Dulcie’s parting fling drove away Marjorie’s righteous indignation. It was so utterly childish. She smiled as she arranged her books and papers to her mind and sat down to study. Two or three times in the course of study the remark re-occurred to her and she giggled softly. The name ‘Bean,’ as applied to her by Leslie Cairns, had invariably made her laugh whenever she had heard it.

When Jerry finally put in an appearance, Lucy and Ronny at her heels, Marjorie related to them the incident of Dulcie’s call.

“Oh, oh, oh!” groaned Jerry. “Why wasn’t I here? I always miss the most exciting moments of life.”

“I wished with all my heart that you would walk in and end the interview. She had so little honor about her I felt once as though I couldn’t endure having her here another minute. Then she took herself off so suddenly I was amazed.”

“Do you think she will go to Doctor Matthews?” Ronny asked rather skeptically. “Possibly what you said will take hold on her after all.”

“No. She will go,” Marjorie predicted with conviction. “She is determined on that. Maybe not right away. Goodness knows how much trouble it will stir up.”

“You’re right,” nodded Jerry. “Bring the Sans to carpet and they will probably name us as the crowd who broke in on their ridiculous tribunal. What then?”

“If we are accused of any such thing we can only tell the truth,” smiled Lucy. “We were in our masquerade costumes. We weren’t wearing dominos, but our own coats and scarfs. We went to rescue Marjorie. We were not out on a hazing expedition.”

“The only thing we should not have done, perhaps, was to blow out the candles,” declared Ronny with a reminiscent chuckle. “That was my doing. Some of the Sans might have been quite seriously hurt in the dark. They deserved the few bumps they garnered. I’m not sorry for that part of our rescue dash on them.”

“What a wonderful time we’ll have if we are brought up to face the Sans in Doctor Matthews’ office. Lead me to it; away from it, I had better say.” Jerry made a wry face.

“Don’t worry. I shall be on outpost duty,” laughed Lucy. “I am going to begin substituting for the Doctor tomorrow morning. Miss Humphrey sent for me after biology this P.M. to ask me if I would. Miss Sayres has bronchitis. I am so far ahead in my subjects I can spare two weeks to the doctor’s work. I was at Lillian’s house for dinner tonight, so I didn’t have a chance to tell you girls the news. If this affair comes up while I am working for the doctor, I shall no doubt hear of it. So long as we are all concerned in it, I shall feel I have the right to tell you if Miss Vale starts trouble.”

The Lookouts were not in the least worried over their own position in the matter. While they might not escape reprimand, they had done nothing underhanded nor disgraceful. According to Jerry they had “sprung a beautiful scare where it was needed.”

During the first week of her secretaryship for the doctor, Lucy heard nothing that would indicate the promised exposÉ on Dulcie’s part. They saw her several times on the campus or driving with Elizabeth Walbert, apparently well pleased with herself. It was Jerry’s opinion that she had built upon Marjorie’s aid. Being denied this, she had abandoned the project as too risky to undertake alone.

One thing lynx-eyed Lucy discovered concerning the secretary was her extreme carelessness in filing. More than once the doctor’s patience and her own were taxed by protracted hunts on her part for correspondence on file.

“I exonerate you from blame for this, Miss Warner,” the kindly doctor declared more than once. “I have spoken to Miss Sayres of this fault. I shall take it up with her again when she returns.”

As the first week merged into the second and the second into the third, and still Lucy remained as the doctor’s secretary, the two began to be on the best of terms. Quick to appreciate Lucy’s remarkable brilliancy as a student, not to mention her perfect work as secretary, the doctor and she had several long talks on biology, mathematics, and the affairs of Hamilton College as well.

During one of these talks a gleam of light shone for a moment on the mystery Lucy never gave up hoping to solve. In mentioning Wayland Hall, the president referred to Miss Remson as one of his oldest friends on the campus. “I have not seen Miss Remson for a very long time,” he said with a slight frown. “Let me see. It will be——can it be possible?——two years in June. And she living so near me! She used to be a fairly frequent visitor at our house. I must ask Mrs. Matthews to write her to dine with us soon. Kindly remind me of that, Miss Warner; say this afternoon before you leave. I will make a note of it.”

Lucy reminded him of the matter that afternoon with a glad heart. She confided it to her Lookout chums and they rejoiced with her. She would have liked to tell Miss Remson the good news but courtesy forbade the doing. The Lookouts agreed among themselves that it showed very plainly who was responsible for the misunderstanding.

At the beginning of the fourth week Miss Sayres returned. Lucy could only hope that Doctor Matthews had not forgotten to remind his wife of the dinner invitation. She was sure, had Miss Remson received it, that she would have mentioned it to them. She would have wished the Nine Travelers to know it. Whether Miss Remson would have accepted it was a question. She had her own proper pride in the matter. The girls had agreed that should she mention it, Lucy was then to tell her of the conversation with Doctor Matthews.

“Queer, but Miss Remson hasn’t said a word about receiving that invitation,” Ronny said to Lucy one evening shortly before the closing of college for the Easter holidays. “The doctor must have forgotten all about it. That shows his conscience is clear. It would appear that he doesn’t even suspect Miss Remson has a grievance against him.”

“I am sure he forgot it.” Lucy looked rather gloomy over the doctor’s omission. “It was such a fine opportunity, and now it’s lost. If I should work for him again I might remind him of it. If I did, I’d do more than mere reminding. I’d ask him to try to see Miss Remson and tell him I thought there had been a misunderstanding. I would have said so this time, but when he spoke of inviting her to their house for dinner, I supposed the tangle would be straightened post haste.”

“He may happen to recall it months from now,” Ronny consoled. “That’s the way my father does. Men of affairs hardly ever forget things for good. Sooner or later a memory of that kind crops up again.”

While Lucy worried because the doctor had forgotten his kindly intention toward their faithful elderly friend, Leslie Cairns was plunged in the depths of apprehension because of Lucy’s substitution for Laura Sayres. Each day she wondered if the sword would fall. She visited Laura and made her worse by her irritating questions regarding the secretary’s methods of filing. Was there any danger of old Matthews going through the files himself? Was Laura sure that she had eliminated every bit of evidence against them? Was she positive she had destroyed the letter Miss Remson had written him, supposedly? Nor had Leslie any mercy on the secretary’s weakened condition. Laura bore her unfeeling selfishness without much protest. Leslie had given her one hundred dollars in her first visit. This palliated the senior’s faults.

When at the end of the third week nothing had occurred of a dismaying nature, Leslie began to believe that her college career was safe. With Easter just ahead, a very late Easter, too, only two months stretched between her and Commencement, that dear day of honor and freedom for her. She had worried but little over Dulcie’s threats. Elizabeth Walbert’s parting shot, “You’ll be sorry,” crossed her mind occasionally. She attached not much importance to it at first and less as winter drew on toward spring.

Dulcie Vale, however, was only biding her time. She never relinquished for an hour her resolve to bring disgrace upon the Sans. Leslie having ordered her chums to steer clear of Bess Walbert, the latter also burned for revenge. She and Dulcie, after one glorious quarrel over what each had said about the other to Leslie, had made up and joined forces. They had a common object. Thus they clung together. They made elaborate plans for retaliation, only to abandon them for the one great plan, the betrayal of the Sans to Doctor Matthews.

Dulcie had at first decided to go to the president of Hamilton College within a few days after her unsuccessful talk with Marjorie. Then she thought of something else which pleased her better. She would wait until after Easter. If the Sans were expelled from college just before Easter, they would endeavor to slip away quietly, making it appear that they had left of their own accord. If she waited until they had returned, the blow would be far more crushing.

Regarding herself, Dulcie had her own plans. Her family, including her father, were in Europe. Her mother would not return until the next July. Her father, luckily for her, was to be in Paris until the following January. Her mother allowed her to do as she pleased. What Dulcie intended to do to please herself was to leave Hamilton on the Easter vacation not to return. She was not too stupid to realize that the Sans, accused of many faults by her, would turn on her en masse and implicate her. She could not hold out against them if arraigned in the presence of Doctor Matthews. She was also too heavily conditioned to graduate, and she hated college since her ostracization by the Sans. She was more than ready to leave. She would walk out and let her former chums bear the consequences. They had not spared her. She would not spare them.