by Enid Blyton
Arabella had gone very white.
Rosemary, thinking it was because of the outrageous things being said, turned on Elizabeth.
‘You came and swopped it, did you?’ she jeered. ‘Did anybody see you?’
‘Well, no. It’s just that I . . .’
Elizabeth’s voice trailed away. For the first time she realized that she had not one single witness to support her story.
‘It’s just that you are sick with jealousy at Arabella being chosen for the concert!’ said Rosemary, finishing Elizabeth’s sentence in her own way. ‘And not content with stealing the exam paper, you’re now trying to pin the blame on her so that you’ll play in the concert instead of her!’
Arabella was breathing heavily. She was racked with emotion.
Elizabeth had guessed the truth exactly. And, faced with the fierce candour of what Elizabeth had been saying, Arabella had come within an ace of confessing. Until Rosemary’s words had reminded her of how much she stood to lose . . .
The Leavers’ Concert! Her great moment of triumph was just one week away. So many times, Elizabeth had had the last laugh and she, Arabella, had been made to look stupid. All that would change now. People would look up to her. They would respect her. Perhaps they would even start to like her, the way they always liked Elizabeth. She had surprised herself, how well she could play the piano! She had worked so hard for her moment of glory next week. Nothing was going to rob her of that!
‘I really don’t know anything about a silly exam paper, Elizabeth,’ she said, her face expressionless. ‘You seem to have made a mistake.’
The Naughtiest Girl looked at her, sorrowfully.
‘You’re a hopeless case, Arabella,’ she said quietly. ‘There is no point in talking to you.’
She left and returned to her own dormitory.
The room fell silent at her arrival but she cared not.
She went into her cubicle and drew the curtains. Then she lay down on top of the bed, still fully clothed.
She lay on her back, head resting on hands, staring at the ceiling. Outside, dusk began to fall. None of her room-mates came to see her, or said goodnight. Her friends were too embarrassed. Poor Elizabeth, they were thinking. So worried about the exams, to creep into the school office like that. And caught red-handed! Trying to pretend that it must have been somebody else!
Miss Ranger, too. Waiting in vain for Elizabeth to appear with ‘somebody else’. Thinking exactly the same thing.
‘They will have to think what they like,’ decided Elizabeth, with a deep sigh. ‘I can’t prove my story is true and I expect Arabella will never confess. Never ever! But then life is not fair. No. Nothing is fair!’
The amazing sequence of events since teatime had convinced her of that. She was not thinking of her own plight but something of even greater concern.
Soon she heard steady breathing from every corner of the dormitory. The others were all asleep at last. It was time to put her plan into action.
When the rising bell sounded next morning, Elizabeth did not appear from her cubicle.
Kathleen walked over and pulled back the curtain.
‘Wake up, Elizabeth. It’s late!’
Then she gasped.
The sun’s morning rays slanted across Elizabeth’s neat, empty bed. Kathleen could see at once that it had not been slept in.
Elizabeth had disappeared.
CHAPTER TEN
A hue and cry
‘ELIZABETH’S RUN away!’ cried Kathleen, in great alarm. ‘Look, she must have done. Her bed’s not been slept in!’
The others rushed over.
‘I don’t believe it!’ exclaimed Jenny, in astonishment. ‘Perhaps she just got up early!’
‘No, Kathleen’s right.’ Belinda checked the bed carefully. ‘Look, the covers have never been pulled back. And do you notice something? One of the pillows has gone.’
‘Yes – and so’s the spare blanket!’ realized Jenny.
They all looked at one another in horror. Poor Elizabeth! Overcome with shame, she had run away from Whyteleafe School. They had a sudden vision of her, wandering the dark country lanes with blanket roll and pillow, sleeping in ditches, trying to make her way back home.
‘We should have been nicer to her,’ moaned Kathleen. ‘We should have been more understanding . . .’
As the word spread to the next dormitory, other pyjama-clad girls thronged in. They gathered round Elizabeth’s empty bed, pale and shocked. Nobody looked more shaken than Arabella who already had dark rings under her eyes from a bad night’s sleep.
The first form girls held an emergency meeting on the spot.
‘She’ll never get home safely! It’s more than a hundred miles. And she hasn’t any money!’ said Tessa.
‘I wonder where she slept last night?’
‘Some smelly old barn, I expect.’
‘What should we do?’ asked Belinda. ‘Do you think we should go and report this to the Beauty and the Beast straight away?’
‘It’s not like Elizabeth to run away when she’s got a problem!’ decided Jenny, after giving it due thought. ‘Perhaps this is just one of her pranks, to give us all a fright! Perhaps she’s hiding around the school somewhere.’
‘And if we go and tell the joint heads, she’ll be in even deeper trouble,’ realized Kathleen. ‘More than she was already!’
‘Yes, you’re right!’ exclaimed Arabella, eagerly. ‘We mustn’t worry any of the teachers about this at the moment. That would be silly. Let’s search the school buildings.’
‘Perhaps she’s asleep in one of the storerooms?’ suggested Rosemary.
The first form girls rushed to get dressed. Then they fanned out in all directions, scouring the school buildings.
Arabella scurried up and down the corridors, looking in the empty classrooms, opening and shutting each door with growing unease. Nobody had managed to find Elizabeth yet. Where was she?
‘I expect she’ll turn up at breakfast-time,’ said Rosemary, to comfort her friend. ‘She hasn’t any money and she’s bound to be starving hungry. It’s not your fault, Arabella, if Elizabeth Allen has decided to do something idiotic.’
These were not the words to bring comfort to Arabella.
Elizabeth did not turn up at breakfast.
Sitting in the dining-hall, staring at that empty place, Arabella’s serious unease turned to panic.
The Naughtiest Girl really had run away! And it was all her fault. She should have confessed about the exam paper while she still had the chance. Now Elizabeth felt hopeless about things and was sure that nobody would ever believe her. If only Rosemary had not butted in, thought Arabella, she might have admitted the truth. She had been on the point of doing so.
Now she was seized by a feeling of dread. Elizabeth could be in danger. Something dreadful might have happened. Supposing she had been run over? And really, when she thought about it, Elizabeth was not that bad. She had her good points, after all. As she toyed with her breakfast cereal, Arabella’s eyes kept straying to the door. How lovely it would be to see the Naughtiest Girl come strolling in through that open door, right now, laughing at them all and enjoying her silly joke . . .
Come back, Elizabeth, she kept thinking. Oh, do please come back!
But still Elizabeth did not appear and by the end of breakfast there was a great hue and cry. Daniel went racing off to see if she might be sleeping in the school stables.
‘We must go and see the joint heads right away,’ said Joan, turning pale, as soon as Kathleen had explained things to her. The second form monitor had looked across and noticed that her best friend’s place at table was empty. ‘Oh, poor Elizabeth! I am perfectly certain she would never have stolen an exam paper. She must be feeling very angry and upset at being misjudged.’
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br /> ‘Hear! Hear!’ agreed Julian.
Kathleen reluctantly rose to her feet. She was beginning to feel very guilty.
‘Will the heads ring the police, do you think, Joan?’
‘I’m sure they will,’ replied Joan. She looked across at Julian. ‘Do you want to come with us, Julian?’
He just sat there, spooning down the last of his cereal. He shook his head. He was frowning.
‘I might follow on in a minute,’ he muttered. ‘I’m just trying to have a good think.’
There was a great buzz of excitement round the dining-hall as Joan and Kathleen went off together. By now, nearly everybody knew what had happened. Elizabeth Allen’s bed had not been slept in. It looked as though she must have run away from school! Now Joan and Kathleen were going to report it to Miss Belle and Miss Best. The joint heads would have to telephone the police!
Julian put his spoon down, his brow deeply furrowed.
The Naughtiest Girl was always full of surprises. Even so, he found this one most baffling. If she had taken that exam paper she would have owned up at once except that she would never have taken it in the first place! She had been unjustly accused. But in that case, the last thing she would do would be to run away. Not the bad bold Elizabeth. She would stay to fight her corner, to the bitter end. It was such a riddle. There must be some other reason for her vanishing trick. Something different altogether . . .
He was trying hard to remember a remark she had made two days ago. It was to do with her swotting for the exams, without wanting people to know how worried she was.
‘Got it!’ he whispered suddenly. ‘I remember what she said.’
I’ve got a secret place, you see!
A secret place! Was that why they couldn’t find her for the Meeting yesterday? And was this now the explanation? Had the crazy Elizabeth been up all night, swotting for the exams in some secret hideout?
‘And still there!’ thought Julian. ‘Probably fast asleep! But where is it?’
At that moment, Daniel returned.
‘She’s not in the stables,’ he said, miserably. ‘I think it was very catty of those girls last night, not accepting her word. Elizabeth would never cheat. No wonder she was upset. But it’s all my fault,’ he confessed. ‘You see, I spilt the beans, Julian. About her being so worried about the exams. That’s why they didn’t believe her. I didn’t mean to but I did.’
‘Oh, do shut up, Daniel,’ said Julian, absently. ‘Can’t you see I’m trying to think?’
When Joan and Kathleen arrived at the school office, they were amazed to see that Arabella had beaten them to it.
‘Come in, please,’ called the joint heads.
They each sat behind a desk and Miss Ranger stood by the window. She had arrived earlier to report back on the matter of the stolen exam paper. The culprit had been found.
‘Elizabeth Allen? Oh dear. How very disappointing!’ the joint heads had exclaimed.
Arabella, accompanied by Rosemary, was already in there. They were both seated.
Joan and Kathleen stared at them. Why had Arabella got there ahead of them? She seemed to be crying. Rosemary looked distressed, too, and was biting her lip.
‘Please ring the police, Miss Belle!’ Arabella was pleading, tearfully. ‘I’m so worried about Elizabeth! I’m so frightened that something could have happened to her. And if it has, it’s all my fault. I drove her to this. I drove her into running away! I could have owned up about the exam paper when I had the chance and I didn’t.’
‘You have owned up now, Arabella,’ said Miss Belle, calmly. She nodded towards some more chairs. ‘Sit over there, please, Joan and Kathleen. You may join us.’
The two headmistresses were very composed.
‘We will have to contact the authorities, which will be very bad for Whyteleafe,’ Miss Best began. ‘Before we do so, we need to be quite sure the child has run away. Have you all had a good look for her?’
‘We’ve searched high and low, Miss Best,’ replied Kathleen, only just beginning to take it all in.
Elizabeth had been telling the truth all along. Somehow her music case had been in somebody else’s possession yesterday. Arabella’s! And it was Arabella who had stolen the English exam paper. She had come and confessed to Miss Ranger and the joint heads!
As Miss Belle and Miss Best asked further probing questions, Kathleen found it difficult to take her eyes off the fair-haired Arabella. It was strange to see her vain, doll-like face streaked with tears, to see her genuinely caring about somebody else for the first time, somebody other than herself.
‘Please telephone the police,’ she implored again.
The joint heads glanced at one another. It seemed that they had no choice.
‘We’ll speak to them right away,’ said Miss Best, reaching out for the telephone.
‘No!’ cried a boy’s voice, from the doorway. ‘Please don’t ring them yet!’
Julian walked eagerly into the room. Everybody stared at him.
‘I might be able to find Elizabeth! I’ve got a hunch but I’ll need some time! Could you just give me fifteen minutes, please? We can ring the police after that!’
Miss Best took her hand away from the telephone. She glanced at Miss Belle and then nodded. They both knew that Elizabeth’s friend was a brilliant boy.
‘Very well, Julian. Fifteen minutes.’
‘And not a minute longer,’ added Miss Belle.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Well done, the Naughtiest Girl!
‘DON’T WORRY, big brown moth. Don’t worry, friendly little robin!’ whispered Elizabeth, as down below the men took the ropes off the back of the lorry. Don’t worry, chattering squirrels and cooing doves and busy little insects and creepy-crawlies! ‘This is your house. I won’t let them chop it down, I promise!’
Hidden in the oak tree, Elizabeth had the fierce light of battle in her eye. She had slept fitfully in its warm boughs. It had been a much lighter sleep than usual. The sleep of a soldier at the battlefront, ready for the enemy and poised for action. And since dawn she had been wide awake. She knew that the woodmen might start work very early. That was why she had not dared to sleep in her proper bed last night.
They had arrived at long last, not as early as she feared but early enough. They parked their lorry on the wide grass verge below and began to sort through their equipment. She was ready for them. She tensed every muscle now. She was preparing to make her stand.
At the same time, Julian was walking briskly round the grounds of Whyteleafe School. He was looking urgently about him. It was a chance remark of Daniel’s that had given him his clue.
The stableman hasn’t seen Elizabeth since last night, Julian. She was asking him all about trees or something.
So that was the person Elizabeth had rushed off to speak to last night. The stableman. To ask him about trees. Why trees?
Trees . . . secret place.
Could Elizabeth’s secret hideout be in a tree? And in that case, which one? What sort of tree?
And then, in a flash of inspiration, Julian had remembered the piece of oak that Elizabeth had
found him. That splendid piece of oak for his wood carvings . . .
But where had it come from? She had never explained. He had occasionally looked for oak himself and never found any. The reason being, as far as he could recall, that there were no oak trees in the school grounds. But there must be one somewhere, one that he had missed . . . And could that be where she had made her secret hideout?
He walked round to the back of the stable block, looking up at all the trees there. Then he stared at the meadow beyond. There was not an oak tree in sight. He hurried back by way of the cricket pitch. He was almost giving up hope.
Then, suddenly, he saw it.
‘It’s been right u
nder my nose!’ he realized. ‘Only it’s growing outside the school, on the other side of the wall. That’s why I didn’t notice it!’
He stood back and surveyed it. Elizabeth could have got into that tree by climbing up the boundary wall . . .
‘And she has!’ gasped Julian as Elizabeth’s head suddenly poked out of the middle of the tree. She was shouting! She seemed to be looking down at some people in the road.
‘Go away, please! Go away and take your horrid chainsaw with you! I’m staying here and I’m not going to budge. I won’t let you cut this tree down. Never, ever! Don’t you realize lots of little creatures live here? This is their home!’
Julian goggled for a moment – and then came to a swift decision. He turned away and sprinted back towards the school buildings. At top speed. His fifteen minutes was almost up.
‘Julian!’ exclaimed Miss Ranger, in relief, as he burst back into the school office, his face shining. ‘You have some news?’
‘I’ve found her!’ he exclaimed. ‘I know why she disappeared now. It had nothing to do with the exam paper or anything like that!’
He told them all that was happening.
At first there were cries of joy and relief that Elizabeth had been found safe and well. But, after that, some anxious frowns appeared on the teachers’ faces.
‘That beautiful old oak tree? The one that we can see from the school grounds? It’s being taken down?’ said Miss Belle. ‘Oh, Miss Best, we must do something about it. And quickly.’
‘We certainly must,’ agreed Miss Best. ‘I will ring the tree department as soon as the council offices open.’
She rose to her feet and rapped out an order.
‘Julian, you are to return to the tree immediately. You are to join Elizabeth there. She needs reinforcements. Under no circumstances are either of you to come down from that tree until we give you permission. And please tell Elizabeth that refreshments are on their way.’
‘Oh, Julian, I’m so glad you turned up when you did,’ said Elizabeth. ‘I was getting so tired of arguing with those men. I don’t think I could have stuck it out much longer up here. Not on my own. Not without any breakfast.’