Free Naughtiest Girl 2: The Naughtiest Girl Again by Enid Blyton

common-room and she looked at Joan.
    "Joan! Do you think Robert has gone to take my books again, or do some horrid trick?" she said in a low voice. "Let's follow him and see."
    So the two girls got up and followed Robert. He went down the passage, and ran down the stairs to the cloak room where the water-taps were. And running round the corner came small, cheeky Leslie, the boy who had complained that another was always borrowing things and not giving them back. He ran full.tilt into Robert, and made him double up in pain.
    Leslie giggled. It was funny to see big Robert panting like that! Robert put out a hand and caught him, holding the boy's arm so tightly that it hurt, "Let me go," said Leslie.
    Robert looked up and down the passage quickly. No one was about. He pulled Leslie into the wash-place and shook him hard.
    "How dare you run into me like that!" he demanded.
    "And I'll teach you to laugh at me, you little nuisance!"
    "Robert, let me go!" begged Leslie again. He knew that Robert was a bully and he was afraid of him, "Say 'I humbly beg your pardon, and I will never, never do such a thing again!'" said Robert, Bat Leslie, although he was afraid, was not a coward. He shook his head. "I'm not going to be as humble as all that!" he said, "You let me go, you big bully!"
    Robert was angry, He shook Leslie hard again. "You say what I told you to say, or I'll make you sit on the hot-water pipes!" he said, Hot-water pipes ran all round the wash-place to warm it. Leslie glanced at them fearfully. But he still shook his head,

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    "No, I shan't beg your pardon," he said obstinately. "If you'd been decent to me, as any other of the big boys would have been, I'd have said I was sorry like a shot. Let me go!"
    "You'll sit on the hot pipes first!" said Robert in a rage, and he dragged poor Leslie towards the pipes. They were not terribly hot, but hot enough to make Leslie shout, Meantime, where were Elizabeth and Joan? They were just round the corner, listening to all that was said, and when they heard Robert pulling Leslie to the hot pipes they ran into the wash-place at once, Leslie was just shouting.
    Robert pulled the little boy off the pipes as soon as he saw Elizabeth and Joan. He went red and looked very angry. To think he had been caught by those interfering girls-and one of them Elizabeth too!
    "We've caught you nicely, you horrid boy," said Elizabeth scornfully. "Leslie, we are going to report Robert at the next Meeting. Just see you tell the truth and back us up in what we say."
    "I'll do that all right," said Leslie. "I'm not a little coward like some of the others, who didn't dare to complain about Robert when they had the chance! As for Peter, you know why he didn't say that Robert was swinging him much too high, don't you?
    Robert went to him
    and threatened him with all kinds of punishment if he dared to say a word against him!"
    "I did not," said Robert angrily, though he knew perfectly well that what Leslie said was true. "You wait till I get you alone again, that's all!"
    "There you are, you see!" said Leslie, "You would like to do exactly the same thing to me again. But you won't get the chance! I'll report you at the Meeting all right, even if Elizabeth and Joan don't!"
    The small boy marched off, Elizabeth turned to Robert. She spoke fiercely. "I know jolly well that it's you that has been playing those horrid tricks on me and on Jenny,"
    she said.
    "I did not," said Robert, this time speaking quite truthfully.
    "Well, I don't believe you!" said Elizabeth. "You are mean enough for anything.
    You're a perfectly horrid boy and I think you ought to be sent away from our school."
    "Just as you ought to have been sent away last term, I suppose!" said Robert mockingly. He had heard all about Elizabeth's naughtiness during the summer term.
    Elizabeth went red.
    "Be quiet!" said Joan. "It was a good deal because Elizabeth wanted to be kind to me that she was disobedient and I won't have you sneering at her for