[Illustration: "Oh, Shame On All of You!" Cried Jane.]
"Oh, shame on all of you!" cried the girl. "My darlin' Harriet wouldn't do such a thing. Never! Show me the one who did it, knowing that the darlin' girl would be accused. I'll scratch her eyes out, I will!"
Jane was in a towering rage. The calm voice of Mrs. Livingston interrupted the tirade.
"Miss McCarthy, be good enough to resume your seat," she said.
Jane hesitated. For a few perilous seconds she struggled with herself. The girls expected an outbreak more vehement than her first. Instead, Jane sat down with an emphasis that jarred the dishes on the table.
"We will now continue with this matter. Can any person here explain, first how the consommé happens to be soaped, and secondly why soap is found in Miss Burrell's kit?" questioned Mrs. Livingston.
A painful silence reigned in the cook tent. There seemed to be no explanation of the mystery.
"There was nothing of the sort in the box when last I used it," reiterated Harriet, "I am positive of that, Mrs. Livingston. Nor could it have been at the bottom of the box under the other things. Knowing that I had finished my work in the soup test, I examined the contents of the box to put everything in order."
"You locked the box afterwards?"
"Immediately. I hung the key in its accustomed place, too."