"I'm not only wondering, but I'm going to find out!" snapped Bet vindictively.
"We're on her trail!" laughed Joy.
"And remember if there is anything we can do, let us know. We believe in Kit!" declared Phil.
The next morning Miss Owens made a point of meeting Kit outside the door and bringing her into the room. After the class had assembled, Miss Owens said simply: "I want you all to know that Kit Patten has proved to me and to Mr. Sills that she did not use a key in her examinations. Just how the book got into her desk, we do not know, but we are making every effort to find out."
"The idea!" whispered Edith Whalen to the girl ahead of her. "How beautifully they shield her!"
"They would!" agreed Vivian Long. "It does seem as if Bet Baxter and her crowd can do anything they like."
"I never did believe Kit did it," said little Annie Randall, a meek timid child who rarely took a stand in anything.
"What do you know about it?" asked Edith contemptuously. And Annie Randall was subdued.
Although most of the class received Kit back with kindly thoughts, still the girl felt the humiliation of being doubted by others. Rather pointed jokes were flung out in her hearing occasionally. Kit was even-tempered and therefore able to endure it, but to Bet it was like a lighted match to tinder. Sparks flew and sputtered while Bet told the annoyers that Kit was worth a dozen of them, which only urged them on to further annoyance.
But Bet's heart ached for Kit, who felt these slights more than she would own. In the club, although someone would propose her name for committee work, there was always a protest, until Kit begged her friends to cease their efforts, for it only embarrassed her and kept the subject before the class all the time.