“I have procured fifty, Señor, a curious lucky stroke, and from a schoolroom, too—would you have believed——” the voice broke off in a laugh.
“Be careful——” said another voice, and two figures passed Miss Gray in the fog and were swallowed up again immediately.
“Is it possible,” she exclaimed, “robbers in West Haven High School? What does it mean? And I have been blaming that innocent child. What an imbecile I have been!”
Her last resolution before sleep came to her that night was to notify the town police in the morning and hire a detective to stay about the High School day and night.
Imagine the surprise of the bewildered Principal, when, next morning bright and early, Mary Price, after a timid knock on the office door, came hesitatingly into the room.
“Miss Gray,” she said, “I found this money yesterday afternoon in my desk. I don’t know how it came there nor whose it is. But it would be better for you to take charge of it until the owner asks for it.”
Mary spoke quickly, as if she had learned the little speech carefully by heart. There was a strange expression on Miss Gray’s face as she took ten crisp new five-dollar bills from the young girl’s outstretched hand.
“This is not even the same money,” she thought, forgetting to answer Mary in her amazement. “Am I losing my senses or is the child a deep dyed villain?”
Mary flushed scarlet under the Principal’s steady gaze, but she did not lower her eyes, and there was not a sign of guilt in the expression of the sad little face.
“Very well, dear,” Miss Gray said at last.
Mary, as she closed the door behind her, was more mystified than Miss Gray.
“I should think she would have shown a little surprise,” she said.
Do you think your nice young charge would be bored by a visit to our lonely old home in the country? Percival has set his heart on giving a Hallowe’en house party for some of his particular friends, and I find Wilhelmina’s name the very first on the list. I shall promise to look after her in every way exactly as if she were my own child, guard her from draughts, see that she has plenty of covering on her bed and that she wears her overshoes if the ground is damp.
My boy would be quite inconsolable, and I should too, my dear friend, if she is not to be among our guests. I cannot offer many inducements except the pleasure which young people always bring to a house, but I candidly believe that Percival would give up the idea if she should not be able to come.