nd two, anyhow," asserted Jerry.

True to Jerry's prediction, three curious young women stood grouped in
front of Marjorie's locker, impatiently awaiting her arrival.

"Wait until we are outside, girls. I'll be ready in a jiffy." Marjorie
slipped into her raincoat and pulled her blue velour hat over her curls.
"We can't talk here. Miss Merton is likely to wander down, and then you
know what will happen."

"Oh, bother Miss Merton!" grumbled Jerry. "I can stand anything she says
and live. Still, I don't blame you, Marjorie. It tickles her to pieces
to get a chance to snap at you. Now if Mignon La Salle wanted to sing a
solo in front of her locker at the top of her voice, Miss Merton would
encore it."

Susan Atwell giggled. "I can just hear Mignon lifting up her voice in
song with Miss Merton as an appreciative audience."

The quartette thoughtlessly echoed her merriment. So intent were they
upon their own affairs that they did not notice the two girls who were
almost hidden behind an open locker at the end of the room. The black
eyes of one of them gleamed with rage. She turned to the fair-haired
girl at her side with a gesture which said more plainly than words, "You
see for yourself." The other nodded. Mignon laid a finger on her lips.
Then noiselessly as two shadows they flitted through the open door
without having been observed by the group at the other end.

For the moment Marjorie's back had been turned toward that end of the
room. She whirled about just too late to see Mignon and Mary as they
hurried away. Unusually sensitive to impressions, she had perhaps felt
their presence, for she asked abruptly, "Girls, have you seen Mary? She
can't have gone, for I'm sure I left the study hall before she did. I
ought to wait for her, but I don't know what to do." She glanced
irresolutely about her. Then, her pride again coming to her rescue, she
said, "Never mind. Suppose we go on. Perhaps I'd better not try to see
her now, because I must tell you my plan and I--well--I can't--if she is
with us."

Muriel Harding elevated her eyebrows in surprise. Of the four girls who
had received Marjorie's notes, she alone had no suspicion of the purpose
which had brought them together.

Five pairs of bright eyes scanned the street across from the school
building as the little party came down the wide stone steps.

"The coast is clear," commented Jerry. "Now do tell us what's the
matter, Marjorie. No, wait a minute." Jerry fumble