CHAPTER

     I. An accident.

    II.  That hundred dollars.

   III.  Chet helps.

    IV.  The last hope.

     V. Worse and worse.

    Vi.  Debbie deserts.

   VII.  A strange burglar.

  VIII.  Startling developments.

    IX.  Ghosts and things.

     X. Old furniture.

    XI.  Billie Wins out.

   XII.  Great plans.

  XIII.  Cherry corners.

   XIV.  Weird tales.

    XV.  A noise in the dark.

   XVI.  Shadows and mystery.

  XVII.  Only A bat.

 XVIII.  A fish story.

   XIX.  In the dead of the night.

    XX.  The motor again.

   XXI.  Both at once.

  XXII.  A thrilling discovery.

 XXIII.  The wrecked aeroplane.

  XXIV.  Coins and postage stamps.

   XXV.  “Large fortunes.”

BILLIE BRADLEY AND HER INHERITANCE

CHAPTER I

AN ACCIDENT

“Aren’t you glad that we are only going back to school for a little while?” cried Billie Bradley, as she gave a little exultant skip.  “Suppose it were fall and we were beginning high—­”

“Billie, stop it,” commanded Laura Jordon, turning a pair of very blue and very indignant eyes upon her chum.  “I thought we were going to forget school for a little while.”

“Well, we’re not going back for anything I forgot,” Billie was asserting when Violet Farrington, the third of the trio, interposed: 

“If you two are going to quarrel on a day like this, I’m going home.”

“Who said we were quarreling?” cried Billie, adding with a chuckle:  “We’re just having what Miss Beggs” (Miss Beggs being their English teacher) “would call an ‘amiable discussion.’”

“Listen to the bright child!” cried Laura mockingly.  “I don’t see how you ever get that way, Billie.”

“Neither do I,” replied Billie, adding with a chuckle as they turned to stare at her:  “Just natural talent, I guess.”

The three chums—­and three brighter, prettier girls it would be hard to find—­were on their way to the grammar school which had just closed the week before.  Laura had forgotten a book which she prized highly and was in hope that the janitor, a good-natured old fellow, would let her in long enough to get it.  At the last minute she had asked the other girls to go with her.

The three chums had lived in North Bend, a town of less than twenty thousand people, practically all their lives.  The girls loved it, for it was a pretty place.  Still, being only forty miles by rail from New York City, they had been taken to the roaring metropolis once in a while as a treat, and it was only with great difficulty that their parents had succeeded in luring them home again.