THE ROUND ROBIN
The spectators, as well as the players, held their breath and watched
the flying ball. Although the whistle had blown, the goal--if the ball
settled into the basket--would count for the visiting team. This one
unfinished play would give the girls of Central High two clear points
in the lead if all went well.
The course of the flying ball was watched by all eyes, therefore. Chet
Belding and his mates began their chant, believing that the ball was
sure to go true to the basket.
But they began too soon. The ball hit the ring of the basket, hovered
a moment over it, and then fell back and rolled into the court! Chet's
chant of praise changed to a groan. The game was over--and it was a
tie.
Disappointed as the girls of Central High were, they cheered their
opponents nobly, and the East High girls cheered them. The audience
had to admit that the game had been keenly fought and--after Hester was
put out of it--as cleanly as a basketball game had ever been played on
those grounds.
Miss Lawrence, the referee, came to the Central High girls' dressing
room and complimented Laura and her team on their playing.
"I was sorry to put off your forward center, Miss Belding, in the
first half. If you had brought her into the field in the second half
your team, without doubt, would have won," said the referee. "That
girl is a splendid player, but she needs to learn to control her
temper."
"That's always the way!" cried Nellie Agnew, when the West High
instructor was gone. "Hester spoils everything."
"She crabs every game we play," growled Bobby, both sullen and slangy.
"She ought to be put off the team for good," said one of the twins.
"That's so," chimed in her sister.
"We'll never win this season if Hessie is included in this team,"
declared Jess Morse.
Even Lily Pendleton could find nothing to say now in favor of her
chum. She hurried away from the others girls, and the seven remaining
seriously discussed the situation. It was Nellie, despite her promise
to her father, who came out boldly and said:
"Let's put her off the team altogether."
"We can't do it," objected Laura.
"Ask Mrs. Case to do it, then," said Jess.
"But who'll ask her? Hester will be awfully mad," said Eve Sitz.
"I wouldn't want to be the one to do the asking," admitted the bold
Bobby.
The seven regular members of the basketball team were alone now.
Dorothy Lockwood said:
"I wouldn't want to be the one to sign a petition. But that is what we
ought to do--sign a petition to Mrs. Case asking her to remove Hester."
"What do you say, Mother Wit?" demanded Jess Morse of Laura.
"I vote for the petition," said Laura, gravely.
"And who'll sign it?" cried Dorothy.
"All of us."
"Not me first!" declared Dora.
"We'll make it a 'round robin,'" said Laura, smiling. "All seven of us
will sign in a circle, but nobody need take the lead in making the
request. If we are all agreed Jess can write the petition to Mrs.
Case."
"I'll do it!" declared Jess Morse.
With some corrections from her chum, Josephine finally prepared and
presented for their signatures the petition, and having read it the
girls, one after the other, signed her name in the manner Mother Wit
had suggested. The petition and Round Robin was as follows:
"We, the undersigned members of Basketball Team No. 1, of Central
High, Girls' Branch Athletic League, after due and ample discussion of
the facts, conclude that the retention of Hester Grimes as a member of
the said team is a detriment thereto, and that her membership will, in
the future, as in the past, cause the team to lose games in the Trophy
Series of Inter-School Games. We therefore ask that the aforesaid
Hester Grimes be removed from the team and that some other player be
nominated in her stead."
[Illustration: Josephine Morse, C. Hargrew, Dora Lockwood, Eve Sitz,
Nellie Agnew, Laura Belding, Dorothy Lockwood]
In signing the paper in this fashion no one girl could be accused of
leading in the demand for Hester's removal. Lily had gone, so that
nobody would tell Hester just what each girl said, or who signed
first. That Nellie Agnew had taken the lead in this petition against
her schoolmate the doctor's daughter herself knew, if nobody else did.
She felt a little conscience-stricken over it, too, for she had told
Daddy Doctor that she would be guided by his advice in the matter of
Hester Grimes.
And after supper that night her father said something that made Nellie
feel more than ever condemned.
"Do you know, Nell," he said, thoughtfully, pulling on his old black
pipe as she perched as usual on the broad arm of his chair. "Do you
know there is good stuff in that girl Hester?"
"In Hester Grimes?" asked Nellie, rather flutteringly.
"Yes. In Hester Grimes. I guess you didn't hear about it. And it
slipped my mind. But when I was over to see little Johnny Doyle again
to-day I found Hester there and the Doyles think she's about
right--especially Rufus."
"Rufus isn't just right in his mind--is he?" asked Nellie, her eyes
twinkling a little.
"I don't know. In some things Rufe is 'way above the average,"
chuckled her father. "He is cunning enough, sure enough! But to get
back to Hester. I never told you how she jumped into the sewer-basin
and saved Johnny's life?"
"No! Never!" gasped Nellie.
The physician told her the incident in full. He told her further that
Hester had done a deal, off and on, for the Widow Doyle and her
children.
"Oh, I wish I had known!" cried Nellie, in real contrition.
"What for?" demanded the doctor.
But she would not tell him. She knew that the petition had been mailed
to Mrs. Case that very evening. Her name was on it, and in her own
heart Nellie knew that she had had as much to do with the scheme to
put Hester Grimes off the basketball team as any girl.
"Perhaps, if the girls had known what Hester did for Johnny they
wouldn't have been so bitter against her," thought the doctor's
daughter. "I know _I_ would never have signed that hateful paper. Oh,
dear! why did Daddy Doctor have to find out that there was some good
in Hester, and tell _me_ about it?"