CHAPTER IX

ANOTHER RAID

Hester Grimes, as the doctor said, had appeared late that afternoon at the Doyles' little tenement. She had gone there from the basketball game instead of going directly home.

To tell the truth, she did not wish to be questioned by her mother, nor did she want to meet Lily. If she had felt hatred against her mates in Central High before, that feeling in her heart was now doubled!

For, as all anger is illogical (indignation may not be) Hester turned upon the girls and blamed them for the referee's decision. Because Miss Lawrence had put her out of the game Hester would have been glad to know that her team mates had gone to pieces and been defeated.

She had managed to recover outwardly from her disappointment and anger, however, when she arrived at the domicile of her humble acquaintances. Mrs. Doyle knitted jackets, and Hester had ordered one for her mother.

"Ma is always lolling around and complaining of feeling draughts," said Hester. "So I'll give her one of these 'snuggers' to keep her shoulders warm. She's always snuffing with a cold when it comes fall and the furnace fire is not lit."

"Lots o' folks are having colds just now," complained Mrs. Doyle. "Johnny's snuffling with one."

"Oh, he'll be all right--won't he, Rufie?" said Hester, chucking the baby under his plump little chin, but speaking to his faithful nurse.

"In course he will, Miss Hester," cried Rufus, and then opened his mouth for a roar of laughter, that made even the feverish Johnny crow.

"Rufus never gets tired of minding Johnny," said the widow, proudly. "But he does miss his Uncle Bill."

Rufe's face clouded over. "He ain't never home no more," he said, complainingly.

"But you can go over to see him at the gymnasium," said Hester.

"Not no more he can't, Miss," said the widow. "Rufus used to go over to see Uncle Bill evenings; but Uncle Bill can't have him there no more."

"Why not?" asked Hester, quickly; and yet she flushed and turned her own gaze away and looked out of the window.

"Bill's had some trouble there. He's afraid the Board of Education would object. Somebody got into the building----"

"I heard about it," said Hester, quickly.

"Wisht Uncle Bill had another job," grumbled Rufus.

"Rufie's real bright about some things," whispered his mother. "And sharp ain't no name for it! He is pretty cute. You can't say much before him that he don't remember, and repeat."

"Wisht that old gymnasium building would burn up; then Uncle Bill could come home," muttered Rufe.

Mrs. Doyle went to see to her fire. Hester beckoned the boy to the window and whispered to him. Gradually Rufe's face lit up with one of his flashes of cunning. Money passed from the girl's hand to that of the half-witted youth.

Just then Dr. Agnew appeared and Hester took her departure.

On the following morning Franklin Sharp, the principal of Central High, called a conference of his teachers at the first opportunity. He was very grave indeed when he told them that another raid had been made upon the girls' gymnasium.

"Not so much damage is reported as was done before. But, then, the paraphernalia before destroyed was not all removed. But this time the scoundrel--or scoundrels--tried arson.

"A fire was built in a closet on the upper floor. Bill Jackway smelled smoke and got up to see what it was. He found no trace of the firebug--can discover no way in which he got out----"

"But how did he get in?" asked one of the teachers.

"That is plain. It had rained early in the evening. Footprints are still visible leading across a soft piece of ground from the east fence to a window. The window was open, although Bill swears it was shut and locked when he went to bed at ten o'clock. That is how the marauder entered the building. How he got out is a mystery," declared the principal.

"It is a very dreadful thing," complained Miss Carrington. "I do not see what we can do about it."

"We must do something," said Miss Gould, with vigor.

"Suppose you suggest a course of procedure, Miss Gould?" said the principal, his eyes twinkling.

"I think it would be well," said Miss Gould, "to sift every rumor and story regarding this matter. There is much gossip among the girls. I have heard of a threat that one girl made in the gymnasium----"

"That is quite ridiculous, Miss Gould!" cried Miss Carrington, with some heat. "You have been listening to a base slander against one of my very best pupils."

"You mean this Hester Grimes, Henry Grimes's daughter?" said the principal, sternly.

"That is the girl," admitted Miss Gould. "I know little about her----"

"And I know a good deal," interposed Mrs. Case, grimly. "Miss Carrington finds her good at her books, and her deportment is always fair in classes. I find her the hardest girl to manage in all the school. She has a bad temper and she has never been taught to control it. It has gone so far that I fear I shall have to shut her out of some of the athletics," and she related all that had happened at the basketball game with the East High girls the afternoon before.

"I do not approve of these contests," said Miss Carrington, primly. "They are sure to cause quarreling."

"If they do, then there is something the matter with the girls," declared Mr. Sharp, briskly.

"And I have received this request from the girls of the team--seven of them--this morning," continued Mrs. Case, producing the "round robin." "The only girls beside Hester who did not sign it is a girl who always chums with her--the only really close friend Hester has to my knowledge in the school.

"Now, I should like very much to be instructed what to do about this? The girls are perfectly in the right. Hester is not dependable on the team. There should be another girl in her place----"

"Oh, but it is quite unfair!" cried Miss Carrington. "And remember her father is quite an important man. There will be trouble if Hester is put down in these tiresome athletics; or if this story that is going about is repeated to Mr. Grimes I can't imagine what he _would_ do."

"Mr. Grimes does not run the Board of Education, nor does he control _our_ actions," declared Mr. Sharp. "We must take cognizance of these matters at once. I believe you should remove Hester from the team, as requested, Mrs. Case. You have ample reason for so doing. And this matter of the attempt to burn the gymnasium must be investigated fully."

"But no girl could do these things in the gymnasium," cried Miss Carrington, with considerable asperity.

"But she could get somebody else to do them--especially a girl who is allowed as much spending money as Hester Grimes," said the principal. "I can imagine no sane person committing such a crime. It is wilful and malicious mischief, and could only be inspired by hatred, or--an unbalanced mind. That is my opinion."