CHAPTER XI
A TEMPESTUOUS DAY
IT seems very foolish, as I look back at it now, to think of my carrying that wretched parcel around with me all day and suffering as much as I did. Yet, at the time, it appeared to be the only way. If we had felt free to tell any one about the jewels and leave them in competent care,—as, for instance, with Daddy,—it would have been so much better. But Uncle had seemed to wish the whole matter kept a secret, so what could we do? Even Tomkins was not within reach or we might have entrusted them to him. There was nothing for it but that I must carry them about with me, somehow, till afternoon came and I could hide them in the box-spring as we had planned, while Miss Carstair was out.
As it was impossible to carry so bulky a parcel around inside my blouse all day, I went to the storeroom and found some paper and a string and wrapped it up as inconspicuously as I could. Then I went to the dining-room and ate breakfast with it lying in my lap. Once it slid to the floor with a bang, as I reached for my napkin, and Beulah, who was standing by me at the time, picked it up and handed to me, asking curiously:
“What dat all, Miss Elspeth? It sho’ do feel powerful heavy!”
“Oh, just something Connie wants me to take to school for her,” I answered, as carelessly as I could, but I blushed to the roots of my hair and Beulah noticed it, for she replied:
“Well, you ain’t no need to feel ’shamed of it, honey chile!” And from then to the end of the meal she never gave me a moment’s peace, but hovered around me, hoping for some further revelation!
I decided that the only sensible way to carry my burden would be to take my old lunch-bag with me—a thing I hadn’t carried in over a year, because a nice cafeteria lunch counter had been established in the school, and we never took our lunches from home any more. Then, in order to make an excuse for the bag, I had to go over to our house and make some sandwiches to take in it. Mother wondered very much about this, as she knew I hated sandwiches and liked the hot lunches we always bought, so, of course, I had her to reckon with.
I placed the parcel on the hall table, under my coat, devoutly hoping no one would disturb it, and hurried into the kitchen to make the sandwiches, trying to explain to Mother that I thought I’d study my English history during lunch-hour, as I was behind in it, and eat my sandwiches in the class room as I studied, instead of going to the cafeteria, which always took a lot of time. I did really intend to do this, so I felt I was not telling an untruth.
Mother helped me with the sandwiches and put in a couple of nice drop-cakes and I had just gone to hunt up my bag in the attic, when I heard a loud crash from the hall. Grabbing the bag and hurrying down, I found Ralph sitting on the floor of the hall, howling, while Mother tried to sooth him, at the same time holding in her hand that dreadful parcel.
“He toddled to the table and pulled your coat off, and this heavy thing was under it and hit him on the head,” she explained. “What in the world is it, Elspeth?”
“Oh, just something I’ve got to take to school!” I explained again, rather impatiently, I'm afraid. Mother looked at me with a little hurt wonder in her blue eyes, but only answered: “All right, dear! But you’d better hurry. It’s late now!”
I crammed the hateful parcel into the bag with my lunch, kissed her and Baby Ralph contritely, and hurried away, angry at myself for my clumsiness, and angrier still at the miserable Benham jewels that were causing me so much trouble and putting me in such an unpleasant light with every one. But I wasn’t through with them yet, as I was to discover!
One would think, on the face of it, that to carry a jewel-case in an old black silk lunch bag embroidered with yellow nasturtiums, in company with some sandwiches and cake, would be a simple matter and cause no special remark! But such was not to be in this case!
As there was too much snow on the ground to ride my wheel, I had to walk. And, as luck would have it, when half-way there I was joined by Lucy Shaver. Now, Lucy is a girl I dislike extremely. She is of the inquisitive and pushing kind that always wants to know everything about your affairs and doesn’t hesitate to ask.
“What are you carrying your old lunch-bag for?” was her first question on joining me. I gave her, as amiably as I could, the same reason I had given Mother.
“You could have had a hot lunch brought to your seat, if you’d wanted. I often do it,” she retorted, still eying the lunch-bag skeptically.
“I didn’t think of it,” I answered, hoping that would end the matter. But it didn’t. She continued to eye the lunch-bag, and finally reached over and felt it.
“My! but it’s heavy!” she cried. “Surely that isn’t all just your lunch, Elspeth! What have you got in there?”
There was something perfectly infuriating to me about her inquisitiveness. It made me angry clear through. And if it had been anything else I was carrying I would have given her a pretty short answer and refused to speak to her the rest of the way. But I knew Lucy too well to take such a risk in this case. She would make my life perfectly miserable for the remainder of the day. So I swallowed my wrath and only said very quietly:
“It’s a bundle I have to deliver after school. It is heavy, and I’m rather afraid of losing it, so that’s why I'm carrying it this way. Did you get all those geometry problems worked out, Lucy?”
I hoped to divert her mind by talking about school matters, and it worked, for Lucy was keen on her mathematics and we talked about that all the rest of the time before reaching school. But I never again want to put in such a day as I passed before three o'clock came—not if I live to be two hundred!
Not for a minute did I dare to lay that lunch-bag aside and I kept it in my lap or in my desk, right under my eye, during every recitation. When we assembled for chapel I took it along on my arm, though every one stared at me curiously and I saw Lucy giggling and whispering about it to her seat-mate. In the gymnasium I had to hang it on one of the hooks along the wall and I kept my eye fixed on it every minute of the time, in perfect agony, thereby missing a number of the cues and spoiling our drill and getting reprimanded for inattention!
At lunch-time I did hope to be left alone and have a few moments of peace. But even this was not to be! Lucy strolled into the empty class room, carrying a tray with a nice hot lunch from the cafeteria on it, and plumped herself right down beside me.
“Thought I'd keep you company; you looked so lonesome!” she remarked wickedly. I knew, as well as if she’d told me, that that wasn’t her real reason. So I just remarked that it was very kind of her, but I really wanted to study. And I took out my English history and buried my nose in it while I nibbled peanut-butter sandwiches. But even that didn’t phase Lucy! She continued to sit by me and chatter, though I tried hard to close my ears to it all. But presently I heard her saying:
“You are absolutely a scream, Elspeth, the way you’ve been carrying that old bag around with you all day, as though it were filled with jewels! All the girls are giggling over it and dying to know what you’ve got there. Do tell us and satisfy our curiosity, won’t you?”
If she had only known how near she had come to the truth! But of course I wasn’t going to enlighten her, and I had a miserable time all the rest of the hour fencing with her and holding her off and trying to divert her attention to other things. I was pretty thankful when the bell rang and the hour was over.
There were only two periods after lunch, and I didn’t worry very much about them because in both cases we were in our own class room and could sit at our own desks and not be disturbed. The first one, English history, went off very well without anything happening to worry me. And I settled down to the last, our geometry period, feeling perfectly safe, for I expected that we were to have a written test and I could therefore remain quietly in my seat with the terrible lunch-bag reposing comfortably in my desk. But fate was against me! Professor Cobb elected to omit the test that day and instead call on various ones for the work to be done at the blackboard. This would mean trouble for me, if I was called on, as we were never allowed to carry anything in our hands when we worked on the boards. So I sat shuddering through the period and almost praying that I mightn’t be called on.
The hour was almost over and I was beginning to breathe freely when he announced that there was time for just one more problem and called on me to go to the board! I shivered all over and said something about not being prepared, but he urged me very kindly to try, assuring me he would help me out if I got stuck, so there was simply nothing else to do. I tucked the lunch-bag as far down under other things as I could get it, and went to the front of the room, where I had to stand working with my back to the class. Of course, with my mind so distracted, I made a miserable failure of the problem, but the final bell put an end to my agonies and I hurried back to my seat. But when I reached my hand into my desk to assure myself that everything was all right, I had a horrid shock. The lunch-bag and contents were missing!
For a moment, I stared about me wildly. The room was in the usual confusion of pupils getting ready to leave for the day, and several had already gone. No one seemed interested in me or my predicament, and somehow I found it hard under the circumstances to explain about it. But one thing I did notice. Lucy Shaver, who had sat near me, and a number of her cronies were not there, and it struck me they had gone suspiciously soon. So, without saying anything to the others, I seized my wraps and books and tore out and down the stairs, looking everywhere for them. I hadn’t a doubt now that Lucy had played a trick on me and hidden the thing to tease me. She was perfectly capable of it—or worse, if she took it into her head.
But there was no Lucy to be seen, either in the halls or the yards and no one had seen her leave, though I questioned every one frantically. It was a wretched predicament, far more serious than Lucy could dream, for I did not imagine for one moment that she would dare to examine the parcel. But she might hide it away in some unsafe place, thinking to watch me hunt for it, and meantime some one might pick up and walk off with all those wonderful jewels! What was I to do?
Once more I hurried through every room in the building, fruitlessly, and then I did the only thing left to do—determined to walk straight to Lucy's house and wait for her there. She must arrive there sometime before evening and would doubtless have the lunch-bag with her. What she might do with it in the meantime I did not dare to think. To say that I flew along that wintry road would be putting it mildly. But half-way home my shoe-lacing came untied and I stooped to adjust it.
As I did so, I thought I heard a giggle from a clump of bushes beside the road and, when my shoe was fixed, I walked boldly round to the other side of the bushes, and this is what I saw: Lucy Shaver was standing there with three other girls. Lucy held in her hands my precious parcel (the lunch-bag she had dropped to the ground) and she was just in the act of removing the string from around the paper. They were all giggling and grinning and whispering about the silly way I had acted with the bag all day.
“I’m just crazy to see what she has here!” I heard Lucy say. “We'll wrap it all up again afterward and hand it in at her house and pretend we found—”
But she never got any farther! I burst in among them and seized the parcel before Lucy could even unwrap it, stuffed it into the bag, and turned away, without uttering a single word! But I had the satisfaction of knowing that I had left a lot more consternation behind me than if I had spoken for half an hour on the subject. They were the most ashamed lot I’ve ever seen, and not one of them came to school next day!