Up went the ball and Laura and the other jumping center did their best to get it. The ball went from girl to girl, first in the hands of one team, then in the other. The Keyport team almost made a goal; but they were foiled by good guarding on Central High's part.

Up and down the field went the ball and the excitement grew moment by moment. Two to nothing in favor of the home team! That was a situation bound to create excitement both in the field and on the benches.

Suddenly the captain of the visiting team got the ball. She pa.s.sed it swiftly to her back center. Signaling one after the other of her team-mates, the Keyport captain sent the ball from hand to hand until--to the startled amazement of her opponents, the ball was in hand for a clear throw. In another moment it was in the basket and the score was tied again!

Four minutes more to play!

When the referee threw the ball up again every one of the eighteen girls playing was on the _qui vive_. The subordinate players watched their captains for signals. Central High got the ball. They rushed it down the field. But the guarding of the Keyport team was too much for them. They could not reach the basket.

Again and again was the ball pa.s.sed back and forth. Once more the Keyport captain shot it back for a clear throw. But Hester managed to halt it. There were but a few moments of play left. It is not good basketball to oppose other than one's immediate opponent; but for once Hester went out of her field to stop the ball.

A side swipe, and the ball was hurtled directly into Laura's hands.

She turned and threw it swiftly, making the signal for the famous ma.s.sed play which was the strongest point in the game as played by Central High.

Down the field the ball shot, from one to the other. Hester's quick break in the Keyport plan had rattled the latter team for a moment.

And before the visitors recovered, the ball was hurtling through the air straight for the basket.

The whistle blew. But the ball sped on. It struck the edge of the basket; but the next breath it slid in and--_the game was won_!

Central High had outstripped its strongest opponent. The game won, so was the series, and the beautiful cup would remain in the possession of Central High.

"And all because of you, Hessie!" shouted Bobby, when they got back to the dressing room. "You're a bully good sport! Isn't she, girls?"

"She won the game," declared Laura, coming forward to shake Hester's hand.

They all had something nice to say to her. Hester couldn't reply. She stood for a moment or two in the middle of the room, listening to them; then she turned away and sought her own locker, for there were tears in her eyes.

CHAPTER XXV

THE MYSTERY EXPLAINED

The boys, as has been said, were shut out from seeing the last basketball game of the series. Chet Belding was at the hospital that afternoon, having taken up some fruit to Hebe Poc.o.c.k and Billson. The latter would soon go out and would return to his burned-over clearing in the woods.

"Guess that fire helped me as much as it hurt me. I'll have to build a new shanty; but Doc Leffert was in here and said he'd rode over my piece, and that my heaps of rubbish had burned clean and all I'd have to do to clear my acres for corn would be to tam-harrow it."

"Hebe isn't getting along as fast as you do, Mr. Billson," said Chet, in a low voice, for the Four Corners fellow was having a hard time to even move about on crutches.

"Dunno as he deserves any better than he's got," said Billson, grumpily.

"What you so cross about?" laughed Chet. "Surely you're not sore over the way folks are treating Hester Grimes _now_? She comes pretty near being the heroine of the Hill section."

"Ya-as. They praise her because she done what she did for little Johnny Doyle. But many of 'em still think she set that foolish boy onto raiding the girls' gymnasium."

"I don't know about that," confessed Chet, slowly. "Although we may believe that Rufe had something to do with it, perhaps he did it, after all, because he's not quite right in his head."

"Oh, shucks!" exclaimed Billson. "All because he was crying to be let out of the gym. the night of the first raid?"

"Well, Jackway admits he was there," repeated Chet.

"And Jackway is a good deal of a fool, too," snarled Billson. "Say!

there's Rufe and his mother in the corridor now, going to see Johnny in the children's ward. You bring Rufe into this ward for a minute. I want to show you something."

Much puzzled, Chet Belding did as he was bid.

"Come here, Rufie," said Billson, beckoning to the gangling youth. "I want to show you somebody. Come here."

Billson swung back a section of the screen that hid Hebron Poc.o.c.k's bed. The big fellow was lying there with his eyes closed, but he opened them quickly when Rufe appeared, and scowled.

"Watcher want here, gooney?" he demanded.

Rufus sprang back and looked about for escape, his weak face working pitifully. But Chet and Billson barred the way of escape. Rufe began to snivel.

"What's the matter with you?" demanded Chet.

"Are you afraid of this man?" asked Billson.

Rufe nodded, and tried to crowd farther away from the bed.

"What you doing to that kid?" demanded Hebe, sitting up. "What's the matter? Why! that's the softy I saw----"

"He's a bad man. He said he'd kill me if I told!" gasped Rufus.

"Where was that?" asked Billson, with his hand on the boy's arm. "Tell us all about it. He sha'n't touch you, Rufie."

"Aw! I wouldn't have really hurt the gooney," growled Hebe.

"He was in the place where Uncle Bill watches. I hate that old gymniasium! I wish it would burn down, so I do."

"And when you were in there that night this fellow was there?" asked Billson, shaking the boy a little by the arm.

"Yes. And he broke things. And Uncle was worried afterward. But I never told," Rufe urged, looking fearfully at Hebe. "I said I wouldn't----"

"Aw, drop it! You've told on me now, haven't you?" demanded the fellow from the Four Corners. "Well, it don't much matter, I reckon. I wanted to queer that Jackway so he'd lose his job. Henry Grimes told me that if he was discharged he'd speak a good word for me and I'd get it.

That's what I was after."

"Yah!" said Billson, with scorn. "You certainly are one mean scoundrel, Poc.o.c.k. And lettin' folks think mebbe Miss Hester was mixed up in it. Nice feller, you are!"

"Well! I don't see where it's any of _your_ funeral," growled Poc.o.c.k.

"You make me tired!"

But the result of Rufe's confession and Poc.o.c.k's admission changed the latter's place of abode rather suddenly. Both Chet and Billson decided that the truth about the gymnasium raids should be made known at once, and the Board of Education took the matter up promptly. Poc.o.c.k found himself in the infirmary of the county prison, with the chance of serving three months at hard labor when the prison doctors p.r.o.nounced him able to work.

His attempt to work Jackway out of the job of watchman, so that he could be appointed to the position, had acted like a boomerang. Hebron Poc.o.c.k was most thoroughly punished.

And Chet Belding hurried to spread the tidings of the discovery among the girls of Central High, too. He got hold of Laura before the spread the basketball teams were to enjoy, and she told Princ.i.p.al Sharp, who was present. When he made his usual speech of welcome, he tacked onto it a paragraph regarding the gymnasium mystery.