Fifth Form Justice
Easter was coming--Easter with its birds and flowers and hope of summer.
Already there were hints of plans for the holidays, though these had not
yet absolutely crystallised into shape. The mere mention of one of them
had been enough to send Merle dancing round the house, but, as she had
overheard by accident, and was strictly pledged not to reveal the secret
to Clive, for the present she restrained her ecstasies and kept her lips
sealed.
Meantime there was plenty to be done at school. The term-end examinations
were due, and Miss Mitchell, who had been rather disappointed with
Christmas results, was urging everybody to make heroic efforts. Mavis and
Merle had missed much on account of the mumps, and when they attempted
some revision they were absolutely appalled at the amount that had to be
made up. They did their most creditable best, and toiled over text-books
till heads ached. On the evening before the first examination they were
sitting in Dr. Ramsay's study giving a farewell grind to several rather
rusty subjects, when Clive walked in.
"Hello, kid! You're not allowed in here! We're working!" warned Merle.
Her young cousin grinned.
"I know! And you've got to stop it. I've been sent to tell you to shut
those books up at once!"
"Did Mother say so?"
"She did. She says you've done enough, and you'll only muddle yourselves
if you go on any longer."
"We shan't pass!" sighed Mavis.
"Yes, you will! Listen to the Oracle and he'll give you a tip or two. A
little bird told him, look up Keltic words in the English language, and
the life and works of William Cowper, and the products of Java and
Borneo!"
Merle giggled.
"How clever you are all of a sudden! What do you know about our exam
subjects?"
Clive winked solemnly, first with one eye and then with another.
"Perhaps I'm in communication with the occult!" he remarked. "Don't
people go to clairvoyants and crystal-gazers and astrologers when they
want to get tips about the future? I'm your wizard to-night."
"All right. Tell us our fortunes."
Clive reached over for the pack of Patience cards that Merle had left on
the table, and shuffled them elaborately.
"The wizard is now ready to wizz. I may mention that my fee is only a
guinea. You mustn't laugh or it might break the spell. Will you please to
choose a card, look at it, and put it back in the pack."
"O Fate! wangle me a decent fortune!" chuckled Merle, selecting at
random. It was the six of spades, and her cousin shook his head gravely.
"That's a bad omen, but wait a bit! Stick it back in the pack and we'll
see where it comes. Oh, this is better now-a dark woman is going to bring
you trouble, but a fair man will come to the rescue and help you out.
You're going amongst a number of people, but the general result will be
fortunate. I see a number of diamonds, which means that prizes are in
store for you."
"We don't have prizes at Easter! Is that all?"
"All that the cards tell me, but I'll do a little crystal-gazing if you
like!" and Clive seized a glass paperweight, and, staring intently at it,
pretended to throw himself into a state of abstraction.
"I see an examination-room!" he declared. "I see rows of desks, and girls
writing at them. There are lists of questions. I am peeping over their
shoulders, and they are puzzling about the products of Java and Borneo,
and the life and works of William Cowper, and the Keltic words in the
English language. You and Mavis are scribbling ahead for all you're
worth."
"A very pretty picture, I'm sure! Can't you tell us some more?"
"Alas! The crystal has grown milky."
"And it's your bedtime!" said Mavis. "I expect you were on your way
upstairs when you came in here. Confess!"
"There's no hurry. I'll stay and tell yours too if you like."
"No, thanks. This will do for both of us. Is Mother in the drawing-room?
Come along, Merle, we won't work any more to-night."
"Oh, I must just look up what was it?--the products of Java and Borneo,
and William Cowper, and Keltic words. There's luck in them! Just for five
minutes! Get off to bed, you kid, and leave me to work."
Rather reluctantly Mavis fell in with her sister's humour and reopened
her text-books.
"Clive's only fooling!" she remonstrated.
"I know; and so am I! Here we are--Keltic words in use in the English
language. You can squint over my shoulder if you like."
The five minutes lengthened out till Mrs. Ramsay came herself and put a
finish to the preparation.
"It's silly to overdo it. You'll only have headaches to-morrow and be
able to remember nothing. Come along to the drawing-room and sing to
Father."
"Yes, Mummie darling, I'm just strapping up my books. There, I'll leave
them here on the hall-table. I promise you I won't take them upstairs.
Hello! Here's my jersey! I was hunting for it everywhere after tea and
couldn't find it. It feels wet! How funny! Has anybody been out in it?"
"Give it to Alice and ask her to put it by the kitchen fire to dry.
Father wants to hear that Devon folksong you're learning. It will do you
good to have a little music after such hard brain-work."
Merle marched into school next morning joking about her fortune. She told
the girls what the oracle had said, and how she had ground up those
particular bits of information.
"I'm sporting enough to give you the tip!" she laughed.
"Clive was only making fun and ragging us!" qualified Mavis. "He's a
silly boy."
There was no time for any more last looks, however. The bell was ringing
for call-over, and all books must be put away. In the Fifth form room a
clean sheet of blotting-paper was laid upon every desk, and the inkwells
had been newly filled. Miss Mitchell dealt round typewritten sheets of
questions, and the agony began. The English Language and Literature paper
was not nearly so bad as Mavis and Merle had expected, and curiously
enough there were questions both on William Cowper and on Keltic words.
It was such a coincidence that Merle could not help looking at Mavis and
smiling. They were both well prepared, and wrote away at full speed,
almost enjoying themselves, and worked steadily till Miss Mitchell said,
"Pens down." After eleven o'clock came the examination on the text-book
geography, which had this term--owing to Miss Pollard's influence
--supplemented the lantern lectures on that subject. When she saw the
first question, "Describe the products of Java and Borneo," Merle gave
such an audible chuckle that many eyes were cast in her direction, and
Miss Mitchell glared a warning. Again Mavis and Merle found themselves
well prepared, and scribbled continuously till the bell rang.
"How did you get on?" said Merle to Muriel, as they walked downstairs
from their classroom. "I say! Wasn't it funny about my fortune? Why, we
had the exact questions! I never heard of anything so queer in my life!"
"Very queer!" answered Muriel, with restraint in her voice. She was
looking at Iva, who shrugged her shoulders significantly.
"Some people have all the luck!" remarked Sybil.
"Well, it was lucky, for it was pure guessing of Clive's."
"How did he know what exams you were going to have?"
"Oh, he's heard us talking about them, of course."
"I wish I had a cousin who could guess the questions beforehand."
"We'd all get Honours on those lines."
When Mavis and Merle returned to school after lunch, they each found a
little note laid upon their desks marked 'Urgent.'
You are requested to attend a most important meeting
to be held in the boarders' sitting-room at the hostel
immediately after four.
There was no signature, but the writing was Iva's. The Ramsays were much
mystified. As day-girls they had nothing to do with the hostel, and could
only go there by special invitation. When afternoon school was over they
asked some of the boarders the meaning of the missive. Nobody would
explain.
"You'll find out when you get there," was Nesta's cryptic reply.
Puzzled, and considerably distressed at a certain offensive attitude
exhibited by Sybil and others, Mavis and Merle walked across the garden
to the hostel. Iva had cleared all the younger girls out of the boarders'
sitting-room, and was waiting in company with Nesta, Muriel, Aubrey,
Edith, and Kitty. As soon as the Ramsays and Sybil came in, she closed
the door.
"I've called a general meeting of the Fifth," she said, "because there's
something we all feel we ought to go into. Would you like to elect some
one into the chair?"
"I beg to propose yourself," piped Aubrey.
"And I beg to second," said Nesta.
Iva settled herself and looked somewhat embarrassed, as if not knowing
quite how to begin. She fidgeted for a moment with her pencil, and
cleared her throat.
"We're all here," she said at last, "except Fay and Beata, who couldn't
stay. What we've met for is to ask Mavis and Merle to explain how it was
they got to know some of the examination questions beforehand. It seems
to us queer, to say the least of it!"
The Ramsays, overwhelmed with amazement at such a palpable insinuation,
turned wrathfully red.
"Why, we've told you! Clive guessed!" gasped Merle.
"Bunkum!"
"How could he?"
"Very convenient guessing, I'm sure!"
"It's no use telling us such utter fibs!"
"They're not fibs! How dare you say so!" flamed Merle.
"It's the absolute truth!" endorsed Mavis.
"Do you stick to that?"
"Of course we do."
"Then I shall have to call on Sybil to tell us something she saw
yesterday."
Sybil, who was red, nervous, and even more uncomfortable than Iva, rose
from her seat to make her accusation.
"I was in the garden yesterday after school, and I saw Merle come back,
hurry among the bushes, and climb in at the study window. I waited, and
presently she came out again and scooted off as if she didn't want to
meet anybody."
"O--o--oh! You _didn't_ see me! I wasn't there! Was I, Mavis?"
"Most certainly not. You were at home all the time. I can prove that!"
"I think the thing proves itself!" said Iva. "First of all, you're seen
by a witness entering the study, where, no doubt, the exam papers were
spread out on the table, and then you come to school primed with the
questions. There isn't a shadow of doubt."
"Wait a minute!" said Mavis, rising with a very white face. "To begin
with, you've got to prove that it was Merle. One witness isn't enough."
"Catie and Peggie saw her down the drive. They told me so."
"What time was it?"
"About five o'clock."
"She was practising at home then. I can bring witnesses to prove that.
Besides, if she had really seen the questions, do you think she'd have
been silly enough to tell them to you before the exam?"
The girls looked puzzled at that, but Nesta murmured that Merle was silly
enough for anything.
"As she's one of the monitresses, we thought we ought to give her a
chance to clear herself before we told Miss Mitchell," said Iva.
"She _can_ clear herself and she will. It's not fair to condemn her
like this. You must give her time to bring her own witnesses. I ask you
all, is it like Merle to do such a thing?"
"Well, no, it certainly isn't like either of you. That's what's surprised
us so much."
"You feel you can't be sure of anybody," added Aubrey.
The boarders' tea-gong, sounding at that moment, brought the meeting to
an unsatisfactory conclusion. The Ramsays hurried home, bubbling over
with indignation, to pour their woes into Mother's sympathetic ear, and
were highly put out to find the drawing-room full of callers, and to be
expected to hand tea-cups and make pleasant conversation instead of
retailing their grievances. They beat a retreat as soon as they possibly
could, and, for fear of being asked to play or sing for the benefit of
visitors, deemed it wise to escape into the garden.
"We'll sit in the summer-house, only I must have my jersey," declared
Merle, catching up the garment in question from its peg in the hall, and
pulling it on. "I want some place where I can explode. This is just the
beastliest thing that's ever happened to me in all my life."
"I can't understand it!" puzzled Mavis, with her forehead in wrinkles.
Merle was stumping along the path with her hands in the pockets of her
jersey.
"Why should they accuse _me_, of all people in the world, of
climbing in through the study window? Sybil must have been dreaming.
She's an idiot of a girl. She'd imagine anything from a ghost to a
burglar. What are we going to do about it? I wish to goodness they
_would_ tell Miss Mitchell! I'd rather she knew. I've a jolly good
mind to go and tell her myself. Then I should have first innings and
she'd hear our side of it. Hello! There's Clive."
It was that lively young gentleman who came walking along the garden wall
and took a flying leap on to the path, just avoiding one of Tom's best
flower-beds.
"There's a whole tribe of ladies in the drawing-room!" he volunteered. "I
carried my tea into the summer-house! You won't catch me 'doing the
polite' if I can help it. Rather not! Have you bunked too? I don't blame
you. You're looking down in the mouth, both of you! Exams gone wrong this
afternoon? Shall I tell your fortunes again?"
"Your precious fortune has got us into a great deal of trouble," answered
Merle. "How did you manage to guess those questions? They were actually
in our papers!"
Clive pulled his face into a variety of grimaces.
"Ah! Wouldn't you just like to know!" he retorted. "Perhaps I keep a
familiar spirit, or perhaps I read things in the stars. I prophesy you'll
fail in all the rest of your exams! There!"
"You young wretch!" cried Merle, chasing him down the path as he fled.
She took her hands from her pockets to catch hold of him, and as she did
so out flew a penknife on to the grass. Clive pounced upon it immediately
and picked it up.
"I've been looking for this everywhere!" he declared.
"How did it get inside my pocket?" asked Merle.
"_I_ never put it there!"
"Clive!" exclaimed Mavis, with a sudden flash of intuition. "Did you wear
Merle's jersey yesterday? I remember she found it wet. I verily believe
you dressed up in her clothes and went to school."
For answer Clive burst into fits of laughter.
"Oh, it was topping!" he hinnied. "I stuck on her skirt and jersey and
tam o' shanter and took in everybody. I walked down the street, and up
the drive to the school door, and prowled round the garden. There was a
window open, so in I went and found exam questions all over the table. I
thought I'd rag you about them!"
"You atrocious imp! Look here! You don't know what a scrape you've got us
into. You'll just have to own up and get us out of it again, that's all!"
Irresponsible Clive was full of thoughtless mischief, and it was a long
time before the girls could get him to see the serious side of his
escapade, and realise what an exceedingly grave charge had been brought
against their honour. In the end, by dint of scolding, entreaty,
coercion, and even bribery, they succeeded in persuading him to come
along with them to 'The Moorings,' where they asked for Miss Mitchell,
and told her the whole story.
"I'm extremely glad to know," she said, looking hard at Clive. "The fact
is I was deceived myself. He's very like you, Merle! I happened to see
him climbing out of the window, and I certainly thought I recognised you.
I've felt upset all day about it. I couldn't understand your doing such a
thing."
"Will you explain to the boarders, please! I hate them to think me a
sneak."
"I'll make that all right."
"And about those exam questions--Mavis and I wouldn't have dreamt of
looking them up beforehand, and I don't suppose we should have known
them. Wouldn't it be fairer just to cross them off in our papers and not
count them? We'd much rather you did."
"Yes, it's the only thing to be done."
Clive, much subdued, blurted out a kind of apology before he left, which
Miss Mitchell accepted with dignity. Perhaps she did not think it good
for him to forgive him too easily. His evil prophecies about the exams
were fortunately not fulfilled, for his cousins, though they did not
score brilliant successes, just managed to scrape through without any
failures.
The Fifth form, when they heard the true facts of the story, repented
their hasty court of justice and made handsome amends.
"It doesn't matter!" said Merle. "You were quite right if you thought
we'd been cheating. I should pull anybody else up myself, fast enough. It
must have been the acting we did at Christmas that put the idea into
Clive's idiotic young head. He was dressed up as a girl then, and rather
fancied himself. He really is the limit."
"We shall always be a little uncertain now which is you and which is your
cousin!" laughed Iva.
"Oh, he won't do it again! We've put him on his honour, and I don't think
he'd break his word."