Page:Betty Gordon at Boarding School.djvu/77

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ADJUSTER TOMMY
67

when the teaspoons had been recovered and restored to her.

She might have been severely left alone after this, if Sydney Cooke had not discovered a remarkable peculiarity she possessed. Sydney was a great lover of games, and he had brought his pocket checkerboard and men with him. He persuaded Winifred Marion Brown to play a game with him, and the rest of the party crowded around to watch.

"I'll trouble you to let me pass," said the owner of the teaspoons, when Sydney had just made his first play.

The group parted to let her through, closed in again, and opened again for her when she came back. No one paid any attention to this until she had made the request four times.

"What ails that woman?" demanded Sydney irritably.

Each time she had passed him she had brushed his elbow, scattering his checkers about. Ordinarily sweet-tempered, Sydney was beginning to weary of this performance.

"What do you think?" snickered Bobby Littell. "She takes a white tablet every five minutes. Honest! I've been watching her. She sits there with her watch in her hand, and exactly five minutes apart—I've timed her—she starts for the