During one of these talks a gleam of light shone for a moment on the mystery Lucy never gave up hoping to solve. In mentioning Wayland Hall, the president referred to Miss Remson as one of his oldest friends on the campus. "I have not seen Miss Remson for a very long time," he said with a slight frown. "Let me see. It will be--can it be possible?--two years in June. And she living so near me! She used to be a fairly frequent visitor at our house. I must ask Mrs. Matthews to write her to dine with us soon. Kindly remind me of that, Miss Warner; say this afternoon before you leave. I will make a note of it."

Lucy reminded him of the matter that afternoon with a glad heart. She confided it to her Lookout chums and they rejoiced with her. She would have liked to tell Miss Remson the good news but courtesy forbade the doing. The Lookouts agreed among themselves that it showed very plainly who was responsible for the misunderstanding.

At the beginning of the fourth week Miss Sayres returned. Lucy could only hope that Doctor Matthews had not forgotten to remind his wife of the dinner invitation. She was sure, had Miss Remson received it, that she would have mentioned it to them. She would have wished the Nine Travelers to know it. Whether Miss Remson would have accepted it was a question. She had her own proper pride in the matter. The girls had agreed that should she mention it, Lucy was then to tell her of the conversation with Doctor Matthews.

"Queer, but Miss Remson hasn't said a word about receiving that invitation," Ronny said to Lucy one evening shortly before the closing of college for the Easter holidays. "The doctor must have forgotten all about it. That shows his conscience is clear. It would appear that he doesn't even suspect Miss Remson has a grievance against him."

"I am sure he forgot it." Lucy looked rather gloomy over the doctor's omission. "It was such a fine opportunity, and now it's lost. If I should work for him again I might remind him of it. If I did, I'd do more than mere reminding. I'd ask him to try to see Miss Remson and tell him I thought there had been a misunderstanding. I would have said so this time, but when he spoke of inviting her to their house for dinner, I supposed the tangle would be straightened post haste."

"He may happen to recall it months from now," Ronny consoled. "That's the way my father does. Men of affairs hardly ever forget things for good. Sooner or later a memory of that kind crops up again."

While Lucy worried because the doctor had forgotten his kindly intention toward their faithful elderly friend, Leslie Cairns was plunged in the depths of apprehension because of Lucy's subst.i.tution for Laura Sayres.

Each day she wondered if the sword would fall. She visited Laura and made her worse by her irritating questions regarding the secretary's methods of filing. Was there any danger of old Matthews going through the files himself? Was Laura sure that she had eliminated every bit of evidence against them? Was she positive she had destroyed the letter Miss Remson had written him, supposedly? Nor had Leslie any mercy on the secretary's weakened condition. Laura bore her unfeeling selfishness without much protest. Leslie had given her one hundred dollars in her first visit. This palliated the senior's faults.

When at the end of the third week nothing had occurred of a dismaying nature, Leslie began to believe that her college career was safe. With Easter just ahead, a very late Easter, too, only two months stretched between her and Commencement, that dear day of honor and freedom for her. She had worried but little over Dulcie's threats. Elizabeth Walbert's parting shot, "You'll be sorry," crossed her mind occasionally. She attached not much importance to it at first and less as winter drew on toward spring.

Dulcie Vale, however, was only biding her time. She never relinquished for an hour her resolve to bring disgrace upon the Sans. Leslie having ordered her chums to steer clear of Bess Walbert, the latter also burned for revenge. She and Dulcie, after one glorious quarrel over what each had said about the other to Leslie, had made up and joined forces. They had a common object. Thus they clung together. They made elaborate plans for retaliation, only to abandon them for the one great plan, the betrayal of the Sans to Doctor Matthews.

Dulcie had at first decided to go to the president of Hamilton College within a few days after her unsuccessful talk with Marjorie. Then she thought of something else which pleased her better. She would wait until after Easter. If the Sans were expelled from college just before Easter, they would endeavor to slip away quietly, making it appear that they had left of their own accord. If she waited until they had returned, the blow would be far more crushing.

Regarding herself, Dulcie had her own plans. Her family, including her father, were in Europe. Her mother would not return until the next July.

Her father, luckily for her, was to be in Paris until the following January. Her mother allowed her to do as she pleased. What Dulcie intended to do to please herself was to leave Hamilton on the Easter vacation not to return. She was not too stupid to realize that the Sans, accused of many faults by her, would turn on her _en ma.s.se_ and implicate her. She could not hold out against them if arraigned in the presence of Doctor Matthews. She was also too heavily conditioned to graduate, and she hated college since her ostracization by the Sans. She was more than ready to leave. She would walk out and let her former chums bear the consequences. They had not spared her. She would not spare them.

CHAPTER XXV-WHEN THE SWORD FELL

The longer Dulcie pondered the matter, the more she became convinced she could do more damage by letter than to go to the doctor in person.

Elizabeth Walbert had several times advised this course. The latter knew nothing of Dulcie's resolve to leave college. Dulcie did not purpose she should until she wrote the soph.o.m.ore from her New York apartment after leaving Hamilton. She had planned to take an apartment in an exclusive hotel on Central Park West. From there she would write her mother that she was too ill to return to college. She left it to her mother's tact to break the news to her father. He was not to know she had failed miserably in all respects at Hamilton.

Over and over again she wrote the damaging letter to Doctor Matthews.

She wrote at first at length, putting in everything she could think of against the Sans. She made effort to stick to facts. There were enough of them to create havoc. Then she rewrote the letter, eliminating and revising until the finished product of her spite was worded to suit her.

It was necessarily a long letter and could not fail in its object.

When college closed for Easter, Dulcie shook the dust of Hamilton from her feet and took her letter to New York with her. She did not inform the registrar that she would not return. She would write that from New York. The day after college reopened, following the ten days' vacation, Dulcie mailed four letters. One to Elizabeth Walbert, one to Miss Humphrey, one to Leslie Cairns, and _the_ letter.

Those four letters created amazement, displeasure, consternation, according to the recipient. Miss Humphrey was annoyed as only a registrar can be annoyed by such a procedure. Elizabeth Walbert was surprised and miffed because Dulcie had not confided in her. Doctor Matthews' indignation soared to still heights. Leslie Cairns opened her letter at the breakfast table. She read the first page and hurriedly rose, tipping over her coffee in her haste. Paying no attention to the stream of coffee which flowed to the floor, she rushed from the dining room to her own. Locking the door, she sat down with trembling knees to read the letter. She read it twice, uttered a half sob of agony and threw herself face downward on her bed. The sword had fallen, the end had come.

Of the four letters, the one Dulcie had written her was the shortest and read:

"Leslie:

"When you read this you will not feel so secure as you did the night you humiliated me so. You thought I would not dare say a word about a number of things because I was afraid of being expelled from college. You will see now that you made a serious mistake; so serious you won't be at Hamilton long after President Matthews receives the letter I have written him. I have told him _everything_. The Sans are in for trouble with him. It doesn't make a particle of difference to me what happens to you and your pals, for I am not coming back to Hamilton. My letter to Doctor Matthews is convincing. You will surely receive a summons. What? Oh, yes! I think I have proved myself almost as clever as you.

"Dulciana Maud Vale."

Not far behind Leslie came Natalie Weyman to her friend's room. Startled by Leslie's peculiar behavior she had followed her upstairs, her own breakfast untouched.

"Leslie," she called softly, "May I come in? It's Nat."

"Go away." Leslie's voice was harsh and broken. "Come back after recitations this afternoon."

"Very well." Natalie retreated, puzzled but not angry. She was understanding that something very unusual had happened to Leslie. Her mind took it up, however, as presumably bad news from home. She hoped nothing serious had happened to Leslie's father. Her shallow serenity soon returned and she went about her affairs smugly unconscious of what was in store for her.

Meanwhile, President Matthews was holding a long and unpleasant session with Laura Sayres. Dulcie had not failed to describe Laura's part in the plot against Miss Remson. Now the incensed doctor was endeavoring to pin his shifty secretary down to lamentable facts.

Laura had always a.s.sured Leslie she would never divulge the Sans'

secrets under pressure. For a short period only she lied, evaded and pretended ignorance. Little by little the ground was cut from under her treacherous feet. Before the morning was over President Matthews had the complete story of the trickery which had brought misunderstanding between him and Miss Remson. Of the hazing Laura knew little; enough, however, to establish the truth of Dulcie's confession.

"I have yet to find a more flagrant case of dishonorable dealing," were the doctor's cutting words at the close of that painful morning. "I trusted you. Knowing that, you should have been above trading upon my confidence. I cannot comprehend your object in allying yourself with these lawless young women. You say you are not a member of their club.

Why, then, were their dishonest interests so dear to you?"

To this Laura made no reply save by sobs. She had crumpled entirely. One thing only she had rigorously kept back. She would not admit that she had been paid by Leslie Cairns for her ign.o.ble services. If the doctor suspected this he made no sign of it. He dismissed her with stern brevity and was glad to see her go. Aside from her worthless character, she had not been a satisfactory secretary.

Immediately she was gone, he put on his hat and overcoat and set out for Wayland Hall. To right matters with his old friend was to be his second move.

Arriving at the Hall at the hour the students were returning for luncheon, his appearance caused no end of private flutter. Having, as yet, held no communication with Leslie, the older members of the Sans were thrown into panic, nevertheless. What they had least desired had come to pa.s.s. The Lookouts, on the contrary, were overjoyed. Helen Trent had spied the president and promptly pa.s.sed the word of it to her chums.

To Miss Remson the surprise of her caller amounted to a shock. It did not take long for the manager to produce the letter she had received, purporting to be from Doctor Matthews.

"I never dictated any such letter," was his blunt denial. "Yes, the signature is mine. I can only explain it by saying that it may have been traced and copied from another letter, or else it has been handed me to sign when I was in a hurry. Miss Sayres had an annoying habit of bringing me my letters for signature at the very last minute before I was due to leave my office. I dropped the matter of the way these girls at your house had behaved because I received a letter from you which stated that you had come to a better understanding with them and would like to have the matter closed. I deferred to your judgment, as always.

I know no one better qualified as manager of a campus house than you."

"I never wrote you any such letter," avowed the manager. "Several of my devoted friends in the house among the students were confident that there had been trickery used. I was obliged to acquaint them with the fact that you had refused to act in the matter of transferring these girls to another campus house. My friends had suffered many annoyances at their hands. I had promised them of my own accord that these girls should be transferred. It has all been a sad misunderstanding. I am glad to have it cleared up." Miss Remson avoided all mention of her own personal humiliation.

Returned to his office at Hamilton Hall after a late luncheon, Doctor Matthews requested Miss Humphrey to lend him her stenographer for the rest of the afternoon. His business correspondence attended to, he brought forth Dulcie Vale's letter from an inside coat pocket and composed a stiff, brief summons. This summons the stenographer had the pleasure of typing seventeen times. A list of names which Dulcie had thoughtfully included in her letter furnished seventeen addresses. The Sans were curtly informed that Doctor Matthews required their presence in his office at Hamilton Hall at four o'clock on Wednesday afternoon.

Almost incidental with the time at which these notes were being typed, a bevy of white-faced girls had gathered in Leslie Cairns' room to discuss the dire situation. Leslie had recovered from her first spasm of grief and fear and had let Natalie into her room immediately the latter had come from recitations. Natalie brought more bad news in the shape of an apprehensive report of the doctor's call on Miss Remson.

During the afternoon Leslie had received a telephone call from Laura Sayres. Laura had refused to go into much detail over the telephone. She announced herself as having been discharged from the doctor's employ and a.s.serted that he knew "all about everything" without her having said a word of betrayal. Leslie had not stopped to consider whether she believed the secretary's story or not. She had said: "You can't tell me anything. I know too much already. Goodbye." With that she had hung up the receiver. Her eyes blinded by tears of defeat and real fear, she had stumbled her way to her room. There she had spent the most unhappy afternoon of her life.

"It's no use, girls. We are done. You may as well be thinking what excuse you can make to your families, for you will be expelled as sure as fate. Matthews' call on Remson shows that Dulcie betrayed us. Sayres was fired by the doctor; all on account of that Remson mix-up. She didn't see Dulcie's letter, but I know he received it. Sayres called me on the 'phone."

"But, Leslie, some of us don't know a thing about how you worked that Remson affair! You never told us. I don't see why we should be expelled for something we know nothing of." Eleanor made this half tearful defense.

"Oh, that isn't _all_." Leslie's loose-lipped mouth curled in a bitter smile. "There is the hazing business, too. Dulc told that, of course.

Perhaps she told the 'soft talk' stunt Ramsey taught the soph team last year. I don't know. All is over for us. I do know that. I expected to go into business with my father after I was graduated from Hamilton. Now!"

She walked away from her companions and stood with her back toward them at the window.

"Perhaps it will blow over," ventured Margaret Wayne. "I shall make a hard fight to stay on at Hamilton. I won't be cheated out of my diploma, if I can help it. It's our word against Dulcie's."

"That's of no use to us now." Leslie turned suddenly from the window with this gloomy utterance. "Remember Laura Sayres has been discharged from Matthews' employ. Remson and Matthews have had an understanding.

What chance have we? Sayres told me the doctor quizzed her for over two hours. She claims she told nothing against us. I know better. If Dulcie, the little wretch, had sprung this before Easter we might have saved our faces. She waited purposely. She and Walbert deliberately planned this expose. Look for a summons soon. We won't escape. I shall begin to pack tonight. So far as this rattletrap old college is concerned, I don't care a rap about leaving it. All that is worrying me is: What shall I say to my father?"