“She won the game,” declared Laura, coming forward to shake Hester’s hand.
They all had something nice to say to her. Hester couldn’t reply. She stood for a moment or two in the middle of the room, listening to them; then she turned away and sought her own locker, for there were tears in her eyes.
[CHAPTER XXV—THE MYSTERY EXPLAINED]
The boys, as has been said, were shut out from seeing the last basketball game of the series. Chet Belding was at the hospital that afternoon, having taken up some fruit to Hebe Pocock and Billson. The latter would soon go out and would return to his burned-over clearing in the woods.
“Guess that fire helped me as much as it hurt me. I’ll have to build a new shanty; but Doc Leffert was in here and said he’d rode over my piece, and that my heaps of rubbish had burned clean and all I’d have to do to clear my acres for corn would be to tam-harrow it.”
“Hebe isn’t getting along as fast as you do, Mr. Billson,” said Chet, in a low voice, for the Four Corners fellow was having a hard time to even move about on crutches.
“Dunno as he deserves any better than he’s got,” said Billson, grumpily.
“What you so cross about?” laughed Chet. “Surely you’re not sore over the way folks are treating Hester Grimes now? She comes pretty near being the heroine of the Hill section.”
“Ya-as. They praise her because she done what she did for little Johnny Doyle. But many of ‘em still think she set that foolish boy onto raiding the girls’ gymnasium.”
“I don’t know about that,” confessed Chet, slowly. “Although we may believe that Rufe had something to do with it, perhaps he did it, after all, because he’s not quite right in his head.”