I've been thinking, Gardley, that rash little girl of
mine may have got Miss Earle into some kind of a dangerous position.
You ought to look after her. What can we do?"

"I'm going to, sir," said Gardley, "just as soon as I've done everything
I can for you. I've already sent for Jasper Kemp, and we'll make a plan
between us and find out if Miss Earle is all right. Can you spare Jasper
or will you need him?"

"By all means! Take all the men you need. I sha'n't rest easy till I
know Miss Earle is safe."

He sank down on a truck that stood on the station platform, his
shoulders slumping, his whole attitude as of one who was fatally
stricken. It came over Gardley how suddenly old he looked, and haggard
and gray! What a thing for the selfish child to have done to her father!
Poor, silly child, whose fate with Forsythe would in all probability be
anything but enviable!

But there was no time for sorrowful reflections. Jasper Kemp, stern,
alert, anxious, came riding furiously down the street, Bud keeping even
pace with him.

CHAPTER XXXIII

While Gardley briefly told his tale to Jasper Kemp, and the Scotchman
was hastily scanning the papers with his keen, bright eyes, Bud stood
frowning and listening intently.

"Gee!" he burst forth. "That girl's a mess! 'Course she did it! You
oughta seen what all she didn't do the last six weeks of school. Miss
Mar'get got so she shivered every time that girl came near her or looked
at her. She sure had her goat! Some nights after school, when she
thought she's all alone, she just cried, she did. Why, Rosa had every
one of those guys in the back seat acting like the devil, and nobody
knew what was the matter. She wrote things on the blackboard right in
the questions, so's it looked like Miss Mar'get's writing; fierce
things, sometimes; and Miss Mar'get didn't know who did it. And she was
as jealous as a cat of Miss Mar'get. You all know what a case she had on
that guy from over by the fort; and she didn't like to have him even
look at Miss Mar'get. Well, she didn't forget how he went away that
night of the play. I caught her looking at her like she would like to
murder her. _Good night!_ Some look! The guy had a case on Miss Mar'get,
all right, too, only she was onto him and wouldn't look at him nor let
him spoon nor nothing. But Rosa saw it all, and she just hated Miss
Mar'get. Then once Miss Mar'get stopped her from going out to meet that
guy, too. Oh, she hated her, all r