The Girls of Central High on Track and Field
TextCHAPTER XXIV – MARGIT PAYS A DEBT
“Did you hear what that girl said, Laura?” demanded Bobby, in a whisper, clinging to the arm of Mother Wit. “It sounded as though she knew something about Eve’s absence.”
“No. Just jealousy,” returned Laura.
“I – don’t – know – Here’s Nell!” exclaimed the smaller girl, eagerly.
The doctor’s daughter ran up, very much excited.
“Otto was on the ’phone,” she said. “He says that Eve left for town in time to catch the nine-twenty-seven. Why, she should have been here two hours ago!”
“What do you suppose has happened?” wailed Jess.
“I will see the committee at once,” said Mrs. Case, quietly. “Of course, if Evangeline does not report in time, we shall have to put in a substitute.”
“Oh, Mrs. Case!” cried Bobby. “Don’t put in that Lou Potter!”
“What, Clara? Is that your loyalty to Central High?” demanded the athletic instructor, sternly.
“Well, she’s been so mean – ”
“But if she is the next best girl we have in training, and Eve does not appear, would you cripple Central High’s chances for a petty feud like this?”
Mrs. Case spoke warmly and Bobby fell back abashed. But all the juniors were amazed and troubled by the emergency which had so suddenly arisen.
The attitude of some seniors surprised Eve’s friends, too. They were seen to gather in groups, and giggle and whisper, and when the troubled juniors passed these seniors made remarks which suggested that they knew more about Eve’s absence than her own friends.
Especially was Lou Potter in high feather over something. She sneered at Laura Belding, when the latter went about asking everybody if they had seen or heard of Eve that morning.
Time approached for the early events of the afternoon, and the relay teams were called out for the first event. About that time Margit Salgo, who had been moving about in the crowd of Central High competitors, suddenly broke away from a group, of whom Lou Potter was the center, and ran hurriedly for the exit.
At the gate the ticket-taker had just allowed Mr. and Mrs. Belding to enter and Margit saw Chet – whom she now knew very well – beside their automobile outside.
“Chetwood!” she gasped, running out to him. “There has something happened that will make Central High lose to-day – it is a plot – it is a meanness – ”
She broke into German, as she did when she was excited, and Chet literally “threw up his hands.”
“Hold your horses, Miss Margaret,” he begged. “I can’t follow you when you talk like that. My German’s lame in both feet, anyway – like the son of Jonathan.”
“I do not know your Jonathan,” she cried, when Chet, grinning, interrupted:
“You’re weak in your Scripture, then. But what about it? What’s happened?”
“They have got Eve Sitz!” declared Margit, tragically.
“Who’s got her?”
“I do not know for sure. I only suspect,” declared the girl. “But quick! drive where I shall say. We may be in time.”
“Do you mean to say that Eve hasn’t got here yet?”
“I do.”
“Yet she’s already left home?”
“Oh, yes, indeed!”
“And she’s an important figure in to-day’s events, I understand,” quoth Master Chet. “You think you know where she is?”
“Oh, yes!” cried Margit.
“Hop in, then. Tell me where to go, and we’ll get there if a policeman doesn’t hold us up on the way.”
Margit whispered in his ear. Chet looked surprised; then nodded and helped her into the seat beside him. In a minute they were out of the crowd of other autos and were speeding down Whiffle Street and into Market.
When they struck the main thoroughfare the young fellow had to drive the car more circumspectly; but he made such time that more than one traffic officer held up a warning hand and shook his head at them.
“Sure you know where you want to go, Margaret?” Chet asked his companion once, as they dodged around a truck and turned off into a long and narrow side street where the class of tenements on either hand were of the cheaper quality.
“Yes,” nodded the girl. “I should know. I was there myself.”
“Oh! that’s where the Gyps, have their encampment in town?” exclaimed Chet.
“Yes.”
“And you think Eve has been caught by the same people who held you?”
“Yes. I believe so.”
“Then take it from me, Margaret,” declared Chet, decidedly, “a policeman goes into the house with us. I don’t take any chances with those people.”
She nodded again and a few moments later she told him to stop before a certain number. This was, indeed, a crowded and mean section of the town.
“I thought Romany folk lived in the open air and were bold and free – and all that?” said Chet, in disgust, as he stopped the engine and prepared to get out after removing certain plugs so that the car could not be started during their absence.
“In town they live like other poor people. They camp in a cheap flat. But they would not remain here long if they did not hope to get hold of me,” replied Margit, quietly.
“Hullo! You’re running right into trouble, perhaps,” said Chet, doubtfully.
“What if I am? That girl, Eve, was good to me. And those other girls are my friends. We will get her free so that she may get to the athletic field in time. What?”
“I guess it is what,” admitted Chet, to himself.
Then he saw an officer and beckoned to the man. A few words explained their need.
“Ha! I was told to keep an eye on those folk. I know ’em,” said the policeman. “And this is the girl who was with them before?” and he stared curiously at Margit Salgo.
They went quickly into the house and up to the floor that the girl remembered very well indeed. She pointed out the door of the flat and Chet rapped upon it. The officer kept in the shadow.
The door opened a trifle, after the second knock, and a voice whispered some word which Chet could not understand. Instantly Margit hissed a reply – it was in Romany.
The door opened a bit wider. Somebody inside saw the girl; but Chet was seen, too.
“What did Ah tell ’ee?” demanded Jim Varey’s gruff voice. “This is a business tae bring trouble tae us, says I – and I was right.”
Before he had ceased speaking the policeman sprang forward and with knee and shoulder forced the door wide open. He had drawn his club.
“Keep still – all you here! If you give me trouble I’ll arrest all of you instead of this man and his wife,” and he seized Jim by the shoulder.
“Where’s the girl?” cried Chet. “Eve! Eve Sitz! Are you here?”
There was an answering cry from back in some other room. Margit darted past the struggling people in the kitchen and opened a door beyond.
“Here I am!” cried Eve Sitz.
The country girl was tied to a chair, but not tightly enough to cramp her limbs. Nor had she been really ill-treated.
“Run down,” said the officer to Chet, “and blow this whistle. Tell my partner, when he comes, to send for the wagon. We’ll give these folks a ride.”
“Oh, but I must get to the field, Chetwood!” cried Eve, in despair. “They told me Margit was here and needed me, and I came right from the train. I don’t know what it means – ”
Chet had darted down the stairs and he soon came back with the other policeman. The officers agreed that the boy and two girls need not accompany them to the station; the Gypsy Queen and her husband, with the other Romany folk at home in the flat, could be held until later in the day for somebody to appear against them.
And that somebody was Miss Carrington’s lawyer, Aaron MacCullough. Eve had no more trouble with the Gypsies – nor did Margit. Mr. MacCullough took the opportunity of showing the roaming folk that they could make little out of Margit or her friends, and then the Centerport police warned them out of town.
Meanwhile Chet, with the two girls, got into the automobile, and started back toward the Central High athletic field. It was already two o’clock, and on the program of the day the event of the broad jump would be called in less than half an hour!
CHAPTER XXV – THE WINNING POINTS
That first relay race, in which the Junior Four of Central High took part, passed like a night-mare for Laura Belding and her companions. Every one of them was worried about Eve’s disappearance – so worried that they came perilously near not doing their very best.
But the rooters for their school got off with a splendid chorus when the girls came on the field, and with all that enthusiasm Laura and her comrades could not fail “to pull off some brilliant running,” as Bobby slangily expressed it.
And they did so. The four won the point for Central High, and next in line was the one hundred-yard dash. Bobby, as fresh as a lark, came to the scratch and prepared to do her very best against the representatives from the four other high schools. There was a girl from Lumberport whom she had been told to look out for. But Bobby proposed to “look out” for nobody on this short dash. The girl who got off in the best form was almost sure to win.
And that girl was Bobby. At the word she shot away like an arrow, and a roar of approval burst from the seats occupied by the boys of Central High.
“C – e – n, Central High!
C – e – n – t – r – a – l, Central High!
C – e – n – t – r – a – l – h – i – g – h, Central High!
Ziz – z – z – z —
Boom!”
Bobby seemed to be fairly borne along on that yell. She started ahead and she kept ahead. Like a flash she went down the track and breasted the tape quicker than it takes to tell it.
“Bobby Hargrew! She’s all right!” sang the girls of Central High on the benches.
Then girls and boys joined in, and finally the other schools added their cheers to the paean of praise that sent Bobby back to the gym. building with a delightful glow at her heart.
“Good for you, Bobs!” cried Jess, who stood in the sun in her blanket coat. “That’s another of the points we need. Why, we’re going to wipe up the field with them.”
“But where’s Eve?” panted Bobby. “Has anybody seen her?”
“No. She didn’t come. She’s left us in the lurch – ”
“Not intentionally, I am sure,” declared Bobby, quickly.
“Well, Mrs. Case is going to put Lou in for the broad jump if Eve doesn’t show up. And that miserable senior is as perky about it as she can be. There she is yonder, all ready for the event, although it’s not due for an hour yet,” added Jess.
The field was next cleared for folk dancing, taking part in which were most of the freshman and sophomore classes of all five schools. This attracted the adult spectators more than it did the girls themselves; the latter’s keenest interest was centered in the all-absorbing athletic events.
One of the juniors kept watch at the entrance to the field, and sent in word now and then that nothing had been heard or seen of Eve Sitz. Laura and her other friends did not know that Margit had gone away with Chet fielding to hunt for the missing girl.
“If she doesn’t come pretty soon all will be lost!” groaned Nellie Agnew as the field cleared after the folk dancing.
“Maybe Lou can carry the points for us,” suggested Dora Lockwood, doubtfully.
“Never in this world!” cried Bobby.
“Nor does Mrs. Case believe it. But it’s the best she can do,” said Jess. “There! after this event comes the broad jump.”
“See that nasty Lou Potter!” complained Bobby. “She’s standing there, grinning just like a Chessy-cat – ”
“Hold on, Bobby, hold on!” exclaimed Nellie Agnew, admonishingly. “Remember!”
“Remember what?” snapped Bobby.
“‘Loyalty to Central High!’ That’s the battle cry.”
“And right Nell is, Bobs,” interposed Jess. “We’ve got to give that girl the finest kind of a send-off when she goes into the field. Hearten her up! Never mind how mean we think her, remember she represents Central High, and the old school needs the points.”
“Quite true, girls,” said Laura. “When Lou goes out to jump, pass the word to the boys to give her an ovation.”
And just then there was some shouting at the gate, the crowd opened, and a figure dashed through wildly and made for the gym.
“It’s Eve! It’s Eve!” shouted Bobby, fairly dancing up and down.
Margit Salgo was right behind the country girl. She hurried with her to the dressing rooms, and before the broad jump was called, Eve appeared, cool, smiling, and quite like her usual self.
“Mrs. Case! I protest!” declared Lou Potter, standing before the physical instructor of Central High, as Eve approached. “This is my chance. I demand the right to make this jump.”
But the instructor only smiled and shook her head.
“Evangeline is in plenty of time,” she said. “You are merely a substitute, Miss Potter. Are you ready, Eve? Then, take your place with the other contestants. You are Number 3.”
News of Eve’s nick o’ time appearance had been circulated by Chet Belding when he joined the Central High boys. When it came the girl’s turn to jump she received an ovation that startled the echoes.
And Eve did not disappoint her friends. She carried off the honors of the broad jump by two inches over every other competitor, beating the record established two years before.
Bobby did equally as well in the quarter-mile race. That was a trial of greater endurance than her winning dash, but she came along ahead of all the other sprinters, and won by a clean two yards.
Then Eve went into the field again and beat the famous Magdeline Spink, of Lumberport, putting the shot, by ten and a quarter inches – making a remarkable score for Central High, and establishing a record for following classes to attempt to beat for some years to come.
Of course, the girls as a whole did not know for sure that any of the seniors had had anything to do with Eve’s being abducted to the Varey flat; but because Lou Potter, and others, had been so positive that Eve would not appear, the juniors could not help feeling suspicious.
Had it not been for Laura Belding, ever the peace-maker, friction might have resulted that would have lasted through the remainder of the term and spoiled the graduation exercises for Central High that year.
“We can afford to let the matter rest as it is,” said Mother Wit, to her junior class friends. “Central High won – we got the winning points – and we stand at the head of our school athletic league. We can be satisfied with our score.
“As far as these seniors go – Well, the bad ones are not the entire class. And, anyway, they will soon be graduated and we shall have no more trouble from them. Let them be an example to us – ”
“An example!” cried the irrepressible Bobby. “I guess you mean a horrible example.”
“Perhaps. At least, let us remember, when we are seniors, not to do as they have done,” concluded Mother Wit.
“If I’m any prophet,” said Jess. “We won’t be like them.”
“Well, you are no prophet!” cried Bobby. “And don’t talk to me any more about prophets and fortune-tellers.”
“Oh-ho!” mocked Nellie. “Bobby no longer believes in the Gypsy Queen!”
“I believe in nothing of the kind. I was a dreadfully foolish girl to pay any attention to that wicked woman. You see, she was wrong. I got into no trouble this term with Gee Gee, after all.”
But Bobby said nothing to her friends about the greater fear that she had had for weeks – the fear that her father might bring home a new wife. She knew now that that had been merely a spiteful guess of the Gypsy Queen, who knew Mr. Hargrew’s circumstances, and thought it safe to warn his daughter that he might marry again.
“The wicked old witch – that’s what she is!” thought Bobby. “Father Tom would never do that. I am going to be his housekeeper as well as his partner.” And nothing in the future could ever make Bobby Hargrew doubt her father’s word.
The girls of Central High – especially the juniors – carried off greater honors after that Field Day; but never did they win trophies that gave them more satisfaction than these.
Eve was sure to make a name for herself in the league in the future; and Bobby had developed into quite a sprinter. Laura Belding looked forward in the next year to developing other girls into all-round athletes who would win points for Central High.
And indeed, they all – girls and instructors alike – looked forward to immense benefit as well as pleasure to be derived from the future athletic activities of the Girls of Central High.