CHAPTER VIII

THE ROUND ROBIN

The spectators, as well as the players, held their breath and watched the flying ball. Although the whistle had blown, the goal--if the ball settled into the basket--would count for the visiting team. This one unfinished play would give the girls of Central High two clear points in the lead if all went well.

The course of the flying ball was watched by all eyes, therefore. Chet Belding and his mates began their chant, believing that the ball was sure to go true to the basket.

But they began too soon. The ball hit the ring of the basket, hovered a moment over it, and then fell back and rolled into the court! Chet's chant of praise changed to a groan. The game was over--and it was a tie.

Disappointed as the girls of Central High were, they cheered their opponents nobly, and the East High girls cheered them. The audience had to admit that the game had been keenly fought and--after Hester was put out of it--as cleanly as a basketball game had ever been played on those grounds.

Miss Lawrence, the referee, came to the Central High girls' dressing room and complimented Laura and her team on their playing.

"I was sorry to put off your forward center, Miss Belding, in the first half. If you had brought her into the field in the second half your team, without doubt, would have won," said the referee. "That girl is a splendid player, but she needs to learn to control her temper."

"That's always the way!" cried Nellie Agnew, when the West High instructor 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 her chum. She hurried away from the others girls, and the seven remaining seriously discussed the situation. It was Nellie, despite her promise to 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 bold Bobby.

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 we ought 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 us will sign in a circle, but nobody need take the lead in making the request. 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 and presented for their signatures the petition, and having read it the girls, one after the other, signed her name in the manner Mother Wit had suggested. The petition and Round Robin was as follows:

"We, the undersigned members of Basketball Team No. 1, of Central High, Girls' Branch Athletic League, after due and ample discussion of the facts, conclude that the retention of Hester Grimes as a member of the said team is a detriment thereto, and that her membership will, in the future, as in the past, cause the team to lose games in the Trophy Series of Inter-School Games. We therefore ask that the aforesaid Hester Grimes be removed from the team and that some other player be nominated in her stead."

In signing the paper in this fashion no one girl could be accused of leading in the demand for Hester's removal. Lily had gone, so that nobody would tell Hester just what each girl said, or who signed first. That Nellie Agnew had taken the lead in this petition against her schoolmate the doctor's daughter herself knew, if nobody else did. She felt a little conscience-stricken over it, too, for she had told Daddy Doctor that she would be guided by his advice in the matter of Hester Grimes.

And after supper that night her father said something that made Nellie feel more than ever condemned.

"Do you know, Nell," he said, thoughtfully, pulling on his old black pipe as she perched as usual on the broad arm of his chair. "Do you know 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 it slipped my mind. But when I was over to see little Johnny Doyle again to-day I found Hester there and the Doyles think she's about right--especially Rufus."

"Rufus isn't just right in his mind--is he?" asked Nellie, her eyes twinkling 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 get back to Hester. I never told you how she jumped into the sewer-basin and saved Johnny's life?"

"No! Never!" gasped Nellie.

The physician told her the incident in full. He told her further that Hester had done a deal, off and on, for the Widow Doyle and her children.

"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 mailed to Mrs. Case that very evening. Her name was on it, and in her own heart Nellie knew that she had had as much to do with the scheme to put Hester Grimes off the basketball team as any girl.

"Perhaps, if the girls had known what Hester did for Johnny they wouldn't have been so bitter against her," thought the doctor's daughter. "I know _I_ would never have signed that hateful paper. Oh, dear! why did Daddy Doctor have to find out that there was some good in Hester, and tell _me_ about it?"