‘Of course not,’ said Bonnie.‘But I’d like to have a look at the place. It might give me some ideas on how to set this trap of ours.’
‘Well, goodness knows we could do with some!’ said Susan.‘We’d better not all go, or we’ll be tripping over one another. I think four of us should be enough.’
‘All right,’ said Felicity.‘So that’s you, me, Bonnie—and who would like to be the fourth?’
‘Me,’ said June promptly, a very determined look on her face. June liked to be at the forefront of everything that went on in the third form. Not only that, but she prided herself on her ingenuity, and if anyone was going to come up with an idea to trap Bill and Clarissa’s mystery troublemaker it was going to be her, and not Bonnie!
Esme, who felt that it was all right for her to volunteer her services if Bonnie was going, had been about to say that she would like to go, before June jumped in, and looked rather disgruntled. But she was mollified when Amy laid a hand on her arm and said, ‘Thank goodness I shall have you here to keep me company tomorrow evening, Esme. I must say, I’m surprised at Bonnie choosing to spend her valuable free time in a smelly stable!’
8
A marvellous trick
There was a letter waiting for Lucy when she went down to breakfast the following morning. The girl read it as she ate, her expression growing rather serious, and Julie noticed that she seemed quiet afterwards.
‘Anything wrong, old girl?’ Julie asked her, when they went outside at break-time.‘I hope you haven’t had bad news from home.’
‘Oh no, nothing like that,’ Lucy replied.‘The letter was from Mother, but it wasn’t bad news. You see, I wrote to her at the end of my first week, and mentioned that Esme was at Malory Towers too. I thought that she would be quite as shocked as I was.’
‘But she wasn’t?’ said Julie.
‘No. Mother wrote that she hopes that Esme and I can be friends again, and that we won’t let what has happened in the past spoil things,’ said Lucy, looking troubled.‘I was most surprised to learn that she felt like that. And, to be honest, Julie, I don’t know if it’s possible for Esme and I ever to be friends again.’
‘Lucy, what did happen in the past?’ asked Julie, frowning. ‘You can tell me to mind my own business if you want to, but sometimes it helps to confide in someone.’
Lucy looked at her friend’s open, honest face and decided that perhaps it would help to tell someone the truth about why she and Esme were enemies. So, just as Esme had confided in Bonnie, Lucy poured out the whole story to Julie.
‘Well,’ said Julie, when the girl had finished, ‘I can quite see why you and Esme find it difficult to be friends. But, really, what happened was nothing to do with either of you.’
‘I suppose that’s true,’ sighed Lucy.‘But she’s changed so much since living in America that I don’t even know if the two of us have anything in common any more.’
‘She’s still the same Esme underneath,’ said Julie wisely, taking her friend’s arm.‘I think it would be a jolly good thing if you could make it up. But just don’t go getting too friendly with her, that’s all, or I shall be left out in the cold!’
‘No chance of that!’ laughed Lucy.‘Well, I can’t see Esme and I becoming friends again overnight, but I shall try and be a little more civil to her.’
Immediately after tea, Felicity, Susan, June and Bonnie went over to Five Oaks. Bill was seated in a large, comfy armchair in the living-room, her feet up on a stool and a cup of tea at her elbow.
‘Clarissa is taking very good care of me,’ she told her visitors. ‘And everyone has been very kind. So many people have called to see me, and Mr and Mrs Banks brought me that huge bouquet of flowers. Isn’t it beautiful?’
It was indeed a beautiful bouquet, and so large that Clarissa had needed three vases to hold all the flowers.
‘Mr Banks is awfully nice,’ said Clarissa.‘Do you know, he even offered to lend us one of his stable boys for a few days to help out, but of course we wouldn’t hear of it.’
‘Goodness, that was kind of him!’ said Felicity.‘But there’s no need for you to worry about being short of help, because that’s why we’re here. A few of us third formers are going to come over and do what we can every day until Bill’s arm is healed.’
The two girls thanked them heartily, and, after they had chatted to Bill for a little while, Clarissa took the third formers outside and set them to work.
Felicity and Susan helped Jim to muck out the stables, while June swept the yard. Bonnie, meanwhile, entertained everyone with her efforts to play detective.
‘June!’ she shrieked.‘There are hoof-prints over here by the gate! The intruder must have come on horseback.’
‘My dear Bonnie,’ sighed June.‘This is a riding stable. There are hoof-prints as far as the eye can see!’
‘Oh, yes. I suppose there would be,’ said Bonnie, rather crestfallen. But her spirits rose a little later when she discovered a scrap of green wool caught on one of the fences.
‘Aha!’ she cried.‘This could be a clue.’
Alas for Bonnie, her hopes were dashed again when Clarissa said, ‘That’s where I tore my green sweater the other day.’
Then, to the amusement of Felicity and Susan, Bonnie subjected poor Jim to an intense grilling, before announcing her intention of going indoors to question Bill.
‘No!’ cried Felicity and Susan together.
‘Bonnie, don’t forget that Bill doesn’t know yet that someone deliberately tried to harm her,’ said Susan.‘And she doesn’t need any more shocks at the moment.’
‘Now what am I to do?’ sighed Bonnie.‘I’ve explored every avenue, left no stone unturned…’
‘You could always give us a hand,’ suggested Felicity, without much hope.
But Bonnie suddenly decided that she had better look round the yard again, just in case there was anything she had missed!
June, her sharp eyes peeled for anything unusual, didn’t fare any better. The one good thing about a routine chore like sweeping, she decided, was that it didn’t need brains and gave one plenty of time to think. But all her thinking got her nowhere, and she was still unable to think up a scheme for trapping the mean beast who was making life so difficult for Bill and Clarissa.
‘Well, that was a waste of time,’ she said, rather glumly, on the way back to school.
‘Nonsense,’ said Felicity.‘We were able to be of help to the girls, so I don’t think it was a waste of time at all.’
‘But we’re no nearer finding out who the culprit is,’ said Bonnie.
‘Cheer up!’ said Susan, giving her a clap on the shoulder.‘One of us is bound to come up with an idea to trap him sooner or later.’
‘Let’s just hope it’s sooner,’ said June, impatiently.
An air of gloom seemed to hang over her and Bonnie after that, and when they got back to Malory Towers it seemed to pervade the whole form. In the common-room, after prep, everyone was rather quiet and listless and at last it all got too much for Freddie.
‘For heaven’s sake, cheer up!’ she cried.‘I know it’s disappointing that we’re no nearer solving Bill and Clarissa’s problems, but there’s still plenty to celebrate. June, Felicity and Susan have all been picked for the tennis team, and Esme—’
She stopped suddenly, for Esme gave a cough and caught Freddie’s eye. Freddie read the message she was conveying at once—Esme hadn’t yet told Amy and Bonnie that she was to be reserve because she wasn’t sure if they would approve! So Freddie went on smoothly, ‘And Esme is becoming a proper English girl, thanks to Amy and Bonnie. I think that we should try to forget all of the bad things that are happening for a little while and plan some fun—a trick!’
This lifted everyone’s spirits at once, and an excited murmur ran round the room.
‘A trick! Marvellous!’
‘What a super idea. Just what we need to take our minds off things.’
‘June and Freddie’s tricks are always so
hilarious! I say, I wonder if they’ll play it on Mam’zelle Dupont?’
‘All right,’ said June, a grin replacing her frown.‘I’ve got some things in the dorm that I ordered from one of my trick booklets. If we go up a few minutes before bedtime we can take a look.’
June had a simply enormous collection of trick booklets, and she was forever studying them, and sending away for sneezing powder, or invisible ink, or some other ingenious product which she could use to trick the hapless Mam’zelle. As Miss Potts, the stern head of North Tower, remarked, ‘If June put half as much energy into her school work as she does into her jokes and tricks, she would probably be the most brilliant pupil Malory Towers has ever had!’
But June, with her quick brains and amazing memory, managed to do extremely well at her schoolwork with the minimum of effort. It was very galling, both to the mistresses, and to the other girls, who had to work far harder to obtain respectable marks. And, of course, it meant that June could reserve all of her energy for games, jokes and tricks, all of which she was superlative at.
The third formers trooped up to the dormitory ten minutes before the bell for bedtime went—which surprised Matron very much!
‘Hmm,’ she said suspiciously to Mam’zelle Dupont.‘It’s most unlike the third formers to go to bed early! I hope that they aren’t planning a midnight feast, or some other mischief! I shall check on them later.’
But when Matron quietly opened the door of the third-form dormitory shortly after midnight, all of the girls were fast asleep. For, of course, the mischief that they had been planning had nothing to do with a feast!
The girls had gathered round as June produced a bewildering array of jokes and tricks from her bedside cabinet.
‘My word, June!’ exclaimed Lucy.‘You must spend all of your pocket money on this stuff. Why, there’s enough here to start your own shop!’
‘Itching powder!’ cried Nora, snatching up a small pot.‘Goodness, just imagine poor old Mam’zelle Dupont scratching away for all she’s worth!’
‘I have something better in mind than that,’ said June, rummaging around in her cabinet.‘Ah, here it is!’
She stood up, a small box in her hand and Felicity peered over her shoulder, reading aloud, ‘Disappearing chalk. I say, that sounds exciting! How does it work, June?’
Grinning, June took what appeared to be an ordinary stick of chalk from the box, and answered, ‘Well, it works in a similar way to the invisible ink that I used on Julie in the second form. Remember that, Julie?’
‘I remember all right!’ said Julie darkly.‘Miss Parker gave me some lines to do, for talking in class,’ she explained to the new girls.‘But dear June filled up my pen with her invisible ink, so that by the time I got to the end of the page, the lines that I had written at the top had disappeared!’
The others laughed as they recalled the trick and Pam said, ‘It took you all evening to write those lines, until June finally confessed what she had done.’
‘Yes, I was simply furious at the time, though I saw the funny side afterwards,’ grinned Julie.‘But the ink wasn’t completely invisible, was it, June? I seem to remember that if you looked at the writing in a dark room and shone a torch on it, you could see it.’
‘That’s right,’ said June.‘Well, the chalk works in a similar way. When someone writes on a blackboard with this, it works just like normal chalk. But, after a few minutes, it disappears and the board appears blank again. Just watch!’
And, under the astonished gaze of the third formers, June scrawled a big, white zig-zag pattern on the door of her cabinet. Everyone stared at it, then Nora cried, ‘It’s beginning to fade! Look!’
So it was, and after a few minutes, there was no trace of the pattern at all.
Freddie, her lively mind seeing all sorts of possibilities, gave a laugh and said, ‘We can trick Mam’zelle properly with this. Let’s make some plans!’
So the third formers plotted and schemed, and Felicity even allowed the rule about no talking after lights-out to be broken, though she was normally very strict about sticking to it.
‘Only for a few minutes, though—and for goodness’ sake keep your voices down,’ she warned.‘If any of the mistresses come along and hear us we shall be in hot water.’
By the time the girls were ready to settle down to sleep, their plans had been made, and it was arranged that the trick would be played on Mam’zelle Dupont in French class the following morning.
Just before Mam’zelle arrived to take the lesson, June went up to the blackboard and removed the chalk that was on the ledge, replacing it with a stick of her own special chalk.
‘Quickly!’ hissed Freddie, who was keeping watch at the classroom door.‘Back to your seat, June. I can hear Mam’zelle coming.’
The little French mistress always wore high-heeled shoes, which made a tip-tapping sound as she walked, so that the girls could hear her approaching, which proved very useful on occasions such as this!
Swiftly, June slipped back to her seat, while Freddie remained by the door, holding it open for Mam’zelle to enter.
‘Merci, Freddie,’ said the French mistress, beaming round at the class.‘Bonjour, mes enfants. Please sit down.’
Mam’zelle Dupont was in a very good mood. Yesterday, as the wicked June knew, she had been to the opticians to get some new spectacles, and she was very pleased with them indeed. The tortoiseshell frames were, thought Mam’zelle, très chic, and so much more attractive than her old black ones. Ah, and the dear girls, they had noticed the change in their old Mam’zelle’s appearance too, for they were smiling at her in approval. Well, of course, the third formers were smiling in anticipation of the trick that was about to be played, but Mam’zelle had no idea of this and was happy. Especially when Bonnie, who was one of her favourites, said in her pretty, lisping voice, ‘Oh, Mam’zelle, how lovely you look in your new glasses!’
Mam’zelle’s smile grew even wider and she cried, ‘Ah, you flatter me, ma chère! Now, you will bring your books to me one at a time please, and I shall correct your prep. Nora, you first.’
‘Heavens, I hope Mam’zelle isn’t going to spend too long looking at everyone’s prep,’ whispered Freddie to June.‘Or we shan’t have time to play the trick. Nora! Make sure that you don’t keep her talking for too long!’
Nora was another of Mam’zelle’s favourites, and the girl had a trick of engaging the French mistress in conversation whenever she took her book up for correction. Normally the third formers were happy to encourage this, as it wasted a great deal of the lesson, but today they wanted to get their prep marked as quickly as possible. So Nora was not as chatty as usual, and was back at her desk in no time at all. Soon Mam’zelle had looked at everyone’s work, and she got to her feet. The French mistress usually began the class by setting a few questions, and she then went round the class asking for answers. She stuck to her routine today, saying, ‘Now, I will test your French grammar by writing down some simple questions on the blackboard, in French. You will answer them orally, also in French, n’est-ce pas?’
Then Mam’zelle turned to the blackboard, picked up June’s disappearing chalk and began writing. Nora wanted to laugh already, even though the trick hadn’t begun yet, and she clamped a hand firmly across her mouth, while Julie and Lucy grinned at one another in anticipation. What a super trick this was going to be!
The girls were busily scribbling down the questions as fast as Mam’zelle was writing them on the blackboard. They had to be sure to copy every word before the chalk disappeared, otherwise the trick would not work. By the time Mam’zelle finished writing the last question, the first one had already began to fade a little and, to distract the French mistress, Susan put up her hand and asked, ‘Mam’zelle, are we to write down the answers to the questions, or do you want us to answer them orally?’
Mam’zelle looked at Susan in surprise and said, ‘Why, you will speak your answers, of course, Susan. Have I not just said so?’
‘Oh, did
you, Mam’zelle?’ said Susan meekly.‘Sorry, I wasn’t concentrating.’
‘This is not like you, Susan,’ said Mam’zelle, a little sternly. ‘Now, you shall answer the first question, and you will pay attention, d’accord?’
‘Oui, Mam’zelle,’ answered Susan seriously, glancing over the French mistress’s shoulder and seeing that the blackboard was now quite blank.
‘Bien!‘ said Mam’zelle, ‘Now, the first question is…’
Mam’zelle turned to face the blackboard, giving such a start of surprise that her brand-new glasses slid down her nose.‘Tiens!‘ she cried.‘My questions, they have vanished.’
‘Whatever do you mean, Mam’zelle?’ asked Susan, feigning a puzzled look.
‘See for yourself!’ exclaimed Mam’zelle, becoming agitated as she flung her arm out towards the blackboard.‘I wrote them carefully on the blackboard, and now they are gone!’
The rest of the third formers pretended to look very puzzled too, all except Nora, who could feel a terrific snort of laughter coming on and quickly lifted the lid of her desk so that she could hide behind it.
‘Gone, Mam’zelle?’ said June.‘Whatever do you mean? Why, the questions are there on the blackboard as plain as day. We can all see them, can’t we, girls?’
The third formers all nodded and Mam’zelle cried, ‘Ah, this is a treek! June, if the questions are there on the blackboard then read me the first one!’
June, who had memorised the first question so that she did not need to glance at her notebook, peered at the blackboard and read it out. Her expression was so grave and earnest that it proved too much for Nora, who gave one of her explosive snorts of laughter, which she hurriedly turned into a cough.
‘You, Nora!’ said Mam’zelle.‘You read me the second question.’
Nora, whose memory was not as good as June’s, glanced quickly down at the paper on her desk where she had scribbled the questions, and repeated it rather hesitantly, mispronouncing a couple of words. For-tunately, she was poor at French anyway, so Mam’zelle did not notice anything out of the ordinary!