“Humph!” exclaimed the detective. “Insult piled onto injury, eh? So this Miss Rogers is a very vindictive character?”
Billie hesitated. It went against her straight-forward, honest nature to malign even Belle Rogers.
“She has been spoiled all her life,” she said, “and you know how spoiled children must have their own way. That is all. She was angry because she planned to make me a member of her club and queen it over me as she does over the others, and I disappointed her. Her mother and friends have taken good care always that she should never be disappointed and she just didn’t know what the feeling was, I suppose.”
“She must be quite a remarkably spoiled young woman to go to such lengths for such a trivial offence. But we sometimes get in deeper than we intend, you know.”
“Good day, Miss Campbell,” he said, giving her hand quite a warm grip, considering what a quiet, cold individual he had seemed at first. “You will hear from me again, soon. I had not intended to work when I came down here. You know I am a West Haven boy. My father was old Bill Bangs, the jailer. You probably have heard of him. He was a famous character in his day. I came home to rest and see my people, but when a detective scents a good case he is not apt to let it slip by, even on a holiday.”
“It’s a corking one,” he replied, as he closed the door after him.
Billie and Mary did not go to school that famous Monday. Billie had no mind to face the curious looks she felt certain would be turned upon her by the other girls, because news travels quickly in any school. Mary was lying on her mother’s bed with a throbbing sick headache. All day Mrs. Price sat beside her daughter and held her hand. At intervals she bathed her temples with eau de cologne and whispered:
“My dearest, it will come out all right. Mother loves you and believes in you and so does Billie. Don’t sob like that for my sake, my little girl.”
Belle Rogers also stayed at home that Monday. Mr. Bangs discovered this fact on his second visit of the day when he was closeted for an hour or more with Miss Gray and Mrs. St. Clair in the principal’s private office.
After a tiresome interview with these two well meaning but mistaken ladies, in which he said little and they said much, he left the High School with a sigh of relief.