ntly
opened it to get the paper and envelopes needed for the election, and
had not yet had time to put it away in the drawers of her secretaire.
Then suddenly an idea occurred to Netta--an idea so original and
daring that she almost laughed at her audacity in entertaining it. It
was a scheme which no other girl in the Form would have dreamt of for
a moment, but Netta was troubled with few scruples of conscience, and
was never deterred by a question of honour from attaining her wishes.
Very quickly she abstracted nineteen envelopes and ten sheets of
notepaper, and fled with her spoil to her own classroom. She bolted
along the passage and upstairs in such a tremendous hurry that she did
not notice the impish face of Ida Bridge peering from the Second Form
room as she passed.

"Oho, Miss Netta Goodwin! What's the matter with you?" thought Ida.
"You have an uncommonly guilty look about you, almost as if you were
committing a crime. What's up, I wonder? I think I'm just going to
track you and see."

Since the stormy episode on the day when the Second Form girls were
rehearsing for their morris dance, Ida Bridge had detested Netta. She
felt she owed her a grudge, which she was most anxious to pay if a
reasonable opportunity could only be found. She followed now post
haste, and adopting the tactics of a scout, waited till Netta was
safely inside the Fifth Form room, then peeped cautiously round the
door. What she saw did not particularly enlighten her. Netta was
busily tearing sheets of notepaper in half, was scribbling something
on them, blotting them and putting them into envelopes. No one else
was in the room, and there was nothing to suggest an explanation of
this rather mysterious employment.

"I'm sure she's up to something, though," murmured Ida to herself,
still keeping a watchful eye on the enemy's movements. Netta wrote
away, and kept folding her pieces of paper with record speed; there
was a complacent look on her face, and she chuckled occasionally, as
if with deep satisfaction. At the sound of the dinner bell she
started, and hurriedly swept her correspondence into her desk. Ida,
with admirable presence of mind, bolted into the empty Sixth Form room
opposite, and having seen Netta depart down the corridor, took the
liberty of going to make an inspection of what she had been doing.

"Um--indeed! What have we here?" said Ida, opening the desk.
"Envelopes marked with a V, and sheets of paper with names on. Let's