"He's stuck!" exclaimed Jess. "Don't you see?"

"Oh, I guess not," returned Laura.

But seconds grew into minutes, minutes slipped away, and still he seemed unable to move, and the anxious spectators below became more and more apprehensive.

Finally from his giddy height the man was seen to pause and wave his hand, as if signalling to the men at the foot of the ladder. But they were sixty feet below him and it was evident that they did not hear his words at first. Finally they seemed to understand, and one of them came down inside the belfry and joined a group of men in the porch of the church.

The girls had crossed over to the porch and could hear all that was said.

"I told you he was stuck," said Jess, excitedly.

And it was a fact. They learned that the steeple-jack's rope had caught in a crevice where the lightning bolt had forced the stones apart, and he was unable to move up or down. His signal was for help, but the men did not know what to do. Many schemes were hastily suggested; but n.o.body could climb the steeple to aid him, and how to get another rope up to him was a problem that n.o.body seemed able to solve.

The man was in a serious predicament. One of the onlookers-a tall old man with a flowing white beard, became much excited.

"That's Colonel Swayne," whispered Hester Grimes. "He is one of the church wardens."

"We must aid the man. He cannot stay in that position long," declared Col. Swayne. "He'll fall out of that sling. Come!" he added, addressing the crowd in the square. "I'll give ten dollars to anybody who will suggest a practical method of getting the man down."

The girls were so interested that the walking exercise was forgotten for the time being. They gathered around Mrs. Case, and some of them began to cry.

"The man will fall! He'll be killed!" was the general opinion.

But Laura had separated from the other girls and in a moment was running across the square. n.o.body noticed her departure. She disappeared around the corner and in ten minutes returned with two or three boys in tow.

One of the boys carried an immense kite.

"Colonel Swayne!" cried Laura, from the outskirts of the crowd, "if you will let us try, I believe we can get a line to that man on the steeple."

"What's that, young lady?" demanded the old gentleman, quickly.

"You will pay the boys for their kite if it is lost, won't you?" the girl asked.

"Of course we will!" exclaimed the warden. "I see your scheme. You're a smart girl. Can you get that kite up here in the square, boys?"

The boys said they would try. But it was Laura who advised them upon the direction of the wind, and how to raise the kite properly. She had flown kites with Chet more than once.

They tested the wind, selected the point from which to fly the kite, and the increasing crowd of spectators watched with breathless interest.

Slowly the kite left the ground and rose above the treetops. The wind was steady and it rose faster and faster as they paid out the line.

Finally the kite was above the steeple.

The steeple-jack understood what they were attempting, and waved his hand to them. The kite-string was manipulated so as to bring it within the man's reach. He grasped it, and a cheer went up from the crowd.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE KITE STRING WAS MANIPULATED SO AS TO BRING IT WITHIN THE MAN'S REACH.]

But there was more to follow. Laura had sent one of the boys to a store for a hundred yards of clothes line. This was attached by one end to the kite string, and the man on the steeple cut the kite loose and drew up the clothes line.

When he held the heavier line a piece of stronger rope was attached to the clothes line and that was raised, too. Down fell the coil of clothes line, and they saw the steeple-jack rig himself a new sling, by which he soon descended to the ladder, and by the ladder to the church roof and safety.

The crowd cheered when this was accomplished, and Colonel Swayne broke through the throng about Laura.

"You are certainly a quick-witted girl," he said, shaking her by the hand. "You are her teacher, are you?" he added to Mrs. Case. "Humph!

from Central High, are you? Well, if all your young ladies are as quick-witted as she it must be a pleasure to teach them."

He placed a ten dollar gold piece in Laura's hand, and Laura whispered to Mrs. Case that she wanted to get away quickly from the spot.

"Those other men are coming, too," she whispered. "Let's go before they all want to shake hands. Do, do come away, Mrs. Case!"

The athletic instructor laughed and nodded, and Laura and Jess took up the line of march again. But when they were well away from the crowd, Jess began to laugh.

"Who says we can't get money from Colonel Swayne for our Athletic a.s.sociation?" she cried. "What a smart girl you are, Laura!"

"I'm going to give this ten dollars into the treasury. And it won't be the last money I get from Colonel Swayne for the same object-now you see!"

CHAPTER XII-THE M. O. R. INITIATION

Now there was one girl of that walking party, you may be sure, who did not congratulate Laura Belding upon her happy thought in aiding the man on the steeple of St. Cecelia's Church. That was Hester Grimes.

Since the evening previous Hester had had little to say to anybody-even to her chum. The fires of wrath always burned deeply in Hester; she hugged an injury-or a supposed injury-to her, and made it greater therefore than it was.

In the first place, she had hoped much that the M. O. R.'s would give her the "touch." For months-ever since she had become a soph at Central High, indeed, she had been looking forward to that end. She wanted to "make" the secret society more than she wanted anything else in her school life.

And now it would be another year, at least, before she could stand her chance again, while Laura Belding, whom she hated, was one of the favored candidates. She could not understand it. Hester had toadied to juniors and seniors alike-especially to those who were members of the secret society. Of course, she had paid little attention to such girls as Mary O'Rourke. She could not understand how the daughter of a laborer, who had neither money nor influence, could have become a prominent member of the M. O. R.'s. But by the girls of wealthy parents Hester had tried to make herself noticed.

She could not understand her lack of popularity, when Laura, and Jess Morse, and Dr. Agnew's daughter and the Lockwood twins had received the touch. And rage burned hotter in her heart.

Besides, Bobby's impudent trick had made Hester appear ridiculous, she could not forget that. And she insisted upon holding Laura responsible for the joke. She told Lily she was sure that Laura Belding had put Bobby up to it. And it was nothing that would pa.s.s over quickly.

Already, on this Sat.u.r.day, she had heard some of the lines of the doggerel repeated by giggling girls-and she hated them all for it!

"I'll get square-you just see," she whispered to Lily Pendleton. "No girl like Laura Belding can treat me so--"

"But it was those freshies and Bobby Hargrew," interposed her chum.

"Laura was back of it-believe me!" declared Hester, shaking her head. "I should think you would feel the slight, too, Lily. For those stuck-up M. O. R.'s to choose Belding, and Morse, and those other girls of our cla.s.s, and overlook _us_."

"But the candidates had nothing to do with it," said Lily, weakly.

"Belding and the others benefited, just the same-didn't they?"

"Um-m. They're in and we're out."

"Well!" said Hester, with flashing eyes.

"But what are you going to do about it? What _can_ we do?"

"Never mind. You'll see," promised the butcher's daughter, darkly.