The Girls of Central High on Track and Field Part 22

Any of the teachers would have a pa.s.s-key to the building. Purt remembered that fact, too. Could he prevail upon one of them to lend him a key so that he could go into the building? Of course, he must have some good excuse, and he feared to appear before Professor Dimp with any such request unless he could back it with sound reason. And Mr. Sharp was entirely out of the question. Purt knew that the princ.i.p.al of Central. High would see right through him instantly.

As for the lady teachers, Purt was more afraid of them than of Mr. Dimp and the princ.i.p.al. As it grew dark the boy sat cowering in his room at home, from the window of which he could see dimly the outlines of the schoolhouse tower, and he wept a few tears.

He would have given a good deal had he not turned the key in that lock!

Purt didn't feel that he could appear at the dinner table; so he gave an excuse to his mother's maid, and went out again. Perhaps somebody had discovered the girls up in the tower and released them. He walked up Whiffle Street and saw Chet Belding hanging over the front gate.

"Hullo, Purt!" exclaimed the big fellow. "What's doing?"

"No--nothing," stammered Purt.

"Well, don't be so scared about it. What's got you now?"

"No--nothing," stammered Purt again.

"Haven't seen Lance, have you?"

"No."

"Nor the girls?"

The question scared Purt Sweet through and through. But he plucked up courage to ask:

"How should I know anything about them? Hasn't your sister come home yet?"

"No. Down to that gym., I expect. Say, these girls are getting altogether too athletic. Didn't see Jess, either, did you?"

Purt shook his head and went on. He was afraid to stop longer with Chet--afraid that the latter would learn something about what he had done. It did seem to the culprit as though knowledge of the trick played on Laura Belding and her friends stuck out all over him.

It was deep dusk now. Purt came within a block of the school building and looked slily about the corners, as though he were bent on mischief, instead of desirous of undoing the mischief he had already done.

Had old John gone home yet? Would all the lower doors of Central High be locked? These were the questions that puzzled him.

Purt ran into the side gate of the boys' recreation ground and fumbled at the bas.e.m.e.nt door, by which he knew the janitor usually left. It was locked; yet, as he rattled the k.n.o.b, he thought he heard an answering sound within.

He scuttled away to the corner and there waited to watch the door.

n.o.body came out.

After half a minute of uncertainty the lad crept on to the boys'

entrance. The outside doors were closed and locked. He ran around to the street and entered the girls' yard. The outer vestibule door was opened here and he ventured in, creeping along in the darkness and fumbling for the doork.n.o.b.

And just then Purt Sweet got the scare of his life. A strong hand clasped his wrist and a sharp voice demanded:

"What do you want here? Are you waiting for those girls, too?"

"Oh, dear me!" gasped Prettyman Sweet, his knees trembling. "_Now_ I'm in a fix, sure enough!"

CHAPTER XIX--MARGIT AND MISS CARRINGTON MEET

It was several seconds before Purt realized just what manner of person had seized him by the arm in the vestibule at the girls' entrance of Central High. It was so dark that Purt only knew it was a girl.

"Who--who are you?" he stammered.

"Oh! It's only a boy," said the girl, in a tone of disgust. "What do you want here?"

"I--I was trying to get in," murmured Purt.

"What for? Isn't this the girls' entrance? They told me it was."

Then Purt knew that she did not belong at Central High. Indeed, she was a different kind of girl from any the youth had ever met.

"Who are you, and what do _you_ want?" asked Purt, plucking up courage.

"I guess you don't go to Central High."

"I never went to any school--not like this, anyway."

"But what do you want here? I--I left something in the building and wanted to get back and find it," stammered Purt.

"I was waiting to see those girls," said the stranger.

"What girls?" demanded the boy, in a panic again.

"Some that I know. I waited and watched down by that place where they play----"

"The athletic field?" suggested Purt.

"Perhaps. And I asked another girl. She said they had not come down from the school yet. They were kept in. So I came up here----"

"Who were the girls you want to see?"

"One is named Evangeline, and she-comes from Switzerland. I am Austrian myself. And there is another girl--a little girl who always laughs. Her name is like a boy's name."

"Bobby Hargrew," said Purt, with a stifled groan. "And neither of those girls have come out of the building yet?"

"No," said the girl. "I have watched and waited for more than an hour."

Purt rattled the k.n.o.b of the inner door desperately; but it was locked and evidently there was n.o.body within to hear him.

"They must be away upstairs and cannot hear you," said the strange girl.

And _that_ scared Purt, too. It seemed to him that this girl must know just what he had done to those girls whom she was waiting for. He started to leave the vestibule.

"Hold on! Isn't there any other door we can get in by?" asked the stranger.

"I'm--I'm going to try the main entrance. Perhaps that is unlocked,"