uddenly Wendy's side of the trap dipped down.
There was a horrible jarring and grinding, and horse and governess car
seemed to be trying to practise sliding. With great presence of mind,
and also strength of arm, Diana pulled Baron up.

"We've lost our wheel!" she gasped.

A crowd immediately collected round the little carriage, which stood
lop-sided in the gutter. One passer-by held the horse, another helped
Diana and Wendy out; a boy came running up with the wheel that had
danced across the street. People stood at shop doors and stared.
Sympathetic voices asked if the girls were hurt. Several connoisseurs
were feeling Baron's legs. In that most critical and agitating
situation, who should be seen riding up from the town but a group of ten
cyclists, led by Miss Chadwick, and displaying the familiar hatbands of
Pendlemere School. Diana and Wendy turned the colour of boiled beetroot.
The cyclists dismounted in a body, and Miss Chadwick, staggered at the
amazing spectacle of the wreck before her, took over instant possession.
She tilted her bicycle against a lamp-post, sent a boy for a blacksmith,
and began to unharness Baron. When he was clear of the shafts, and being
led away by a friendly ostler, she demanded explanations. Diana supplied
them briefly. Miss Chadwick looked at her keenly, but forbore to comment
before the crowd.

"Miss Ormrod and I will stay in town and come back with Miss Todd," she
said, with compressed lips. "You and Wendy can ride our bicycles. Miss
Carr, will you please go as quickly as you can to the station and
explain to Miss Todd what has happened. The train must be in by now. I
think, Miss Hampson, you'd better take the girls on."

It was ignominious to be thus dismissed, and to be forced to mount
machines and cycle back to school, instead of having the proud
distinction of driving the head mistress. Diana and Wendy felt their
feathers fall considerably, especially when they contemplated the fuller
explanations which must inevitably follow.

It was quite dark before Miss Todd arrived in the mended cart. She and
Miss Chadwick and Miss Ormrod had tea together in the drawing-room.

Later in the evening Diana and Wendy received orders to report
themselves in the study. They entered with sober faces. Outside, a band
of thrilled intermediates, who had listened with bated breath to the
account of the adventure, hung about and discussed possible punishments.
Miss Todd was not a mistress to be tri