CHAPTER XI--The Archery Contest
On the day of the Archery Contest, lessons stopped at noon at Hilltop.By two o'clock all the girls were assembled on the south lawn. They allwore immaculate white dresses, that contrasted prettily with the autumncolors. A stack of bows, their strings loosened, stood against the benchnear the target and a heap of feathered arrows lay on the ground.
Under the shade of a big tree, the score board flashed forth in whiteletters, "Archery Day."
Forty girls were competing. You could pick them out from among theothers by their eager expectant expression.
The faculty in the daintiest of gowns were making the guests, who haddriven in from all around the countryside, as comfortable as possible inthe grey wicker chairs that had been brought down from the school, andplaced in a half circle back of the shooters. They came because theyloved the pretty sight of the girls in their white dresses on the greenlawn, with the old mansion as a background, rather than for any realinterest in Archery.
There were tables under the trees, where, after the contest, lemonadewould be served to the girls, and tea to the guests and faculty.
Prue at the last moment had decided not to enter.
"Why swell the number of the old wing failures?" she said to Gwen, andGwen nodded, fully conscious of the sacrifice she was making; and torepay her for it, she made her official score-keeper.
The twins, with Sally and Daphne, and Gladys and Ann, formed a littlegroup with her around the board.
"Prue, if I make a score, will you please write it very large?" Phyllisrequested. "I don't expect to make more than one, and it would be acomfort really to see it."
"I'm as nervous as a cat," Sally shivered. "I have a horrible feelingthat the old wing is going to lose."
"Oh, don't even breathe it!" Gladys wailed. "The very idea makes me turncold all over."
"My hands are icy," Ann held them out for inspection. They werebeautiful hands, firm and capable, but they trembled ever so slightly.
Gwen and Poppy joined them.
"I declare you all look like picked chickens," Poppy protested, "I neversaw the old wing hang its head so low."
The girls straightened up, every chin lifted with determination.
"That's better," Gwen encouraged. "If you feel like dropping them again,just look at the new wing."
"The Red Twins are positively walking on air," Sally ground her teethand looked appealingly at Phyllis.
Phyllis put up one hand in entreaty.
"Don't look at me like that," she entreated. "I'm only in the contestbecause you and Jan insisted. I won't even hit the target, and I knowit."
"Never mind, I will," Janet comforted; "though, of course, we won't beatthe Red Twins."
"I've put them together, and Phyllis and you directly after," Gwenexplained; "then you'll see what you're up against. It isn't as bad asit looks. We still have Agnes Leiter, Puss Boroughs, and Poppy, all lastyear's team girls, and Marion West has been practicing all summer. Sheonly missed out by a point for the team last year. Then there are acouple of Juniors, that have belonged to archery clubs at home, so wemay pull through."
"But look what we're up against," Gladys groaned.
A bell tinkled as Miss Hull walked out of the hall, a soft grey dressfloating about her, and a shade hat on her aristocratic head. It was asignal for the contest to begin.
Gwen had arranged the order cleverly. The girls who had been on the teamthe year before were played off first. As there were six to three infavor of the new wing, the score looked very one-sided, as Prue markedit on the board.
Then came the younger girls, who stood very little chance of scoring therequired six points. They were worked off quickly, and then the realwork began. Two girls from the new wing, would alternate with two girlsfrom the old wing. Cheering followed every score, so that it wasimpossible to tell which side was ahead.
"Ann, you're up after Kitty," Gwen said as she hurried by. "Mind, you dous proud."
"Do my best," Ann replied shortly. She was working her fingers to takesome of the stiffness out of them.
Kitty took her place marked by white tape.
"She's too little to be really dangerous," Phyllis laughed, as shestrung her bow.
Kitty shot rapidly, but with a nice precision. Only one of her arrowswent astray, and that pinned the leg in the target.
The other four hit. Two on the white, counting two, one on the red,counting three. Kitty waited an effective moment before she loosed thefifth.
"Make it a bulls-eye," one of the Red Twins shouted.
The arrow went its way through the air, and bore deep into the broad redcircle.
"Making eight in all," Prue said in satisfaction. "Ann will do betterthan that."
"Look," Sally pointed across the lawn, where the Red Twins were sitting,their special bows lying across their knees. Kitty and Louise Brown wereswooping down upon them.
"Don't you ever do that again, Bess," Kitty said angrily. "If you haveany silly advice, and you feel you must yell it out, you're to waituntil the player has finished. Do you understand?"
"I told her to keep still," May grumbled, "but she wouldn't do it."
"You see that she does next time," Louise advised.
The girls walked on. Their lecture had made no impression whatever onBess Ward. She tossed her head with a great show of indifference, andstarted whistling.
"Yes, she's decidedly bumptious," Gladys said quietly, as Ann rose totake her place. "If she so much as breathes aloud, when you're up, I'llmurder her," and Gladys fastened her eyes on the Red Twins, and lookedso threatening, that Bess squirmed uncomfortably.
Ann did everything that she did methodically, and though her hands mayhave been cold, none of the onlookers, who watched her carefully stringher bow and fit her arrow, guessed it.
"Don't watch her, it gives her fits," Prue whispered almost in tears.
So the girls directed their gaze towards the target. One arrow whangedthrough the air and hit the red, so near to the bulls-eye, that thespectators gasped. Another arrow fell just beside it. The third pinnedthe blue, and the fourth and fifth returned to the red, in a littlecluster.
"Fourteen, oh my Aunt Jane's Poll-parrot!" Sally exclaimed. "Howperfectly beautiful!"
"I knew she'd do it," Prue exulted, as she wrote the number down, inbroad white letters.
"Your turn, Sally," Gladys said. "You've got Louise's twelve to beat."
Sally groaned, but when she took her place, her wonderful blue eyesblazed from their setting of raven hair.
Four arrows sped through the air in quick succession. Sally dideverything with a rush. The girls counted the total.
"Eleven," Phyllis groaned.
"If the next one is wide of the target----" Gladys did not finish theterrible thought.
They looked at Sally. She didn't look a bit flustered, but for somereason or other, she was taking her time.
Then she did a curious thing, but a thing so like Sally that neither thegirls nor the faculty could repress a smile.
She suddenly closed her eyes very tight, and without taking aim, let goof her arrow.
"Aunt Jane's Poll-parrot!" Gladys whispered, as though she were prayingthe mythical bird to carry the arrow safe to the target.
Daphne put her hands over her eyes, and didn't take them down until theshout that rose high and clear told her that Sally's blind shot hadfound its way home.
"A blue!" Janet almost screamed. "Just one point more than she needed tobeat Louise."
Sally threw down her bow, and came back to them.
"So much for that," she said grinning.
"Sally Ladd, I declare you're a caution!" Poppy squeezed her hand."Whatever made you take such a terrible chance, child?"
"Oh, life's a chance," Sally replied airily. "When I'm in a hole, Ialways trust in my luck, and it never fails me."
From that minute "Sally's luck" was added to the phrases of Hilltop.
The Twins in the South Page 11