Grace looked anxiously at Anne.

“I don’t know, yet,” Anne replied.  “Now listen to my news.  I have felt ever since the game that your getting locked up was not accidental.  I don’t know why I felt so, but I did, nevertheless.  So I set to work to find out if any one else had been around there that day.  I went to the janitress and asked her if she had noticed any one in the corridors before halfpast one.  That was about the time that people began to come, you know.  She said she hadn’t.  She was down in the basement and didn’t go near the upstairs classrooms until after two o’clock.  But when she did go up there she found this.”

Anne held up a curious scarab pin that Grace immediately recognized.  It was one that Miriam Nesbit often wore, and was extremely fond of.

“It’s Miriam’s,” gasped Grace.  “I wonder why——­” She stopped.  The reason Miriam had not made her loss known was plain.  She was afraid to tell where and when she had lost her pin.

“I see,” said Grace slowly.  “It looks pretty bad, doesn’t it?  But why didn’t the janitress take it straight to Miss Thompson?  That’s what she usually does with articles she finds.”

“She missed seeing Miss Thompson that Saturday,” said Anne.  “When I hunted her up early Monday morning, in order to question her, she asked me if I had lost a pin.  She said she had just returned one to Miss Thompson, and told me where she found it.  I asked her to describe the pin, and at once recognized it.  Every girl in school knows that scarab of Miriam’s.  There is nothing like it in Oakdale.

“For a minute I didn’t know what to do.  Don’t you remember when Miriam first had it?  She showed it to Miss Thompson, and Miss Thompson spoke of how curious it was.  I knew that Miss Thompson would not be apt to forget it.  I hurried up to her office and found her with the pin in her hand.  She had sent for Miriam, but the messenger came back with the report that Miriam wasn’t in school.  She laid the pin down and said, ’What is it, Anne?’ So I just asked her if she would let me have the pin.  Of course, she looked surprised, and asked me if I knew to whom it belonged.  I told her I did.  Then she looked at me very hard, and asked me to tell her exactly why I wanted it.  But, of course, I couldn’t tell her, so I didn’t say anything.  Then she said:  ’Anne, I know without being told why you want this pin.  I am going to give it to you, and let you settle a delicate matter in your own way.  I am sure it will be the right one.’”

“Anne Pierson, you bad child!” exclaimed Grace.  “To think that you’ve kept this to yourself ever since the game.  Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wanted to think what to do about it, before telling even you,” Anne replied.  “Yesterday I had a long talk with David.  He knows everything that Miriam has done since the beginning of the freshman year.  He feels dreadfully about it all.  I think you and I ought to go to her and tell her that we are willing to forget the past and be her friends.”