She was
detested by all the other girls for having made this mischief, and was
as lonely in her way as Leucha herself. The one thing that sustained
the school at this painful juncture was the hard work necessitated by
the competitions for the Duke of Ardshiel's lockets.

Leucha had a dim hope that if she won one of these great prizes and
could bring it back at Christmas to her mother, she might be allowed to
leave this hateful school. Accordingly, she worked hard at her theme.

Hollyhock's choice, as she herself expressed it, was 'The Zone of
Danger.' It seemed in some ways a strange thing for Mrs Macintyre to
suggest, and she repented it after she had done so; but Hollyhock's
dancing eyes, and her brilliant cheeks, her smiles, her fascinating way
of saying, 'I 'm not frightened,' had obliged the head-mistress to keep
to her resolve.

The competitions were of a somewhat peculiar nature. The six prizes
were more or less open ones. For instance, the girls who chose to
compete in the essay competition might choose their own subject. The
girls who went in for foreign languages might select French, German, or
Italian. The girls who struggled to attain general knowledge had a
very wide field indeed to select from. The only thing they had to do
was carefully to select their subject and hand it under a feigned name
to Mrs Macintyre, the envelope being sealed, and the lady herself not
knowing its contents until the day before the prizes were to be given
by the Duke of Ardshiel himself to the school.

Her idea with regard to the competition which Hollyhock called 'The
Zone of Danger' was that the Scots lassie or English girl, as the case
might be, should perform a brilliant deed, a feat demanding skill,
endurance, and nerve. But Hollyhock intended her zone of danger to be
one really great and very terrible, something that was to take place at
night. Very few girls in the school chose to compete for this prize,
as they knew only too well that Holly would beat them into 'nothing at
all,' her magnificent bravery being so well known.

One day, about a fortnight before the general break-up at the school,
when Mrs Macintyre was preparing to have a joyful time with her friends
in Edinburgh, and the Palace of the Kings was to be shut up, a band--a
very large band--of girls were collected round the fire in the
ingle-nook in the great hall, and were listening to Hollyhock's
fascinating words.

Suddenly Agnes Featherstonhau