"What a shame!" I cried indignantly. "Didn't you hit him again?"
"No; I only put it down. We're going to pay it all back some day."
"Yes; but when?" I cried.
Mercer shook his head.
"I say," he continued, "I saw old Magglin this morning before
breakfast."
"What was he doing here?"
"Dunno. Wanted to see me, I suppose, and borrow a shilling."
"Did you lend him one?"
"Yes; I felt obliged to."
Just then Burr major came by us, and looked us both over sharply.
"Haven't you two got any lessons to get ready?" he said.
"Yes," I replied.
"Then go in and get them ready before I report you both to Mr Hasnip.
Do you hear?"
"Yes," I said; "but I'm going to have my riding lesson."
"Your riding lesson!" he sneered; "you're always going to have your
riding lesson. I never saw such a school as it's getting to be. It's
shameful! I shall go and ask Mr Hasnip if we boys are to be kept
always at work, while you and Tom Mercer are idling about and enjoying
yourselves."
"All right," said Mercer oracularly, in a whisper to me, as Burr major
walked off importantly for a few yards, attended by his satellites, and
then stopped, drew out his watch with a flourish, looked at it, and put
it back with an air that he intended to be graceful.
"Look here, you, Tom Mercer--do you hear, Jollop? You're not going to
have riding lessons. I give you five minutes to get back to your work,
and if you are not there then--you'll see."
"All right," said Mercer again; and then, as Burr major was out of
hearing, "Any one would think he was the Doctor. Oh, I should like
to--" he continued, grinding his teeth. "Think we could, Frank?"
"I don't know," I said hesitatingly; "but when he talks like that, it
makes me feel horribly mad, and as if I should like to try."
"Never mind. Wait a bit; the revolution isn't ripe yet," said Mercer
darkly. "Wish I'd got a watch like that."
I was very angry, but my companion's sudden change from thoughts of
revenge to covetousness seemed exceedingly droll.
"What are you laughing at?" he said.
"At you about the watch."
"Well, I can't help it, Frank. That watch seems always staring at me
with its round white face, and holding out its hands to me. I dream of
it of a night, and I'm always longing for it of a day. You can't tell
how bad it makes me feel sometimes."
"You shouldn't think about it, Tom."
"I can't help it. I don't want to, but the thoughts will come,
dreadfully. I say," he whispered darkly, "I don't wonder at chaps
stealing sometimes, if they feel like I do."
"What nonsense!" I cried: "I say, here's Eely coming back."
"Is he?" said Mercer sharply. "Then I'm off in."
"Why, you're never going to be such a coward as to be bullied into
obeying his orders."
"Oh yes, I am," replied my companion. "Time isn't ripe yet. But when
it is--oh!"
He gave vent to that exclamation with peculiar force, though it was only
a low hiss, and I followed him with my eyes, half disposed to think that
Tom Mercer would prove a rotten reed to lean upon if I wanted his
support in a struggle against our tyrant; though, truth to tell, as Burr
came rolling along with half a dozen boys about, all ready at a word
from him to rush at me, I did not feel at all confident of being able to
resist his authority, and I began to move off.
"Hullo!" he cried. "Here's the gallant horseman, boys. Let's go and
see him ride."
"Yah! he can't ride," cried Dicksee; "he'll tumble off."
"Not he," said Burr major. "Old Lom ties his ankles together under the
horse. But he does look an awful fool when he's on board. I say, Burr
junior, you don't think you can ride, do you?"
"No," I said quietly.
"And you never will. I say, boys, what an ugly beggar he grows! I know
why he's learning riding."
"Do you? Why?" cried Dicksee.
"They're going to make a groom of him."
The blood flushed up in my face, and I began to feel as if the time must
be getting ripe.
"Why, he was bragging about going to be a soldier!" cried another boy.
"Him! A soldier! Ha, ha, ha!" cried Burr major. "They wouldn't even
have a big-eared-looking fellow like that for a parchment-whopper."
"He said a horse soldier."
"Horse sneak," said Burr major scornfully. "A soldier! Ho, ho, ho!
Ha, ha, ha! I say, boys--a soldier!"
He burst into a yell of laughter, all forced, of course, and his
satellites roared too, some of them, to curry favour, beginning to dance
about him, and look eagerly in his face, as if for orders.
Of course it was very absurd to mind, but I could not help it, and
tingled all over.
"Oh, I wish Mercer was here!" I thought to myself.
"The time must be ripe;" and I suppose my face showed something of what
I felt, for Burr major cried,--
"Look at the puppy, boys; he looks as if he wanted to bite. Did you
ever see such an impudent beggar? I don't believe his name's Burr at
all. It's only a bit of a show-off."
At that moment there was a hail from the paddock, and the school bell
rang for the first lesson.
"There, groom, you're wanted," said Burr major sneeringly. "Go on and
learn to ride, and mind you don't hurt yourself."
"Yah! Go on, ugly!" cried Dicksee, and the boys roared.
"Do you hear, sham sodger? Be off, and don't stand staring like that,"
cried Burr major again. "I told you to go."
"Go yourself," I retorted, now thoroughly roused, and feeling reckless.
"Go in to school and learn your lessons, and mind the Doctor don't cane
you."
"What?" cried the tall, thin fellow, flushing up, as he advanced upon me
menacingly, while the bell was rapidly getting toward its last
strokes,--"what's that you say?"
"Go in and get to your lessons, and take that fat-faced booby with you."
"Well!" cried Burr, "of all!" and he looked astounded.
"That's it, is it? Cheeking me because you know I can't stop now. But
all right, I shan't forget it. If I do, Dicksee, you remind me after
lessons that I've got to warm Jollop and this groom boy. The Doctor's
been spoiling them both lately, and they want taking down."
"All in, all in, to begin!" was shouted from the doors.
"Oh yes, we're coming soon," said Burr major, throwing up his head.
"Wait a bit, you, sir, and I'll teach you to insult your seniors."
"All in, all in!"
"Here, Dicksee, go and hit that fellow on the mouth for shouting."
"All in, all in!" came again, directed at our group.
"Coming," cried Burr major. Then to me: "After morning studies, you
sir. I don't suppose I shall forget."
"If you do, I shan't, bully," I said, and he turned upon me more
astonished than ever, and then burst into a fit of derisive laughter.
"He's mad," he cried. "Here, boys, Senna's been gammoning him into
taking some of his physic, and he don't know what he's saying."
"Dicksee--Burr major. Come, boys."
Mr Rebble was standing in the schoolhouse doorway, and all but Burr
major ran off. He took out his watch, and walked away importantly after
the others, while I felt a peculiar nervous thrill run through me, and
began wondering whether I had been too bold, as I went off hurriedly now
to where Lomax was waiting with the horse.
"I don't care," I said; "he may thrash me, but I won't be bullied like
that, and insulted, without a try."
"Come, young gentleman," cried the sergeant. "I began to think you were
going to shirk it."
"Not I, Lom," I cried, and, feeling peculiarly excited, I went up to the
horse's head and patted him, while the sergeant removed the stirrups.
Then he gave me a leg up, and I was hoisted into my seat, and went
through my lesson--walk, trot, and gallop, with the saddle seeming less
slippery, and without coming off once.
The sergeant, I noticed, was very severe, and barked and shouted at me
and the horse, keeping us doing the same things over and over again, and
growing more exacting as we went on. But I hardly noticed him, for my
head was all in a whirl, and I was thinking about after lessons, and
what would happen then. So occupied was I with my thoughts that I never
once felt nervous, but as if all I had to do was to sit still and let
the horse obey the orders.
Lomax finished me off with a canter round the paddock, which was taken
at a pretty good pace, and very easy the horse's pace was, but I was
thinking of Burr major's sneering face all the time, and his long arms
and bony white hands. Then about Mercer, and what he would say--what he
would do.
"Are we both to have a good thrashing?" I asked myself, as the horse
cantered on, and, "Right wheel--left wheel--forward!" rang in my ears.
"Are we to be made more uncomfortable than ever?" I thought; "and shall
we forget all about what old Lom taught us?"
My arms did not move, my left hand held the reins on a level with my
imaginary waist-belt, about which the sergeant talked, and my right hand
hung steadily down just by my leg, but all the time I was on guard, and
keenly on the watch for blows from those white bony hands that seemed to
be flourished before me. Then I fancied concussions and dizziness, and
felt blows, and rolled over upon the grass, but not off the horse, for
it was all fancy; and I was just seeing in my mind's eye poor Tom Mercer
going down before a heavy blow from Dicksee's fat fist, when there rang
out the word, "Halt!" and the horse stopped short.
Lomax strode up in his stiff military fashion, and patted the cob on the
neck.
"Well?" he said sharply. "What am I to say to you now?"
"I--I don't know," I faltered. "Shall we go through it again."
"No, no let the trooper breathe a bit. He has been kept at it pretty
tightly. Well, how do you feel--stiff?"
"No," I said, flushing a little, full of a feeling of regret for my
neglect in my lesson.
"Bit sore about the knees, eh?"
"Oh yes, my knees keep very sore," I faltered.
"Of course they do. Never so hard worked before. Soon get better. Let
me see, this makes just a month you've been at it, eh?"
"Yes, this is the end of the fourth week."
"Then don't you think I deserve a bit of credit?"
"Oh yes!" I cried eagerly. "You have taken great pains over me, Lom.
I wish I had not been so stupid."
"So do I," he said drily. "Saddle feel very slippery this morning?"
"Oh no, I didn't notice it," I replied.
"Didn't long for the stirrups?"
"I didn't think about them."
"Felt as if you belonged to the horse now, eh, and could let yourself go
with him?"
"Oh yes," I said.
"Well, then, all I've got to say, my boy, is, `Brayvo!' You went
through it all wonderfully this morning, and quite astonished me.
Seemed as if you and the horse were one, and you never showed the white
feather once. Why, in another two or three months your uncle shall be
proud of you."
"Then I went through my lesson well?" I said.
"Splendidly, boy, splendidly. Couldn't have done better. Now, trot the
nag down home. Stop, you shall have the stirrups."
"No, not to-day, Lomax," I said. "I've got an--an engagement to keep.
Please take him down yourself."
"Right. I will. Hah! we've been longer than I thought, for the boys
are coming out of school. Then down you come, and good morning."
I leaped off the horse, not feeling a bit stiff. Lomax replaced the
stirrups, mounted, and went off again in the upright, steady way I had
before admired, while I stood there listening to the shouting of the
boys, and thinking of the thrashing I was bound to receive.