"I'm going to beat her yet!"
Stella no sooner recovered from the first sense of shock than she actually smiled. Knowing it was useless to try the door leading into the school, she tried the one opeining on to the quad. But that was locked, too.
"She can't know anything about the grating," Stella murmured then. "If she did, she wouldn't have bothered to lock me in."
The fact that the girls were forbidden to enter the crypt had made them all very curious about it. And it was Stella who, months before, had found a way of getting into the crypt. She had discovered that a large grating set in the wall at ground level was very loose. She had succeeded in pulling it free and had then been able to climb through the opening and drop down into the crypt. But there had been nothing to see apart from the pillars and the low roof.
Most of the Fourth had used the grating in order to discover what the inside of the crypt looked like.
Quickly Stella pushed an empty box against the wall and then stood upon it. Suppose someone in authority had discovered that the grating was loose and had had it firmly cemented again? She didn't want to spend the night in this eerie place and she most certainly didn't want to be discovered missing from the dorm in the morning.
But the grating was loose, as it had always been.
Stella pushed it outwards and next moment she was clambering through the opening. And it seemed to her that the quad was very light considering the lateness of the hour.
Pushing the grating back into place, she turned about and then stood to stare.
A bonfire was blazing in the centre of the quad! At once she remembered the splinters of wood in the crypt. Had the fire been started by the unknown? If so -- what was her purpose?
And there was someone running across the quad.
But it wasn't a hooded figure. As the figure came within the glow of the fire, Stella recognised Judd, the school porter.
"What on earth can he have been burning?" Stella gasped. (Editor's note: earth was spelt with a lower case 'e' in the annual!)
Forgetful of the fact that she was still in trouble -- that she was locked out of the school, in fact -- Stella moved forward under the shadow of the school building. And then she saw another hurrying figure and one that could not be mistaken. It was Miss Sutton, the headmistress.
"Judd!" she heard Miss Sutton exclaim. "What is happening here? Who is responsible for starting this fire?"
The porter stood and scratched his head. "Ask me another, ma'am," he answered. "I was just thinking of going to bed when I saw a strange glow outside the window. I saw this fire when I ran out of the lodge. I saw someone running away from it. It was someone wearing a hooded gown."
"The hooded figure again!" Miss Sutton gasped.
Stella wished she could get nearer the scene. What had the unknown tried to burn?
Her unspoken question was answered by the headmistress.
"But why should she want to light a fire?" Miss Sutton demanded. "It's only made up of a few broken boxes."
Again the porter scratched his head and he made the same reply.
"Ask me another, ma'am," he said.
Miss Sutton drew herself up then.
"I intend to get to the bottom of this nonsense, Judd," she rapped. "I will bring the whole school down into the quadrangle. Ring the fire alarm at once."
"Yes, ma'am," the porter answered.
Stella gave a gasp of consternation. She was going to be foudn out after all. When the alarm bell rang she would be discovered missing from the dorm. Everyone was bound to jump to the conclusion that she was the hooded figure. For she was still locked out of the school.
And already the porter was hurrying across the quad.
Stella forced herself to think quickly.
"Why didn't I think of it before?" she asked herself. "When Miss Sutton walked out of the school she probably left the door open."
Already she was running alongside the school front. She came to the door and it was standing ajar. Quickly she raced through it. But would she be in time? She had to be inside the dorm before the alarm bell aroused the school.
Could she do it?
Up the staircase she went, three steps at a time. She reached the dorm landing and then -- the bell began to clang. Never before had it sounded so loud and raucous. She had been beaten by a few seconds.
"Not if I know it!" Stella told herself.
Running to the door of the dorm, she quickly flung it open and then she stepped inside. Her next move was to switch on the lights. She saw then that the Fourth were already awake and that half of them were already out of bed.
As she was wearing her dressing-gown Stella hoped they would think she had leaped out of bed at the first clang of the bell and ran to switch on the lights.
"Come on you lie-abeds!" she called. "Tumble out!"
With the fire alarm still ringing, the girls wasted no time. There was no panic, for on one night every term the school was aroused for fire drill. And so, within a very short while, Stella was leading the Fourth out to the quad. She saw that the fire had now died down to a few glowing embers.
But Miss Sutton lost no time in pointing it out to the girls.
"This is not an ordinary fire drill," she explained. "I have aroused you from your beds because one of you has dared to light a fire in the quadrangle. And, first of all, I wish to know if any girl was missing from her dormitory when the fire alarm rang."
Nobody answered the question. And Stella breathed her relief. How lucky she had thought to run into the dormitory and switch on the lights!
Miss Sutton then gave her opinion of girls who dressed up in hooded gowns and who caused trouble within a school.
"I shall not rest until I discover her identity," she wound up. "When I do, she will leave St. Kate's for ever."
That was when the line of Fifth Formers turned their heads to stare accusingly at the Fourth.
And when the girls were filing back into the school Stella overheard languid Lena Kirby make a remark.
"I think we should tell Miss Sutton the hooded figure is a member of the Fourth," she said. "That information should narrow down her search quite a lot."
Ada Robson answered her.
"I've no great love for the Fourth," she said, "but I've no wish to sneak about any of them. The hooded figure will find trouble soon enough without our help."
"I hope you're right," Lena said. "But I wouldn't call it sneaking. I'm not forgetting that one of our girls has a sprained ankle and may not be able to appear with the drill team."
The Fourth filed into their dormitory. And then a strange thing happened. For Betty Wood set her back against the door.
"Cover up the windows," she ordered, "and push the beds back against the wall. We're going to hold a court of enquiry."
They stared at her.
"What about?" Trix Riley wanted to know.
Betty looked coldly at Stella.
"About Stella Maxwell!" she rapped. "When the alarm bell rang I was one of the first out of bed. And I was almost at the door when it opened and someone came in. That someone was Stella. She wasn't in the dorm when the bell first rang."
Stella knew a dreadful sinking feeling. This was something she hadn't anticipated. She had been so sure she had got away with it.
And -- and what would Betty and the others do about it? Would they go to the headmistress?
A suddenly quieter Fourth Form pushed the beds to one side. And then Betty Wood took the centre of the floor.
"Are you or are you not the hooded unknown, Stella Maxwell?" she wanted to know.
"I am not the hooded unknown," Stella answered.
"Then," Betty rapped, "perhaps you will tell us what you were doing out of the dorm to-night."
Stella hesitated for a moment. Should she take the Form into her confidence? Quickly she decided it would be very unqise to do that. The hooded figure must be a Fourth Former. Then the less she knew about Stella's suspicions the better.
"We're still waiting," Betty Wood reminded her.
"I admit I was out of the dorm," Stella said quietly. "I was following up a clue to the unknown. And I'm more anxious than anyone that she should be exposed. I was down in the quad when the alarm bell sounded and I had to dash back here as quickly as possible. And that's all I can tell you."
"And it's more than enough," Trix said at once. "You couldn't possibly be the unknown, Stella."
But Betty Wood's face was dark.
"It isn't half enough," she said icily. "It's very obvious Stella is keeping something back. The hooded unknown has been seen on two occasions and on each occasion Stella has been out of this dorm. I declare that she is the hooded unknown!"
There were many murmurs of assent and Stella felt her face flush.
"All of us feel nothing but contempt for the girl who soaped the floor of the gym," Betty went on. "And I'm suggesting now that the Fourth shows its contempt for Stella Maxwell by sending her to Coventry. Those in favour show in the usual way."
Quite a lot of hands went up.
"It isn't fair!" Trix burst out and there were tears in her eyes. "You've no right to treat Stella like this. She's worth the lot of you put together."
Stella's heart warmed to her chum. She knew she would always be able to rely upon Trix. But being sent to Coventry was a terrible blow. It meant the end of her drill team. There was no chance at all of the Fourth representing the school at Clayport.
Not unless the unknown was exposed in the next few days. Which meant she must still go on trying to solve the mystery.
And she would start by going down to the crypt first thing in the morning. Surely there was a chance she might be able to pick up a clue there.
"I've said all I have to say," she said quietly. "With your permission now I'll go to bed."
Stella slept restlessly that night and for once it was difficult to get up at rising bell. And then Stella was quickly made to realise she was "in Coventry," for very few girls spoke to her.
Stella was the first to leave the dining room after breakfast. If she hurried she would be able to get into the crypt without being seen. And there was nobody in sight when she pulled back the grating.
Down into the crypt she dropped.
She was breathing a little faster as she looked about her. Now that it was daylight she could see quite clearly. Would she have any luck -- would she find a clue?
She looked about her. Where could anything be hidden down here? There was only a stack of empty boxes in one corner.
And then Stella saw the metal front of a ventilating shaft. Crossing quickly to it she pulled the metal plate back on its hinges. She reached inside and suddenly her eyes were alive with triumph.
Out of the shaft she pulled a hooded gown.
And she was in the act of holding it up when a grim voice sounded behind her.
"Reckon I haven't wasted my time waiting here," it stated.
Stella turned with a gasp of surprise and fear -- to see Judd, the porter, stepping out from behind the stack of boxes!
CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO READ CHAPTER FOUR
