All round her she heard excited inquiry. What Junior had crept out on the beam? Was it Edward Ellis?
"You didn't see a Junior go up this side, did you, Sarah?" asked Mabel Thorn; and Sarah answered with a truthful and weary "No."
She had sat down on the edge of a springboard, she did not hear even the loud cheering which followed the handing of the cup to the Junior president. There was a rush for the stairs, and she was carried on unresisting. Then she slipped aside and opened the door leading to the lower floor. From there a narrow passageway ran between the swimming-pool and the girls' dressing-room and thence led out of doors. The main exit was jammed with arguing, cheering students; she could not go out that way.
As she passed the door of the girls' dressing-room, she heard the same excited questions shouted back and forth. Ethel and Gertrude were laughing and talking as they struggled out of their long cheese-cloth dresses. Suddenly one of them called to her:—
"Who are you, out there? Suppose you come in and untangle me!"
Sarah knew well enough that if they had known it was she they would not have called her. Nevertheless, she went in and asked what she could do.
"Oh," said Gertrude, "is it you, Miss Wenner? Please unpin this down the back."
"Yes, ma'am," answered Sarah.
She could scarcely open her hand; it felt as though there were not a fragment of skin left on the palm, but she struggled bravely with the stubborn pins. It seemed to her a long time until she was able to extract the first one.
"There is one out already," she said faintly.