Part 7 (1/2)

”I--” tweedled the twins and then both stopped. ”I--” still tweedling.

”One at a time!” snapped our princ.i.p.al.

”I don't know what you accuse us of exactly,” said Dum, taking the lead.

”If you accuse me of being the same height as my twin and of being much with her, I plead guilty. If you accuse us both of being much taller than our esteemed contemporary, Mary Flannagan, we both will plead guilty. As for running out in the night and scaring poor old Mr. Ryan to death,--why, that is absurd. We can prove as many alibis as necessary.

Remember, though, we are merely twins and not triplets, nor yet quartettes. One alibi apiece is all we mean to furnish.”

”And I,” said Dee, as Dum paused for breath, ”I! I don't mean for one instant to furnish an alibi or anything else. I was not out of the Gym after we unmasked at nine until ten when we went to our rooms. I am accustomed to having my word believed and I do not intend to prove anything one way or the other. A criminal is innocent until he is proven guilty, anyhow, and I will leave the matter entirely in your hands.” Dee sat down with a crash and opened a book. Miss Plympton looked somewhat taken aback, but she continued in her hard and even tones:

”Do you mean to tell me then, Miss Vir--oline Tucker,--I mean the one who has just sat down,--do you mean to tell me you have no idea who the masked figures were who ran after Mr. Ryan?”

”No, I did not mean to tell you that,” said Dee, shutting her book very deliberately and rising again. ”You did not ask me that question. But since you intimate that you did, rather than befoul my mouth with even the semblance of a lie, I will tell you that I have a very strong idea who the masked figures were, but that I have not the slightest idea of informing you or any one else on whom my suspicions rest.”

As Dee b.u.mped down into her seat there was a murmur of admiration and wonder from the a.s.sembled school. Even Annie's bravery sank into insignificance by the side of this daring deed of Dee's.

The Juniors who had been implicated in the feast of the night before were greatly astonished and somewhat relieved at the turn of affairs.

They had felt that something was in the wind and certainly thought it was their feast at midnight. It seems that old Mr. Ryan had run all the way home and when he reached there was so out of breath that it took him many minutes to tell his wife what was the matter. He had refused to go to the school to keep watch on such a night, when graves give up their dead. The wife had come in the early morning to resign for her timid spouse. The tale had grown greatly in the telling and now the negro servants had it that sparks of fire flew from the eyes of the ghostly trio. No doubt that was Wink's cigarette, for he had threatened to light it before he was well out of the building.

No wonder we had been able to pull off our midnight party without detection since the school had been minus a night watchman! We were all of us glad we were in trouble over something we had not done instead of something we had done.

When Dee sat down with such a vicious b.u.mp, we wondered what next, but Miss Plympton soon put our minds at rest. She made about half a dozen new chins and then spoke, her voice not quite so even as before.

”It is not my intention to bandy words with mere school girls, but I feel that in justice to myself, I must say that it is not merely the fact of the contrasting heights of these malefactors, but it is also evidence of a very convincing character that has been brought to light.”

We were all ears, waiting for the disclosure. ”It is a well-known fact that the Misses Tucker use large handkerchiefs, gentlemen's handkerchiefs. This has been brought to my attention through mistakes that have occurred in the laundry,--ahem--using a similar kind myself,--” Here a smile went over the listening school. ”This morning a handkerchief was picked up on exactly the spot where Mr. Ryan began his race with the supposed ghosts.” Exhibit No. 1 was then produced and held up for inspection. It was a large and very shady-looking handkerchief with a great red T in the corner. We knew it in a moment for the property of Thomas Hawkins (alias Shorty). ”See the initial!” pointing to the red T.

We had joked Shorty the summer before about his very large and gaudy handkerchiefs. He had a varied a.s.sortment of H's and T's in all colours of the rainbow. Now Dum arose in her might. Her att.i.tude was dignified and quiet and she held up her hand for permission to speak.

”What is it, Caro--ginia?”

”I wish to say, Miss Plympton, that up to this juncture I have felt that you have been making a mistake, the kind any one might make in a case of mistaken ident.i.ty, that you have jumped to a conclusion, feeling as you do that my sister and I and our friends are rather wild,--but now let me say, Miss Plympton, that you have overstepped the possibility of being merely mistaken and I consider your remarks and accusations nothing short of insulting. It is bad enough to think we would go out in the night and deliberately scare a poor superst.i.tious old man, but to think,” and here Dum's voice took on that oratorical ring that I have heard Zebedee's take when he was very much in earnest about proving a point, ”to think that my sister and I would own such a terribly inartistic looking handkerchief as the one you are holding, a great thick, cotton rag with a red initial on it,--and furthermore openly to accuse either one of us of carrying about our persons anything so filthy, so unspeakably dirty,--I wonder you can touch it!” This she said with such a vigorous intonation that Miss Plympton actually dropped the despised handkerchief. ”And now, Miss Plympton, my sister and I will with your permission withdraw and will await an apology from you in our room, 117 Carter Hall.”

Before the amazed eyes of Miss Plympton and the whole school, those intrepid twins actually got up and with the greatest composure marched out of the a.s.sembly hall.

Instead of having to prove their innocence, they had completely turned the tables on Miss Plympton and were demanding an apology from her about something that was entirely foreign to the matter in hand.

Miss Plympton made some more chins and then quite like a good sport accepted her defeat and dismissed us to our cla.s.ses, and as far as I know, to this day Mr. Ryan does not know what came so near getting him.

He was persuaded to resume his duties, however.

We nearly died laughing at Mary Flannagan, who got quite huffy at Dum for being so scornful of Shorty's cotton handkerchief.

”It was a very appropriate, manly handkerchief and I don't think it was at all nice of Dum Tucker to say such mean things about it,” fumed Mary, refusing to be comforted. ”I hate a sissy boy who uses fine handkerchiefs. The kind Shorty has are good for so many things. He uses them to dust his shoes with and lots of other things.”

”Never mind, Mary, it was a nice handkerchief and if you want it, I'll go sneak it off the stage where old Miss Plumpton dropped it,” I said, teasing our funny friend. I did get it and had it nicely laundered and put it on the school Christmas tree for Mary, much to her confusion.

Tweedles told me they had hardly been in their room five minutes when Miss Ball came to see them as an emissary from Miss Plympton. She brought Miss Plympton's apology for the slur put upon them in regard to the handkerchief. It seems that their att.i.tude in that matter had quite won over that strange woman, as she herself never used anything but the finest linen handkerchiefs and she quite appreciated their feelings.