The Little Colonel at Boarding-School

by Annie F. Johnston

  CHAPTER X.

  A PLOT

  "IF there's anything I _loathe_ it's a sneak and a telltale!" The LittleColonel's voice rang out so clearly that the girls in the cloak-roomstopped to listen.

  It was Monday morning, and the pupils were assembling in the chapel foropening exercises. Lloyd stood near the door, the centre of an indignantlittle group, which cast scornful glances at another little group,whispering together by one of the windows.

  "It's the most contemptible thing that evah happened in the seminary,"Lloyd continued. "It's a disgrace to have such a girl in school."

  Katie, who had been anxiously watching the cloak-room door for the lastfive minutes, for the appearance of Allison and Kitty, suddenlyexclaimed, "There they are now, hanging up their wraps. Let's hurry andtell them before school begins!"

  The next instant the two late comers found themselves in a corner,hemmed in by Betty, Katie, and Lloyd, all so indignant that they couldscarcely make themselves understood.

  "Girls," began Lloyd, in a voice quavering with anger, "you nevah heardanything so outrageous! Satahday aftahnoon, all that time we were makingfudge up in our room, somebody was hiding in the closet next to ours,listening to every word we said!"

  "How do you know?" gasped Kitty, remembering with dismay severalspeeches she had made, which would sound decidedly foolish if repeated.

  "Lollie Briggs said so. We'd hardly got into the room this mawning whensome of the girls began to laugh and repeat every word we had said."

  "It's all over the school about our Shadow Club," chimed in Betty, "andthink how hard we tried to keep it secret! And the very girls who wouldhave been glad to join, if they had been invited in the first place, aremaking fun of it. They keep pointing to the ground behind us, andpretend to be amazed at what they see there. Of course they arereferring to our shadows, for they make all sorts of spiteful littleside remarks about them."

  "But there's something worse than that," added Katie, almost tearfully."I'll never hear the last of the speech I made about Charlie Downs andthe apple-paring initials. Oh, you just wait! They've got hold of everyfoolish little thing we teased each other about that afternoon; GuyFerris' valentine and brass button, and the little silver arrow MalcolmMaclntyre gave Lloyd years ago, and all we said about the way we'd liketo be proposed to, you know--when we were talking about the 'Fortunes ofDaisy Dale.' They're telling it all over the school, and making usappear too ridiculous for any use."

  "Who could be mean enough to hide and listen?" exclaimed Allison,indignantly. "The sneak!"

  "Say snake, while you're about it," hissed Kitty. "They're spelled withthe same letters."

  "We haven't any idea," answered Betty, "or why the girls who are doingthe most teasing and talking should take such a spiteful pleasure in it.They've seemed so friendly always, until this morning."

  "Come, girls," called Mrs. Clelling, in passing. "It's time for thesilence bell."

  Hurrying out of the cloak-room, they took their places in chapel, andobediently opened their song-books at the signal, but it is doubtful ifany member of the Shadow Club could have told afterward what was sungthat morning. The letter in Ida's chatelaine-bag, which Lloyd hadsmuggled to her soon after breakfast, on her return from thepost-office, absorbed all her thoughts. The other five girls were busywith the one question: "Who could have been such a sneak as to listenand tell?"

  There were six bad records in every recitation that the club made thatmorning. Notes flew back and forth, and anxious eyes watched the clock,eager for recess to come. At the first signal, Lloyd flew to Ida, butbefore she could outline the plan of action she and Allison had decidedupon in the history class, Ida said, hurriedly, "Oh, Princess, thatletter has upset me so I don't know whether I'm walking on earth or air.I'll tell you to-morrow--something awfully important, but I've got toplan something now, so I must go off by myself and put on mythinking-cap. Oh, I'm all in a flutter."

  Wondering what news the letter could have contained to bring such abecoming flush to Ida's face, and such a glow of happiness in thebeautiful violet eyes, Lloyd turned away disappointed. But she forgotboth the wonder and the disappointment a few minutes later, as she andAllison walked up and down in front of the seminary arm in arm. Kittyand Katie were just behind them. Betty had not yet come out, havingstopped at the sight of Janie Clung's tears to explain a problem inarithmetic.

  Lollie Briggs, Flynn Willis, and Caddie Bailey stood on the front steps,and each girl who came out of the hall was called into their midst, andtold something with many significant glances toward the four pacing backand forth past them in a fine unconcern.

  Presently Caddie called out in a voice intended for them to hear, "Iwonder if anybody can guess this conundrum. Nell, can you?"

  The question was addressed to one of the older girls who came out of thefront door just then, without a wrap around her. It was a frostymorning, and every one else had either a jacket or cloak.

  "Wait till I run back and get my golf cape," she cried. "I didn't knowit was so cold."

  "Now look out," whispered Allison to Lloyd. "They're going to saysomething to her to try to set her against us. They're stoppingeverybody who comes out. That makes eight already they've set towhispering and looking at us, all standing there in that crowd on thesteps."

  Nell came out again, hugging her golf cape around her, and stood on thetop step. "Well, what's your conundrum?" she asked, good-naturedly.

  Caddie slightly raised her voice. "What's the difference between aperson who wouldn't stoop to 'anything so common as a kissing-game,' anda person who would get up a goody-goody club, pretending it was for thebenefit of the poor, and yet all the time be using it simply as anexcuse to meet and read silly novels on the sly, and talk about theboys, and roast the other girls behind their backs, whom they considered'too common' to associate with them?"

  In a flash Lloyd realized what had offended Caddie, and what was thecause of her covert sneers. Whoever it was who had played the sneak hadtaken pains to report every word she had said about the girls who hadplayed Pillow at Carter Brown's party. She looked around to see who hadbeen the most active in denouncing the club. There they were on thesteps, Flynn Willis, Caddie Bailey, Lollie Briggs, all but MittieDupong. The same girls she had called common, because they had allowedthe boys to take a liberty which she thought cheapened them. She knewnow why they were so spiteful in their remarks. Before Nell could gatherher wits together for a reply, Lloyd sprang forward, her eyes flashing.

  "Why don't you come straight out and say what you mean, Cad Bailey?"she cried. "You're only telling part of the truth. Now I'll tell it all.I did say behind your backs that I thought it was common to playkissing-games, and now I say it to yoah faces. I can't help thinking it.I've been brought up that way, and if you've been brought updifferently, then you've a right to think yoah way. If I've hurt yoahfeelings, I beg yoah pahdon, but I have a right to express my opinion inmy own room to my best friends. We were _not_ 'roasting' anybody. Weonly made a criticism that you must expect to have made on you, whenevahyou do things that are common. And what are you going to say about theperson who hid and listened all aftahnoon? _Somebody_ was sneak enoughnot only to hide in a closet and betray secrets that no girl of honahwould have listened to, but she misrepresented the club in repeatingthem."

  Lloyd's temper was rapidly getting the best of her, but in the middle ofher anger she seemed to hear her father saying, in the playful way inwhich he used to warn her long ago, "Look out, little daughter, thetiger is getting loose." She stopped short.

  "Who did that?" cried Nell. "I didn't suppose there was such adishonourable girl in the school."

  "Neither did I," answered Flynn Willis, quickly. "I never stopped to askhow the report started. I was so mad at being talked about that I didjust what Cad Bailey told me to do, repeated everything I was told, justto tease the club and get even."

  All eyes were turned inquiringly to Caddie Bailey.

  "I don't know how it started," she cried. "Honestly I do
n't. LollieBriggs told me. She and several girls were talking about it this morningbefore breakfast, out in the hall. They were all furious, and they toldme lots of things to say that would tease Lloyd and the rest of themnearly to death. I was mad, too, but I don't know who told in the firstplace."

  "It was you, Lollie Briggs, who told me that somebody had hid in theClark girls' closet," cried Lloyd. "You know you did, when I demanded toknow who had started all this talk. Who was it?"

  "I promised I wouldn't tell," said Lollie, sullenly, "and I won't. Youneedn't ask, for no power on earth could drag it out of me. So there!"

  "It's like the story of Chicken Little," laughed Nell. "'Who told you,Goosey-Lucy? Ducky-Lucky. Who told you, Ducky-Lucky? Henny-Penny. Whotold you, Henny-Penny?' Seems to me I'd make it my business to find outwho this particularly contemptible Chicken Little happens to be, beforeI'd report any more of her tales."

  Nell swept back into the hall, and, as the four girls started to resumetheir walk, Betty knocked on the cloak-room window, beckoning violentlyfor them to come inside. They ran in pell-mell and shut the door behindthem.

  "I've found out!" cried Betty, in a tragic whisper. "It was MittieDupong! Cassie found her class-badge on their closet floor, and just nowbrought it down to her. She denied it was hers, but there's no mistakingthat queer little stick-pin and chain fastened to it that she uses as aguard. She's the only one in school who has one like that--an owl's headin a wishbone, you know. Besides, there were her initials, M. D., on theunder side of the badge. Cassie turned it over and showed them to her.She took it, then, but denied having been in the closet, and was soconfused and contradicted herself so many times that anybody could seethat she felt caught and was telling a story. She even vowed that shehadn't been near the west wing for a week. Then she ran out and bangedthe door, but Janie Clung said, 'Oh, what a story! I met her coming outof there Saturday night, on the way down to supper.'"

  "What do you think we ought to do about it?" asked Katie. That was aquestion no one could answer. In the first flush of their indignation,it seemed to them that nothing they could do to Mittie would besufficient punishment for such an act of meanness. They felt that shewas a disgrace to the school, and decided that they would be conferringa benefit on the seminary if they could succeed in getting rid of her.

  Even Betty failed for the time to remember the "Road of the LovingHeart" she was trying to leave behind her in every one's memory; and, ifthe little talisman on her finger pricked her tender conscience once ortwice, she silenced it with the reflection that it was her duty to helppunish the doer of such a contemptible deed. The name of the clubfinally suggested the means.

  "She told all the secrets of the Shadow Club, and spoiled it," saidKatie. "Now we just ought to shadow _her_. Haunt her, you know, like theKu Klux Klan, or the White Caps, so she'll leave school and be afraid tolisten again as long as she lives."

  "Yes," agreed Kitty. "We'll _hoodoo_ her. That is the way."

  Such a plan never would have been thought of in a Northern school. Evenin this little Kentucky seminary it is doubtful if it could have beencarried out had not previous events paved the way. There was scarcely apupil in the school whose earliest impressions had not been tinged insome degree by the superstitions of some old coloured nurse or familyservant. Even Lloyd had not escaped them entirely, in spite of all hermother's watchful care. Mom Beck knew better than to talk of such thingsopenly before her, but she had hinted of them to the other servants inher presence, till Lloyd had a vague uneasiness when she dreamed ofmuddy water, or spilled the salt, or saw a bird flying against a window.From babyhood such happenings had been associated in her mind with MomBeck's portents of ill-luck.

  There was not a coloured person in the neighbourhood who could haveexplained why so many graves in the negro cemetery had bottles orfruit-jars placed upon them, inside of which were carefully sealed thewhitest of chicken feathers. Undoubtedly they were the relic of some oldAfrican fetish, and a reverence for them had been handed down fromgrizzled grandsire to little pickaninny since the beginning of theslave-trade. In the same way had come all those other superstitions atwhich white people laughed, but which influenced many of them also tosome extent. For many a man who scoffed most, felt more comfortable whenhe saw the new moon in an open sky than when he caught first sight of itthrough the trees; and more than one, having once started on a journey,would not have turned back, no matter what important thing was leftbehind, preferring to do without at any cost or inconvenience ratherthan risk the ill-luck the turning back would bring.

  Lloyd knew more than one housekeeper in the neighbourhood who, for thesame reason, would not allow the ashes emptied after sundown, or anumbrella to be raised in the house; and who would turn pale if a mirrorwas broken or a picture fell from the wall or a dog howled in the night.

  Probably not a pupil in the school would have admitted that she believedin ghosts, yet few would have been brave enough to venture into thecellar at night after Mary Phillips' encounter with the spirit of the"veiled lady" on Hallowe'en. That had been a frequent topic ofconversation since that night, and had done much to prepare the way forthe plot the club concocted.

  So Kitty's proposition was received with enthusiasm. The performancebegan next day when she slipped up behind Mittie in the cloak-room, andsolemnly touched her three times in quick succession on the left earwith something she held in her hand. It felt soft and furry, and Mittie,who had a horror of caterpillars, gave a little shriek as she put up herhandkerchief to brush it away.

  Kitty had already disappeared into the chapel, but Katie was waiting,ready to begin her part of the performance.

  "Did you see that?" she said to Janie Clung, in an awed tone, just loudenough for Mittie to hear, and yet low enough to seem confidential.

  "I know people who would go stark, raving crazy if that was done tothem. What for? I thought everybody knew what for. My old nurse used tosay that to be touched three times on the ear by the left hind foot of arabbit that had been killed in a graveyard in the dark of the moon by across-eyed person, was the worst luck anybody could have." She loweredher voice a trifle. "_It's a hoodoo-mark! You're marked for the hauntsto follow you!_"

  "The what?" asked another girl who stood near.

  "The haunts--ghosts--you know. Jim Briddle calls them 'ha'nts.' Nobodycould be more cross-eyed than he is, and he's the one who gave thatrabbit's foot to Ranald Walton, and Ranald gave it to Kitty. I shouldthink that Mittie Dupong would feel mighty creepy if she knew what'sahead of her."

  Mittie heard and did feel creepy, although she shrugged her shouldersand tried hard to appear unconcerned. The fact that the club seemed toplace so much reliance in the hoodoo made a strong impression on JanieClung, and gave it a weight it would not have possessed otherwise whenthe occurrence was repeated to the other girls. Before the week was overit was whispered around the school that the charm was really working.