The fate of Sally May's party hung in the balance for just so long as it takes a mug to fall to the ground, and Judith for a nightmare second felt the bitterness of having betrayed her friends to the enemy; but Jane, with a magical dexterity, caught the mug "on the fly" as Judith described it later, and for the time being they were saved.
Judith's heart was still thumping from their narrow escape when they joined the rest of the party in the common room at the head of the stairs. The blinds had been pulled up to let in the pale moonlight, and in the semi-darkness Judith could see five shadowy forms seated on their pillows around the precious box.
"Are we all here?" said Sally May in a sepulchral whisper.
"We are—thanks to Jane," said Judith, and the episode of the mug was told to appreciative listeners.
"Put on your flash, Nancy," commanded Sally May; "no one is going to pass this door and we'll never manage to carve the chicken with this miserable knife unless we have more light."
With infinite precautions the papers were unwrapped, and mouths began to water as certain favorite goodies appeared.
"Who's going to carve?" asked Sally May surveying with a certain dismay a plump brown bird and a seemingly inadequate pocketknife.
"Draw lots," suggested Rosamond.
"Uggledy wuggledy doo,
Rackety wackety boo,
Out goes you!"
"Here, Jane, you're it." And Jane lost no time in attacking her job.