“Gerry, do they think some one saw me cleaning it, and then stole it?”
Gerry nodded. “Well, it does seem like that. All the girls have talked it over. It couldn’t very well have gone any other way. Rene suggested a jackdaw, but that’s silly, of course, for the Cup is too heavy. But it could easily have been lifted down from the shelf by any one who climbed in from the wood. And if any one saw you sitting there and cleaning it, and then saw you put it back—” Gerry stopped and looked awkward.
“But—” Betty spoke humbly—“but oh, I know, of course, that I should have asked permission, and that I didn’t. But, Gerry, nobody ever trespasses in the school wood. What should bring them there just that one day? Nobody would dare to because of Witch’s Wood being so near. So it does seem strange.”
“I know.” Gerry nodded agreement. “Miss Carey told the police, though, and some of them looked in the wood. There were traces, I heard Doron say, as though some one had been there. ‘Sign,’ you know. And they think that a tramp must have been resting there, and probably that he was a stranger and didn’t know the silly stories about Witch’s Wood. It couldn’t possibly be a villager, for none of them would dare to.”
“It does seem like that,” sighed Betty.
There was nothing for it after that but just to “keep on keeping on,” and to keep on hoping against hope too, though the chances of the Cup’s return seemed now very slight. With the near approach of Saturday, however, the spirits of the dormitory juniors rose.
“It’s terribly appropriate just to be happening to have a tracking expedition,” remarked Mona. “Suppose—just suppose we found the Cup!”
“Hidden in a hole by a tramp, d’you mean?” suggested Rene.
“Yes; or something like that. Wouldn’t it be simply glorious to bring the tramp to justice! Just like a book. We might get a Guide medal from headquarters, I should think.”
“You wouldn’t. It sounds terribly un-Guidy to say that it’s glorious to put tramps into prison,” put in Gerry. She turned to Betty for support.