"She hasn't done anything," returned Lily, sullenly.
Bobby Hargrew began it, but Laura shut her off by a prompt palm laid across her mouth.
"You be still, Bobby!" commanded Nellie Agnew.
"You're all just as unfair to Hessie as you can be," said Lily with some spirit. "And now this woman from West High had to pick on her----"
"Don't talk so foolishly, Lil," said Dora Lockwood. "You know very well that Hester has been warned dozens of times not to talk back to the referee. Mrs. Case warns her almost every practice game about something. And now she has got taken up short. If it wasn't for what it means to us all in this particular game, I wouldn't care if she never played with us."
"Me, too!" cried Jess, in applause. "Hester is always cutting some mean caper that makes trouble for other folk."
"We can't possibly win this game without her!" wailed Dorothy.
"I'll do my very best, girls," said Roberta Fish, the substitute player at forward center.
"Of course you will, Roberta," said Laura, warmly. "But we can't teach you all our moves in these few moments--Ah! here is Mrs. Case."
Their friend and teacher came in briskly.
"What's all this? what's all this?" she cried. "Where is Hester?"
"She took her hat and coat and ran out before we came in, Mrs. Case," explained Laura.
"Not deserted you?" cried the instructor.
"But that is a most unsportsmanlike thing to do!" exclaimed the instructor, feeling the desertion keenly. That one of her girls should act so cut Mrs. Case to the heart. She took great pride in the girls of Central High as a body, and Hester's desertion was bad for discipline.
"You must do the best you can, Laura, with the substitute," she said, at last, and speaking seriously. "I will inform Miss Lawrence that you will put in Roberta for the second half, too. Nothing need be said about Hester's defection."
"I am afraid we can't win with me in Hessie's place," wailed Roberta.
"You're going to do your very best, Roberta," said Mrs. Case, calmly. "You always do. All of you put your minds to the task. Your opponents are only one point ahead of you. The first five-minutes' play in the first half was as pretty team work on your part as I ever saw."
"But we can't use our secret signals," said Laura.