The Girls of Central High on Track and Field Part 27

"Those squabs are coming on to be jimdandies!" declared Bobby, enthusiastically. "They're going to be just such another cla.s.s in athletics as ours."

"And of course," remarked Lou Potter, who overheard her, "the junior cla.s.s of Central High is just the most wonderful crowd of girls that was ever brought together."

"Now you've said it," admitted Bobby, with satisfaction. "But I never did expect to hear a senior say that about us!"

Mrs. Case came over and her presence halted further bickering. But the rivalry of the two upper cla.s.ses rankled.

Bobby took the hundred-yard dash from all compet.i.tors. Later she easily beat all the other entries in the quarter-mile race.

Interest centered after that in the broad jump and the shot-putting contest. Eve was in her usual good form and equalled, in her three trials, her best previous record. Just what that record had been the girls as a body did not know; but on this occasion the distance was made public. Eve had bested all compet.i.tors by a full inch and a half. Her nearest rival was Lou Potter.

"Favoritism!" was the cry among the seniors, but they were very careful not to allow their physical instructor hear it.

In truth, Mrs. Case, as she always had been, was opposed to inter-cla.s.s trials on the field or track. It lowered the standard of loyalty to the school as a whole, and was frequently the cause of bickerings and heart-burnings, as in this present case.

But she was bound by the rules of a committee in which she had but one vote. She was glad to learn, however, that other instructors in other schools were having the same trouble. The Girls' Branch Athletic League is truly against rivalry between cla.s.ses of the same school.

In putting the shot the same unfortunate feeling arose between backers of Lou Potter and Evangeline Sitz. Eve carried the day; she put the twelve-pound shot far ahead of her rival. But the seniors were not satisfied. Their cla.s.s would make a poor showing indeed at the meet.

"I'd just like to get square with that Swiss doll!" exclaimed Lou Potter, as she turned out of the gate of the athletic field, after it was all over and Mrs. Case had announced who would be the representatives of the school in each department of athletics, at the June meet.

"She is a foreigner, anyway. Laura Belding got her to come to this school. She'd much better have gone to Keyport, where she belongs,"

cried one of Lou's cla.s.smates.

They could not see that Eve's presence at Central High was likely to give the school at least two points in athletics; that Keyport might have won had the country girl attended the Keyport High, as she had first intended.

"There she goes now--aiming for the railroad station," said Lou Potter.

"I wish something would keep her from getting to the field on the day of the meet."

It was this mean thought in her mind, perhaps, that made Miss Potter notice Eve particularly as she followed behind the country girl. Lou's friends separated from her, but her way led toward the railroad station, too.

And before that was reached Miss Potter suddenly became aware of the fact that a woman and a man were following Eve Sitz.

She saw them first standing at a corner, and whispering, and pointing after Eve. They were dark-faced people, foreign-looking, and the man wore hoops of gold in his ears.

"There are a lot of those Gypsies around this Spring," was Lou's first thought. "Hullo! those people are watching that Sitz girl."

She became curious, as she saw the Gypsies dog Eve's footsteps for block after block. Whether they wished to speak to the big girl, or were just watching her, Lou could not tell.

She was a bold girl herself, and not at all afraid of the Romany folk.

When Eve disappeared into the railroad station and the man and woman remained outside, Lou walked up to them.

"What are you following that girl for?" she asked, and when Queen Grace and her husband would have denied it, Lou made her reason for asking plain.

"If you don't like her, neither do I. I'd like to have her out of the way for at least one day--one day next week," and she named the day of the Athletic Meet.

"This is a plot to trap us," growled Jim Varey to his wife.

But the Gypsy Queen was, as we have seen, a very shrewd student of human nature. She could see just how bad a heart Lou Potter had. Queen Grace possessed no occult power. No so-called fortune-teller has. They are all wicked people, and liars. But she had long made a study of the worst side of human nature.

She saw that Lou Potter was ripe for mischief. She talked to her softly and insinuatingly, putting Jim out of the way. Then she agreed to meet the senior again and learn just what she wished done to Eve Sitz.

For the Gypsy Queen saw a chance to make a few dollars and, as Margit Salgo had said, the woman was very avaricious. She and her husband had been following Eve idly enough. They dared not approach Margit while she was under the protection of Miss Carrington and the police; but they laid to Eve a part of the blame for the Gypsy girl's escape from their hands before they had made any money out of her.

Lou Potter went away from her conference with the Gypsies very much delighted.

"I guess we'll show them that the seniors have something to say about athletics at Central High," she muttered, over and over again. "I reckon I've scored one on Miss Eve Sitz, too!"

CHAPTER XXIII--THE FIELD DAY

There was a tall, gaunt, gray man who came to the Widow Boyce's to see Miss Carrington on certain occasions. He always carried a blue bag, stuffed with papers and books, and it was well known by the neighbors that he was Miss Carrington's lawyer.

There was nothing suggestive of romance about Aaron MacCullough; but like all old attorneys he had dabbled in many, many romances. There were a score of old families of Centerport who had entrusted their cupboard secrets to Mr. MacCullough.

He came in one evening, with his blue bag, and sat down in Gee Gee's sitting room. The Central High teacher was quite as dry in appearance, and as grim as the lawyer himself. She sat on one side of the table, and he on the other, and the papers which he first examined and read aloud he pa.s.sed to her, and she scrutinized them through her spectacles.

"So," she said, at length, "these correspondents of yours in Buda-Pesth seem to know all about Salgo's affairs, do they?"

"It is notorious, Miss Carrington," said the old man, nodding. "There can be no mistake. Belas Salgo was a strange man. All geniuses, perhaps, are strange----"

"He was a wicked foreigner!" declared Miss Carrington, sharply.

"Wicked in your eyes, perhaps. He married and carried away with him your dearest friend."

"My cousin Anne--yes," said she, slowly. "She had been in my care. She was musical. She went mad over the man--and he no better than a Gypsy."

"Gypsy blood he confessed to--yes," said the lawyer, shaking his head.

"But he could make wonderful music. I remember hearing him once in this very town."

"Oh, he charmed everybody--but me," said Miss Carrington, vigorously.

"And he would have charmed me, perhaps, with his fiddle if Anne had not gone mad over him. I knew how it would be for her--misery and trouble!"

"We do not know that," said the old gentleman, shaking his head. "Her few years with Belas Salgo were happy enough, by all account."

"But she never wrote to me!" cried the Central High teacher.

"Nor she never wrote to her father's partner, Mr. Chumley. Eben Chumley, by the way, is for denying the ident.i.ty of this girl, Margit?"

"Well! so was I," admitted Miss Carrington. "Though heaven knows it was for another reason! I did not think poor Anne would have had a daughter and never written me a word about it."

"Ahem!" said Mr. MacCullough, clearing his throat significantly, "your last word to her, I understand, was a harsh one?"

"Ah! But I never meant it. She must have known I never meant it,"

exclaimed Miss Carrington, her voice trembling.