"If the word of the young lady is to be taken before mine, Miss Conyngham, I must ask you of your goodness to seek another Professor of Chemistry," he said. "And it would be much to my convenience if you could find him by the end of dis vairy month, since your young ladies here haf no desire to learn of me--and I therefore receive insults on all sides...." "Run away, Jocelyn," Miss Conyngham ordered, and Joey obeyed of course, though it was a tantalising moment to be ordered out. Would Miss Conyngham and the Professor make friends again, she wondered, or would she accept his resignation and let him leave them as he asked to do by the end of the month? The end of the month--why, that would be the 31st, of course. Joey thought of Noreen's words, "We're living in a mystery." Noreen had been joking, but it began to look as though her joking words were coming true. It was then it occurred to her that the minute the ban on going out was removed, the person to consult was John. But meantime the school was under arrest and the culprit had still to be found. Joey made her way back to the others, and announced Miss Conyngham's depressing ultimatum on the way to Remove II. B classroom. By Break the whole school knew it, and the Head of the Upper School and the Head of the Lower met for a council of war. CHAPTER XVI THE EVE OF THE MATCH It was the thirtieth of October, the eve of the great match between the "Lincs Ladies" and Redlands. Ordinarily all Redlands would have been in a perfect fizzle of excitement; the Team was strong, the best, so Miss Lambton and the coach agreed, that Redlands had run for the past six years; and the weather was perfect, fine and dry and windy, so that the field at Deeping Royal was safe to be in the best of all possible conditions for the match. But despite all this, gloom reigned throughout Redlands, from Ingrid down to little Tiddles; who, although she could not understand the issues, could at least understand that her adored Joey was sad. Miss Conyngham had not budged one inch from her pronouncement, in spite of all that the College dared to urge. The Professor had seen a girl climbing in at the window of the Lab, and yet no girl had come forward to own to it. Until the culprit gave herself up voluntarily, the whole school must be under punishment. And the punishment was "gating" at all times except the walks in "croc." That meant that no Redlands girl, with the exception of the Team, who naturally must be exempt, could go to the great match.