the apex of the little tent. It made a ghostly glow over
all inside.

"Advance!" whispered the witch, with lips close to Trix Severn's pretty
ear. "Advance, neophyte! The gold piece is yours for the taking. But
only she who has no guilt and treachery upon her heart may seize the
shining coin. _If you are faithful to your friends, take the coin!_"

Trix started and her pretty face was cast in an angry look as she
glanced aside at the masquerader. But she made no reply save by her
out-thrust hand which dived into the water.

Instantly the crowd outside heard a piercing scream from Trix Severn.
She burst out of the tent, and, amid the laughter and jeers of her
comrades, sought shelter in another room.

"Did you get the gold piece, Trix?" cried some.

"Divide with a fellow, will you?"

"Say! there are more tricks than are dreamed of in your philosophy, eh,
Trix?" gibed Eva Larry.

And for that atrocious pun she was pushed forward to the tent, to be the
next victim on the altar of the boys' perfectly harmless, though
surprising joke.

Nobody was able to pick the gold piece out of the pan of water, thanks
to the electric battery that Joe Eldred had so skillfully connected with
it.

CHAPTER XVII

THE MYSTERIOUS LETTER

"You scared her," declared Agnes to Neale, on the way home from the
party.

"Scared who?" demanded the boy, with apparent innocence.

"Trix."

"What if I did? I scared a lot of them."

"But you scared her worse than all the rest," Agnes said. "She was
crying in the bedroom upstairs. Lucy told me."

"Crying because she couldn't get that five-dollar gold piece," chuckled
Neale. "I wish I could believe they were tears of repentance."

"Who made you a judge, Neale O'Neil?" asked Ruth, with asperity.

"I'm not. Never was in politics," grinned the boy.

"Smartie!" said Agnes.

"Trix was judged by her own conscience," Neale added soberly. "I never
said a word to her about that letter."

"What letter do you mean?" demanded Ruth.

But Neale shut his lips on that. When Ruth was not by, however, he
admitted to Agnes that he had borrowed from Mr. Marks the letter that
gentleman had received in reference to the strawberry raid. Neale was
going to show it to Mr. Bob Buckham.

"I told Mr. Marks there was some funny business about it. I knew Mr.
Buckham never intended to report you girls to the principal. He didn't
even know your names. Mr. Marks told me to find out about it and report
to