“I imagine she will try to brave this out,” Mildred Ferguson said half contemptuously. “Some of the students are silly enough to begin making a fuss over her. We ought to do something more, before this affair dies out, to chase her off the campus.”
“What?” came in an expectant chorus.
“Haze her,” Mildred replied very deliberately.
“It’s strictly forbidden at Hamilton,” demurred Edith Barber. “It’s sure enough expellment if one is caught at it.”
“Oh, yes, of course, but one needn’t be caught at it. I know something we might do that couldn’t possibly be proven against us, if we were to be caught hazing that midget. Are you willing to try it out?”
“I am,” Stephanie made instant reply.
“I’d rather know what your plan is before making any promises,” Joyce said doubtfully.
“So should I,” came from two or three of the others.
“Never mind, I’ll tell you about it, then you can decide,” Mildred conceded. “There’s a room at the back of Hamilton Hall, first floor, that the students are permitted to use for rehearsals of campus house plays. All one has to do is to ask the janitor for the key, and it can be entered from a side door. The door opening upon the corridor can be locked. All one has to promise is to be out of the room by ten o’clock. First we’ll write Miss Ogden a note asking her to come to that room by the side entrance at eight o’clock on a certain evening for the discussion of a grave matter. We’ll simply sign it ‘Chairman, Senior Welfare Committee.’ When she steps into the room she’ll see seven masked figures in gray dominos waiting for her. One of us, it had better be Steve, will play chairman and make her a speech about campus interests demanding that she leave Hamilton. Steve will have to speak very sternly, so as to make her believe that she is really in bad with the best class of Hamilton students because of the write-up in the ‘Gazette.’ Nine chances out of ten she will swallow the bait and leave college. None of the rest of us will say a word, and Steve will have to disguise her voice. If anyone should happen to be around that might make trouble we can easily explain our presence there by saying we were simply rehearsing a little play, and deny knowing anything about either the note we’ll send her, or the Senior Welfare Committee. But there’s absolutely no danger of discovery.” Mildred glanced about the circle of interested faces, confident that she had scored.
“It’s a dandy scheme.” Stephanie drew a long breath of satisfaction. “But I can’t disguise my voice well enough to act as chairman. Laura can.” She looked dubiously at her roommate, not sure but that Laura would balk. “Would you be the chairman, Laura?” she asked persuasively.