things.”

“One more sandwich around, girls,” said Eloise, “and then I’m going to call the Psyche Club to order. Wash your milk bottles in the lake and wipe them off with the sandwich papers till they can be better washed in the Greycliff kitchens!”

The last crumb of lunch was finished when Eloise, president of the Psyche Club, rapped with a pebble upon a larger stone to call the meeting to order. “You remember that these meetings were not to be formal, but some order has to be followed if we get things done, so I will call for reports from the committees! Who was to ask Miss West about the name and motto?”

“I said I would,” said Betty. “Cathalina asked me to talk with Patty. She thought that the name Psyche Club was all right, but did not care for the ‘nothing less than Olympus’ idea, and asked why we didn’t get something that would better express the central,—or the real meaning of our name, like ‘faith, love, immortality,’ and if we wanted it in Latin, she suggested ‘Fides, Amor, Immortalitas.’”

“O, that is good!” exclaimed Pauline. “I wonder why we did not think of that ourselves. I move, madam president, that we accept Miss Patty’s suggestion and that the motto of the Psyche Club be ‘Fides, Amor, Immortalitas.’”

“How about the name itself?” asked Eloise.

“I’ll add that to the motion, that the name be ‘Psyche Club.’”

“It has been moved and seconded that our name shall be ‘Psyche Club’ and that our motto shall be ‘Fides, Amor, Immortalitas.’ Is there a second to the motion?”

“I second the motion,” called Isabel.

“Any remarks?”

No remarks were forthcoming. The motion was presented and carried unanimously. Cathalina’s report on pins created great interest. “I’ll show you the booklet I got with designs when we get back, but none of them just suited me, so I made one up. Please don’t say you like it if your idea is different. Some were too big and others too small. I tried to work out a design that would be delicate and yet have room for our names and ‘Greycliff,’ as you said.”

“I think it’s beautiful,” said Juliet, and her opinion was echoed around the circle.

“Then there is nothing more to be done, is there?” inquired the president. “Some day when we feel like it we can get up a little constitution if anybody wants one, or if the society becomes a school society.”

“Time will tell,” said Pauline. “Mercy sakes, what’s coming, girls?”

Scarcely had they all turned to look than a boat shot into the cove headed for the remains of the picnic fire, it seemed. Its one occupant was dressed in rubber coat and helmet as if for a storm, took in the startled company of girls, gave them a keen look from a pair of flashing eyes, smiled a little and with a few strokes of the oars had turned and left the cove as suddenly as he had entered it, before the girls could do more than stare.

“Now why did he do that?” asked Isabel rather belligerently.

“Perhaps he saw that we were scared,” suggested Cathalina.

“We weren’t scared, were we?”

“Startled and surprised, anyhow.”

“But he went as if he didn’t want to come here when we were around. I believe he had some private business here,” said Hilary. “It’s funny. And then there’s that ring.”

“Is there any way to get up to the top of the cliffs here? Maybe people sometimes come here for a short cut.”

“Maybe so, Pauline; anyhow, let’s leave before any more mysterious strangers appear. Some way I didn’t like his looks, if he did smile at us!”

“Neither did I, Hilary,” said Betty. “It made me feel funny, some way and I thought of that time I met the brother of Louise the night of our ghost party last year.”

“He came in a motor boat, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“This man had a rowboat. I wonder where he came from. Greycliff, very likely, the village, I mean.”

“Isn’t the road to Greycliff up there along the cliffs?”

“No; it turns away from the lake shore and there are big thick woods that you could get lost in, they say.”

“By the way, girls,” said Juliet, “we haven’t heard anything of the ‘Woman in Black’ this year, have we?”

“Wow!” said Betty, half in fun, but with a “creepy” feeling, as she said it. “Come on, girls, it gets dark earlier now, and I don’t want to talk about the ‘Woman in Black’ or any kind of ghostesses till we get back home.”

“What’s that about the ‘Woman in Black’?” inquired Pauline.

“Ask Isabel; she saw her, so she says.”