Those were terrible moments, and I remember wishing that it would
suddenly turn into darkest night, as we two lads stood there, shrinking
from the eyes of those four men, at whom I glanced in turn, and they all
impressed me differently. The general's mouth was pursed up, and his
walking cane, which, I perfectly recollect was a thick malacca with an
ivory head, shook in his hand as if he was eager to lay it across our
backs. Bob Hopley stood with his arms crossed over his gun, looking, as
I thought, hurt, pained, and as if we had committed a most terrible
crime. But there was no pain or trouble, as it seemed to me, in either
Mr Rebble's or Mr Hasnip's face. It struck me that they were on the
whole pleased and satisfied in having found us out in a deed that would
give them an opportunity to punish us with heavy impositions.
All these thoughts had passed rapidly through my mind as I stood waiting
to hear Mr Rebble's response to the General's question.
"I will take charge of the boys, sir," he said importantly; "and I shall
lay the matter at once before the notice of Doctor Browne."
"Hang Doctor Browne!" said the General fiercely. "I want to know what
he meant by bringing his confounded school and setting it up close under
my nose. What did he mean? Eh?"
"I am Doctor Browne's assistant master, Sir Hawkhurst," replied Mr
Rebble, with dignity, "and I cannot answer for his reasons."
"Humph! You can't, eh? You there in the dark barnacles," cried the
General, turning upon Mr Hasnip, "what have you to say?"
"That the boys must be severely punished, sir," said Mr Hasnip, who
looked quite startled.
"Punished! I should think so indeed. If I were not a magistrate, I'd
give the wretched young poachers a severe trouncing. How dare you,
eh?--how dare you, I say, come trespassing on my grounds and poaching my
rabbits?"
The only answer that I could find was, "I'm very sorry, sir. I did not
think; and I'll never do so any more;" but it seemed so ridiculous as I
thought it, that I held my tongue.
"Pretty scoundrels, 'pon my word!" cried the General. "Gentlemen's
sons, eh? nice gentlemen's sons. They've both got poacher written in
their face, and I can see what the end will be--transportation, or hung
for killing a keeper. That's it, eh, Hopley?"
"Well, sir," said Bob, giving us each a pitying look, "I wouldn't go
quite so far as that."
"No, because you are an easy-going fool. You let people rob me right
and left, and you'd stand still and let the young scoundrels shoot you.
There, take them away, the pair of them. You two, I mean--you
pedagogues. I'll come and see the Doctor myself to-morrow morning, and
I'll have those two fellows flogged--soundly flogged. Do you hear, you
boys?--flogged. How many rabbits have you got?"
"Only this one, sir," I said.
"What? You dare to tell me only one?"
"There was another, only Magglin put it in his pocket."
"Got a dozen hid somewhere," cried the General. "Where have you hid
them, you dog? Stuffed in some burrow, I suppose. Where are they,
sir?"
"I told you," I said sharply, for his doubt of my word made me feel hot
and angry. "We only caught those two. I shouldn't tell you a lie,
sir."
"Humph! Oh!" cried the old gentleman, looking at me searchingly, "you
wouldn't tell a lie about it, wouldn't you?"
"Of course not," I replied; "and we did not mean any harm, sir. We
thought it would be good fun to come and catch some rabbits."
"Oh, you did? Then I suppose it would be good fun to bring guns and
come and shoot my pheasants. Perhaps you'd like to do that, eh?"
"I should," said Mercer innocently.
"What!" roared the old gentleman. "Here, you two, take 'em both into
scholastic custody, and tell Dr Browne I'm coming in the morning to put
a stop to this sort of thing once and for all. Hopley, where's that
ferret?"
"Pocket, Sir Hawkus," said the keeper bluntly.
"`_In--my--pocket_,' sir!" cried the old gentleman angrily. "I pay you
wages, sir, as my servant, and I've a right to proper answers. Let's
see the ferret."
The keeper took it out of the big pocket inside his velveteen jacket,
and held it up, twisting and writhing to get free and down into one of
the rabbit-holes.
"Throw it down and shoot it," said the General.
"No, sir, please don't do that!" cried Mercer excitedly, "It's such a
good ferret--please don't kill the poor thing!"
The General looked at him sharply.
"Not kill it?"
"No, sir. Please let it go."
"To live on my rabbits, eh? There, put it in your pocket. And now, you
be off with you, and if I don't have your skins well loosened to-morrow,
I'll--You'll see."
He marched off in one direction, while our guard took us in the other,
talking at us all the time.
"Disgraceful!" Mr Rebble said. "The Doctor will be nearly
heart-broken about such a stigma upon his establishment. I don't know
what he'll say."
"They will be expelled, I presume," said Mr Hasnip softly. "It is very
sad to see such wickedness in those so young."
"I'm afraid so," replied Mr Rebble; and they kept up a cheerful
conversation of this kind till we reached the school, where we were at
once ordered up to our dormitory, and dropped down upon the sides of our
beds to sit looking at each other.
"I say, you've done it now," said Mercer at last; "and I did think we
were going to have such fun."
"Fun!" I said; "it's dreadful!"
"It was capital fun till they all came and spoiled it for us. I
wouldn't care about being expelled--at least not so much, only my father
will be so disappointed."
This made me think of my mother, and of what my uncle would say if I
were dismissed from the school in disgrace; and I shivered, for this was
the most terrible part of all.
"I tell you what," said Mercer, "we're in for it, and no mistake; and we
didn't do it to steal. We only wanted a bit of sport and some rabbits
to stuff. Let's tell the doctor we're very sorry, and ask him to flog
us. It would be too bad to expel us in disgrace. What do you say?"
"They may flog me," I said sadly; "but I couldn't go home again in
disgrace like that."
"Of course not; and it's too bad to call it poaching. I'm sorry we
went, though, now."
"Yes," I said, "I'm sorry enough;" and we sat there, miserable enough,
waiting till the other boys came up, and it was time to go to bed.
We had not begun to undress, when the door was opened, and three heads
were thrust in, and to our disgust, as we looked up, we saw that they
belonged to our three principal tormentors, who began at us in a jeering
way.
"Hallo, poachers!" said Burr major; "where are the rabbits?"
"I say," cried Hodson, "you fellows are going to be expelled. Leave us
the stuffed guys, Senna."
"He won't," cried Dicksee; "he'll want the skins to make a jacket--a
beggar!"
"You're a set of miserable cowards," I said indignantly, "or you
wouldn't come and jump upon us now we are down."
"You give me any of your cheek, Burr junior, and I'll make you smell
fist for your supper."
"Pst! Some one coming!" whispered Hodson, and the three scuffled away,
for there were footsteps on the stairs, and directly after Mr Rebble
appeared.
"Mercer, Burr junior," he said harshly, "Doctor Browne requests that you
will not come down till he sends for you in the morning. As for you,
young gentlemen, you will take no notice of the door being fastened; I
shall be up here in time to let you out. Good-night."
He went out, and closed and locked the door, and we heard him take out
the key and go down the stairs.
"Well, that's a rum one!" cried Mercer. "I say, Burr, old Rebble made
an Irish bull, or something like it. How can we go down if the door's
locked?"
"It's because they're afraid we shall run away," I said bitterly. "They
needn't have thought that."
And somehow that first part of our punishment seemed to be the most
bitter of all. It kept me awake for hours, growing more and more
low-spirited; and, to make me worse, as I lay there listening to the
loud breathing of the boys, Mercer having gone off like the rest, as if
nothing was the matter, I could hear an owl come sailing about the
place, now close at hand, and now right away in the distance, evidently
in Sir Hawkhurst's old park, where, no doubt, it had a home in one of
the great hollow beeches. Every now and then it uttered its mournful
_hoi, hoi, hoi, hoi_! sounding exactly like some one calling for help,
and at times so real that I was ready to awaken Mercer and ask him if he
thought it was a bird; but just as I had determined to do so, he spoke
half drowsily from his pillow.
"Hear the old owl," he said. "That's the one I told you about the other
night. It isn't the same kind as we saw in old Dawson's oast-house.
They screech. Get out, you old mouser! I want to sleep."
The owl kept on with its hooting; but Mercer had what he wanted, for he
dropped asleep directly, and I must have followed his example
immediately after, for the next thing I remember is feeling something
warm on my face, which produced an intense desire to sneeze--so it
seemed, till I opened my eyes, to find that the blind had been drawn,
and Mercer was tickling my nose with the end of a piece of top string
twisted up fine.
"Be quiet. Don't!" I cried angrily, as I sat up. "Hallo! where are
the other fellows?"
"Dressed and gone down ever so long ago. Didn't you hear the bell?"
"No; I've been very sound asleep," I said, beginning to dress hurriedly.
"Shall we be late? Oh!"
"What's the matter?"
"I'd forgotten," I said; for the whole trouble of the previous evening
had now come back with a rush.
"Good job, too," said Mercer. "That's why I didn't wake you. Wish I
was asleep now, and could forget all about it. I say, it ain't nice, is
it?"