"That's all right then," said Nat cheerfully, "and now hurry up and come along to bed, or we'll get into a row." She switched off the light and in another minute they had gained the dormitory, where the rest of its occupants, tired and sleepy, were already tumbling into bed. Nat saw Monica into her cubicle, then nodded a cheery good-night and pulled back the curtains over the entrance. Monica drew out the photograph she had tucked under her arm, looked at it and sighed. Then she dropped it into one of her drawers, pulled off her clothes and slipped into bed a second before Miss Bennett looked in at the dormitory door, said, "Good-night all," and switched off the light. In spite of that sigh, Monica dropped off to sleep almost as soon as her head touched the pillow. The pleasant recollection of Nat's cheerful face and wide smile as she pulled back the curtain was her last mental vision before she lost consciousness.
Nat was not so lucky. A tiresome knot in a string delayed her nearly five minutes, with the result that she had to finish undressing in the dark, finally falling to sleep blissfully unaware that the stockings she had pulled off and aimed at the chair at random had, instead of finding their true destination, dropped with uncanny precision into the water jug and its liquid contents.
CHAPTER X
LOST, STOLEN OR STRAYED?
The next day was wet, so that the girls were obliged to amuse themselves indoors in their recreation time. Consequently there was no hockey practice, but it was not long before someone noticed the absence of the sticks from their accustomed place in the corner of the gym, half a dozen girls of the Fifth and Sixth, who were considered old enough to use the apparatus without the supervision of a mistress, having enjoyed themselves there that afternoon.
When it was realized that the sticks really had been spirited away by some mysterious agency and that nobody had the least idea where they were, there was a considerable sensation in the ranks of the hockey club members.
"Can it be burglars?" one Fourth-former suggested. "They might have broken into the school during the night."
"Burglars? Nonsense!" replied Madge briskly. "What burglar would bother to break into a place just to steal a pile of old hockey sticks! No, somebody has hidden them for a lark."
"But who?" demanded Deirdre. "And where?"
The group of girls in the gym room looked at each other in perplexity.