CHAPTER VIII
THE ROUND ROBIN
The spectators, as well as the players, held their breath and watchedthe flying ball. Although the whistle had blown, the goal--if the ballsettled into the basket--would count for the visiting team. This oneunfinished play would give the girls of Central High two clear pointsin the lead if all went well.
The course of the flying ball was watched by all eyes, therefore. ChetBelding and his mates began their chant, believing that the ball wassure to go true to the basket.
But they began too soon. The ball hit the ring of the basket, hovereda moment over it, and then fell back and rolled into the court! Chet'schant of praise changed to a groan. The game was over--and it was atie.
Disappointed as the girls of Central High were, they cheered theiropponents nobly, and the East High girls cheered them. The audiencehad to admit that the game had been keenly fought and--after Hester wasput out of it--as cleanly as a basketball game had ever been played onthose grounds.
Miss Lawrence, the referee, came to the Central High girls' dressingroom and complimented Laura and her team on their playing.
"I was sorry to put off your forward center, Miss Belding, in thefirst half. If you had brought her into the field in the second halfyour team, without doubt, would have won," said the referee. "Thatgirl is a splendid player, but she needs to learn to control hertemper."
"That's always the way!" cried Nellie Agnew, when the West Highinstructor was gone. "Hester spoils everything."
"She crabs every game we play," growled Bobby, both sullen and slangy.
"She ought to be put off the team for good," said one of the twins.
"That's so," chimed in her sister.
"We'll never win this season if Hessie is included in this team,"declared Jess Morse.
Even Lily Pendleton could find nothing to say now in favor of herchum. She hurried away from the others girls, and the seven remainingseriously discussed the situation. It was Nellie, despite her promiseto her father, who came out boldly and said:
"Let's put her off the team altogether."
"We can't do it," objected Laura.
"Ask Mrs. Case to do it, then," said Jess.
"But who'll ask her? Hester will be awfully mad," said Eve Sitz.
"I wouldn't want to be the one to do the asking," admitted the boldBobby.
The seven regular members of the basketball team were alone now.Dorothy Lockwood said:
"I wouldn't want to be the one to sign a petition. But that is what weought to do--sign a petition to Mrs. Case asking her to remove Hester."
"What do you say, Mother Wit?" demanded Jess Morse of Laura.
"I vote for the petition," said Laura, gravely.
"And who'll sign it?" cried Dorothy.
"All of us."
"Not me first!" declared Dora.
"We'll make it a 'round robin,'" said Laura, smiling. "All seven of uswill sign in a circle, but nobody need take the lead in making therequest. If we are all agreed Jess can write the petition to Mrs.Case."
"I'll do it!" declared Jess Morse.
With some corrections from her chum, Josephine finally prepared andpresented for their signatures the petition, and having read it thegirls, one after the other, signed her name in the manner Mother Withad suggested. The petition and Round Robin was as follows:
"We, the undersigned members of Basketball Team No. 1, of CentralHigh, Girls' Branch Athletic League, after due and ample discussion ofthe facts, conclude that the retention of Hester Grimes as a member ofthe said team is a detriment thereto, and that her membership will, inthe future, as in the past, cause the team to lose games in the TrophySeries of Inter-School Games. We therefore ask that the aforesaidHester Grimes be removed from the team and that some other player benominated in her stead."
Josephine Morse, C. Hargrew, Dora Lockwood, Eve Sitz,Nellie Agnew, Laura Belding, Dorothy Lockwood]
In signing the paper in this fashion no one girl could be accused ofleading in the demand for Hester's removal. Lily had gone, so thatnobody would tell Hester just what each girl said, or who signedfirst. That Nellie Agnew had taken the lead in this petition againsther schoolmate the doctor's daughter herself knew, if nobody else did.She felt a little conscience-stricken over it, too, for she had toldDaddy Doctor that she would be guided by his advice in the matter ofHester Grimes.
And after supper that night her father said something that made Nelliefeel more than ever condemned.
"Do you know, Nell," he said, thoughtfully, pulling on his old blackpipe as she perched as usual on the broad arm of his chair. "Do youknow 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 itslipped my mind. But when I was over to see little Johnny Doyle againto-day I found Hester there and the Doyles think she's aboutright--especially Rufus."
"Rufus isn't just right in his mind--is he?" asked Nellie, her eyestwinkling 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 getback to Hester. I never told you how she jumped into the sewer-basinand saved Johnny's life?"
"No! Never!" gasped Nellie.
The physician told her the incident in full. He told her further thatHester had done a deal, off and on, for the Widow Doyle and herchildren.
"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 petition had been mailedto Mrs. Case that very evening. Her name was on it, and in her ownheart Nellie knew that she had had as much to do with the scheme toput Hester Grimes off the basketball team as any girl.
"Perhaps, if the girls had known what Hester did for Johnny theywouldn't have been so bitter against her," thought the doctor'sdaughter. "I know _I_ would never have signed that hateful paper. Oh,dear! why did Daddy Doctor have to find out that there was some goodin Hester, and tell _me_ about it?"