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} +.pageno:after { color: gray; content: '[' attr(title) ']' } +.toc-pageref { float: right } +.pgmonospaced { font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.9em; white-space: pre-wrap } +</style> +<meta content="Project Gutenberg EPUB-Maker v0.03 by Marcello Perathoner <webmaster@gutenberg.org>" name="generator"/> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Girls of Central High on Track and Field, by +Gertrude W. Morrison + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Girls of Central High on Track and Field + The Champions of the School League + +Author: Gertrude W. Morrison + +Release Date: December 25, 2010 [EBook #34749] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.fadedpage.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="document" id="the-girls-of-central-high-on-track-and-field"> +<h1 class="title document-title level-1">The Girls of Central High on Track and Field</h1> + +<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> +<hr class="docutils"/> +<blockquote><div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line"><br/></div> +<div class="line"><br/></div> +</div> +</div></blockquote> +<div class="figure align-center"> +<img alt="images/illus-fpc.jpg" src="images/illus-fpc.jpg"/> +<p class="caption">BOBBY WON BY A CLEAN TWO YARDS</p> +</div> +<!-- --> +<blockquote><div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line"><br/></div> +<div class="line"><br/></div> +</div> +</div></blockquote> +<p class="align-center larger bold">THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON TRACK AND FIELD</p> +<p class="align-center">OR</p> +<p class="align-center larger">THE CHAMPIONS OF THE SCHOOL LEAGUE</p> +<div class="align-center larger line-block"> +<div class="line"><br/></div> +<div class="line"><br/></div> +</div> +<p class="align-center">by</p> +<p class="align-center">GERTRUDE W. MORRISON</p> +<p class="align-center">Author of The Girls of Central High, +The Girls of Central High on Lake Luna, etc.</p> +<div class="align-center line-block"> +<div class="line"><br/></div> +</div> +<p class="align-center">ILLUSTRATED</p> +<div class="align-center line-block"> +<div class="line"><br/></div> +</div> +<p class="align-center">THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING CO.</p> +<p class="align-center">AKRON, OHIO — NEW YORK</p> +<p class="align-center">MADE IN U. S. A.</p> +<div class="align-center line-block"> +<div class="line"><br/></div> +<div class="line"><br/></div> +</div> +<p class="align-center">Copyright, 1914 by</p> +<p class="align-center">GROSSET & DUNLAP</p> +<div class="align-center line-block"> +<div class="line"><br/></div> +<div class="line"><br/></div> +</div> + +<hr class="pbr"/> + +<div class="section" id="contents"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2">Table of Contents</h2> +<ul class="simple"> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-ithe-girl-on-the-stone-fence" id="id1">CHAPTER I—THE GIRL ON THE STONE FENCE</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-iihide-and-seek" id="id2">CHAPTER II—HIDE AND SEEK</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-iiithe-gypsy-camp" id="id3">CHAPTER III—THE GYPSY CAMP</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-ivthe-gypsy-queen" id="id4">CHAPTER IV—THE GYPSY QUEEN</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-vthe-situation-looks-serious" id="id5">CHAPTER V—THE SITUATION LOOKS SERIOUS</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-vipressing-hospitality" id="id6">CHAPTER VI—PRESSING HOSPITALITY</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-viithe-yellow-kerchief-again" id="id7">CHAPTER VII—THE YELLOW KERCHIEF AGAIN</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-viiithe-girl-in-the-storm" id="id8">CHAPTER VIII—THE GIRL IN THE STORM</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-ixthe-gypsies-again" id="id9">CHAPTER IX—THE GYPSIES AGAIN</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xeves-adventure" id="id10">CHAPTER X—EVE’S ADVENTURE</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xibobby-is-interested" id="id11">CHAPTER XI—BOBBY IS INTERESTED</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xiithe-races" id="id12">CHAPTER XII—THE RACES</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xiiiwhat-margit-said" id="id13">CHAPTER XIII—WHAT MARGIT SAID</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xivanother-flitting" id="id14">CHAPTER XIV—ANOTHER FLITTING</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xvanother-rivalry-on-the-field" id="id15">CHAPTER XV—ANOTHER RIVALRY ON THE FIELD</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xvifive-in-a-tower" id="id16">CHAPTER XVI—FIVE IN A TOWER</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xviieve-takes-a-risk" id="id17">CHAPTER XVII—EVE TAKES A RISK</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xviiithe-conscience-of-prettyman-sweet" id="id18">CHAPTER XVIII—THE CONSCIENCE OF PRETTYMAN SWEET</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xixmargit-and-miss-carrington-meet" id="id19">CHAPTER XIX—MARGIT AND MISS CARRINGTON MEET</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xxinter-class-rivalry" id="id20">CHAPTER XX—INTER-CLASS RIVALRY</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xximargits-mystery" id="id21">CHAPTER XXI—MARGIT’S MYSTERY</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xxiilou-potter-scores-one" id="id22">CHAPTER XXII—LOU POTTER SCORES ONE</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xxiiithe-field-day" id="id23">CHAPTER XXIII—THE FIELD DAY</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xxivmargit-pays-a-debt" id="id24">CHAPTER XXIV—MARGIT PAYS A DEBT</a></li> +<li class="toc-entry"><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#chapter-xxvthe-winning-points" id="id25">CHAPTER XXV—THE WINNING POINTS</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<!-- | +| --> +<div class="section" id="chapter-ithe-girl-on-the-stone-fence"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id1">CHAPTER I—THE GIRL ON THE STONE FENCE</a></h2> +<p>The roads were muddy, but the uplands and +the winding sheep-paths across them had dried +out under the caressing rays of the Spring sun +and, with the budding things of so many delicate +shades of green, the groves and pastures—all +nature, indeed—were garbed in loveliness.</p> +<p>The group of girls had toiled up the ascent +to an overhanging rock on the summit of a long +ridge. Below—in view from this spot for some +rods—wound the brown ribbon of road which +they had been following until the upland paths +invited their feet to firmer tread.</p> +<p>There were seven of the girls and every one +of the seven—in her way—was attractive. But +the briskest, and most eager, and most energetic, +was really the smaller—a black-eyed, be-curled, +laughing miss who seemed bubbling over with +high spirits.</p> +<p>“Sit down—do, Bobby! It makes me simply +<em>ache</em> to see you flitting around like a robin. And +I’m tired to death!” begged one girl, who had +dropped in weariness on the huge, gray rock.</p> +<p>“How can you expect to dance half the night, +Jess Morse, and then start off on a regular walking +‘tower?’” demanded the girl addressed. “<em>I</em> +didn’t go to Mabel Boyd’s party last night. As +Gee Gee says, ‘I conserved my energies.’”</p> +<p>“I don’t believe anything ever tires you, +Bobs,” said the girl who sat next to Jess—a +vigorous, good looking maid with a very direct +gaze, who was attractively gowned in a brown +walking dress. “You are next door to perpetual +motion.”</p> +<p>“How’d you know who I was next door to?” +laughed Clara Hargrew, whom her friends insisted +on calling “Bobby” because her father, +Tom Hargrew, had nicknamed her that when +she was little, desiring a boy in the family when +only girls had been vouchsafed to him.</p> +<p>“And it is a fact that that French family who +have moved into the little house next us are just +as lively as fleas. They could be called ‘perpetual +motion,’ all right.</p> +<p>“And oh, say!” cried the lively Bobby, “we +had the greatest joke the other night on Lil Pendleton. +You know, she thinks she’s some +French scholar—and she <em>does</em> speak high school +French pretty glibly——”</p> +<p>“How’s that, young lady?” interposed the +girl in brown. “Put away your hammer. Do +you <em>dare</em> knock anything taught in Central +High?”</p> +<p>“That’s all right, Mother Wit,” drawled +Bobby Hargrew. “But any brand of French +that one learns out of a book is bound to sound +queer in the ears of the Parisian born—believe +me! And these Sourat people are the real +thing.”</p> +<p>“But what about Lily Pendleton?” demanded +one of the two girls who were dressed exactly +alike and looked so much alike that one might +have been the mirrored reflection of the other.</p> +<p>“Why,” replied Bobby, thus urged by one of +the Lockwood twins, “Lil had some of us over +to her house the other evening, and she is forever +getting new people around her—like her +mother, you know. Mrs. Pendleton has the +very <em>queerest</em> folk to some of her afternoons-long-haired +pianists, and long-haired Anarchists, +and once she had a short-haired pugilist—only +he was reformed, I believe, and called himself a +physical instructor, or a piano-mover, or something——”</p> +<p>“Stop, stop!” cried Jess Morse, making a +grab at Bobby. “You’re running on like Tennyson’s +brook. You’re a born gossip.”</p> +<p>“You’re another! Don’t you want to hear +about these Sourats?”</p> +<p>“I don’t think any of us will hear the end +of your story if you don’t stick to the text a little +better, Bobby,” remarked a quiet, graceful girl, +who stood upright, gazing off over the hillside +and wooded valley below, to the misty outlines +of the city so far away.</p> +<p>“Then keep ’em still, will you, Nell?” demanded +Bobby, of the last speaker. “Listen: +The Sourats were invited with the rest of us +over to Lily’s, and Lil sang us some songs in +American French. Afterward I heard Hester +Grimes ask the young man, Andrea Sourat, if +the songs did not make him homesick, and with +his very politest bow, he said:</p> +<p>“‘No, Mademoiselle! Only seek.’</p> +<p>“I don’t suppose the poor fellow knew how it +sounded in English, but it certainly was an awful +slap at Lil,” giggled Bobby.</p> +<p>“Well, I wish they wouldn’t give us languages +at High,” sighed Nellie Agnew, Dr. Arthur Agnew’s +daughter, when the laugh had subsided, +and still looking off over the prospect. “I +know my German is dreadful.”</p> +<p>“Let’s petition to do away with Latin and +Greek, too,” suggested Bobby, who was always +deficient in those studies. “‘Dead languages’—what’s +the good of ’em if they are deceased, +anyway? I’ve got a good mind to ask Old +Dimple a question next time.”</p> +<p>“What’s the question, Bobby?” asked Jess, +lazily.</p> +<p>“Why, if they’re ‘dead languages,’ who +killed ’em? He ought to have a monument, +whoever he was—and if he’d only buried them +good and deep he might have had <em>two</em> monuments.”</p> +<p>“If you gave a little more time to studying +books and less time to studying mischief——” +began the girl in brown, when suddenly Nellie +startled them all by exclaiming:</p> +<p>“Look there! See that girl down there? +What do you suppose she is doing?”</p> +<p>Some of them jumped up to look over the edge +of the rock on which they rested; but Jess Morse +refused to be aroused.</p> +<p>“What’s the girl doing?” she drawled. “It’s +got to be something awfully funny to get me on +my feet again——”</p> +<p>“Hush!” commanded the girl in brown.</p> +<p>“Can she hear us, ’way down there, Laura +Belding?” asked Nellie Agnew, anxiously. “See +here! Something’s chasing her—eh?”</p> +<p>The girl who had attracted their attention was +quite unknown to any of the walking party. +And she was, at first sight, an odd-looking person. +She wore no hat, and her black hair +streamed behind her in a wild tangle as she ran +along the muddy road. She had a vivid yellow +handkerchief tied loosely about her throat, and +her skirt was green—a combination of colors +bound to attract attention at a distance.</p> +<p>When the girls first saw this fugitive—for +such she seemed to be—she was running from +the thick covert of pine and spruce which masked +the road to the west, and now she leaped upon +the stone fence which bordered the upper edge of +the highway as far as the spectators above could +trace its course.</p> +<p>The stone wall was old, and broken in places. +It must have offered very insecure footing; but +the oddly dressed girl ran along it with the confidence +of a chipmunk.</p> +<p>“Did you ever see anything like that?” +gasped Bobby. “I’d like to have her balance.”</p> +<p>“And her feet!” agreed Jess, struggling to +her knees the better to see the running girl.</p> +<p>“She’s bound to fall!” gasped Nellie.</p> +<p>“Not she!” said Eve Sitz, the largest and +quietest girl of the group. “Those Gypsies run +like dogs and are just as sure-footed as—as +chamois,” added the Swiss girl, harking back to +a childhood memory of her own mountainous +country.</p> +<p>“A Gypsy!” asked Bobby, in a hushed voice. +“You don’t mean it?”</p> +<p>“She’s dressed like one,” said Eve.</p> +<p>“And see how brown she is,” added Laura +Belding, otherwise “Mother Wit.”</p> +<p>“There! she almost fell,” gasped one of the +twins who stood now, with arms entwined, looking +at the flying girl with nervous expectancy. +It did not seem as though she could run the +length of the stone fence without coming to +grief.</p> +<p>But it was a quick journey. With a flying +leap the girl in the green skirt and yellow scarf +disappeared in a clump of brush which masked +the wall at its easterly end, just where the road +dipped toward the noisy brook which curved +around that shoulder of the ridge and, later, fell +over a ledge into a broad pool—the murmur of +the cascade being faintly audible to the spectators +on the summit of the ridge.</p> +<p>“She’s gone!” spoke Bobby, finally, breaking +the silence.</p> +<p>“But who’s that coming after her?” demanded +Nellie, looking back toward the West. +“There! down in the shadow of the trees. Isn’t +that a figure moving, too?”</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-iihide-and-seek"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id2">CHAPTER II—HIDE AND SEEK</a></h2> +<p>“It’s a man!”</p> +<p>Dora Lockwood said it so tragically that +Bobby was highly amused.</p> +<p>“My goodness me!” she chortled. “You +said that with all the horrified emphasis of a +spinster lady.”</p> +<p>“It <em>is</em> a man—isn’t it?” whispered the other +twin.</p> +<p>“I—I guess so,” Laura Belding said, slowly.</p> +<p>“It is,” declared Jess. “And he’s a tough +looking character.”</p> +<p>“And he is acting quite as oddly as the girl +did,” remarked Bobby. “What do you suppose +it means?”</p> +<p>“He’s a Gypsy, too, I believe,” put in Eve +Sitz, suddenly.</p> +<p>“Say! this is getting melodramatic,” laughed +Laura Belding.</p> +<p>“Just like ‘The Gypsy’s Warning,’ or something +quite as hair-raising, eh?” agreed Bobby.</p> +<p>“There! he’s coming out,” gasped Jess.</p> +<p>The man appeared for half a minute in the +clearer space of the open road. He was staring +all about, up and down the road, along the edge +of the woods, and even into the air. The seven +girls were behind the fringe of bushes that edged +the huge rock, and he could not see them.</p> +<p>“What an evil-faced fellow he is!” whispered +Dora Lockwood.</p> +<p>“And see the big gold rings in his ears,” added +her twin, Dorothy.</p> +<p>“Do you suppose he is really after that girl?” +observed Laura, thoughtfully.</p> +<p>“Whether he is, or not, it’s none of our business, +I suppose,” returned Jess, who was Mother +Wit’s closest chum.</p> +<p>“I’m not so sure of that.”</p> +<p>“My goodness! if they’re Gypsies, we don’t +want to have anything to do with them,” exclaimed +Dorothy.</p> +<p>“Oh, the Romany people aren’t so bad,” said +Eve Sitz, easily. “They have customs of their +own, and live a different life from we folk——”</p> +<p>“Or ‘us folk?’” suggested Nellie, smiling.</p> +<p>“From other folk, anyway!” returned the big +girl, cheerfully. “They come through this section +every Spring—and sometimes later in the +year, too. We have often had them at the +house,” she added, for Eve’s father had a large +farm, and from that farm the seven girls had +started on this long walk early in the morning.</p> +<p>It was the Easter vacation at Central High +and these friends were all members of the junior +class. Centerport, the spires and tall buildings +of which they could now see in the distance, was +a wealthy and lively city of some hundred and +fifty thousand inhabitants, situated on the southern +shore of Lake Luna, a body of water of considerable +size.</p> +<p>At either end of the lake was another large +town—namely Lumberport and Keyport. In +each of these latter cities was a well conducted +high school, and in Centerport there were three—the +East and West Highs, and Central High, +the newest and largest.</p> +<p>For a year now the girls of all these five high +schools had been deeply interested in athletics, +including the games usually played upon the Girls’ +Branch Athletic League grounds—canoeing, rowing, +ski running, and lastly, but not least in value +according to the estimation of their instructors, +walking. Usually the physical instructor of +Central High, Mrs. Case, accompanied her pupils +on their walking tours; but this vacation the +seven friends who now stood upon the summit +of this big, gray rock, had determined to indulge +in a long walk by themselves, and they had come +over to Eve Sitz’s house the night before so as +to get an early start on the mountain road to +Fielding, twenty miles away. From that place +they would take the train back to Centerport, +and Eve was to remain all night with Laura at +the Belding home.</p> +<p>These girls, although of strongly marked and +contrasting characters, were intimate friends. +They had been enthusiastic members of the girls’ +athletic association from its establishment; and +they had, individually and together, taken an important +part in the athletic activities of Central +High.</p> +<p>For instance, in the first volume of this series, +entitled, “The Girls of Central High; Or, Rivals +for All Honors,” Laura Belding was able to interest +one of the wealthiest men of Centerport, +Colonel Richard Swayne, in the girls’ athletic +association, then newly formed, so that he gave +a large sum of money toward a proper athletic +field and gymnasium building for their sole use.</p> +<p>In “The Girls of Central High on Lake Luna; +Or, the Crew That Won,” the second story of +the series, the girls were mainly centering their +attention upon aquatic sports; and the Lockwood +twins—Dora and Dorothy—were particularly +active in this branch of athletics. They won honorable +mention if not the prize in the canoe +event, and were likewise members of the Central +High girls’ crew that won the cup in the contest +of eight-oared shells.</p> +<p>The third volume of the series, named “The +Girls of Central High at Basketball; Or, The +Great Gymnasium Mystery,” particularly related +the fortunes of the representative basketball +team of Central High, and of which each girl +now gathered here on the ridge was a member.</p> +<p>Not long previous to this day in the Spring +vacation when the seven were tramping toward +Fielding, Jess Morse had made a great hit with +her school friends and instructors, as well. She +had written a play, which was performed by +members of the girls’ secret society of the school +and some of their boy friends, and so good was +it that it not only won a prize of two hundred +dollars for which many of the girls of Central +High had competed, but it attracted the attention +of a professional theatrical producer, who had +made a contract with Mrs. Morse, Jess’s mother, +for the use of the play in a revised form upon +the professional stage. The details of all this +are to be found in the fourth volume of the +series, entitled, “The Girls of Central High on +the Stage; Or, The Play That Took the Prize.”</p> +<p>“There! the fellow’s going back,” said Jess +Morse, suddenly calling attention to the dark +man on the road below.</p> +<p>“If he was after the girl he has given up the +chase. I am glad of that,” added her chum.</p> +<p>“But where did the girl go?” demanded +Bobby Hargrew, craning her neck to peer toward +the bushes on the easterly side of the rock.</p> +<p>“There she is!” ejaculated Dora Lockwood, +grabbing Bobby by the arm.</p> +<p>She pointed down the side of the ridge, where +the rough pasture land dropped to the verge of +the brook. The other girls came running and +gazed in the direction she pointed out.</p> +<p>The green skirt and the yellow scarf appeared. +The girl was wading in the stream, and she +passed swiftly along, seen by the spectators at +every opening in the fringe of trees and brush +that bordered the brook.</p> +<p>“In the water at this time of the year!” +gasped Jess.</p> +<p>“And in her shoes and stockings! She +wouldn’t have had time to stop to take them off +and get so far up stream,” declared Bobby, almost +dancing up and down in her eagerness.</p> +<p>“What do you suppose it means?” cried Nellie.</p> +<p>“She is running away from the man, I guess,” +admitted Laura, slowly.</p> +<p>“And trying to hide her trail,” added Eve.</p> +<p>“Hide her trail! Is this the Indian country? +Are the Gypsies savages?” demanded Nellie. +“Has she got to run along the top of a stone +fence and then take to a running stream to +throw off pursuit?”</p> +<p>“That is her hope, I expect,” Laura said.</p> +<p>“But <em>why?</em>” cried Bobby. “You can’t tell +me that even Gypsies are as keen on a trail as all +that——”</p> +<p>“Hark!” commanded Laura. “Listen.”</p> +<p>“It’s dogs,” spoke Bobby, in a moment.</p> +<p>“O—o—o—o! sounds like a wolf,” shuddered +Dora.</p> +<p>“It is worse,” said Eve Sitz, her face flushing. +“That is the bay of a bloodhound. I remember +that we saw one of the great, lop-eared +animals in leash when that party of Romanys +went past our place last week.”</p> +<p>“You don’t mean that, Eve?” Jess cried. “A +bloodhound?”</p> +<p>“And they have put him on the trail of that +girl—sure as you live!” declared the farmer’s +daughter, with decision.</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-iiithe-gypsy-camp"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id3">CHAPTER III—THE GYPSY CAMP</a></h2> +<p>“Why! I think this is outrageous,” said Nellie +Agnew. “We ought to find a constable and +have such a thing stopped. Think of chasing +that poor girl with a mad dog——”</p> +<p>“I guess he isn’t mad,” ventured Eve, soberly.</p> +<p>Bobby laughed. “Even if he’s only vexed I +wouldn’t want a bloodhound tearing after me +over these hills.”</p> +<p>“You know what I mean,” persisted Nellie, +still wrathfully. “It is a desperate shame! The +dog will hurt her——”</p> +<p>“No, no!” said Eve. “It is trained. And +the man has it in leash——”</p> +<p>“Hush! here they are!” warned Laura, and +the girls hid themselves behind the fringe of +bushes.</p> +<p>The dog gave tongue just as it came in sight, +and the sound sent a shiver over the watchers. +The baying of a bloodhound is a very terrifying +sound indeed.</p> +<p>With the dogs were three men—one of them +the same the girls of Central High had seen before. +The other two were fully as rough-looking.</p> +<p>“I hope they don’t find her!” exclaimed +Bobby.</p> +<p>“They’ll find you if you don’t keep still,” +warned Jess.</p> +<p>But it appeared to the girls that the Gypsies +were having considerable difficulty in following +the trail of the girl who had fled along the top of +the old stone wall. The dog searched from side +to side of the road. He leaped the wall, dragging +one of the men after him, and ran about +the lower field. That she had traversed the +stone fence, like a fox, never seemed to enter the +men’s minds, nor the dog’s either.</p> +<p>For some time the party of hunters were in +sight; but finally they went off in an easterly +direction along the road, passing over the brook +in which the strange girl had left her “water +trail,” and the girls of Central High believed that +the fugitive was safe—for the time being, at +least.</p> +<p>“I wish we knew where she was going,” said +Nellie. “I’d help her, for one.”</p> +<p>“Me, too,” agreed Bobby Hargrew.</p> +<p>“If she should get as far as our house, mother +would take her in,” said Eve, in her placid way. +“But the Romany folk are peculiar people, and +they have laws of their own and do not like to +be brought under those of other countries.”</p> +<p>“Why, they’re just tramps, aren’t they? Sort +of sublimated tramps, perhaps,” said Jess.</p> +<p>“Not the real Gypsies,” said Laura. “They +are very jealous, I have read, of their customs, +their laws, and their language. They claim descent +in direct line from early Egyptian times. +The name of Stanley alone, which is common +with them, dates back to William the Conqueror.”</p> +<p>“Well, come on!” sighed Jess. “We don’t +care anything about the Gypsies, and we can’t +help that girl—just now. If we tried to follow +her up stream we would only give those men the +idea of the direction in which we went. Let’s +get on, or we’ll never get to Fielding.”</p> +<p>“All right,” agreed Laura.</p> +<p>“Forward, march!” sang out Bobby. “How’s the +way, Eve? Right down this hill?”</p> +<p>“Keep parallel with the road. We’ll strike +another path later,” said the Swiss girl, who had +rambled all over these hills with her brother.</p> +<p>“Oh, these shoes!” groaned Jess.</p> +<p>“I told you so,” exclaimed Laura.</p> +<p>“Bah! what good does it do to repeat <em>that?</em>” +snapped her chum. “I hate those old mud-scows +of mine that Mrs. Case makes me wear +when she goes walking with us.”</p> +<p>“Well, you certainly wore a fine pair to-day,” +scoffed Bobby. “I guess it doesn’t do to do +what Mrs. Case advises against.”</p> +<p>“Not if we want to make points for Central +High,” said Laura, laughing.</p> +<p>“That’s so! Where would Jess be to-day if +this was a regular scheduled walk, to count for +our school in June?” cried Dora.</p> +<p>“Now, rub it in! rub it in!” exclaimed Jess. +“Don’t you suppose I know I’ve been a chump +without you all telling me so?”</p> +<p>“I do believe it will rain,” burst out Dorothy, +suddenly. “Doesn’t that look like a rain-cloud +to you, Laura?”</p> +<p>“Pooh!” said Eve. “Don’t be afraid of a +little April shower. It won’t drown us, that’s +sure.”</p> +<p>“That’s all right,” agreed Dora, the other +twin. “But we don’t want to get soaked. If +it should start to rain, is there any shelter +near?”</p> +<p>“The Gypsy camp, maybe,” laughed Bobby, +and then went on ahead, singing:</p> +<blockquote><div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">“‘April showers bring May flowers</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">And sometimes more than that;</div> +</div> +<div class="line">For the unexpected downpour</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">Often ruins the Easter hat.’</div> +</div> +</div> +</div></blockquote> +<p>“Say, girls, we <em>would</em> be in a mess if it should +start to rain hard.”</p> +<p>“And that cloud looks threatening,” admitted +Nellie Agnew.</p> +<p>“I believe I felt a drop then,” gasped Dora.</p> +<p>“What’s the matter, Chicken Little?” +laughed Laura. “Is the sky falling?”</p> +<p>“You can laugh! Maybe it will be a regular +flood,” said Jess, ruefully.</p> +<p>“By the way, what caused the flood?” asked +Bobby, soberly.</p> +<p>“Folks were so wicked—all but Noah,” replied +Dora.</p> +<p>“No,” said Bobby.</p> +<p>“It’s one of Bobby’s ‘burns,’” declared Jess. +“What <em>did</em> cause the flood, then?”</p> +<p>“It rained,” said the irrepressible one.</p> +<p>“Come on under this tree, girls!” cried Eve, +striding ahead down the hill. “It will only be +a passing shower.”</p> +<p>They ran for cover, and the broad branching +limbs of the huge cedar Eve had selected faithfully +covered them as the brief spring shower +went drumming by.</p> +<p>Meanwhile Laura was saying, more thoughtfully:</p> +<p>“We’ve got to give our best attention to the +inter-class and inter-school athletics when school +opens again, girls, if we want Central High to +stand first at the end of the year. You know +we are being beaten right along by the East +High and Keyport Just think! Central High +only Number 3 in points that count when the +June field day comes. We can’t stand for that, +can we?”</p> +<p>“I should say not!” cried Bobby. “But we +beat ’em last year on the water.”</p> +<p>“And we stand first in basketball,” added +Dora Lockwood.</p> +<p>“But the fact remains we haven’t got the +championship of the League cinched by any +manner of means,” returned Laura. “Eve is +going to win, I believe, in the shot-putting contests. +Mrs. Case says that is on the doubtful +list of girls’ athletics. But throwing weights +isn’t going to hurt Eve, or Hester Grimes, that’s +sure. And look at that girl at Vassar! She +put the shot thirty-two feet and three-quarters +of an inch when she was only sixteen. Eve can +do almost as well.”</p> +<p>“I don’t know about that, Mother Wit,” said +the big girl, laughing. “But I’ll do my best.”</p> +<p>“And your best will beat them all, I believe.”</p> +<p>“She’ll beat Magdeline Spink, of Lumberport, +I know,” cried Bobby. “And <em>she</em> did all +the big ‘throws’ last year—baseball, basketball, +putting the shot, and all of ’em.”</p> +<p>“I hope you are right, Bobby,” returned the +country girl, smiling. She was proud of her +strength and physique. Her outdoor life since +she was a little child, and what she had inherited +from a long line of peasant ancestors was +coming into play now for the benefit of Central +High’s athletic score.</p> +<p>“Now, don’t sit down there on the damp +ground, Jess. You’ll get a case of rheumatism—and +a bad case, too.”</p> +<p>“Oh, I hope not!” cried Jess, jumping up. +“I shouldn’t know what to do for it.”</p> +<p>“You’d have to take mud baths,” giggled +Dorothy.</p> +<p>“That road below is in fine shape for that purpose, +then,” said Jess, looking through the pouring +rain at the puddles in the roadway.</p> +<p>“You’d have to wear flannels,” said Dora.</p> +<p>“Hah!” cried Bobby. “That’s it. Flannels +are a sure cure. You know,</p> +<blockquote><div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">“‘Although it caused within his home</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">A very serious schism,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">He still insisted flannel-cakes</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">Were good for rheumatism.’”</div> +</div> +</div> +</div></blockquote> +<p>“Go on!” exclaimed Jess, laughing. “You +sound like ‘Alice in Wonderland.’”</p> +<p>“Say, rather, ‘Bobby in Blunderland,’” added +Laura. “But to get back to athletics——”</p> +<p>“‘To return to our muttons,’” quoth Bobby, +unrepressed.</p> +<p>“We have a chance to win the championship—our +school has—if we can bring the relay +teams up to the mark, and win the jumping +events. It is on field and track that we have +got to gain the points. No doubt of that.”</p> +<p>“Then our track teams need strengthening—much,” +said Nellie Agnew, thoughtfully.</p> +<p>“I should say so!” exclaimed Bobby. “I +could put on one of Lil Pendleton’s peg-top +skirts and beat most of the junior runners right +now!”</p> +<p>“If it’s as bad as that, we have all got to +go into the track athletics, and pull up our +score,” declared Laura.</p> +<p>“Hurrah!” cried Dorothy, suddenly. “It’s +stopped raining.”</p> +<p>“That little shower didn’t even wet under the +bushes,” said Eve, with satisfaction.</p> +<p>“Let’s get along, then, before another comes +and washes us away,” said Bobby. “Straight +ahead, Evangeline?”</p> +<p>“Yes. Right down to that dead oak you see +on the lower hillside.”</p> +<p>“Good! A mark is set before me, and if my +luck holds good I’ll reach it. But why prate of +‘luck’? Is there such a thing?”</p> +<p>“Give it up. What’s the answer?” asked +Dora Lockwood, directly behind her.</p> +<p>“Luck is a foolish thing—or a belief in it is,” +complained Bobby. “List to my tale of woe:</p> +<blockquote><div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">“Why wear a rabbit foot for luck</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">Or nail a horseshoe on the sill?</div> +</div> +<div class="line">For if upon the ice you slip</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">You’ll surely get a spill.</div> +<div class="line"><br/></div> +</div> +<div class="line">“Why cross your fingers in the dark</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">To keep the witches from your track,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">When if, in getting out of bed,</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">You step upon a tack?”</div> +</div> +</div> +</div></blockquote> +<p>“Don’t sing us any more doggerel, but lead +on!” commanded Laura.</p> +<p>Bobby was first at the dead tree. There she +stopped, not for breath, but because, below her, +in a sheltered hollow, where a spring drifted +away across a grassy lawn, there was an encampment. +She held up her hand and motioned +for silence.</p> +<p>There were three large, covered wagons such +is Gypsies usually drive. A dozen horses were +tethered where the young grass was particularly +lush. A fire over which a big kettle of some +savory stew bubbled, burned in the midst of the +encampment. There were two gaudily painted +canvas tents staked on the green, too, although +from the opened doors of the wagons it was evident +that the Gypsies, at this time of year, +mainly lived within their vehicles.</p> +<p>“Oh!” exclaimed Bobby, when the other +girls were crowding about her, and looking as +hard as she was at the camp. “This is what +the girl we saw, ran away from.”</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-ivthe-gypsy-queen"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id4">CHAPTER IV—THE GYPSY QUEEN</a></h2> +<p>“Isn’t that romantic?” cried Jess, under her +breath. “Wouldn’t you like to live in the open +like that, Laura?”</p> +<p>“Sometimes. Then again I might want a +steam-heated house,” laughed Mother Wit.</p> +<p>“And see that darling little baby!” gasped +Nellie Agnew, as a little fellow in gay apparel +ran out of one of the tents.</p> +<p>A young woman followed him. She had black +hair, and very black eyes, and wore a necklace, +and earrings, and bracelets galore. When she +ran after the crowing little one the tinkling of +these ornaments was audible to the group of +girls on the hillside.</p> +<p>This gaily dressed woman caught up the +laughing child, and as she turned her gaze went +over his head and struck full upon the seven +girls.</p> +<p>She set the little boy down quietly, said +something to him, and he ran to cover like a frightened +chicken. She spoke another word—aloud—and +two men and three other women appeared +from the wagons, or tents. They all gazed up +at the half-frightened girls.</p> +<p>“Come down, pretty young ladies,” said the +gaily bedecked Gypsy woman, in a wheedling +tone. “We will not harm you. If you cross +our palms with silver we may be able to tell you +something pleasant.”</p> +<p>She spoke English well enough; but her address +mainly was a formula used; to attract trade.</p> +<p>“What’ll we do?” gasped Dorothy Lockwood, +clinging to her twin’s hand.</p> +<p>“Keep your courage, Dorry,” said her sister.</p> +<p>“Don’t let them see we’re afraid of them,” +Nellie advised, but in a shaking voice.</p> +<p>“And why should we be afraid?” asked +Laura, quite calmly.</p> +<p>“Oh, I’ve seen that woman before,” said Eve. +“She’s one of the Vareys. They are English +Gypsies, like the Stanleys. She was at our place +last summer.”</p> +<p>She started down the steep hillside into the +camp. The first Gypsy woman said something +in the Romany dialect to the others, and the +men drifted away, only the woman awaiting the +coming of the girls of Central High.</p> +<p>As the seven friends approached they saw +that the Varey woman was very handsome, in +her bold, dark way. Silver ornaments were entwined +in her coarse, blue-black hair; her dress, +though garish in color, was neat and of rich +material. The bangle, bracelets, necklace and +all were either of silver or gold—no sham about +them, as Laura Belding very well knew, her +father being a jeweler and she knowing something +about good jewelry.</p> +<p>“She’s queen of the tribe,” whispered Eve to +Laura. “And her husband, Jim Varey, is leader +of this clan. He is a horse trader, and sells +oilcloth and tinware, while the women sell baskets, +and the like, and pick up a quarter now +and then telling fortunes.”</p> +<p>“Oh, Eve!” whispered Jess, behind, “did you +ever have your fortune told?”</p> +<p>“Yes. It’s silly,” replied Eve, flushing.</p> +<p>“It would be lots of fun,” said Bobby, quite +as eager as Jess.</p> +<p>“Let’s all do it,” urged Nellie. “If we give +them a little money they probably will not molest +us.”</p> +<p>“They wouldn’t dare trouble us, anyway,” +said Eve. “And why should they?”</p> +<p>But the other girls, who were not so well acquainted +with the Romany people, felt that the +adventure in the Gypsy camp promised much +excitement. In a minute they were all on the +greensward in front of the tent of the Gypsy +queen.</p> +<p>“Cross the poor Gypsy’s palm with silver,” +whined Grace Varey, in a wheedling tone, “and +each of you shall learn what the future has in +store for you.”</p> +<p>“Suppose you can’t tell us anything pleasant?” +said Bobby Hargrew, boldly. “Then +we’d rather not know it.”</p> +<p>“But such pretty little ladies are bound to +have pretty fortunes,” replied the Romany +woman. “Come! for a shilling—two shillings, +in your American money—I will tell you each +what you want to know most.”</p> +<p>“You will?”</p> +<p>“Yes, indeed, for but two shillings in your +American money.”</p> +<p>“She means a quarter,” said Eve.</p> +<p>“You try it first, Mother Wit,” urged Nellie, +nudging Laura.</p> +<p>At the words Grace Varey looked sharply at +Laura Belding’s earnest face and thoughtful +gray eyes. Instantly she said:</p> +<p>“You do not fear. You lead these others. +You have a quick mind and you invent things. +You are usually first in everything; but power +does not spoil you. You win love as well as +admiration—there is a difference. You have +parents and at least one brother. You have no +sister. There is a——” She shut her eyes for +a moment, and hesitated. “There is a black +person—a woman—who has something to do +with you——”</p> +<p>“Beware of the ‘black man coming with a +bundle,’” hissed Bobby, giggling.</p> +<p>“Hush!” exclaimed Jess. “She means +Mammy Jinny, Laura’s old nurse.”</p> +<p>Grace Varey had turned swiftly to the scoffing +Bobby, and she pointed at her with an +accusing finger.</p> +<p>“You do not believe,” she said, quickly. +“You are light and thoughtless. You have +been spoiled by a doting father. You have no +mother—poor child! You are very frivolous +and light-hearted; but a great sorrow is coming +into your life soon. Into your school life, I +believe. It is connected with one of your +teachers—a woman. Beware!”</p> +<p>Now, this was very melodramatic; but Bobby, +for some reason, could not laugh at it. The +woman was too much in earnest. Suddenly +Grace Varey’s manner changed, and she whined:</p> +<p>“Cross the poor Gypsy’s palm with silver, +and she will tell you more. Only two shillings, +little lady,” and she urged Laura toward the +tent.</p> +<p>“All right,” said Mother Wit. “If the rest +of you are game, I am. But don’t back out +afterward.”</p> +<p>“Not if she is genuine,” said Jess, laughing.</p> +<p>Bobby hadn’t a word to say; for the moment +she was quelled.</p> +<p>But all that the woman had said could be +easily explained by the science of deduction—which +is merely observation raised to the <em>nth</em> +power.</p> +<p>Mother Wit went into the tent and found it +a rather gloomy place. There was a folding +table and two divans, besides some dingy hangings. +It was evidently arranged for the purpose +of fortune telling and nothing else.</p> +<p>“Sit down, lady,” said the Gypsy queen. +“Let me see your hand. Do you believe in the +reading of character by the lines of the hand?”</p> +<p>“I do not know whether I do or not,” replied +Laura, calmly.</p> +<p>The woman laughed lightly. She peered at +the lines of Laura’s palm for a moment, and +then said:</p> +<p>“You believe nothing without investigation. +For so young a person you are very cautious, +and you have much good sense. You are sharp +and intelligent. And you are gentle-hearted. +In short, your friends love you very dearly, +and you are very faithful to them. Is it not +so?”</p> +<p>“You flatter me,” said Laura, quietly.</p> +<p>She noted that the woman was no longer +holding her hand by the fingers; that she had +shifted her own hand to Laura’s wrist, and that +two of the queen’s fingers were resting lightly +on her pulse—just as Dr. Agnew held a patient’s +hand when he counted the throbbing of his +heart.</p> +<p>“Oh, I know,” went on the Gypsy, in her +whining, sing-song way. “You would be faithful +in every event. If you had a secret you +could keep it—surely. For instance,” she added, +without changing her tone or raising her +voice, “if you had seen the girl with the yellow +handkerchief and green skirt, and the little, +puckered blue scar high up—near the right +temple—you would not tell where she was—which +direction she had gone.”</p> +<p><em>That</em> was why the woman was feeling her +pulse! Laura knew her heart jumped at the +question. She might control her features; but +the woman’s question had startled her, and that +sudden heart-throb had told the shrewd queen +what she wished to know.</p> +<p>She smiled lazily, in the dim light, upon the +girl before her. She knew that Laura Belding +and her friends had seen the fugitive from the +Gypsy camp.</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-vthe-situation-looks-serious"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id5">CHAPTER V—THE SITUATION LOOKS SERIOUS</a></h2> +<p>Laura Belding was as quick to think as she +was to act. She remained perfectly calm after +the woman’s question—calm outwardly, at least. +Now she spoke:</p> +<p>“You have spoken a very true thing now. +If I had seen such a girl I should not tell you. +And this has nothing to do with my own fortune. +I have paid you to tell me something +about my future—which you seem to know so +well.”</p> +<p>This spurring phrase put the woman on her +mettle. She flushed slowly under her dark skin.</p> +<p>“You are a heretic—you do not believe,” +she said.</p> +<p>“I must be shown before I believe,” returned +Laura, confidently.</p> +<p>“Then what comes to you in the future will +only prove the case,” laughed the Gypsy queen. +“You do not believe in palmistry,” and she +tossed the hand from her lightly.</p> +<p>“Neither do you,” said Laura, bluntly. “You +did not hold my hand then to enable you to read +my palm, but for another purpose.”</p> +<p>“You are a shrewd lady,” said the Gypsy. +“I read character in other ways than by palmistry—it +is true.”</p> +<p>She looked at Laura for some seconds very +earnestly. Of course, Mother Wit did not believe +this Gypsy had any occult power; but her +deep black eyes were wonderfully compelling, +and it might be that there was something in +“mind reading.”</p> +<p>“You have an intention now that, if followed +to its conclusion, will bring you trouble, young +lady. Just what that intention may be, or what +trouble it may bring, I cannot say exactly,” declared +the woman, slowly and impressively. +“But it deals with a person you have never seen +but once—I believe, recently. It seems that you +may think you are helping her——”</p> +<p>“That is not prophesying,” said Laura, +quickly, and interrupting the Gypsy queen. “I +shall scarcely think your information worth +what I have paid you if you do not do better +than that.”</p> +<p>“What do you mean?” demanded the +woman, hastily, and with a flush coming into +her cheek again.</p> +<p>“You know very well that you are warning +me not to assist the girl who has run away from +this camp,” Mother Wit said, boldly.</p> +<p>“Ha! Then you <em>did</em> see her?” cried the +Gypsy.</p> +<p>“You know I did. You played a trick on +me to find out. You are not telling my fortune, +but you are endeavoring to find out, through +me, about the girl who has run away. And I +tell you right now, you will not learn anything +further from me—or from the other girls.”</p> +<p>The Gypsy queen gazed at her with lowering +brows; but Laura Belding neither “shivered nor +shook.”</p> +<p>“You are quite courageous—for a girl,” observed +the woman, at last.</p> +<p>“I may be, or not. But I am intelligent +enough to know when I am being fooled. Unless +you have something of importance to tell +me I shall conclude that this fortune-telling +seance is ended,” and Laura rose from her seat.</p> +<p>“Wait,” said the woman, in a low voice. “I +will tell you one thing. You may not consider +it worth your attention now, little lady; but it +will prove so in the end. <em>Do not cross the +Romany folk—it is bad luck!</em>”</p> +<p>“And I do not believe in ‘luck,’” rejoined +Laura, smiling. She was determined not to let +the woman see that she was at all frightened. +Surely these people would not dare detain, or +injure, seven girls.</p> +<p>“An unbeliever!” muttered the Gypsy +woman. “We can tell nothing to an unbeliever.”</p> +<p>“And having got <em>from</em> her all you are likely +to get,” said Laura, coolly, “your prophecies +are ended, are they?”</p> +<p>Queen Grace waved her hand toward the tent +flap. “Send in one of your companions,” she +said. “Any one of them. I am angry with +you, and when passion controls me I can see +nothing, little lady.”</p> +<p>But Laura Belding went forth, fully determined +that none of her friends should waste +their money upon the chance that the Gypsy +queen might see into the future for them.</p> +<p>“It’s wicked, anyway,” decided Mother Wit. +“If God thought it best for us to know what the +future had in store for us, he would have put +it within the power of every person to know +what was coming. Professional palmists, and +fortune-tellers of all sorts, are merely wicked +persons who wish to get foolish people’s +money!”</p> +<p>She found the six other girls grouped in the +middle of the camp, trying to understand one +of the women, who was talking to them, and +evidently not a little frightened.</p> +<p>“Oh, Laura! How did it go?” demanded +Jess, running to her.</p> +<p>“Very bad. She is a fraud,” whispered +Mother Wit. “And look out! they think we +have seen the girl who ran away and they will +try to pump us about her.”</p> +<p>“That’s what I thought,” declared Jess.</p> +<p>“Know all about your past and future, +Laura?” asked Bobby Hargrew.</p> +<p>“Dear me! it makes me shiver to think of it,” +said Nellie. “Does she stir a cauldron, and +call on the spirits of the earth and air?”</p> +<p>“She calls on nothing but her own shrewd +sense,” replied Laura, shortly. “And she can +tell you really nothing. Take my advice, girls, +and don’t try it.”</p> +<p>“Oh!” cried the disappointed Bobby “I did +so hope she could tell me—more.”</p> +<p>“Don’t you believe a thing she told you about +trouble coming to you at school,” said Eve, +quietly.</p> +<p>“You needn’t worry about that, Bobs,” +drawled Dora Lockwood. “You know you are +always getting into trouble with Gee Gee.”</p> +<p>“Maybe she could tell me how to circumvent +her,” sighed Bobby.</p> +<p>“You’ll never get the best of Miss Grace +Carrington,” said Jess, decidedly; “so give up +all hope of <em>that</em>.”</p> +<p>“Let the little lady try it—do,” whined one +of the women. “She can learn much, perhaps. +Because one fails, that is no reason why another +should not succeed.”</p> +<p>“I’d like to try it,” said Bobby, earnestly.</p> +<p>Laura whispered: “What they want to find +out is if we saw the girl who has run away +from them, and if we know where she is. Be +careful.”</p> +<p>“Are you sure?”</p> +<p>“Positive,” Laura replied. “She caught me +with her questions. She knows I saw the girl. +I told her nothing else.”</p> +<p>The queen came to the opening of the tent +and beckoned to Bobby. She seemed to know +instinctively which girl was anxious to try her +arts.</p> +<p>“Oh, Bobby,” whispered Dorothy. “Maybe +you’d better not—as Laura says.”</p> +<p>“I want to see for myself,” said the other +girl, doggedly.</p> +<p>And she moved toward the Gypsy’s tent. +Laura gathered the other girls about her. One +of the women was so near that she could overhear +anything said louder than a whisper.</p> +<p>“I want to get away from here at once,” said +Laura, quietly. “Let us buy any little things +they may have for sale, and go on our way. We +can get away better now when there are only +two men in the camp than we can when those +other three—and the bloodhound—get back.”</p> +<p>“Oh, mercy me!” gasped Jess. “I had forgotten +about the bloodhound.”</p> +<p>“Hush!” murmured Laura. “Don’t let that +woman hear you.”</p> +<p>But it was evident that the Gypsy woman had +heard. She uttered a sentence or two in Romany +and the two men whom the girls had seen +before at the camp appeared. They did not +come near, but sat by the roadside that passed +through the hollow, and filled their pipes and +smoked. It was quite evident that they were +on guard.</p> +<p>“We are prisoners!” whispered Nellie, seizing +Eve’s arm.</p> +<p>“Sh!” admonished Laura again. “Don’t let +them see that you’re afraid. That will only +make them the bolder.”</p> +<p>But all of the six girls outside the Gypsy’s +tent were more than a little disturbed. The +situation did seem serious.</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-vipressing-hospitality"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id6">CHAPTER VI—PRESSING HOSPITALITY</a></h2> +<p>The other woman had been stirring the great +pot of stew. It certainly <em>did</em> throw off a delicious +odor. Each girl carried a lunch box and +they had been about to hunt a pretty spot, near +a spring, and satisfy their appetites. Now the +woman at the cauldron, who looked a deal like +an old witch, turned and waved her spoon, +grinned, and said something to the half-frightened +visitors.</p> +<p>The younger Gypsy woman interpreted:</p> +<p>“She says you can have some dinner, if you +will stay.”</p> +<p>“My goodness!” whispered Dora. “I could +not eat any of that stuff.”</p> +<p>“Some of the Gypsies are good cooks—and +that smells delicious,” Eve said.</p> +<p>Laura shook her head, but tried to speak +kindly. “We could not stop long enough to eat +with you,” she said. “We must go just as soon +as the other girl comes out.”</p> +<p>“Better think twice of it, little lady,” said the +Gypsy woman. “When you eat the bread and +salt of the Romany folk they remain your +friends.”</p> +<p>“And chase you with bloodhounds if you try +to get away,” spoke Nellie, unguardedly.</p> +<p>It was an unfortunate remark. The woman +must have heard it. She turned and spoke to +the men again. They rose and stood ready to +oppose the departure of the girls of Central +High.</p> +<p>Even Laura and Eve felt their courage waver +at this. The latter knew that there were no +farms near—no inhabited dwellings. The nearest +family must be at least two miles away. And +this road was lonely at best—and this time of +year, when the farmers were just beginning to +get their plows into the ground, everybody was +busy and there would not be much driving on +any of the ridge roads.</p> +<p>“What can we do?” moaned Dorothy Lockwood.</p> +<p>“Will they dare keep us here, Eve?” demanded +her twin.</p> +<p>At this strained point in the proceedings there +was a sudden excitement among the Gypsies. +One of the men started up the road in an easterly +direction. The girls looked in some +worriment of mind to see what was to happen.</p> +<p>“They’ve caught the girl!” muttered Jess.</p> +<p>“No, But the dog’s coming back,” said +Laura.</p> +<p>There appeared almost at once the three men +who had hunted with the bloodhound—and the +hound himself. He was more ferocious-looking +close to than at a distance. The six girls shrank +together when he passed them, his great dewlaps +slobbering and dripping, and his red eyes +glancing sullenly from side to side.</p> +<p>The Gypsies laughed when they saw fear so +plainly displayed in the countenances of the six +girls. The bloodhound was fastened to one of +the wagon wheels, and then the Romany folk +paid no particular attention to their visitors.</p> +<p>It was plain that they considered the girls +would not go far when they saw that the dog +could be unleashed and set upon their trail. +Nellie Agnew began to cry, but Laura was +growing angry.</p> +<p>“Just wait till Bobby comes out of that tent. +I’m going to start right off along the road——”</p> +<p>“You won’t ever dare to!” gasped Dora.</p> +<p>“Yes, I will. They won’t dare set a dog like +that on us——”</p> +<p>Just then the little boy they had first seen +ran out of the other tent. He was evidently +aiming for his father, who was a low-browed +man with huge hoops of gold in his ears, and +a ferocious mustache.</p> +<p>But the little one had to pass the dog. He +saw him, gave a shriek of delight, and ran +straight at the huge and savage-looking creature!</p> +<p>The girls were, for an instant, greatly startled. +Then they were amazed to see the little +fellow roll the bloodhound over and laugh and +shriek in delight—while the dog nuzzled the +baby and seemed to like the play.</p> +<p>“My goodness!” cried Jess. “That dog’s +nothing but a bluff!”</p> +<p>“I believe you,” said Laura. “I’ve heard of +a dog’s bark being worse than his bite; but in +this case his appearance is a whole lot worse +than his real nature. I guess they just keep him +for his fearful looks and his ability to trail anything.”</p> +<p>“Girls included,” murmured Dora. “I don’t +want him trailing me.”</p> +<p>The Gypsies had tried to call the little boy +away from the huge dog. But they knew that +the appearance of the hound would no longer +strike terror to the hearts of their visitors.</p> +<p>Indeed, Laura, who was naturally unafraid of +dogs, as she was of horses, went over to the big, +ugly-looking brute, and patted his head. He +raised up and looked at her, and his bloodshot +eyes <em>did</em> have a fearful appearance; but he +lapped her hand with his soft tongue—and <em>that</em> +bogey was laid!</p> +<p>“Just as soon as Bobby comes out, we’ll go, +girls,” said Laura, confidently. “They won’t +dare lay a finger on us.”</p> +<p>At that moment Bobby burst from the fortune-teller’s +tent. She presented a wonderful +and a shocking sight to her friends, for usually +they saw her laughing. She was in tears and +she ran to Laura and clung to her in a frightened +way.</p> +<p>“Oh! oh!” she cried. “I want to get away +from this horrid place. Do let’s go, Mother +Wit! Please do!”</p> +<p>“What’s the matter with you, Bobby?” demanded +Jess, nervously. “You give me the +creeps.”</p> +<p>“These hateful people——” began Dora +Lockwood, when the Gypsy queen appeared at +the tent entrance. Her eyes sparkled and her +handsome face was flushed. She called something +in a low, clear voice, and the men, who +had gathered in a knot at one side, started toward +her.</p> +<p>One of them unfastened the dog again and +held the end of the chain. The queen was talking +excitedly in their own tongue to the others.</p> +<p>Laura shook Bobby a little and said, shrewdly:</p> +<p>“I guess she got out of you what she wanted +to know, eh?”</p> +<p>Bobby only sobbed.</p> +<p>“Did you tell her what direction that girl was +going—that she was wading up stream?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes! I did!” gasped Bobby. “She +made me.”</p> +<p>“Well, it can’t be helped. It’s really none +of our business,” said Laura. “But if they try +to stop us from going away now, we’ve got to +scatter and run. They can’t hold us all very +well, and one of us will surely find some +house——”</p> +<p>“They won’t dare stop us,” said Eve, decidedly.</p> +<p>At that moment Nell held up her hand. +“Hark!” she exclaimed. “What is that?”</p> +<p>The rattling of a heavy wagon coming down +the road from the east was audible. Eve instantly +ran out to the edge of the road. One +of the Gypsies uttered a shrill, warning cry, and +the men turned to intercept the girls.</p> +<p>But into view came the heads of a team of +bay horses, and then a farm-wagon, with a bewhiskered +man in high boots on the seat, driving +the team.</p> +<p>“Hullo! Whoa!” exclaimed the farmer, +when he saw Eve. “I declare I Is that you, +Evie?”</p> +<p>“Why, Mr. Crook! how glad I am to see +you,” said the Swiss girl. “What have you +got in the wagon? Just a few bags? Then you +can give us a lift, can’t you? We are tired +walking.”</p> +<p>“Sure I can, Miss Evie,” replied the farmer. +“What are you girls doin’ with these ‘Gyptians? +Gettin’ your fortunes told?”</p> +<p>“Oh, we just stopped here for a minute,” +said Eve, carelessly.</p> +<p>The Gypsies had hesitated to approach closer. +The men began to slip away, one after the +other.</p> +<p>“Pile in, girls,” said the farmer, hospitably. +“I’m going five or six miles on this road. +Bound for Fielding?”</p> +<p>“Yes, we are,” replied Eve, as her friends +gratefully clambered into the end of the wagon.</p> +<p>“Oh, dear me!” whispered Jess. “What +luck this is! I believe those folks would have +tried to keep us.”</p> +<p>“I don’t know about that,” returned her +chum. “But the woman certainly managed to +frighten Bobby most thoroughly.”</p> +<p>Bobby had hushed her sobs. But even when +the wagon had started again and the Gypsy +camp was out of sight, she was not willing to +talk about what the Varey woman had told her.</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-viithe-yellow-kerchief-again"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id7">CHAPTER VII—THE YELLOW KERCHIEF AGAIN</a></h2> +<p>School opened the next Monday and the +girls of Central High took up their tasks “for +the last heat” of the year, as Jess Morse expressed +it.</p> +<p>“And I’m glad,” she told her chum, Laura +Belding, “Just think! next Fall we’ll be +seniors.”</p> +<p>“Wishing your life away,” laughed Laura. +“We were awfully glad to be juniors, I remember.”</p> +<p>“Sure. But we’ll boss the school next fall,” +said Jess.</p> +<p>“We’ve done very well for juniors, especially +in athletics,” observed Laura. “Why, practically, +our bunch has dominated athletics for a +year, now. We made the eight-oared shell in +our sophomore year.”</p> +<p>“True. And the champion basketball team, +too.”</p> +<p>“And Eve is going to qualify for the broad +jump as well as the shot-put, I verily believe,” +said Laura. “I’m glad I found that girl and +got her to come to Central High instead of going +to Keyport.”</p> +<p>“She was a lucky find,” admitted Jess. “And +she wasn’t much afraid of those Gypsies last +week—did you notice?”</p> +<p>“Of course she wasn’t. She told me this +morning that the constable over there looked +for the camp, but the Romany folk had moved +on.”</p> +<p>“I wonder if they caught that girl in the +yellow kerchief,” said Jess, thoughtfully.</p> +<p>“Don’t know. But they managed to scare +Bobby pretty thoroughly,” said Laura. “I +never did see Bobby Hargrew quite so impressed.”</p> +<p>Jess smiled. “She seemed to know something +about you, too, Laura—that Gypsy queen. +She knew you had a negro mammy at home.”</p> +<p>“I don’t know how she guessed that,” admitted +Laura. “But I believe all that fortune +telling is foolishness. If she came to the house +and told Mammy Jinny half what she did us, +Mammy would be scared to death. We had a +good laugh on the dear old thing yesterday. +She’s had a cold for several days and mother +insisted upon calling Dr. Agnew in to see her. +You know how Nellie’s father is—always joking +and the like; and he enjoys puzzling Mammy +Jinny. So when he had examined her he +said:</p> +<p>“‘Mammy, the trouble is in your thorax, +larynx and epiglottis.’</p> +<p>“‘Ma soul an’ body, Doctor!’ exclaimed +Mammy, turning gray. ‘An’ I only t’ought I +had a so’ t’roat.’”</p> +<p>“But Mammy does like to use long words +herself,” chuckled Jess. “She will remember +those words and spring them on you some time. +Remember when her nephew had the rheumatism?”</p> +<p>“Of course,” Laura replied. “We asked her +if it was the inflammatory kind and she said:</p> +<p>“‘Sho’ it’s exclamatory rheumatism. He yells +all de time.’”</p> +<p>“But I <em>do</em> wonder,” said Jess, again, “if the +Gypsies caught that girl. She must have wanted +badly to get away from them to have run the +risk of being chased by a bloodhound.”</p> +<p>“And she was smart, too,” Laura agreed. +“Running on that wall and wading in the +stream threw the dog off the scent.”</p> +<p>“If one of us had done such a thing as that +when the water was so cold we would have got +our ‘never-get-over,’” declared Jess.</p> +<p>“I believe you. And a lot of us girls are +‘tender-feet,’ as Chet says, at this time of year. +We have been in the house too much. I tell +you, Jess, we’ve got to get ’em out in the field +just as soon as it’s dry enough. Bill Jackway +is working on the track and Mrs. Case says she +thinks we can start outdoor relay practice and +quarter-mile running on Saturday—if it’s pleasant.”</p> +<p>“That’s what we have got to practice up on, +too, if we want to win the points we need to +put Central High at the top of the list,” agreed +her chum.</p> +<p>“I should say!”</p> +<p>The moment they were freed from the regular +lessons of the day Laura and Jess and their +particular friends made for the handsome gym, +building and athletic field that Colonel Richard +Swayne had made possible for them. Bobby +Hargrew was very much down in the mouth, +for she had gone up against Miss Carrington +at several points and the martinet had been very +severe with the irrepressible.</p> +<p>“I tell you what,” growled Bobby, “I believe +that little brother of Alice Long hit it off +about right when it comes to teachers.”</p> +<p>“How is that?” asked Laura.</p> +<p>“Why, he came home after going to school a +few days last Fall, and says he: ‘I don’t think +teachers know much, anyway. They keep asking +you questions all the time.’”</p> +<p>“I agree with you there,” Jess said. “And +such useless questions! Why, if you answered +them literally half the time you’d be swamped +in demerits. For instance, did you notice that +one to-day: ‘Why did Hannibal cross the +Alps?’ I felt just like answering: ‘For the +same reason the chicken crossed the road!’”</p> +<p>The girls got into their gym. suits in a hurry +and then played passball for a while, and, when +well warmed up, went out on the field. Mrs. +Case appeared and tried some of the younger +ones out in relay running, while several of the +bigger ones, including Eve, tried the broad +jump, and Laura, and Jess, and more of the +juniors trotted around the cinder path.</p> +<p>Central High had to develop a first-class +sprinter to win that event at the June tourney, +and, as Laura said, “it was a question where +the lightning would strike.” Every girl who +<em>would</em> run—even down to the freshies—was to +be tried out. As for the relay races, that was +a matter of general interest. To-day Mrs. +Case’s whistle blew in half an hour, and every +girl oh the field lined up for a “shuttle relay”—half +of them on one line and half on the +other, fifty yards apart.</p> +<p>At the sound of the whistle Number 1 girl +shot off across the running space and touched +Number 2, the latter dashing back to touch +Number 3, and so on until the last girl crossed +the line at the finish. This is a splendid form +of relay-racing, for it keeps the girls on the +alert, and the distance is not too great for any +girl, who has a physician’s approval, to run.</p> +<p>Mrs. Case, however, was extremely careful—as +was Dr. Agnew, the medical inspector—as to +the condition of the girls before they entered +upon any very serious training. The afternoons +of this first week of school were spent in working +out the girls gradually, the instructor learning +what they really could do. Nor were any +of the girls allowed to work on the track, or +in the gym., two days in succession.</p> +<p>But Saturday afternoon was devoted to real +work and the making up of the relay teams for +practice during the spring. It chanced to be a +glorious day, too, and the field was well attended. +Bobby Hargrew was faithfully practicing +for the quarter-mile sprint. She was as +fast as anybody in the junior class, and for once +was really putting her mind to the work.</p> +<p>“If Gee Gee doesn’t hamper me too much +with conditions and extra work, maybe I can +be of some help to the school,” spoke Miss +Bobby. “But I can see plainly she’s got it in +for me.”</p> +<p>“That’s what the Gypsy fortune-teller told +you,” returned Jess. “Didn’t she warn you to +beware of one of your teachers—and a +woman?”</p> +<p>Bobby’s light-hearted chatter was stilled and +she paled as Jess reminded her of the Gypsy +woman.</p> +<p>“Pooh!” Laura quickly said. “There is +nothing in that foolishness.” Bobby had utterly +refused to tell them what Grace Varey, +the Gypsy queen, had told her in the tent. +“She could easily see that Bobby was full of +good spirits and that she must always be in difficulties +with her teachers—and of course it was +safe to guess that she would have trouble with +a female teacher. I wouldn’t give a minute’s +thought to such foolishness.”</p> +<p>But Bobby would not be led to say anything +farther, and was very quiet for a time.</p> +<p>She was with Laura and the other juniors, +however, over by the gate, when Nell Agnew +made her great discovery. The girls had been +playing captain’s ball on one of the courts, and +they were all warm and tired. Wrapped in +their blanket coats, on which Mrs. Case insisted +at this time of the year, they were resting on +the bench which faced the gateway, and the +gate was open.</p> +<p>“My goodness me!” gasped the doctor’s +daughter, suddenly, “isn’t that the same girl?”</p> +<p>“Huh?” asked Bobby. “Isn’t what the +same girl? You’re as lucid as mud, Nell.”</p> +<p>“Out there! Quick, Laura—don’t you see +her?”</p> +<p>Laura Belding craned her neck to see outside +the yard. Across the street a girl was passing +slowly. They could not see her face, and she +was wrapped in a long cloak—or waterproof +garment.</p> +<p>“Look at that yellow handkerchief!” exclaimed +Jess.</p> +<p>“I saw it—and I saw her face,” said Nellie.</p> +<p>“That’s like the girl we saw up there on the +ridge,” admitted Laura, slowly.</p> +<p>“The Gypsy girl!” exclaimed Jess, in excitement.</p> +<p>“It <em>was</em> she. I saw her face,” repeated Nell.</p> +<p>“Now, what do you know about that?” cried +Jess. “Why, she must have gotten away from +those people, after all. I’m glad of it.”</p> +<p>Bobby said never a word, but she stared after +the yellow kerchief, which showed plainly above +the collar of the mantle the strange girl wore. +And while her mates discussed with interest the +appearance in town of the fugitive from the +Gypsy camp, Bobby was only thoughtful.</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-viiithe-girl-in-the-storm"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id8">CHAPTER VIII—THE GIRL IN THE STORM</a></h2> +<p>Now, Bobby Hargrew was not naturally a +secretive girl. Far from it. Her mates noted, +however, that of late she had grown quieter. +Ever since their adventure with the Gypsies she +had seemed distraught at times, and not at all +like her usual merry, light-hearted self.</p> +<p>“That horrid Gypsy woman told her something +that scared her,” Jess Morse said to +Laura Belding. “I didn’t think Bobby would +be so easily gulled.”</p> +<p>“Those people know how to make things +seem awful real, I expect,” returned her chum, +thoughtfully. “If I had not been on my guard, +and had the woman not tried to learn something +from me, instead of attempting to mystify +me, I expect I would have fallen under her +spell.”</p> +<p>“Nonsense!” laughed Jess.</p> +<p>“Well, it seems Bobby was impressed,” said +Laura.</p> +<p>“I should say she was. And whatever the +woman told her, it is something that is supposed +to happen in the future. Bobby is looking forward +to it with terror.”</p> +<p>“I wish I knew what it was.”</p> +<p>“But Bobs won’t take you into her confidence,” +sighed Jess.</p> +<p>“No. I’ve sounded her. And it is no mere +trouble that she expects in school. It is something +more serious than Miss Carrington’s severity,” +Laura rejoined.</p> +<p>Clara Hargrew probably had more friends +among the girls of Central High than any other +girl on the Hill; yet she had not one “crush.” +She was “hail-fellow-well-met” with all her +schoolmates, and never paired off with any particular +girl. She had nobody in whom she would +naturally confide—not even at home.</p> +<p>For there had been no mother in the Hargrew +home for several years. Mr. Hargrew idolized +Bobby, who was the oldest of his three girls; +but a father can never be like a mother to a +girl. Her two sisters were small—the youngest +only six years old. The housekeeper and nurse +looked out for the little girls; but Bobby was +answerable to nobody but her father, and he +was a very easy-going man indeed. He was +proud of Bobby, and of her smartness and +whimsicality; and about everything she did was +right in his eyes.</p> +<p>The fact that his oldest daughter had been a +good deal of a tomboy never troubled the groceryman +in the least. “She was as good as any +boy,” he often laughingly said, and it was he +who had nicknamed her “Bobby.”</p> +<p>But the girl was just now at the age and stage +of growth when she needed a mother’s advice +and companionship more than any other time in +her life. And she felt woefully alone these +days.</p> +<p>She was usually the life of the house when +she was indoors, and the little girls, Elsie and +Mabel, loved to have her as their playmate. In +the evenings, too, she was used to being much +with her father. But of late Mr. Hargrew had +been going out one or two evenings each week—a +new practice for him—and on these evenings +when her father was absent, Bobby was so +gloomy that it was not long before the little +girls complained.</p> +<p>“You’re sick, child,” declared Mrs. Ballister, +the old lady who had been with them since long +before Mrs. Hargrew died.</p> +<p>“No, I’m not,” declared Bobby.</p> +<p>“Then you’ve done something that’s settin’ +heavy on your conscience,” declared the old +lady, nodding. “Nothing else would make you +so quiet, Clara.”</p> +<p>And Bobby felt too miserable to “answer +back,” and swallowed the accusation without +comment.</p> +<p>It was early in the week following the Saturday +on which the girls had seen the fugitive +from the Gypsy camp passing the athletic field. +Soon after the mid-day recess a sudden spring +thunder storm came up, the sky darkened, the +air grew thick, and sharp lightning played across +the clouds before the threatened downpour.</p> +<p>Some of the girls were so frightened that +they ran in from the recreation ground before +the gong rang. The heavens were overcast and +the trees before the schoolhouse began to writhe +in the rising wind.</p> +<p>The first heavy drops were falling when +Bobby, who had been excused by Miss Carrington +to do an errand during the recess, turned the +corner and faced the sudden blast. It swooped +down upon her with surprising power, whirled +her around, flung her against the fence, and +then, in rebounding, she found herself in another +person’s arms.</p> +<p>“Oh, dear me! Excuse me—do!” gasped +Bobby, blinded for the moment and clinging to +the person with whom she had collided. “I—I +didn’t mean to run you down.”</p> +<p>At that instant there was a blinding flash +followed by a roll of thunder that seemed to +march clear across the sky. Bobby felt this girl +whom she clung to shrink and tremble at the +sound. Now, Bobby herself was not particularly +afraid of thunder and lightning, and she +immediately grew braver.</p> +<p>“Come on!” she said. “We’ll get wet here. +Let’s run into the boys’ vestibule—that’s nearest.”</p> +<p>The boys’ yard was empty; indeed, the afternoon +session had been called to order now in all +the classrooms. Bobby and the strange girl ran, +half blindly, into the graveled yard and up the +steps.</p> +<p>Just as they entered the vestibule the downpour +came. The flood descended and had they +been out in it half a minute longer the fugitives +would have been saturated.</p> +<p>“Just in time!” cried Bobby, attempting to +open the inner door.</p> +<p>“Oh! I can’t go in there,” stammered the +strange girl.</p> +<p>“Nor I guess I can’t, either,” said Bobby, half +laughing, half breathless. “It’s locked—and +the wind is blowing the rain right into this vestibule. +Come on! Let’s shut this outside door.”</p> +<p>The half of the two-leaved door of the vestibule +which had been open was heavy; but +Bobby’s companion proved to be a strong and +rugged girl, and together they managed to close +it. Then, with the rain and wind shut out, although +the roar of the elements was still loud +in their ears, the two girls were able to examine +each other.</p> +<p>And instantly Bobby Hargrew forgot all +about the thunder, and lightning, and rain. She +stared at the girl cowering in the corner, who +winced every time the lightning played across +the sky, and closed her eyes with her palms to +the reverberation of the thunder.</p> +<p>The girl was perhaps a couple of years older +Bobby herself. She was dark and had a tangle +of black hair which was dressed indifferently. +A woolen cap was drawn down almost to her +ears. She was rather scrubbily dressed, and +nothing that she wore looked very clean or very +new. The waist she had on was cut low at +the neck—so low that the girl had tied loosely +around her throat a soft, yellow muffler.</p> +<p>Although the old brown cloak she wore hid +her green skirt, Bobby knew that the girl before +her was the one she and her friends had seen +escaping from the Gypsy camp nearly a fortnight +before. The girl who had been unafraid +of pursuit by the bloodhound, and had run upon +stone fences and waded in an ice-cold mountain +brook to hide her trail, now cowered in the vestibule +of the schoolhouse, in a nervous tremor +because of the thunderstorm.</p> +<p>“My! but you <em>are</em> scared of lightning, aren’t +you?” exclaimed Bobby, after a minute, and +when the noise of the elements had somewhat +ceased.</p> +<p>“I—I always am,” gasped the girl.</p> +<p>“The lightning won’t hurt you—at least, the +lightning you <em>see</em> will never hurt you, my father +says,” added Bobby. “The danger is all past +by the time you see the flash of it.”</p> +<p>“But I can’t help being frightened,” replied +the girl.</p> +<p>“No. I suppose not. And I guess you are +brave enough about other things to make up, +eh?”</p> +<p>The girl looked up at her, but was evidently +puzzled. She glanced through the glass doors +of the building into the corridor.</p> +<p>“Is this the school building?” she asked, +quickly.</p> +<p>“Yes. But this is the boys’ entrance, so I +don’t want to ring. I’d get scolded for coming +here,” said Bobby.</p> +<p>“Oh, don’t ring!” exclaimed the girl, putting +a timid hand upon Bobby’s arm. “This is the +big school, isn’t it?”</p> +<p>“It’s the biggest in town. It’s Central +High,” said Bobby, proudly.</p> +<p>“You go here to school, of course?” asked +the girl, somewhat wistfully.</p> +<p>“Yes. I’m a junior.”</p> +<p>The other shook her head. The grading of +the school was evidently not understood by the +Gypsy girl.</p> +<p>“Say! do you have many teachers in this +school?” she asked.</p> +<p>“Yes. There’s enough of them,” replied +Bobby, grumblingly.</p> +<p>“Women, too?”</p> +<p>“Yes. Some women.”</p> +<p>“Who are they?” asked the girl, quickly. +“What’s their names?”</p> +<p>The thunder was rolling away now, but the +rain was still beating down in such volume that +the girls could not venture forth. Bobby would +have gotten wet in running around to the girls’ +entrance.</p> +<p>“Why,” she said, studying the Gypsy’s face +in a puzzled way. “There’s Miss Gould.”</p> +<p>“Gould? That’s not her whole name, is it?” +asked this curious girl.</p> +<p>“Miss Marjorie Gould.”</p> +<p>“Say it slow—say the letters,” commanded +the Gypsy girl.</p> +<p>Bobby, much amazed, began:</p> +<p>“M-a-r-j-o-r-i-e G-o-u-l-d.”</p> +<p>The strange girl shook her head. Bobby saw +that she had been counting the letters of Miss +Gould’s name on her fingers, and she asked:</p> +<p>“Don’t you read English?”</p> +<p>“No. I’m Austrian. I know some German. +A woman taught me. But I never went to +school—never to a school like this,” said the +Gypsy girl, with a sigh.</p> +<p>“Who are you?” asked Bobby, deeply interested.</p> +<p>“You—you can call me Margit—Margit +Salgo, from Austria.”</p> +<p>Now, this puzzled Bobby Hargrew more than +ever, for she knew that the Gypsies the girl +had been with were English. Yet she was +afraid of frightening the girl by telling her +what she already knew about her. And immediately +the Gypsy girl asked her another question:</p> +<p>“Spell me some of their other names, will +you?”</p> +<p>“Whose other names?”</p> +<p>“The lady teachers,” replied Margit, her +black eyes flashing eagerly.</p> +<p>“Why—why, there’s Mrs. Case,” stammered +Bobby.</p> +<p>“How do you spell the letters?”</p> +<p>“R-o-s-e C-a-s-e,” said Bobby, slowly.</p> +<p>“No! no!” exclaimed Margit. “Not enough. +Too short.”</p> +<p>“But don’t you know the name of the woman +you are looking for?”</p> +<p>“I didn’t say I was looking for anybody,” +said Margit, with suspicion. “I am just curious.”</p> +<p>“And you can’t repeat the name?”</p> +<p>“I never heard it repeated. I only know +how many letters there are. I saw it on a card. +I counted the letters,” said the girl, with a +shrewd light in her eyes. “Now! haven’t you +any more lady teachers here?”</p> +<p>“There’s Gee Gee!” exclaimed Bobby, with +half a chuckle, amused at the thought of Miss +Carrington being mixed up in any manner with +this half-wild Gypsy girl.</p> +<p>“Too short,” said the other, shaking her head +decidedly.</p> +<p>“Oh, her real name is long enough. It’s +Grace G. Carrington.”</p> +<p>“Spell it out,” commanded Margit Salgo, +eagerly.</p> +<p>Bobby did so, but the girl shook her head. +“Not enough letters,” she declared.</p> +<p>“Why—there are sixteen letters to Miss +Carrington’s name,” said Bobby, wonderingly. +“How many are there to the name you are +hunting for?”</p> +<p>“Two more,” said Margit, promptly.</p> +<p>“Eighteen?”</p> +<p>“Yes. Now, don’t you tell anybody what I +say. That’s a good girl,” urged the other.</p> +<p>“You’re not afraid of me, are you?” asked +Bobby, in wonder.</p> +<p>“I’m afraid of everybody,” muttered the girl.</p> +<p>“You’ve—you’ve run away from somebody?” +ventured Bobby, fearing to startle the +fugitive by telling her just how much she <em>did</em> +know.</p> +<p>“Never you mind about me. Thank you for +what you’ve told me. I—I guess the worst of +it’s over now, and I’ll go,” said Margit, and she +tugged at the knob of the outer door.</p> +<p>The rain was still falling fast; but the thunder +only muttered in the distance and the electric +display had entirely passed.</p> +<p>“Wait!” cried Bobby, earnestly. “Maybe I +can help you some more.”</p> +<p>“No. I don’t need anybody to help me. I +can take care of myself,” replied the Gypsy girl, +sullenly.</p> +<p>She mastered the door-latch, pulled the door +open, and ran out into the rain. In half a +minute she was flying up the street, and not until +she was out of sight did Bobby remember something +that might be of great importance in explaining +the mystery.</p> +<p>“Why, Miss Carrington always writes her +name ‘Grace <em>Gee</em> Carrington,’” exclaimed +Bobby. “There’s the eighteen letters that the +girl is looking for. I never thought of that!”</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-ixthe-gypsies-again"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id9">CHAPTER IX—THE GYPSIES AGAIN</a></h2> +<p>When the rain stopped, Bobby went around +to the other entrance and reported herself to +Miss Carrington. That teacher always doubted +Bobby’s excuses, and this time she shook her +head over the girl’s tardiness.</p> +<p>“You told me you had plenty of time to do +your errand within the limit of the recess, Miss +Hargrew,” said Gee Gee. “Do better next time, +please.”</p> +<p>“She always acts as though she thought I had +an India rubber imagination,” muttered Bobby, +to her nearest seatmate, “and that I was always +stretching it.”</p> +<p>“Miss Hargrew, please refrain from communicating +in lesson time!” snapped the ever-watchful +teacher.</p> +<p>“Dear me!” murmured Bobby. “She’s got +me again. I <em>do</em> have the worst luck.”</p> +<p>And then she wondered what Miss Carrington +knew about the strange Gypsy girl, or what +Margit knew about Gee Gee.</p> +<p>“I’d like to get better acquainted with that +girl,” thought Bobby. “There is a mystery about +her—and Gee Gee is in it.”</p> +<p>But she said nothing to any of the other +juniors, judging it best to keep her own counsel. +Meanwhile she kept a keen lookout for the girl +to appear about the school building again. Several +days passed, however, and Bobby saw nothing +of her.</p> +<p>Meanwhile the girls who were earnest in the +work of putting Central High ahead in the inter-school +athletic competition worked hard on the +field and under Mrs. Case’s eye in the gymnasium.</p> +<p>Bobby was really doing her best on the track. +Never had she settled down to such thorough +work in any branch of athletics as she had in +this effort to make a record for the quarter-mile. +Central High needed the points that a champion +sprinter could win, just as the school needed the +points putting the shot, and the broad jump, +would add to its record.</p> +<p>Bobby, the year before, had acted as coxswain +of the eight-oared crew; and she had played all +season on the big basketball team—the champion +nine. But this running was different work.</p> +<p>Now she had no teammates to encourage her, +or to keep her up to the mark. It was just what +she could do for the school by herself.</p> +<p>“Just by your lonesome, Bobby,” Laura Belding +told her. “To win the quarter-mile will +mean two whole points in June. Think of that! +And you can do it.”</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” returned the other girl, in +some despondency. “Gee Gee’ll likely get something +on me before the June meet, and then +where’ll we be?”</p> +<p>“But you don’t <em>have</em> to do things to make +Miss Carrington give you demerits.”</p> +<p>“Bah! I don’t have to do anything at all to +get demerits. She’s just expecting me to do +something all the time, and she ‘jumps’ me +without giving me a chance. Any other girl in +the school can cut up much worse than I do and +never get a sour look; but I—oh, dear!”</p> +<p>“You see what it is to have a reputation for +mischief,” said Laura, half inclined to laugh. +“Can’t you cut out the frolic for this one term? +Cure yourself of practical joking and ‘joshing’ +poor Miss Carrington.”</p> +<p>“Great Cæsar!” ejaculated Bobby. “How +could I ever do it?”</p> +<p>Nevertheless, with all her reckless talk, she +was really trying her very best to keep out of +difficulties in school, and on the other hand to +make the best time possible on the cinder track.</p> +<p>Mrs. Case began to try her out now and then, +and held the watch on her. Bobby wanted to +know how fast she made the quarter; but the +instructor put up her watch with a smile and a +head-shake.</p> +<p>“That I sha’n’t tell you, Miss Hargrew. Not +yet. You do your best; that’s what you are to +do. If you fall back, or I see you losing form, +you’ll hear about it soon enough.”</p> +<p>One morning before school-time Bobby heard +Mrs. Ballister scolding at the back door. The +old housekeeper did not often scold the maid, +for she was a dear old lady and, as Bobby herself +said, “as mild-tempered as a lamb.” But +she heard her say:</p> +<p>“Be off with you! We’ve nothing for you. +Scalawags like you shouldn’t prosper—filling a +girl’s silly head full of more silliness. Go on +at once!”</p> +<p>Somehow Bobby had a premonition of what +the trouble was about. She ran out upon the +side porch and saw two Gypsy women coming +around the path from the fear of the house. +They were the two who had been at Queen +Grace Varey’s camp that day on the ridge when +the girls of Central High had had their adventure.</p> +<p>“Here is a little lady,” whined the old woman. +“She will buy of us,” lifting up her baskets.</p> +<p>“No, no,” said Bobby, shaking her head vigorously.</p> +<p>The other woman recognized her and touched +the arm of her companion warningly.</p> +<p>“Surely the little lady will not be unkind to +the poor Romany,” she whined. “She does not +forget what Queen Grace told her?”</p> +<p>“I want to forget it,” declared Bobby, with +flushed face. “I have nothing for you. Go +away—do!”</p> +<p>“Ah-ha, little lady!” chuckled the woman, +with a leer. “You are mistress here now—and +you can send us away. But remember! Your +father will bring home another mistress before +mid-summer.”</p> +<p>The two women laughed harshly, and turned +away, going slowly out of the yard. Bobby remained +upon the porch until she had winked back +the tears—and bitter tears they were, indeed—and +so went slowly in to breakfast.</p> +<p>“Those horrid ’Gyptians,” Mrs. Ballister was +saying. “I caught them out there trying to tell +Sally’s fortune. They’d make her believe she +was going to fall heir to a fortune, or get a +husband, or something, and then we’d lose the +best kitchen girl we ever had.”</p> +<p>But Bobby felt too serious to smile at the +old lady’s sputtering. Despite what Laura Belding +said, there <em>must</em> be something in the fortunes +the Gypsy queen told! How did she know so +much about <em>her?</em> Bobby asked herself.</p> +<p>She knew that Bobby had no mother and that +she was sure to get into trouble with her teachers. +And now the prophecy she had made that +her father would bring home a new wife before +mid-summer rankled in Bobby Hargrew’s mind +like a barbed arrow.</p> +<p>For Bobby loved her father very dearly, and +had been for years his confidante. It had long +been agreed between them that she was going +to be his partner in the grocery business, just as +though she had been born a boy. And as soon +as the little girls were big enough they were to +go away to boarding school, Mrs. Ballister should +be relieved of the responsibility of the house, +and Bobby was going to be the real mistress of +the Hargrew home.</p> +<p>And suppose, instead of all these things +Father Tom should bring home a new mother to +reign over them? The thought was ever in +Bobby’s mind these days. Not that she had any +reason to fear the coming of a step-mother. The +only girl at Central High whom she knew that +had a step-mother loved her very dearly and +made as much of her as though she had been +two real mothers. Sue Blakesley had been without +a mother long enough to appreciate even a +substitute.</p> +<p>But Bobby and Mr. Hargrew had been such +close friends and comrades that the girl was +jealous of such a possibility as anybody coming +into her father’s life who could take her place +in any degree. She worried over the Gypsy’s +prophecy continually; she wet her pillow at night +with bitter tears because of it, and it sobered and +changed her to her schoolmates, as we have seen.</p> +<p>It was a very serious and imminent trouble +indeed to the warm-hearted, impulsive girl.</p> +<p>On her way to school that morning she +chanced to turn the corner into Whiffle Street +just as a dark-browed, shuffling fellow crossed +from the other side and trailed along ahead of +her toward the schoolhouse. Bobby knew that +black face, and the huge gold hoops in his ears, +at once. It was the husband of the Gypsy queen.</p> +<p>“Oh, I wonder if the whole encampment is +in town hunting for that poor girl, Margit?” +thought Bobby. “They are such strange, wicked +folk. And look at him—why, that’s Gee Gee!”</p> +<p>The lady ahead on the walk, behind whom the +Gypsy was walking so stealthily, was none other +than Miss Carrington herself. Instantly Bobby’s +thought flashed to the mysterious inquiries of the +girl, Margit Salgo, about the teacher at Central +High.</p> +<p>Bobby involuntarily quickened her steps. She +was afraid of these Gypsies; but she was curious, +too. The whole block was deserted, it seemed, +save for herself, Gee Gee, and the man.</p> +<p>Suddenly he hastened his long stride and overtook +the teacher. Bobby knew that the fellow +accosted Miss Carrington. The lady halted, and +shrank a little. But she did not scream, or otherwise +betray fear.</p> +<p>“No, lady. Ah’m no beggar. Ma nyme’s +Jim Varey an’ ah’m honest man, so I be. Ah +come out o’ Leeds, in Yorkshire, an’ we be travelin’, +me an’ mine. Wait, lady! Ah’ve summat +tae show ye.”</p> +<p>He fumbled in his pocket and brought out a +card. He held this card so that Miss Carrington +could read what was printed, or written, on it. +And she did so, as was evident to Bobby, for +she started back a little and uttered a murmured +exclamation.</p> +<p>“Ah sees ye knaw ye’r awn nyme, lidy,” said +Jim Varey, shrewdly. “Yer the lady we’re +lookin’ for, mayhap. ’Tis private business——”</p> +<p>“I can have no business with you, man,” exclaimed +Miss Carrington. “Why, you’re a Gypsy!”</p> +<p>“Aye. I’m Gypsy. An’ so was ma fawther +an’ mither, an’ their fawthers an’ mithers before +’em. We’m proud of the Romany blood. An’ +more’n ’us, lady, has mixed with the Romany—an’ +in other climes aside Yorkshire. But all Romany +is one, wherever vound. Ye knaw that, +lidy.”</p> +<p>“I don’t know what you mean! I don’t know +what you are talking about! What do you want +of me?” cried Miss Carrington, quite wildly.</p> +<p>The man drew closer. Bobby was really +frightened, too. She opened her own mouth to +shriek for help. But the Gypsy did not touch +the teacher. Instead, he said in a low, but perfectly +clear, voice, so that Bobby heard it +plainly:</p> +<p>“I would speak to you, lidy, of the child of +Belas Salgo.”</p> +<p>Miss Carrington uttered a stifled shriek. +Bobby sprang forward, finding her own voice +now, and using it to good purpose, too. A door +banged, and a gentleman ran out of his house +and down to the gate, where the Gypsy had +stopped Miss Carrington.</p> +<p>It chanced to be Franklin Sharp, the principal +of Central High. Jim Varey saw him coming, +glanced swiftly around, evidently considered the +time and place unfavorable for further troubling +the teacher, and so broke into a run and disappeared.</p> +<p>Mr. Sharp caught Gee Gee before she fell. +But she did not utterly lose consciousness. +Bobby had caught her hand and clung to it. The +girl heard Gee Gee murmur:</p> +<p>“There was no child! There was no child! +Oh! Poor Anne! Poor Anne!”</p> +<p>“Let us take her into the house,” said Mr. +Sharp, kindly. “That ruffian has scared her, I +believe. Could you identify him, do you think, +Miss Hargrew?”</p> +<p>“Yes, sir,” declared Bobby, tremblingly.</p> +<p>But Miss Carrington cried: “Oh, no! Oh, +no! Don’t go after him—do nothing to him.”</p> +<p>And she continued to cry and moan while they +took her into the house and put her in the care +of Mrs. Sharp. That forenoon Gee Gee did not +appear before her classes at Central High. But +she was present at the afternoon session and +Bobby thought her quite as stern and hard as +ever. Nor did the teacher say a word to the +girl about the Gypsy, or mention the occasion in +any way.</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-xeves-adventure"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id10">CHAPTER X—EVE’S ADVENTURE</a></h2> +<p>Eve Sitz had plenty to do out of school hours +when she was at home. Nobody could afford to +be idle at the Sitz farm. But she found time, +too, to put on an old skirt, gym. shoes, and a +sweater, and go down behind the barn to practice +her broad jump and to throw a baseball at +the high board fence behind the sheepfold.</p> +<p>She grew expert indeed in ball throwing, and +occasionally when Otto, her brother, caught her +at this exercise, he marvelled that his sister could +throw the horsehide farther and straighter than +he.</p> +<p>“Dot beats it all, mein cracious!” gasped +Otto, who was older than Eve by several years, +had never been to school in this new country, +and was one who would never be able to speak +English without a strong accent. “How a girl +can t’row a pall like dot. I neffer!”</p> +<p>“You wait till June, Otto,” replied his sister, +in German. “If you come to the big field +the day of the Centerport High Schools, you will +see that girls can do quite well in athletics. You +know how we can row, and you saw us play +basketball. Wait till you see the Central High +girls on track and field!”</p> +<p>“A lot of foolishness,” croaked Otto. “You +go to the school to learn to be smart, no?”</p> +<p>“No,” replied Eve, laughing at him. “I am +smart in the first place, or I would not go. And +don’t I help mother just as much—and milk—and +feed the pigs and chickens—and all that? +Wait till you see me put the shot. I am going +to win a whole point for the school if I am champion +shot-putter.”</p> +<p>“Ach! It is beyond me,” declared Otto, +walking off to attend to his work.</p> +<p>The family—plain Swiss folk as they were—thought +Eve quite mad over these “foolish athletics.” +They had no such things in the schools +at home—in the old country. Yet Father and +Mother Sitz were secretly proud of their big and +handsome daughter. She was growing up +“American.” That was something to be +achieved. They had come of peasant stock, and +hoped that their girl, at least, would mix with a +more highly educated class of young folk in this +new country.</p> +<p>So, if Eve thought that the tasks which +usually fell to her nights and mornings, and on +Saturdays, were not sufficient to keep her in what +she called “condition,” her parents made no objection +to her throwing baseballs, or jumping, +or taking long walks, or riding on the old gray +mare’s back over the North pasture.</p> +<p>And it was upon one of these rides that she +fell upon her second adventure that Spring with +the Gypsies—or, at least, with one of the tribe.</p> +<p>It occurred on the Saturday morning following +Miss Carrington’s meeting with Jim Varey, +husband of the Gypsy queen. Of course, Bobby +Hargrew had said nothing about this mysterious +connection of the martinet teacher with the roving +band of “Egyptians”; it was not her secret, +and although Bobby might be an innocent gossip, +she was no tale-bearer.</p> +<p>Eve finished her morning’s work, “pegged” +the baseball at the target she had marked with a +brush on the sheep fold fence, managing to scare +all the woolly muttons out of at least half of +their senses, and then grabbed up a bridle and +ran down to the pasture bars and whistled for +the mare.</p> +<p>The old horse came cantering across the field. +Eve never failed to have a lump of sugar in her +pocket, and the old girl nuzzled around for it +and would not be content until she had munched +it. Meanwhile Eve slipped on the bridle and +sprang upon the creature’s back.</p> +<p>Hester Grimes, and Lily Pendleton, and some +of the wealthier girls who went to Central High, +rode horseback in the parks. They went to a +riding school and cantered around a tanbark ring, +and then rode, very demurely, two and two, upon +old broken-kneed hacks through the bridle-paths. +Mrs. Case approved of horseback exercise for +girls, either astride or side-saddle, as they +pleased; but she certainly would have held her +breath in fear had she seen Eve Sitz career +down the rocky pasture upon her mount on this +keen-aired morning.</p> +<p>It had rained over night and the bushes were +still dripping. Every time a sharp hoof of the +unshod mare tore up a clod as she cantered, Eve +got the scent of the wet earth in her nostrils, +and drank it in with long and deep inhalations. +She rode the mare with a loose rein and let her +take her head.</p> +<p>They dashed down the hill and through the +narrow path that crossed a piece of Mr. Sitz’s +swamp land. Here the dogwood was budding +and a few Judas-trees displayed a purple blush, +as though a colored mist hung about them. In +a few days the bushes would burst forth in full +flower. +Eve rode fast along the swamp path. It was +narrow, and to have ventured three yards upon +either side would have been to sink, horse and +all, into the quagmire. This was a waste piece +of the farm that her father hoped to drain at +some time, but now it was only a covert for +birds and frogs.</p> +<p>But suddenly, as the girl rode fast, she thought +she heard a cry. She half checked her mount; +but the sound was not repeated.</p> +<p>A minute later the gray mare was through the +marsh-piece and out upon the field beyond. Eve +intended circling around by Peveril Pond and so +reach home again by another path; yet the mysterious +cry she had heard back there in the +swamp-piece kept returning to her mind.</p> +<p>Suppose it had been a real cry—a human cry—a +cry for help?</p> +<p>The thought came back to her again and again. +She was in sight of the pond, when she could +stand it no longer, but pulled the mare about.</p> +<p>“Come, old girl! We’ve got to be sure of +this,” cried Eve. “Back you go!”</p> +<p>Her mount cantered back again. They reached +the edge of the swamp and Eve pulled the mare +down to a walk. Stepping daintily, the steed +followed the narrow path through the over-bushed +swamp. One could not see a dozen feet +on either hand, so tall were the bushes, and so +thick—not even at the height Eve rode.</p> +<p>She halted her horse and called aloud:</p> +<p>“Ahoy! Hullo! Who called?”</p> +<p>No answer—for half a minute. The farmer’s +daughter shouted again. Then she heard it +again—a half-stifled cry—a cry that ended in a +choking gasp and which chilled the blood in her +veins and made her hold her own breath for a +moment.</p> +<p>Was it an actual voice calling for help that had +answered her? Or had she imagined the cry?</p> +<p>She held in the anxious horse, and waited. +Again the muffled shriek reached her ears. +Somebody was caught in the quagmire—in the +quicksand. It was off to the left, and not many +yards from the path.</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-xibobby-is-interested"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id11">CHAPTER XI—BOBBY IS INTERESTED</a></h2> +<p>Indeed, one could not have ventured many +feet from the path at this season of the year, +when the heavy Spring rains had filled the +swamp, without sinking into the mire. Eve +knew this very well, and it was with fast-beating +heart that she slipped from her horse, tied the +bridle-rein to a sapling, and ventured cautiously +in the direction of the half-choked cries.</p> +<p>“I’m coming! Where are you?” she called.</p> +<p>The cry for help came for a third time. Eve +parted the bushes before her, and then shrank +back. She had been about to put her foot upon +a bit of shaking moss which, when she disturbed +the branches of the bush, sank completely out of +sight in the black mire.</p> +<p>Another step might have proved her own undoing!</p> +<p>But on the other side of this dimpling pool of +mire a willow tree of the “weeping” variety +stood with its roots deep in the swamp. And +clinging to a drooping branch of this tree were +two sun-browned hands—muscular, but small.</p> +<p>“A woman!” gasped Eve. Then, the next +moment, she added: “A girl!”</p> +<p>And a girl it was—a girl no older than herself. +The victim was all but shoulder deep in +the mire. She was clinging desperately to the +branch of the tree. Her face was half hidden +by the twigs and leaves, and by her own disarranged +hair, which hung in black elf-locks about +it.</p> +<p>But even in that moment of surprise and fear, +Eve identified her. It was the girl who had +been a fugitive from the Gypsy camp.</p> +<p>The identity of the person in peril did not +claim Eve’s attention for half a moment, however. +It was her necessity, and the fact that she +must be rescued immediately that spurred the +farm girl to action.</p> +<p>“Hold on! I’ll save you!” she shouted, and +even as she spoke she saw the girl slip down a +hand’s breadth deeper into the ooze. If she was +to save the victim Eve must indeed work rapidly, +and to the purpose.</p> +<p>She saw how the girl had come into her evil +plight. Beside the tree ran a narrow strip of +grassy hummock. It looked sound, but Eve +well knew that all such places were treacherous.</p> +<p>The Gypsy girl had trusted to it, venturing +off the regular and beaten path. She had +slipped, or the edge of the hummock had caved +in with her. Only by chance had she caught at +the branch of the willow and so stayed her descent +into the bottomless morass.</p> +<p>Fleet of foot, Eve sprang back to the bridle-path +where the mare was tied. She wanted the +only thing which, in this emergency, could be +of help to her—and to the girl sinking in the +mire.</p> +<p>There was no time to go for help. There +was no fence near where she could obtain rails, +even. Nor did she have anything with which to +cut down saplings to aid the girl.</p> +<p>Quickly her nimble fingers unbound the +leather bridle from the tree. Then she unbuckled +the reins and removed them entirely, +letting the mare go free if she would. But the +wise old horse stood and watched her, without +offering to run away.</p> +<p>“That’s right! Stand still, old girl!” exclaimed +Eve Sitz. “I’ll want you mighty bad +in a minute, or two, perhaps.”</p> +<p>She sprang upon the tussock on which the +victim of the accident had evidently been before +her. But she was cautious. She came to +the place where the poor girl clung to the tree +branch. Those twigs were slowly slipping +through her cramped fingers. In a few seconds +she would slip entirely from her hold. Already +she was too far gone to speak, and her eyes were +closed.</p> +<p>It was no use calling again. Eve bent forward +and with a little prayer for help, cast the +loop of the strong rein over the victim’s head +and shoulders.</p> +<p>As she did so the girl’s hands slipped entirely +from the tree branch.</p> +<p>Eve screamed. But she threw herself back, +too, as the weight of the sinking girl came upon +the bridle-rein. Eve easily held her up. She +could sink no farther. But the question that +troubled the farmer’s daughter was: Could she +draw the unconscious girl out of the mire?</p> +<p>But Eve was the heavier of the two, and far +stronger. The Gypsy girl could run and leap +like a hare—as she had proven the day the girls +of Central High had seen her escaping from the +encampment of her Romany companions. But +she had not been strong enough to scramble out +of the mud when she had once fallen into it.</p> +<p>Now Eve, sure that the bridle-rein would +hold, flung herself back and dragged the girl +up. She came out upon the narrow tussock +slowly, but surely.</p> +<p>Eve wrapped the lines about her wrists and +tugged with all her weight and strength; and +she was not many seconds in accomplishing the +rescue.</p> +<p>The unfortunate girl lay helpless on the edge +of the morass. She was a mass of mud, and +her eyes were still closed. Eve seized her under +the arms and dragged her across the trembling +hummock to firmer ground. Once Eve herself +stepped over the edge of the solid ground and +plunged—knee-deep—into the mire.</p> +<p>But she recovered herself and quickly brought +her burden, breathless though she herself was, +to the bridle-path. The old gray mare looked +upon the muddy figure on the ground with ears +pricked forward. But Eve spoke softly to her, +and the creature stood still, as though she knew +her help was needed.</p> +<p>Eve did not trouble to put on the rein again. +When she got her breath she raised the girl, +who was still only half conscious, in her arms, +and managed to get her on the horse.</p> +<p>“You’ve got to carry double; but you can go +just as slow as you want to, old girl!” Eve exclaimed, +as she leaped upon the mare herself, +sitting behind the other girl, and holding her on.</p> +<p>Then she spoke again to the mare, and the +latter picked her way carefully over the narrow +path and so to the North pasture. In fifteen +minutes Eve had the strange girl at the farmhouse, +where her kind-hearted mother helped +put the visitor to bed. They were true Samaritans +in that house. They reserved all questioning +until after the needy had been aided.</p> +<p>Eve went to town that afternoon, for she was +due for practice at the athletic field, full of this +adventure. The strange girl had not said a +word about herself save that she had been traveling +through the marsh early that morning and +had mistaken the path.</p> +<p>Eve had told her mother her suspicions as to +who the girl was, and it was plain that the +young Gypsy would be unfit for travel for some +days. The Sitzes would try to find out something +about her condition and why she was +striving to escape from her companions.</p> +<p>“But, it’s plain why she left town so hurriedly,” +declared Jess Morse, one of those to +whom Eve told her story. “I’ve seen those +Gypsy women in town myself this week. I saw +the queen—Grace Varey, did you say her name +is?”</p> +<p>“That’s the name she gave us last year,” said +Eve.</p> +<p>“Well, I saw her only this morning. The +Gypsies have come to town to search for that +girl. She knows it and was escaping into the +country when she got into that swamp. My! +It was lucky you rode that way, Eve.”</p> +<p>But it was Bobby Hargrew who showed the +most interest in the affairs of the mysterious +Gypsy girl. She asked Eve a hundred questions +about her and finally admitted that she had reasons +for wishing to know all about her that she +did not feel free to divulge.</p> +<p>“I tell you honestly, Eve, I wish you’d let me +go home with you so that I can see that girl +before Monday morning,” said Bobby, bluntly.</p> +<p>“Well, why not?” returned the farm girl, +laughing. “You’d be welcome, Clara.”</p> +<p>“I’ll telephone father at the store and run +home and pack a bag and meet you at the station,” +announced Bobby, greatly excited.</p> +<p>“Why, we’ll be more than pleased,” urged +Eve. “I’d like to know what the matter is with +that girl, too. If you find out, will you tell +me?” and she laughed again.</p> +<p>“If it’s only <em>my</em> secret I’ll tell you in a minute,” +promised Bobby. But in her heart she believed +that it would prove to be partly Miss +Carrington’s secret, and she could not speak of +<em>her</em> affairs, that was sure.</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-xiithe-races"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id12">CHAPTER XII—THE RACES</a></h2> +<p>Bobby, as she said, “fished” for this invitation +and got it while the girls were dressing in +the gym. building, before the try-out work on +the field that Saturday afternoon. Eve went to +her broad jump, while Bobby lined up with a +lot of the would-be sprinters from all four +classes, to try their speed from the fifty-yard +dash up to the quarter-mile.</p> +<p>Only the very best of the candidates were +allowed to try the longer races, and they had +all to go to Dr. Agnew’s office first. The doctor +spent the most of every Saturday afternoon +at the gym. building, and he doled out good advice +to the girls while he prodded them, and listened +to their heart and lung action, and otherwise +discovered if they were “fit.”</p> +<p>Laura had been delegated by Mrs. Case to +watch the sprinters, and most of them were +quickly sent to the courts to play tennis, or +basketball, or some other game, and the cinder +track was soon devoted to those only who were +earnestly endeavoring to develop their speed as +runners—and who had some small chance, at +least, to make a good record.</p> +<p>Bobby tried the first short dash, and then the +third. There was some crowding on the track +and she could not do her best—nor did she wish +to. As long as she made a good enough showing +to be advised to wait for the finals, she was +content, and so was Laura.</p> +<p>“Hold yourself in,” advised Mother Wit, +smiling on her. “If you spend your best wind +trying to beat these others at first you’ll be lost +when it comes to the quarter-mile, and be retired.”</p> +<p>So Bobby bided her time until the quarter-mile +was called. There were but six contestants. +It was the longest trial of speed that Mrs. Case +would allow on the track. The Girls’ Branch +Athletic League gave but a doubtful approval, +at most, to the quarter-mile trial.</p> +<p>The six were “set” on the line and Laura, +watch in hand, waited for the arrow to touch +the mark, her hand raised.</p> +<p>“Go!” she shouted, and the girls sprang +away, each doing her very best from the start. +For the quarter-mile run leaves little space for +jockeying. It is soon over, and the contestant +who gets off ahead is quite frequently the winner.</p> +<p>The six girls were not so unevenly matched; +and they started well on a line. For the first +few yards they kept together.</p> +<p>But then the pace began to tell. For fifty +yards, say, they were matched to a degree; then +it was plain that only two of them had the +“sand” to keep up that killing pace for long.</p> +<p>Bobby and one other forged ahead. Breast to +breast, their arms working in unison, their stride +equal, the two girls passed ahead of the others +and shot along the track with unabated swiftness.</p> +<p>The girls behind were panting, and falling +back. One wavered and dropped out entirely +when she had run but a furlong. The others +clung to the track, however, doing their very best +to record a fair time, at least. They had learned +under Mrs. Case to play the game out, no matter +how badly they seemed to be beaten.</p> +<p>Bobby and the girl with her felt the strain +growing, however. Unless the runner is experienced, +the dogged perseverance of a close opponent +is likely to rattle one at the last moment. +As the two came down the stretch and the watching +girls began to cheer and “root” for their +favorite contestant, the runners felt their nerve +going.</p> +<p>A misstep now would cause the loss of the +race to one, or to the other. Bobby tried not to +see the girls along the track, or to think of the +one pounding away beside her.</p> +<p>She was breathing with comparative ease herself; +but the sound of the other girl’s breathing +pumped in her ears, louder and louder! And +how loudly her footbeats were, too!</p> +<p>Could she only get away from those sounds—leave +them behind her—clear the rushing air +about her of those noises!</p> +<p>There was the line stretched across the track. +She knew it was there because Laura stood with +it in her hand. If she could only breast that +ribbon first!</p> +<p>Somewhere—it seemed to be a cry from the +air right over her head—a shrill voice kept repeating:</p> +<p>“Come on! Come on, Bobs!”</p> +<p>And Bobby called up that reserve strength that +Mrs. Case had talked so much about in her little +lectures to the girls, and sprang ahead of her +rival. She was unconscious of the fact that she +was ahead. It seemed to her that the other girl +was still clinging to her. She could hear the +footsteps and the heavy breathing.</p> +<p>But suddenly she was aware that it was her +own feet spurning the cinders that she heard—and +her own breathing. She was winning!</p> +<p>And then the tape snapped across her chest +and Jess and Eve Sitz, who had run over to +watch the finish of the race, caught her in their +arms.</p> +<p>“Splendid! Bully for you, Bobs!” cried Jess. +“Why, there isn’t any other quarter-mile runner +in Central High. You take the palm!”</p> +<p>And not until then did Bob understand that +the girl she thought she had run so closely was +a hallucination. The second runner was yards +behind her at the finish!</p> +<p>They bore Bobby into the gym. building and +Mrs. Case insisted upon Dr. Agnew’s seeing her +again almost immediately. The physician was +still in the building, and he came when called. +The physical instructor was examining the time +card Laura and her assistants had made out. She +would not divulge their time to the runners, and +the time keepers were sworn to secrecy; but +everybody knew that Bobby Hargrew had made +a good showing.</p> +<p>“There’s nothing the matter with that little +girl,” said the doctor, confidently. “Only, these +sudden strains are not valuable. Yes, once, by +the way, is all right. As long as one does not +go beyond that reserve strength that your instructor +harps upon,” and he laughed.</p> +<p>Bobby was naturally proud over her achievement, +for she knew that she had run a very fast +quarter. She was only sorry that she could not +know herself just how fast she was. But that +was a secret Mrs. Case kept from her.</p> +<p>“The worst possible thing for a runner in +training to know is how fast, or how slow, he +is,” she often declared, “Do your best each +time; that is your business.”</p> +<p>So Bobby got into her street clothes and, having +telephoned to her father as she had promised +Eve Sitz, she ran home to pack her bag. On the +way she passed by the house where Miss Carrington +boarded. Gee Gee had two rooms in a wing +of the old Boyce house, in which the Widow +Boyce kept lodgers. Her front room had long, +French windows which swung outward like +doors upon the porch. And as Bobby ran by +she saw a man come down from this porch, as +though he had been listening at the windows, +and hurry around the corner of the house +and behind the thick hedge of the kitchen garden.</p> +<p>“That was the Gypsy—Jim Varey,” Bobby +thought, hesitating before the house. “What is +he haunting Gee Gee for? Ought she to know +that he is hanging around?”</p> +<p>But the girl hesitated about going in and +speaking to the teacher. Gee Gee, she +considered, was really her arch-enemy. Why should +she try to shield her from any trouble? And, +too, Miss Carrington might not thank her for +interfering in her private affairs.</p> +<p>So Bobby ran on home and told Mrs. Ballister +where she was going, huddled a few things +into her bag, kissed “the kids,” as she termed +her sisters, and ran off for the station, there to +meet Eve for the 5:14 train to Keyport.</p> +<p>And while she waited who should appear but +that black-faced man with the gold hoops in his +ears—Jim Varey!</p> +<p>The Gypsy saw her—Bobby knew he did. +But he paid her no attention, slinking into the +men’s room and not appearing again until Eve +arrived and the two girls went aboard the train. +Then Bobby saw him once more.</p> +<p>“Do you see that fellow, Eve?” she demanded, +whispering into the bigger girl’s ear.</p> +<p>“What fellow?”</p> +<p>“There! he’s gone,” said Bobby, with a sigh. +“I feared he was following us.”</p> +<p>“Whom do you mean?” queried Eve, rather +surprised by her manner.</p> +<p>“Jim Varey, the Gypsy.”</p> +<p>“Why! is he about?” asked Eve. “You +mean the husband of Queen Grace? Well, he’s +a bad egg, he is! I hope he won’t dog us to +the house, for he might learn then where that +poor girl is hiding.”</p> +<p>When they were in the car Bobby stuck her +head out of the window to look along the platform. +She did not see Jim Varey in the crowd; +but she might better have kept in her head—for +he saw her.</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-xiiiwhat-margit-said"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id13">CHAPTER XIII—WHAT MARGIT SAID</a></h2> +<p>The two girls settled back into their seats, +each having one to herself, for the car was not +filled. Bobby was soon laughing and joking in +her usual way.</p> +<p>“If I ride backward like this, will I get to +the same place you do, Eve?” she asked.</p> +<p>“What a ridiculous question!” exclaimed +Eve.</p> +<p>“I don’t know. One of the ‘squabs’ was going +around yesterday asking everybody a much +more foolish one.”</p> +<p>“What was that?”</p> +<p>“Why, what was the largest island in the +world before Australia was discovered?” queried +Bobby, giggling.</p> +<p>“Why—why—Newfoundland, perhaps?”</p> +<p>“Nope.”</p> +<p>“Madagascar?”</p> +<p>“No,” said Bobby, shaking her head.</p> +<p>“England and Scotland together?”</p> +<p>“Huh! You couldn’t divide them very well,” +jeered Bobby. “But that’s not the answer.”</p> +<p>“What <em>was</em> the biggest island, then? I give, +it up,” said Eve.</p> +<p>“Why, Australia, of course,” chuckled Bobby. +“It was there all the time, even if it wasn’t discovered. +Don’t you see?”</p> +<p>And so she passed the time without betraying +the fact that she had a very serious reason for +wishing to see and talk with Margit Salgo.</p> +<p>When the girls left the train they had no idea +that Jim Varey got out of the smoking car on +the wrong side from the station and hid in the +bushes. When the girls started across the fields +toward the Sitz place, the Gypsy dogged them.</p> +<p>In half an hour Eve and her guest reached +the house, never suspecting that they had been +the subject of attention.</p> +<p>Bobby was welcome at the farmhouse. She +had been there several times before and from +Farmer Sitz down they enjoyed the whimsical, +irrepressible girl. The expectation that she +would be “good fun” put Bobby on her mettle, +despite the fact that, secretly, she did not feel +cheerful.</p> +<p>Margit Salgo was better and seemed content +enough to occupy the comfortable bed in the +room next Eve’s own. She knew Bobby +immediately, and looked a bit disturbed. But Bobby +gave her to understand that she had told nobody +about what the Gypsy girl had said the day they +were caught together in the rain.</p> +<p>“But to-night, when the other folks are abed, +I want you to tell Eve and me what you care +to about yourself, Margit,” said Bobby, when +the others were out of the room. “Perhaps we +can help you. All we girls are interested in you, +for, you see, at least seven of us saw you that +day when you ran away from your friends.”</p> +<p>“No friends of mine! no friends of mine!” +gasped the girl, half in fear.</p> +<p>“All right. You tell us all about it this evening,” +whispered Bobby and then whisked out to +help Eve with her duties.</p> +<p>Not that she was of much help when she followed +Eve out to the clean and modern barn +where Eve had her own six cows to milk, while +Otto or the hired man milked the rest of the +herd. But she <em>was</em> amusing.</p> +<p>“Goodness me!” was Bobby’s first comment, +when she came into the shed and saw the row +of mild-eyed cattle standing in their stalls. +“What a lot of cows—and every one of them +chewing gum! Can you beat it?”</p> +<p>“What do you suppose Miss Carrington +would say to a row of girls who chewed their +cud as seriously as these bossies?” laughed Eve.</p> +<p>Bobby arched her brows, screwed up her +mouth, and replied, in a stilted manner:</p> +<p>“‘Young ladies! I <em>am</em> surprised. Do my +eyes deceive me? Do you consider it polite to +wag your jaws like that in public? Fie, for +shame!’ And much more to the same purpose,” +added Bobby, laughing. “Oh, Gee Gee and her +lessons in politeness make me tired. She’s so +polite herself that she’d even return a telephone +call! Hullo! what’s this?”</p> +<p>“A bridle,” said Eve, as Bobby took it down +from its hook.</p> +<p>“Oh! Sure! You see, I’m a regular green-horn +when it comes to country things. Of +course, that’s the bit. But say! <em>how</em> do you +ever get it into the horse’s mouth? <em>I’d</em> have +to wait for him to yawn, I expect,” and she +laughed.</p> +<p>She was great fun at supper, too, to the delight +of the family. Otto, with his queer notions +of the English language, made Bobby very +gay; and the young man complained of his difficulties +with the English language just for the +sake of encouraging Bobby to correct his speech. +Finally she made up one of her little doggerel +verses for him, to Otto’s great delight:</p> +<blockquote><div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">“Otto saw a sausage in a pan,</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">He smelled a smelt a-frying;</div> +</div> +<div class="line">He saw the sheep that had been dyed</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">Look not the least like dying.</div> +<div class="line"><br/></div> +</div> +<div class="line">“He saw a hen sit on an egg,</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">Although she had been set;</div> +</div> +<div class="line">Heard Eve complain of being dry</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">Though plainly she was wet.</div> +<div class="line"><br/></div> +</div> +<div class="line">“He looked upon the window pane,</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">Quite sure no pain it had;</div> +</div> +<div class="line">Then sighed, and shook his head, and said:</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">’Dot English, she iss pad!‘”</div> +</div> +</div> +</div></blockquote> +<p>Good Mrs. Sitz had not allowed Margit to +get out of bed, but Eve and Bobby took supper +in to the Gypsy girl on a tray. She protested +that she was not an invalid, and after Otto and +the old folks had gone to bed, Margit, well +wrapped in shawls and a comforter, came out +to sit in a big chair before Eve’s fire.</p> +<p>“I am not like you girls,” she said, wistfully. +“You go to school and learn things out of +books, eh? Well, I never went to school. And +then, this big America is so different from my +country. You do not understand.”</p> +<p>“I guess I can understand something of what +you mean,” observed Eve, soberly. “You see, +<em>we</em> came from Europe, too.”</p> +<p>“Not from Hungary—Austria-Hungary?” +cried Margit Salgo, with excitement.</p> +<p>“No, no. From Switzerland,” replied Eve, +smiling. “And I was very small when we came, +so I do not remember much about it.”</p> +<p>“But I came only last year,” explained Margit. +“And I was given to the Vareys——”</p> +<p>“Goodness me! Don’t talk that way,” interrupted +Bobby. “It sounds just as though you +were <em>owned</em> by those Gypsies.”</p> +<p>“Well, it is so,” said Margit. “I am a +Gypsy, too. My father was Belas Salgo. He +was a musician—a wonderful musician, I believe. +But he was a Gypsy. And all the Romany +are kin, in some way. These Vareys are +English Gypsies. They are kind enough to me. +But I sure believe they hide from me <em>who I +am</em>.”</p> +<p>“What do you mean by that?” asked Eve, +in surprise, although Bobby said not a word, but +listened, eagerly.</p> +<p>“Only my father, you see, was a Gypsy. My +mother——”</p> +<p>“Who was she?” asked Bobby, suddenly.</p> +<p>“I—I do not know. But she was not of +those people—no. I am sure of that. She died +when I was very little. I went about in many +lands with my father. Then he died—very +suddenly. Gypsy friends took me for a while, +but they all said I belonged over here—in +America. So they sent me here finally.”</p> +<p>“Your mother was American, then, perhaps?” +said Eve, shrewdly.</p> +<p>“That may be it. But these Vareys care +nothing about my finding any relatives, save for +one thing,” said Margit, shaking her head, +gloomily.</p> +<p>“What is that?” asked Bobby.</p> +<p>“If there is money. They believe my mother’s +people might be rich, or something of the +kind. Then they would make them pay to get +hold of me. But suppose my mother’s people +do not want me?” slowly added the fugitive, +sadly.</p> +<p>“You are quite sure this is the idea the +Vareys have?” asked Bobby.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes. I heard them talking. Then I +saw a—a card with a name written on it. They +said, when they were looking at the card, ‘<em>She</em> +will know all about it. It is to her we must go.’ +So I know it was a woman’s name.”</p> +<p>“But how did you know—or suspect—that +the name was that of any teacher in our +school?” demanded Bobby, much to Eve’s surprise.</p> +<p>“Ah! I learned much—here a word, there +a word—by listening. I knew we were coming +to Centerport for the purpose of getting speech +with this woman whose name had been given +them by the Hungarian people who brought me +over here to America.”</p> +<p>“But mercy on us!” cried Eve, in vast +amazement. “What name is it?”</p> +<p>“She can’t explain, for she cannot pronounce +it,” said Bobby, instantly.</p> +<p>“Grace, or Jim Varey, never spoke the name +aloud,” said Margit, shaking her head. “But +I know there are eighteen letters in the name. +I counted them.”</p> +<p>“And what teacher at Central High has +eighteen letters in her name?” murmured Eve, +staring at Bobby.</p> +<p>Bobby took a pencil and wrote Miss Carrington’s +full name slowly on a piece of paper. She +put it before the Gypsy girl.</p> +<p>“Is <em>that</em> the name?” she asked. “When we +spoke together before I had forgotten that Miss +Carrington always spells her middle name out +in full when she writes it at all.”</p> +<p>“Miss Carrington!” gasped Eve, and, like +Bobby, looked in the Gypsy girl’s face questioningly.</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-xivanother-flitting"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id14">CHAPTER XIV—ANOTHER FLITTING</a></h2> +<p>“Is she nice?” asked Margit Salgo, eagerly, +looking at the two Central High girls.</p> +<p>“Bless us!” muttered Bobby.</p> +<p>“She is a very well educated lady,” said Eve, +seriously. “I cannot tell whether you would +like her. But—but do you really believe that +she knows anything about you, Margit?”</p> +<p>“I do not know how much she knows of <em>me</em>,” +said the Gypsy girl, quickly. “But of my mother’s +people she knows. That I am sure. She—she +holds the key, you would say, to the matter. +It is through her, I am sure, that the Vareys +expect to get money for me.”</p> +<p>“To sell you to Miss Carrington?” gasped +Eve.</p> +<p>“I do not know,” replied the Gypsy girl, +shaking her head. “But there is money to be +made out of me, I know. And Queen Grace +is—is very eager to get money.”</p> +<p>“She’s avaricious, is she?” said Eve, thoughtfully.</p> +<p>But Bobby Hargrew’s mind was fixed upon +another phase of the subject. She took Margit’s +hand and asked, softly:</p> +<p>“What was your mother’s name, dear?”</p> +<p>“Why—Madam Salgo.”</p> +<p>“But her first name—her intimate name? +What did your father call her? Do you not +remember?”</p> +<p>Margit waited a moment and then nodded. +“I understand,” she said. “It was ‘Annake.’”</p> +<p>“Anne?”</p> +<p>“Ah, yes—in your harsh English tongue,” +returned Margit. “But why do you ask?”</p> +<p>Bobby was not willing to tell her that—then.</p> +<p>“At any rate, Margit,” Eve told her, soothingly, +“you will stay here with us just as long +as you like.” The girl had narrated her flight +from Centerport when she saw the Gypsies in +that town and knew they would hunt her down. +“And we girls will help you find your friends.”</p> +<p>“This Miss Carrington,” spoke Margit, eagerly. +“She knows. I must meet her. But do +you not tell her anything about me. Let me +meet and judge her for myself.”</p> +<p>“Don’t you think we’d better tell her something +about you?” asked Eve, thoughtfully.</p> +<p>“Perhaps she might not want to know me,” +replied the Gypsy girl, anxiously. “Who am I? +A Romany! All you other people look +down on the Romany folk.”</p> +<p>“Well, you are only part Gypsy,” said the +practical Evangeline. “And your father was +an educated man—a great musician, you say.”</p> +<p>“Surely!”</p> +<p>“Then I wouldn’t class myself with people +who would chase me with a bloodhound, and +only wanted to make money out of me,” said +Eve, sensibly.</p> +<p>“Ah! but all the Romany folk are not like, +the Vareys,” returned Margit.</p> +<p>Eve would not allow the girl to talk until +late, for her experience in the swamp had been +most exhausting. They bundled her into bed, +and laid all her poor clothing—which Mrs. Sitz +had washed and ironed with her own hands—on +the chair beside her.</p> +<p>Bobby had one more question to ask the +Gypsy girl before she went to sleep, and she +asked that in secret.</p> +<p>“How did that Varey woman—that Gypsy +queen—know so much about me, and about +Laura Belding, and our affairs?”</p> +<p>“Did she?” returned Margit, sleepily. “She +is a sharp one! But, then, the Vareys have +worked through this part of the country for +years and years. That is why I was given to +them, I think. Perhaps Grace Varey has been +to Centerport many times—I do not know. We +Romany folk pick up all sorts of information—yes!”</p> +<p>Bobby stole into bed beside Eve. She could +not sleep for some time; but finally her eyes +closed and—for some hours, or some minutes, +she never knew which—she slept. Then, a dog’s +howling broke her rest.</p> +<p>Bobby sat up and listened. The dog’s mournful +howling sounded nearer. Some dog about +the Sitz premises answered with several savage +barks. But, as nothing followed, the city girl +dropped back upon her pillows again.</p> +<p>The night noises of the country, however, +disturbed her. She could not sleep soundly. +Once she thought she heard voices—and so +clearly that it seemed as though they must be +in the bedroom.</p> +<p>But it was still dark. Nobody could be astir, +she told herself, at such a dark hour. A rooster +crowed, and then several others followed. She +fell asleep again slowly counting the chanticleers.</p> +<p>And then—suddenly, it seemed—Eve was +shaking her and calling in her ear:</p> +<p>“Oh, Bobby! Bobby! Wake up—do! +What do you suppose has happened?”</p> +<p>It was broad daylight. Eve was more than +half dressed and the door between their room +and that occupied by the Gypsy girl was open.</p> +<p>“What’s the matter?” gasped Bobby.</p> +<p>“She’s gone!” wailed Eve.</p> +<p>“Who’s gone?” and Bobby leaped out of +bed.</p> +<p>“That girl. Out of the window. She’s run +away!”</p> +<p>Bobby ran to look into the room. The window +sash was up and the blinds wide open. +The girls had slept on the ground floor, and +alone in this wing of the rambling old farmhouse.</p> +<p>“What did she run away for?” demanded +Bobby, slowly. “She could have <em>walked</em> away, +had she wanted to, couldn’t she? Nobody +would have stopped her.”</p> +<p>“But she’s gone!” cried Eve.</p> +<p>“So I see,” Bobby admitted, grimly. “She +didn’t go of her own free will, you can just +bet!”</p> +<p>“I didn’t think of that,” cried Eve, running +to the window.</p> +<p>It was a beautiful Sunday morning, and even +farmer folk remain an hour longer in bed on +that day. The sun, which had just risen, revealed +the hillside fields and pastures clearly. +There was not an object in sight which suggested +the missing girl’s escape, saving just beneath +the window. There several planks had +been laid upon the soft earth, to make a walk +to the hard path. This had been done by those +who had come after Margit Salgo, so as to leave +no footprints.</p> +<p>Eve finished dressing in a hurry and ran to +tell her parents and Otto. Mr. and Mrs. Sitz +slept at the other end of the house, and Otto +and the hired man on the floor above.</p> +<p>Whoever had kidnapped the girl—for such it +seemed to be—had worked very circumspectly. +The watchdog, chained by his hutch, had been +caught and a strong rubber band fastened about +his jaws so that he could not bark. This had +evidently been the first work of the marauders.</p> +<p>Then they had gone about taking out the girl +coolly enough. There were few footprints anywhere. +And in the roadway they found where +a wagon had been turned around. In this +wagon, it was likely, Margit had been carried +away, and it had started along the road in the +direction of Centerport.</p> +<p>“They have got her again,” sighed Bobby. +“And goodness only knows what they will do +with her, or where they will hide her away.” +“Perhaps we will never see the poor girl +again,” ventured Eve.</p> +<p>But Bobby did not believe that. She knew +now, for sure, that Margit Salgo was in some +manner closely connected with the private affairs +of Miss Carrington. She was sure that both +the Gypsies and Margit would appear near the +high school again.</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-xvanother-rivalry-on-the-field"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id15">CHAPTER XV—ANOTHER RIVALRY ON THE FIELD</a></h2> +<p>Eve Sitz had no rival at Central High when +it came to putting the shot; but there were +plenty of girls who essayed the broad jump—and +some did almost if not quite as well as Eve. +Notably Lou Potter, a senior who practiced +assiduously and who had many friends who +believed she would, in the end, best the Swiss +girl.</p> +<p>“The meet is a long way off yet,” said one +of Lou’s friends to Laura Belding. “That girl +you juniors are boosting isn’t the only ‘hope’ +of Central High.”</p> +<p>“Whom do you mean?” returned Mother +Wit.</p> +<p>“That girl whose name sounds like a glass of +vichy—what is it? Eve——”</p> +<p>“And what about Eve Sitz?” demanded +Bobby, who chanced to arrive in time to hear +the senior’s remark.</p> +<p>“And here’s another fresh one,” said the +senior, eyeing Bobby coolly. “Thinks she is +going to grab off the quarter-mile.”</p> +<p>“You make me tired!” returned Bobby, +promptly. “Is that what you call loyalty to the +school? If you’ve got another girl faster than +I am, trot her out. I won’t stand in her light.”</p> +<p>“Nor will Eve interfere with any girl who +can beat her in jumping, or put the shot farther,” +declared Laura, quickly.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes! That’s all very pretty talk. But +Mrs. Case is favoring you. She is favoring the +whole junior class. <em>We</em> weren’t doing all the +athletic stunts last year when we were juniors—no, +indeed!”</p> +<p>“Well, whose fault is it if the junior class +stands better in after-hour athletics than the +senior?” demanded Bobby, laughing.</p> +<p>“And you pushed yourselves into the basketball +team even before you were juniors,” declared +the other girl, angrily.</p> +<p>“Come, now!” returned Laura, warmly. +“That’s not fair at all. If any of you seniors +had shown any desire to play the game to win, +Mrs. Case would have put you on the first team—you +know that. But your class, as a whole, +would rather dance, and go to parties, and attend +the theatre, and all that. You know very +well that Mrs. Case has often called our +attention to the fact that late hours takes the vitality +out of us, and makes success in the gym. and +on the field impossible.”</p> +<p>“Thanks for your lecture, Mother Witless!” +snapped the other girl. “But I don’t care for +it. And let me tell you that Lou Potter is going +to make your soda-water champion look cheap.”</p> +<p>“Dear me!” exclaimed Bobby, as the older +girl turned away. “Do you suppose we’ll be +as high and mighty as all that when we get to +be seniors, Laura?”</p> +<p>“I hope not—not even if we get to be patriarchs,” +laughed Mother Wit. “But Miss Potter +is making a good jump, just the same, Bobby. +Eve isn’t going to have it all her own way.”</p> +<p>“Why, Eve’ll beat her easily,” declared +Bobby, with confidence.</p> +<p>Eve Sitz did not find it so easy to score +ahead of all her rivals, however. And Lou +Potter’s record steadily grew better. Eve knew +that she was doing her very best right along, +whereas the senior was creeping up, creeping +up—showing almost as good a record as Eve, +and still forging on.</p> +<p>Magdeline Spink, of Lumberport, held the +championship for putting the shot, and Eve +knew that she had surpassed her score. In the +broad jump it was almost as difficult for the +contestants to learn their exact record as it was +for the sprinters to learn theirs. If Mrs. Case +measured the distance she kept the record secret.</p> +<p>Some of the seniors, especially those who +were backing Lou Potter, began to make trouble +in the meetings of the athletic committee, too. +Heretofore no point had been made of the fact +that the after-hour athletics were dominated by +the junior class of Central High. That it was +the fault of the present class of seniors if they +were not in control of the League, did not now +appeal to the disaffected.</p> +<p>Some of the junior and sophomore girls who, +as Bobby said, were inclined to “toady” to +members of the first class, took up cudgels for +the seniors, too. Notably Lily Pendleton, who +was forever aping the manners of her elders +and always liked to associate with more mature +girls.</p> +<p>And so, when there was friction in the committee +meetings, Lily usually sided with the +senior members.</p> +<p>“Why don’t you stick by your classmates, +Lil?” demanded the hot-tempered Bobby, one +afternoon, when the committee had been discussing +plans for the June meet. It had already +been decided that the inter-school field +day exercises should be held on the grounds of +Central High, that being by far the best field.</p> +<p>“Have I got to stick by you whether you’re +right, or not, Bob Hargrew?” demanded Lily.</p> +<p>“But we’re right—of course.”</p> +<p>“I don’t think so. The seniors should have +their say. We’ll want to boss when <em>we</em> are +seniors.”</p> +<p>“They haven’t shown much interest in the +scoring of Central High in athletic matters +until lately,” Jess Morse said, quickly. “Why +should they want to come in now and run it +all?”</p> +<p>“They have the right,” declared Lily.</p> +<p>“Don’t see it—do you, Laura?” cried Bobby.</p> +<p>“If they only wouldn’t try to go against Mrs. +Case’s wishes so frequently,” sighed Mother +Wit, who would have conceded much for peace.</p> +<p>“They don’t propose to be bossed by the +teachers all the time,” declared Lily. “And +they’re right.”</p> +<p>Now, this attitude would have appealed to +Bobby Hargrew a few months before. But she +had learned a good bit of late.</p> +<p>“There is no use in our trying to run athletics +in opposition to Mrs. Case—or Mr. +Sharp,” she said.</p> +<p>“Or Gee Gee; eh, Bobby?” added Hester +Grimes, slily.</p> +<p>As the girls crowded out of the committee +room some of the boys were grouped at the corridor’s +end, plainly waiting for their appearance. +Chet Belding and Launcelot Darby, his +chum, were waiting for Laura and Jess. That +was a frequent occurrence. No boy ever waited +for the fly-away Bobby; but there was with the +two chums a tall, thin youth dressed in the most +astonishing clothes that ever appeared in the +corridors of a high school.</p> +<p>“Oh me, oh my!” cried Bobby, under her +breath. “There’s Purt Sweet—and he looks +like a negro minstrel.”</p> +<p>“My goodness me! He <em>is</em> dressed to kill, +isn’t he?” giggled Jess.</p> +<p>For Prettyman Sweet, the sartorial example +of Central High, was more than usually gay +upon this occasion. And he was not waiting +there by chance, it was plain.</p> +<p>“See! Lily is trotting off with him,” laughed +Bobby. “They must have patched up a truce. +Oh! and look at that collar!” and the wicked +Bobby leaned far over the banister and sang +gaily:</p> +<blockquote><div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">“He wore a collar extra high,</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">He wore a purple vest;</div> +</div> +<div class="line">He wore his father’s patience out—</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">But why tell all the rest?”</div> +</div> +</div> +</div></blockquote> +<p>“That saucy child!” exclaimed Lily, looking +back. “She ought to be whipped.”</p> +<p>“You never can get even with her, doncher +know,” drawled Purt, shaking his head. +“Weally, I’d much like to try it; but I don’t +know what to do.”</p> +<p>“And the rest of those girls, laughing, too,” +snapped Lily. “Jess Morse and Laura are just +as bad.”</p> +<p>“Well, weally——”</p> +<p>“Oh, if you had half the pluck of a rabbit,” +scolded Lily, “you’d do something to get +square.”</p> +<p>Now, Lil Pendleton wronged Pretty Sweet. +He was not particularly brave, it was true; but +he would have done a good deal to “get even” +with Bobby Hargrew for her sharp tongue. He +had been the butt of her jokes for a long time +and—— Well, it is said even the worm will turn.</p> +<p>The following afternoon a sudden thunder +shower kept some of the girls in the school +building after most of the pupils had departed. +It was a part of the junior class, and Bobby, as +well as Laura and Jess, were among those kept +by Miss Carrington after the regular session +closed.</p> +<p>“I believe she knew we were due at the +athletic field this afternoon,” grumbled Bobby, as +they stood waiting at the foot of the tower +stairs for the shower to pass.</p> +<p>“What good would it have done us to be at +the gym. now?” laughed Laura. “This shower +has spoiled open air work for the afternoon.”</p> +<p>“Bobby doesn’t believe Gee Gee ever gives +us extra tasks because we deserve them,” said +Jess.</p> +<p>“It <em>did</em> seem as though Miss Carrington was +particularly harsh to-day,” murmured Eve.</p> +<p>“That’s so! She was as cross as two sticks,” +declared Bobby.</p> +<p>“I believe something is troubling Miss Carrington’s +mind,” said Nellie Agnew. “Have +you noticed how thin she is getting—and that +she starts nervously at every little thing?”</p> +<p>“She was scared when the thunder began—I +was glad of it,” declared Bobby.</p> +<p>“Bad girl!” admonished Laura.</p> +<p>“It’s her conscience,” ventured Bobby.</p> +<p>Eve looked at her and shook her head.</p> +<p>“Oh, I’m not going to say <em>why</em> I think her +conscience troubles her,” laughed Bobby.</p> +<p>Nellie was looking out of the window. “I +say, girls! it’s breaking away, I do believe. And +I think there’s a rainbow—yes! there’s a part +of it.”</p> +<p>“It is a very small part you see, Nell,” +laughed Eve.</p> +<p>“Let’s go up into the tower,” suggested Jess. +“We can see it all from there.”</p> +<p>“Let’s,” agreed Bobby.</p> +<p>“That’s forbidden, you know,” said Laura, +slowly.</p> +<p>“Oh, dear, Laura! Don’t be such a mollycoddle! +Nobody’s really told us girls not to go +into the tower. And we won’t do any damage——”</p> +<p>“Maybe the door is locked,” observed Nellie, +doubtfully.</p> +<p>But Bobby ran to the solid oak door and tried +it. Although there was a key in the lock, the +door opened at once to her turning of the +knob.</p> +<p>“Come on!” exclaimed Bobby. “You’re a +lot of scare-cats!”</p> +<p>“I admire your language, Bobs,” laughed +Jess, following her.</p> +<p>The others went, too. Of course it was forbidden +territory, and why shouldn’t they want +to go? That was only human nature.</p> +<p>Besides, as they climbed the stairs, through +the narrow windows they caught glimpses of +the rainbow and the clouds, now breaking up +into great beds of vari-colored mist.</p> +<p>“Hurry up!” cried Bobby, in the lead. “It’s +just wonderful up here.”</p> +<p>They had left the door at the foot of the +long, winding flight open. But scarcely had they +disappeared when another figure appeared in the +corridor which they had left. Purt Sweet, too, +had been kept after school by Professor Dimp.</p> +<p>The youth saw the girls ascend the stair. +The chance was too obvious to neglect. Although +usually taking Bobby’s jokes and the +others’ laughter good-naturedly, he had been +spurred by Lily Pendleton’s remarks to a desire +to “get square.”</p> +<p>And here was opportunity before him. Purt +hurried forward, softly closed the door behind +the girls, and turned the key in the lock.</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-xvifive-in-a-tower"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id16">CHAPTER XVI—FIVE IN A TOWER</a></h2> +<p>But the girls climbing the stairs to see the +rainbow had no idea that anybody below was +playing a trick on them. After school was dismissed +and the pupils left the building, and the +teachers were gone, there was nobody but old +John, the janitor, on the premises.</p> +<p>From any other floor he could be summoned +by alarm bells. But there were no push-buttons +in the tower. Therefore, when Purt Sweet +turned the key, and stole away from the door +at the bottom of the tower stairs, he had imprisoned +the five girls as effectually as though +they were in the tower of some ancient castle.</p> +<p>The five went up the stairs, however, without +any suspicion that they were prisoners.</p> +<p>“Come on! come on!” urged Bobby, who +mounted much quicker than the others. “Oh, +this is glorious!”</p> +<p>They came out into a square room, through +which the air blew freshly. The rain had evidently +blown into the place during the shower, +for it lay in puddles on the stone floor. The +windows had no panes—indeed, they were +merely narrow slits in the stone wall, like loop-holes +in old fortresses.</p> +<p>“Dear me!” cried Jess. “How small the +people look in the park—do you see? Just like +ants.”</p> +<p>“Some of ’em are uncles, not ‘ants,’” laughed +Bobby.</p> +<p>“Punning again!” exclaimed Nell. “You +should be punished for that, Bobby.”</p> +<p>“Huh! that’s worse than mine,” declared +Bobby.</p> +<p>“Look at that sky!” cried Laura.</p> +<p>“It is very beautiful,” agreed Eve, quietly.</p> +<p>“Look at those clouds yonder—a great, pink +bed of down!” murmured Jess.</p> +<p>“And this arch of color,” said Laura, seriously. +“I suppose that is just what Noah saw. +How poetic to call it the Bow of Promise!”</p> +<p>The girls enjoyed looking at the wild colorings +of the clouds and the beautiful bow. A +half an hour elapsed before they proposed descending.</p> +<p>As they went down the stairs, Bobby still in +the lead, she stopped suddenly with a little cry.</p> +<p>“What’s the matter now, Bobs?” demanded +Jess.</p> +<p>“Oh! don’t you see it?” cried the other girl. +“It’s a spider.”</p> +<p>“He won’t eat you,” said Jess. “Go on.”</p> +<p>“I know he won’t. I declare! he’s spinning +a web.”</p> +<p>At that moment she came to the bottom of +the stairway.</p> +<p>“Guess the draught pulled the door shut,” +she exclaimed. “Hullo!”</p> +<p>She tried the knob, but the door would not +open.</p> +<p>“Why, what’s the matter, Bobby?” cried +Laura. “That is not a spring lock.”</p> +<p>“Huh! I guess not,” returned Bobby. “But +somebody’s sprung it on us, just the same.”</p> +<p>“What do you mean?” demanded Nellie +Agnew.</p> +<p>“The door’s locked,” declared Laura, reaching +the bottom step and trying the knob herself.</p> +<p>“You bet it is,” said Bobby.</p> +<p>“It’s a joke!” gasped Eve.</p> +<p>“I should hope so,” returned Laura. “If +they were in earnest it would be bad for us. +John will leave the building soon, and how will +we attract anybody to release us?”</p> +<p>“Oh, Laura!” cried Nell. “Nobody would +be so mean.”</p> +<p>“It may be,” said Eve, thoughtfully, “that +somebody went past, saw the door open, and +closed and locked it with no idea that we were +in the tower.”</p> +<p>“Well!” exclaimed Bobby, at that. “We’re +in a nice fix—yes?”</p> +<p>“Who would have done it?” wailed Nellie +Agnew.</p> +<p>“Maybe the janitor himself,” observed Laura, +thoughtfully.</p> +<p>“My goodness! but you’re the cheerful girl,” +returned Bobby. “Do you want to scare us to +death right at the start, Mother Wit?”</p> +<p>“We might as well admit the seriousness of +the situation,” said Laura. “I can’t imagine +that anybody would shut us up here for a joke.”</p> +<p>“Some of the boys?” suggested Eve.</p> +<p>“That Short and Long is full of mischief,” +added Nell.</p> +<p>“Chet would wring his neck for a thing like +this,” declared Jess, with confidence.</p> +<p>“I don’t care who did it, or what it was done +for,” said Bobby, finally. “The fact remains: +The door is locked!”</p> +<p>“That is the truest thing you ever said, +Bobby,” sighed Jess. “Come on back to the +tower room. Do you suppose we can call loud +enough to attract the attention of people on the +street?”</p> +<p>“Not in a thousand years,” groaned Bobby.</p> +<p>“Oh, we won’t have to remain here that +long,” said Laura, cheerfully.</p> +<p>“Hope not,” growled Bobby. “I’m getting +hungry.”</p> +<p>“That won’t do you any good,” said Jess. +“It’s useless to have an appetite when there is +nothing in sight to satisfy it—just as useless as +the holes in a porous plaster.”</p> +<p>“Who says the holes in a porous plaster are +useless?” demanded Bobby, quickly. “They’re +not.”</p> +<p>“What are they for, then?” asked Eve, +mildly.</p> +<p>“Why, to let the pain out, of course,” declared +Bobby, boldly.</p> +<p>“I wish there were some holes here that +would let <em>us</em> out,” sighed Nellie Agnew.</p> +<p>“Don’t lose heart, Nell!” advised Laura. +“There never was a situation that didn’t offer +some release. We’ll find a way of escape.”</p> +<p>“Sure!” scoffed Bobby. “Any of us can +crawl out through one of these slits in the wall.”</p> +<p>“And then what?” demanded Jess.</p> +<p>“Why, jump!” cried Bobby. “There’ll be +nothing to stop you.”</p> +<p>“Don’t talk so recklessly,” said Mother Wit. +“This is really a very serious problem. Mother +will be very anxious about me if I don’t come +home by six.”</p> +<p>“It’s an hour and a half to that yet,” said +Nellie, looking at her watch.</p> +<p>Bobby was striving to squeeze through one +of the open windows in the tower and look down +upon the street. But it was nonsense to expect +anybody on the walk to see them up there in +the tower.</p> +<p>“And we could shriek our heads off without +attracting a bit of attention,” declared Nellie, +half crying. “What <em>shall</em> we do, Laura?”</p> +<p>“Keep cool,” advised Laura. “Why lose all +our courage because we are locked into this +tower? We will be found.”</p> +<p>“Maybe,” spoke Bobby, gloomily.</p> +<p>“You have become a regular croaker,” declared +Jess. “I’m ashamed of you, Bobs.”</p> +<p>“That’s all right!” cried Bobby. “But +hunger is an awful thing to suffer.”</p> +<p>“Ha! you make me laugh,” cried Eve. +“Just think of me! If I don’t catch that 5:14 +train I’ll not get supper till nine o’clock.”</p> +<p>“But what a supper it will be when you <em>do</em> +get it!” exclaimed Bobby. “Oh, girls! when +I was at Eve’s house last week they had thirteen +vegetables for supper, besides two kinds of cold +meat, and preserves and pickles. Talk about +the poor farmer! Why the sort of supper +Eve’s folks have every night would cost city +folks two dollars a plate.”</p> +<p>“I am afraid you are stretching your imagination, +Bobby,” laughed Eve.</p> +<p>“Never! They’ve got bins and bins of vegetables—and +rows and rows of ham in the meat +house—and bar’ls and bar’ls of salt pork! +Listen here,” cried the whimsical Bobby, who +had a doggerel rhyme for every occasion. +“This is just what Eve Sitz hears whenever +she goes down into the cellar in the winter. +She can’t deny it!” And she sang:</p> +<blockquote><div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">“Potato gazed with frightened eyes,</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">King corn lent mournful ear,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">The beet a blushing red did turn,</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">The celery blanched with fear,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">The bean hid trembling in its pod,</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">The trees began to bark,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">And on the beaten turnpike road</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">The stones for warmth did spark,</div> +</div> +<div class="line">The brooklet babbled in its sleep</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">Because the night was cold;</div> +</div> +<div class="line">The onion weeps within its bed</div> +<div class="line-block"> +<div class="line">Because the year is old.”</div> +</div> +</div> +</div></blockquote> +<p>“You are so ridiculous,” said Eve. “Nobody +believes the rigamaroles you say.”</p> +<p>“All right!” returned Bobby, highly offended. +“But you’re bound to believe one thing—that’s +sure.”</p> +<p>“What is that?” queried Nellie.</p> +<p>“That we’re up in this tower, with the door +locked—and I believe that John, the janitor, +goes home about this time to supper!”</p> +<p>“Oh, oh!” cried Nellie. “Don’t say <em>that</em>. +However will we get away?”</p> +<p>“Let’s bang on the door!” exclaimed Jess.</p> +<p>So they thumped upon the thick oak door—Bobby +even kicked it viciously; and they shouted +until they were hoarse. But nobody heard, and +nobody came. The only person who knew they +were locked into the tower was a mile away +from Central High by that time—and, anyway, +he dared not tell of what he had done, nor did +he dare go back to release the girls from their +imprisonment.</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-xviieve-takes-a-risk"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id17">CHAPTER XVII—EVE TAKES A RISK</a></h2> +<p>“Now, Nell!” declared Mother Wit, emphatically, +“there isn’t the least use in your +crying. Tears will not get us down from this +tower.”</p> +<p>“You—you can be just as—as brave as you +want to be,” sobbed Nellie Agnew. +“I—want—to—go—home!”</p> +<p>“For goodness-gracious sake! Who doesn’t?” +snapped Bobby. “But, just as Laura says, +weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth +won’t help us the tiniest bit!”</p> +<p>“What will help us, I’d like to know?” +grumbled Jess Morse.</p> +<p>“Put on your thinking cap, Mother Wit,” +cried Bobby.</p> +<p>“Dear me!” said Eve, drawing in her head. +“It <em>is</em> a long way from the ground—and that’s +a fact.”</p> +<p>“It’s a good, long jump,” chuckled Bobby.</p> +<p>“Let’s write calls for help on pieces of paper +and drop them down,” suggested Laura.</p> +<p>“With the wind blowing the way it is, the +papers would fly up, instead of down,” scoffed +her chum.</p> +<p>“We’ll weight ’em,” said Laura.</p> +<p>“It would be like throwing over a bottle into +the sea, telling how we are cast away on a desert +island,” said Bobby. “And this is worse than +any desert island I ever heard about. Say, girls! +how do you suppose our boots will taste?”</p> +<p>“What nonsense!” said Nellie, wiping her +eyes. “We sha’n’t be hungry enough to begin +on our shoes for a long time yet. But how +scared our folks will be when we don’t come +home to supper.”</p> +<p>“And the sun’s going down,” mourned Jess.</p> +<p>“Why, girls,” said Laura, thoughtfully, “it +will be after dark before our folks begin to miss +us much. And then they won’t see us up here, +that’s sure!”</p> +<p>“I’m going to climb out of one of these windows +and wave something,” cried her chum. +“Surely somebody will see me.”</p> +<p>“And think you’re just playing up here,” +commented Nellie, who was fast losing all hope.</p> +<p>“My goodness!” exclaimed Jess. “They +must think, then, that I have selected a crazy +place to play in,” and she removed her jacket +and began to crawl out through one of the windows +of the tower.</p> +<p>“Be careful, dear!” warned Laura.</p> +<p>“Yes, do look out where you step,” said +Bobby, grabbing Jess’s skirt with a firm grip. +“It’s a long way down to the street.”</p> +<p>“If we only had some means of making a +light up here,” said Laura, in a worried tone. +“Then, after dark, people <em>would</em> be attracted by +our plight.”</p> +<p>“I haven’t a match—have you?” demanded +Bobby.</p> +<p>“Of course not. Girls never do carry useful +things in their pockets. Unless <em>you</em> do, Bobby.”</p> +<p>“I’ve got about everything in my pocket but +a match,” declared the smaller girl.</p> +<p>“I have a good mind to drop this old coat,” +called Jess, from outside.</p> +<p>“And it would catch on something half-way +down the tower, perhaps, and then you’d never +see it again,” Bobby said.</p> +<p>“Well, what <em>shall</em> we do?” demanded Jess, +wriggling back into the tower room and dragging +her jacket after her. “Nobody will even +look up. I expect we’d look like pigeons up here +to them.”</p> +<p>“Oh, dear!” gasped Bobby. “I do wish +some pigeons <em>would</em> fly up here. They do +sometimes, you know.”</p> +<p>“What good would they do us?” demanded +Nellie.</p> +<p>“Couldn’t we kill and eat them?” replied +Bobby. “Nothing like having bright ideas +when you are cast away on a desert tower.”</p> +<p>“Your ideas may be bright enough,” laughed +Laura; “but I wouldn’t care to eat pigeons +raw.”</p> +<p>“You may be glad to before we get down +from here,” returned Bobby, gloomily.</p> +<p>“Now that’s ridiculous,” said Mother Wit, +briskly. “Don’t <em>you</em> begin to lose heart, Miss +Hargrew.”</p> +<p>“I’ve as good a right as the next one,” +growled Bobby.</p> +<p>“Speaking of pigeons,” observed Jess, ruminatively, +“Chet’s carriers sometimes come up +here when he lets them out. I’ve seen them.”</p> +<p>“My goodness me!” ejaculated Mother Wit. +“Wouldn’t that be fine?”</p> +<p>“Wouldn’t what be fine?” queried Nellie, +wiping her eyes.</p> +<p>“If some of Chet’s carriers would just fly +up here. They know me. I’ve handled them +lots of times. And we might send a note back +telling Chet where we are.”</p> +<p>“And he’d find it tied under the pigeon’s +wing in about a week,” scoffed Bobby.</p> +<p>“What <em>are</em> we going to do, girls?” demanded +Nellie. “And it’s chilly up here, too.”</p> +<p>Jess pulled on her jacket again. “We can +go down on the stairway, where it is warmer,” +she said.</p> +<p>“It is very annoying,” wailed the doctor’s +daughter, “to have you girls take the matter so +calmly. Why, the whole town will be searching +for us by midnight.”</p> +<p>“I hope so!” ejaculated Bobby.</p> +<p>“Let’s all shout together. Somebody ought +to hear us,” Eve said.</p> +<p>“That is impossible,” objected Jess. “Sound +doesn’t travel downward—much. Not when +there is a sharp wind blowing, as it is now. It’s +a good deal farther to the ground than it appears.”</p> +<p>“That’s like what our old girl, Nora, said +about the distance to Liverpool. When she +came to us, she came direct from the immigrant +ship,” laughed Bobby. “And she was telling +about the weary way across the ‘say.’ ‘How +far is it, Nora?’ one of the children asked her.</p> +<p>“‘It’s fower thousan’ mile,’ declared Nora, +‘to Liverpool.’</p> +<p>“But the kiddies wouldn’t have that. They +looked it up in the geography, and told her she +was wrong—it was only three thousand.</p> +<p>“‘Sure, that’s flatways,’ says Nora. ‘But I +been over it, an’ wid the ups an’ the downs, sure +I <em>know</em> ’tis another thousand!”</p> +<p>“Dear me, Bobby,” complained Nellie. +“I believe you’d joke if you were going to be +hanged!”</p> +<p>“Do you think so?” asked Bobby, seriously. +“Much obliged. That’s a good reputation to +have, whether I deserve it or not.”</p> +<p>“Good for you, Bobs!” laughed Jess. “You +keep still, old croaker!” she added, shaking Nellie +Agnew. “Let’s look on the cheerful side of +it. Every cloud has a silver lining.”</p> +<p>“If you can see any silver lining to <em>this</em> cloud, +I’d like you to show it to me, Miss!” exclaimed +Nellie, with some warmth.</p> +<p>Eve was going from window to window, +thrusting her head and shoulders out of each, +and examining the sides of the tower carefully. +Laura asked what she was doing.</p> +<p>“Why, dear, on this side is the roof of the +school building,” said Eve, thoughtfully. “It +isn’t so far below us.”</p> +<p>“It’s much too far for us to jump,” returned +Mother Wit.</p> +<p>“True,” said Eve, smiling. “But see here.”</p> +<p>“I can’t climb out of the same window you +are at,” complained Laura.</p> +<p>“Go to the next one, then, and I’ll point it +out to you.”</p> +<p>Laura did so. Sitting sideways on the sills +the girls could thrust the upper part of their +bodies out and obtain an unobstructed view of +this entire wall of the tower.</p> +<p>“See that wire?” exclaimed Eve, eagerly.</p> +<p>Just below the level of the windows which +pierced the upper story of the tower a heavy +stay-wire was fastened to a staple set in the +masonry. At some time the school building had +been dressed with flags and bunting and this +heavy wire had never been removed. It was +fastened at the other end to a ring in the roof +of the main building.</p> +<p>“I see it, Evangeline,” admitted Mother Wit, +with something like fear in her voice. “You +wouldn’t do it!”</p> +<p>“I believe I can,” declared the country girl.</p> +<p>“Why—why—it would take a trapeze performer!”</p> +<p>“Well, Mrs. Case has had us working on the +ladders and the parallel bars until we ought to +be pretty fair on a trapeze,” said Eve, laughing +a little.</p> +<p>“Oh, Eve! I wouldn’t try it,” cried Laura.</p> +<p>“You see,” said the other, steadily, “if I +can get out of the window here, and two of +you can steady me, I can drop down upon that +wire——”</p> +<p>“But suppose you should fall to the roof!”</p> +<p>“I won’t fall. That is not what I am aiming +to do, at least.”</p> +<p>“It is too reckless a thing to try,” cried +Laura.</p> +<p>“Now, wait. Nobody will see us up here. +If we have to stay all night some of the girls +will be sick. You know that. Now, if I can +once get to that wire, I know I can work my +way down it to the roof.”</p> +<p>“You’ll slide—and cut your hands all to +pieces.”</p> +<p>“No, I won’t. I’ve a pair of thick gloves in +my pocket,” declared Eve. “I am going to try +it, Mother Wit.”</p> +<p>“Oh, I don’t believe you had better!”</p> +<p>Eve slid back into the tower-room, Laura following +her. The bigger girl slipped out of her +coat and took off her hat immediately.</p> +<p>“Hullo!” said Bobby. “Don’t you want +your slippers, too? You’re in for the night, +are you?”</p> +<p>But Eve was finding her gloves and these she +drew on. Even Nellie began to get interested +then.</p> +<p>“What <em>are</em> you going to do now?” she cried.</p> +<p>Laura explained quickly. Nellie began to +cry again, and even Bobby looked troubled.</p> +<p>“It isn’t worth the risk, is it?” she asked. +“Somebody will find us some time.”</p> +<p>“That’s just it,” Eve returned. “We don’t +know when that <em>some time</em> will be. I can slide +down that wire, get in by the roof opening, and +unlock this door that shuts us up here. Of +course, the key will be in the lock. If it isn’t, +and there is nobody in the building, I can telephone +for help.”</p> +<p>“Say, that’s great!” spoke Jess. “If you can +only do it safely, Eve.”</p> +<p>“Oh, I’ll do it,” declared the country girl, +confidently, and the next moment she began +climbing out through the window nearest to the +wire.</p> +<p>Laura and Jess held her around the waist; +then, as she slid out, farther and farther, they +clung to her shoulders. But Eve had to leave +her arms free and suddenly she panted:</p> +<p>“Let me go! I’ve got to drop and grab the +wire. That’s the only way.”</p> +<p>Laura and her chum looked at each other in +doubt and fear. It did seem as though, if they +let go of the girl, she must fall to the foot of +the tower!</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-xviiithe-conscience-of-prettyman-sweet"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id18">CHAPTER XVIII—THE CONSCIENCE OF PRETTYMAN SWEET</a></h2> +<p>Prettyman Sweet would never have played +such a contemptible trick on Bobby Hargrew +and her comrades had he not been goaded to it +by Lily Pendleton. Purt had what the girls +called “a dreadful crush” on Lily, and she had +made fun of him because he took Bobby’s jokes +so tamely.</p> +<p>“If you had a spark of pluck you’d get square +with that Hargrew girl,” Lily Pendleton had told +him, and Purt thought that he was getting square +with Bobby and her friends when he turned the +key in the lock at the foot of the tower stairs.</p> +<p>At first as he ran out of the school building +into the rain that was still falling a little, his +only fear was that he had been seen by somebody. +But once away from the school building +he began to giggle over the joke he had played +on the girls.</p> +<p>“They won’t laugh at me so much next time,” +he thought.</p> +<p>And then he remembered, with something of +a shock, that he could not afford to tell anybody +about what he had done. If he owned up to +having locked the girls into the tower, he knew +very well what would happen to him.</p> +<p>If Chet Belding, or Lance Darby, did not get +hold of him, one of the other boys would most +certainly take him to task for the trick. And +Purt Sweet was no fighter.</p> +<p>He wouldn’t get much fun out of the trick +he had played on the girls, after all! Now he +wished he had not done it. What was the fun, +when he had to keep it a secret?</p> +<p>So Purt continued on this way home with +lagging feet. And every yard, the possibilities +that might follow his trick grew plainer in +his mind. He saw, as he went on, that instead +of having done something to create a +laugh, he might have been guilty of an act that +would start a whole lot’ of trouble.</p> +<p>He knew, as well as did the girls shut up in +the tower, that old John, the janitor, would go +home to supper soon. And at this time of year, +when there were no fires to see to, except the +hot water heater, the old man might not come +back at all.</p> +<p>For, as far as Purt knew, there were no meetings +in the building that evening. At least, he +had heard none announced. The girls were +likely to be left in the tower until the next day, +while their friends were searching the city for +them.</p> +<p>Purt went into the square, from which point +he could gaze up at the tower. But it was so +far away, and so tall, that he could see nothing +at the narrow slits of windows up there at the +top.</p> +<p>“If—if those girls waved a handkerchief out +of the openings, nobody could see it down here,” +thought the conscience-stricken youth.</p> +<p>He had never been up in the tower himself, +for it was forbidden territory. So he did not +know how wide the windows were. It just +struck home to Master Purt Sweet that the girls +would be unable to signal their situation to anybody.</p> +<p>But he had reached home before these +thoughts so troubled him that he felt as though +he <em>must</em> undo what he had done. Perhaps John +had not gone home yet. He might still be able +to get into the building, creep upstairs, unlock +the door of the tower, and then run out before +the girls could catch and identify him.</p> +<p>For Purt had a very strong desire not to be +suspected in this matter. Chet Belding would +take up cudgels for his sister in a minute; and +Chet would, Purt was sure, thrash him most +soundly!</p> +<p>Any of the teachers would have a pass-key to +the building. Purt remembered that fact, too. +Could he prevail upon one of them to lend him +a key so that he could go into the building? Of +course, he must have some good excuse, and +he feared to appear before Professor Dimp with +any such request unless he could back it with +sound reason. And Mr. Sharp was entirely out +of the question. Purt knew that the principal of +Central. High would see right through him instantly.</p> +<p>As for the lady teachers, Purt was more +afraid of them than of Mr. Dimp and the principal. +As it grew dark the boy sat cowering in +his room at home, from the window of which +he could see dimly the outlines of the schoolhouse +tower, and he wept a few tears.</p> +<p>He would have given a good deal had he not +turned the key in that lock!</p> +<p>Purt didn’t feel that he could appear at the +dinner table; so he gave an excuse to his mother’s +maid, and went out again. Perhaps somebody +had discovered the girls up in the tower +and released them. He walked up Whiffle Street +and saw Chet Belding hanging over the front +gate.</p> +<p>“Hullo, Purt!” exclaimed the big fellow. +“What’s doing?”</p> +<p>“No—nothing,” stammered Purt.</p> +<p>“Well, don’t be so scared about it. What’s +got you now?”</p> +<p>“No—nothing,” stammered Purt again.</p> +<p>“Haven’t seen Lance, have you?”</p> +<p>“No.”</p> +<p>“Nor the girls?”</p> +<p>The question scared Purt Sweet through and +through. But he plucked up courage to ask:</p> +<p>“How should I know anything about them? +Hasn’t your sister come home yet?”</p> +<p>“No. Down to that gym., I expect. Say, +these girls are getting altogether too athletic. +Didn’t see Jess, either, did you?”</p> +<p>Purt shook his head and went on. He was +afraid to stop longer with Chet—afraid that the +latter would learn something about what he had +done. It did seem to the culprit as though +knowledge of the trick played on Laura Belding +and her friends stuck out all over him.</p> +<p>It was deep dusk now. Purt came within a +block of the school building and looked slily +about the corners, as though he were bent on +mischief, instead of desirous of undoing the mischief +he had already done.</p> +<p>Had old John gone home yet? Would all +the lower doors of Central High be locked? +These were the questions that puzzled him.</p> +<p>Purt ran into the side gate of the boys’ recreation +ground and fumbled at the basement +door, by which he knew the janitor usually left. +It was locked; yet, as he rattled the knob, he +thought he heard an answering sound within.</p> +<p>He scuttled away to the corner and there +waited to watch the door. Nobody came out.</p> +<p>After half a minute of uncertainty the lad +crept on to the boys’ entrance. The outside +doors were closed and locked. He ran around +to the street and entered the girls’ yard. The +outer vestibule door was opened here and he +ventured in, creeping along in the darkness and +fumbling for the doorknob.</p> +<p>And just then Purt Sweet got the scare of his +life. A strong hand clasped his wrist and a +sharp voice demanded:</p> +<p>“What do you want here? Are you waiting +for those girls, too?”</p> +<p>“Oh, dear me!” gasped Prettyman Sweet, +his knees trembling. “<em>Now</em> I’m in a fix, sure +enough!”</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-xixmargit-and-miss-carrington-meet"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id19">CHAPTER XIX—MARGIT AND MISS CARRINGTON MEET</a></h2> +<p>It was several seconds before Purt realized +just what manner of person had seized him by +the arm in the vestibule at the girls’ entrance +of Central High. It was so dark that Purt only +knew it was a girl.</p> +<p>“Who—who are you?” he stammered.</p> +<p>“Oh! It’s only a boy,” said the girl, in a tone +of disgust. “What do you want here?”</p> +<p>“I—I was trying to get in,” murmured Purt.</p> +<p>“What for? Isn’t this the girls’ entrance? +They told me it was.”</p> +<p>Then Purt knew that she did not belong at +Central High. Indeed, she was a different kind +of girl from any the youth had ever met.</p> +<p>“Who are you, and what do <em>you</em> want?” +asked Purt, plucking up courage. “I guess you +don’t go to Central High.”</p> +<p>“I never went to any school—not like this, +anyway.”</p> +<p>“But what do you want here? I—I left +something in the building and wanted to get +back and find it,” stammered Purt.</p> +<p>“I was waiting to see those girls,” said the +stranger.</p> +<p>“What girls?” demanded the boy, in a panic +again.</p> +<p>“Some that I know. I waited and watched +down by that place where they play——”</p> +<p>“The athletic field?” suggested Purt.</p> +<p>“Perhaps. And I asked another girl. She +said they had not come down from the school +yet. They were kept in. So I came up +here——”</p> +<p>“Who were the girls you want to see?”</p> +<p>“One is named Evangeline, and she-comes +from Switzerland. I am Austrian myself. +And there is another girl—a little girl who always +laughs. Her name is like a boy’s name.”</p> +<p>“Bobby Hargrew,” said Purt, with a stifled +groan. “And neither of those girls have come +out of the building yet?”</p> +<p>“No,” said the girl. “I have watched and +waited for more than an hour.”</p> +<p>Purt rattled the knob of the inner door desperately; +but it was locked and evidently there +was nobody within to hear him.</p> +<p>“They must be away upstairs and cannot hear +you,” said the strange girl.</p> +<p>And <em>that</em> scared Purt, too. It seemed to him +that this girl must know just what he had done +to those girls whom she was waiting for. He +started to leave the vestibule.</p> +<p>“Hold on! Isn’t there any other door we +can get in by?” asked the stranger.</p> +<p>“I’m—I’m going to try the main entrance. +Perhaps that is unlocked,” Purt replied.</p> +<p>“I’ll go with you,” volunteered the other, and +followed him down the steps.</p> +<p>Purt wanted to get rid of her, whoever she +was. He wished now that he hadn’t come back +to the schoolhouse. He had read somewhere +that criminals are driven by some mysterious +power to haunt the scenes of their crimes. And +it must be a fact, Purt told himself, for he had +certainly been foolish to come back here to +Central High—and go without his supper.</p> +<p>He decided to slip out of the girls’ yard and +run away. But when he reached the street there +was the strange girl right at his elbow. And +he remembered that she had a grip as firm as +Chet Belding’s own.</p> +<p>So nothing would do but try the front entrance. +Of course, he knew it was ridiculous to +go to that door. Even by day it was kept +locked and visitors had to ring; only the teachers +had pass-keys.</p> +<p>But they went in at the main gate and +mounted the steps of the portico. It was indeed +black under here, for the street lights were too +far away to cast any of their radiance into the +place. Purt fumbled around, found the doorknob, +and tried it. To his amazement it turned +in his hand and the door swung open into the +dark corridor.</p> +<p>“They’re here, then,” whispered the girl. +“Where do you suppose they are?” she continued.</p> +<p>Now Purt had very good reason for believing +that he knew just where the girls were whom +this stranger wished to see; but he only said, +gruffly:</p> +<p>“I’m sure I don’t know. I don’t believe +they’re in the building now.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, they are. They have not come out. +There are several beside those I named. So I +was told at the athletic field.”</p> +<p>“Well, I don’t know anything about them!” +denied Purt, hurriedly. “I—I just want to go +up for my book——”</p> +<p>He shook himself free and ran for the front +stairway. He knew his way in the dark and +hoped to leave the girl behind. Once let him +reach the foot of the tower stairs, he would unlock +the door, fling it open so that the +prisoners would hear him above, and then dart +down the boys’ stairway and so out of the school +building again.</p> +<p>But before he reached the top of the first +flight he heard the patter of the strange girl’s +footsteps beside him. Through the long windows +enough light filtered to show him her figure. +And she ran better than he did, and without +panting.</p> +<p>Purt was scared now worse than he had been +before.</p> +<p>“She’ll tell them who unlocked the door,” he +thought, “and so they’ll know right away who +imprisoned them in the first place. Then Laura +will tell her brother and Chet will thrash me—I +know he will!”</p> +<p>The lad was almost ready to cry now. It +seemed to him as though every step he took got +him deeper and deeper into trouble.</p> +<p>He dashed up the other flight two steps at a +time; but the girl kept on equal terms with him. +What good wind she had! She could beat many +of the girls of Central High in running, that +was sure.</p> +<p>“I don’t know what has become of Eve Sitz +and that other girl you want to see,” exclaimed +Purt, stopping suddenly. “And I don’t see why +you are sticking so close to me.”</p> +<p>“You know your way around this building; +I don’t,” declared the girl, shortly.</p> +<p>“I can’t help you find them——”</p> +<p>“You seem afraid of something,” remarked +the girl, shrewdly. “What’s the matter with +you?”</p> +<p>“Well, I go to school here,” complained +Purt. “You don’t. You’ll get into trouble, +coming into the building at night.”</p> +<p>“I guess you’re afraid of getting into trouble +yourself,” returned the other, quite unshaken.</p> +<p>“Well, if one of the teachers is here and finds +us——”</p> +<p>“I’ll tell them just what I came for. Will +you?” demanded the girl, quickly, and thrusting +her face into Purt’s so as to see him better.</p> +<p>She had him there! Purt knew it—and he +knew <em>she</em> knew it. This strange girl was laughing +softly to herself in the darkness.</p> +<p>“Go on—if you’re going anywhere,” said +she, after a minute. “I believe you know +where those girls are. I want to see that Evangeline +and that Hargrew girl. You show me.”</p> +<p>“I—I don’t know!” wailed Purt, under his +breath.</p> +<p>Then he was sure he heard somebody’s step. +It was in one of the classrooms opening into this +corridor.</p> +<p>At the sound, spurred by sudden terror, the +boy leaped away. He was half-way down the +corridor. Around the corner was the door of +the tower.</p> +<p>And then, just as he dashed past a door on +his right, it opened. A broad band of light +streamed out, and to Purt’s ears came the quick +demand:</p> +<p>“What’s this? Who are you?”</p> +<p>“It’s Gee Gee!” thought the boy, but he +never stopped. In a moment he realized that +Miss Carrington had not addressed her question +to him, but to the girl.</p> +<p>He ran on, as softly as possible, and rounded +the corner, knowing that the strange girl had +been caught by the teacher, who repeated her +demand in a louder and more emphatic tone.</p> +<p>“Who are you? What are you doing here in +the schoolhouse?” Then Miss Carrington saw +that the girl was not one of her scholars—indeed, +no girl of Central High was ever dressed +so gaily, unless it was at a masquerade.</p> +<p>“For goodness sake, child!” exclaimed the +teacher, still more sharply. “Come in here and +explain yourself.”</p> +<p>She drew her inside the classroom and closed +the door. In the full light the strange girl was +revealed in a purple velvet skirt, a green bodice, +a yellow silk scarf, or handkerchief, around her +neck, and with a net, on which steel beads were +sewed, over her hair. With her dark complexion +and high color she was indeed a striking +figure as she stood there, hands on her hips, +and panting slightly as she gazed back bravely +into Miss Carrington’s spectacled eyes.</p> +<p>“For goodness sake, child!” repeated the +teacher. “Who and what are you?”</p> +<p>“My name is Margit Salgo,” said the Gypsy +girl, watching Miss Carrington, with her sharp +black eyes.</p> +<p>“Salgo?” whispered the teacher, and for a +moment the girl thought that Miss Carrington +would sink into the nearest chair. Then she +drew herself up and, although her pallor remained, +her eyes sparkled behind the thick lenses +of her spectacles.</p> +<p>“I suppose you are here to tell me your +father was Belas Salgo?” demanded the lady, +harshly.</p> +<p>“I don’t know who you are, Madam,” said +the Gypsy girl. “Are you the lady whom the +Vareys say knows all about me?”</p> +<p>“Who are the Vareys?” returned Miss Carrington, +quickly.</p> +<p>“They are English Gypsies. I was placed in +their care when my father’s friends brought me +to this country. They have held me prisoner +but I have got away from them——”</p> +<p>“I do not understand you—I do not understand +you,” insisted Miss Carrington, weakly. +And now she did grope her way to a seat.</p> +<p>“Are you the teacher here whose name has +in it eighteen letters?” asked the girl, anxiously. +“I do not read your English, although I speak +it. I learn to speak languages easily—it is a +gift. My father had it.”</p> +<p>“True,” murmured Miss Carrington. “Belas +Salgo was a wonderful linguist.”</p> +<p>“Does your name have the eighteen letters?” +pursued Margit, eagerly. She repeated her story +about the card on which was printed, or written, +the name of the lady whom the Vareys had +come to Centerport to see. Miss Carrington listened +more quietly, and finally bowed.</p> +<p>“Yes. I am the lady. I am Miss Carrington,” +she admitted.</p> +<p>“That is what those girls called you,” muttered +Margit, but the teacher did not hear.</p> +<p>“You claim to be Belas Salgo’s daughter?” +repeated Miss Carrington, at last.</p> +<p>“I am his daughter. I cannot remember my +mother—much. But my father I remember +very well. Why, I traveled everywhere with +him! All over southern Europe we went. And +to Algiers, and the other north coast cities. He +played everywhere about the Mediterranean +until he died. And then,” said the girl, simply, +“I lost all happiness—and I was brought to this +great, cold country.”</p> +<p>Miss Carrington had listened with her head +resting on her hand and her eyes watching the +girl from behind her glasses. Now she said:</p> +<p>“Well, I do not believe you are Belas Salgo’s +child—not the Belas Salgo I have good reason +to remember. No. But I will take you home +with me and we will talk this matter over.</p> +<p>“I was correcting some examination papers,” +she added, going to the desk and turning out +the student lamp. “But they may go until another +time,” and with a sigh she put on her hat +and cloak, and taking the Gypsy girl’s hand led +her out of the school building, the darkened +corridors of which she knew so well.</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-xxinter-class-rivalry"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id20">CHAPTER XX—INTER-CLASS RIVALRY</a></h2> +<p>If Eve Sitz had been outside of the schoolhouse +tower, being held by the girls all of this +time, she must certainly have been by now at +the point of exhaustion, and so must they.</p> +<p>But Eve had dropped just right, had caught +the wire with her gloved hands just as she had +expected to, and then swung down and hung +from the steel strand for a few seconds to get +her breath.</p> +<p>Nellie and Bobby, leaning out of neighboring +windows, cheered her on.</p> +<p>“Hurrah, girls!” declared the irrepressible. +“She’s going to do it. There she goes—hand +under hand!”</p> +<p>“Oh, if she doesn’t slip,” wailed Nellie.</p> +<p>“She’s not going to slip,” cried Bobby. +“Hurrah! She’s on the roof.”</p> +<p>Once on the main building Eve did not waste +time. She ran to the door, which she knew +would be open, and so darted down the stairs +to the corridor out of which the tower stairway +opened. There was the key in the lock as they +had expected, and in a few moments she was +calling the other four girls down.</p> +<p>“My goodness!” exclaimed Nellie, kissing +Eve when she reached the foot of the stairs. +“Aren’t you just the brave, brave girl! And +whatever should we have done without you?”</p> +<p>“I guess one of the others would have done +the same had I not first thought of it,” returned +Eve, modestly.</p> +<p>“Hush!” exclaimed Laura, suddenly. “I +hear somebody.”</p> +<p>A door opened below, and then somebody +came up stairs. The girls crowded back into +the corner and waited.</p> +<p>“I know that step,” whispered Jess.</p> +<p>“Fee, fi, fo, fum!” murmured Bobby.</p> +<p>“And well may you say it is your ‘foe,’ +Bobby,” giggled Jess. “It’s Miss Carrington.”</p> +<p>“Never!” gasped Nell.</p> +<p>“Yes, it is. I am sure,” agreed Laura.</p> +<p>“Oh, dear! if she catches us here we’ll have +to tell where we have been and all about it,” +groaned Eve.</p> +<p>“And demerits to work off to-morrow,” +moaned Bobby.</p> +<p>“Back into the stairway and keep still,” whispered +Laura.</p> +<p>They all crowded back. Miss Carrington +came along the gloomy corridor and entered +a classroom. She did not turn the corner.</p> +<p>“Good! Now let’s creep down and make our +escape,” whispered Bobby.</p> +<p>“But not by the front door. She came in +that way.”</p> +<p>“But the other doors will be locked—both +the boys’ and ours,” urged Jess.</p> +<p>“I know the way out through the basement,” +spoke Bobby, with determination. “I can open +John’s door. Come on.”</p> +<p>So, at the very moment Prettyman Sweet tried +the basement door, the girls on whom he had +played his trick were about to come out. Purt +was scared and ran away. Later, when he escaped +from Margit, the Gypsy girl, and ran to +the foot of the tower stairs, Purt was scared +again.</p> +<p>He found the door open and the girls gone. +Who could have released them? He slunk +home in the darkness, taking the back alleys +instead of Whiffle Street, and the next day he +scarcely dared go to school for fear the girls +had found out who played the trick on them.</p> +<p>But Laura and her mates all thought that +either John, the janitor, or one of the teachers +had chanced to close the tower door and lock it. +And, as they had been where they were forbidden +to go, they said very little about their fright +and anxiety.</p> +<p>But Eve was quite a heroine among them. +The girl from the farm was a deal more muscular +than most of her mates; perhaps no girl at +Central High could have climbed out of that +tower window and worked her way down the +wire in just that manner.</p> +<p>And Eve was showing herself, as time went +on, to be the best girl at the broad jump and at +putting the twelve-pound shot, too. Lou Potter, +of the senior class, did well; but after a +time she seemed to have reached her limit in +both the jumping and shot-putting.</p> +<p>Then it was that Eve took a spurt and went +ahead. She left all other competitors but Lou +far behind.</p> +<p>Mrs. Case did not approve of inter-class competition +in athletics; but the managing committee +of the June meet had made such competition +necessary to a degree. The upper classes +of Central High had to choose their champions, +and those champions in the foot races, from the +100-yard dash to the quarter-mile, had to compete +the first week in June to arrange which +should represent the school on the big day.</p> +<p>In other trials it was the same—broad jump, +shot-putting, relay race teams, and all the rest. +There was developed in the freshman class a +sprinter who almost bested Bobby Hargrew at +first; but the freshmen had little, after all, to do +when the big day came.</p> +<p>The main contestants for athletic honors were +bound to be drawn from the junior and sophomore +classes. It was a fact that the present +senior class of Central High had not been as +imbued with the spirit of after-hour athletics, or +with loyalty to the school, as had the younger +classes.</p> +<p>And the seniors had awakened too late to +the importance of leaving a good record in athletics +behind them when they were graduated. +There was not a girl in the class the equal of +Mary O’Rourke, or Celia Prime, who had been +graduated the year before.</p> +<p>Lou Potter, however, had many supporters, +not alone among her own class. The freshies +and sophs of course were jealous of the prominence +of the juniors in athletics, so they centered +their loyalty upon Lou.</p> +<p>Eve could do nothing that Lou Potter +couldn’t do! That was the cry, and the feeling +ran quite high for a while. Besides, another +thing came to make Eve rather unpopular with a +certain class of girls.</p> +<p>“Touch Day”—that famous occasion when +candidates for membership in the M. O. R.’s +were chosen—came in May, and Eve was one of +the lucky girls to receive the magic “touch.” +The fact that she had not been attending Central +High a year aroused bitter feeling, although Eve +was a junior in good standing.</p> +<p>“Say!” cried Bobby Hargrew, “if they had +kicked about <em>me</em> being an M. O. R. there would +have been some sense in it. For I never really +thought I’d arrive at such an honor.”</p> +<p>For Bobby had really been drawn as a member +of the secret society, and she never ceased to be +surprised at the fact. But this school year—especially +since early spring—Bobby Hargrew had +been much changed. Not that she was not cheerful, +and full of fun; but she had settled down +to better work in her classes, and there was a +steadiness about her that had been missing in +the old Bobby Hargrew.</p> +<p>They were talking this change over one evening +around the Belding dinner table.</p> +<p>“Bobby wouldn’t be herself if she got too +strait-laced,” remarked Chetwood. “That’s the +main good thing about her—the ginger in her.”</p> +<p>“Chetwood!” exclaimed his mother, +admonishingly. “You speak of the girl as though she +were a horse—or a dog. ‘Ginger’ indeed!”</p> +<p>“Well, Little Mum,” said her big son. +“That’s exactly what I mean. She’s no namby-pamby, +Miss Sissy kind of a girl; but a good fellow——”</p> +<p>“I cannot allow you to talk that way about +one of your young lady friends,” declared Mrs. +Belding, with heat. “I am surprised, Chetwood.”</p> +<p>Mr. Belding began to chuckle, and she turned +on him now with some exasperation.</p> +<p>“James!” she said, warmly. “I believe you +support these children in their careless use of +English, and in their other crimes against the +niceties of our existence. Chet is as boisterous +and rough as—as a street boy. And Laura uses +most shocking language at times, I declare.”</p> +<p>“Oh, Mother Mine! why drag me into it?” +laughed Laura, while her father added:</p> +<p>“Isn’t ‘crimes’ a rather strong word in this +instance, Mother?”</p> +<p>“I do not care!” cried the good lady, much +disturbed. “Chetwood uses language that I +know my mother would never have allowed at +Her table. And Laura is so taken up with these +dreadful athletics that she cares nothing for the +things which used to interest me when I was a +girl. She really doesn’t like to pour tea for me +Wednesday afternoons.”</p> +<p>“I admit it,” said Laura, <em>sotto voce</em>.</p> +<p>“Do you blame her?” added Chet, grumblingly.</p> +<p>“Thank goodness! I was brought up differently,” +declared Mrs. Belding, sternly. “We +girls were not allowed to do such awful things-even +in private—as you do, Laura, in your gymnasium——”</p> +<p>“Hear! hear!” cried Father Belding, finally +rapping on the table with the handle of his knife. +“I must say a word here. Mother, you are too +hard on the young folks.”</p> +<p>“No I am not, James,” said the good lady, +bridling.</p> +<p>“You force me to say something that may +hurt your feelings; but I believe you have forgotten +it. You complain of Laura’s athletics +and gymnasium work. Don’t you see that it is +an escape valve for the overflow of animal +spirits that the girls of our generation, Mother, +missed?”</p> +<p>“I deny that the girls of <em>my</em> day possessed +such ‘animal spirits,’ as you call them,” declared +Mrs. Belding, vehemently.</p> +<p>“You force me,” said Mr. Belding, gravely, +yet with a twinkle in his eyes, “to prove my +case. Children! did I ever tell you about the +first view I had of your dear mother?”</p> +<p>“No, Pop! Tell us,” urged Chet, who kept +on eating despite his interest in the discussion.</p> +<p>“Mr. Belding!” gasped his wife, suddenly. +“What are you——”</p> +<p>“Sorry, my dear; you force me to it,” said +her husband, with continued gravity. “But the +first sight I ever had of your mother, children, +was when she was six or seven years old. I +was working for old Mr. Cummings, whose business +I finally bought out, and I came to your +mother’s house on an errand.”</p> +<p>“James!” cried Mrs. Belding. “I cannot +allow you to tell that foolish thing. It—it is +disgraceful.”</p> +<p>“It is indeed,” admitted her husband, nodding. +“But if you and your school girl friends +had been as much devoted to athletics as Laura +and her little friends, I doubt if you would have +needed the front stairs bannisters as an escape +valve for your animal spirits.</p> +<p>“For, children,” added Mr. Belding, as his +wife, her face very rosy, got up to come around +the table to him, “my first view of your mother +was her coming down stairs at express train +speed, a-straddle of the bannisters!”</p> +<p>Mrs. Belding reached him then, and any +further particulars of this “disgraceful” story, +were smothered promptly. But Laura and Chet +enjoyed immensely the fact that—once upon a +time, at least—there had been some little element +of tomboyishness in their mother’s character.</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-xximargits-mystery"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id21">CHAPTER XXI—MARGIT’S MYSTERY</a></h2> +<p>To the amazement of the girls of Central +High—particularly those seven who had been on +the early Spring tramp to Fielding and had first +seen the Gypsy girl when she ran away from +Queen Grace Varey and the other Romany folk—Margit +Salgo, as she called herself, appeared +suddenly in the class rooms of the school. And, +to complete their bewilderment, she appeared as +the attendant of Miss Carrington!</p> +<p>Margit spoke little to any of the other girls. +She came to Eve and Bobby and told them how +she had been made to leave the farmhouse by the +Vareys, who had come after her in the night; but +how she had finally got away from them, and +her connection with Miss Carrington, she would +not explain, although Bobby was very curious.</p> +<p>“Well, doesn’t that beat all!” ejaculated +Bobby, to Eve Sitz. “And we thought we +might be able to help Margit. She seems to +have helped herself, all right.”</p> +<p>“I am glad, if she is now in good hands; but +I do not understand it,” rejoined Eve.</p> +<p>“Say! there can’t be any mistake about her +wanting to get to Miss Carrington before. Now +she’s got to Gee Gee, all right. Guess there’s +nothing to be said by outside parties, eh?”</p> +<p>“Well, we can wonder—eh?”</p> +<p>“Oh, there’s no law against it. Take it out +in wondering. You can be sure that Gee Gee +will be as mum as an oyster.”</p> +<p>“But where is Queen Grace—and the +others?” added Eve.</p> +<p>“That’s so,” Bobby returned. “If Miss Carrington +hasn’t settled with the Romanies and +given them what they wanted, you can make sure +that they will take a hand in the matter again.”</p> +<p>Margit, however, seemed to have cut loose +from the Gypsies altogether. When she appeared +at Central High with the teacher she was +dressed like any other girl coming from a well-to-do +home. Her Gypsy garb had been discarded.</p> +<p>Margit sat by herself and she had special lessons. +She did not recite with the other girls, +nor did she have much to say to any of them, +save to Eve and Bobby. Even Mother Wit was +not very successful in scraping an acquaintance +with the Austro-Hungarian.</p> +<p>Indeed, when one of the girls tried to talk +with her, Margit answered in German; or, if +the girl was taking German and could understand +the spoken language pretty well, Margit +used the outlandish dialect of the Romany folk, +and that settled it.</p> +<p>Either she did not wish to make acquaintances, +or she had been warned by Miss Carrington not +to satisfy the curiosity of the girls of Central +High about herself.</p> +<p>Of course nobody dared to question Gee Gee. +If Mr. Sharp understood the reason for the new +girl’s presence he gave no sign—ignored her +entirely, in fact. So the girls were vastly excited +about Margit Salgo, her presence at Central +High, where she came from, and—particularly—what +relationship she bore to Gee Gee.</p> +<p>One day the teacher was particularly short-tempered +and found reason for taking Bobby +Hargrew to task over some trivial fault.</p> +<p>“I am amazed, Miss Hargrew, that so light-minded +a girl as you ever won your way into the +M. O. R. chapter. I do not see, Miss, but that +you are just as mischievous as ever. Neither +time nor place changes you.”</p> +<p>She said it very spitefully, and some of the +other girls laughed. But suddenly Margit +popped up and said something vigorously in +German—speaking so quickly that the other girls +did not understand her; but Gee Gee evidently +understood.</p> +<p>Her face flamed and she glared at the Gypsy +girl in a way that would have quelled any other +in the room. But Margit did not wither under +her glance. She stared back, her head up and +shoulders squared; and it was plain by her attitude +that she defied Gee Gee.</p> +<p>Bobby was as amazed as the others. Margit +had taken her part against the teacher. And for +the moment it seemed as though there would be +a serious breach between Gee Gee and her protégé.</p> +<p>However, the incident effectually called Gee +Gee’s attention away from Bobby, and the latter +heard nothing more of <em>her</em> fault. But it seemed +that the connection between the teacher and Margit +Salgo was not founded upon <em>love</em>. There +was some other reason than affection that made +Gee Gee care for the half-wild Gypsy girl. Some +of the others whispered that Gee Gee must have +done some awful thing, and Margit knew it and +so held the teacher in her power. But that, of +course, was a silly explanation of the mystery.</p> +<p>It was plain, too, that the teacher would not +let Margit out of her sight on the street. They +came and went to school together, walking side +by side. At the place where Miss Carrington +had boarded so long, nobody ever saw Margit +in the yard, but Miss Carrington was with her.</p> +<p>One might have thought the girl a prisoner.</p> +<p>Bobby was hurrying over to Laura’s house +with her books, one morning, wishing for a little +help in one of the problems to be discussed that +day, and she started through the grounds surrounding +the Widow Boyce’s house, from the +back street.</p> +<p>Suddenly she saw a man crouching in the +shrubbery. Weeks before she had seen a man +spying about the house, and believed him to be +one of the Gypsies. Now Bobby halted and +spied on the Peeping Tom himself.</p> +<p>In a moment she saw that it was the man with +the gold rings in his ears whom Eve had told her +was Jim Varey, the husband of the Gypsy Queen. +He was lurking there for no good purpose, that +was sure.</p> +<p>Having carried Margit off from Farmer Sitz’s +house in the middle of the night, the Gypsies +would doubtless attempt to steal the girl away +from Gee Gee, as well. The school teacher had +evidently not settled with the Romany folk. +They had not yet got money through the girl, as +Margit had said they hoped to do.</p> +<p>Bobby turned back toward the street, +intending to look for a policeman, or for some neighbor; +but as she did so she heard wheels grating +against the curb, and there stood a covered +wagon, with two sleek horses attached, and another +Gypsy man driving them.</p> +<p>The man on the seat of the wagon whistled, +and Jim Varey raised his hand as a signal. Then +the latter darted around the corner of the house +toward the front.</p> +<p>These manœuvers were only too plain to +Bobby. There was not time to look for a policeman—and, +in any case, an officer was hard to +find in the Hill section of Centerport.</p> +<p>Bobby ran along the hedge, stooping so as not +to be seen by the man on the wagon seat, and +came around to the front of the house from +the direction opposite that which Jim Varey had +taken.</p> +<p>Just as she reached the front porch there was +a wild scream from Miss Carrington, and Bobby +saw the man leap from the far end of the porch +with Margit in his arms.</p> +<p>Margit did not scream; she only beat the man +about the head and—perhaps—left the marks +of her nails in his dark face.</p> +<p>It was plain that she was being carried away +from Gee Gee against her will. She had no desire +to go back to the Gypsies.</p> +<p>Now, Miss Carrington could not run. She +had been brought up in no athletic school, that +was sure. She followed the kidnapper clumsily +enough, and he would have gotten well away in +the covered wagon with the girl, had it remained +to Gee Gee to intervene.</p> +<p>But Bobby screamed, dropped her books, and +went at the fellow as though she were playing +football. She “tackled low,” seizing with both +arms about the knees, and Jim Varey, screeching +and threatening, fell forward on the sward—and +Margit escaped from his arms.</p> +<p>“Oh!” gasped the girl.</p> +<p>“Quick! get into the house!” cried Bobby, +bounding to her feet.</p> +<p>Margit whisked past her, and past Miss Carrington, +and fled indoors as she was advised. +Jim Varey leaped up and confronted the little +girl who had overturned him. His fists were +clenched and he gabbled in the Romany tongue +a string of what were evidently threats and vituperation.</p> +<p>“Now, it isn’t me you want to carry off,” +said Bobby, bravely. “I wouldn’t be any good +to you. Get away, now, for I see Mr. Sharp +coming down the street.”</p> +<p>Which was true enough—although the school +principal was still a long way off. Jim Varey +seemed to see the wisdom of the girl’s remarks, +however, for he turned and fled.</p> +<p>The next minute they heard the heavy wagon +being driven furiously away from the garden +gate, and Bobby turned to find Gee Gee, sitting +very faint and white, upon the porch steps.</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-xxiilou-potter-scores-one"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id22">CHAPTER XXII—LOU POTTER SCORES ONE</a></h2> +<p>“Has he gone?” gasped Gee Gee, weakly.</p> +<p>“They’ve driven off, Miss Carrington. Margit +is in no danger now,” said Bobby, eyeing the +teacher curiously.</p> +<p>“You—you know about it, too, do you?” murmured +the teacher.</p> +<p>“I guess I know something about it,” replied +Bobby, promptly. “We girls saw Margit up +there in the hills when she ran away from the +Gypsies the first time. And I was over to Eve +Sitz’s the night the Vareys stole Margit away +again. I’d see the police if I were you, Miss +Carrington.”</p> +<p>“The police—yes!” returned the lady. “It +will all have to be dragged into publicity, +I suppose.”</p> +<p>Bobby didn’t know what to say, for she did +not understand Gee Gee’s present character, anyway! +Nobody before had ever seen Miss Grace +Gee Carrington so disturbed in her mind.</p> +<p>Bobby saw the front door open again, and +Margit appeared on the porch.</p> +<p>“Come in! Come in! It’s all right now,” +said the Gypsy girl. “There is nothing to fear +from them now—— Ah! who is this?”</p> +<p>Bobby turned quickly and saw a little, stooped +old man, turning in at the gate. Miss Carrington +saw him, too, and she came to her feet in a +moment. The color came back into her face and +she began to look very grim again—more like +her usual self.</p> +<p>“Morning! morning!” cackled the old gentleman, +nodding at the school teacher, but looking +hard at Bobby. And the latter recognized him +as Eben Chumley, a queer, miserly old man who +owned a great deal of property on the Hill.</p> +<p>“Good morning, Mr. Chumley,” said Miss +Carrington, quietly.</p> +<p>“Now, don’t tell me <em>this</em> is the gal,” said Mr. +Chumley, pointing a long finger at Bobby. “For +that’s Tom Hargrew’s young ’un—I know her +well enough.”</p> +<p>“<em>This</em> is the girl I wish you to see and talk +with, Mr. Chumley,” said Miss Carrington, +beckoning Margit forward. Then she added, +in her severest tone: “Miss Hargrew! you are +excused.”</p> +<p>“Well, the mean cat!” muttered Bobby, as +she went out of the yard. “I had no intention +of listening to their private affairs. But she +might at least have thanked me for tumbling +over that Gypsy.”</p> +<p>Margit came to her, however, that morning, +and thanked her warmly.</p> +<p>“You’re a brave girl, Miss Hargrew,” she +said. “And I think that Jim Varey will let me +alone hereafter. At least, he had better keep his +distance.”</p> +<p>And so it seemed, for thereafter, when Miss +Carrington and her charge walked to and from +school, a policeman strolled behind them. The +girls—especially those of the junior class, +however—were almost eaten up with curiosity.</p> +<p>Luckily, as June approached, they had something +else to think about out of regular recitation +hours. The rivalry on the athletic field became +very keen indeed. Mrs. Case did her best +to impress upon the girls’ minds that a spirit of +rivalry between classes would perhaps injure the +chances of the school at large at the final meet.</p> +<p>“Loyalty to Central High!” was her battle +cry. But all of the girls—especially a certain +portion of the seniors—forgot the “good of the +greater number” in the petty class differences.</p> +<p>Lou Potter, the senior, was backed strongly +for first place in putting the shot and for the +broad jump. Nobody but Mrs. Case, indeed, +knew just how Lou and Eve Sitz stood in those +two events.</p> +<p>The Saturday afternoon came when Mrs. Case +was to try out the girls with the highest scores +in the various events to be featured on the Big +Day. Relay teams from each class had been +gradually made up, and now these were to compete +for the honor of representing Central High +at the meet.</p> +<p>The Junior Four was made up of Laura Belding, +Jess Morse, and Dora and Dorothy Lockwood, +with Bobby Hargrew as substitute. +They were not only all fast, but they were quick-witted. +A relay race isn’t altogether won with +one’s feet.</p> +<p>The seniors averaged taller girls, and heavier. +The sophomores were nearer the weight and size +of Laura and her mates; and of course, it was +scarcely to be expected that the freshman four +would stand a chance at all.</p> +<p>When the three heats were run off, however, +the freshmen proved better than the seniors once, +and surpassed the sophomores in two of the +heats. The juniors won all three heats in fast +time.</p> +<p>“Those squabs are coming on to be jimdandies!” +declared Bobby, enthusiastically. +“They’re going to be just such another class in +athletics as ours.”</p> +<p>“And of course,” remarked Lou Potter, who +overheard her, “the junior class of Central High +is just the most wonderful crowd of girls that +was ever brought together.”</p> +<p>“Now you’ve said it,” admitted Bobby, with +satisfaction. “But I never did expect to hear +a senior say that about us!”</p> +<p>Mrs. Case came over and her presence halted +further bickering. But the rivalry of the two +upper classes rankled.</p> +<p>Bobby took the hundred-yard dash from all +competitors. Later she easily beat all the other +entries in the quarter-mile race.</p> +<p>Interest centered after that in the broad jump +and the shot-putting contest. Eve was in her +usual good form and equalled, in her three trials, +her best previous record. Just what that record +had been the girls as a body did not know; but +on this occasion the distance was made public. +Eve had bested all competitors by a full inch +and a half. Her nearest rival was Lou Potter.</p> +<p>“Favoritism!” was the cry among the seniors, +but they were very careful not to allow their +physical instructor hear it.</p> +<p>In truth, Mrs. Case, as she always had been, +was opposed to inter-class trials on the field or +track. It lowered the standard of loyalty to the +school as a whole, and was frequently the cause +of bickerings and heart-burnings, as in this present +case.</p> +<p>But she was bound by the rules of a committee +in which she had but one vote. She was glad to +learn, however, that other instructors in other +schools were having the same trouble. The +Girls’ Branch Athletic League is truly against +rivalry between classes of the same school.</p> +<p>In putting the shot the same unfortunate feeling +arose between backers of Lou Potter and +Evangeline Sitz. Eve carried the day; she put +the twelve-pound shot far ahead of her rival. +But the seniors were not satisfied. Their class +would make a poor showing indeed at the meet.</p> +<p>“I’d just like to get square with that Swiss +doll!” exclaimed Lou Potter, as she turned out +of the gate of the athletic field, after it was all +over and Mrs. Case had announced who would +be the representatives of the school in each department +of athletics, at the June meet.</p> +<p>“She is a foreigner, anyway. Laura Belding +got her to come to this school. She’d much better +have gone to Keyport, where she belongs,” +cried one of Lou’s classmates.</p> +<p>They could not see that Eve’s presence at +Central High was likely to give the school at +least two points in athletics; that Keyport might +have won had the country girl attended the Keyport +High, as she had first intended.</p> +<p>“There she goes now—aiming for the railroad +station,” said Lou Potter. “I wish something +would keep her from getting to the field +on the day of the meet.”</p> +<p>It was this mean thought in her mind, perhaps, +that made Miss Potter notice Eve particularly +as she followed behind the country girl. +Lou’s friends separated from her, but her way +led toward the railroad station, too.</p> +<p>And before that was reached Miss Potter suddenly +became aware of the fact that a woman +and a man were following Eve Sitz.</p> +<p>She saw them first standing at a corner, and +whispering, and pointing after Eve. They were +dark-faced people, foreign-looking, and the man +wore hoops of gold in his ears.</p> +<p>“There are a lot of those Gypsies around this +Spring,” was Lou’s first thought. “Hullo! +those people are watching that Sitz girl.”</p> +<p>She became curious, as she saw the Gypsies dog +Eve’s footsteps for block after block. +Whether they wished to speak to the big girl, or +were just watching her, Lou could not tell.</p> +<p>She was a bold girl herself, and not at all +afraid of the Romany folk. When Eve +disappeared into the railroad station and the man and +woman remained outside, Lou walked up to +them.</p> +<p>“What are you following that girl for?” she +asked, and when Queen Grace and her husband +would have denied it, Lou made her reason for +asking plain.</p> +<p>“If you don’t like her, neither do I. I’d like +to have her out of the way for at least one +day—one day next week,” and she named the day +of the Athletic Meet.</p> +<p>“This is a plot to trap us,” growled Jim +Varey to his wife.</p> +<p>But the Gypsy Queen was, as we have seen, +a very shrewd student of human nature. She +could see just how bad a heart Lou Potter had. +Queen Grace possessed no occult power. No +so-called fortune-teller has. They are all wicked +people, and liars. But she had long made a +study of the worst side of human nature.</p> +<p>She saw that Lou Potter was ripe for mischief. +She talked to her softly and insinuatingly, +putting Jim out of the way. Then she +agreed to meet the senior again and learn just +what she wished done to Eve Sitz.</p> +<p>For the Gypsy Queen saw a chance to make +a few dollars and, as Margit Salgo had said, +the woman was very avaricious. She and her +husband had been following Eve idly enough. +They dared not approach Margit while she was +under the protection of Miss Carrington and the +police; but they laid to Eve a part of the blame +for the Gypsy girl’s escape from their hands before +they had made any money out of her.</p> +<p>Lou Potter went away from her conference +with the Gypsies very much delighted.</p> +<p>“I guess we’ll show them that the seniors +have something to say about athletics at Central +High,” she muttered, over and over again. “I +reckon I’ve scored one on Miss Eve Sitz, too!”</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-xxiiithe-field-day"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id23">CHAPTER XXIII—THE FIELD DAY</a></h2> +<p>There was a tall, gaunt, gray man who came +to the Widow Boyce’s to see Miss Carrington on +certain occasions. He always carried a blue +bag, stuffed with papers and books, and it was +well known by the neighbors that he was Miss +Carrington’s lawyer.</p> +<p>There was nothing suggestive of romance +about Aaron MacCullough; but like all old attorneys +he had dabbled in many, many romances. +There were a score of old families of Centerport +who had entrusted their cupboard secrets to Mr. +MacCullough.</p> +<p>He came in one evening, with his blue bag, +and sat down in Gee Gee’s sitting room. The +Central High teacher was quite as dry in appearance, +and as grim as the lawyer himself. She +sat on one side of the table, and he on the other, +and the papers which he first examined and read +aloud he passed to her, and she scrutinized them +through her spectacles.</p> +<p>“So,” she said, at length, “these correspondents +of yours in Buda-Pesth seem to know all +about Salgo’s affairs, do they?”</p> +<p>“It is notorious, Miss Carrington,” said the +old man, nodding. “There can be no mistake. +Belas Salgo was a strange man. All geniuses, +perhaps, are strange——”</p> +<p>“He was a wicked foreigner!” declared Miss +Carrington, sharply.</p> +<p>“Wicked in your eyes, perhaps. He married +and carried away with him your dearest friend.”</p> +<p>“My cousin Anne—yes,” said she, slowly. +“She had been in my care. She was musical. +She went mad over the man—and he no better +than a Gypsy.”</p> +<p>“Gypsy blood he confessed to—yes,” said the +lawyer, shaking his head. “But he could make +wonderful music. I remember hearing him once +in this very town.”</p> +<p>“Oh, he charmed everybody—but me,” said +Miss Carrington, vigorously. “And he would +have charmed me, perhaps, with his fiddle if +Anne had not gone mad over him. I knew how +it would be for her—misery and trouble!”</p> +<p>“We do not know that,” said the old gentleman, +shaking his head. “Her few years with +Belas Salgo were happy enough, by all account.”</p> +<p>“But she never wrote to me!” cried the Central +High teacher.</p> +<p>“Nor she never wrote to her father’s partner, +Mr. Chumley. Eben Chumley, by the way, +is for denying the identity of this girl, Margit?”</p> +<p>“Well! so was I,” admitted Miss Carrington. +“Though heaven knows it was for another reason! +I did not think poor Anne would have had +a daughter and never written me a word about +it.”</p> +<p>“Ahem!” said Mr. MacCullough, clearing his +throat significantly, “your last word to her, I +understand, was a harsh one?”</p> +<p>“Ah! But I never meant it. She must have +known I never meant it,” exclaimed Miss Carrington, +her voice trembling.</p> +<p>The old lawyer shook his head. “We never +do mean the harsh words,” he murmured.</p> +<p>“However,” he added, after a moment’s silence. +“The fact remains that this girl, Margit +Salgo, is assuredly the daughter of Belas +Salgo and Anne Carrington. The money—what +there was of it—left in the hands of Eben +Chumley by his partner, Anne’s father, belongs +to the child, and Eben must be made to disgorge.”</p> +<p>“It will hurt Chumley dreadfully to give up +the money,” said Gee Gee, quickly. “How +much is there?”</p> +<p>“Less than a thousand dollars. You know, +Chumley & Carrington were in the real estate +business in only a small way, back in those days. +With interest, and all, it will be but a modest +fortune.”</p> +<p>“I suppose those Gypsies thought the child +was a great heiress,” said the teacher.</p> +<p>“That is probable. They undoubtedly think +so now. It is my advice that you allow me to +go to the police and explain the matter fully. +Let them gather in this Jim Varey, and the +others, and tell them just how little the sum is +that is coming to Margit Salgo. It is about +enough for her education—and that’s all.”</p> +<p>Miss Carrington nodded. “Nevertheless,” +she said, with finality, “she is Cousin Anne’s +child. I shall make her education and future +keeping my affair. I have not worked, and +taught, all these years for nothing, Mr. MacCullough.”</p> +<p>“Quite true—quite true,” admitted the old +man, briskly. “And if you wish to adopt the +girl——”</p> +<p>“I intend to do so,” announced Gee Gee.</p> +<p>“Then there is nobody to gainsay you, I am +certain,” declared the lawyer, rising. “I congratulate +the child upon falling in with so good +a guardian, Miss Carrington. And—perhaps—you +are to be congratulated, too,” he added to +himself as he left her sitting grimly by the table.</p> +<p>For more than Lawyer MacCullough noted the +change that was gradually coming over the martinet +teacher of Central High. Whether it was +the influence of Margit’s presence, or not, it was +true that Miss Carrington was not half so harsh +as she used to be.</p> +<p>“Change of heart—she’s sure to die, I’m +afraid,” announced Bobby Hargrew, one day, +when Gee Gee had failed to seize the opportunity +to berate that young lady for a certain fault.</p> +<p>But later, Miss Carrington put herself out to +speak to Bobby on the street, and upon matters +not connected with the school work.</p> +<p>“Clara, I never properly thanked you for taking +my ward’s part the other morning when that +dreadful man attacked her,” said Miss Carrington, +quietly. “But I am grateful, nevertheless.”</p> +<p>“Your ward!” gasped Bobby, her curiosity +and wonder passing all bounds of politeness. +“Oh, Miss Carrington! is she really related to +you?”</p> +<p>“Margit? Not in the least—at least, no relation +that the law would allow. For that reason +I propose to adopt her. She will be known as +Margaret Carrington—and I hope, Miss Clara, +that you and the other girls of Central High +will be kind to her.”</p> +<p>Bobby smiled. “I think Margit will take care +of herself, Miss Carrington, if we don’t treat +her right. But I know all the girls will be glad +to have her join.”</p> +<p>“Thank you. She is foreign to your ways, +as yet,” pursued the teacher, a little doubtfully. +“From what she says, she is much interested in +Mrs. Case’s classes—in the physical culture +classes, and the like. I—I expect you will introduce +her at the gymnasium, Miss Clara?”</p> +<p>“Of course!” exclaimed Bobby, half stunned. +“Why—why Margit’s the surest-footed girl I +ever saw. You ought to see her running that +day along the top of the stone wall!”</p> +<p>“Er—I presume that such unseemly conduct +will not be necessary if Margaret becomes a +votary of athletics as taught the young ladies +of Central High,” returned Miss Carringtan, +stiffly.</p> +<p>“Just the same,” Bobby said, in talking over +the matter with Laura and the rest of the girls, +afterwards, “just the same, Margit Salgo will be +a splendid addition to our fighting force some +day. Why, she’s got biceps like a boy, and she +says she can swim, and skate, and ride. We’re +going to have another A-1 champion for Central +High in Margit Salgo some day!”</p> +<p>It must be confessed that, about this time, +many of the Central High girls gave more +thought to athletic matters than they did to their +lessons. Still, the unbending rule that only +those who kept up with their studies would have +a part in the after-hour athletic contests was a +solvent for any serious trouble.</p> +<p>The day of the meet was at hand. The athletic +teams of the five high schools—three of +Centerport and one each from Lumberport and +Keyport—were to meet on the Central High +field. There were several important trophies, as +well as the usual league pins for the winners, +and interest in the field day—not alone among +the girls themselves—ran high.</p> +<p>Laura Belding and her mates had figured out +very carefully just what events Central High +was sure to win, and how many of the “uncertain” +points were needed to clinch the championship.</p> +<p>They felt sure of the hundred-yard dash; as +far as they could learn no girl in any of the five +schools had developed the speed of Bobby Hargrew +over that short course.</p> +<p>The two hundred and twenty-yard dash and +the quarter-mile run were doubtful, despite +Bobby’s splendid showing in the latter. The +hurdle races were doubtful, too, as well as the +shuttle and potato relays.</p> +<p>In the high and broad jumps, as well as the +shot-putting, there was serious doubt. The best +Laura could figure, Central High would go into +the contest needing four points more than they +were <em>sure</em> of winning.</p> +<p>Those four points might be supplied by Bobby +in the quarter-mile run, one of the chief events +of the day, and Eve Sitz in the broad jump and +putting the shot.</p> +<p>“You girls have got to do your very best—don’t +forget that!” Laura told them, as they +separated the night before the meet. “Central +High just about leans her whole weight on you.”</p> +<p>It was on Friday and the whole school was +excused at noon; but those taking part in the +events of the day were not obliged to report +until one o’clock—and then only to the committee +at the gymnasium building.</p> +<p>The crowds from Lumberport and from Keyport +came in chartered steamers. They marched +into the field just before one o’clock, and the +classes from the East and West Highs followed +them a few minutes later. The girls in their +light dresses, and with the flags fluttering, were +a pretty sight.</p> +<p>Of course, the grandstand was rapidly filling +with adult spectators, and with the boys, when +the girls of Central High came in. There was +some marching and counter-marching, before all +were seated. Already some of the girls, in their +gymnasium clothes, began to appear on the +courts for warming-up practice.</p> +<p>Suddenly Bobby Hargrew burst into a knot of +Central High girls gathered around Mrs. Case, +on the main floor of the gym. building, and +fairly shouted:</p> +<p>“Where is she?”</p> +<p>“Where’s who?” asked Laura, curiously. +“Is this one of your jokes? Who are you looking +for?”</p> +<p>“Where’s Eve? Who’s seen Eve Sitz?” repeated +Bobby, anxiously.</p> +<p>“Why, I think you’ll find her around somewhere. +What’s the matter? Got to see her right +this moment, Bobby?”</p> +<p>Bobby’s tone of tragic despair stopped the +joking at last, however, as she cried:</p> +<p>“She’s not reported. She isn’t here. Nobody’s +seen her. She hasn’t come into town, as +far as I can find out. And certain sure she +hasn’t come into this building—and it’s one +o’clock now!”</p> +<p>“Why, Clara! what do you mean?” asked the +physical instructor of Central High. “It is not +possible that Evangeline Sitz would fail to appear +at such a time as this?”</p> +<p>“And with so much depending on her?” +shrieked Jess Morse. “Impossible!”</p> +<p>“Something has happened to her,” said +Laura, aghast.</p> +<p>“Has nobody seen her?” demanded Mrs. +Case.</p> +<p>Nobody had.</p> +<p>“I’ll run to father’s office and telephone,” suggested +Nellie Agnew. “They have a telephone +at the Sitz farm, haven’t they?”</p> +<p>“Of course,” rejoined Laura. “Do run, +Nell!”</p> +<p>The group, mostly made up of juniors, was +horror-stricken by the fact that one of the most +dependable of the girls was missing. But a +senior who stood near said, scoffingly:</p> +<p>“Oh, I guess that girl won’t be missed. We’ve +got Lou Potter to put right in her place—in both +the shot-put and the broad jump. And the +chance belonged to Lou, anyway. Now she’ll +get her rights, perhaps.”</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-xxivmargit-pays-a-debt"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id24">CHAPTER XXIV—MARGIT PAYS A DEBT</a></h2> +<p>“Did you hear what that girl said, Laura?” +demanded Bobby, in a whisper, clinging to the +arm of Mother Wit. “It sounded as though she +knew something about Eve’s absence.”</p> +<p>“No. Just jealousy,” returned Laura.</p> +<p>“I—don’t—know—— Here’s Nell!” exclaimed +the smaller girl, eagerly.</p> +<p>The doctor’s daughter ran up, very much +excited.</p> +<p>“Otto was on the ’phone,” she said. “He +says that Eve left for town in time to catch the +nine-twenty-seven. Why, she should have been +here two hours ago!”</p> +<p>“What do you suppose has happened?” +wailed Jess.</p> +<p>“I will see the committee at once,” said Mrs. +Case, quietly. “Of course, if Evangeline does +not report in time, we shall have to put in a +substitute.”</p> +<p>“Oh, Mrs. Case!” cried Bobby. “<em>Don’t</em> put +in that Lou Potter!”</p> +<p>“What, Clara? Is that your loyalty to Central +High?” demanded the athletic instructor, +sternly.</p> +<p>“Well, she’s been so mean——”</p> +<p>“But if she is the next best girl we have in +training, and Eve does not appear, would you +cripple Central High’s chances for a petty feud +like this?”</p> +<p>Mrs. Case spoke warmly and Bobby fell back +abashed. But all the juniors were amazed and +troubled by the emergency which had so suddenly +arisen.</p> +<p>The attitude of some seniors surprised Eve’s +friends, too. They were seen to gather in +groups, and giggle and whisper, and when the +troubled juniors passed these seniors made remarks +which suggested that they knew more +about Eve’s absence than her own friends.</p> +<p>Especially was Lou Potter in high feather +over something. She sneered at Laura Belding, +when the latter went about asking everybody if +they had seen or heard of Eve that morning.</p> +<p>Time approached for the early events of the +afternoon, and the relay teams were called out +for the first event. About that time Margit +Salgo, who had been moving about in the crowd +of Central High competitors, suddenly broke +away from a group, of whom Lou Potter was +the center, and ran hurriedly for the exit.</p> +<p>At the gate the ticket-taker had just allowed +Mr. and Mrs. Belding to enter and Margit saw +Chet—whom she now knew very well—beside +their automobile outside.</p> +<p>“Chetwood!” she gasped, running out to him. +“There has something happened that will make +Central High lose to-day—it is a plot—it is a +meanness——”</p> +<p>She broke into German, as she did when she +was excited, and Chet literally “threw up his +hands.”</p> +<p>“Hold your horses, Miss Margaret,” he +begged. “I can’t follow you when you talk like +that. My German’s lame in both feet, anyway—like +the son of Jonathan.”</p> +<p>“I do not know your Jonathan,” she cried, +when Chet, grinning, interrupted:</p> +<p>“You’re weak in your Scripture, then. But +what about it? What’s happened?”</p> +<p>“They have got Eve Sitz!” declared Margit, +tragically.</p> +<p>“Who’s got her?”</p> +<p>“I do not know for sure. I only suspect,” +declared the girl. “But quick! drive where I +shall say. We may be in time.”</p> +<p>“Do you mean to say that Eve hasn’t got here +yet?”</p> +<p>“I do.”</p> +<p>“Yet she’s already left home?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, indeed!”</p> +<p>“And she’s an important figure in to-day’s +events, I understand,” quoth Master Chet. +“You think you know where she is?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes!” cried Margit.</p> +<p>“Hop in, then. Tell me where to go, and +we’ll get there if a policeman doesn’t hold us up +on the way.”</p> +<p>Margit whispered in his ear. Chet looked +surprised; then nodded and helped her into the +seat beside him. In a minute they were out of +the crowd of other autos and were speeding down +Whiffle Street and into Market.</p> +<p>When they struck the main thoroughfare the +young fellow had to drive the car more circumspectly; +but he made such time that more than +one traffic officer held up a warning hand and +shook his head at them.</p> +<p>“Sure you know where you want to go, Margaret?” +Chet asked his companion once, as they +dodged around a truck and turned off into a long +and narrow side street where the class of +tenements on either hand were of the cheaper +quality.</p> +<p>“Yes,” nodded the girl. “I should know. +I was there myself.”</p> +<p>“Oh! that’s where the Gyps, have their encampment +in town?” exclaimed Chet.</p> +<p>“Yes.”</p> +<p>“And you think Eve has been caught by the +same people who held you?”</p> +<p>“Yes. I believe so.”</p> +<p>“Then take it from me, Margaret,” declared +Chet, decidedly, “a policeman goes into the +house with us. I don’t take any chances with +those people.”</p> +<p>She nodded again and a few moments later +she told him to stop before a certain number. +This was, indeed, a crowded and mean section of +the town.</p> +<p>“I thought Romany folk lived in the open air +and were bold and free—and all that?” said +Chet, in disgust, as he stopped the engine and +prepared to get out after removing certain plugs +so that the car could not be started during their +absence.</p> +<p>“In town they live like other poor people. +They camp in a cheap flat. But they would not +remain here long if they did not hope to get hold +of me,” replied Margit, quietly.</p> +<p>“Hullo! You’re running right into trouble, +perhaps,” said Chet, doubtfully.</p> +<p>“What if I am? That girl, Eve, was good +to me. And those other girls are my friends. +We will get her free so that she may get to the +athletic field in time. What?”</p> +<p>“I guess it <em>is</em> what,” admitted Chet, to himself.</p> +<p>Then he saw an officer and beckoned to the +man. A few words explained their need.</p> +<p>“Ha! I was told to keep an eye on those folk. +I know ’em,” said the policeman. “And this +is the girl who was with them before?” and he +stared curiously at Margit Salgo.</p> +<p>They went quickly into the house and up to +the floor that the girl remembered very well indeed. +She pointed out the door of the flat and +Chet rapped upon it. The officer kept in the +shadow.</p> +<p>The door opened a trifle, after the second +knock, and a voice whispered some word which +Chet could not understand. Instantly Margit +hissed a reply—it was in Romany.</p> +<p>The door opened a bit wider. Somebody inside +saw the girl; but Chet was seen, too.</p> +<p>“What did Ah tell ’ee?” demanded Jim +Varey’s gruff voice. “This is a business tae +bring trouble tae us, says I—and I was right.”</p> +<p>Before he had ceased speaking the policeman +sprang forward and with knee and shoulder +forced the door wide open. He had drawn his +club.</p> +<p>“Keep still—all you here! If you give me +trouble I’ll arrest all of you instead of this man +and his wife,” and he seized Jim by the shoulder.</p> +<p>“Where’s the girl?” cried Chet. “Eve! Eve +Sitz! Are you here?”</p> +<p>There was an answering cry from back in +some other room. Margit darted past the struggling +people in the kitchen and opened a door beyond.</p> +<p>“Here I am!” cried Eve Sitz.</p> +<p>The country girl was tied to a chair, but not +tightly enough to cramp her limbs. Nor had she +been really ill-treated.</p> +<p>“Run down,” said the officer to Chet, “and +blow this whistle. Tell my partner, when he +comes, to send for the wagon. We’ll give these +folks a ride.”</p> +<p>“Oh, but I must get to the field, Chetwood!” +cried Eve, in despair. “They told me Margit +was here and needed me, and I came right from +the train. I don’t know what it means——”</p> +<p>Chet had darted down the stairs and he soon +came back with the other policeman. The officers +agreed that the boy and two girls need not +accompany them to the station; the Gypsy Queen +and her husband, with the other Romany folk +at home in the flat, could be held until later in +the day for somebody to appear against them.</p> +<p>And that somebody was Miss Carrington’s +lawyer, Aaron MacCullough. Eve had no more +trouble with the Gypsies—nor did Margit. Mr. +MacCullough took the opportunity of showing +the roaming folk that they could make little out +of Margit or her friends, and then the Centerport +police warned them out of town.</p> +<p>Meanwhile Chet, with the two girls, got into +the automobile, and started back toward the Central +High athletic field. It was already two +o’clock, and on the program of the day the event +of the broad jump would be called in less than +half an hour!</p> +</div> +<div class="section" id="chapter-xxvthe-winning-points"> +<h2 class="title section-title level-2"><a class="toc-backref pginternal" href="#id25">CHAPTER XXV—THE WINNING POINTS</a></h2> +<p>That first relay race, in which the Junior Four +of Central High took part, passed like a night-mare +for Laura Belding and her companions. +Every one of them was worried about Eve’s +disappearance—so worried that they came perilously +near not doing their very best.</p> +<p>But the rooters for their school got off with a +splendid chorus when the girls came on the field, +and with all that enthusiasm Laura and her comrades +could not fail “to pull off some brilliant +running,” as Bobby slangily expressed it.</p> +<p>And they did so. The four won the point +for Central High, and next in line was the one +hundred-yard dash. Bobby, as fresh as a lark, +came to the scratch and prepared to do her very +best against the representatives from the four +other high schools. There was a girl from Lumberport +whom she had been told to look out +for. But Bobby proposed to “look out” for +nobody on this short dash. The girl who got +off in the best form was almost sure to win.</p> +<p>And that girl was Bobby. At the word she +shot away like an arrow, and a roar of approval +burst from the seats occupied by the boys of +Central High.</p> +<div class="align-center line-block"> +<div class="line">“C—e—n, Central High!</div> +<div class="line">C—e—n—t—r—a—l, Central High!</div> +<div class="line">C—e—n—t—r—a—l—h—i—g—h, Central High!</div> +<div class="line">Ziz—z—z—z——</div> +<div class="line">Boom!”</div> +</div> +<p>Bobby seemed to be fairly borne along on that +yell. She started ahead and she kept ahead. +Like a flash she went down the track and breasted +the tape quicker than it takes to tell it.</p> +<p>“Bobby Hargrew! She’s all right!” sang the +girls of Central High on the benches.</p> +<p>Then girls and boys joined in, and finally the +other schools added their cheers to the paean of +praise that sent Bobby back to the gym. building +with a delightful glow at her heart.</p> +<p>“Good for you, Bobs!” cried Jess, who stood +in the sun in her blanket coat. “That’s another +of the points we need. Why, we’re going to +wipe up the field with them.”</p> +<p>“But where’s Eve?” panted Bobby. “Has +anybody seen her?”</p> +<p>“No. She didn’t come. She’s left us in the +lurch——”</p> +<p>“Not intentionally, I am sure,” declared +Bobby, quickly.</p> +<p>“Well, Mrs. Case is going to put Lou in for +the broad jump if Eve doesn’t show up. And +that miserable senior is as perky about it as she +can be. There she is yonder, all ready for the +event, although it’s not due for an hour yet,” +added Jess.</p> +<p>The field was next cleared for folk dancing, +taking part in which were most of the freshman +and sophomore classes of all five schools. This +attracted the adult spectators more than it did +the girls themselves; the latter’s keenest interest +was centered in the all-absorbing athletic +events.</p> +<p>One of the juniors kept watch at the entrance +to the field, and sent in word now and then that +nothing had been heard or seen of Eve Sitz. +Laura and her other friends did not know that +Margit had gone away with Chet fielding to hunt +for the missing girl.</p> +<p>“If she doesn’t come pretty soon all will be +lost!” groaned Nellie Agnew as the field cleared +after the folk dancing.</p> +<p>“Maybe Lou can carry the points for us,” suggested +Dora Lockwood, doubtfully.</p> +<p>“Never in this world!” cried Bobby.</p> +<p>“Nor does Mrs. Case believe it. But it’s +the best she can do,” said Jess. “There! after +this event comes the broad jump.”</p> +<p>“See that nasty Lou Potter!” complained +Bobby. “She’s standing there, grinning just +like a Chessy-cat——”</p> +<p>“Hold on, Bobby, hold on!” exclaimed Nellie +Agnew, admonishingly. “Remember!”</p> +<p>“Remember what?” snapped Bobby.</p> +<p>“‘Loyalty to Central High!’ That’s the battle +cry.”</p> +<p>“And right Nell is, Bobs,” interposed Jess. +“We’ve got to give that girl the finest kind of a +send-off when she goes into the field. Hearten +her up! Never mind how mean we think her, +remember she represents Central High, and the +old school needs the points.”</p> +<p>“Quite true, girls,” said Laura. “When Lou +goes out to jump, pass the word to the boys to +give her an ovation.”</p> +<p>And just then there was some shouting at the +gate, the crowd opened, and a figure dashed +through wildly and made for the gym.</p> +<p>“It’s Eve! It’s Eve!” shouted Bobby, fairly +dancing up and down.</p> +<p>Margit Salgo was right behind the country +girl. She hurried with her to the dressing rooms, +and before the broad jump was called, Eve appeared, +cool, smiling, and quite like her usual +self.</p> +<p>“Mrs. Case! I protest!” declared Lou Potter, +standing before the physical instructor of +Central High, as Eve approached. “This is my +chance. I demand the right to make this jump.”</p> +<p>But the instructor only smiled and shook her +head.</p> +<p>“Evangeline is in plenty of time,” she said. +“You are merely a substitute, Miss Potter. Are +you ready, Eve? Then, take your place with +the other contestants. You are Number 3.”</p> +<p>News of Eve’s nick o’ time appearance had +been circulated by Chet Belding when he joined +the Central High boys. When it came the girl’s +turn to jump she received an ovation that startled +the echoes.</p> +<p>And Eve did not disappoint her friends. She +carried off the honors of the broad jump by two +inches over every other competitor, beating the +record established two years before.</p> +<p>Bobby did equally as well in the quarter-mile +race. That was a trial of greater endurance +than her winning dash, but she came along ahead +of all the other sprinters, and won by a clean +two yards.</p> +<p>Then Eve went into the field again and beat +the famous Magdeline Spink, of Lumberport, +putting the shot, by ten and a quarter inches—making +a remarkable score for Central High, and +establishing a record for following classes to attempt +to beat for some years to come.</p> +<p>Of course, the girls as a whole did not know +for sure that any of the seniors had had anything +to do with Eve’s being abducted to the +Varey flat; but because Lou Potter, and others, +had been so positive that Eve would not appear, +the juniors could not help feeling suspicious.</p> +<p>Had it not been for Laura Belding, ever the +peace-maker, friction might have resulted that +would have lasted through the remainder of the +term and spoiled the graduation exercises for +Central High that year.</p> +<p>“We can afford to let the matter rest as it +is,” said Mother Wit, to her junior class friends. +“Central High won—we got the winning points—and +we stand at the head of our school athletic +league. We can be satisfied with our score.</p> +<p>“As far as these seniors go—— Well, the bad +ones are not the entire class. And, anyway, +they will soon be graduated and we shall have +no more trouble from them. Let them be an +example to us——”</p> +<p>“An example!” cried the irrepressible Bobby. +“I guess you mean a horrible example.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps. At least, let us remember, when +we are seniors, not to do as they have done,” concluded +Mother Wit.</p> +<p>“If I’m any prophet,” said Jess. “We won’t +be like them.”</p> +<p>“Well, you are no prophet!” cried Bobby. +“And don’t talk to me any more about prophets +and fortune-tellers.”</p> +<p>“Oh-ho!” mocked Nellie. “Bobby no longer +believes in the Gypsy Queen!”</p> +<p>“I believe in nothing of the kind. I was a +dreadfully foolish girl to pay any attention to +that wicked woman. You see, she was wrong. +I got into no trouble this term with Gee Gee, +after all.”</p> +<p>But Bobby said nothing to her friends about +the greater fear that she had had for weeks—the +fear that her father might bring home a new +wife. She knew now that that had been merely +a spiteful guess of the Gypsy Queen, who knew +Mr. Hargrew’s circumstances, and thought it +safe to warn his daughter that he might marry +again.</p> +<p>“The wicked old witch—that’s what she is!” +thought Bobby. “Father Tom would never do +that. I am going to be his housekeeper as well +as his partner.” And nothing in the future +could ever make Bobby Hargrew doubt her father’s +word.</p> +<p>The girls of Central High—especially the +juniors—carried off greater honors after that +Field Day; but never did they win trophies that +gave them more satisfaction than these.</p> +<p>Eve was sure to make a name for herself in +the league in the future; and Bobby had developed +into quite a sprinter. Laura Belding +looked forward in the next year to developing +other girls into all-round athletes who would +win points for Central High.</p> +<p>And indeed, they all—girls and instructors +alike—looked forward to immense benefit as well +as pleasure to be derived from the future athletic +activities of the Girls of Central High.</p> +<p class="align-center">THE END</p> +</div> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Girls of Central High on Track and +Field, by Gertrude W. 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