"Your doleful, "Betty."

"Poor old Bet," smiled Polly. "Well, if she only makes good I won't be half so unhappy at not playing myself."

In less than five minutes she was sound asleep, and the next morning Miss King p.r.o.nounced her temperature normal.

CHAPTER XII

POLLY'S HEROISM

"Miss King, don't you think I might be carried to the game tonight?"

pleaded Polly early Sat.u.r.day morning as the nurse was bathing her face and hands.

"We'll see; perhaps we can arrange it if you have no fever," answered Miss King, and Polly had to be content.

After study hour Lois and Betty flew up to the infirmary.

"Everything's going beautifully," announced Lois excitedly, "and we brought you up the green and white ribbons; here, let me tie them on your arm."

"How's the ankle? Do you think you can get over to the game?" asked Betty eagerly.

"If I have no fever, Miss King says she'll see. I hate people to say they will see; Aunt Hannah always did, and it always meant 'no,'" pouted Polly. "When does the other team arrive?"

"The train's due at 12:03, luncheon at 12:30, and the game's called for 2 o'clock," Lois told her.

Just then Angela and Connie appeared in the doorway.

"May we come in? How's the invalid?" Connie asked.

"Oh, h.e.l.lo. Of course come in. I'm awfully glad to see you. I am feeling very fine this morning," responded Polly.

Angela was looking dolefully at the big lump the bandaged foot made under the covers, and her eyes were misty.

"Polly," she began, "can you ever forgive-"

"Angela, you're going to say something about those slippers, and if you do-" Polly interrupted threateningly.

"All right, I won't, but I'll think of it for the rest of my life."

After a few minutes of excited conversation the girls left-Lois and Betty for the gym and Angela and Connie for the schoolroom to practice songs with the rest.

Polly, left alone, retied and patted the green and white ribbon Lois had given her; then she tossed and turned and fretted until the doctor arrived an hour later. He declared the ankle greatly improved, but he did not like the patient's nervous condition, and to Polly's plea to be carried to the gym, he gave a decided "No."

Miss King was all sympathy, and offered to read aloud, tell stories, or, in fact, do anything to amuse her heartbroken little patient, but Polly refused to be comforted.

After luncheon Lois and Betty arrived for a last word; they were in their gym suits and Betty's hands were ice cold. Polly tried to be encouraging and cheerful.

"Do be careful of those lines, Bet," she advised, "and don't run with the ball."

"Run with the ball! I probably won't have a chance to even get my hands on it let alone run with it. Oh, I tell you, I'm in a sweet funk!"

groaned Betty.

"Will you stop talking like that, Betty Thompson," commanded Lois. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Why, if you can't play against that insignificant Whitehead center, all my little faith in man is gone."

"Do tell me something about the other team," Polly begged. "I heard you giving them the cheer as they arrived. Do they look very dreadful?"

"No, I think we are pretty evenly matched. Their guards are tall-but there goes the bell; we'll have to fly. Polly, darling, I'll come and tell you all about it the second the game's over," promised Lois, as she and Betty ran down to the schoolroom to join the team.

As Polly lay listening she heard the girls tramping over to the gym. The sound came faintly at first, then louder, and finally halted underneath the infirmary window:

"Oh, there is a girl who's known in these parts.

Her name is Polly Pendleton, and she's won our hearts!

Oh, we'd like to know a girl with more go, And we will stand by her to the end-O!"

sang fifty voices, and then the tramping started once more and grew fainter as the girls neared the gym.

Poor Polly buried her head in the pillow and sobbed:

"To think of my having a chance to play in the big game and then not being able to! Why, I can't even watch it!" she cried. "Why didn't I see those hateful steps?"

Miss King came in and asked if there was anything she could do.

"I am quite at your service," she a.s.sured her.

"Do you really mean that?" answered Polly. "Then go over to the gym and watch the game for a little while and come back and tell me how it's going, and if we have a chance. I promise to be good," she added.

Miss King thought it over and decided to go. It would please her unhappy patient, and besides she loved to see a good game herself.

"I won't stay very long," she said. "If you want anything you can reach the bell that rings in the other house."

"Don't come back unless we are winning," called Polly as she watched the white nurse's cap disappear down the long flight of steps that led from the infirmary to the ground. They had been built so that if there were any contagious cases in the infirmary, the girls could reach the grounds without going into any other part of the buildings.

Then, tired from the excitement of the day, she sank back in the pillows to rest until Miss King's return. She dozed off to sleep for about fifteen minutes, and when she next opened her eyes she was conscious of the smell of smoke.

She raised herself on her elbow and looked out of the dormer window beside her bed. From there she could see the Bridge of Sighs which, as you know, connected the two buildings of the school. A thin spiral of smoke was pouring out from the top of the middle window.

Her first thought was the bell. She rang it violently, but with no success, for the maids were in the laundry gossiping over a cup of tea, and the bell clanged to an empty kitchen.

Something had to be done and Polly realized that that something rested with her. As quickly as her ankle would permit-it was, of course, paining her terribly-she got into such of her clothes as she could find in the infirmary, threw Miss King's cape around her, and thrust her stockinged feet once again into Angela's Chinese slippers.

"Now," she thought, as she limped painfully down the steps, "the thing to do is to get one of the teachers' attention without letting the girls know anything is wrong."

The fifty feet to the gym seemed as many miles to Polly. At first the excitement of her errand kept her up, but as she neared the gym the burning pain in her ankle forced her to stop every few feet to rest.

When at last she stumbled up the steps of the gym, she was met at the door by Mrs. Baird and Miss King, who were just leaving.