Page:Girls of Central High on the Stage.djvu/101

Rh manner betrayed the fact that the teacher was much disturbed.

"Oh! I hope she's lost 'em!" exclaimed the wicked Bobby Hargrew.

"I don't," returned the girl she spoke to. "We'd suffer for it."

"Well, I got my fingers crossed!" chuckled Bobby. "She can't accuse me. I wasn't near her old desk."

"Wasn't it locked?" whispered another of the waiting girls.

Miss Carrington heard the bustle in the class, so she sat up and looked out over the room with asperity.

"I want to know what this means, girls," she said, snappily. "My desk was left open by chance while I was out of the room for perhaps ten minutes. The examination papers were in this drawer. Now I cannot find them. Has somebody done this for a joke?" and she looked hard in Bobby's direction.

"Look out, Bob," warned one of her mates; "crossing your fingers isn't going to save you."

But suddenly, even while she was speaking, Miss Carrington seemed to be stabbed by a thought. She started to her feet and turned her gaze upon the part of the room in which Jose-