13 midnight feast!

alicia ran up the cliff-path, annoyed with herself for forgetting the key. she slipped in at the side-door of the tower and went up the stairs. as she went along the landing where the first-form dormy was, she saw a little white figure in the passage, looking out of the landing window.

“must be a first-former!” thought alicia. “what’s she out at this time of night for? little monkey!”

she walked softly up to the small person looking out of the window and grasped her by the shoulder. there was a loud gasp.

“sh!” said alicia. “good gracious, it’s you, june! what are you doing out here at midnight?”

“well, what are you?” said june, cheekily.

alicia shook her. “none of your cheek,” she said. “have you forgotten the trouncing i gave you last summer hols for cheeking me and betty, when you came to stay with me?”

“no. i haven’t forgotten,” said june, vengefully. “and i never shall. you were a beast. i’d have split on you if i hadn’t been scared. spanking me with a hair-brush as if i was six!”

“served you jolly well right,” said alicia. “and you know what would have happened to you if you had split—sam and the others would have trounced you, too!”

“i know,” said june, angrily. she was scared of alicia’s brothers. “you wait, though. i’ll get even with you some time!”

alicia snorted scornfully. “you could do with another spanking, i see,” she said. “now—you clear off to bed. you know you’re not supposed to be out of your dormy at night.”

“i saw you all go off with bathing-things tonight,” said june, slyly. “i guessed you were up to something, you fourth-formers, when i spotted you and somebody else getting bathing-dresses in the changing-room tonight. you thought i didn’t see you, but i did.”

how alicia longed for a hair-brush to spank june with—but she dared not even raise her voice!

“clear off to bed,” she ordered, her voice shaking with rage.

“are you having a midnight feast, too?” persisted june, not moving. “i saw irene and belinda with jugs of lemonade.”

“nasty little spy,” said alicia, and gave june a sharp push. “what we fourth-formers do is none of your business. go to bed!”

june resisted alicia’s hand, and her voice grew dangerous. “does potty know about your feast?” she asked. “or mam’zelle? i say, alicia, wouldn’t it be rotten luck on you if somebody told on you?”

alicia gasped. could june really be threatening to go and wake one of the staff, and so spoil all their plans? she couldn’t believe that anyone would be so sneaky.

“alicia, let me come and join the feast,” begged june. “please do.”

“no,” said alicia, shortly, and then, not trusting herself to say any more, she left june standing by the window and went off in search of the key to the cubby-hole. she was so angry that she could hardly get the key out of her tunic pocket. to be cheeked like that by a first-former—her own cousin! to be threatened by a little pip-squeak like that! alicia really hated june at that moment.

she found the key and rushed back to the pool with it. she said nothing about meeting june. the others were already in the water, enjoying themselves.

“pity the moon’s gone in,” said darrell to sally. “gosh, it has clouded up, hasn’t it? is that alicia back? hey, alicia, what a time you’ve been. got the key?”

“yes, i’m unlocking the cubby-hole,” called back alicia. “clarissa is here. she’ll help me to get out the things. pity it’s so dark now—the moon’s gone.”

suddenly, from the western sky, there came an ominous growl—thunder! blow, blow, blow!

“sounds like a storm,” said darrell. “i thought there might be one soon, it’s so terrifically hot today. i say, alicia do you think we ought to begin the feast now, in case the storm comes on?”

“yes,” said alicia. “ah, here’s the moon again, thank goodness!”

the girls clambered out of the water and dried themselves. as they stood there, laughing and talking, darrell suddenly saw three figures coming down the cliff-path from the school. her heart stood still. were they mistresses who had heard them?

it was betty, of course, with eileen and winnie. the three of them stopped short at the pool and appeared to be extremely astonished to see such a gathering of the upper fourth.

“i say! whatever are you doing?” said betty. “we thought we heard a noise from the pool! it made us think that a bathe would be nice this hot night.”

“we’re going to have a feast!” came alicia’s voice. “you’d better join us.”

“yes, do—we’ve got plenty,” said irene, and the others called out the same. even darrell welcomed them, too, for it never once occurred to her that betty had heard about the feast already and had come in the hope of joining them.

neither did it occur to her that there was a strict rule that girls from one tower were never to leave their own towers at night to meet anyone from another. she just didn’t think about it at all.

they all sat down to enjoy the feast. the thunder rumbled again, this time much nearer. a flash of lightning lit up the sky. the moon went behind an enormous cloud and was seen no more that night.

worst of all, great drops of rain began to fall, plopping down on the rocks and causing great dismay.

“oh dear—we’ll have to go in,” said darrell. “we’ll be soaked through, and it won’t be any fun at all sitting and eating in the rain. come on—collect the food and we’ll go back.”

betty nudged alicia. “shall we come?” she whispered.

“yes. try it,” whispered back alicia. “darrell hasn’t said you’re not to.”

so everyone, including betty, eileen and winnie from west tower, gathered up the food hurriedly, and stumbled up the cliff-path in the dark.

“where shall we take the food?” panted darrell to sally. “can’t have it in our common-room because it’s got no curtains and the lights would shine out.”

“what about the first-form common-room?” asked sally. “that’s not near any staff-room, and the windows can’t be seen from any other part.”

“yes. good idea,” said darrell, and the word went round that the feast was to be held in the first-form common-room.

soon they were all in there. darrell shut the door carefully and put a mat across the bottom so that not a crack of light could be seen.

the girls sat about on the floor, a little damped by the sudden storm that had spoilt their plans. the thunder crashed and the lightning gleamed. mary-lou looked alarmed, and gwen went quite white. neither of them liked storms.

“hope thunder’s all right,” said bill, tucking into a tongue sandwich. her horse was always her first thought.

“i should think . . .” began alicia, when she stopped dead. everyone sat still. darrell put up her finger for silence.

there came a little knocking at the door. tap-tap-tap-tap! tap-tap-tap-tap!

darrell felt scared. who in the world was there? and why knock? she made another sign for everyone to keep absolutely still.

the knocking went on. tap-tap-tap. this time it was a little louder.

still the girls said nothing and kept quite silent. the knocking came again, sounding much too loud in the night.

“oh dear!” thought darrell, “if it gets any louder, someone will hear, and the cat will be out of the bag!”

gwendoline and mary-lou were quite terrified of this strange knocking. they clutched each other, as white as a sheet.

“come in,” said darrell, at last, in a low voice, when there was a pause in the knocking.

the door opened slowly, and the girls stared at it, wondering what was coming. in walked june—and behind her, rather scared, was felicity!

“june!” said alicia, fiercely.

“felicity!” gasped darrell, hardly believing her eyes.

june stared round as if in surprise.

“oh,” she said, “it’s you, is it! felicity and i simply couldn’t get to sleep because of the storm, and we came to the landing window to watch it. and we found these on the ground!”

she held up three hard-boiled eggs! “we were awfully surprised. then we heard a bit of a noise in here and we wondered who was in our common-room—and we thought whoever it was must be having a good old feast—so we came to bring you your lost hard-boiled eggs.”

there was a silence after this speech. alicia was boiling! she knew that june had watched them coming back because of the storm—had seen them going into the first-form common-room—and had been delighted to find the dropped eggs and bring them along as an excuse to join the party!

“oh,” said darrell, hardly knowing what to say. “thanks. yes—we’re having a feast. er . . .”

“why did you use our common-room?” asked june, innocently, and she broke the shell off one of the eggs. “of course, it’s an honour for us first-formers to have you upper fourth using our room for a feast. i say—this egg’s super! i didn’t mean to nibble it, though. so sorry.”

“oh, finish it if you like,” said darrell, not finding anything else to say.

“thanks,” said june, and gave one to felicity, who began to eat hers, too.

it ended, of course, in the two of them joining in the feast, though darrell really felt very uncomfortable about it. also, for the first time she realized that the three girls from west tower were still there, in north tower where they had no business to be! still, how could she turn them out now? she couldn’t very well say, “look here, you must scram! i know we said join the feast when we were down by the pool—but we can’t have you with us now.” it sounded too silly for words.

darrell did not enjoy the feast at all. she wanted to send june and felicity away, but it seemed mean to do that when the feasters were using their common-room, and june had brought back the eggs. also she felt that alicia might not like her to send june away. little did she know that alicia was meditating all kinds of dire punishments for the irrepressible june. oh dear—the lovely time they had planned seemed to have gone wrong somehow.

and then it went even more wrong! footsteps were heard overhead.