For the School Colours Part 15

"It strikes me we've got on the track of something else to-night,"

continued David. "Did you notice that lamp?"

"Yes, I did."

"And where he stuck it?"

"Rather!"

"The light would s.h.i.+ne right out to sea."

"And aeroplanes could see it too, from there."

"I've always suspected old Hockheimer. He ought to have been interned long ago. I can't think why they let him be at large. The Government's very lax with these Germans. If I were in Parliament I'd clear out the whole set of them."

Anthony drew a long breath.

"We must watch him. Don't say too much to Pamela, in case the silly goose blabs. Shall we tell her what we've seen to-night?"

"On the whole I think we'd better not. She hates him, and yet perhaps she might not altogether want to get him into trouble. We'll go cautiously, and hunt about, and see what more we can find out."

For a few days the boys purposely avoided Pamela, and she, on her part, did not seek speech with them. She was intensely chagrined at the loss of the letter, and did not like to acknowledge the humiliating fact to them. She searched everywhere in the cottage, in case the wind might have blown it from the table on to the floor, but it was not forthcoming. Her mother vetoed the suggestion that Mr. Hockheimer had taken it.

"Surely, dear, he would never be so dishonourable! You must have put it somewhere yourself."

"But, Mummie, I know I didn't. And you said yourself that you saw it on the table."

"It's very mysterious," sighed Mrs. Reynolds. "We might ask your uncle next time he comes if he took it by mistake."

"He'd only deny it."

"Pamela, you misjudge him."

"I hate him, Mummie; he bullies us both."

"We're entirely dependent on him, remember. He gives us the whole of our little income, and pays your school bills. We mustn't quarrel with our bread and b.u.t.ter. What should we do if he were to turn us out?"

"I don't know. I sometimes think I'd rather be a crossing-sweeper than take his money. Oh, life's horrid, and I hate it all! I wish we'd stayed in Canada, and never come to England. Wait till I'm a little older, Mummie, and I'll get a post as teacher, and work for you. I wish I were twenty-one!"

"That's many years off, child, and in the meantime you've to get your education. You must be civil to your uncle, Pamela."

"I will, on the outside, but I can't help my feelings inside. They're boiling!" demurred Pamela, rather defiantly, scrubbing the corners of her eyes with her handkerchief, and settling down to her lesson books.

CHAPTER IX

Concerns Day Girls

The Silverside boarders had what might perhaps be termed rather "genteel" hockey practices on Sat.u.r.day afternoons. They played half-heartedly. They were not extremely keen, and they gleefully put off play in favour of a walk or of the cinema. Isobel even broached the suggestion that hockey was a rough game, but that was when she was suffering from the effects of an ugly whack across the s.h.i.+ns, and her opinion was naturally biased. Consie's tastes were all for quiet, and she would have spent her holidays over a book if she had not been forcibly dragged out. Joyce would have preferred a dancing cla.s.s on Sat.u.r.day afternoons.

In the meanwhile the day-girls' hockey club prospered exceedingly. They had secured their old field, and had made fixtures with several other clubs. Their elation over their successes did not tend to promote the unity of Silverside. The school seemed more divided than ever.

In November came the Sale of Work. It was an annual affair held in aid of a Children's Home, and the Silverside girls worked the whole year beforehand for it. They considered it a great event. People in Harlingden were kind in coming to buy, and generally quite a nice little sum was cleared. As the time drew near, Adah began to make preparations.

"Will anyone who has contributions kindly bring them to me by the end of the week?" she announced one day at "break".

"Why should we bring them to _you_?" asked Annie Broadside, with a glint of battle in her blue eyes.

Adah's manner at once stiffened into the peculiar mixture of firmness and patronage which she deemed it desirable to adopt towards day girls.

"Why? What a question to ask! So that they can be put on the stall, of course."

"Thanks! But we'd rather arrange them for ourselves."

"You can't do that. The boarders always arrange the bazaar."

"But why, when _we_ make the things, should _you_ take them all and arrange them? They're not _your_ work!"

Annie certainly had a most aggravating habit of asking questions. Adah coloured with annoyance.

"I'm a prefect, you see!" she shuffled.

"There were no prefects last year, and you quote what you've always done as your authority."

"Well, really, the few things the day girls have brought have never mattered much before. I'll keep a s.p.a.ce for you, if you're so particular, and you can arrange them as you like, as long as you don't spoil the general look of the stall," conceded Adah, with a show of magnanimity.

"Thanks _so_ much, your Majesty! It's really most kind of you to keep a little room for our poor contribution!" curtsied Annie, with mock grat.i.tude.

When the prefect's back was turned, she fizzed over to a sympathetic and outraged circle. Adah's disdainful condescension was more than could be brooked.

"The boarders have always had _the_ stall, and the day girls have humbly helped!" said Gladys witheringly.

"How delightful for us!"

"They're to be the patricians, and we the plebeians!"

"They expect us to dust their very boots!"

"Look here," said Annie, "things are really getting beyond the limit. I vote we get up a deputation, and go to Miss Thompson about this."

"What a brain wave!"

Miss Thompson listened, attentive and rather astonished, while the deputation, very shy and red-faced, blurted out their request. She tapped her desk thoughtfully with her fountain-pen, as if some new and disturbing idea had suddenly risen on her horizon.

"Certainly there will be ample room for two stalls, and if the day girls want to have one to themselves, I can see no objection. Arrange it just as you like, and bring your own decorations. Yes, you may have a variety entertainment in one of the schoolrooms, and charge admission, if you wish. It will make extra money."

"You'll excuse our coming and asking?" apologized Gladys.