“Well, she’s been so mean——”
“But if she is the next best girl we have in training, and Eve does not appear, would you cripple Central High’s chances for a petty feud like this?”
Mrs. Case spoke warmly and Bobby fell back abashed. But all the juniors were amazed and troubled by the emergency which had so suddenly arisen.
The attitude of some seniors surprised Eve’s friends, too. They were seen to gather in groups, and giggle and whisper, and when the troubled juniors passed these seniors made remarks which suggested that they knew more about Eve’s absence than her own friends.
Especially was Lou Potter in high feather over something. She sneered at Laura Belding, when the latter went about asking everybody if they had seen or heard of Eve that morning.
Time approached for the early events of the afternoon, and the relay teams were called out for the first event. About that time Margit Salgo, who had been moving about in the crowd of Central High competitors, suddenly broke away from a group, of whom Lou Potter was the center, and ran hurriedly for the exit.
At the gate the ticket-taker had just allowed Mr. and Mrs. Belding to enter and Margit saw Chet—whom she now knew very well—beside their automobile outside.
“Chetwood!” she gasped, running out to him. “There has something happened that will make Central High lose to-day—it is a plot—it is a meanness——”
She broke into German, as she did when she was excited, and Chet literally “threw up his hands.”
“Hold your horses, Miss Margaret,” he begged. “I can’t follow you when you talk like that. My German’s lame in both feet, anyway—like the son of Jonathan.”