In signing the paper in this fashion no one girl could be accused of leading in the demand for Hester's removal. Lily had gone, so that n.o.body would tell Hester just what each girl said, or who signed first. That Nellie Agnew had taken the lead in this pet.i.tion against her schoolmate the doctor's daughter herself knew, if n.o.body else did.

She felt a little conscience-stricken over it, too, for she had told Daddy Doctor that she would be guided by his advice in the matter of Hester Grimes.

And after supper that night her father said something that made Nellie feel more than ever condemned.

"Do you know, Nell," he said, thoughtfully, pulling on his old black pipe as she perched as usual on the broad arm of his chair. "Do you know there is good stuff in that girl Hester?"

"In Hester Grimes?" asked Nellie, rather flutteringly.

"Yes. In Hester Grimes. I guess you didn't hear about it. And it slipped my mind. But when I was over to see little Johnny Doyle again to-day I found Hester there and the Doyles think she's about right--especially Rufus."

"Rufus isn't just right in his mind--is he?" asked Nellie, her eyes twinkling a little.

"I don't know. In some things Rufe is 'way above the average,"

chuckled her father. "He is cunning enough, sure enough! But to get back to Hester. I never told you how she jumped into the sewer-basin and saved Johnny's life?"

"No! Never!" gasped Nellie.

The physician told her the incident in full. He told her further that Hester had done a deal, off and on, for the Widow Doyle and her children.

"Oh, I wish I had known!" cried Nellie, in real contrition.

"What for?" demanded the doctor.

But she would not tell him. She knew that the pet.i.tion had been mailed to Mrs. Case that very evening. Her name was on it, and in her own heart Nellie knew that she had had as much to do with the scheme to put Hester Grimes off the basketball team as any girl.

"Perhaps, if the girls had known what Hester did for Johnny they wouldn't have been so bitter against her," thought the doctor's daughter. "I know _I_ would never have signed that hateful paper. Oh, dear! why did Daddy Doctor have to find out that there was some good in Hester, and tell _me_ about it?"

CHAPTER IX

ANOTHER RAID

Hester Grimes, as the doctor said, had appeared late that afternoon at the Doyles' little tenement. She had gone there from the basketball game instead of going directly home.

To tell the truth, she did not wish to be questioned by her mother, nor did she want to meet Lily. If she had felt hatred against her mates in Central High before, that feeling in her heart was now doubled!

For, as all anger is illogical (indignation may not be) Hester turned upon the girls and blamed them for the referee's decision. Because Miss Lawrence had put her out of the game Hester would have been glad to know that her team mates had gone to pieces and been defeated.

She had managed to recover outwardly from her disappointment and anger, however, when she arrived at the domicile of her humble acquaintances. Mrs. Doyle knitted jackets, and Hester had ordered one for her mother.

"Ma is always lolling around and complaining of feeling draughts,"

said Hester. "So I'll give her one of these 'snuggers' to keep her shoulders warm. She's always snuffing with a cold when it comes fall and the furnace fire is not lit."

"Lots o' folks are having colds just now," complained Mrs. Doyle.

"Johnny's snuffling with one."

"Oh, he'll be all right--won't he, Rufie?" said Hester, chucking the baby under his plump little chin, but speaking to his faithful nurse.

"In course he will, Miss Hester," cried Rufus, and then opened his mouth for a roar of laughter, that made even the feverish Johnny crow.

"Rufus never gets tired of minding Johnny," said the widow, proudly.

"But he does miss his Uncle Bill."

Rufe's face clouded over. "He ain't never home no more," he said, complainingly.

"But you can go over to see him at the gymnasium," said Hester.

"Not no more he can't, Miss," said the widow. "Rufus used to go over to see Uncle Bill evenings; but Uncle Bill can't have him there no more."

"Why not?" asked Hester, quickly; and yet she flushed and turned her own gaze away and looked out of the window.

"Bill's had some trouble there. He's afraid the Board of Education would object. Somebody got into the building----"

"I heard about it," said Hester, quickly.

"Wisht Uncle Bill had another job," grumbled Rufus.

"Rufie's real bright about some things," whispered his mother. "And sharp ain't no name for it! He is pretty cute. You can't say much before him that he don't remember, and repeat."

"Wisht that old gymnasium building would burn up; then Uncle Bill could come home," muttered Rufe.

Mrs. Doyle went to see to her fire. Hester beckoned the boy to the window and whispered to him. Gradually Rufe's face lit up with one of his flashes of cunning. Money pa.s.sed from the girl's hand to that of the half-witted youth.

Just then Dr. Agnew appeared and Hester took her departure.

On the following morning Franklin Sharp, the princ.i.p.al of Central High, called a conference of his teachers at the first opportunity. He was very grave indeed when he told them that another raid had been made upon the girls' gymnasium.

"Not so much damage is reported as was done before. But, then, the paraphernalia before destroyed was not all removed. But this time the scoundrel--or scoundrels--tried arson.

"A fire was built in a closet on the upper floor. Bill Jackway smelled smoke and got up to see what it was. He found no trace of the firebug--can discover no way in which he got out----"

"But how did he get in?" asked one of the teachers.

"That is plain. It had rained early in the evening. Footprints are still visible leading across a soft piece of ground from the east fence to a window. The window was open, although Bill swears it was shut and locked when he went to bed at ten o'clock. That is how the marauder entered the building. How he got out is a mystery," declared the princ.i.p.al.

"It is a very dreadful thing," complained Miss Carrington. "I do not see what we can do about it."

"We must do something," said Miss Gould, with vigor.

"Suppose you suggest a course of procedure, Miss Gould?" said the princ.i.p.al, his eyes twinkling.

"I think it would be well," said Miss Gould, "to sift every rumor and story regarding this matter. There is much gossip among the girls. I have heard of a threat that one girl made in the gymnasium----"

"That is quite ridiculous, Miss Gould!" cried Miss Carrington, with some heat. "You have been listening to a base slander against one of my very best pupils."

"You mean this Hester Grimes, Henry Grimes's daughter?" said the princ.i.p.al, sternly.