CHAPTER XXII--LOU POTTER SCORES ONE

"Has he gone?" gasped Gee Gee, weakly.

"They've driven off, Miss Carrington. Margit is in no danger now," said Bobby, eyeing the teacher curiously.

"You--you know about it, too, do you?" murmured the teacher.

"I guess I know something about it," replied Bobby, promptly. "We girls saw Margit up there in the hills when she ran away from the Gypsies the first time. And I was over to Eve Sitz's the night the Vareys stole Margit away again. I'd see the police if I were you, Miss Carrington."

"The police--yes!" returned the lady. "It will all have to be dragged into publicity, I suppose."

Bobby didn't know what to say, for she did not understand Gee Gee's present character, anyway! Nobody before had ever seen Miss Grace Gee Carrington so disturbed in her mind.

Bobby saw the front door open again, and Margit appeared on the porch.

"Come in! Come in! It's all right now," said the Gypsy girl. "There is nothing to fear from them now---- Ah! who is this?"

Bobby turned quickly and saw a little, stooped old man, turning in at the gate. Miss Carrington saw him, too, and she came to her feet in a moment. The color came back into her face and she began to look very grim again--more like her usual self.

"Morning! morning!" cackled the old gentleman, nodding at the school teacher, but looking hard at Bobby. And the latter recognized him as Eben Chumley, a queer, miserly old man who owned a great deal of property on the Hill.

"Good morning, Mr. Chumley," said Miss Carrington, quietly.

"Now, don't tell me _this_ is the gal," said Mr. Chumley, pointing a long finger at Bobby. "For that's Tom Hargrew's young 'un--I know her well enough."

"_This_ is the girl I wish you to see and talk with, Mr. Chumley," said Miss Carrington, beckoning Margit forward. Then she added, in her severest tone: "Miss Hargrew! you are excused."

"Well, the mean cat!" muttered Bobby, as she went out of the yard. "I had no intention of listening to their private affairs. But she might at least have thanked me for tumbling over that Gypsy."

Margit came to her, however, that morning, and thanked her warmly.

"You're a brave girl, Miss Hargrew," she said. "And I think that Jim Varey will let me alone hereafter. At least, he had better keep his distance."

And so it seemed, for thereafter, when Miss Carrington and her charge walked to and from school, a policeman strolled behind them. The girls--especially those of the junior class, however--were almost eaten up with curiosity.

Luckily, as June approached, they had something else to think about out of regular recitation hours. The rivalry on the athletic field became very keen indeed. Mrs. Case did her best to impress upon the girls' minds that a spirit of rivalry between classes would perhaps injure the chances of the school at large at the final meet.

"Loyalty to Central High!" was her battle cry. But all of the girls--especially a certain portion of the seniors--forgot the "good of the greater number" in the petty class differences.

Lou Potter, the senior, was backed strongly for first place in putting the shot and for the broad jump. Nobody but Mrs. Case, indeed, knew just how Lou and Eve Sitz stood in those two events.

The Saturday afternoon came when Mrs. Case was to try out the girls with the highest scores in the various events to be featured on the Big Day. Relay teams from each class had been gradually made up, and now these were to compete for the honor of representing Central High at the meet.

The Junior Four was made up of Laura Belding, Jess Morse, and Dora and Dorothy Lockwood, with Bobby Hargrew as substitute. They were not only all fast, but they were quick-witted. A relay race isn't altogether won with one's feet.

The seniors averaged taller girls, and heavier. The sophomores were nearer the weight and size of Laura and her mates; and of course, it was scarcely to be expected that the freshman four would stand a chance at all.

When the three heats were run off, however, the freshmen proved better than the seniors once, and surpassed the sophomores in two of the heats. The juniors won all three heats in fast time.

"Those squabs are coming on to be jimdandies!" declared Bobby, enthusiastically. "They're going to be just such another class in athletics as ours."

"And of course," remarked Lou Potter, who overheard her, "the junior class of Central High is just the most wonderful crowd of girls that was ever brought together."

"Now you've said it," admitted Bobby, with satisfaction. "But I never did expect to hear a senior say that about us!"

Mrs. Case came over and her presence halted further bickering. But the rivalry of the two upper classes rankled.

Bobby took the hundred-yard dash from all competitors. Later she easily beat all the other entries in the quarter-mile race.

Interest centered after that in the broad jump and the shot-putting contest. Eve was in her usual good form and equalled, in her three trials, her best previous record. Just what that record had been the girls as a body did not know; but on this occasion the distance was made public. Eve had bested all competitors by a full inch and a half. Her nearest rival was Lou Potter.

"Favoritism!" was the cry among the seniors, but they were very careful not to allow their physical instructor hear it.

In truth, Mrs. Case, as she always had been, was opposed to inter-class trials on the field or track. It lowered the standard of loyalty to the school as a whole, and was frequently the cause of bickerings and heart-burnings, as in this present case.

But she was bound by the rules of a committee in which she had but one vote. She was glad to learn, however, that other instructors in other schools were having the same trouble. The Girls' Branch Athletic League is truly against rivalry between classes of the same school.

In putting the shot the same unfortunate feeling arose between backers of Lou Potter and Evangeline Sitz. Eve carried the day; she put the twelve-pound shot far ahead of her rival. But the seniors were not satisfied. Their class would make a poor showing indeed at the meet.

"I'd just like to get square with that Swiss doll!" exclaimed Lou Potter, as she turned out of the gate of the athletic field, after it was all over and Mrs. Case had announced who would be the representatives of the school in each department of athletics, at the June meet.

"She is a foreigner, anyway. Laura Belding got her to come to this school. She'd much better have gone to Keyport, where she belongs," cried one of Lou's classmates.

They could not see that Eve's presence at Central High was likely to give the school at least two points in athletics; that Keyport might have won had the country girl attended the Keyport High, as she had first intended.

"There she goes now--aiming for the railroad station," said Lou Potter. "I wish something would keep her from getting to the field on the day of the meet."

It was this mean thought in her mind, perhaps, that made Miss Potter notice Eve particularly as she followed behind the country girl. Lou's friends separated from her, but her way led toward the railroad station, too.

And before that was reached Miss Potter suddenly became aware of the fact that a woman and a man were following Eve Sitz.

She saw them first standing at a corner, and whispering, and pointing after Eve. They were dark-faced people, foreign-looking, and the man wore hoops of gold in his ears.

"There are a lot of those Gypsies around this Spring," was Lou's first thought. "Hullo! those people are watching that Sitz girl."

She became curious, as she saw the Gypsies dog Eve's footsteps for block after block. Whether they wished to speak to the big girl, or were just watching her, Lou could not tell.

She was a bold girl herself, and not at all afraid of the Romany folk. When Eve disappeared into the railroad station and the man and woman remained outside, Lou walked up to them.

"What are you following that girl for?" she asked, and when Queen Grace and her husband would have denied it, Lou made her reason for asking plain.

"If you don't like her, neither do I. I'd like to have her out of the way for at least one day--one day next week," and she named the day of the Athletic Meet.

"This is a plot to trap us," growled Jim Varey to his wife.

But the Gypsy Queen was, as we have seen, a very shrewd student of human nature. She could see just how bad a heart Lou Potter had. Queen Grace possessed no occult power. No so-called fortune-teller has. They are all wicked people, and liars. But she had long made a study of the worst side of human nature.

She saw that Lou Potter was ripe for mischief. She talked to her softly and insinuatingly, putting Jim out of the way. Then she agreed to meet the senior again and learn just what she wished done to Eve Sitz.

For the Gypsy Queen saw a chance to make a few dollars and, as Margit Salgo had said, the woman was very avaricious. She and her husband had been following Eve idly enough. They dared not approach Margit while she was under the protection of Miss Carrington and the police; but they laid to Eve a part of the blame for the Gypsy girl's escape from their hands before they had made any money out of her.

Lou Potter went away from her conference with the Gypsies very much delighted.

"I guess we'll show them that the seniors have something to say about athletics at Central High," she muttered, over and over again. "I reckon I've scored one on Miss Eve Sitz, too!"