"I believe I did, just a little at the top."
"Well, don"t you notice that the leads below the window communicate with one of the bedroom windows of the school? Any one inside The Gables could step out and get into the museum that way."
"But Mrs. Jones says n.o.body has been in the school, didn"t you, Mrs.
Jones?"
"Yes, miss, no one but myself--except--yes, I do remember, one of the teachers came and asked if she might fetch a book she"d forgotten, and I let her go in."
"Which teacher was it?"
"That foreign lady."
"Madame Bertier?"
"I don"t know her name. She wasn"t there more than a few minutes."
"Oh!" said Lorraine thoughtfully. "Thank you, Mrs. Jones!"
Uncle Barton also looked thoughtful, when Lorraine described to him the whole occurrence. He wrote a note at once to the Chief Constable, to tell him where the telephone wires were cut, and sent the office boy to deliver it. Then he asked for any details his niece could supply.
"You"re a little brick!" he commented. "There"s treachery at work somewhere, undoubtedly, but the question is how to lay our hands on it.
Can I trust you and the Castletons just to keep this dark for the present? I"d rather it wasn"t noised all about the place. I"ve my own ideas, and I want to work them out in my own way."
"Shall I say anything about it to Madame Bertier?" asked Lorraine.
"Most decidedly not! Please don"t mention the matter to anybody. You can give _me_ the key of the museum till Miss Kingsley returns. You don"t need to go there again at present?"
"I"d be scared to death!" confessed Lorraine.
In spite of Uncle Barton Forrester"s injunctions, the episode of the cut telephone wires became known. The Castletons on their return home had found Madame Bertier in their father"s studio, sitting for her portrait, and, being full of the exciting subject, had poured out their story. The pretty Russian was aghast.
"It is too horrible!" she exclaimed; "to have happened while Miss Kingsley is away! Some burglar would be bad--but it is perhaps a spy. I was at The Gables yesterday, just for a moment, to fetch a book. I saw nothing! Had I met anyone I should indeed have been very alarmed! The police will no doubt keep the house under observation now."
"The question is how anybody got into the room when it was locked," said Claudia.
"Perhaps they brought a ladder. You say the window was left open?"
"Yes, but it"s shut and fastened now. Whoever came wouldn"t be able to get in so easily again."
The Easter holidays were nearly over, and in a few days the Miss Kingsleys would be back to look after their own property, and take what precautions they thought fit against burglars or spies. At the near prospect of term time, Claudia, whose spirits had effervesced lately, suddenly waxed serious. Lorraine could not make out what was the matter with her.
"You look about as cheerful as an undertaker, old sport!" she remonstrated. "Something"s got on your nerves!"
"I"m in a beastly hole," admitted Claudia, with a gusty sigh. "I know I"m a slacker."
"What have you been doing?"
"Something awful!"
"Go ahead and confess, then!"
They were sitting in the garden at Windy Howe, resting after planting some rows of peas, and sheltering under a tree from the heavy drops of a sudden April shower. Claudia pulled off her gardening gloves, and rested a delicately-modelled chin upon a prettily-shaped hand. There was desperate trouble in her blue eyes.
"I"m scared to go back to school, and that"s the fact! I"ve done an awful thing! The day we broke up, Miss Janet gave me some papers to be signed and sent in to the Kindergarten College. She said they must be posted before the 6th. I put them in my coat pocket. Well--I"ve only just remembered them."
Lorraine was aghast.
"Claudia! Your application for the exam! How _could_ you forget?"
"I don"t know, but I did!" groaned the sinner.
"When did you remember?"
"Only this morning. I hadn"t worn my coat during the holidays, it was too hot. I put it on this morning to run to the town to shop for Violet, and stuck my hand in my pocket, and found that wretched envelope."
"But did you never think of it once during the holidays? I should have thought studying would bring it to your mind."
"I haven"t done any studying--I was so dead sick of lessons," confessed Claudia. "I"ve just been playing about with the children all the time."
"Oh!"
Lorraine"s tone was eloquent.
"What _will_ Miss Janet say?" speculated Claudia gloomily.
What, indeed? Lorraine did not dare to antic.i.p.ate what would happen at The Gables on the receipt of such news. Only a member of the haphazard Castleton family would have been capable of such a shiftless act. It was exactly what Morland would have done, but Lorraine had expected better things from Claudia.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "CLAUDIA! HOW _COULD_ YOU FORGET?"]
"Can"t you get it signed now, and send it off?" she suggested.
"Father"s away to-day, but I"ll ask him to sign it when he comes back, and post it at once. I don"t suppose it"s much use, though."
"Oh, Claudia, I"m so sorry!"
"Well, it can"t be helped now," said her friend, rather impatiently.
"The rain"s stopped, and I"m going to plant another row of peas."
Lorraine could not quite understand Claudia"s att.i.tude of mind, which seemed to hold more dread of Miss Janet"s anger than concern for missing the application for the scholarship. There was a curious shade of relief mingled with her contrition. She began to sing quite cheerfully as she planted the peas, and, when Constable came running past, she picked him up and kissed him.
"Violet would miss me dreadfully if I went away. We"ve been friends the last few days," she remarked later on. "I helped to make Baby a new frock, and he looks so sweet in it. He _is_ a darling!"
There was trouble at The Gables when the Misses Kingsley returned and learnt the bad news. They wrote off at once to Miss Halden, explaining the circ.u.mstances, but the answer came back that certain rules of the College were very strict, and the governors could not consider any application submitted later than the 6th.
"Also," wrote the Princ.i.p.al. "I feel that a girl, who could forget such an immensely important step in her own career, would be of no use to us, and I could not feel justified in awarding her a scholarship. I am exceedingly sorry, but fear this decision must be final."
So there, as far as the College was concerned, the matter ended. At school, however, Claudia with an obstinate look on her face weathered the storm of Miss Janet"s contempt.