Witch Winnie's Mystery, or The Old Oak Cabinet Part 17

I hope I shall be big enough to go on the foot-ball team next year. I know you think it's dangerous, but I've calculated the chances of getting hurt and they are so very slight that I guess I'll risk it. Why, out of the whole eleven last year there were only nine that got hurt.

Be sure you all come to the exhibition drill. I enclose two tickets and Stacey sends two more. He wants it distinctly understood that you and Miss Roseveldt are his guests. So you can give mine with my compliments to Miss T. Smith and Miss Winnie De Witt. I don't send any for that Vaughn girl, for b.u.t.tertub knows her and told me he was going to invite her.

No more at present,

From your affectionate brother, JAMES HALSEY ARMSTRONG.

P. S. Stacey sends his regards to Miss Roseveldt.

P. S. No. 2. And to you.

LETTER NO. 2.

THE BARRACKS, April.

DEAR SISTER:

Wasn't the drill splendid? I knew you would enjoy it. How I wish father and mother had been in New York so they could have seen it.

You looked just stunning in that stylish hat. Stacey said so. You must excuse him if he didn't pay you very much attention. He could only leave the band during the intermission and of course he had to be polite to Miss Roseveldt. Besides he said I stuck so close to you that he hadn't any chance. He says he never saw a fellow so spooney over his own sister as I am. I tell him there aren't many chaps who have such a nice sister as you are, and then we were separated so long that I am making up for lost time.

I am glad you liked the French Army Bicycle drill. That was something quite new. Stacey was detailed to command it because he's a splendid cyclist himself, and he knew how to put us through. I didn't know till the day before that he was going to call me out to skirmish. He said: "Jimmy, you can manage your wheel better than any one else except the Woodp.e.c.k.e.r, and I am going to have you two go through with a little fancy business that will bring the house down." And didn't it? When I fired off my gun going at full speed, they clapped so that I nearly lost my head. Ricos was mad because he wasn't selected for the special manoeuvres. Ricos is better for speed than I am, and he's awfully quick-tempered--he's a Spaniard, you know, and he said to me, "Never mind, youngster, I'll pay you up for this at the inter-scholastic races." I suppose he means to win the gold medal, and I told Stacey that I believed he would, and I should be thankful to be second, or even third, for there are the best cyclists from all the other schools in the city to contend against. But Stacey says, "He can't do it, you know," meaning Ricos; and our trainer says that if he enters me at all he enters me to win. So I am going to try my level best.

Wasn't Cynthia Vaughn stunning in that green dress trimmed with fur! b.u.t.tertub said she was the most stylish girl at the drill.

Stacey made him mad by saying that she was hardly that, though, as a Harvard chap once said of some one else, he had no doubt that she was a well-meaning girl and a comfort to her mother!

Ricos invited all the Hornets, and some one of them told him that you girls are going to have a great lark--a Catacombing Party. He thought it was to represent the games of the Roman arena with cats instead of lions and tigers. I told him it must be a mistake, and that if he supposed Madame's young ladies, and my sister especially, would do anything so low as to look on at a cat-fight, he didn't know what he was talking about. But Stacey said that there was something up, he knew, for when he asked Milly Roseveldt if the girls were going to have a Venetian Fete for the benefit of the Home, as they did last year, she said it was a sheet and pillow-case party this time, and boys were not admitted. He told her he would surely disguise himself in a sheet and pillow-case and come; but he only said so to tease her, and when he saw how distressed she was he told her he was only fooling. b.u.t.tertub said Cynthia mentioned it too, and Stacey's idea was a good one and he believed he should try it. But Stacey said he would like to see him do it and that he would have him court-martialled for ungentlemanly conduct, and reduced to the ranks if he attempted to play the spy at one of the girl's frolics.

Stacey wanted me to be sure to tell you to tell Milly Roseveldt not to worry about what he said, for the cadets are all gentlemen and wouldn't think of going anywhere where they were not invited.

That's so as far as Stacey is concerned, but I don't know about Ricos.

Do tell me what you are going to do, anyway--and for pity's sake don't have any cats in it.

Your affectionate brother, J. H. ARMSTRONG.

Jim's misunderstanding of the Catacomb Party amused us very much. No one was alarmed by the boys' threats to attend it but Milly, who insisted that she had no confidence in Stacey and believed him fully capable of committing even this atrocious act.

As soon as the drill was over our interest centred on this party. The committee from our circle of King's Daughters waited upon Madame, and obtained her permission for the projected entertainment. She stipulated, however, that it must be strictly confined to members of the school and no outsiders admitted.

"The Literary Society," she said, "will give its public entertainment in the spring, and we do not wish to have the reputation of spending our entire time in getting up charity bazaars, and imposing on our friends to buy tickets. Anything in reason which you care to do among yourselves, I will consent to. It does young girls good to have an occasional frolic."

Emboldened by the unusually happy frame of mind in which Madame seemed to be basking, Winnie asked if we might act a play and have "gentlemen characters" in it. Formerly the a.s.sumption of masculine attire had been prohibited, and at one of our Literary Society dramas, a half curtain had been stretched across the stage, giving a view of only the upper portion of the persons of the actors. The young ladies taking the part of the male personages in the play, wore cutaway coats outside their dresses, and riding hats or Tam O'Shanter caps.

Madame laughed as she recalled that absurd spectacle. "Since your audience is strictly limited to your a.s.sociates, I think I may suspend that rule for this occasion," she said leniently. "When do you intend to give the play? I cannot allow you to use the chapel. How would the studio do?"

"If you please," said Winnie, "we would like the laundry."

"The laundry!" Madame exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, Madame. Tina Gale explored the lower regions under the school building one day, and the furnace room, and the long dim galleries connecting the coal bins, the cellars, and the laundry seemed to her so mysterious and pokerish that she thought it would be a nice idea to call it a Catacomb Party, especially as the girls have been so much interested in Professor Todd's early history of the Christian Church."

Madame's eyes twinkled as she heard this, for Professor Todd had been generally voted a prosy old nuisance; but Winnie was earnestness itself.

"Very well," said Madame kindly. "I do not want the girls to think that I am a cruel tyrant, or unduly strict or suspicious. ["She was thinking of the way in which she arraigned Adelaide for corresponding with Professor Waite," Winnie commented afterward.] If your committee will submit the programme to me, I have no doubt I shall be able to approve of everything. Let me see--the laundry will be your circus maximus, or theatre. Where will you have your refreshments?"

We had not thought of that.

"I will give you the key to the preserve closet; it is at the end of the drying-room, and you may make a raid upon it for your provisions. Only please be careful not to waste or destroy any more than you can dispose of. I will have some tables placed in the drying-room, and you may partake of your collation there."

This was all we needed. The preparations for the Catacomb Party went merrily on.

Trude Middleton dramatized Cardinal Wiseman's novel, "Fabiola." We who had remained at school during the Christmas Holidays had read it aloud together, and its thrilling pictures of the persecutions of the martyrs, the games of the arena, and all the life of imperial Rome, had made a deep impression upon us. Trude Middleton had a genius for writing, and Little Breeze distributed the parts, rehea.r.s.ed the play, took the role of the sorceress _Afra_, and acted as stage manager. The cla.s.sical costumes were easily arranged. Professor Waite showed us how to drape crinkled cheese cloth and to manage the folds of peplum and toga, to trace a key-pattern border, to fillet our hair, and lace our sandals.

The rehearsals were carried on in the most secret manner. Only the actors knew exactly what the play was to be. Expectancy was on the _qui vive_. Winnie had written some mysteriously attractive admission tickets, and had ornamented each one with a tiny white wire skeleton.

These tickets the ten sold to the other members of the school to the number of one hundred and twenty, not a single member of the school declining to patronize us.

The sale of these tickets had been materially aided by a manifesto, printed in red ink, supposed to simulate blood, and left dangling conspicuously from the wrist of old "Bonaparte" (Bonypart), the anatomy cla.s.s skeleton.

This manifesto read as follows:

The Council of Ten, in secret session a.s.sembled, hereby summon you, each and all, severally and individually, to the Torture Chambers of the Inquisition (otherwise known as the studio), on the ringing of the great tocsin (sometimes called the eight o'clock study bell). At that hour let each be prepared to render up her earthly goods to the amount of one ticket, vouching for fifty cents; and having donned a winding sheet, and likewise a winding pillow-case as headgear, submit to the office of the Inquisition, which will transform her, with that happy despatch due to long experience, into a disembodied spirit. At the same time the Arch Witch Winnie will turn back the clock of Time to the first century, and each ghost, being first securely blindfolded, will be led by a spirit guide, experienced in the charge of personally conducting spirits, into the great amphitheatre of the Coliseum, where she will mingle with the most renowned personages of ancient Rome, and will be permitted to live a short and exciting life under the cheerful persecution of the amiable and playful Caesars.

After the final scene of the gladiatorial combat in the arena each spirit will be led by her guide through the grewsome and labyrinthine Catacombs--faint not! fear not! to the

_Feast of the Ghouls!_

Thence, conducted by Orpheus with his lute, and Beatrice, the guide of Dante, they will cross the Styx and join in the

_Dance of the Dead_

in the shadowy Purgatorio.

At the stroke of midnight each spirit who has pa.s.sed through this ordeal with a steadfast mind will be wafted to upper regions to the rest of the blessed.

Signed by the Council of Ten, as represented by Witch Winnie, of the Amen Corner, and Little Breeze, of the Hornets; and sealed with the great seal of our office, this ---- day of ---- 18--.

SEAL.

These preparations were going on simultaneously with the investigation of the robbery, and served in a measure to relieve the tension to which we were all subjected. Still the trouble was there, and we never quite forgot it. Mr. Mudge called twice, and made inquiries, from which Winnie inferred that he was hopelessly puzzled. Milly was sure that he had found a clew, but if so, he did not impart his discoveries.

The mystic evening arrived. Cynthia, who, for some reason inexplicable to us, was in a highly self-satisfied and gracious mood, invited Polo to sleep with her in order that she might be able to attend the party. It was necessary to prefer this request to our corridor teacher, Miss Noakes, who gave us a very grudging consent; but we cared very little for her iciness since we had effected our wishes.

The girls met in the studio, where all were draped in sheets, a small mask cut from white cotton cloth tied on, and a pillow case fitted about the back of the head in the fashion of a long capuchin hood. When thus robed our dearest friends were unrecognizable. Then, marshalled by Winnie, the company of spectres paraded through the hall and down the main staircase. Miss Noakes and the other teachers stood in their doors and watched the procession, but as it was known that we had Madame's permission no attempt was made to stop us, and we pa.s.sed on unabashed.

Arrived at the lower floor each of the guests was securely blindfolded and conducted by one of our ten down the cellar stairs, and through winding pa.s.sages to the laundry, which had been converted for the evening into an auditorium, sheets having been hung on clothes-lines across one end, and the s.p.a.ce in front filled with camp chairs brought from the recitation rooms. The set tubs on one side of the improvised stage were fitted up as boxes, while a semi-circle of clothes-baskets marked the s.p.a.ce a.s.signed to the comb orchestra. As fast as the girls arrived in the laundry they were seated, and when the last instalment was in position the lights were turned nearly out, and they were told to remove the handkerchiefs which bandaged their eyes. At the same time the comb orchestra, led by Cynthia, struck up a dismal dirge-like overture, broken in upon at intervals by a tremendous thump with a potato masher on the great copper boiler. The curtain was drawn slowly aside, the lights suddenly turned on, and the play began. Adelaide made a very beautiful _Fabiola_. Winnie acted the part of _Pancratius_ with great expression. Milly looked the saintly _Agnes_ to perfection. I was _Sebastian_. We did not indulge in all the dialogue with which the book is overloaded. Our play was rather a series of tableaux, for which I had painted the scenery with the a.s.sistance of the other art students.

Professor Waite had borrowed various cla.s.sical properties from his brother artists for us. The plaster casts of the studio were made to serve as marble statues, and Madame had sent us several palms in urn-shaped pots.

When the play was nearly over, Polo, who had acted as doorkeeper, made her way behind the scenes and took my attention from the prompter's book with the horrified whisper, "If you please, there are two girls out there that are boys."

"Who? Where? How do you know it?" I asked in a breath.