A Dixie School Girl Part 7

Together they went through the figures of the pretty fancy dance, prancing, twirling, advancing, retreating; arms clasped or held above each other's heads, feet twinkling in perfect time, heads nodding, eyes dancing through the peepers of their little black half-masks, lips smiling to reveal faultless teeth.

In two minutes everybody was asking:

"Who _is_ it? Who _are_ they? How _can_ they look so exactly alike? We didn't know there were two girls in the school who matched so well, and who could do everything so exactly alike."

But neither Tweedle-dum nor Tweedle-dee enlightened the questioners.

Indeed, neither spoke one word, signs having to answer to all queries.

Presently the musicians struck up a hornpipe, when away they went in the jolliest dance eyes ever looked upon, and would have absorbed all attention had not a new diversion been created just then.

During their prancing, Sally, in her Will-o'-the-Wisp costume, had been darting in and out between the tall potted plants and bowers constructed of Autumn leaves, her luminous tatters fluttering and her dancing light blinding every dancer into whose face she flashed it.

Just as Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee were in the height of their performance she darted from her bosky nook and flitted down the room, closely followed by a tall Jack o' Lantern with his pumpkin light. No one in the room was so tall. Who could it be? There was just one person in the school who might look as tall if so disguised and that was Miss Stetson, but even the liveliest imagination could hardly fancy Miss Stetson in that guise. Moreover, Miss Stetson could never have pranced with such supple grace as this dancing Jack was prancing after the Will-o'-the-Wisp. No, it could not be Miss Stetson.

Towering above the nimble little Will, Jack cavorted, swung his lantern and by signs indicated his desire to imitate Tweedle-dum's and Tweedle-dee's performances, to which Will promptly acceded and the quartette hornpipe was on.

Now it was Miss Woodhull's custom to grace all festive occasions by her presence just prior to the stroke of nine-thirty when refreshments were served. The revelers were to unmask before partaking of the feast. After the feast they were at liberty to dance until ten-thirty but not a moment later.

The fun was at its height, Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee had danced with every other goblin, the evening star included, though it must be confessed that Tweedle-dee had been unanimously p.r.o.nounced the better leader by his partners, and Jack "almost as good as a boy; she was so strong and danced so divinely," though none had as yet guessed the ident.i.ty of either. Then Miss Woodhull, escorted by Miss Baylis, entered the gym. Had it been possible to suddenly reduce the temperature of the room and thus congeal the dancers the effect produced could hardly have been more chilling.

From the merriest, most hilarious frolicing, the gayest, cheeriest bantering and laughter, to the utmost decorum was the transformation effected in two minutes after Miss Woodhull's and Miss Baylis' entrance.

With the exception of Tweedle-dum, Tweedle-dee, Will-o'-the-Wisp and Jack o' Lantern, the girls ceased dancing and stood in groups and even the musicians played more softly.

There was not the vestige of a smile on Miss Woodhull's face as she looked upon the four dancers. She tolerated such frivolity; she was compelled to do so; her school would have been unpopular had she not done so; other schools approved of them.

Raising her lorgnettes, she looked sharply at the four dancing figures.

Then turning to Mrs. Bonnell, who had crossed from the table to receive her, she asked:

"Who is that strikingly tall figure in the Jack o' Lantern costume. I did not know we had so tall a girl in the school."

"I am sure I do not know, Miss Woodhull. She came in after the dancing began. She sustains the character well, doesn't she?"

"I wish to know _who_ she is. Send someone for her if you please,"

answered the princ.i.p.al, ignoring the question. She was a little doubtful of that tall girl. In times gone by some of her pupils had been guilty of indiscretions. If this were a repet.i.tion it must be nipped in the bud.

Mrs. Bonnell beckoned to one of the masqueraders, a jolly little Tam o'

Shanta, and bade him bring Jack.

He nodded and instantly darted off in pursuit of him. As well have tried to capture the original of the character!

The mad chase lasted perhaps five minutes. Miss Woodhull was powerless.

How could she accuse Jack of disrespect to her or disregard of her commands when he could not possibly have known them? He was only acting his part to perfection any way. Besides Tam never had caught the goblins: The shoe had been on the other foot. But at that second Jack tripped over a ring set in the floor of the gym and went sprawling, his pumpkin lantern flying out of his hand and breaking into a dozen fragments. Tam was almost upon him, but before he could lay hold Jack was up again, had made a spring, caught one of the flying rings which dangled high above his head, swung like a monkey from that to the next, and so on down the line until he was in range of the gallery, at which he hurled himself bodily, landed upon the railing, balanced a half-second and was safe upon the gallery floor, to the boundless amazement of the onlookers and absolute banishment of their suspicions regarding the ident.i.ty of Miss Stetson. That spring settled his fate with Miss Woodhull: No girl in Leslie Manor could have performed such a feat, and all the dancers were staring speechless. It was the ominous silence before the storm.

"That masquerader is not a girl, Miss Bonnell! It is some boy! Who has perpetrated this outrage? Miss Baylis, order all the outer doors closed and guarded and a thorough search made. This matter shall be sifted to the very bottom. No, you will all remain in this room and immediately unmask under Mrs. Bonnell's eyes. I shall superintend the search," and Miss Woodhull sailed majestically from the room.

CHAPTER X

THE SEARCH

"We're in for it," whispered Tweedle-dee to Tweedle-dum, as the two comical figures drew un.o.btrusively into the rear of the group of girls now removing their masks under Mrs. Bonnell's half-amused, half-serious eyes, for she began to suspect that some sort of innocent prank had been played which, like many another would have harmlessly played itself out if let alone. She had always been opposed to the rigorous ban placed upon boys and their visits to Leslie Manor by Miss Woodhull, believing and justifiably too, that such arbitrary rules only led to a livelier desire in the girls to meet said boys by hook or by crook.

"Hus.h.!.+" whispered Tweedle-dum "and come behind this rubber plant. Now get down on your hands and knees and follow me."

Tweedle-dee promptly obeyed orders and the next moment was in front of the spiral stairway which led to the gallery.

"Make yourself as small as possible and crawl on your _stomach_ up this staircase. At the other end of the gallery is a door leading into our wing. I can't tell you another thing. Just use your wits," and Tweedle-dum flitted back to be swallowed up in the crowd of girls who, once more restored to an equable frame of mind were laughing merrily, everyone asking everyone else if she knew who the Jack o' Lantern really was. This very fact was sufficient rea.s.surance for Mrs. Bonnell. She knew girls better than Miss Woodhull knew them in spite of having _known nothing_ else for more than forty years, but she resolved then and there not to ask too many questions, which fact made two girls her slaves for life. The discipline department was not her province nor was it one which anything could have induced her to undertake. If Will-o'-the-Wisp was aware of the name of her partner in the quartette hornpipe, or Tweedle-dum knew Tweedle-dee's surname Miss Woodhull was the one to find it out, not she. So smiling upon the group before her she asked:

"Are you now all visible to the naked eye and all accounted for? If so, let us to the feast, for time is speeding." No urging was needed and lots were promptly drawn for the privilege of cutting the fate cake. Mrs.

Bonnell had not considered it necessary to mention the fact that she had ordered Aunt Sally, the cook, to bake one for the occasion, and while good fellows.h.i.+p and hilarity reign below let us follow two less fortunate mortals whom the witches seemed to have marked for their sport that night.

Agreeable with Miss Woodhull's orders, Miss Baylis, who was only too delighted to s.h.i.+ne so advantageously in her superior's eyes, had scuttled away, issuing as she went, the order to close _all_ outer doors and guard them, allowing no one to pa.s.s through. Guileless souls both hers and Miss Woodhull's, though another adjective might possibly be more apt. The house had a few windows as well as doors.

Meeting Miss Stetson on the stairs she found in her a militant coadjutor, and wireless could not have flashed the orders more quickly. Servants went a-running until one might have suspected the presence of a criminal in Leslie Manor rather than a mere boy.

Meanwhile, what of Jack o' Lantern and Tweedle-dee? Jack, it must be admitted, had the greater advantage in having made a quicker get-away, but Leslie Manor had many bewildering turns and corners, and when one has been an inmate of a house less than--well, we won't specify the length of time--one cannot be blamed for growing confused. Jack had made for the very door Tweedle-dum had advised Tweedle-dee to make for and darted through it muttering as he paused a second to listen: "Gee, I wish I wasn't so confoundedly long legged!"

No sound coming to his ears from any of the rooms opening upon the corridor into which he had darted, he sprinted down its length until it terminated suddenly in a flight of stairs leading to the lower hall. He had descended about half way when a babel of voices sent him scuttling back again, and a moment later a voice commanded.

"Wesley, hurry up to the south wing. Whoever is in the house certainly tried to make an escape from that quarter."

"Yas'm. I catches 'em ef dey 're up dar," bl.u.s.tered Wesley Watts Mather, hurrying up the stairs and almost whistling to keep his courage up, for your true darkie finds All Saint's Night an awesome one, and not to be regarded lightly. Moreover, nearly all the electric lights were turned off, only those necessary to light the halls being left on, and this fact made the rooms seem the darker.

Now Jack o' Lantern's costume, like Will-o'-the-Wisp's, had been liberally daubed with phosphorus and he still grasped the electric flash-light which had illuminated his shattered pumpkin. There was no time to stand upon ceremony for Wesley was almost at the top of the stairs. A door stood open at hand and he darted through it into the room, overturning a chair in the darkness.

"Hi, you! I done got you!" shouted his dusky pursuer and burst into the room in hot chase. The next instant the exaltant shout changed to a howl of terror, for in the middle of that room stood a towering motionless figure from which radiated sheets of lightning, one blinding flash darting straight into the terrified darkie's eyes. "A flash ob lightenin'

what cl'ar par'lyzed me an' helt ma feet fast to de floo'! Den, befo' I could get 'em loosen' dat hant jist lif' his hoof--yas ma'am, dat was a hoof, not no man's foot--an' I 'clar cross ma heart he done hist me froo dat do' an' cl'ar down dem stairs. He want no _man_. He de debbil hissef.

No siree, yo' ain' gettin' me back up _dem_ stairs twell some white folks gwine _fust_. Not _me_. I knows when ter lie low, I does." (Goal kicking develops a fellow's muscles.)

Nor could any amount of urging or scolding prevail, and Miss Stetson, the strong-minded, was obliged to go up to investigate. But though every room was searched there was no sign of mortal being. All the window sashes in Leslie Manor had been rehung in the most approved modern methods and could be raised and lowered without a sound. A porch roof and a slender column are quite as available as flying rings to a born acrobat.

As she was returning from her fruitless search she encountered Miss Woodhull.

"Well?" queried that lady.

"It is _not_ well. If there really was any one in that wing, which I am compelled to doubt, he has made a most amazing escape."

"Doubt?" repeated Miss Woodhull with no little asperity. "You will hardly doubt the evidence of my own eyesight, will you Miss Stetson? I _saw_ that person cross the gallery and enter the south wing. Be good enough to go down to the gymnasium and call the roll. I desire to know if all the girls are accounted for."

To judge by Miss Stetson's expression she was none too well pleased by the princ.i.p.al's tone. Nevertheless, she repaired to the gym and ignoring Mrs. Bonnell's a.s.surance that no girls were missing proceeded to call the roll. Of course all responded.

Meanwhile, Miss Woodhull had summoned Jefferson, who if no less superst.i.tious, was backed up by her august presence, and together they mounted the stairs and made a room-to-room inspection, peering into every closet or any possible hiding place. Not a sign of human being was found until they came to the study of Suite 10, then a faint sound was audible in bedroom A beyond.

Quicker than it would seem possible for a person of her proportions to move, Miss Woodhull entered the study, reached the electric switch and turned on the lights, calling at the same moment:

"Who is in that room?"