"Has he gone?" gasped Gee Gee, weakly.
"They've driven off, Miss Carrington. Margit is in no danger now," said
Bobby, eyeing the teacher curiously.
"You--you know about it, too, do you?" murmured the teacher.
"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."
"The police--yes!" returned the lady. "It will all have to be dragged
into publicity, I suppose."
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.
Bobby saw the front door open again, and Margit appeared on the porch.
"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?"
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.
"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.
"Good morning, Mr. Chumley," said Miss Carrington, quietly.
"Now, don't tell me _this_ 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."
"_This_ 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."
"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."
Margit came to her, however, that morning, and thanked her warmly.
"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."
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"Those squabs are coming on to be jimdandies!" declared Bobby,
enthusiastically. "They're going to be just such another class in
athletics as ours."
"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."
"Now you've said it," admitted Bobby, with satisfaction. "But I never
did expect to hear a senior say that about us!"
Mrs. Case came over and her presence halted further bickering. But the
rivalry of the two upper classes rankled.
Bobby took the hundred-yard dash from all competitors. Later she easily
beat all the other entries in the quarter-mile race.
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.
"Favoritism!" was the cry among the seniors, but they were very careful
not to allow their physical instructor hear it.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
"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.
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.
"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."
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.
And before that was reached Miss Potter suddenly became aware of the
fact that a woman and a man were following Eve Sitz.
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.
"There are a lot of those Gypsies around this Spring," was Lou's first
thought. "Hullo! those people are watching that Sitz girl."
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.
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.
"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.
"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.
"This is a plot to trap us," growled Jim Varey to his wife.
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.
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.
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.
Lou Potter went away from her conference with the Gypsies very much
delighted.
"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!"