Also Miss Romaine's sedan was gone. The thieves had left no trace behind them except the broken lamp which had furnished a clue to the cause of the fire in the gymnasium.
The students of Laurel Hall went about with very serious faces all that day.
"This thing is going a little bit too far," they told each other gloomily. "The thieves tried to burn the school down last night. Who knows but what, next time, they may succeed!"
One timid girl even wanted to go home.
Meanwhile, the rivalry between Kate Speed and her followers and the girls from Woodford and their friends became more intense.
Thwarted in every attempt to beat the three girl chums in honest sport, Kate and Lottie resorted to dishonesty and nursed a plot that, if discovered, would forever bar them from Laurel Hall.
These girls knew the danger, but were willing to take the chance of possible discovery and disgrace for the sake of evening the score with their enemies.
So it chanced that while the three chums were in class one day, Lottie Sparks slipped into their room.
She possessed herself of some odd objects—a signet ring of Nan's that she seldom wore, a handkerchief with Jo's name embroidered on it, a letter addressed to Sadie which had been carelessly left on the table by the latter.
Having secreted these things about her person, Lottie smiled to herself and glided from the room.