On the first or Team One, Jane and her followers were placed, while the second, or Team Two, included Marian, Antonia Dexter, otherwise Tony, Mildred Jennings, Martha Rutledge, Dolorez Vincez and Molly Igo, all new girls with the exception of Marian. Just what ability this team possessed was a matter of interesting speculation for Team One. All worked hard and earnestly and every day was Field Day in the gym!

The epidemic spread alarmingly, until teams called respectively the Subs, the Scrubs, the Grubs and even the Dubs, fell into line, as naturally as birds following on the wing, and lonely indeed was the Wellington, who boasted not of her place on some of the many teams and teamsters. Helen took readily to the sport, and with d.i.c.key Ripple and Weasie Blair, she worked enthusiastically with the Scrubs until the night of her interview with Jane, after that she lost heart. All Wellington seemed engulfed with the wave of basketball and that the circ.u.mspect faculty did not fall victims to the peril of the wily sphere can scarcely be affirmed with confidence. Weasie Blair declared she heard Mrs. Weatherbee arguing with Miss Rutledge on the difference between a personal foul and a technical foul, and Gloria Gude insisted her chemistry prof talked "dribbles" when she meant molecules.

On this particular afternoon Jane marshalled her forces, and not taking no for an answer from Judith, who preferred a hike to practice, had succeeded in getting a full team on the floor. As cla.s.s president Jane felt it her duty to keep up the morale of her const.i.tuents in all sports. Ma.s.sing for basketball might have been considered an obligation of captain or other official, although Jane a.s.sumed it willingly, thus leaving the upper cla.s.s girls free for a more interesting part in the sport.

As the teams lined up some new rules just issued, were explained by the officials. They related princ.i.p.ally to rulings and duties of scorers and referees and were quickly disposed of. All of the girls declared the old rules plenty good enough, and sufficiently complicated, nevertheless, the official guide for collegiates was their standard, and in spite of opposition the more complicated lines finally became part of the day's lesson. It was towards the end of the second half at this practice game that poor Judith met her Waterloo in the way of a turned ankle. It seemed like Fate of course, as Judith had joked about the desirability of acquiring some small accident to relieve her of the day's obligations, nevertheless the ankle had a very poor sense of humor, for it hurt, and Judith crumpled in a miserable little heap of blue serge and groans.

"Don't try to stand on it, Judy dear," cautioned Jane with a show of some anxiety in her voice.

"Stand on it!" wailed Judith. "I don't believe I shall stand on that foot while I live. It hurts badly enough to last all my mortal life."

"A mere trick," whispered Dorolez Vincez to Marian Seaton.

"Hus.h.!.+" cautioned the wise Marian. "Better not-let them hear you say that. They are all half c.o.c.ked, ready to go off at any moment," and the two opposition leaders, arm in arm, left the crowd gathered around the ill-fated Judith.

"All the same," Dolorez insisted, "they will take that as an excuse to put in a stronger sub. See if they don't. Stearns will not be able to play the Breslin game, and like as not our n.o.ble Jane (this with a sneer) will see to it that some upper cla.s.s girl with skill, instead of giggles, takes the forward. I propose, Marian, that you be prepared to fight for disqualification, if they try that little time trick."

"Oh, I don't believe they will, Dolorez." Even Marian was surprised at such suspicion. "You must have had a lot of experience? You are not really a professional, are you?"

"Oh, no!" and the foreign girl laughed derisively. "I have played a lot, but I am a junior here, am I not?"

"Yes, of course," Marian a.s.sented. Nevertheless there was a note of uncertainty in her voice.

"Of course we are going to beat them," went on the South American girl.

"It is a good fight always, when we have two teams in one division. I have a little trick up my angel sleeve that they never could guess."

"But, Dolorez," cautioned Marian, "our rules are very strict, and we must conform to them. I want to beat the Jays of course, but we have to do it openly. We will never succeed with any trick where Jane Allen is concerned."

"Oh, my! Since when has she won you over?"

"She has not won me over! In fact, I despise her more than ever, but I know we have got to meet facts, and that is a fact beyond dispute. If we want to hand the game to the Jays, all we have to do is to try on a few tricks. It would start them off like a match to gasoline. We would surely go up without smoke. No, Dolorez, I have been here for three years, you know, and I must admit some of the peculiar qualifications of our little red-head. They are to be counted on when a real fight is in the air."

"Oh, all right, captain," and Dolorez smiled the queer smile that even Marian did not relish. "Just as you say. But we must beat the Jays,"

and it seemed to Marian the black eyes flashed dangerously, and betrayed more animus than might be safely dealt out in basketball.

Meanwhile Judith was being comforted and consoled with so many kinds of sympathy that Jane insisted she be carried back to her room and allowed to suffer in peace.

"I wanna die! I wanna die!" wailed the afflicted one. "I can't go to the dance, and I can't kick any more--"

"Oh, yes, you can," Dozia Dalton, who had carried her head, put in.

"You will kick, Judith, after the bugle blows!"

"And think of all the fudge you will get!" Grazia reminded her. Grazia was supporting the "intact leg."

"And you may have my Yale pillow, that is inspiring enough to give thrills in the dullest hour," offered d.i.c.ky Ripple.

"Oh, yes, I know, it is lovely of you all," Judith managed to articulate, "but you have got your old ankles to fall back on. But take the advice of a friend-don't fall."

CHAPTER XX-STEMMING THE TIDE

One reaction after another made up the program of Wellington, and directly after the big practice game, at which Judith turned her ankle, Jane was confronted again with Helen's plea that she be allowed to withdraw from college. All the minor anxieties of the little Polish girl cemented now into the one great obstacle of terror-that a girl should have called her mad!

"Mad! Mad!" Helen kept repeating, and so great was her distress that Jane actually feared for a collapse of nerves, if not for some real mental disturbance.

"We must go to Mrs. Weatherbee," Jane insisted, as Helen sobbed and sighed in her room, declining to be comforted and refusing to go out for any exercise. "I must talk it over with her. She is motherly and kind, and will know best what to do."

"But please no!" begged Helen. "I would not that you ask Mrs.

Weatherbee. It would mean so much trouble, and I cannot stand more."

"But, Helen dear, it is our only way of bringing those hateful girls to their senses. I will not agree that they go along unpunished, when they deliberately take every occasion to cause you fear and anxiety. We cannot stop them if--"

"Oh, but my dearest friend!" begged Helen. "You will not do that! I could not stay at Wellington if you ask for any action by the faculty."

Jane was baffled. Why did Helen always insist upon secrecy? Why could she not go to Mrs. Weatherbee and demand that Marian and her followers be compelled to desist? For a moment or two she pondered: then decided to ask Helen outright.

"Helen dear, can you not tell Jane, why you do not want any a.s.sistance from the faculty? Why do you always-seem to fear-something?"

It was extremely difficult for Jane to express herself so directly to the very much alarmed little Helen, but the time had come, Jane felt, when the question should be put straightforward and frankly.

Helen looked like someone about to be executed-or as one might imagine such an unfortunate looking. Her big dark eyes fairly blazed, and she put her two hands up in a most tragic pose.

"My friend! My benefactress!" she exclaimed. "You will not ask me-all now. I will tell you with gladness soon-I hope, but for a little time wait-till poor Helka can speak," and she fell in a heap, crumpled and miserable at Jane's feet. Never had Jane seen anything so like tragedy enacted in a school girl's room. Never before had she witnessed such a scene as this, so wrought with dark and mysterious foreboding. She pressed a kind hand on the black head that lay upon her knee, then raised the tear-stained face.

"Helen dear, I believe you!" she whispered. "Whatever may be the real motive, I know it is an honest one, and I shall do as you ask. Of course, I feel helpless to a.s.sist you, as I should like, as I am prevented from asking the aid of those empowered to help us all at Wellington, nevertheless, I guess we can do something. We girls are as strong at least as our opponents, and we have right on our side. So cheer up, Helen dear! Come out, try to pretend you are over your nervous spell, so that they will have less chance to criticise. You must promise me something, too, little girl! See, I have promised you!"

"Oh, yes, Jane dear, ask and I promise!"

"That you will not ask to leave Wellington!"

From a look of fear and horror, gradually there stole into the dark misty eyes an expression of determination. With it the proud head again a.s.sumed its poise, Jane had so often thought to be almost regal, and the flaming cheeks composed now into a mold of beauty and dignity.

"I shall agree to the wis.h.!.+" declared Helen, taking Jane's hand, and pressing it to her lips. "As you ask it I shall give it. I will not go away from the dear Wellington."

"There, that's the spirit, Helen. If you take that att.i.tude you will conquer all comers," she said rather irreverently, considering Helen's meager store of paraphrased English.

"Yes, I will try! It is more n.o.ble to stand up than to-fall!" answered Helen, thus betraying her actual knowledge of Jane's argument. "I will not be a coward-I will fight as my-father-my brother. They did not lay down at Warsaw! They fought to death!"

Again Jane was conscious of the atmosphere of tragedy. Somehow Helen was very unusual, and Jane confessed to herself just now, rather difficult. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, however, Jane was still firm as ever in her belief that Helka Podonsky was a persecuted girl, an artist, and probably a born aristocrat. Surely all this was guarantee of her worth and reliability.

The tapping at Jane's door, for some moments left unanswered, became more insistent, and satisfying herself that Helen had regained her composure, Jane now proceeded to answer the summons.

As the door opened two blue eyes blazed in.

"Jane Allen!" sang out Clarisse c.u.mmings, she known as the prettiest fres.h.i.+e. "We are having an awful time; and I have been appointed a committee of one to come to your highness (this with a jerk of a curtsy) to beg arbitration."