21 A SHOCK FOR DARRELL

21 A SHOCK FOR DARRELL
IT was Jean who saw the smashed pen first. She came into the common room to get a book, andstopped short when she saw the ink on the floor, and the bits and pieces of the blue pen.
'Golly!' said Jean. 'Who's done that? What a mean trick!'
Emily and Katherine came in. Jean pointed¹ to the pen. 'Look,' she said. 'There's a nice little bit ofspite for you.'
'It's Mary-Lou's pen,' said Katherine, in distress². 'What a mess. Who could have smashed it? It's notan accident.'
Mary-Lou came in with the quiet Violet. When she saw her pen, she stood and wailed³ aloud. 'Oh!
Who's done that? I had it for my birthday from Mother. And now it's all smashed!'
All the girls gathered round. Darrell and Sally and Irene were astonished to see such a silent circlewhen they came chattering⁴ in. They joined it, and were not surprised when Mary-Lou's wails⁵ brokeout again.
'What will Mother say? She told me to take great care of it if I took it to school.'
Alicia came whistling in, and she too was amazed to see the smashed pen, surrounded by its pool ofdeep violet ink. What a hateful thing to do to anyone!
'Who did it?' she demanded. 'It ought to be reported to Potty. I bet it's Gwendoline—spiteful littlebeast.'
'Where is Gwendoline?' asked Katherine. Nobody knew. Actually she was just outside the door,about to come in and pretend to be surprised and disgusted at the broken pen too. But. hearing theangry voices of the girls, her heart failed
her. She stood hesitating and listening.
'Look here,' said Alicia, 'there's one certain way we can find out who did this—and we will too.'
'What's that?' asked Katherine.
'Well, whoever stamped on this pen and smashed it must have got violet ink on the underneath⁶ oftheir shoes,' said Alicia grimly.
'Oh, yes,' said the others. 'Of course!'
'That's clever of you, Alicia,' said Katherine. 'We'll examine every pair every pair of shoes in ourNorth Tower lockers⁷—and when we see violet ink we shall know who did this.'
'I know without looking!' said Darrell's scornful voice. 'Nobody could have done it but Gwendoline.
There's no one mean or spiteful enough but her!'
Gwendoline trembled with rage and fright. She took a hasty look at the underneath of her out-doorshoes. Yes,they were stained violet ink. Hastily she ran down the passage, ran into the little store-room, took up a bottle of violet ink, and raced to the cloakroom where the shoelockers were. If onlyshe got there in time!
She did, because the others were busy clearing up the mess before going to examine the shoes.
Gwendoline smeared⁹ some of the violet ink on to the under-sides of one of Darrell's shoes, thenthrew the bottle into a nearby cup?board. Then she hastily took off her own stained shoes, and stuffedthem into the cupboard too. She pulled on a pair of slippers¹⁰.
She ran out into the Court, and re-appeared at the door of the common room, apparently¹¹ quite calmand unruffled. Oh, Gwendoline could act very well when it suited her!
'Here's Gwendoline!' cried Alicia. 'Gwendoline, do you know anything about Mary-Lou's pen?'
'Pen? What about her pen?' asked Gwendoline,
innocently.
'Someone's jumped on it and smashed it,' said Sally.
'What a beastly thing to do!' said Gwendoline, putting on a disgusted face. 'Who did it?'
'That's what we want to know,' said Darrell, feeling infuriated with Gwendoline's smug expression.
'And we're going to find out, see!'
'I hope you will,' said Gwendoline. 'Don't glare at me like that, Darrell. / haven't done it! Much morelikely you have! I've noticed you've been jealous ever since so much fuss was made of Mary-Lou forjumping into the pool to rescue you!'
Everyone gasped¹². How could Gwendoline have the cheek to say a thing like that? Darrell began toboil. She felt the familiar red-hot flame rising up in her. Sally saw her face and put her hand on herarm.
'Go slow, old thing,' she said, gently, and Darrell simmered down. But she almost choked in the effortnot to rage back at the smiling Gwendoline.
'Gwendoline,' said Katherine, keeping her eyes on the girl's face, 'we think that whoever stamped onthis pen must have violet ink on her shoes. So we mean to examine everyone's shoes, and we are surewe shall find the culprit in that way.'
Gwendoline did not change her expression at all. 'That's a very good idea!' she said, warmly. 'A verygood idea indeed. I wish I'd thought of it myself. It certainly will tell us who the hateful person is thatsmashed up poor Mary-Lou's pen.'
Everyone was astonished to hear these words. A little doubt crept into the minds of the girls. WouldGwendoline be so pleased with the idea if she had smashed the pen? Perhaps she didn't do it after all?
'You can look at my shoes first of all, if you like,' saidGwendoline, and she turned up first one foot and then another. There was no smear⁸ of ink on them, ofcourse.
'We shall have to examine the shoes in the lockers too," said Katherine. 'But first, will everyoneplease turn up their feet for us to see?'
Everyone did, but no one had inky marks. Then, in a solemn group, the first-formers set off for thecloakroom in which their shoe-lockers were kept.
Gwendoline's shoes were examined first, because Katherine, like the rest felt that her shoes weremore likely to be marked with ink than anyone else's. But they were not.
It was one of Darrell's shoes that was smeared with the bright-coloured ink! Katherine pulled it out,and then stared at it in the greatest amazement¹³ and horror. She held it out in silence to Darrell.
'It's—it's your shoe!' she said. 'Oh, Darrell!'
Darrell stared at the inky shoe speechlessly. She looked round at the silent girls beside her. Some ofthem turned away their eyes. Alicia met hers with a hard look.
'Well, well, who would have guessed it was our straight-forward Darrell?' said Alicia, flippantly. '1wouldn't have thought it of you, Darrell.'
She turned away with a look of disgust. Darrell caught hold of her arm.
'Alicia! You surely don't think/smashed the pen! I didn't, I tell you, I didn't! 1 would never dream ofdoing such a hateful thing. Oh, Alicia—how could you think I'd do it?"'Well—you can't deny your shoe is inky,' said Alicia. 'You've got a dreadful temper, Darrell, and I'veno doubt that in a fit of spite you stamped on Mary-Lou's pen. Don't ask me why! I haven't a temperlike yours.'
'But Alicia—I'm not spiteful!' cried Darrell. 'You know I'm not. Alicia, I thought you were my friend!
You and Betty always let me come with you. You can't believe a thing like this about a friend ofyours.'
'You're no friend of mine,' said Alicia, and swung out of the room.
'There's some mistake!' said Darrell, wildly. 'Oh, don't believe 1 did it, please, don't believe it!'
7 don't believe you did it!' said Mary-Lou with tears running down her cheeks. She slipped her armthrough Darrell's. 'I know you didn't. I'll stick by you, Darrell!'
'And so will I, of course,' said Sally's soft voice, i can't believe you did it, Darrell, either.'
Darrell was so glad to have two friends out of the stony- eyed girls around that she could almost havewept. Sally took her out of the cloakroom. Katherine looked round at the others. Her face waspuzzled and dismayed.
'I can't believe it's Darrell either,' she said. 'But—1 suppose—until it's proved differently we'll have tothink of her as the culprit. It's a pity, because we've all liked Darrell.'
'I never did,' said Gwendoline's malicious¹⁴ voice. T always thought she was capable of any mean trick,with that temper of hers.'
'Shut up," said Jean, roughly, and Gwendoline shut up, well satisfied with what she had said anddone.
Sally and Mary-Lou were good friends to Darrell then. They stuck by her, helped her, and stoutlydefended her. Mary-Lou was openly defiant¹⁵ to Gwendoline. But it was all very unpleasant, andthough no one had suggested a punishment for the smashing of the pen, it was punishment enough tohave cool looks and cold voices always around.
Mary-Lou was very worried about the matter. It was all because of her pen that Darrell had got intothis trouble. But she knew that it couldn't be Darrell. Like Sally, she had great faith in Darrell'snatural honesty and kindness, and she was certain she could never do a mean trick to any one.
Well, then, who could have done it? It must have been someone with a spite against both Mary-Louand Darrell, and that person must be Gwendoline. Therefore, Gwendoline must have smearedDarrells' shoes with the ink!
But it also followed that Gwendoline's own shoes must have been inky too—and yet, when sheshowed them to the girls, they had been quite free from ink.
May-Lou lay in bed one night and frowned over the problem. How could it have been done? WasGwendoline there when they had planned to examine the shoes? No, she wasn't.
But she might have been listening outside! And she would have had time to rush to the shoe-lockers,smear Darrell's shoes with ink, and take off her own before sauntering back to the common room andjoining in the conversation!
Mary-Lou sat up in excitement. She was suddenly sure that that was what had happened. She beganto shake a little, as she always did when she was frightened or excited. Where could Gwendolinehave hidden her shoes? Somewhere near the shoe-lockers, anyway. Would she have taken them awayand hidden them in a safer place? Or might they still be there?
It was very late and very dark. Everyone had gone to bed long ago. Mary-Lou wondered if she daredto go down to the cloakroom and have a look round. She so badly wanted this hateful affair to becleared up.
But she was so afraid of the dark! Still, she had been afraid of the water too, till she had jumped in tosave Darrell. Perhaps she wouldn't be afraid of the dark either, if it was to help Darrell. She would tryand see.
Mary-Lou crept out of bed. She didn't put on a dressing-gown. She simply didn't think of it. She creptdown the room and out of the door. Thank goodness there was a dim light shining in the passage!
Marv-Lou crept down the stairs
Down the passage she went, to the stairs, and down the stairs to the rooms below. She made her wayto the cloakrooms. Oh. dear, they were in pitch-darkness. Mary- Lou felt a cold shiver creeping downher back. She was frightened. In a moment she would scream. She knew she would!
'This is for Darrell! I'm doing something for somebody else and it's very important,' she said toherself, as firmly as she could. 'I shan't scream. But oh, where's the switch?'
She found it and pressed it down. At once the light came on and the cloakroom could be seen clearly.
Mary-Lou drew a deep breath. Now it was all right. She wasn't in the dark any more. She felt veryproud of herself for not screaming when she had so badly wanted to.
She looked at the lockers. That was Gwendoline's over there. She went to it and took out all theshoes. No—not one was inky. Now—where could inky ones be hidden?

1 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

2 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

3 wailed   

v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She wailed over her father's remains. 她对着父亲的遗体嚎啕大哭。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The women of the town wailed over the war victims. 城里的妇女为战争的死难者们痛哭。 来自辞典例句

4 chattering   

n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The teacher told the children to stop chattering in class. 老师叫孩子们在课堂上不要叽叽喳喳讲话。
• I was so cold that my teeth were chattering. 我冷得牙齿直打战。

5 wails   

痛哭，哭声( wail的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The child burst into loud wails. 那个孩子突然大哭起来。
• Through this glaciated silence the white wails of the apartment fixed arbitrary planes. 在这冰封似的沉寂中，公寓的白色墙壁构成了一个个任意的平面。 来自英汉非文学 - 科幻

6 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

7 lockers   

n.寄物柜( locker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I care about more lockers for the teachers. 我关心教师要有更多的储物柜。 来自辞典例句
• Passengers are requested to stow their hand-baggage in the lockers above the seats. 旅客须将随身携带的行李放入座位上方的贮藏柜里。 来自辞典例句

8 smear   

v.涂抹；诽谤，玷污；n.污点；诽谤，污蔑

参考例句：

• He has been spreading false stories in an attempt to smear us.他一直在散布谎言企图诽谤我们。
• There's a smear on your shirt.你衬衫上有个污点。

9 smeared   

弄脏； 玷污； 涂抹； 擦上

参考例句：

• The children had smeared mud on the walls. 那几个孩子往墙上抹了泥巴。
• A few words were smeared. 有写字被涂模糊了。

10 slippers   

n. 拖鞋

参考例句：

• a pair of slippers 一双拖鞋
• He kicked his slippers off and dropped on to the bed. 他踢掉了拖鞋，倒在床上。

11 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

12 gasped   

v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要

参考例句：

• She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
• People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

13 amazement   

n.惊奇，惊讶

参考例句：

• All those around him looked at him with amazement.周围的人都对他投射出惊异的眼光。
• He looked at me in blank amazement.他带着迷茫惊诧的神情望着我。

14 malicious   

adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的

参考例句：

• You ought to kick back at such malicious slander. 你应当反击这种恶毒的污蔑。
• Their talk was slightly malicious.他们的谈话有点儿心怀不轨。

15 defiant   

adj.无礼的，挑战的

参考例句：

• With a last defiant gesture,they sang a revolutionary song as they were led away to prison.他们被带走投入监狱时，仍以最后的反抗姿态唱起了一支革命歌曲。
• He assumed a defiant attitude toward his employer.他对雇主采取挑衅的态度。