“Of course, daughter. Is it about the Manuscript Magazine? I’m sure it will be a nice one, with such a nice girl for an editor.” Then when they had started away the little old lady recalled them to add: “Daughter, ask Virginia who she thinks it was came to visit me last night. She was such a dear girl, I want to see her again, and thank her for being so kind to me. She said I reminded her of her own grandmother, and when she kissed me good-by I know she was crying.”
“Yes, mother, I will,” the young teacher promised. Then, when they had entered the study, she carefully closed the door and turned a troubled face toward her companion.
“Virginia,” she said in a voice very unlike her own, “some one of the girls climbed in this window last night and carried away the bundle of manuscripts that I had tied up to give to you this morning. In going out, she must have hastened, or perhaps she had not noticed the flower pot.” Miss Torrence pointed at the floor where it lay, its pieces scattered and the small flowering plant withering.
“Who could it have been?” But even as she spoke, the girl knew that but one pupil in Vine Haven desired to prevent the appearance that week, of the Manuscript Magazine.
“I am almost convinced,” Miss Torrence told her, “that the culprit is Kathryn Von Wellering. I am sure that you are also, but I hardly know how to proceed with an inquiry into the matter.”
“There is nothing here that would identify her?” Virg glanced about the small den.
“No, I looked, but I haven’t been outside yet. It wasn’t snowing when I returned, and so perhaps their footprints may still be visible.”
Together they slipped out a back door that they might not arouse the curiosity of the little old lady who, sitting in the living room, was partly dozing in the sun.
“It must have snowed in the night,” Virginia, in the lead, called over her shoulder, “for there isn’t a trace of a footprint beneath this window.”
Miss Torrence sighed. “I especially regret this, for Eleanor Burgess told me that she had no other copy of her stories, and I assured her that need cause her no alarm, as nothing could happen to them while they were in either my possession or with you. I am sure that she treasured them, and now, without doubt, whoever stole them has destroyed them.”