"She mayn't come to this particular spot again," said Lizzie, "but she'll find some other meeting-place, the cunning old thing. I could see it in her eye. So this is their grand secret! What a remarkably honourable and creditable one!" "It's worse than I thought," groaned Ulyth. "They must have been going on with this business for some time, Lizzie. Do you know, that brooch was Rona's. I recognized it at once. It's one she brought from New Zealand, with a Maori device on it." "I thought better of Rona." "So did I. She's improved so much I didn't think she'd slip back in this way." "I believe Tootie Phillips is the ring-leader." "There's no doubt of it. From all we've seen, the juniors have got a systematic traffic with this woman, and post scouts to keep watch while she's about. You heard Irene call: 'All's well!'" "They'll be feasting in their bedroom to-night." "Rona won't dare, surely. Lizzie, I shouldn't have thought much of it if they'd done it once just for a lark. We're all human, and juniors will be juniors. But when it gets systematic, and they begin to sell their brooches, that's a different matter." "What are you going to do? Tackle the kids and tell them we've found out, and they've got to stop it?" "Will they really stop it just at our bidding? Or will it only put them on their guard and make them carry the thing on with more caution?" "Then give a hint to the monitresses?" "I wonder if we ought. I wish Catherine and Helen were different." "Well, what do you suggest?" "There's only one other way. Mrs. Arnold is coming to The Woodlands on Friday afternoon. Suppose we wait, catch her alone, and tell her all about it. She's our 'Guardian of the Fire', and we ought to be able to ask her things when we're in difficulties. She doesn't belong to the school, so it isn't like telling a teacher or a monitress. We know we can trust her absolutely." "Right-O! But it seems a long time to have to wait." "It can't be helped," said Ulyth, as they hurried back through the garden. She had decided, as she thought, for the best, though, as the result proved, she had chosen a most unfortunate course. CHAPTER XVI Amateur Conjuring Ulyth went to her bedroom that evening in much agitation of mind. She was torn by conflicting impulses. At one moment she longed to tax Rona frankly with a breach of school rules, air the whole subject, and state her most emphatic opinion upon it. If Rona alone had been concerned in the matter she would have done so without hesitation, but the knowledge of the number of girls who were involved made her pause. "I might do more harm than good," she reflected. "After the way Tootie has been inciting them to take sides against the seniors, they'd be up in arms at the least hint. It will be worse if they know they're discovered, and yet go on in an even more underhand fashion." Ulyth's abstraction was so marked that her room-mate could not fail to notice it.