CHAPTER XXIII--"GETTING EVEN

Due to the unexpected quarrel which had sprung up between herself and Leslie, Elizabeth had gained no fruitful suggestions regarding ways and means of hazing from Leslie Cairns. She told herself she did not care. No doubt Leslie would have coolly advised her to "drop it." This the vengeful girl had no intention of doing. Her spleen against Augusta Forbes had grown to an extent which made her determined to "even up" with the detested freshie, no matter how great the risk of detection. She firmly believed herself to be too clever to be detected.

The first days of a stormy March whistled and shrieked across the campus before Elizabeth hit upon a scheme which seemed within her scope. Fortune appeared to favor her in that Augusta exchanged sharp words with Alma Hurst and Ida Weir, the two freshmen who made it hardest for her on the basket ball team. The trouble occurred between the halves of a practice game. Elizabeth chanced to be standing near enough to the two, as a spectator, to hear a part of it. It gave her an excuse to seek out Alma and Ida that evening and have a confidential talk with them. Both players were bitter against Augusta, who had, as usual, been valiantly standing up for her rights. Elizabeth's crafty insinuations, which grew soon to open denunciation of Gussie, fell upon willing ears. Thereafter the trio were to be found with their heads together as they formulated their plot against independent Gussie.

Continued stormy weather forced Elizabeth to abandon the idea of tying Augusta to a tree on the campus and leaving her there. It also meant too great a hazard. Three of them could hardly manage the tall, broad-shouldered freshie when it came to a question of physical strength. She had tried to coax a sufficient number of girls into her scheme and had failed. She decided to resort to the method she had earlier employed of doing some mischief to Augusta's room. Over and over the three plotters discussed the subject, proposing this trick and that. Many of the proposals were too hard for accomplishment to be considered more than briefly. Every now and then one or the other would hit upon something that could be added to the list which they had made up of depredations easy "to get away with."

"The time has come to act," were the words with which Elizabeth greeted the two freshmen one afternoon. They had met her by appointment in the library. Neither lived at Wayland Hall. She had cunningly warned them against coming there until they should have "put over the great stunt." Then no suspicion could, later, be attached to them.

"Glad to hear it," Alma Hurst said with a disagreeable smile. "If ever I detested a girl I do that overgrown, domineering freshie. You can't make me believe that she didn't go to Miss Dean with a great long string of yarns about us. Miss Dean wrote me a _hateful_ note. In it she claimed the sports committee had been observing us for quite awhile. I know they _hadn't_. I wouldn't believe _her_ any sooner than I would Miss Smarty Forbes."

"Better not let any of Miss Dean's friends hear you say that." Elizabeth arched her eye-brows with a knowing air. "Her crowd think her perfection. She is awfully influential on the campus. I never tried to put anything over on her for fear of getting into difficulties."

"I've heard she was a power here." The accompanying shrug denoted supreme indifference. "I'm not likely to come within conversational range of her crowd. She doesn't approve of me, nor her pals, either. Miss Forbes gets all the babying from _them_. Can't say I admire their taste."

Elizabeth gave a contemptuous sniff. "Miss Dean pretends to be very noble and talks a lot about observing Hamilton traditions. She treated me abominably the day I landed on the station platform, a freshie." For the twentieth time Elizabeth recited her imaginary grievance. The tale was, as usual, a far departure from truth. It impressed her listeners because they wished to be impressed by it.

"I'm not surprised." Alma was still smarting from the merited rebuke Marjorie had delivered her by letter. "She's been _so_ unfair toward us. Proffy Leonard allows her to run basket ball. Speaking of hazing--was she hazed two years ago? I heard so, and that the girls who hazed her were expelled from college. I heard they were seniors."

"They were seniors," nodded Elizabeth, "seventeen of them. They weren't found out until late last year. If you are caught hazing a student, off goes your head. We must be careful. No reason why we shouldn't get away with our plan, though. This is what we'll do and when we'll do it. I am----"

"Did Miss Dean know who hazed her? Who reported the seventeen seniors?" demanded Ida Weir with manifest uneasiness.

"I don't know what Miss Dean knew. One of the hazers betrayed the others and left college." Elizabeth proceeded to paint Dulcie Vale's treachery in lurid colors. "Don't worry about being caught," she frowned, impatient at the interruption. "_I_ know how to manage matters. The girl who planned the flivver that shut her crowd out of college thought herself a wizard. She was far from being one."

"I wouldn't consider such a risky scheme for two seconds if I weren't bent on making things lively for that big booby of a Miss Forbes." Alma's eyes flashed vindictively. "Go ahead, Bess. We won't interrupt you again."

"Very well." Elizabeth accepted the apology as her due. "To begin with, we will muss up her room on the night of the next show Miss Dean's crowd give. I hear they are going to put on a concert soon. They have made a lot of money with those two plays they've already given. Catch them asking any of us to take part," she interpolated enviously. "I wouldn't if they _begged_ me to be in one. But that's neither here nor there. The night they give their old concert everybody from Wayland Hall will be over at the gym attending it. We'll buy tickets for it. Supposedly, we'll be there; only we won't. Who can prove that we were not there? Not an easy matter? What?" Elizabeth intensely admired this imitation of Leslie Cairns on her part.

"Fine!" exclaimed Alma. "Since we don't room at Wayland Hall, no one can possibly suspect us, Ida."

"Suppose anyone happened to see us coming to the Hall?" Ida proposed to regard the risk from all points.

"No one will see you," cut in Elizabeth pettishly. "You will have to come over here after everyone has started for the concert. I have a latch key that fits the front door. I found it one day in the hall near Remson's office. I heard afterward, she had lost her key, but I hung on to the one I found. I've used it after ten-thirty several times. Maybe it isn't a convenience! You can let yourself into the house with it and run upstairs in a flash. If one of the maids happened to see you she wouldn't pay any attention to you, unless you came in too late. You'll have to strike a happy medium as to the time you get here. Most of the girls will be gone from here by a quarter to eight. You ought to arrive at ten minutes of eight."

"Easiest thing in the world," Alma said confidently. "No one would think twice about seeing us. If they should it would only be to conclude we had come over to the concert with some of the Wayland Hall crowd. That key makes everything lovely. We'll be able to let ourselves in without a bit of fuss."

"Next I'll tell you the programme." Under pretense of showing the two freshmen what, to a casual observer, would have passed for notes made in the library, Elizabeth carefully went over with them the list of depredations to be carried out in Augusta's room.

"Maybe she won't look sick when she comes from the concert and sees what has happened!" gleefully predicted Alma. "It will serve that uppish room-mate of hers right. I'll see she doesn't escape. What about your room-mate, Bess? Can you keep the stuff we shall use out of her sight entirely?"

"She never sees anything but her books," was the contemptuous reply. "Leave all that to me. I know what I'm doing. Remember what I say. No one will ever guess who upset baby's room. It will go down in the annals of Wayland Hall as an absolute mystery."