"Well, why not?" demanded Laura, suddenly.

"Why, he just _hates_ boys and girls!" cried her chum.

"So they say."

"You know he won't allow one of us to step on his grounds-and it's right next to our bathing place, too," said Jess, with a considerable show of feeling.

"He doesn't seem to love a soul but that married daughter of his-you know, the widow. She's a peculiar acting woman. I don't believe she's quite right," said Miss Prime. "And he certainly is wrapped up in her."

"And with all that money-and his beautiful estate," sighed Laura. "He really ought to be interested in girls' athletics."

The others laughed. "We'll appoint Miss Belding a committee of one to try and separate Colonel Swayne from some of his wealth," said Mary O'Rourke.

"I accept!" declared Laura, suddenly, with flashing eyes. "I believe it can be done."

"Huh! you think you're so smart, Laura," drawled Lily Pendleton.

"But it would be just _great_ if we could get him interested," sighed Jess.

"Leave it to me," said Laura, boldly. "I'm going to try!"

CHAPTER VIII-LAURA AND THE PRINc.i.p.aL

It was two days later, during which time the two princ.i.p.al topics of conversation among the girls of Central High had been athletics and Bobby Hargrew's trouble. All sorts of rumors sped from lip to lip regarding Bobby's fate. They had her dismissed, or suspended, a dozen times, and reinstated again. But the only thing that was really known about it was that Gee Gee had "taken up" with Mr. Sharp.

The girls had a great deal of faith in Mr. Sharp's sense of justice. He was a man who made up his mind leisurely, although once it was made up he was not known to change it for any light reason. The girls liked him very much indeed; but of course there were times when the princ.i.p.al, as well as the rest of the teachers, was arraigned against the pupils upon some topic. That will always be so as long as there are pupils and teachers!

In the case of Bobby, some of the girls-especially those of her own age and cla.s.s, and more especially some who looked up to the harum-scarum Hargrew girl as a leader in mischief-angrily upheld the culprit's side of the controversy, and declared that Gee Gee had no business to accuse her of setting the fire at all. Bobby's saying she didn't do it was enough!

The Central High students-girls and boys alike-were governed on honor. A student's word was supposed to be taken without his or her going before a notary public and "swearing" to the truth of the statement. That was Mr. Sharp's own statement. So, why make a divergence from the accepted rule in poor Bobby's case? Why not believe her when she said she did not throw the burning punk into the wastepaper basket?

Upon the score of Hester Grimes's testimony against the accused girl there was division, too. Some of Hester's cla.s.smates were for ostracizing her entirely-"sending her to Coventry." She was a "tattle-tale"-and some of the girls were quite warm over her case.

But they all knew Hester. She had a certain popularity among some of the girls because of her father's wealth, and the lavish way in which Hester entertained those girls whom she wished to favor. Money will always bring a certain kind of subservience. Although the general opinion was adverse to Hester, nothing was really done about it.

Laura and Jess, with Chet and his chum, Lance Darby, were sitting on the Beldings' porch, for it was a warm evening.

"Something ought to be done to that Grimes girl," drawled Chet, reflectively. "She's always doing something mean."

"That's the worst of you girls," said Lance, with a superior air. "If one of you gets into trouble, the others either stand off or pick on her."

"Isn't that so?" cried Chet. "I saw Bobby walking home from school this afternoon all alone."

"You bet if she'd been a boy," said Lance, importantly, "there'd been a crowd of fellows with her."

"Is that so?" flared up Jess. "Don't you ever fight, you boys? And do you always stand by one another when one gets into trouble? How about what you did to Pretty Sweet last Sat.u.r.day? Oh! I heard about it."

Lance and Chet broke into loud laughter. Laura said, hurriedly:

"Stop! here he comes now. And I believe he is coming here."

In the twilight they saw a rather tall boy, dressed in the height of fashion, with brightly polished shoes and an enormously high collar, coming down Whiffle Street.

"Won't you come in, Purt?" called Laura, as this youth reached the gate.

Prettyman Sweet hesitated just a moment. Indeed, his hand was really on the gate before he saw the two boys-his cla.s.smates-sitting beside the girls on the porch.

"Oh-oo, no! I am afraid I can't this evening, Miss Laura," he said, in a high, "lady-like" voice. "Thank you _so_ much! Good-evening," and he hurried away.

"See how he walks?" chuckled Darby.

"You needn't have asked him in to sit down, Laura," said her brother.

"He _can't_ sit down."

"Takes his meals off the mantelpiece, I understand," pursued Lance.

"Hasn't been to school this week. His mother sent a note to Dimple.

Pretty is all broken up."

"_Do_ tell us all about it, boys!" urged Jess, laughing, too, now. "I heard that he had some unfortunate accident up at the railroad fill Sat.u.r.day. What was it-really?"

The two boys exploded with laughter again, but finally Chet said:

"Some of us fellows were up there at the fill watching that big 'sand-hog' at work-the new steam shovel, you know; and Pretty Sweet was along. However he came to walk clear over there in those toothpick shoes of his, I don't know. But he was there.

"On the old 'dump' where the city ashes used to be deposited, one of the boys-Short and Long, I think it was, eh, Lance?"

"It was Billy," said his chum, decidedly.

"I bet Billy was in it-if it meant mischief," laughed Laura.

"Oh, the kid was innocent enough," Chet declared. "He saw something shining on the ground and pointed it out. It really looked just like a lump of gold-didn't it, Lance?"

"Something like. _I_ didn't know what it was."

"Two or three of us handled it. But it took Pretty Sweet to turn the trick all proper. He slipped it in his hip pocket. You know, Pretty is just as stingy as he can be-a regular miser despite all his fine clothes. I expect he believed that shiny lump might be worth something.

Maybe he was going to bring it down to father, to see if was sure enough gold," laughed Chet.

"But what was it? What happened?" cried Jess.

"Why, nothing happened at first. Then, when we were half way back to town, somebody saw smoke spurting out behind Pretty Sweet as though he was an automobile. We yelled and went for him, rolled him in the street--"

"In all those good clothes!" interposed Lance between bursts of laughter.