02 Jo of the Chalet School (7 page)

‘Oh no! Anyone can; but there must be someone to choose them,’ explained Joey.

‘Miss Maynard might do that,’ suggested Gisela; ‘and ought we not to ask the mistresses to contribute to it?’

‘Yes, of course. And, if any of you have interesting things to write about, you can write me a letter, and I’ll put it in if it’s decent enough,’ promised the editor kindly.

‘What about poetry?’ someone wanted to know.

‘If we get any that’s good enough, we’ll put it in.’

‘And everything must, of course, be in English,’ added Gisela. ‘I think we ought to have all our – our -’

‘Contributions? Is that what you are driving at?’ asked Joey.

‘Thank you, Joey. Yes; that is what I want. I think they ought to be in by the end of the month.’

‘That’s a fortnight,’ pondered the editor. ‘All right. October the thirty-first is the last day for sending things in. -And they must be decently written!’

A tap at the door interrupted proceedings. The Robin, who was nearest, scrambled down from her chair and ran to open it. Miss Bettany was there.

‘Do you people know that it’s nearly eleven o’clock?’ she said. ‘Haven’t you finished?’

‘Yes, thank you, Madame,’ replied Gisela. ‘All is prepared, and Joey is to be editor.’

‘Joey?’ The Head had not expected this. ‘My dear girls, I don’t want to interfere, but surely it would be better to have someone a little older?’

‘I’m almost thirteen,’ said Joey, a little resentfully.

‘Also, Madame, Joey has read so much; and we thought if Fraulein Maynard would help her. We are to have Pages, you see.’

Miss Bettany sat down on the nearest chair. ‘I don’t quite understand. Explain, please.’

Gisela explained, and Joey and Grizel supplemented her remarks. ‘Don’ you think we can manage?’ asked the latter anxiously when they had finished.

The Head nodded slowly. ‘Yes; I think you can. It is a good idea to have the Pages. I should think it would answer very well. Now come for your milk to the
Speisesaal
and then, if you seniors like to walk back with the Torteswald people as far as Seespitz, you may – all except Grizel; she has a cold, and will be better indoors to-day.’

Grizel made no attempt to question this decision. She knew a certain tone in Miss Bettany’s voice, and there was no argument possible when it was heard.

‘Us too?’ questioned Margia.

‘No; it’s getting very wild now. If you people want a walk, you may go up the valley a little way; but you’ll have to keep very tightly hold of each other. I think the wind must be veering round to the north-east, to judge by the lake and the trees. The juniors can’t go at all, I’m afraid; and, if the rest of you are going, you must hurry up about it, and get ready.’

They ran off at full speed, and presently they were all standing ready in long brown coats, brown tam-o’-shanters and stout boots. Miss Maynard and Miss Durrant were waiting for them, and, as the former joined the lake-side walk, Gisela turned an imploring face to her Head, who had come to see them start off.

‘Oh, Madame! May Joey come with us? We can then talk about the magazine.’

Miss Bettany nodded. ‘Very well. Don’t get any wetter than you can help, though.’ Then they set off.

The wind was blowing steadily again, and, as Miss Bettany said, was coming from the north-east. Out on the lake the waves were big, considering that the Tiern See is only three miles in length, and never more than a mile wide. They formed a choppy sea, battling with the strong current that flows about due north to become the Tiern River below Scholastika at the northern end. The path, barely ten inches above the water’s surface, was drenched with spray, and every now and then a wave, larger than the rest, would roll up, and actually break on it, so that it was well under water.

As long as they were in the Briesau triangle this did not really matter, as they were able to get away from it on to the grass. But once they had passed the fence, which divides the lake-path from the peninsula, the mountainside rose steeply up from the path, and the most they could do under the circumstances was to dash wildly to one side and wait there until the water had retreated, when they tore along again at full speed. As Miss Maynard afterwards said, whatever you called it, it wasn’t a walk!

A grave-faced peasant, who happened to be coming back to Geisalm, looked at them in amazement as they fled, laughing and calling, along the path.

‘Ow! Here’s a
huge
one coming!’ shrieked Jo, as a rather larger wave than usual swept towards them.

‘Ow – ow!’

Crash! Down in came. The water swirled over the road, then receded, and they all fled along in the direction of Seespitz.

‘Quick, girls!’ called Miss Maynard. ‘Here’s another! Climb up on to those stones!’

They scrambled up, clinging to the rock wall, as another wave sent its volume over the way. Then, down again, and another wild scamper, this time finishing by the boat-landing, where the mountain curved round, and they were able to rush out of reach. Jo declared afterwards that it was the maddest walk she had ever taken, save one.

‘Which was that?’ asked Grizel with interest.

‘Never you mind!’ Joey told her.

But Grizel was in a teasing mood, and worried until her friend told her.

‘One I took last term.’

Grizel went crimson. Last term she had run away and tried to climb the great Tiernjoch, with results that were very nearly disastrous; for a mist had come down, and she had found herself on the verge of a precipice. Joey had come after her, and had succeeded in keeping her quiet until help came, but Grizel herself had gone down with bronchitis, and for three days they had feared brain-fever for Joey. It was not an exploit of which Grizel was proud, and she would have liked to forget it.

Jo had had no thought of unkindness when she had referred to it, and at the sight of Grizel’s face, she promptly declared herself to be a beast.

‘It is all over,’ said Gisela, who had overheard their conversation. ‘But, Joey, we have still not talked with Miss Maynard about the magazine.’

‘Well, how could we?’ demanded the editor. ‘Going was bad enough; but coming back was the limit! We had the wind against us the whole time, and the lake got wilder and wilder!’

They were standing in the
Speisesaal
at the time, and she glanced out of the window as she spoke, to the grey, tumbling waves which were so unlike the blue smiling waters of the Tiern See in summer.

‘Shall we go to her now?’ asked the head girl.

‘Righto!’ agreed Jo easily.

They went to the little music-room where they knew Miss Maynard was to be found, and tapped at the door.

‘Come in’ she called. Then, as they entered, ‘Well! What can I do for you?’

‘It’s the magazine,’ explained Jo. ‘Will you help us?’

‘Yes, of course! What do you want? Sit down and let us discuss it.’

They sat down, and Joey poured out their plans, Gisela explaining here and there – rather a necessary thing, for Joey, enthusiastic, was very apt to be incoherent.

When they had finished, Miss Maynard nodded. ‘I see’ she said thoughtfully. ‘You really want me to act as a final court of appeal.’

‘Ye-yes, I suppose so.’ But Joey looked rather crestfallen.

‘Well, what else
did
you want me to do?’ demanded the young mistress. ‘It’s your magazine, and you’ve got to manage it. I’ll be there when I’m needed, but you must do the work yourselves.’

Joey got to her feet. ‘Thank you, Miss Maynard,’ she said. -‘Come on, Gisela. I’m going to begin
now
!’

‘Girls,’ said Miss Bettany in worried tones as she came into the big school-room early on the following Saturday, ‘have you any idea where Joey is?’

The fourteen people variously employed in the room at the moment looked up in surprise at her question.

They had supposed – those of them who had thought about it at all – that Joey was either practising, or else in the little form-room, struggling with her editorial. Fro he past week – in fact, ever since the preceding Saturday – she had thought of little else. She had managed to control herself during lessons, her sister’s threat of putting a stop to the whole thing having settled
that;
but, out of them, she thought, talked, and, the others declared,
dreamed
magazine.

‘Is she not in the little room, Madame?’ asked Gisela.

‘No; I have looked there. She isn’t practising, and she’s not in her cubicle. She seems to be nowhere in the house. Have any of you any idea as to her whereabouts?’

‘Perhaps she’s over at Le Petit Chalet,’ suggested Grizel. ‘She
did
say something at
Frühstück
about finding a quiet place to write her editorial.’

But Miss Bettany shook her head. ‘No. She isn’t there either. I knew she wanted a quiet spot, because she told me so herself. That is why I came here last. Don’t any of you know where she would be likely to be?’

Nobody did.

‘Who is practising?’ asked the Head.

Gisela glanced at the list nearby. ‘Simone Lecoutier, Vanna di Ricci, and Marie von Eschenau, Madame,’

she replied. ‘Simone might know, perhaps.’

‘Grizel, please go and fetch Simone here,’ said Miss Bettany. ‘Is really is extraordinary where Joey can be. You’re all
sure
you haven’t seen her?’

No one had, however, and just then Grizel returned, bringing Simone with her. Simone looked badly scared, for Grizel had simply said, ‘You’re to come to the school-room; Madame wants you!’ and left it at that.

Miss Bettany nearly laughed at her big startled eyes, for she looked
all
eyes. As it was, she merely said,

‘Simone, have you any idea where Joey is?’

‘
Mais non, Madame!
‘ replied Simone. ‘
Est ce qu’on ne peut pas la trouver?
‘

‘No,’ replied the Head, too worried to notice that the little French girl was not speaking the regulation English. ‘When did you last see her?’

Simone thought hard for a minute. ‘
Je ne l’ai pas vu depuis neuf heures,
‘ she said finally.

‘Has any one seen her since nine this morning?’

No; no one had. They had had school prayers as usual at nine o’clock, and since then Miss Joey seemed to have vanished.

‘Perhaps the Tzigane have been here and have stolen her,’ suggested Simone.

‘Nonsense, Simone!’ Miss Bettany spoke sharply. ‘It’s the last thing the Tzigane would be likely to do!

They have children enough of their own! Please try to control your imagination, and don’t make silly suggestions!’

‘Has she perhaps gone to Torteswald?’ This was Gisela.

‘Did she say anything about going?’ demanded Miss Bettany.

‘No, Madame. Indeed, I thought her here with us until you came in.’

‘Have you others heard her speak of it?’

‘No, Madame,’ they chorused.

‘Shall we look everywhere for her once again?’ proposed Bernhilda.

Miss Bettany assented. ‘Yes; you might do that. Two of you go to Le Petit Chalet, and the rest of you hunt through the house. Please report to me in the study when you have finished. If you find her before that send her there to me at once.’

With this she withdrew, and the girls started their search. Gisela and Bernhilda went over to Le Petit Chalet; Juliet and Grizel tackled the dormitories, and the others hunted all over the lower part of the house.

They dived into the stationery cupboard; they looked behind the book-lockers; they moved all the desks –though how they thought even Robin, much less Joey, could have hidden in them was beyond anyone with any common-sense! They peered under the tables in the
Speisesaal
, and took down every coat hanging up in the cloak-rooms; they invaded the
Kuche
, to Marie’s disgust, and insisted on opening every single cupboard and poking about it. Margia Stevens even peeped inquiringly into the great jar where the flour was kept. Needless to state, no Jo was there. Simone climbed on to the music-stool and looked down the piano, undeterred by Bette Rincini’s suggestion that, this as Joey Bettany was, she was not thin enough to be there. When, finally, they had driven nearly everyone distracted, and Simone and one or two of the babies were quite convinced that something awful must have happened to their missing friend, and had accordingly dissolved into tears, they went to inform Miss Bettany that, wherever else her small sister was, she was not in the lower part of the house.

At the study door they met Grizel and Juliet bound on the same errand, and ten minutes later Gisela and Bernhilda came back from Le Petit Chalet, knowing as much of Jo’s whereabouts as they did. No one seemed to have seen anything of her since prayers that morning, and she had certainly not been over to the juniors’ quarters.

A kind of eloquent silence fell on the school after Gisela had finished speaking, even Simone choking down her sobs. The general attitude was one of surprise. Had it been Grizel, who could be thoroughly wrong-headed when she chose, or Simone, who was quite famous for doing silly things, it would not have come with quite such a shock. But Joey was a level-headed young person as a rule. Mademoiselle, who came fussing over from Le Petit Chalet, said as much to Miss Bettany, who was standing looking thoroughly puzzled and worried.

‘Joey has common-sense!’ cried the Frenchwoman in her own tongue. ‘She will not have run to climb mountains, or to cut off her hair!’

Grizel and Simone both went crimson at this allusion to their exploits of the previous term. They felt that Mademoiselle was not playing fair in raking up past events, and their faces said as much.

‘Can she have gone to Torteswald?’ pondered Miss Bettany aloud.

Mademoiselle glanced out of the window. ‘But regard you the rain,
ma chère
! It pours like a torrent!’

‘I can’t imagine her doing such a thing without telling me first!’ went on her sister. ‘Still, she might have done so! Or she may have gone to see the Brauns. She is very fond of them. -Gisela, go and ring up the Villa Maurach and – where is it your cousins are staying, Bette? Wald Villa? Well, ring them up, Gisela; and also Die Rosen, the Brauns’ chalet at Buchau, and ask if any of them know anything about her.’