14 things happen fast
“did you hear that?” whispered sally. “someone is coming! quick, gather everything up, and let’s go!”
the girls grabbed everything near, and darrell caught up the brush by the fireplace and swept the crumbs under a couch. she put out the light and opened the door. all was dark in the passage outside. there seemed to be nobody there. who could have been walking about overhead? that was where the first-form dormy was.
june and felicity were scared now. they shot away at once. betty, eileen and winnie disappeared to the stairs, running down them to the side-door. they could then slip round to their own tower. the others, led by darrell, went cautiously upstairs to find their own dormy.
a slight cough from somewhere near, a familiar and unmistakable cough, brought them to a stop. they stood, hardly daring to breathe, at the top of the stairs. “that was potty’s cough,” thought darrell. “oh blow—did she hear us making a row? but we really were quite quiet!”
she hoped and hoped that betty and the other two west tower girls had got safely to their own dormy without being caught. it really was counted quite a serious offence for girls of one tower to meet girls in another tower at night. for one thing there was no way to get from one tower to another under cover. the girls had to go outside to reach any other tower.
what could potty be doing? where was she? the girls stood frozen to the ground, waiting for the sign to move on.
“she’s in the third-form dormy,” whispered darrell, at last. “perhaps somebody is ill there. i think we had better make a dash for it, really. we can’t stand here for hours.”
“right. the next time the thunder comes, we’ll run for it,” said sally, in a low voice. the word was passed along, and the girls waited anxiously for the thunder. the lightning flashed first, showing up the crouching line of girls very clearly—and then the thunder came.
it was a good long, rumbling crash, and any sound the girls made in scampering along to their dormy was completely deadened. they fell into bed thankfully, each girl stuffing what she carried into the bottom of her cupboard, wet bathing-suits and all.
no miss potts appeared, and the girls began to breathe more freely. somebody must have been taken ill in the third-form dormy. potty still seemed to be there. at last the upper fourth heard the soft closing of the third-form dormy, and miss potts’ footsteps going quietly off to her own room.
“had we better take the lemonade jugs down to the kitchen now?” whispered irene.
“no. we won’t risk any more creeping about tonight,” said darrell. “you must take them down before breakfast, as soon as the staff have gone into the dining-room, even though it makes you a bit late. and we’ll clear out all the food left over before we go down, and hide it somewhere till we can get rid of it. what a pity that beastly storm came!”
the girls slept like logs that night, and could hardly wake up in the morning. gwen and belinda had to be literally dragged out of bed! irene shot down to the kitchen with the empty jugs. all the rest of the food was hastily put into a bag and dumped into an odd cupboard in the landing. then, looking demure and innocent, the fourth-formers went down to breakfast.
felicity grinned at darrell. she had enjoyed the escapade last night. but june did not grin at alicia. alicia’s face was very grim, and june felt uncomfortable.
at break alicia went to find hilda, the head-girl of the first form. hilda was surprised and flattered.
“hilda,” said alicia, “i am very displeased with june’s behaviour. she is getting quite unbearable, and we fourth-formers are not going to stand it. either you must put her in her place, or we shall. it would be much better for you to do it.”
“oh, alicia, i’m so sorry,” said hilda. “we have tried to put her in her place, but she keeps saying you’ll give us no end of a wigging if we don’t give her a chance. but we’ve given her lots of chances.”
“i bet you have,” said alicia, grimly. “now, i don’t know how you deal with your erring form-members, hilda—we had various very good ways when i was a first-former—but please do something—and tell her i told you to!”
“right. we will,” said hilda, thankful that she had got authority to deal with that bumptious, brazen conceited new girl, june! a week of being sent to coventry would soon bring june to heel—she loved talking and gossiping, and it would be a hard punishment for her. hilda went off to call a form meeting about the matter, feeling very important.
june was angry and shocked to hear the verdict of her form—to be sent to coventry for a week. she felt humiliated, too—and how angry she was with alicia for giving hilda the necessary authority! alicia was quite within her rights to do this. when a member of a lower form aroused the anger or scorn of a higher form, the head-girl of the offender’s form was told to deal with the matter. and so hilda dealt with it faithfully and promptly, and if she felt very pleased to do it, that was june’s fault, and not hers. june was certainly a thorn in the side of all the old girls in the first form. it was quite unheard of for any new girl to behave so boldly.
felicity found that she too had to give her promise not to speak to june. oh dear—that would be very awkward—but she owed more loyalty to her form than to june. so she gave her promise in a low voice, not daring to look at the red-faced june.
that evening felicity came to darrell, looking worried. “darrell, please may i speak to you? something rather awful has happened. those crumbs we left in the common-room last night, under the couch, were found this morning, and so were two sandwiches. and potty tackled hilda and asked her if she’d been having a midnight feast there last night. potty said she thought she heard something, but by the time she came out of the third-form dormy, where somebody was ill, and went to look in the common-room, it was empty.”
“gosh,” said darrell. then her face cleared. “well, what’s it matter? hilda must have been asleep last night, and can’t have known anything about it.”
“she was asleep—and she told potty she didn’t know a thing about any feast, and that the first form certainly hadn’t been out of the dormy last night,” said felicity. “some of them woke up in that storm, but nobody missed me or june, apparently.”
“well, why worry then?” said darrell. “you shouldn’t have come along with june last night, you know, felicity. i was awfully surprised and not at all pleased to see you. you really ought to be careful your very first term.”
“i know,” said felicity. “i sort of get carried along by june. honestly i can’t help it, darrell—she makes me laugh so much and she’s so bold and daring. she’s been sent to coventry now, and she’s as mad as anything. she knows it’s all because of alicia and she vows she’ll get even with her. she will, too.”
“felicity—do chuck june,” begged darrell. “she’s no good as a friend. she’s a little beast, really. alicia has told me all about her.”
but felicity was obstinate and she shook her head. “no. i like june and i want to stick by her. she’s not a little beast. she’s fun.”
darrell let felicity go, feeling impatient with her little sister. anyway, thank goodness potty hadn’t found out anything. she must be jolly puzzled about the crumbs and the sandwiches!
it seemed as if the whole affair would settle down—and then a bomb-shell came! felicity came to darrell again the next day, looking very harassed indeed.
“darrell! i must speak to you in private.”
“good gracious! what’s up now?” said darrell, taking felicity to a corner of the courtyard.
“it’s june. i don’t understand her. she says she’s going to go to potty and own up that she was at the midnight feast,” said felicity. “she says i ought to go and own up, too.”
darrell stared at felicity in exasperation. these first-formers! “but if she goes and does that, it’s as good as sneaking on us,” said darrell, furiously. “where’s this little pest now?”
“in one of the music-rooms practising,” said felicity, alarmed at darrell’s fury. “she’s in coventry, you know, so i can’t speak to her. she sent me a note. whatever am i to do, darrell? if she goes to own up, i’ll have to go, too, or potty and the rest will think i’m an awful coward.”
“i’ll go and talk to june,” said darrell, and went straight off to the music-room, where the girls practised daily. she found june and burst into the room so angrily that the first-former jumped.
“look here, june, what’s behind this sudden piousness of yours—wanting to go and ‘own up’—when there’s no need for anything of the sort?” cried darrell, angrily. “you know you’d get the upper fourth into trouble if you go and split.”
“i shan’t split,” said june, calmly, playing a little scale up and down the piano. “i shall simply own up i was at the feast—but i shan’t say whose feast. i—er—want to get it off my conscience.”
“you’re a little hypocrite!” said darrell. “stop playing that scale and listen to me.”
june played another little scale, a mocking smile on her face. darrell nearly burst with rage. she slapped june’s hand off the piano, and turned her round roughly to face her.
“stop it,” said june. “i’ve had enough of that kind of thing from my dear cousin alicia!”
at the mention of alicia’s name, something clicked into place in darrell’s mind, and she knew at once what was behind june’s pious idea of “owning up”. she wanted to get even with alicia. she would like to get her into trouble—and darrell too—and everyone in the upper fourth—to revenge herself on alicia’s order to hilda to deal with her.
“you are a double-faced little wretch, aren’t you?” said darrell, scornfully. “you know jolly well if you ‘own up’—pooh!—that potty will make inquiries and i shall have to own up to the spree in the pool, and the feast afterwards.”
“oh—worse than that!” said june, in her infuriatingly impudent voice. “girls from another tower were there—or was i mistaken?”
“do you mean to say you’d split on betty and the others, too,” said darrell, taking a deep breath, “just to get even with alicia?”
“oh—not split—or even sneak,” said june, beginning to play the maddening scale again. “surely i can own up—and betty’s name can—er—just slip out, as it were.”
at the thought of june sneaking on everyone, under cover of being a good little girl and “owning up,” darrell really saw red. her temper went completely, and she found herself pulling the wretched june off the piano-stool and shaking her violently.
a voice made her stop suddenly.
“darrell! whatever are you doing?”
