The Merriweather Girls and the Mystery of the Queen's Fan Part 17

s.h.i.+rley answered by putting her arm around Kit.

And when Bob and Phil heard of the trouble they were indignant.

"There's only one girl in that cla.s.s mean enough to do it," said Bob.

"I wonder if she would!"

"I'm not only wondering, but I'm going to find out!" snapped Bet vindictively.

"We're on her trail!" laughed Joy.

"And remember if there is anything we can do, let us know. We believe in Kit!" declared Phil.

The next morning Miss Owens made a point of meeting Kit outside the door and bringing her into the room. After the cla.s.s had a.s.sembled, Miss Owens said simply: "I want you all to know that Kit Patten has proved to me and to Mr. Sills that she did not use a key in her examinations. Just how the book got into her desk, we do not know, but we are making every effort to find out."

"The idea!" whispered Edith Whalen to the girl ahead of her. "How beautifully they s.h.i.+eld her!"

"They would!" agreed Vivian Long. "It does seem as if Bet Baxter and her crowd can do anything they like."

"I never did believe Kit did it," said little Annie Randall, a meek timid child who rarely took a stand in anything.

"What do you know about it?" asked Edith contemptuously. And Annie Randall was subdued.

Although most of the cla.s.s received Kit back with kindly thoughts, still the girl felt the humiliation of being doubted by others. Rather pointed jokes were flung out in her hearing occasionally. Kit was even-tempered and therefore able to endure it, but to Bet it was like a lighted match to tinder. Sparks flew and sputtered while Bet told the annoyers that Kit was worth a dozen of them, which only urged them on to further annoyance.

But Bet's heart ached for Kit, who felt these slights more than she would own. In the club, although someone would propose her name for committee work, there was always a protest, until Kit begged her friends to cease their efforts, for it only embarra.s.sed her and kept the subject before the cla.s.s all the time.

"If we could only find the one who did it!" It was on Bet's mind continually and finally she went to Princ.i.p.al Sills and talked the matter over with him. What she suggested was a trap to catch the one who had played such a mean trick on her friend.

"Whoever owns that book wants it back worst way or she would never have bought it. If we put it on Miss Owens' desk, sooner or later the guilty one will try to get it. No one else will want to touch it."

Mr. Sills was rather skeptical about the success of the plan.

"We can try it, anyway. I'm always here until after the school is locked at night."

Miss Owens was taken into the secret between Mr. Sills and Bet, but no one else was told about it.

"I can't even tell you Merriweather Girls," confided Bet. "But I'm sure I'll be able to tell the whole story before long, and you'll all be glad."

And the girls feeling sure that it had something to do with Kit's trouble, did not urge her to confide in them.

Bet, in a quiet way, saw to it that everyone in the cla.s.s knew that the key book was on Miss Owens' desk.

And her three chums found Bet a very unsatisfactory companion for the next few days. Every night after school she excused herself by saying that she had to see Mr. Sills. If they could have seen her hiding away in one of the lower grade rooms where she could see the only unlocked door of the building they would have wondered what she was up to.

On the third afternoon she was rewarded. Just as she was about to give up and go home, she saw a figure dart around the building and come in the door.

It was Edith Whalen.

Bet wanted to go herself and confront the girl, but thought better of it and kept to the plan she and Mr. Sills had made. She ran to the office and called the princ.i.p.al.

Edith had tiptoed into the cla.s.sroom, selected the book she wanted and turned to go. At the door she met Mr. Sills.

"I would like to see you in the office, Edith," he said quietly.

Edith clutched the book and quickly hid it under her coat, wis.h.i.+ng she could find a place to drop it when Mr. Sills was not looking. But there was no chance to get rid of it.

When they reached the office, the princ.i.p.al said quietly, "Edith, give me the book you have there."

The girl hesitated. He extended his hand.

"It's the Latin key from Miss Owens' desk. I want it." Then as Edith hesitated still, he demanded: "Pa.s.s it over at once."

"Now sit down here and tell me the whole story. Why did you put that book in Kit Patten's desk?"

Edith started to deny that she had done so, then decided to be perfectly silent.

Finally after an hour, during which time the princ.i.p.al made threats of expulsion, the girl finally broke down and confessed.

In the meantime Bet had gone to the phone and called Miss Owens and Kit, according to the understanding with Mr. Sills.

It was Kit who begged for Edith. "Don't expel her, Mr. Sills. I'm sure she won't do such a thing again." Kit even objected to a cla.s.s apology for the girl but Mr. Sills was firm in this.

And when school opened the next day Edith had to face the cla.s.s and say that she had put the book into Kit's desk in order to get her into trouble.

Kit was thankful that the suspicion against her was gone, but she pitied Edith.

"I don't understand her!" exclaimed the girl to her friends later.

"I'm anxious to be friends and she won't let me."

Several days later when she met Edith face to face in the dressing room, Edith exclaimed: "Get out of my sight, I hate you!"

CHAPTER IX

s.h.i.+RLEY'S SHOP

Although Kit made every effort to be friendly with Edith Whalen, she had to acknowledge herself beaten. As Merriweather Girls, the four chums felt that they should be able to win her, but Edith refused to notice any advances made by the girls and while she was not aggressively unpleasant, they felt her smoldering dislike.

"We'll just have to give up and let her alone," advised Bet. "If we appear too anxious, she may break out again and do something else. One can never be sure of Edith."

"It does seem a shame," sighed Kit. "I'd truly love to be friends in spite of what she did. I want everybody to like me."

"And she probably would have liked you, too, if you hadn't been a friend of mine. She has always disliked me."

"Well girls, let us console ourselves with some of Auntie Gibbs' fudge.

She just made it on purpose for us," cried Joy, dancing into the big entrance hall where s.h.i.+rley, Bet and Kit were curled up on the divan.

s.h.i.+rley had brought a box of prints that she had promised to show Kit, and today was a rainy Sat.u.r.day afternoon and just the time to do it.