A DASTARDLY PLOT
In a moment all was excitement, confusion, panic. If Nan and Jo had not
acted quickly, probably the gymnasium would have gone up in smoke.
As it was they, with Miss Romaine, a score of teachers, the head
janitor and the other men about the place reached it in time to fight
the fire with hand grenades and, eventually, conquer it.
Taken at the start, the fire was not allowed to gain much headway. It
started in the north end of the gymnasium, insidiously crept along the
woodwork, reaching for the heavily beamed ceiling.
Streams of chemicals played hissingly upon the flames, beating them
down gradually but relentlessly. A great sigh of thankfulness greeted
the defeat of the last feeble, sullen flame.
The janitor picked up a lamp from the debris.
"This is what started it, ma'am," he said, turning to Miss Romaine.
"Some one must have been here with this thing lighted and then kicked
it over in his hurry to get out."
Miss Romaine glanced at the faces of the girls, some frightened, some
merely excited, and she suddenly assumed her air of authority.
"All the danger is over, girls," she said in a tone that did not permit
of argument. "Go back to bed and to sleep at once. I will have no
further discussion of this unpleasant happening to-night."
So it came about that the girls did not hear of the additional theft
of articles from the gymnasium and the boathouse until the following
morning.
Also Miss Romaine's sedan was gone. The thieves had left no trace
behind them except the broken lamp which had furnished a clue to the
cause of the fire in the gymnasium.
The students of Laurel Hall went about with very serious faces all that
day.
"This thing is going a little bit too far," they told each other
gloomily. "The thieves tried to burn the school down last night. Who
knows but what, next time, they may succeed!"
One timid girl even wanted to go home.
Meanwhile, the rivalry between Kate Speed and her followers and the
girls from Woodford and their friends became more intense.
Thwarted in every attempt to beat the three girl chums in honest sport,
Kate and Lottie resorted to dishonesty and nursed a plot that, if
discovered, would forever bar them from Laurel Hall.
These girls knew the danger, but were willing to take the chance of
possible discovery and disgrace for the sake of evening the score with
their enemies.
So it chanced that while the three chums were in class one day, Lottie
Sparks slipped into their room.
She possessed herself of some odd objects--a signet ring of Nan's that
she seldom wore, a handkerchief with Jo's name embroidered on it, a
letter addressed to Sadie which had been carelessly left on the table
by the latter.
Having secreted these things about her person, Lottie smiled to herself
and glided from the room.
That night a shadow stole down to Miss Romaine's office. Moonlight
streaming in at the window revealed the face and form of Lottie Sparks.
Lottie worked quickly but stealthily. She opened the drawers of Miss
Romaine's desk--always a model of neatness--and rummaged the papers
about until they were in complete disorder. Some of them she removed
and scattered over the floor.
Then she took the articles stolen from the chums' room and placed them
about the office so that they would appear to have been dropped by
accident and yet could not fail to be discovered.
After this she took an inkwell from one of the drawers of the desk and
deliberately turned it upside down in the center of Miss Romaine's
beautiful rug!
She overturned a chair, pulled one curtain from the rod, and was about
to muss up the place still further when she was arrested by a sudden
sound.
In alarm she shrank back into the shadows, her eyes fixed upon a
doorway in the far corner of the room.
The door opened, the figure of a man slipped through stealthily and
stopped in the position of a crouching animal.
Lottie waited for no more, but with quaking limbs she turned and fled.
Upstairs in her bed she cowered beneath the covers and waited,
shivering, for the dawn.
With morning came a terrible revelation for the girls of Laurel Hall.
Miss Romaine's office had been entered during the night. Her papers had
been scattered about. Some were lost, others ruined.
But this was by no means the worst. The office safe had been opened.
Valuable bonds had been taken, together with some other, practically
worthless, non-negotiable securities.
But the mysterious, the staggering thing was the fact that articles
belonging to the three girls from Woodford had been found among the
scattered papers on the floor--an envelope bearing the name of Sadie
Appleby, Nan's signet ring, Jo's handkerchief.
Strong evidence, one would say--and yet there was not a girl in Laurel
Hall, outside of Kate Speed's own crowd, who would believe one word
against the girls from Woodford!
"There's something more to this than meets the eye," said Jessie
Robinson, haranguing a group of students later in the day on the
campus. "I'll tell you, girls, it's a frame-up, and I'm willing to bet
anything I own that I know who's at the bottom of it, too."
"Just let us get our hands on them, that's all!" cried a chorus of
them. Kate Speed and Lottie Sparks, crossing the campus at that moment,
were made the target for a score of angry glances.
Kate tossed her head and walked on. But it might have been noticed that
Lottie slipped behind her friend, as though she were trying to hide
from the sight of her accusing schoolmates.
As a matter of fact, Lottie was in a panic. Terrified at the enormity
of the thing she had done--a twist of Fate had turned a girlish prank
into a criminal offense, punishable by law. She would have gone at
once to Miss Romaine and confessed, but Kate held her back.
"What do you want to do--get us all in trouble?" Kate demanded. "You
just sit tight and keep still. Those Woodford girls are going to get
what's coming to them! It's about time, too!"
And what of "those Woodford girls?" How were they taking this serious
charge against them?
For a time they were more stunned than anything else. The charge was
so outrageous that it seemed impossible to take it seriously. Yet they
were aware that it was serious enough. They were more than ever aware
of this when they received word from Miss Romaine, summoning them to
the office.
The summons was brought to them by Lily Darrow. The girl looked as pale
and sickly as ever, yet there was unusual determination in her step, in
the set of her mouth.
"I'm going with you," she told the girls as they left the room
together. "I asked Miss Romaine if I could stay in the office, and she
said I could. I may--" She paused, then added in a low voice: "I may
have something to tell her."
The girls glanced at her suspiciously. After all, although Lily Darrow
had always seemed friendly toward them, she was constantly seen with
Kate Speed. Probably her sympathies were with that side. Perhaps she
had come, at Kate's bidding, to add further "evidence" to the already
staggering amount against them.
They reached Miss Romaine's door. Jo pushed it open and they stepped
within the office.
Miss Romaine was at her desk, and as the girls entered she looked up at
them gravely. Before her, within reach of her fingers, were a signet
ring, a handkerchief and the envelope of a letter.
The girls looked dumbly at these things, then steadily met Miss
Romaine's glance as it rested upon each of them in turn.
"Have you girls any idea how these articles came to be in my office on
the night of the robbery?" she asked.
Before they could reply in their own defense, Lily Darrow stepped up to
the desk. Her eyes blazed black in her white face but her chin was held
high as she said, in a startlingly clear voice:
"I can tell you, Miss Jane. I know all about it!"