Then, suddenly, there was a crash of glass and the pupils looking up in startled amazement, saw that a snowball had gone through one of the beautiful stained-glass windows in a church near the school. A large piece was broken out from the window picture.
“Oh! Oh!” yelled many voices.
“Who broke the window?” cried the girls and boys.
Then, as the last bell began to ring, they all began to run so they would not be late.
CHAPTER III
THE LOST RING
Into the lower halls and corridors of the school poured the children. The last bell was still clanging, and they would not be marked late if they reached their classrooms before the last peal. The bell would ring for several minutes yet.
On all sides, as the boys and girls hurried in, could be heard talks and gasps of astonishment, not unmixed with fear, about the breaking of the church window.
“Oh, did you see it?”
“Did you hear it?”