“Well, I’m not saying; only she isn’t in this room.”
Leigh was enjoying herself. She had learned to tell clever fortunes and with the concealment her shyness disappeared. It was not necessary for her to have the slips, prepared with such care, for her “fortunes” had been prepared beforehand with a good knowledge of each girl’s and boy’s history, likes and dislikes. She was stationed just outside the double windows, upon the tiny balcony there. The movable front of the “cabinet” or “cave” extended sufficiently to allow the other end of the stove-pipe to connect with Leigh and the balcony. Had any of the boys gone out through the windows, they would have seen how it was managed. But the couch on which the players sat had been placed in front of the windows for the occasion, and until the time to admit the guests the door of the sanctum sanctorum had been locked. Molly, who could see each occupant of the little chair, through a cleverly arranged peep-hole, scribbled the name on a bit of paper and passed it to Leigh, who read it by a flashlight. But it was a long time before any of the boys knew how it had been managed.
After all the fortunes had been told, except those of the seven sibyls, the company was invited out into the real attic stretches for games. While Jean was starting these, Molly came from the cave, locked the door on the inside and then admitted Leigh, who had been afraid someone would see her if she climbed through the lighted windows. In darkness Molly received her, and when they left the room they locked the door behind them lest any investigator should discover their secret.
There was plenty of room for the usual games played at their parties and after two or three, Jean, who had not forgotten the request of the S. P.’s to the Wizards, clapped her hands together for quiet and said with a deep bow to Jimmy, “We have with us to-night the secret society known as the Black Wizards and we have hoped that they would give us something far better than anything the S. P.’s can think up. The Black Wizards, ladies and gentlemen!”
Great clapping of hands came from the ladies of the company, but Jimmy, Grand Wizard of Wizards, had always thought that what the younger boys had prepared to do was “too dumb.” He wasn’t going to have them show themselves less smart than those cute S. P.’s.
“Madame president, or leader of the Sibyl Priestesses,” and Jimmy emphasized that, “we greatly regret that after all this fine entertainment the Black Wizards cannot now respond. In other words, kids, we haven’t our stuff with us and can’t handle it in a strange attic! But we hope to have a celebration some day, in our own quarters, where we may show you what Black Magic can do!”
“Wow!” said Billy, who knew that Jimmy had made up the expression Black Magic on the spot. But the boys were much relieved at being let off from the stunt which they had prepared without any inspiration except that of dire warnings from the seniors.
And all this time that boys and girls in the little town were manufacturing mystery, less than fifty miles away, a young girl was living it.