CHAPTER XVIII--ON THE EVE OF THE CONTEST
So, thus carried kindly by the Swiss farmer and his son, Laura Beldingcame to the farmhouse on the hillside. It was a comfortable home, with abig tile stove in the sitting room, and shining china arranged in longrows on high shelves all around the kitchen. The Sitzes had kept up manyof their old-world customs and made a comfortable living upon a rockyand hilly farm on which most Americans would have starved to death.
Mrs. Sitz was a comfortable looking, kindly woman, by her expression ofcountenance; but she spoke little English. There was a girl aboutLaura's age, however, named Evangeline. She was a buxom, flaxen-haired,rosy girl, who was delighted to see the strange girl whom her father hadfound in the haunted house.
Evangeline took Laura into her own room, removed her shoe and stocking,and bathed the twisted ankle in cold water, and then insisted uponrubbing home-made liniment upon it, and bandaging the member tightly.All the time she was doing this, she was exclaiming "Oh!" and "Ah!" overLaura's adventure as the latter related it.
"I think it was real mean of those other girls to run and leave you,"said Evangeline, sympathetically.
"I don't think it mean," laughed Laura--for she could laugh now that theadventure had ended so happily. "There were so many of them that I wasnot missed, I suppose, in the general stampede."
"But you might have remained there all night."
"No! And that reminds me, your father says you have a telephone. I mustcall up my father, or brother. And yet--I wonder if I won't scare motherby calling at this time of night? Let me think."
"You can use the telephone if you want to," said Evangeline, hospitably."It's right here in the corner of the living room."
But Laura had a bright idea about the telephoning. She knew that, bythis time, the girls must have arrived home. She did not believe Jesswould go right past her house without making inquiries for her. And bythis time the household might have been aroused, and her father, orChet, would be on the way to Robinson's Woods to hunt for her.
So she first called up the hotel at the entrance to the picnic park andtold the people there that she was safe, and where she was to be found.She learned that, already, a party of men, and one girl, were outbeating the woods for her.
In an hour a motor-car steamed up to the farmhouse door and Chet andLance, with Jess close behind them, ran into the house.
"Oh, Laura! Laura!" cried her chum, in tears again. "Do forgive me forleaving you to the ghost. And what did it do to you? And how did you gethere? And how came your skirt nailed to the floor of that horrid house?And----"
"Dear me! Wait and catch your breath," laughed Laura, kissing her.
"Well, I'm glad you're all right, Sis," said Chet, pretty warmly for abrother, for the big boy was proud of his sister.
Launcelot Darby squeezed Laura's hand tightly, but could say nothing.Lance admired Laura more than any other girl who went to Central High;but he was not able to express his feelings just then.
The farmer and his family--especially Evangeline--invited the girl toremain all night and rest her injured ankle. But Laura would not hear ofthat, although she appreciated their kindness.
"I want Dr. Agnew to see my ankle. Why! we've got a basket-ball game onfor Friday afternoon, you know, Jess, with East High team--and I can'tpossibly miss that."
"I'll carry you out myself to the car," declared Lance, gruffly. Hesuddenly picked her up in his arms (and Laura was no light-weight) andmanaged to place her in the tonneau very comfortably.
"Come again! Ach! Come again!" cried Mrs. Sitz, from the doorway,bobbing them courtesies as they went down the walk.
Evangeline ran out to the car to kiss Laura good-night, and the latterpromised that she would ride over soon and see the farmer's daughteragain. But Otto took the boys aside and assured them, with muchemphasis, that the Robinson house was actually haunted, and that hewouldn't go into it alone, at night or by day, for his father's wholefarm!
"But how did you get nailed to the floor, Laura?" demanded Jess, in thetonneau beside her chum, and when the car was speeding back to town.
"Why! foolish little me did that herself, of course," laughed Laura."That's what I did when I drove the first nail. Then, when you all ran,squealing, and I tried to do the same, the nail held me and pulled meback. I thought something had grabbed me by the skirt--I really did!" andshe laughed again.
But Laura was silent about the rest of her adventure--and none of heryoung companions chanced to ask her why she had not screamed for help.She hid the veil and determined to wait and watch, hoping to get someclue to the owner of the article. She was sure that the figure she hadseen for a moment, and which had, of course, bound her wrists and gaggedher with the veil, was one of the girls--somebody who bore her a grudge.
"And who that can be, I don't know--for sure," thought Laura, after shewas in bed that night and the throbbing of her ankle and the fever in itkept her awake. "But somebody must really hate me--and hate me hard!--tohave played such a trick on me."
It was not that Laura was entirely unsuspicious; but she did not voicethe vague thought that ever and anon came to her mind regarding theidentity of the person who had so treated her. She did not believe itwas any trick that the members of the M. O. R. were cognizant of; but tomake sure she went to Mary O'Rourke that very Monday and asked herpoint-blank.
Mary had no knowledge of the affair. She deeply regretted that such amisfortune should have overtaken the candidate.
"No more haunted houses for us!" declared the senior. "We'll hold theinitiation in the clubhouse--and it will be a tame one, I guess. Thegirls were all pretty well scared. Of course, we shouldn't have beenfrightened--especially we older ones; but we _were_, and that's all thereis about it."
But the joke on the M. O. R.'s went the rounds of the school. Jess couldnot keep still about it, and all the members of the secret society were"ragged"--especially by the boys--over being scared by two farmers with alantern hunting for a strayed cow!
Chet took his sister to and from school for a couple of days in the carand she walked as little as possible meantime; so that the ankle soonrecovered its strength. The basket-ball match, which was to come off onthe court belonging to East High, was the main topic of conversationamong the girls of Central High all that week.
"Just think! they've got a good court, and we haven't such a thing,"commented Josephine Morse to her chum. "I think it is too bad. We needsome philanthropist to come here and give us a big prize for our field.When are you going to tackle Colonel Swayne again, Laura?" and shelaughed.
"Ah! you don't believe a way to his heart can be opened?" asked herfriend, smiling.
"It's a way to his pocket-book I'm speaking about."
"Have patience. I feel that he will be a great help to us----?"
"You've got a 'hunch,' then, as Chet says?"
"I expect that is what they call it. But have patience."
Jess was a member of the basket-ball team, as was Laura. And on the teamHester Grimes played. Hester was a strong girl and could play well ifshe chose; but her temper was so uncertain that Mrs. Case considered itnecessary to watch the butcher's daughter very closely.
"And I wish you all to remember," said the physical instructor, the daybefore the match at East High, "that we must play fair. Play the gamefor the game's sake--not so much to win. If one desires, above allthings, to win, he or she may forget to be perfectly fair. No foulplaying. We are going to an opponent's field. Let us win a name forplaying clean basket-ball, whether we win the game or not."
"What's the use of playing if we don't play just as hard as we knowhow?" demanded Jess.
"Play for all there is in you," agreed Mrs. Case. "I will see that youdo not overexert yourselves. But do not lose your tempers. And do notforget to cheer for the opposing team after the game, whether it wins orloses. Be fair, and let the sport be clean."
"Did you watch Hessie while Mrs. Case was talking?" whispered Jess inLaura's ear.
"No."
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p; "She looked so scornful! I hope she won't make us unpopular with theEast High girls. But you know how mean she acts sometimes when we playwith some of the scrub teams."
"It will be too bad if she makes a scene," said Laura, thoughtfully,"and shames us before our opponents. The girls of Central High will thenget a bad name for playing foul--and we can't afford to have _that_reputation."