This is the third and last book I've read by Betty Baxter. She wrote this one under the pen name Alice Anson. I recall really enjoying this one and I'm excited to read it again.
Martha is a high school girl who decides to try out for a school play just to spite Angela, the local stuck-up, rich girl who believes she'll get the lead. Martha's audition goes well, the drama teacher, Miss Meardon, only has her read for the lead which makes her think she's secured it. As the casting is about to be announced smoke starts filling into the auditorium from the dressing room which connects to the cafeteria. Miss Meardon instructs the students to stack chairs under the windows and climb out.
As this is going on Martha runs to the dressing room, gets a wet towel to cover her face, then runs to the phone in the cafeteria where she reports the fire to the switch board operator. As she arrives back in the auditorium Miss Meardon and fellow student Jock are arguing; Jock is telling Miss Meardon to escape through the window but she insists she can't leave without Martha. Once the girl is back they all escape with Jock assisting both of them out.
Thanks to Martha's call the janitor is already there with a fire extinguisher but it turns out the smoke was from a pot of olive oil that was left on a low burner and not any fire.
Miss Meardon takes the students to a classroom where she announces the cast list. Martha is surprised to find she did not get the lead, losing out to Angela. After class Jock drives Martha home and tells her he saw the cast list when he helped Miss Meardon out the window and Martha's name had been written down for the lead. Evidently Miss Meardon wanted to punish Martha for going to call in the fire.
The play is actually three small individual plays. Along with her small role in the second play Martha has been asked to handle props. Her best friend, Lucia, is in the third play and also handling press. While working with Miss Meardon one day Angela comes in and asked Meardon to excuse her for a day so she can go to Chicago to shop for her costume. The drama teacher reminds Angela that her role is of a simple country girl so her wardrobe will consist of one, simple gingham dress. Angela throws a tantrum, screaming at the woman. Both Martha and Lucia back up the teacher and Angela vows to get even with them for this.
Her revenge is discovered moments before showtime on opening night when it's learned that Martha and Lucia's names have been removed from both the newspaper cast list and the programs.
The plays go on and the first play, Angela's one, is chosen as the one that will go to the Capital City performance competition. Martha is disappointed her play wasn't chosen but agrees that Angela's performance was wonderful.
While the winning play heads to the competition that weekend Martha and Lucia are headed to the May Festival at the college of Lucia's sister. After their train arrives they're surprised to see Jock who said he's there to bring Martha to the competition. One of the actors broke her arm backstage and Miss Meardon needs Martha to replace her.
The three race the 50 miles there and Martha arrives at the last minute. When she walks on stage Angela is so shocked that she forgets her lines and Martha has to guide her to them through improv. This makes Angela furious.
Later on they learn another school, who has driven 600 miles to be there, is going to be disqualified because they too have lost an actor. The play is the same one Martha recently performed so she is called in as a substitute. Her double performance causes her to get mentioned in the newspaper as the stand-out of the competition.
The college where the competition was held is starting a six week long summer school for 25 talented high school actors and Martha has been given a spot. Unfortunately ,Angela has too.
Martha arrives at the Cantwell dorm house where she will be living for those six weeks and is almost immediately told by the sour-faced Dean Jones that if anything of value is found it must be immediately turned over to her. She's then taken to her room where she meets her roommate Roberta, or "Chubs" as she's nicknamed.
Chubs is an avid collector of pitchers and has filled every surface of the room with her collection. Martha and she quickly become the best of friends so when Martha spots an antique pitcher in a pawnshop window she buys it as gift for Chubs. Upon leaving the shop she knocks into an old lady whose purse drops and spills pawn tickets. Martha gathers her purse and apologies but the old lady runs off frightened.
The antique pitcher is embossed with three oak leaves which exactly match the fireplace in the girls room so they set it atop the mantel. When they return to their room after class the next day Chubs finds the pitcher has been moved and the girls suspect Dean Jones has been snooping.
As the weekend arrives the girls drive to Chubs' house where they go for a swim at the quarry. Martha saves the family's youngest child when he falls into the water and is crowned Junior Queen at the Rose Queen dance that night as a reward.
The girls begin their drive back the next day but the car has a coolant leak and they have to stop several times to ask for pails of water from nearby houses. The last one they stop at is a small shack occupied by the same frightened old woman Martha had knocked into. Sitting atop her table is a pitcher exactly like the one Martha gifted Chubs.
Upon arriving at the dorm the girls are greeted by Angela who coaxes them into setting down their bags and going for a soda with her. Once they return and go to unpack they find the bags have been riffled through and the gifted pitcher is missing from the mantel.
Chubs is furious about the missing pitcher and Martha is upset over Angela's special treatment is class so the two go for a canoe ride to cool their minds. Once they row to the other side of the river Martha is surprised to see the old lady from the shack collecting sticks. She then realizes the pitcher on her table in the shack may actually be Chubs missing one. They go to her house which is nearby but no one answers the door.
That night the two girls hear voices coming from the fireplace and when they get closer to listen they find it's Angela and Dean Jones. They are mention the missing pitcher and talk of searching for hidden jewels in the dorm.
The next day Martha walks into town and sees the missing pitcher back in the pawnshop window. She storms in and the shop keeper tells her the pitcher was pawned by the old woman and he agrees to sell it back to her at a significantly lower price if she agrees not to call the police.
Upon bringing the pitcher back to Chubs, Dean Jones sees it and immediately runs up to Angela's room. Martha tries to follow and eavesdrop but is interrupted by another girl in the dorm. Once back in their room Chubs tells Martha she heard everything through the chimney; Angela and Dean Jones are scheming to get the pitcher because they think it's related to the missing jewels. The pitcher evidently is not the missing one but a nearly identical one. Angela comes in and tries asking to borrow it for a prop in the upcoming play but Chubs declines.
The girls realize they need to hide it so they cleanly break open one of Chubs large pitchers and reassemble it with the silver pitcher inside. Angela and Dean Jones continuously search the girls' room for the pitcher and threaten Chubs with explosion if she doesn't hand it over but neither phases them.
They go to visit the old lady who turns out to be Ms. Cantwell and she admits to pawning two separate pitchers which were family heirlooms but she quickly shoos the girls away when they ask if she had snooped in their room.
That night the girls decide to examine the pitcher for a clue. They remove it from its hiding place and discover a blank piece of parchment under one of the leaf designs. They decide to keep it out and figure out it's importance later.
The following day Martha is tripped down the stairs by Angela and sprains her ankle leaving her bedridden. While alone in the dorm house during class she gets the idea to view the parchment under a microscope belonging to one of the girls in the dorm. While doing this she gets the idea to heat up the paper which causes it's invisible ink to show faintly, then under the microscope she can read the words "under oak antique peels upon brook bawls this" which she presses into the desk blotter with her nail.
Dean Jones catches her then and takes the parchment away. She's able to retrieve the blotter later but the message makes no sense. The girls believe there is a message in the other pitcher that will make it decipherable.
The girls also realize that the oak leaf design on the mantel is similar to the one on the pitcher that has a secret compartment. They begin to carve out the cement around the oak leaf on the mantel but Dean Jones catches them. She locks them in their room then runs up to Angela's room and begins carving out the oak leaf on her mantel. Eventually the dean comes back downstairs and bargains with the girls; all agree not to mess with the mantels. However that night Martha continues to carve at it and finds an empty secret compartment.
Chubs then heads over to Ms. Cantwell's home early that morning to try and get an clues from her. She says that her father had a collection of extremely valuable jewels that were left to her in his will but they were never found and she has spent the decades since his death in poverty. The only clue he had left her was the pitchers which she stored for safety until having to sell them recently. Chubs, at Martha request, acquired some old and worthless documents from Ms. Cantwell which they hide in the mantels secret compartment for Dean Jones to find.
The next few days the girls focus on the upcoming play and don't think about the mystery until one morning when Martha switches out the stolen pitcher in Dean Jones office for the one the girls had already examined. Inside the leaf's compartment they find another piece of parchment and with a candle and toy magnifying glass they reveal it's message: "and whose root out the that along wood".
They recognize these two messages as being words from a Shakespeare play. Realizing they only have one more day of summer school they rush to Ms. Cantwell's home at midnight and share the clues and Shakespeare verse with her. She realizes this refers to a stone statue down by the river on the Cantwell house property. The three go there and dig out the statue. In a secret compartment in the base is a leather bag filled with an assortment of expensive, and some historical, jewels.
The next day, the last day of school, the play is to be performed and Martha is told last minute that she has won the leading role over Angela. After the successful play has ended a very much transformed Ms. Cantwell approaches the girls while they stand with there families and gifts each of them a diamond ring.
Dean Jones and Angela then show up and accuse the girls of stealing the jewels from school property. Ms. Cantwell dominantly replies that her lawyer will be contacting Dean Jones, who it turns out is Angela's aunt, and charging her with intent to defraud. Dean Jones meekly shys away while the rest celebrate the successful play and Ms. Cantwell's happy future.
- This book takes place in Iowa. I believe The Unseen Enemy also mentioned being in Iowa. Both books mention trips to Chicago as does Becky Bryan's Secret which most likely is also set in Iowa. It's my guess that Betty Baxter was an Iowa resident.
- Whenever Baxter's characters are dealing with a situation that they don't like but can't change they focus on a physically or mentally heavy activity so they don't dwell on the bad. I really like that.
- I love Chubs' infatuation with pitchers. It's a unique interest and her unapologetic love and affection for her collection is great.
- Angela is a typical Baxter villain; evil almost to a sociopath level but also, for some reason, friends with her enemies.
- The missing jewels hidden in a former residence which is now used for semi-public purpose is very similar to The Unseen Enemy.
Overall I enjoyed this book. It's plot is very coincidence heavy and the whole pitcher theme is a bit silly but I enjoyed it none the less. It felt very similar to the last two Betty Baxter books I read but since I'm a fan of her writing style I consider that a good thing. Like the other two books this one lacked any dull or boring bits and was easy to get through.
