CHAPTER XIV
What Happened at Easter
In spite of her real concern for Rosemary's disappointment, Lorraineenjoyed the Easter holidays. There was much to be done in them. Morlandand Claudia were anxious to revisit the Sea-Nymph's Grotto, which hadbeen neglected during the winter, so with Landry in attendance theychose a fine day, and had another delightful picnic there. Fortunatelythe tides had not reached as high as the mouth of the cave, and their"furniture" was undisturbed; even the shell patterns remained asformerly, though the sea-weed was brown and shrivelled. That was amatter easily remedied, however, for the rock pools below were full ofpink and green algae, and corallines beautiful enough for a mermaid'sbouquet.
"It would be a ripping place for a hermit," said Morland. "I expect itbeats a dug-out hollow. I shall often think of it when I'm called up!"
"Me go to the war too!" said Landry suddenly.
He spoke so seldom that Claudia turned in surprise.
"No, Landry, dear, I couldn't spare you."
"But Morland's going!"
"All the more reason why you should stay at home and take care of me."
"Me want to be with you _both_," said Landry fretfully.
"But that can't be. The Government will send papers, and then Morlandwill have to go."
There was trouble in the boy's blue eyes; his poor dull brain seemed tobe making a supreme effort to understand. He spoke again, still in thelanguage of a little child.
"Landry will take the nasty papers and hide them, and then Morland stayat home."
"No, no, dear! Landry couldn't do that," laughed Claudia, fondling hishand. "You must be my good boy and look after me when he's gone."
Landry relapsed once more into his habitual silence, but it was evidentthat a new and unusual access of thought was stirring in his feeblemind. He kept looking at Morland with awakened interest. Lorraine,watching, wondered what was the result of his cogitations. His ownsister and brother, accustomed to his moods, took no more notice of anoccurrence that seemed trivial at the moment, but afterwards boreunexpected fruit.
"When we've made the cave so nice, it seems almost a pity to keep it_quite_ to ourselves," suggested Morland after a pause.
"Why, but we all pledged ourselves to absolute secrecy!"
"I know we did."
"Whom do you want to bring here?" enquired Claudia suspiciously.
"Oh, nobody in particular. Only Madame Bertier was asking me one day ifthere were any caves along the coast. I thought she'd like to see thisone."
"You're not to bring that Russian woman here! I don't like her. I hopeyou did not tell her about it?"
"Of course not!"
"Honest Injun?"
"Crystal clear I didn't!"
"It's _our_ secret, and _nobody_ is to know," said Claudia, stillruffled. "Let us all take a sort of oath!"
"Right oh! _I_ shan't break it!" agreed Lorraine emphatically.
"Will you swear, Morland?" urged Claudia.
"Who's going to tell?" asked Morland huffily. "What a fuss you girlsmake about nothing. The cave might be full of diamonds instead of onlyshells!"
"Only shells, indeed!" Claudia's tone was belligerent.
"I wish you'd both help me to collect some shells," put in Lorraine,trying to patch up peace. "I want some more desperately badly for themuseum."
A duty which Lorraine had undertaken during the holidays was thearrangement of the school museum. She was the curator, but during termtime she was so fully occupied that she had never been able to sort andlabel the specimens which the girls had brought to her. The wholecollection had been so far stored away in boxes. Now, however, MissKingsley had set apart special premises for the museum. There was anunused room at The Gables that in the days of former tenants had beenoccupied by the coachman. It adjoined the house, but was approached byan outside staircase from the yard. It had been filled with lumber, butMiss Kingsley had had this cleared away, the floor had been scrubbed,and some old desks moved in to serve as cases for the specimens.
Miss Kingsley and Miss Janet had gone away for Easter, and the servantswere also taking a much-needed rest. The Gables therefore was shut upfor the holidays, though the charwoman, who lived in a cottage close by,went in to scrub and clean. Before leaving, Miss Kingsley had givenLorraine the key of the museum, so that she might enter it when shewished, quite independently of going to the house.
Lorraine spent very happy mornings there--sometimes alone, sometimeswith Claudia to help her. With the aid of natural history books from theschool library, she identified and labelled the specimens to the best ofher ability. It was a quiet kind of work that appealed to her. She feltthat the room was going to be a tremendous acquisition to the school.All sorts of treasures could find a home on the walls, secure from themeddlesome fingers of juniors. She intended to keep it as a sort ofsanctum for the monitresses, and had visions of holding committeemeetings there, and bringing tea in thermos flasks.
One morning she had arranged to spend a little time at the museum and tomeet Claudia, who had promised to come and help her. The trysting-placewas the old windmill, and Lorraine stood there waiting. Claudia waslate--the Castleton family were always late for everything--and Lorrainewalked impatiently up and down the road. Footsteps coming round thecorner made her turn expectantly. To her surprise, the new-comer was nother friend, but her uncle, Mr. Barton Forrester.
"Why, Uncle!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing up here? I thought youwere so busy at the office?"
"So I am; and I ought to be at work now. This is what comes of being aspecial constable! There's a pretty to-do to-day! The telephone wireshave been cut, and the job is to discover _where_!"
"The telephone wires cut!" echoed Lorraine. "But who has cut them?"
"Some spy, I suppose. One has constantly to be on the lookout fortreachery, especially in a place like this. If we could only find outwhere the leakage is! There, Lorraine, I can't stay. I've got to see Mr.Jermyn immediately."
Uncle Barton--busy, energetic little man that he was--waved his hand tohis niece and hurried away up the road, just as Claudia, also in ahurry, turned the corner. Lorraine cut short her apologies with the newsabout the telephone wires.
"It means," she explained, "that, until they find the place and can mendit, Porthkeverne's cut off by telephone from all other places. You maydepend upon it, as Uncle says, there's some treachery at the bottom ofthis. Isn't it horrible to think that there may be spies in the town,ready to betray one's country?"
"Dreadful!" shuddered Claudia. "They ought to intern everyone who's theleast bit under suspicion."
The two girls walked rapidly to The Gables, and went into theschool-yard and up the outside staircase. Lorraine had the key in herpocket, and unlocked the museum. Directly she entered, she noticed thatthe room was not as she had left it. Some of the desks and boxes hadcertainly been moved. She remembered exactly how she had placed themyesterday. Her first thought was that Mrs. Jones, the charwoman, musthave been in to clean; but that was clearly impossible, for she herselfhad the key. Who could have intruded into the sanctum, and for whatreason? She discussed it with Claudia. It gave them both a most uncannyfeeling to think that someone had been able to enter. The Gables waspractically shut up. Had a burglar been picking the locks during MissKingsley's absence? There seemed to be nothing in the museum likely toexcite the cupidity of even an amateur thief; the specimens, thoughinteresting to the school, were of no monetary value. Lorraine's glancewent slowly round the room, and took in the desks and boxes, the walls,on which she had pinned natural history prints, and finally wandered upto the ceiling. Ah, here was a clue at last! The trap-door in the cornerhad certainly been moved--it did not now quite fit down. There was aboutan inch of light to be seen round its edge. A horrible idea suggesteditself to the girls. _Suppose somebody was in hiding up there!_
The bare notion blanched their cheeks. With one accord they fled fromthe room, locked the door on the outside, and scurried down the steps.In the yard they paus
ed. What was to be done next? They did not feelcapable of tackling a possible burglar unaided, yet it seemed ratherweak to run away.
"Let's fetch Morland!" said Claudia.
The suggestion seemed a good one. Lorraine was only too content to throwherself upon masculine aid. They walked at double speed to Windy Howe,and hauled Morland from the piano. He stopped in the middle of a Brahmssonata, and offered at once to go back with them to the school.
"You see, Miss Kingsley and everybody's away, and there's only thecharwoman about," explained Lorraine. "I know she'd be worse scared thanourselves if we told her."
"Right-o! I'll go and investigate," agreed Morland, rather pleased toshow his courage before the girls.
So they all three went back to the museum, and here Morland placeddesks and boxes together, and mounted on them so as to reach thetrap-door, through which he wriggled. The girls held the pile steady,and watched his long legs disappear through the opening.
"It leads on to the roof!" he shouted. "I'll climb up and explore. I'min a sort of garret with a ladder in the corner."
To the waiting girls it seemed a very long time before Morland returned.At last, however, they heard his footsteps overhead, and he called tothem to hold the erection while he came down. It was with a sense ofrelief that they saw his boots issue through the trap-door. They had hadan idea that he might have disappeared for ever.
"Well?"
"Did you see anybody?"
Morland shook his head. He was dusting his sleeves, and trying to rubthe dirt off his hands.
"I didn't catch a burglar, but I've made a discovery," he said slowly.
"What?"
The girls were half-frightened, half-thrilled.
"I've been on the roof. Did you know the telephone wires run over theschool?"
"I never noticed."
"Well, they do. And what's more, they've been cut!"
"Great Scott!"
"Whoever did it has been very clever. It was a unique spot to get atthem, and impossible to be seen from the road."
"I must tell Uncle Barton _at once_!" gasped Lorraine breathlessly."It's exactly what he was wanting to find out!"
"We'd better ask Mrs. Jones if anybody has been hanging about theplace," suggested Claudia.
The charwoman, on being interviewed, assured them that nobody had beento the school. There was only one key to the museum, so it could nothave been entered in their absence.
"Did you leave the window open?" asked Morland of Lorraine.
"I believe I did, just a little at the top."
"Well, don't you notice that the leads below the window communicate withone of the bedroom windows of the school? Any one inside The Gablescould step out and get into the museum that way."
"But Mrs. Jones says nobody has been in the school, didn't you, Mrs.Jones?"
"Yes, miss, no one but myself--except--yes, I do remember, one of theteachers came and asked if she might fetch a book she'd forgotten, and Ilet 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 thewhole occurrence. He wrote a note at once to the Chief Constable, totell him where the telephone wires were cut, and sent the office boy todeliver it. Then he asked for any details his niece could supply.
"You're a little brick!" he commented. "There's treachery at worksomewhere, 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 thepresent? I'd rather it wasn't noised all about the place. I've my ownideas, 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 cangive _me_ the key of the museum till Miss Kingsley returns. You don'tneed 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 cuttelephone wires became known. The Castletons on their return home hadfound Madame Bertier in their father's studio, sitting for her portrait,and, being full of the exciting subject, had poured out their story. Thepretty Russian was aghast.
"It is too horrible!" she exclaimed; "to have happened while MissKingsley is away! Some burglar would be bad--but it is perhaps a spy. Iwas at The Gables yesterday, just for a moment, to fetch a book. I sawnothing! Had I met anyone I should indeed have been very alarmed! Thepolice will no doubt keep the house under observation now."
"The question is how anybody got into the room when it was locked," saidClaudia.
"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 toget in so easily again."
The Easter holidays were nearly over, and in a few days the MissKingsleys would be back to look after their own property, and take whatprecautions they thought fit against burglars or spies. At the nearprospect of term time, Claudia, whose spirits had effervesced lately,suddenly waxed serious. Lorraine could not make out what was the matterwith her.
"You look about as cheerful as an undertaker, old sport!" sheremonstrated. "Something's got on your nerves!"
"I'm in a beastly hole," admitted Claudia, with a gusty sigh. "I knowI'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 plantingsome rows of peas, and sheltering under a tree from the heavy drops of asudden April shower. Claudia pulled off her gardening gloves, and resteda delicately-modelled chin upon a prettily-shaped hand. There wasdesperate trouble in her blue eyes.
"I'm scared to go back to school, and that's the fact! I've done anawful thing! The day we broke up, Miss Janet gave me some papers to besigned and sent in to the Kindergarten College. She said they must beposted before the 6th. I put them in my coat pocket. Well--I've onlyjust 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 wastoo 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 havethought studying would bring it to your mind."
"I haven't done any studying--I was so dead sick of lessons," confessedClaudia. "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 anticipate what would happen atThe Gables on the receipt of such news. Only a member of the haphazardCastleton family would have been capable of such a shiftless act. It wasexactly what Morland would have done, but Lorraine had expected betterthings from Claudia.
"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 attitude of mind, whichseemed to hold more dread of Miss Janet's anger than concern for missingthe application for the scholarship. There was a curious shade of reliefmingled with her contrition. She began to sing quite c
heerfully as sheplanted the peas, and, when Constable came running past, she picked himup and kissed him.
"Violet would miss me dreadfully if I went away. We've been friends thelast few days," she remarked later on. "I helped to make Baby a newfrock, and he looks so sweet in it. He _is_ a darling!"
There was trouble at The Gables when the Misses Kingsley returned andlearnt the bad news. They wrote off at once to Miss Halden, explainingthe circumstances, but the answer came back that certain rules of theCollege were very strict, and the governors could not consider anyapplication submitted later than the 6th.
"Also," wrote the Principal. "I feel that a girl, who could forget suchan 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 amexceedingly sorry, but fear this decision must be final."
So there, as far as the College was concerned, the matter ended. Atschool, however, Claudia with an obstinate look on her face weatheredthe storm of Miss Janet's contempt.
"After all the trouble I took in coaching you! It's really too bad!You've ruined your own career, and no one but yourself to thank for it!Why, the scholarship was as good as gained! You'd so easily have passedthe exam. It was all arranged with Miss Halden, and you've spoilt thewhole thing with your carelessness. You might at least have the grace tosay that you're sorry!"
"I'm very sorry, Miss Janet," said Claudia in an apathetic voice.
The mistress glanced at her keenly.
"I doubt if you really are! I can't make you out! I'm disgusted with thewhole affair. One gets very little thanks for trying to help people!"
Claudia, in terrible disgrace, retired sobbing. Later on, however, shepoured confidences into Lorraine's ear.
"I'm sorry of course to disappoint Miss Janet, but I can't tell you howrelieved I am, really! I never wanted to go, and that's the fact. I'dhave _hated_ to be a kindergarten teacher! I'd rather go on the land ifI leave home at all, but--but----"
"Claudia!" began Lorraine, with sudden enlightenment, "were you going tobe _home-sick_?"
"I suppose so. I'm fond of the children, you know, though I get fed upwith them sometimes. It would take a very strong magnet to draw me away.Perhaps if something really _fascinating_ offered, I'd want to go--butnot for Kindergarten! No thanks! Some other girl may get the scholarshipinstead of me, and she's welcome to it. After all, home is a very niceplace."
"It certainly is. I don't want to leave mine just at present," agreedLorraine reflectively.