06 by Last Term at Malory Towers Read Free Book Online Page B

just wasn't done in the sixth, to play a trick on any mistress. The mere thought of playing one on the dignified, scholarly Miss Oakes was impossible.
    But there was no reason why the younger ones shouldn't have their bit of fun, as they had in Darrell's own time. So Darrell grinned and listened, as Felicity poured out her bit of news in a secluded corner of ihe garden.
    ' June's getting a magnet,' she said. 'It's a very special one, treated in a special way to make it frightfully powertui. It's very small too, June says - small enough to he hidden in the palm of vour hand.'
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    'Well? What do you intend to do with it?' asked Darrell. There didn't seem to be great possibilities in such an ordinary thing as a magnet.
    Felicity began to giggle again. 'Well, yon just listen, Darrell.' she said. 'You know how the two Mam'zelles wear their hair, don't you - in little buns?'
    Darrell nodded, puzzled. She couldn't for the life of her see what buns of hair and a magnet had to do with each other.
    'Mam'zelle Rougier has hers at the back, and Mam'zelle Dupont has hers near the top of her head,' said Felicity. 'And they both stick their buns full of hair-pins.'
    Darrell stared at her young sister, and a light began to dawn 'You don't mean - oh, t say, Felicity - you wouldn't dare to hold the magnet near either of the Mam'zelles' heads and make the hair-pins come out!' she said.
    Felicity nodded, her eyes dancing. 'Yes. That's the idea,' she said. 'Oh, Darrein Isn't it smashing? It's super.'
    Darrell began to laugh. 'It's wonderful!' she said. 'Fancy us never thinking of such a simple trick as that. Felicity, when are you going to do it? Oh, I wish I could see it! I wish I could do it myself!'
    'You can't. You're head-girl,' said Felicity, sounding quite shocked. 'But you could make some excuse, couldn't you, to come and see us play the trick? We thought we'd do it on Mam'zelle Dupont and on Mam'zelle Rougier just as many times as they'd stand for it, without getting suspicious.'
    'I should think they'd jolly soon get suspicious,' said Darrell. 'Especially Mam'zelle Rougier. You'd belter be careful of her, Felicity. She's not got the sense of humour that Mam'zelle Dupont has.'
    'We'll be careful,' said Felicity. 'Well - can you make an excuse to pop into our classroom, il we tell you when
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    we're going to do the trick?'
    'I'll try,' said Darrell. But she felt sure she wouldn't be able to. Mam'zelle might be rather astonished if she kept appearing in the second-form room every time her hair¬pins came out!
    Darrell told the rest of the form, with the exception of Gwen and Maureen, whom nobody ever trusted enough 10 let into even the simplest secret. Amanda was there too, and to everyone's surprise, she suddenly gutfawed. Like her voice, her laugh was very loud, and it made ev eryone jump. They hadn't heard the stuck-up Amanda laugh before - she was too busy looking down her nose at everything!
    'That's great,' said Amanda. 'We did things like that at Trenigan, too.'
    'Did you?' said Darrell, in surprise, and Trenigan went ,1 little way up in her rather low estimation of it. 'What tricks did you play?'
    For the first time Amanda opened out a little, and an animated conversation began about tricks - good ones and bad ones, safe ones and dangerous ones, ones likely to be too easily spotted, and ones that never were spotted. It was a most interesting conversation.
    Amanda had to admit that Malory Towers was better at tricks than Trenigan had been.
    Oh well - it's because of Alicia, really, that we got such fine tricks,' said Sally. 'Alicia's got three brothers, and one of them, Sam, always used to send her good tricks he used himself. Alicia - do you remember the sneezing trick?'
    'Oh yes,' said Alicia. 'It was a tiny pellet, Amanda, which we stuck somewhere near Mam'zelle - on the wall or anywhere, it didn't matter - and when you put a lew drops of salt water on it, it sent off an invisible \a pour that made people sneeze - and you