Betty was laughing now over something funny exchanged between the girls. “But it’s really very serious,” she heard Betty say next. “I dread to go to school tomorrow. Tell me ev’rything that you can remember about that examination. You wouldn’t mind telling the principal what you just told me, would you?”
The answer must have been satisfactory, for Betty chuckled. The subject must have changed then, for Betty made some remark not connected with this recent affair and shortly the telephone conversation closed.
[CHAPTER XV: DETECTIVE WORK]
In the good, steadfast atmosphere of a sensible home, whose heads were not easily stampeded, Betty felt better. Father was told quietly by Mother. But Betty’s sleep was troubled that night and it was with many an inward qualm that she started to school the next morning. She intended to go on through the day, as her mother advised her, with as much quiet dignity as she could command, discussing the matter with no one.
Peggy, however, referred to the conversation of the day before when she met her by her locker, next to Betty’s. “The boys were up to something, as I told you. It wasn’t Jakey but the boy behind him, Sam, that I was glaring at, as you said. He tried to snatch a piece of paper off my desk, a blank sheet, it was, and I thought the boys were doing that just to be smart, taking things off the girls’ desks and seeing what they could do without being caught. I mean that bunch of boys, you know, not Mickey or Andy. So maybe somebody got hold of part of your paper.”
“The wind from that open window blew some paper off my desk once,” mused Betty. “I believe it must have been Jakey that handed it to me, but I didn’t think it was part of my paper that was written on. I stuck it under the rest. I did write out my translations on an extra paper first, for I didn’t want to make any erasures and have a messy paper. But Jakey knows as much as I do. It certainly wasn’t Jakey whose paper was like mine.”
“Time will tell,” said Peggy. “Don’t worry too much, Betty. Whatever happens, your friends among us girls will believe what you say.”
“Thanks, Peggy. You’re a comfort. Please don’t say anything to Carolyn yet.”
“She might know something.”
“How could she?”