by Unknown
‘Now then, girls,’ continued Miss Cackle. ‘Let’s try and get to the bottom of the extraordinary story which Mildred began last night. Mildred, would you like to tell Ethel what you said to us yesterday, when Miss Hardbroom brought you in from the storm?’
Ethel’s eyes had narrowed into slits, but Mildred took a deep breath and began.
‘I had to rescue Einstein – that’s my tortoise’s name – from the hollow pine, Ethel,’ she said firmly. ‘Your toad – you know, the one you used to demonstrate my spell, the spell you stole from me – well, your toad came with a message that you’d hidden Einstein up in the hollow pine tree and he asked me to go and get him. So I did. That’s all really.’
‘All?’ thundered Miss Hardbroom. ‘That sounds like a very long list of accusations to me, Mildred. Well, Ethel, what do you have to say?’
‘I’m stunned, Miss Hardbroom,’ exclaimed Ethel. ‘I don’t know what she’s talking about. I certainly didn’t go anywhere last night, I was fast asleep in bed, and I never stole her spell. Why on earth would I want to steal a spell from Mildred Hubble? You’d have to be mad to steal a spell from her. It’d probably turn you into a cockroach or something. I don’t know how to convince you, Miss Hardbroom – I definitely didn’t go out last night. If someone put him there, it certainly wasn’t me!’
There was silence for a few moments while everyone looked at each other, then Miss Cackle spoke.
‘Well, if you didn’t, Ethel,’ she asked, ‘who did?’
‘I think you’ll find that her name was Drusilla,’ said a small, rasping voice.
Everyone jumped as they saw that Einstein had emerged from his shell and was blundering through the papers to the edge of the in-tray.
‘Einstein!’ exclaimed Mildred joyfully. ‘You’ve come out! Are you all right?’
‘Yes, yes,’ said the little tortoise, stretching his long neck and all four legs one after the other. ‘Don’t fuss. I was just a bit upset last night and thought I’d take a very long nap. Now then, my friend, what would you like to know?’
‘Everything really,’ said Mildred. ‘From when you wandered out of my bedroom till I found you in the hollow tree.’
‘Was it you who rescued me?’ asked Einstein. ‘I wondered how I got back down here again. It was such a horrible night and I was so scared. Thank you so much. Well, let me think. Oh yes, I went for a walk and Drusilla found me and took me to Ethel’s room. Ethel was just bringing me back to you when she overhead you and your friends saying that I could talk, so she told Drusilla that she was going to hide me up in the pine until the speaking-spell ran out. She was going to give me back to you after that, I remember her saying.’
‘Can you remember anything else?’ asked Mildred hopefully. ‘Do you remember what Ethel and I talked about when we were sitting in that tree on our way to school?’
‘I don’t remember that,’ said Einstein. ‘But I do remember what she said to Drusilla in her bedroom. She said that she knocked your bag down the tree on purpose and she borrowed your project and that she threw it into the kitchen bin after she’d copied it out – oh yes, and she said something about trying out a snake spell on your pot. She didn’t seem to want to go out on such an awful night, so she talked Drusilla into it instead. But it was Ethel’s idea, she made Drusilla do it. Anything else you’d like to know?’
CHAPTER TWENTY
own in the yard behind the kitchen, standing next to the huge bin, which had been turned on its side, Miss Cackle, Miss Hardbroom and Mildred watched as Ethel sifted through old bits of pie and custard and a mass of burnt porridge, still warm from the cauldron where the cooks were preparing breakfast.
‘Keep looking, Ethel,’ said Miss Hardbroom menacingly. ‘We’re going to turn over every old tea bag, every fish skin, until we find Mildred’s project.’
Ethel sat back on her heels, looking desperate.
‘It’s not fair, Miss Hardbroom,’ she said. ‘I don’t know how you can believe the word of a tortoise against mine.’
‘There it is!’ exclaimed Mildred, diving into a pile of incinerated toast. ‘I can see it! It’s my handwriting, look!’
Mildred held up her project, tea-stained and damp, but still recognizable as her treasured work.
Miss Hardbroom took it from her with one finger and thumb and looked at it sideways. ‘Well, well,’ she said coolly to Ethel. ‘I never thought that I would take the word of a tortoise above yours, Ethel, but it would seem that he is the more honest of the two of you. Now then, Ethel, before you try and wriggle out of this, let me ask you, did you steal Mildred’s project, did you turn Mildred’s pot into a snake and did you ask Drusilla to imprison this poor creature at the top of the hollow pine? Take your time, Ethel. I want a truthful answer from you.’
Ethel knew that she was cornered and in the worst trouble she’d ever been, with no way out.
‘I did everything, Miss Hardbroom,’ she muttered. ‘The snake pot, the project, and I got Drusilla to hide the tortoise because he knew too much. I’m sorry I lied. I’m sorry about everything.’
Maud and Enid were in the middle of breakfast when Mildred dashed in to join them. She was glowing from head to foot and smiling so broadly that it looked as if her head might fall off.
‘What’s happened, Millie?’ asked Maud, passing her the two slices of toast that they’d kept for her. ‘You look as if you might go into orbit.’
‘Oh, it’s wonderful, Maud,’ said Mildred. ‘Ethel’s actually confessed to H.B. and Miss Cackle that she stole my project. She’d thrown it into the kitchen bin and H.B. made her look through all the slimy rubbish till she found it. Then she confessed that she’d turned my pot into rattlesnakes and she admitted that she’d got Drusilla to hide Einstein up the tree last night –’
‘Up what tree?’ asked Enid.
‘Oh, I forgot,’ said Mildred. ‘All that happened while you were asleep. I’ll tell you about it later. I’ll just stuff down this toast or I’ll be starving at assembly.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
iss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom stood on the platform with the other teachers, looking down on the girls as they ploughed through their daily rendition of the school song.
As the last notes faded away, Miss Cackle stepped forward and smiled at her flock. ‘Good morning, girls,’ she said fondly, ‘and what a good morning it is indeed for Mildred Hubble. Step up here, Mildred – and Ethel Hallow. I think Ethel has something important to say to you, Mildred.’
Mildred and Ethel both looked at the floor as they made their way up the steps to stand under the steely gaze of Miss Hardbroom, Ethel wishing the ground would swallow her up, caught out in such a torrent of lies; Mildred self-conscious as she felt hundreds of pairs of eyes watching her curiously.
‘Various unpleasant events have happened since the beginning of this term,’ announced Miss Hardbroom, ‘and the evidence unfortunately pointed to Mildred Hubble as the culprit. I have to tell you all that Mildred was entirely innocent of any blame whatsoever. Not only has she written the best holiday project that I have ever seen, she also carried out the heroic rescue of a poor dumb animal – well, not so dumb actually – in the middle of a virtual hurricane.
‘Ethel Hallow took Mildred’s spell and passed it off as her own. I’m not surprised that you wanted it, Ethel, but you can’t just take something that doesn’t belong to you, nor must you use spell-making to wreck the work of someone who is better than you in that subject. I think an apology is in order, Ethel.’
‘Sorry, Mildred,’ mumbled Ethel, staring at her shoes.
‘Louder please, Ethel,’ said Miss Hardbroom. ‘So that the whole school can hear.’
‘Sorry, Mildred,’ said Ethel in a strangled voice. ‘It was a brilliant spell – the best idea ever. I wish it really had been mine.’
‘Thanks, Ethel,’ said Mildred shyly, pleased that Ethel had admitted everything, however grudgingly. ‘I’m sure you’ll think up one of your own in no time.’
&nbs
p; After assembly, there was a double broomstick lesson in the yard for Form Three, which took them right up to lunchtime.
‘You must be so pleased, Millie,’ said Maud, flinging an arm around Mildred’s shoulder as the lunch-bell rang out. ‘Everything’s turned out so well and the one thing H.B. can’t stand is dishonesty, so Ethel’s really got to watch out now or she’ll be for the chop.’
‘I know,’ said Mildred, smiling, ‘and Miss Cackle felt so sorry for me about the snake-pot incident after I’d done so well that she’s going to let us have a proper craft room with a kiln and everything. But the best thing of all is that I get to keep Einstein as an extra pet – Einstein!’ She dropped her broomstick with a clatter and raced for the door into school.
‘What’s the matter, Mil?’ yelled Enid.
‘It’s twelve o’clock!’ Mildred called back. ‘I won’t have time to have a last chat with him before the spell breaks!’
Mildred leapt up the front steps, dashed along the corridor and up the spiral staircase two steps at a time. She whirled into her room and lay down fat on the floor so she could see Einstein, who was sitting happily in the open doorway of the cat basket under her bed.
‘Einstein,’ said Mildred softly, ‘can you still speak? Say something, please.’
‘I’m glad I belong to you,’ said Einstein, speaking for the last time in his rasping little voice. Then he picked up his carrot and began munching it, gazing vacantly into space and looking for all the world like a tortoise with only one brain cell.
‘And I’m glad you’re mine,’ said Mildred, smoothing his knobbly shell. ‘You too!’ she added, laughing as Tabby landed on her back, miaowing loudly. She felt the same sudden surge of hope that she had felt the day before, when everything had looked so promising. ‘Perhaps it is going to be a brilliant term after all.’
