noon
For more than an hour she lay , too excited to sleep , shivering at any sudden sound , wondering -- wondering . Toward morning she fell asleep , only to dream of picnics where one did nothing but catch codfish and eat them , of a strange man with a stooping figure , running across a lawn bathed in moonlight . Luckily for the girls who had been at the party , there were other girls in dormitory `` C '' who had gone to bed at the usual respectable hour -- Amanda Peabody and Eliza Dilks , for instance -- and who , as usual , heard the rising bell . If it had not been for them and the noise they made Billie and the others of the five might have slept on till noon . As it was , they rose resentfully , finding it hard to get their eyes open , looking for their clothes half-heartedly , grumbling at everything and everybody . It was Billie , who had slept less than any of them , who whispered a warning to them . She had seen Eliza and Amanda eyeing them suspiciously .