He raised his hand quickly when Miss Carrington would have spoken, and she was wise enough to let him go on in his own way.
“Now, the question is: How have the papers been lost, and where are they at the present moment? It is a problem—in deduction, we will say. We must all partake of the character of some famous detective. It used to be a rule in our family when I was a boy that, if a thing were lost, it was wisest to look for it in the most unlikely places first. I can remember once, when father lost a horse, that mother insisted in shaking out all the hens’ nests and giving them new nests. But father never did find that horse.”
The girls had begun to smile now; and some of them giggled. Miss Carrington looked as she usually did when Mr. Sharp joked—it pained her and set her teeth on edge. Bobby declared she looked as though she had bitten into a green persimmon.
“Joking aside, however,” continued the principal. “This loss is a serious matter. Suppose you young ladies suggest how the question papers to be used in this mid-term examination have been whisked out of this drawer of Miss Carrington’s desk, and hidden elsewhere? Can it be possible that it is the prank of a pixy? Of course, all of you young ladies are too serious-minded to do such a thing yourselves.”
There was a general laugh, then, and the strain of the last few minutes began to be relieved. Somehow, even Jess Morse felt better.
“To suggest that anybody in this class—the Junior class of Central High—would deliberately misappropriate these questions is beyond imagination,” declared Mr. Sharp, with sudden gravity. “It is a mistake. The mistake is explainable. Has anyone a suggestion to make?”
It was Laura Belding who broke the silence. She asked her question very modestly, but her cheeks were flushed, and she was evidently indignant.
“Is—is it positive that the papers were put in that top drawer that Miss Carrington now has open?”
“Ask Miss Morse!” snapped the teacher, before Mr. Sharp could reply.
“We will. Nothing like corroboration,” said the principal, with a bow and smile. “Miss Morse?”