04 The Head Girl of the Chalet School (22 page)

The Robin gave up the tie, and she folded it up inside its paper, and, with a final look of reproach at the girls, sent Evadne and Grizel on in front, keeping Jo and the Robin with her.

As the Robin was not permitted to sit up for dinner, they showed Mr. Lannis their purchases before that, and he was highly gratified at their gifts. He was in a fine good hurnour, for his business had gone well, and it was finished. He told them that he was going to take them all to the theatre except the baby, who was to go to bed presently, with Suzette to look after her, and on the next day he would take thern to the Mozart Museum and the cathedral, as well as the castle. Then the gong sounded for dinner, and the Robin trotted off to bed cheerfully, for Suzette had promised to sit beside her and tell her fairy-tales before she went to sleep, and Evadne had said that Suzette was a “ripper at stories! Guess she makes ‘em up half the time, but they’re
pie
!”

A pretty musical comedy from Vienna was under way when they reached the theatre, and the three girls enjoyed it immensely. As for the host, like Suzette, he took great pride in his charming party, and rejoiced in the many admiring glances that were cast at it. So they all had a thoroughly good time, and when they went to bed they declared that it had been one of the jolliest evenings they had ever spent. “One of the very nicest times I’ve ever known,” said Jo, as she shook hands with him. “If tomorrow’s like today’s been, this will he a topping visit!”

However, much was to happen before then. It was half-past two in the morning, and Jo was having wild dreams in which Archbishop Wolf Dietrich, Salome Alt, the play they had seen that night, and the Robin’s gift to her father were all thoroughly mixed up, when a bell suddenly clanged out sharply, startling her awake at once. At the same titne, there was a wild shriek of “‘Fire!” through the building, and a noise of people hastily and horrifyingly awakened from sleep. She started to her feet at once, grabbing the first garments that came handy, and struggling into them at top speed, while she shrieked to Grizel, who was sleeping in a bed in the opposite corner, to get up. Grizel tumbled out, and made for the electric switch, but in vain. She, too, grabbed her clothes, and got into them in hot haste, while Jo, dressed after a fashion, made for the door to get to the Robin. It was opened as she reached it, and Mr. Lannis came in, the baby in his arms, Evadne following him, and Suzette, completely unnerved, and in wild hysterics, clinging to his arm.

His face brightened as he saw, by the light of his electric torch, that the girls were awake and quite self-controlled. A wave of smoke came in with him too, and they could hear the dull roaring of the fire, though, as yet, they could see no flames.

“Here, Grizel,” he said sharply; “take the baby! There’s a fire-escape at the end of this corridor. Come along, all of you!”

He hustled them out, flinging an arm round Suzette, who screamed incessantly, and literally carrying her along the corridor, down which he ran, the children after him. They found the window to the escape blocked with people, many of them frantic with terror; and the noise of their cries, the agony in their faces, made the two English girls sick with horror. Evadne was crying quietly with fright, though she made no scene, only clung to Joey. The American realised that it would be dangerous to take the girls into that panic-stricken crowd, and turned back. He remembered having seen another escape at a window on the storey above them.

Without a word he dragged Suzette along, the girls following him. Up the stairs they went, and came into a much narrower corridor. Here there was only one man, who was wrestling with the fastening of the window that gave on to the escape, and a fat, elderly woman. Awful as was their peril, Jo suddenly gave vent to a little giggle as she recognised her. “It’s Frau Berlin!” she said to Grizel. “We’re always running over her at times like this.”

Grizel, the Robin close in her arms, looked, and remembered the woman they had met during their first term at the Chalet who had treated them so rudely, and whom Madge had later saved from a burning train when they were coming from the Dolomite district. Mr. Lannis had not heard them. He had dropped Suzette, who sank on the ground, moaning in terror, and made for the window, which he broke open with the first thing that came handy. Then he lifted Evadne out, and bade her go down as quickly as she could.

Grizel put the Robin out next, and Jo followed. The American directed her to go on, and was turning back to pull Suzette up, when Frau Berlin made a dash, and clambered through the space, rushing down at a pace that was likely to endanger the lives of the children who were in front.

“Go on and stop her,” said the strange man. “I will see to the woman.”

Mr. Lannis obeyed – there was no time for argument, for already the flames were beginning to lick through from the lower windows, and the girls were in fearful peril. He reached the frenzied woman just in time to stop her from trying to thrust Grizel aside, and, holding her in a grasp that bruised her, shouted to the girl to go on steadily, and keep to the outside hand-rail. Frau Berlin writhed and struggled in his grip, but he was a big man, luckily, and the thought of the harm she might do to the children gave him the strength to hold her, while his unknown friend got through with Suzette, and joined him.

It was a journey none of them was likely to forget, that journey down the iron stairs. By the time the two men with their charges had reached the first floor of the hotel the escape was almost wrapped in flames, and it was a miracle that they got through alive. Mr. Lannis’s first thought was for the girls. They were all standing at the bottom, in charge of one of the firemen, who was trying to get them away. The Robin had been thrust by Jo to the outside of the escape, and, with the elder child’s skirt flung round her, was unhurt.

Evadne and Jo were sights to behold, with their grimed faces and singed hair, but, save for one or two superficial burns, they were not damaged. Grizel was much worse off, though they did not know this till later on, when they were all retiring to bed in another hotel where they had taken refuge. She had been scorched by the flames, but not badly. The burns smarted, but she had reassured her host that she was all right; then when she put up her hands to tie back her hair, she gave a shriek, for a long curl came off in her fingers. Her cry was echoed by the other children, and Mr. Lannis, very much bandaged, and still red-eyed from the smoke, came in to see what had happened. In the centre of the big room where the four were to sleep stood Grizel, holding her severed lock, while Jo and Evadne were standing aghast, and the Robin, from the bed where she had been tucked in by a now steadied and remorseful Suzette, was sitting up, and eyeing them with deep interest.

“What’s got you all?” asked the big man.

For reply Grizel dropped her curl, put her hands to her head again, and literally ran off the lengthy locks.

Then she stood there, denuded of her long hair, and looking scared. It had all been scorched in the flames as she had torn through them, and so had come off at the first tug.

Mr. Lannis was horrified. At first he was afraid that her neck was burned, but the hair had saved it. Only –

Grizel was fated not to put up her curls for some time to come. There was nothing to be done. Once he realised that the girls were really all right, Mr. Lannis ordered them off to bed, and stayed there till they were safely between the sheets. In the morning he took Grizel to a hairdresser’s and had her hair cropped, as that was the only thing to do. The hair had been scorched pretty close to her head, and was all uneven.

“What
will
Madge say when she sees you?” said Joey. “She’ll have a fit, I should think!”

“She’ll be so glad that we are all alive she will say nothing,” replied Grizel soberly. “If I hadn’t shaken my hair over my face,
it
would have been burned, and I’d rather lose my hair than that.”

“Oh, well, it’ll be a saving of time in the morning,” said her friend comfortingly. “But
oh
, Grizel, you do look so different with it all gone!” She gave a hysterical little giggle.

Grizel shook her slightly. “Jo, shut up, you ass! Suzette’s bad enough without
you
starting! You’re to come and see if your new things will fit.”

She and Mr. Lannis had been shopping, for all their things had gone in the fire which had left their hotel completely gutted. He had insisted on refitting them, and, what was more, had bought their gifts over again, though the head-girl had tried to stop him. Several coats and hats had been brought to their present resting-place for them to try on, and they were soon all fitted out, even down to under-clothes, for they had all put on very little in their escape, and the Robin had had nothing but her pyjamas and dressing-gown.

When that business had been done, Mr. Lannis marched them off to the station. He was not fit to drive the car, which had to he left in the garage where it was till someone could bring it home. They were to be met at Spartz by Dr. Jem, to whour he had wired, with the runabout, for the railway was not yet opened.

“What happened to Frau Berlin?” asked Joey as she sat down in her corner, the Robin cuddled close to her.

“Hanged if I know,” replied Mr. Lannis forcefully. “That woman should be shut up! She might have-” He paused and looked at them. He was doubtful how much they realised of the danger from the frantic woman.

Joey answered this unconsciously. “She might have fallen down and killed herself. I don’t like her, but it would have been horrid if that had happened, and it might have done.”

“She’s a pie-faced, rubber-necked four-flusher,” said Evadne. “Those railings were as open as anything.

She’d have gone
some
crash if she
had
gone.”

Grizel shivered slightly. She knew what danger had threatened them all, if the others didn’t. It wouldn’t have been Frau Berlin who would have fallen through the railings. Mr. Lannis noticed it, and promptly began to talk about the history of Salzburg to divert her mind from the memory. He was so successful that twenty minutes later Jo and the head-girl were well away with their old argument as to whether Napoleon was a great man or not, and they kept off dangerous topics for the rest of the journey, much to the American’s relief.

“MATRON, can I unpack now, please?”

“Please, Matron, which is to be the new girl’s cubey in our dorm.?”

“Matron, may I have the window cubey this term? Do say I may!”

“Please, Matron, Miss Maynard says if the new girl, Cornelia Flower, is unpacked, can she go to the study?

If she isn’t, can she go as soon as she is?”

Matron sat back on her heels and glared round the importunate throng. “If you don’t all stop talking for five minutes,” she remarked, “you’ll drive me into the nearest lunatic asylum. Now, Jo, give me Miss Maynard’s message again, please.”

Like a parrot Jo repeated her message gravely, and the harrassed lady who saw to the physical welfare of the Chalet School nodded. “Cornelia Flower is unpacked, and may go with you now. Her cubicle is Number Five; can you remember that, Comelia?”

“Ya-as,” drawled Cornelia, a fair, sturdy girl with enormous blue eyes.

“Then trot along with Jo. She can look after you for the present. No, Evadne; you may not have a window cubicle. I know what that would mean! You will sleep in Number Seven, as you did last term. Yes, Ilonka; I am ready to unpack you now, so come along, and don’t waste time. Paula and Frieda, you may be getting your cases opened; and, Simone, you can help to carry Ilonka’s things to her cubicle.”

Having thus disposed of her charges, Marton turned back to her work, and Jo walked off with Cornelia, landing her safely in the study, where Miss Maynard was waiting to interview her before deciding into which form to put her.

Term had begun that day, though Jo, Grizel, the Robin, and one or two of the others had come the day before, and long-distance people like Marie von Eschenau and the Rincinis would not arrive till much later.

It was the last week of April, and the weather was gloriously fine, so when Joey had seen Cornelia close the study door after her, she wandered out into the flower garden, where she found her own special gang, with the exception of the people who were unpacking, all congregated together, and discussing the new term in a variety of languages. Rules were still more or less in abeyance, and would be so till the morrow, when they would come into full force, and everyone would have to use English most of the time. Her appearance was hailed with cries of delight.

“Here comes Jo! Now she will tell us everything!” The speaker, Bianca di Ferrara, ran forward and linked her arm in her leader’s. “Jo, we wish to know if it is true that Madame is not coming down to school at all this term? Luigia says that Grizel has said so.”

“Yes; quite true,” replied Jo. “Jem thinks the walk will be too much for her in the hot weather, and she’s not strong, you know. So she’s going to stay up at the Sonnalpe, where it will be cooler than down here.”

“But, Jo, what happens about her birthday, then?” demanded Margia Stevens.

“Don’t know, I’m sure! We’ll have to have the ‘do’ without her, I suppose.”

The girls looked at each other in dismay. Ever since Mrs. Russell had come to the Tyrol and established her school on the shores of the Tiern See, they had kept her birthday as a festival, and the idea of not having her with them for it was one they did not relish.

“How very – not nice!” said Klara Melnarti at length, after a blank silence.

“Can’t be helped! P’r'aps they’ll have us up there for it,” suggested Jo. “Jem said he would think of it. It all depends.”

“Oh, but that would be ravishing!” declared Bianca, beginning to smile. “And Jo, Grizel said that we were to have some new girls this term. Do you know anything about them?”

“I’ve just carted Cornelia Flower off to Maynie,” said Jo cheerfully.

“What is she like?” asked Klara. “She has a pretty name.”

“Well, she doesn’t live up to it – as far as looks go,” said Jo. “She’s nearly square, and she has a jaw like –like – well, like a rarnrod! About fourteen, I think, and she’s in the Yellow dorm. Who’s Head there this term? Anyone know?”