y toward their various houses and boarding places. The
Wayne Hall girls marched across the campus, Emma Dean parading ahead
with outspread arms, her rags flapping about her, giving her the
appearance of a scarecrow which had just emerged from a farmer's
cornfield.

"There it is! There lies the mystery!" cried Elfreda, pointing toward
the northern end of the campus, where considerable headway had been made
in digging what appeared to be the cellar of a house. "But Sherlock will
unravel the tangled skein!"

"Don't be so noisy!" cautioned Miriam Nesbit. "The real Sherlock
wasn't."

"To-morrow will tell the tale," went on Elfreda unabashed, but in a
slightly lower key. "First, I shall spy upon the workmen, then I shall
collect samples of campus soil and spend the rest of the day deducing."

"I hope you won't overwork," was Emma's solicitous comment. "While you
are about it you might deduce the identity of 'Peter Rabbit.' I confess
I am curious to know who wore Peter's blue jacket and why she
disappeared so suddenly."

"So am I," declared Grace. "We must try to find out, too."

As the merry little party tramped upstairs to their rooms, Grace felt a
hand on her shoulder.

"Do you really want to know who 'Peter Rabbit' was?" whispered Elfreda.

"Yes," breathed Grace.

"Then don't tell the girls. It was Kathleen."

"Why didn't she unmask with the rest of us?" demanded Grace, as they
reached the head of the stairs.

"Why didn't she?" repeated Elfreda. "I'll tell you why. She didn't wish
any of us to know who she was. Can't you see? She wanted to be one of
the crowd and she was afraid the girls wouldn't take kindly to her. She
is beginning to feel that she would like to be liked, and," Elfreda
raised one hand, her index finger pointing upward, "'There is hope.'"

CHAPTER XXI

WHO WILL WIN THE HONOR PIN?

After the Famous Fiction masquerade a noticeable lull in social
activities at Overton ensued. Except for basketball, which always
flourished between midyear and Easter, little occurred to break the
studious wave that swept over the college. There was one topic, however,
that furnished food for endless discussion, and that was the senior play
contest. In the beginning a goodly number of girls had entered the
lists, imagining that to write a play was an extremely simple matter.
After two or three feeble attempts at writing, the majority of them had
given up in disgust, and from all that could be learned th