In the good, steadfast atmosphere of a sensible home, whose heads were not easily stampeded, Betty felt better. Father was told quietly by Mother. But Betty’s sleep was troubled that night and it was with many an inward qualm that she started to school the next morning. She intended to go on through the day, as her mother advised her, with as much quiet dignity as she could command, discussing the matter with no one.

Peggy, however, referred to the conversation of the day before when she met her by her locker, next to Betty’s. “The boys were up to something, as I told you. It wasn’t Jakey but the boy behind him, Sam, that I was glaring at, as you said. He tried to snatch a piece of paper off my desk, a blank sheet, it was, and I thought the boys were doing that just to be smart, taking things off the girls’ desks and seeing what they could do without being caught. I mean that bunch of boys, you know, not Mickey or Andy. So maybe somebody got hold of part of your paper.”

“The wind from that open window blew some paper off my desk once,” mused Betty. “I believe it must have been Jakey that handed it to me, but I didn’t think it was part of my paper that was written on. I stuck it under the rest. I did write out my translations on an extra paper first, for I didn’t want to make any erasures and have a messy paper. But Jakey knows as much as I do. It certainly wasn’t Jakey whose paper was like mine.”

“Time will tell,” said Peggy. “Don’t worry too much, Betty. Whatever happens, your friends among us girls will believe what you say.”

“Thanks, Peggy. You’re a comfort. Please don’t say anything to Carolyn yet.”

“She might know something.”

“How could she?”

“I don’t know. But at least I can tell her how I was questioned, and everybody knew that you had to stay after school, so how can you help telling her?”

“I’ll tell her that I was questioned, too.”

Betty however, had started to school as late as she dared. In consequence lessons and the day’s program were upon them. At lunch she remained in the room until after Carolyn and the rest of those going up to lunch had gone, and pretended to be detained by some notes she was writing. Perhaps it was not a pretense either, she thought, for she needed the notes. But she would not have taken them then if she had not wanted to avoid being with the rest of the girls. A few who were not going to lunch were nibbling crackers or chocolate bars and stirring about the room a little. The colored girl in her Latin class was there and Betty wondered if she had enough money for the lunch, little as some of it cost.

Sure enough, there were some chocolate bars and an apple in her locker! She had the chocolate bars in her sweater pocket and the apple had been presented to her in the hall by no less a friend than Budd LeRoy. She, too, would miss lunch and divide with Sally. Quickly she ran out to her locker, rifled the pocket of her sweater, discarded since the early cold morning, and brought her apple and her pocket knife.

“Have a bar with me, Sally,” she said, “if you are not going to lunch either, and I’ll cut this apple in two.”

“Why–thanks, Betty. That looks good. No, I thought I wouldn’t go to lunch today. But you’d better keep all of your apple.”

“It’s too big and it looks awfully juicy,” added Betty as she cut the apple in halves. “With my compliments, Miss Sally,” and Betty assumed quite an air as she handed the fruit to Sally, who laughed and thanked Betty again.

“Have you always lived in this city?” asked Betty for something to say, as Sally sat down in her own seat which was opposite Betty’s, by chance, just as in the Latin class.

In the soft voice and accent peculiar to her race at its best, Sally answered this question and asked Betty how she liked this and that teacher, Miss Heath among others. Miss Heath had not met her class that morning, to Betty’s deep disappointment.

“I saw Miss Heath come in the uppah hall,” said Sally, “jus’ befo’ the last class. She hurried into the office and I suppose she couldn’t get here this mawnin.’”

“Oh, is she here?” asked Betty brightening.

“Yes. Say, Betty, did you see Jakey Bechstein take some of your papers off your desk at the test?”

“No; did he?”

“Yes, while you were sharpening your pencils. The boys were having fun behind Miss Masterson’s back when she was pulling down one window and putting up another for ventilation, though she didn’t know I suppose that they’re not supposed to do that with the system they’ve got here. They were pretendin’ to look at each other’s papers and grab a few off the desks and Jakey grabbed yours. But he kept them a while, and I saw him sneak them back just before you started for your seat.”

“I didn’t notice. But Jakey knows as much about Latin as I do. What would be the point?”

“Keeping you from getting ahead of him,” said Sally, taking a large bite of the apple and being obliged to catch some of the juice in her handkerchief. “Jakey’s not studying so much, I reckon, since he started basketball.”

Betty listened soberly and remembered the remark Jakey had made about not studying for the test. Could it be that he had copied anything from her paper?

It was worth while staying from lunch and sharing with Sally to hear this. Yet could she use the information to help herself out?

“If anything should come up about Jakey, Sally, or anybody, would you be willing to tell Miss Heath what you saw?”

“I sure would. I guess the teacher kept you and Peggy about something like that yesterday, didn’t she? I saw her look at Peggy when I heard Peggy snap off the kid that snatched at her paper.”

“Miss Masterson did ask some questions, Sally.”

Betty was deep in her lesson for the next hour when the girls came back from lunch. “Where were you, Betty?” asked Carolyn.

“Oh, I just decided that I didn’t want to go up, and I happened to have some chocolate bars and an apple. I’ll fill up when I get home after school.”

“I always do, and eat lunch, too,” said Peggy. “Miss Heath was upstairs for lunch. I saw her go into the teachers’ lunch room. It was funny for her to come in the middle of the day, wasn’t it?”

The girls wondered, but Miss Heath, though not feeling equal to a day of teaching, had come over for something else, as she had an idea which she wanted to share with the assistant principal. When Betty depressed, went into the office of the assistant principal after school, Miss Heath was there and looked like a fountain in the desert, or the sun shining through clouds, to Betty.

“Good afternoon, Betty,” she said pleasantly, though with dignity. “I came over to see about the little matter of the test. As soon as your principal is at liberty, I want to go over the questions with you.”

This was surprising–did she mean the real principal? Evidently not, for when Mr. Franklin came into the office, stopped on the way by several people, both teachers and pupils, she drew out a paper. “I am ready to go over the questions with Betty, Mr. Franklin,” she said.

“Very well,” said he, closing the door.

“Do you remember the questions, pretty well, Betty?” asked Miss Heath.

“I would know them if I saw them.”

“Have you looked up anything you did not know?”

“Yes–I wasn’t sure about several things that I wrote down; but I have forgotten what they were now.”

“Perhaps you will recall them as I go through the questions. I have your paper here,” and Miss Heath took out what Betty recognized as her own paper.

What was the point of doing all this! Betty felt confused, but she would answer all the questions if that would help establish her innocence of the cheating.

One by one the examination questions, or directions in regard to what was desired, were read. Betty replied slowly, saying in several places, “I didn’t put that all down on my paper, I think, Miss Heath. I thought afterward that I had omitted it, though I went all over it so carefully.”

Later, when they came to the translation, she said, “I couldn’t think of the name of that Dative, so I just put Indirect Object, because you said that in a way all Datives were indirect objects. But I looked it up and I could tell you now.”

“Take a piece of paper, Betty, and write again the English to Latin sentences.”

Mr. Franklin indicated by a nod some paper on his desk. Betty took the list of questions, thought a moment and wrote, slowly. “I always Have to take plenty of time on the English to Latin,” she said, “and there is one that I wrote two ways, but I wasn’t sure that either were right. It’s the one that has the accusative of place to which in it.”

Miss Heath nodded and her eyes twinkled. Whatever idea she had was turning out successfully, it seemed. But Betty was very busy with the sentences. She handed over the paper saying “It did not take so long, because I’d thought it out before.”

“I see. Betty, why did you use appello instead of voco here?”

“Because it is calling in the sense of naming, as you told us in such sentences.”

“Good. Why did you use the Ablative in the second sentence?”

“Because it specifies that in respect to which”–Betty got no farther because Miss Heath interrupted her.

“That is enough, Betty. Mr. Franklin, I’m satisfied, are you? The other person did not know, and the third youngster plainly copied the whole thing from him.”

Mr. Franklin nodded assent. “Betty,” he said, “you are cleared from all suspicion of copying and cheating. We know which ones of these papers were copied. You may thank Miss Heath for her little scheme to find out. We have already met with the others, but we can not tell you their names.”

“Oh, I don’t want to know!” exclaimed Betty. “Thank you so much!”

It was another Betty that ran down the steps, to find both Peggy and Carolyn waiting for her. Her face must have told them the story. “O, Betty! Is is all right?” eagerly asked Carolyn. “Peggy told me, when I asked her why she was waiting for you. Oh, you should have told me and let me worry with you! Was that why you wouldn’t come up to lunch?”

“Yes.”

“Please tell us how they found out that you didn’t—” Carolyn would not finish.

“Well, you saw Miss Heath, that darling woman! She came over on purpose to see all about it and she had the scheme to bring the questions and find out how much each of us really knew about things. I really don’t see how she told, but it must be that whoever copied couldn’t give good reasons for what he would have missed on or something. She’s a regular Sherlock Holmes!”

“And now, if you’ll never tell a soul, I’ll tell you what Sally Wright told me during lunch. I learned a lot by staying down and giving Sally an old chocolate bar!”

The girls promised, and the three, Betty in the middle, walked slowly toward the street, heads together, arms about each other.