CHAPTER XXII
ANOTHER MYSTERY
"Ready, Betty," said Miss Anderson briskly. "You enter at the left andbegin 'I thought I heard voices--' Don't look toward the auditorium.Remember you are supposed to be in a small room."
Betty managed to command her voice, and the rehearsal went on. MissAnderson herself took the part of the maid and, as she had foreseen,by the time they had finished the hour they were in a normal, happyframe of mind.
No reference was ever made by any one to Ada's speech, but she neverappeared at another rehearsal. After two weeks' diligent practice, theplayers were pronounced perfect and a night was set for the performanceof "The Violet Patchwork."
"Why don't we go to the woods and get some leaves to trim the assemblyhall?" suggested Betty two days before the time for the play. "Mrs.Eustice's sister is coming to see her, and some other guests, and we wantit to look nice. We might get some nuts, too. Aunt Nancy promised us nutcake with ice cream if we'll get her enough."
"All right, I like to go nutting," agreed Bobby. "But, for goodness'sake, if we're going to walk a hundred miles this time, let's havesomething to eat with us. Sandwiches and a regular spread. How many haveboxes from home?"
A canvass showed that a round dozen of the girls had been favored thatweek, and, at Bobby's suggestion, they donated their goodies to "thecommon cause."
"Not all the girls will want to go," said Betty. "Some are such poorwalkers, they'll decline at the first hint of a hike. Every one in theV.P. will want to go, I think, and that's eleven. Then, counting thegirls with boxes and the others who have asked to come, we'll havetwenty. Twenty of us ought to manage to bring home enough leaves to trimthe hall respectably."
"We might ask for a holiday!" Bobby's face beamed at the thought. "Wehaven't had a day off in weeks, and Mrs. Eustice said a long time ago shethought we'd earned one. Will you do the asking, Betty?"
Betty was accustomed to "doing the asking," and she said she would oncemore if Norma Guerin would go with her. Wherever possible, Betty drewNorma into every school activity, and she persistently refused to allowher friend to talk as though the Christmas holidays would end their daysat Shadyside. Alice worried less than Norma, but both girls grieved atthe thought of the sacrifice those at home were making for them and feltthat they could not accept it much longer without vigorous protest.
Betty and Bobby, on the other hand, were determined to see to it thatthe sisters spent their holidays in Washington, and while Bobbycherished wild plans of filling a trunk with new dresses and hats andforcing it in some manner upon her chums, Betty concentrated herattention on the subject of cash. She intended to consult her uncle, inperson if possible, and if that proved impossible, by letter, and Bob asto the feasibility of persuading Norma and Alice to borrow a sumsufficient to see them through to graduation day at Shadyside. Betty wassure her uncle and Bob, in both of whom she had infinite faith, couldmanage this difficult task satisfactorily, though the Guerin pride was aformidable obstacle.
Acting immediately on the decision to ask for a holiday, Betty and Normawent down to the office and preferred their request, which was cordiallygranted after an explanation of its purpose.
"All day to-morrow off!" shouted Betty, bursting in upon the six girlsassembled to hear the result.
"We may go after breakfast and needn't come back till four o'clock whenMiss Anderson has called a dress rehearsal," chimed in Norma.
Libbie and Louise were dispatched to notify the other girls and togive strict instructions to those who had boxes not to eat any more ofthe contents.
"Elsie Taylor had already eaten six eclairs when I requisitioned her boxfor the picnic," said Constance Howard. "It's lucky we're going tomorrow,or there wouldn't be much left to eat."
Betty and Bobby each had a box from Mrs. Littell, who sent packages ofsensible goodies regularly to her girls in turn.
"I hope the sandwiches will keep fresh enough," worried Betty.
But she might have saved her worry.
Just as she and Bobby were going to bed that night Norma and Alice camein, wrapped in their kimonos, each carrying a large box under her arm.
"What do you suppose?" asked Norma. "Good old Aunt Nancy heard we weregoing after nuts for her cake and leaves for the hall, and she's made usdozens of sandwiches. She said she did it because Mrs. Eustice reservedone of the best seats for her at the play. Anyway, we'll be glad to havethem, shan't we? And, oh yes, Aunt Nancy says she'll make us a cake asbig as 'a black walnut tree' and two kinds of ice cream!"
"And she brought the sandwiches up to Norma and Alice because shewas determined they should have something for the picnic," thoughtBetty after the girls had gone. "Talk about tact! Aunt Nancy has thereal thing."
The girls were all up early the next morning, and soon after breakfastthey were on their way to the woods. Many of those who were not of thenutting party went to Edentown, some took canoes and went paddling,others "puttered" around the school grounds, enjoying the beautifulautumn weather and the luxury of a holiday.
Ada Nansen and her friends had elected to go to Edentown, and passed thenutting party on the way. Betty took one glance into the bus and thenlooked at Bobby. That young person promptly giggled.
"Did you see what I saw?" she asked.
"Poor Ada!" said Betty. "She does have troubles of her own!"
For of all the teachers, Miss Prettyman alone had been available aschaperone, and to go to town under Miss Prettyman's eagle eye wasanything but an exciting experience. She was usually bent on "improving"the minds of her charges, and she improved them with serene disregard ofthe victims' tastes and interests. Betty and Bobby had seen her sittingbolt upright in the bus, reading a thin volume of essays while Adascowled at the happy crowd tramping in the road.
The woods reached, they separated, some to gather branches of leaves andothers intent on filling their sacks with nuts. The boxes of lunch wereneatly piled under a tree, and sweaters were left with them, for it wascomfortably warm even in the shadiest spots.
"I don't believe we will have many more days like this," remarked FrancesMartin, her nearsighted eyes peering into a hollow tree stump. "Girls,what have I found--a squirrel?"
"Plain owl," laughed Betty. "Isn't he cunning?"
They crowded around to admire the funny little creature, and then,admonished by Bobby, whom Constance declared would make a good drillsergeant, set busily to work again. Nuts were not plentiful, but theyfilled half a sack, and then, a large pile of flaming branches havingbeen gathered, they decided to drag their spoils back to the tree and tohave lunch.
"Girls, girls, girls!" shrieked Libbie, who was in the lead, "our lunchis gone--every crumb of it!"
Sure enough, the sweaters were all tossed about in confusion and theboxes had disappeared.
"Who took it?" demanded Bobby wrathfully. "You needn't tell me thatlunch walked off!"
High and clear and shrill, a familiar whistle sounded back of them.
"That's Bob!" Betty's face brightened. "Listen!"
She gave an answering whistle, and Bob's sounded again.
There was a scrambling among the bushes, and a group of cadets burstthrough. Bob and the Tucker twins were first, and after them came GilbertLane and Timothy Derby and Winifred Marion Brown.
"Hello, anything the matter?" was Bob's greeting. "You look rather glum."
"So would you," Betty informed him, "if you were starving after amorning's work and your lunch was stolen."
"Gee, that is tough!" exclaimed Bob sympathetically. "Who stole it?"
"We don't know," volunteered Bobby. "But all those boxes couldn't takewings and fly away."
"You go back and get the fellows," Bob commanded Tommy Tucker. "We werehaving a potato roast down by the lake, and while the potatoes werebaking some of us came up for more wood," he explained to the girls. "Wethought we heard voices, and so I whistled."
Tommy Tucker was flying down to the lake before half of this explanationwas given.
"Have you a
holiday, too?" Betty asked. "We're out to get decorations forthe play."
"It's the colonel's birthday," explained Bob, "and the old boy gave usthe day off. Here come the fellows."
Half a dozen more cadets joined them, all boys the girls had met at thegames. They were loud in their expressions of sympathy for thedisappointed picnickers and promptly offered their potatoes asrefreshments when they should be done.
"Oh, we're going to get that lunch back," announced Bob Hendersonconfidently. "Look here!"
He pointed to some footprints in a bit of muddy ground.
"Cadet shoes!" cried Tommy Tucker. "Jimminy Crickets, I'll bet it's thatMarshall Morgan and his crowd!"
"But this is a girl's shoe," protested Betty, pointing to another print."See the narrow toe?"
"Ada Nansen or Ruth Royal!" guessed Bobby quickly. "They're the only oneswho won't wear a sensible shoe."