Although Nellie Agnew laughed, too, at Bobby's story, she was in no jolly mood when she parted from the other girls and entered Dr.

Agnew's premises.

The doctor, Nellie's father, was a broadly educated physician--one of the small cla.s.s of present day medical men who, like the "family doctor" of a past generation, claimed no "specialty" and treated everything from mumps to a broken leg. He was a rather full-bodied man, with a pink, wrinkled face, cleanly shaven every morning of his life; black hair with silver threads in it and worn long; old-fashioned detachable cuffs to his shirts, and a black string tie that went around his collar twice, the ends of which usually fluttered in the breeze.

There had long since been established between the good doctor and his daughter a confidential relation very beautiful to behold. Mrs. Agnew was a very lovely woman, rather stylish in dress, and much given to church and club work. Perhaps that is why Dr. Agnew had made such a comrade of Nellie. She might, otherwise, have lacked any personal guide at a time in her life when she most needed it.

It was no new thing, therefore, that Nellie should follow the doctor into the office that evening after dinner, and perch on the broad arm of his desk chair while he lit the homely pipe that he indulged in once a day--usually before the rush of evening patients.

When Nellie had told her father all about the unpleasant quarrel at the gymnasium the doctor smoked thoughtfully for several minutes. Then he said, in his clear, quiet voice--the calm quality of which Nellie had herself inherited:

"Do you know what seems to me to be the kernel in the nut of these school athletics, Nell?"

"What is it, Daddy Doctor?"

"Loyalty. That's the kernel--loyalty. If your athletics and games don't teach you that, you might as well give 'em up--all of you girls. The feminine s.e.x is not naturally loyal; now, don't get mad!" and the doctor chuckled. "It is not a natural virtue--if _any_ virtue is humanly natural--of the s.e.x. It's only the impulsive, spitfire girls who are naturally loyal--the kind who will fight for another girl.

Among boys it is different. Now, I am not praising boys, or putting them an iota higher than girls. Only, long generations of working and fighting together has made the normal male loyal to his kind. It is an instinct--and even our friends who call themselves suffragettes have still to acquire it.

"But this isn't to be a lecture, Nell. It's just a piece of advice.

Show yourself loyal to the other girls of Central High, and to the betterment of basketball and the other athletics, by----"

"By what?" cried Nellie.

"By paying no attention to Hester Grimes, or what she does. After all, her shame, if she is removed from your basketball team, is the shame of her whole cla.s.s, and of the school as well. Ignore her mean ways if you can. Don't get in the way of her hand again, Nell," and his eyes twinkled. "Remember, that blow was not intended for you, in the first place. And I am not sure that Clara Hargrew would not sometimes be the better for the application of somebody's hand--in the old-fashioned way! No, Nell. Say nothing. Make no report of the affair. If Hester is disloyal, don't you be. Keep out of her way as much as possible----"

"But she spoiled our games with the other schools last spring, and she will do so again," complained Nellie.

"Then let Mrs. Case, or somebody else, be the one to set the matter in motion of removing Hester from the team. That's my advice, Miss."

"And of course I shall take it, Daddy Doctor," said Nellie slowly.

"But I _did_ think it was a chance for us to get rid of Hester. She is _such_ a plague."

The doctor's eyes twinkled. "I wonder why it is that we always want to shift our burdens on other folks' shoulders? Do you suppose either the East or West Highs would find Hester any more bearable if she attended them instead of Central?"

The girls of Central High had something of more moment than Hester Grimes's "tantrums" to think of the next day. Bobby Hargrew came flying up the path to the doctor's porch long before school time.

Nellie saw her and ran out to see what she wanted.

"What do you s'pose?" cried Bobby.

"Couldn't guess, Chicken-little," laughed Nellie. "Has the sky fallen?"

"Almost as bad," declared Bobby, twinkling, but immediately becoming grave. "The gymnasium----"

"Not burned!"

"No, no! But it's been entered. And by some awfully mean person. The apparatus on the upper floor has been partly destroyed, and the lockers broken into downstairs and lots of the field materials spoiled. Oh, it's dreadfully mean, Nellie! They even sawed through the rungs of the hanging ladders a little way, so that if anybody swung on them they'd break.

"And with all the harm they did, n.o.body can tell how they got into the building, or out again. The watchman sleeps on the premises. You know, he's not supposed to keep awake all night, for the same man keeps the field in repair during the day. But my father says that Jackway, the watchman, must have slept like the dead if he didn't hear the marauders while they were damaging all that apparatus.

"It's just too mean," concluded Bobby. "There isn't a basketball that isn't cut to pieces, and the tennis ball boxes were broken open and the b.a.l.l.s all thrown into the swimming pool. Tennis rackets were slashed, hockey sticks sawed in two, and other dreadful things done.

It shows that whoever did it must have had a grudge against the athletic a.s.sociation and us girls--must have just _hated_ us!"

"And who hates us?" cried Nellie, the question popping out before she thought.

Bobby turned rather white, though her eyes shone. She tapped Nellie on the shoulder with an insistent index finger.

"You and I know who _says_ she hates us," whispered the younger girl.

CHAPTER III

JOHNNY DOYLE

Franklin Sharp, princ.i.p.al of Central High, had something particular to say that morning at a.s.sembly. At eight-thirty o'clock the gongs rang in each room and the cla.s.ses marched to the hall as usual. But there was an unusual amount of excitement, especially on the girls' side of the great hall.

The news Bobby Hargrew had brought to Nellie Agnew had spread over the Hill long before schooltime. Bobby, running from house to house, had scattered the news like burning brands; and wherever she dropped a spark a flame of excitement had sprung up and spread.

And how many of the girls had whispered the same thing! What Hester Grimes had said the previous afternoon had been heard by a dozen girls; a hundred had learned of it before the gymnasium had cleared that afternoon; now the whole school--on the girls' side, at least--knew that Hester had declared her hatred of the girls of Central High before the damage was done in the gymnasium.

This gossip could not fail to have flown to Princ.i.p.al Sharp's ears. He was eminently a just man; but he seldom interfered in the girls'

affairs, preferring to let his a.s.sistant, Miss Grace G. Carrington (otherwise "Gee Gee" among the more thoughtless of her pupils) govern the young ladies. But what the princ.i.p.al said on this occasion seemed to point to the fact that he had taken cognizance of the wild supposition and gossip that was going the round of the girl's cla.s.ses.

"A cruel and expensive trick has been perpetrated by some irresponsible person with p.r.o.nounced criminal instincts," declared Mr.

Sharp, seriously. "This is not the outburst of some soul p.r.o.ne to practical joking, so-called; nor is it the mere impish mischievousness of a spirit with a grudge against its fellows. The infamous actions of the person, or persons, in the girls' gymnasium last night show degeneracy and a monkeyish wickedness that can be condoned in no particular.

"We can declare with confidence that no pupil of Central High could have accomplished the wicked work of last night. It would have been beyond the physical powers of any of our young ladies to have broken into the building; and we are equally confident that no young gentleman on our roster is at that early stage of evolution in which he would consider such work at all amusing.

"Of course, there will be an investigation made--not alone by the school authorities, but by the police. The matter is too serious to ignore. The damage done amounts to several hundreds of dollars. And the mystery of how the culprit or culprits entered the building, with the doors and windows locked and Jackway asleep in his bed in the doctor's office, must likewise be explained.

"Meanwhile, young ladies and gentlemen, let no wild romances or unsubstantiated rumors shake your minds. We none of us know how the criminal entered the gymnasium, or who he is. Let the matter rest there until the investigation is completed and the actual wrong-doer brought to book. I hope I make myself clear? That is all. You are dismissed to cla.s.ses."

But, to himself, perhaps the princ.i.p.al said: "Meanwhile I will go out and stop the water from running down hill!" For the gossip having once begun to grow, there was no stopping it. Some of the girls had already begun to look askance at Hester when they pa.s.sed her. Others whispered, and wondered, and surmised--and the wonder grew like the story of the man who ate the three black crows.

Hester, however, did not realize what all this meant. She was still angry with Nellie, and Bobby, and the others whom she considered had crossed her the previous afternoon. And especially was she angry with Mrs. Case, the physical instructor.

"I don't much care if the stuff in the gymnasium _was_ all cut up,"

she declared, to her single confidant, Lily Pendleton.

"Oh, Hester! Don't let them hear you say it!" cried her chum, who had heard some of the whispers against Hester, but had not dared repeat them to her chum for fear of an outbreak of the latter's unfortunate temper.

"What do I care for 'em?" returned Hester, and went off by herself.

Hester Grimes was not entirely happy. She would not admit it in her own soul, but she was lonely. Even Lily was not always at her beck and call as she once had been. To tell the truth, Lily Pendleton seemed suddenly to have "a terrible crush" on Prettyman Sweet.

"And goodness only knows what she sees in that freak to want to walk with him," muttered Hester, in retrospection.

Lily and Purt were pupils in the same dancing cla.s.s and just at present dancing was "all the rage." Hester did not care for dancing--not even for the folk dancing that Mrs. Case taught the girls of Central High. She liked more vigorous exercises. She played a sharp game of tennis, played hockey well, was a good walker and runner, and liked basketball as well as she liked anything.