CHAPTER VIII.
INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE.
"Keep your seats, young--ladies, I suppose I must call you. I havesomething to say to you." We thought it was coming and were glad to haveit over with. "Something has occurred, very grave in its nature."
"Pshaw!" I thought. "Having a feast in the Gym is not so terriblygrave." I had for the moment forgot entirely about the boys' escapade.
"Last night, Mr. Ryan, our night watchman, who faithfully keeps watchover the building while you are sleeping, was coming to his duties fromthe village where he lives when he was startled by an apparition. Threefigures, garbed in white, came suddenly upon him out of the darkness.This was just outside the school grounds and about five minutes afternine o'clock--immediately after your unmasking, I take it. Mr. Ryan wasvery startled, so much so that he turned and ran all the way back to thevillage and he declares that these figures ran after him. He says thathe was able to note that two of them were tall and one quite short. Thepoor old man is very superstitious and thinks they were ghosts, but weare too enlightened to believe such a thing. In fact, we have reason tobelieve we know the girls who perpetrated what, no doubt, they considera joke, but to our minds it is nothing more than a cruel prank that nonebut unlady-like, ill-bred hoydens could be capable of." Here she pausedand grasping firmly the last few superfluous chins that had formed aboveher collar, she resolutely pushed them back and resumed her discourse."I need hardly say on whom my suspicions have fallen--the fact of itshaving been two tall figures and one short one can mean only MaryFlannagan and the Tucker twins."
We sat electrified! Why Mary and the Tuckers any more than any otherthree girls in the school? Mary was certainly not the shortest girl inthe school and the Tuckers were certainly not the tallest. It was sosilly that I would have laughed aloud if I had not been too indignant.Tweedles sat up very straight and sniffed the air like war horses readyfor battle, while Mary Flannagan looked for all the world like a littleBoston bull dog straining at his leash to get at the throat of someantagonist.
Now at this juncture a remarkable thing occurred when we consider AnniePore's timidity. She stood up and with that clear wonderful voice,musical whether in speaking or singing, said:
"Miss Plympton, I am exactly the height of the Tuckers and MaryFlannagan is my intimate friend and roommate! I insist upon being heldin exactly the same ridiculous suspicion that you have placed my threefriends."
"I am a little shorter but will walk on my tip toes the rest of my lifeif it is necessary to prove that I was with the Tuckers and MaryFlannagan from the time of unmasking last night until we went to ourroom at ten!" I blurted out, springing to my feet.
I was very angry with the boys for getting us into this scrape, butsince we were there, I was determined to stay with my friends. Of courseit was Harvie and Wink and Shorty who had met old Mr. Ryan. They hadleft the building just before nine, and he, poor old thing, being of anaturally superstitious turn of mind had come to the school earlier thanusual, as he knew it was Hallowe'en and feared something might catchhim. The boys saw he was scared and, boy-like, had given chase.
"What have you to say for yourself, Miss Flannagan?" said Miss Plympton,ignoring Annie and me as though we had never existed.
"Nothing but this: 'I deny the allegation and defy the alligator,'" saidMary, quoting Mrs. Malaprop with as much composure as she could muster.
"And you, Miss Caro--ginia Tucker?" she demanded, looking first at Dumand then at Dee and finally striking a medium course and looking betweenthem.
"I--" tweedled the twins and then both stopped. "I--" still tweedling.
"One at a time!" snapped our principal.
"I don't know what you accuse us of exactly," said Dum, taking the lead."If you accuse me of being the same height as my twin and of being muchwith her, I plead guilty. If you accuse us both of being much tallerthan our esteemed contemporary, Mary Flannagan, we both will pleadguilty. As for running out in the night and scaring poor old Mr. Ryan todeath,--why, that is absurd. We can prove as many alibis as necessary.Remember, though, we are merely twins and not triplets, nor yetquartettes. One alibi apiece is all we mean to furnish."
"And I," said Dee, as Dum paused for breath, "I! I don't mean for oneinstant to furnish an alibi or anything else. I was not out of the Gymafter we unmasked at nine until ten when we went to our rooms. I amaccustomed to having my word believed and I do not intend to proveanything one way or the other. A criminal is innocent until he is provenguilty, anyhow, and I will leave the matter entirely in your hands." Deesat down with a crash and opened a book. Miss Plympton looked somewhattaken aback, but she continued in her hard and even tones:
"Do you mean to tell me then, Miss Vir--oline Tucker,--I mean the onewho has just sat down,--do you mean to tell me you have no idea who themasked figures were who ran after Mr. Ryan?"
"No, I did not mean to tell you that," said Dee, shutting her book verydeliberately and rising again. "You did not ask me that question. Butsince you intimate that you did, rather than befoul my mouth with eventhe semblance of a lie, I will tell you that I have a very strong ideawho the masked figures were, but that I have not the slightest idea ofinforming you or any one else on whom my suspicions rest."
As Dee bumped down into her seat there was a murmur of admiration andwonder from the assembled school. Even Annie's bravery sank intoinsignificance by the side of this daring deed of Dee's.
The Juniors who had been implicated in the feast of the night beforewere greatly astonished and somewhat relieved at the turn of affairs.They had felt that something was in the wind and certainly thought itwas their feast at midnight. It seems that old Mr. Ryan had run all theway home and when he reached there was so out of breath that it took himmany minutes to tell his wife what was the matter. He had refused to goto the school to keep watch on such a night, when graves give up theirdead. The wife had come in the early morning to resign for her timidspouse. The tale had grown greatly in the telling and now the negroservants had it that sparks of fire flew from the eyes of the ghostlytrio. No doubt that was Wink's cigarette, for he had threatened to lightit before he was well out of the building.
No wonder we had been able to pull off our midnight party withoutdetection since the school had been minus a night watchman! We were allof us glad we were in trouble over something we had not done instead ofsomething we had done.
When Dee sat down with such a vicious bump, we wondered what next, butMiss Plympton soon put our minds at rest. She made about half a dozennew chins and then spoke, her voice not quite so even as before.
"It is not my intention to bandy words with mere school girls, but Ifeel that in justice to myself, I must say that it is not merely thefact of the contrasting heights of these malefactors, but it is alsoevidence of a very convincing character that has been brought to light."We were all ears, waiting for the disclosure. "It is a well-known factthat the Misses Tucker use large handkerchiefs, gentlemen'shandkerchiefs. This has been brought to my attention through mistakesthat have occurred in the laundry,--ahem--using a similar kindmyself,--" Here a smile went over the listening school. "This morning ahandkerchief was picked up on exactly the spot where Mr. Ryan began hisrace with the supposed ghosts." Exhibit No. 1 was then produced and heldup for inspection. It was a large and very shady-looking handkerchiefwith a great red T in the corner. We knew it in a moment for theproperty of Thomas Hawkins (alias Shorty). "See the initial!" pointingto the red T.
We had joked Shorty the summer before about his very large and gaudyhandkerchiefs. He had a varied assortment of H's and T's in all coloursof the rainbow. Now Dum arose in her might. Her attitude was dignifiedand quiet and she held up her hand for permission to speak.
"What is it, Caro--ginia?"
"I wish to say, Miss Plympton, that up to this juncture I have felt thatyou have been making a mistake, the kind any one might make in a case ofmistaken identity, that you have jumped to a conclusion, feeling as youdo that my sister and I and our friends are rather wild,--but now
let mesay, Miss Plympton, that you have overstepped the possibility of beingmerely mistaken and I consider your remarks and accusations nothingshort of insulting. It is bad enough to think we would go out in thenight and deliberately scare a poor superstitious old man, but tothink," and here Dum's voice took on that oratorical ring that I haveheard Zebedee's take when he was very much in earnest about proving apoint, "to think that my sister and I would own such a terriblyinartistic looking handkerchief as the one you are holding, a greatthick, cotton rag with a red initial on it,--and furthermore openly toaccuse either one of us of carrying about our persons anything sofilthy, so unspeakably dirty,--I wonder you can touch it!" This she saidwith such a vigorous intonation that Miss Plympton actually dropped thedespised handkerchief. "And now, Miss Plympton, my sister and I willwith your permission withdraw and will await an apology from you in ourroom, 117 Carter Hall."
Before the amazed eyes of Miss Plympton and the whole school, thoseintrepid twins actually got up and with the greatest composure marchedout of the assembly hall.
Instead of having to prove their innocence, they had completely turnedthe tables on Miss Plympton and were demanding an apology from her aboutsomething that was entirely foreign to the matter in hand.
Miss Plympton made some more chins and then quite like a good sportaccepted her defeat and dismissed us to our classes, and as far as Iknow, to this day Mr. Ryan does not know what came so near getting him.He was persuaded to resume his duties, however.
We nearly died laughing at Mary Flannagan, who got quite huffy at Dumfor being so scornful of Shorty's cotton handkerchief.
"It was a very appropriate, manly handkerchief and I don't think it wasat all nice of Dum Tucker to say such mean things about it," fumed Mary,refusing to be comforted. "I hate a sissy boy who uses finehandkerchiefs. The kind Shorty has are good for so many things. He usesthem to dust his shoes with and lots of other things."
"Never mind, Mary, it was a nice handkerchief and if you want it, I'llgo sneak it off the stage where old Miss Plumpton dropped it," I said,teasing our funny friend. I did get it and had it nicely laundered andput it on the school Christmas tree for Mary, much to her confusion.
Tweedles told me they had hardly been in their room five minutes whenMiss Ball came to see them as an emissary from Miss Plympton. Shebrought Miss Plympton's apology for the slur put upon them in regard tothe handkerchief. It seems that their attitude in that matter had quitewon over that strange woman, as she herself never used anything but thefinest linen handkerchiefs and she quite appreciated their feelings.
"Miss Plympton hopes you will accept her apology," continued Miss Ball;"she also hopes you will assist her in every way to find out theoffenders so she can bring them to justice."
"Now, Miss Ball, you know us well enough to feel that you are wastingyour breath, don't you?" asked Dee.
"Well, yes, but you must remember I am merely an emissary."
"Well, as man to man, Miss Ball, is it up to us to tell all we suspectmight possibly go on _outside_ of the school grounds?"
"Oh! then it may not have been pupils from our school?"
"Possibly not! But don't quote me. I merely suggest that you suggest,"and Dee shut up like a clam.
Miss Ball was not at all in love with her job as emissary and had noidea of trying to force a confession from Tweedles, so she left them nowiser than she came and the Tuckers resumed their classes as thoughnothing had occurred to interrupt the peace of the day.
Miss Plympton seemed to have more respect for our crowd than she hadbefore that scene in the assembly hall. The biggest thing that came fromthat experience, though, was that Dum and Dee Tucker immediately sent toRichmond for ladies' handkerchiefs.
"We'll save the big ones for blowers but we must have some showers!"they tweedled.