Page:Girls of Central High on the Stage.djvu/108

98 "Young ladies!" said Gee Gee, snappily. "Mr. Sharp will speak to you."

The principal looked just a little annoyed—just a little; and for only the moment while he was rising to speak. He never liked to hear his pupils treated like culprits. He usually treated them at assembly with elaborate politeness if he had to criticise, and with perfect good-fellowship if praise was in order. This little scene staged by Miss Carrington grated on him.

"Our good Miss Carrington," said he, softly, "has sustained a loss. Important papers have been mislaid, we will say."

He raised his hand quickly when Miss Carrington would have spoken, and she was wise enough to let him go on in his own way.

"Now, the question is: How have the papers been lost, and where are they at the present moment? It is a problem—in deduction, we will say. We must all partake of the character of some famous detective. It used to be a rule in our family when I was a boy that, if a thing were lost, it was wisest to look for it in the most unlikely places first. I can remember once, when father lost a horse, that mother insisted in shaking out all the hens' nests and giving them new nests. But father never did find that horse."

The girls had begun to smile now; and some