21 a shock for darrell

it was jean who saw the smashed pen first. she came into the common room to get a book, andstopped short when she saw the ink on the floor, and the bits and pieces of the blue pen.

'golly!' said jean. 'who's done that? what a mean trick!'

emily and katherine came in. jean pointed to the pen. 'look,' she said. 'there's a nice little bit ofspite for you.'

'it's mary-lou's pen,' said katherine, in distress. 'what a mess. who could have smashed it? it's notan accident.'

mary-lou came in with the quiet violet. when she saw her pen, she stood and wailed aloud. 'oh!

who's done that? i had it for my birthday from mother. and now it's all smashed!'

all the girls gathered round. darrell and sally and irene were astonished to see such a silent circlewhen they came chattering in. they joined it, and were not surprised when mary-lou's wails brokeout again.

'what will mother say? she told me to take great care of it if i took it to school.'

alicia came whistling in, and she too was amazed to see the smashed pen, surrounded by its pool ofdeep violet ink. what a hateful thing to do to anyone!

'who did it?' she demanded. 'it ought to be reported to potty. i bet it's gwendoline—spiteful littlebeast.'

'where is gwendoline?' asked katherine. nobody knew. actually she was just outside the door,about to come in and pretend to be surprised and disgusted at the broken pen too. but. hearing theangry voices of the girls, her heart failed

her. she stood hesitating and listening.

'look here,' said alicia, 'there's one certain way we can find out who did this—and we will too.'

'what's that?' asked katherine.

'well, whoever stamped on this pen and smashed it must have got violet ink on the underneath oftheir shoes,' said alicia grimly.

'oh, yes,' said the others. 'of course!'

'that's clever of you, alicia,' said katherine. 'we'll examine every pair every pair of shoes in ournorth tower lockers—and when we see violet ink we shall know who did this.'

'i know without looking!' said darrell's scornful voice. 'nobody could have done it but gwendoline.

there's no one mean or spiteful enough but her!'

gwendoline trembled with rage and fright. she took a hasty look at the underneath of her out-doorshoes. yes,they were stained violet ink. hastily she ran down the passage, ran into the little store-room, took up a bottle of violet ink, and raced to the cloakroom where the shoelockers were. if onlyshe got there in time!

she did, because the others were busy clearing up the mess before going to examine the shoes.

gwendoline smeared some of the violet ink on to the under-sides of one of darrell's shoes, thenthrew the bottle into a nearby cup?board. then she hastily took off her own stained shoes, and stuffedthem into the cupboard too. she pulled on a pair of slippers.

she ran out into the court, and re-appeared at the door of the common room, apparently quite calmand unruffled. oh, gwendoline could act very well when it suited her!

'here's gwendoline!' cried alicia. 'gwendoline, do you know anything about mary-lou's pen?'

'pen? what about her pen?' asked gwendoline,

innocently.

'someone's jumped on it and smashed it,' said sally.

'what a beastly thing to do!' said gwendoline, putting on a disgusted face. 'who did it?'

'that's what we want to know,' said darrell, feeling infuriated with gwendoline's smug expression.

'and we're going to find out, see!'

'i hope you will,' said gwendoline. 'don't glare at me like that, darrell. / haven't done it! much morelikely you have! i've noticed you've been jealous ever since so much fuss was made of mary-lou forjumping into the pool to rescue you!'

everyone gasped. how could gwendoline have the cheek to say a thing like that? darrell began toboil. she felt the familiar red-hot flame rising up in her. sally saw her face and put her hand on herarm.

'go slow, old thing,' she said, gently, and darrell simmered down. but she almost choked in the effortnot to rage back at the smiling gwendoline.

'gwendoline,' said katherine, keeping her eyes on the girl's face, 'we think that whoever stamped onthis pen must have violet ink on her shoes. so we mean to examine everyone's shoes, and we are surewe shall find the culprit in that way.'

gwendoline did not change her expression at all. 'that's a very good idea!' she said, warmly. 'a verygood idea indeed. i wish i'd thought of it myself. it certainly will tell us who the hateful person is thatsmashed up poor mary-lou's pen.'

everyone was astonished to hear these words. a little doubt crept into the minds of the girls. wouldgwendoline be so pleased with the idea if she had smashed the pen? perhaps she didn't do it after all?

'you can look at my shoes first of all, if you like,' saidgwendoline, and she turned up first one foot and then another. there was no smear of ink on them, ofcourse.

'we shall have to examine the shoes in the lockers too," said katherine. 'but first, will everyoneplease turn up their feet for us to see?'

everyone did, but no one had inky marks. then, in a solemn group, the first-formers set off for thecloakroom in which their shoe-lockers were kept.

gwendoline's shoes were examined first, because katherine, like the rest felt that her shoes weremore likely to be marked with ink than anyone else's. but they were not.

it was one of darrell's shoes that was smeared with the bright-coloured ink! katherine pulled it out,and then stared at it in the greatest amazement and horror. she held it out in silence to darrell.

'it's—it's your shoe!' she said. 'oh, darrell!'

darrell stared at the inky shoe speechlessly. she looked round at the silent girls beside her. some ofthem turned away their eyes. alicia met hers with a hard look.

'well, well, who would have guessed it was our straight-forward darrell?' said alicia, flippantly. '1wouldn't have thought it of you, darrell.'

she turned away with a look of disgust. darrell caught hold of her arm.

'alicia! you surely don't think/smashed the pen! i didn't, i tell you, i didn't! 1 would never dream ofdoing such a hateful thing. oh, alicia—how could you think i'd do it?"'well—you can't deny your shoe is inky,' said alicia. 'you've got a dreadful temper, darrell, and i'veno doubt that in a fit of spite you stamped on mary-lou's pen. don't ask me why! i haven't a temperlike yours.'

'but alicia—i'm not spiteful!' cried darrell. 'you know i'm not. alicia, i thought you were my friend!

you and betty always let me come with you. you can't believe a thing like this about a friend ofyours.'

'you're no friend of mine,' said alicia, and swung out of the room.

'there's some mistake!' said darrell, wildly. 'oh, don't believe 1 did it, please, don't believe it!'

7 don't believe you did it!' said mary-lou with tears running down her cheeks. she slipped her armthrough darrell's. 'i know you didn't. i'll stick by you, darrell!'

'and so will i, of course,' said sally's soft voice, i can't believe you did it, darrell, either.'

darrell was so glad to have two friends out of the stony- eyed girls around that she could almost havewept. sally took her out of the cloakroom. katherine looked round at the others. her face waspuzzled and dismayed.

'i can't believe it's darrell either,' she said. 'but—1 suppose—until it's proved differently we'll have tothink of her as the culprit. it's a pity, because we've all liked darrell.'

'i never did,' said gwendoline's malicious voice. t always thought she was capable of any mean trick,with that temper of hers.'

'shut up," said jean, roughly, and gwendoline shut up, well satisfied with what she had said anddone.

sally and mary-lou were good friends to darrell then. they stuck by her, helped her, and stoutlydefended her. mary-lou was openly defiant to gwendoline. but it was all very unpleasant, andthough no one had suggested a punishment for the smashing of the pen, it was punishment enough tohave cool looks and cold voices always around.

mary-lou was very worried about the matter. it was all because of her pen that darrell had got intothis trouble. but she knew that it couldn't be darrell. like sally, she had great faith in darrell'snatural honesty and kindness, and she was certain she could never do a mean trick to any one.

well, then, who could have done it? it must have been someone with a spite against both mary-louand darrell, and that person must be gwendoline. therefore, gwendoline must have smeareddarrells' shoes with the ink!

but it also followed that gwendoline's own shoes must have been inky too—and yet, when sheshowed them to the girls, they had been quite free from ink.

may-lou lay in bed one night and frowned over the problem. how could it have been done? wasgwendoline there when they had planned to examine the shoes? no, she wasn't.

but she might have been listening outside! and she would have had time to rush to the shoe-lockers,smear darrell's shoes with ink, and take off her own before sauntering back to the common room andjoining in the conversation!

mary-lou sat up in excitement. she was suddenly sure that that was what had happened. she beganto shake a little, as she always did when she was frightened or excited. where could gwendolinehave hidden her shoes? somewhere near the shoe-lockers, anyway. would she have taken them awayand hidden them in a safer place? or might they still be there?

it was very late and very dark. everyone had gone to bed long ago. mary-lou wondered if she daredto go down to the cloakroom and have a look round. she so badly wanted this hateful affair to becleared up.

but she was so afraid of the dark! still, she had been afraid of the water too, till she had jumped in tosave darrell. perhaps she wouldn't be afraid of the dark either, if it was to help darrell. she would tryand see.

mary-lou crept out of bed. she didn't put on a dressing-gown. she simply didn't think of it. she creptdown the room and out of the door. thank goodness there was a dim light shining in the passage!

marv-lou crept down the stairs

down the passage she went, to the stairs, and down the stairs to the rooms below. she made her wayto the cloakrooms. oh. dear, they were in pitch-darkness. mary- lou felt a cold shiver creeping downher back. she was frightened. in a moment she would scream. she knew she would!

'this is for darrell! i'm doing something for somebody else and it's very important,' she said toherself, as firmly as she could. 'i shan't scream. but oh, where's the switch?'

she found it and pressed it down. at once the light came on and the cloakroom could be seen clearly.

mary-lou drew a deep breath. now it was all right. she wasn't in the dark any more. she felt veryproud of herself for not screaming when she had so badly wanted to.

she looked at the lockers. that was gwendoline's over there. she went to it and took out all theshoes. no—not one was inky. now—where could inky ones be hidden?