Kept her head pretty well, I hear from my spies.’
‘And —?’
‘Yes. A selfless knight-errant named Cowley — know her? — doing Advanced Biology, so it was all very suitable — nipped out, collected the all manner of creeping things, and took them off to the lab. Then Fishy and Miss Harbottle between them blew out the flames, and Miss Harbottle concluded the most popular dem. since Pharoah kicked Moses in the pants for producing the plague of frogs.’
Nothing else, Deborah discovered, was talked of by Staff and students during the afternoon, for Miss Harbottle had formally reported the matter to the Principal, and Group B.2. had been ‘put through it’ — to quote Miss Harbottle herself — ‘in no uncertain manner,’ but without the slightest result.
‘Personally, I wouldn’t put it past Cartwright,’ said Miss Topas, when asked for her opinion.
Deborah herself went to the Principal when she learned how much stir the affair had caused, and said abruptly that she was not at all sure that the little attention had not been intended for her.
‘I was supposed to give my demonstration lesson at the time Miss Harbottle gave hers. We changed over, as a matter of — er — of mutual convenience, at the very last moment. I only mention it because I do think it is more likely that somebody new, like myself, would be ragged rather than Miss Harbottle, who is well established here.’
‘I see. Thank you, Miss Cloud. It was a horrid thing to do, whoever it was intended to annoy. I shall interview Group A.1., then, and see where that will lead us. I am determined to track the culprit down. I had half suspected Miss Cartwright, of Group B.2., but what you say lends a different aspect. I am obliged to you. How are you getting on at Athelstan? Not finding yourself overburdened?’
The Principal got no further in her search for the person responsible for the snakes, and the excitement which the incident had occasioned would probably have been short-lived but for a more serious outbreak which, even in the widest sense of a very elastic word, could scarcely be looked upon as ragging.
In Athelstan Hall there were twin sisters called Carroway. Needless to say, they were always known as the Seeds, and were in their second year. Apart from their name and their twinship, they were in no way outstanding and certainly had not, so far as was known, any enemies.
But one afternoon, when Annet Carroway went to the box-room to get a dress out of her trunk, she discovered that all the clothes she had left there had been slashed and torn. These clothes included her new winter overcoat, which had had both pockets ripped right out and a great piece chopped out of the back. Further, the trunk itself had had the lock burst open, and the top looked as though someone had jumped on it.
Her immediate reaction was to sit down on the box-room floor and cry; her second to find her sister. Margaret Carroway gave one look at the damage and then threw open the lid of her own trunk. Here the damage was even worse. Her dance frock had been torn to shreds, and not only her winter coat but two pairs of heavyweight winter pyjamas had been cut and torn until they were quite beyond repair.
Margaret kicked the lid of her trunk to close it, took her sister by the hand, and went off to lay the facts before the Warden.
Fortunately, although it was Saturday, the Warden was in. She accompanied the tearful Annet and the white- faced Margaret downstairs, and inspected the damage. She said very little. These were poor girls whose family, at some sacrifice, had allowed them to come to College. Infuriating and inconvenient as the loss of the clothes must have been to anyone, to these two girls it was something not far short of tragedy.
‘The College,’ said Mrs Bradley, when they had returned to her room, ‘will, of course, make good the damage. In fact, unless you have any very definite plans for this afternoon, I should suggest that you take a ‘late leave’ from me, your fare and some money, and go into York — or Leeds, if you can get a train — and see what you can do in the way of a little shopping. And — may I ask this of you, my dear students? — please don’t tell anybody else about this until I have spoken to the Principal. She is away for the week-end, so I shall not see her until Monday.’
They promised, murmured against taking the money but had it forced on them, and were hustled out of the house with time to catch the train which Mrs Bradley had looked up for them. When they had gone she went very thoughtfully down the stairs again to the basement, and stood for a long time looking at the door which led into the box-room. Then she went along the passage towards the bakehouse, then walked back, through the basement of Athelstan, towards the next Hall. There was a door to separate Athelstan from the bakehouse, another to separate Athelstan from the connecting piece of corridor, and still another, she knew, to separate this connecting corridor from the next Hall. All these doors were locked, as usual.
She took out her keys — a formidable bunch — unlocked the door to the bakehouse and the door to the passage, went down on hands and knees, and carefully inspected the floor. It had been so carefully swept, however, that nothing was to be gained by even the closest scrutiny. She went along to the kitchen to question the servants. The floor had been swept that morning at nine o‘ clock or thereabouts. It was swept every day. There were always students in and out of the box-room to get things out of their trunks or put things in. The wardrobe space in the study-bedrooms was so extremely limited that the trunks were continually requisitioned. The floor was often muddy. It was washed over twice a week. Students came down into the basement straight from muddy walks or from the games fields.
Mrs Bradley locked the box-room door, returned to her room and rang up Columba. To her delight, Miss Topas was in.
‘Yes,’ she said, in answer to Mrs Bradley’s inquiry, ‘I’ll come over at once. I wanted to go to York this afternoon, but I’ve only got thirty bob and couldn’t be bothered to go to the bank to cash a cheque. How’s Deborah?’
‘Out,’ replied Mrs Bradley. That’s the only reason I want to see
She hung up, and had not long to wait, for Miss Topas appeared in less than five minutes, having run, she explained, falling into a chair and puffing loudly, all the way. What, she inquired, had Mrs Bradley discovered?
Mrs Bradley informed her.
‘And I’m sending a round robin to all Wardens and Sub-Wardens to check up on their students at night, as far as is possible,’ she added.
‘Clothes-slashing?’ said the Principal. ‘Have you any theories?’
‘None,’ said Mrs Bradley, ‘that you would wish to hear. For instance,’ she continued before the Principal could deny this, ‘I might say that I have a theory that it was not done by any student in my Hall, but you would reply,
