Lily was not alone in complaining about Miss Carrington's harshness, however. It was the principal topic of conversation when the girls gathered in the boathouse rooms to prepare for the races and the features that were to precede the principal attraction of the carnival--the masquerade grand march. "Sh! She's right here now," whispered Bobby Hargrew sepulchrally, coming into the dressing-room. "She's on watch at the door." "Who?" asked Jess Morse. "Not Hester?" cried Lily. "She told me she wouldn't come down here!" "Gee Gee," shot back Bobby, with pursed lips. "She is going to be sure that Hester doesn't appear." "Mean thing!" Nellie Agnew said. And when the doctor's gentle daughter made such a statement she had to be fully aroused. "She thinks she has spoiled the whole act!" "I believe you," Bessie Yeager said. "I wonder if Miss Carrington really sleeps at night?" "Why not, Bess?" cried Dora Lockwood. "I think she lies awake thinking up mean things to do to us." "Oh, oh!" murmured Nellie. "I bet you!" exclaimed the slangy Bobby. "Careful, girls. If she hears you!" warned Laura. "Then you would be 'perspicuous au grautin,' as the fellow said," chuckled Bobby. "There! the whistle has sounded." "The fête has begun," sighed Jess. "I do hope everything will go off right." "The boys are taking in money all right," Laura said with satisfaction. "I believe we shall make a thousand dollars for the Red Cross." "I hope so," said her chum. "Come on, girls! It's first the fancy skating before the ice arena is all cut up." The effort to make the Ice Carnival of the Central High a success was aided by a perfect evening and perfect ice. The latter had been shaved and smoothed over every gnarly place. There was not a single crack in which a skate could be caught to throw the wearer. The arena roped off from the spectators was as smooth as a ballroom floor. It was about two acres in extent. Around three sides of the roped-off space there was a roped-off alley with boards laid upon the ice upon which the spectators could stand. Uprights held the strings of colored lights which were supplied with electricity from the city lighting company; for this was not the first exhibition of the kind that had been staged upon Lake Luna. Around the alley allotted to the audience, each member of which had to pay a half dollar for a ticket, was a guarded space so that those who did not pay entrance fee could not get near enough to enjoy the spectacle. The short-distance races, following the figure skating, were all within the oval of the principal arena. Then the ropes were taken down at one end and the long-distance races came off, a mile track having been marked with staffs upon the ice, staffs which now held the clusters of colored lanterns.