Miss Tully had already slipped away, and as the chums from Woodford turned back to the tennis courts they saw the English teacher entering the Hall.
Jo could not avoid crowing a little over the vanquished enemy.
She picked up Lottie Sparks' book and, with a twinkle in her eye, handed it to the owner.
"You may need it again some time," she said.
Lottie Sparks snatched at the book.
"Maybe I will," she said, and added vindictively: "Next time I won't miss with it, either!"
This was the first declaration of open warfare between the two camps. But scarcely a day passed after the incident of the tennis courts that either Kate or her friend did not find some excuse for annoying or slighting the chums from Woodford.
The girls could afford to laugh at most of these annoyances. They were popular with the rest of their classmates—with all, that is, who did not comprise Kate Speed's snobbish following—and they were content to give those unpleasant girls a wide berth.
Then one day toward the end of their third week at Laurel Hall, there came more startling news.
Thieves had been at work again the night before, only that this time they had done their task more thoroughly.