"When you started that fire last night," he said, "I knew the wood came from the crypt. And so I thought I mightn't be wasting my time if I hid down here this morning. And now you'll come straight to the headmistress with me."
Stella knew it would be useless trying to explain to Judd. But she didn't realise the ordeal that awaited her in the quad. For it was full of girls now and she had to pass right through them. And they were quick to see the gown hanging over the porter's arm.
"It was Stella Maxwell after all!" somebody shouted. "Judd has the gown she wore!"
Excited comments started up on all sides.
"We were right to send her to Coventry!"
"What a disgrace for the Fourth!"
"Even now I still can't believe it of Stella Maxwell!"
"But seeing is believing!"
And then Stella saw Ada Robson and Lena Kirby, and she heard the latter's voice.
"You'll have no more trouble with the Fourth, Ada," she said. "The hooded unknown seems to have been unmasked!" Stella was more than glad to reach the headmistress' study. She had to wait some little while before Miss Sutton came in. When she did appear the headmistress was looking very grave.
Quietly she listened to the porter's story.
"Thank you, Judd," she said at the end. "I'm grateful to you. You may leave me to deal with Stella now."
When the porter had gone Miss Sutton looked at Stella.
"Well, she said quietly, "have you any explanation to give me?"
Stella told her the whole truth -- starting with leaving the dorm in search of her notebook. But at the end Miss Sutton's face showed no change.
"Your story is a little difficult to believe, Stella," she said then. "The hooded figure must have been a member of your Form -- nobody else had any reason to interfere with the Fifth Form drill team. And on each occasion when the hooded figure appeared you were out of your room. I have already learned that you were tried by your Form last night and found guilty."
She pressed the tips of her fingers together.
"I'm sorry, Stella," she said then, "but I cannot believe you. I think you went down to the crypt this morning to obtain your gown and then to destroy it. And so I'm afraid I must send you away from St. Kate's."
Slowly she came to her feet.
"I shall inform your parents today," she said then, "so that they will be prepared for your homecoming. Tomorrow morning you will be publicly expelled and then one of the staff will escort you to your home. Until that time you will remain in the punishment room."
"Yet I've still told you the truth, Miss Sutton," Stella said quietly.
But she was taken to the punishment room and locked in. And how the hours dragged then. Stella sat and thought, and the mystery only seemed to become deeper. Who could the hooded unknown have possibly been?
"If only I'd never left the dorm the night before last," she sadly reflected. "Nobody would have connected me with the unknown then."
But it was foolish to cry over spilled milk.
Instead of bringing honour to St. Kate's by her drill display she was being expelled.
If only she could have found some tangible clue to the unknown.
During the afternoon Trix spoke to her from outside the locked door. Trix still believed in her innocence. But Trix didn't get time to say very much, for she was sent away by a watchful prefect.
Meals were brought to her and darkness came down. She heard the dormitory bell ring and she thought of the girls going up to the dorm together. It was impossible to believe she would never accompany them again.
She felt no desire for sleep herself.
It was just as she had made up her mind to go to bed that she heard the ruslting underneath the door. A square of paper was being thrust through the narrow gap between the door and the floor. Then Stella heard footsteps hurry away.
Quickly she crossed the room. She picked up a note and a very large key. And as she read she opened her eyes wide.
This was the note: "I've managed to get possession of the punishment room door key. Don't wait to be expelled in disgrace, Stella -- I couldn't bear to see it happen. Use the key to make your escape and leave the school to-night. Good luck. Trix."
For a very long time Stella sat staring at the note.
But finally she turned the key in the lock and walked out of the punishment room. And she also walked out of the school building. Quickly she crossed the quadrangle and then she climbed the school wall. After that the darkness of the road swallowed her up.
But Stella didn't go very far.
Coming to a stile, she clambered over it and then she was making her way back across the fields. And she climbed back over the school wall in an entirely different place.
And then, in the darkness of the quad, she waited.
Would anything happen? Had she worked out things correctly? She had been so sure when she had sat staring at the note. But the school clock chimed the hour of midnight and Stella's heart went down into her shoes. Nothing was going to happen. She was still in disgrace -- she would still be expelled.
And then -- she was straining her eyes. For a figure had appeared in the quad. And -- it was a hooded figure!
"She must have made herself another gown!" Steppa gasped. "But -- what is she doing?!"
The figure stopped in the centre of the quad and she appeared to place something on the ground.
"She -- she's going to start another fire!" Stella gasped. "I must act quickly now."
She went stealing off into the darkness.
And Miss Sutton awaoke to the sound of gravel being thrown at her bedroom window. And when she opened her window she received a great shock.
"This is Stella Maxwell, Miss Sutton," a voice said from below. "You must come down at once. The -- the hooded figure is out in the quadrangle."
Miss Sutton didn't waste time by asking questions. Even before Stella expected her she came walking out of the darkness.
"Hurry, Miss Sutton," Stella gasped. "Nothing must go wrong now."
They entered the quad to see that once again a fire was burning in the centre of it. And then into the glow of the fire came the hooded figure. Her arms appeared to be piled high with clothes. With a quick gesture she flung something on the fire.
"Stop!" Miss Sutton exclaimed. "Drop those clothes at once!"
The hooded figure gave a startled cry. The bundle of clothes fell from her arms and then she turned to flee. But Miss Sutton called out again.
"Stop her, Judd! Stop her!"
The porter ran forward and seized the hooded figure by the arm but the unknown girl struggled frenziedly.
Stella, watching, gave a sudden cry of dismay.
"Look out! Oh, don't let her escape!" For with a sudden frantic tug the hooded figure had torn herself free of the porter's grasp. Next moment she was racing madly away.
"After her -- after her!" cried Stella. "She mustn't get away!"
She herself took up the pursuit, for the thought that her enemy might escape -- that her identity might never be discovered -- was unbearable.
The porter also gave chase, and even the headmistress gathered up her skirts and went chasing across the quad.
But the hooded enemy twisted and turned, eluding every grabbing hand, and suddenly she raced for the shelter of the wood which bounded the western side of the quadrangle.
Stella knew despair.
If the unknown once gained those trees, she would find it a simple matter to escape in the darkness.
Desperately Stella sprinted. With all her strength she hurled herself at the fugitive.
Her out-thrust fingers just grasped the flowing robe at the back, but with a derisive laugh the masked figure wrenched herself free.
Off she pounded again, but, even as she gained the edge of the wood, there came disaster.
Hidden amongst the rank grass was a fallen branch, and in her wild haste to get away the unknown tripped over it.
Down she went to sprawl on her face. With a gasp of triumph Stella hurled herself forward and dropped on top of her enemy, pinning her down.
As the two girls struggled on the ground, the porter came panting up, and quickly he seized the runaway and pulled her to her feet.
"It's no good struggling," he declared grimly. "You won't get away this time. I'll take good care of that. "
Stella stumbled up, and at that moment the headmistress came running up to the scene.
"Who -- who is she?" she panted.
Stella reached out and grasped the unknown's hood. A quick tug and the hood was ripped away, revealing a sullen, furious face.
Both Stella and Miss Sutton just stood and stared. Never had the felt such tremendous surprise.
"Why, it's -- it's Lena Kirby!" Stella exclaimed, a note of incredulity in her voice.
And the hooded enemy who had baffled her for so long was indeed the languid Fifth Former.
"And it was the new drill dresses of the Fifth Form she intended to burn," Miss Sutton gasped.
"She must have intended to burn them last night," Stella surmised, "But the porter came on the scene too quickly for her."
Then Miss Sutton was looking down at Stella.
"There is a lot I do not understand," she said coldly. "How do you come to be out of detention, Stella?"
Stella told her about the note and the key.
"I knew at once it wasn't Trix's writing," she said. "I know her writing as well as I know my own. So I sat down to think. And I worked it out that the unknown wanted me to flee from the school. As soon as I'd gone she'd get up to further mischief and then I would get the blame for it -- everybody would think it was my last vengeful act before leaving the school for ever. Knowing the unknown might be watching I pretended to leave but I quickly came back."
Miss Sutton's eyes kindled a little.
"You've been very clever over this matter, Stella," she stated. "Much cleverer than I have been."
Then she looked at the porter.
"Bring her to my study," she said.
In the headmistress' study Lena Kirby's sorry story was told. She had acted out of nothing but spite -- spite because Ada Robson had refused to give her a place in the Fifth Form drill team. She had set out to try to prevent the Fifth Form from going to Clayport. By burning all the new gym costumes she had thought the Fifth would be compelled to drop out. And she had considered it a great stroke of luck that Stella should have been suspected.
A great stroke of luck because -- had Stella not been the one to come under suspipcion of the Fourth and Fifth Formers in this way -- then suspicion might easily have been directed towards Lena herself.
For this was certainly not the first time that Lena Kirby had been responsible for an underhand action.
In her slap-happy way she had taken it for granted that she would be given a place in the Fifth Formers' drill team.
But she had never bothered to learn properly all the stunts and exercises at which the other Fifth Formers had worked so hard.
What a blow to Lena's pride, then, when the Fifth Form captain, Ada Robson, had put the list of girls in the team on the notice-board. For her name was not on it!
There and then she had silently vowed vengeance on the whole team.
What a dramatic scene there was in the school hall the next morning!
At breakfast all sorts of rumours had been whispered up and down the long tables. Word had got round that Stella had somehow escaped from the punishment room the night before.
Then one of the juniors, whose dormitory was near the punishment room, said that she had seen the porter bringing a girl back to the punishment room late last night. And that girl had not been Stella Maxwell -- it had been Lena Kirby of the Fifth.
Soon that news too, was buzzed excitedly round the dining-hall.
By the time all the girls had gathered for Assembly in the big hall, the whole atmosphere was tense with excitement. For Miss Sutton was striding on to the raised platform -- and on her heels were both Stella Maxwell and Lena Kirby.
And Lena's face was ashen. As for the headmistress -- never had the girls seen her look so grave.
She held up her hand for silence. Then, a grim frown creasing her forehead, she began to speak.
There and then she told the school the whole story. She made quite clear to them all the treachery of Lena and the complete innocence of Stella.
And it was Lena Kirby who was publicly expelled: not Stella.
And the Fourth couldn't make it up enough to Stella after that -- Betty Wood was actually in tears about it.
And a few days later the board of governors turned up to see the drill display. The Fourth won tumultuous applause and it was decided there and then that they should represent the school at Clayport.
But Stella stepped forward and suggested that the two Forms should combine and make one large drill team.
"That's a jolly sporting suggestion," declared the captain of the Fifth.
"Hear, hear!" came in an an approving chorus.
"But who's going to take charge of the combined team?" someone asked.
There was not a moment's hesitation. Both Fourth and Fifth Formers replied as one girl:
"Stella!"
"Stella Maxwell!"
"After all that's happened, it's only right that she shou;d have the honour."
So it was agreed, and never had Stella felt so proud and happy.
And at the Clayport Festival, with Stella acting as leader, the combined drill team carried everything before them.
