"Then now we will adjourn--to the loft." I made a gesture as if to
speak, but the Doctor raised his hand.
"After a while, Burr," he said, "after a while. Your turn will come."
I felt in a whirl of emotion, for I was half stunned at the turn matters
had taken, and I tried again to catch Mercer's eye, but he did not even
glance at me, but stood opening and shutting his hands as he glared at
Dicksee, who looked horribly alarmed, and as if he would like to run
away.
The Doctor signed to us to go, and we were taken through the house and
servants' offices, so as not to attract the attention of the boys,
reaching the yard at last, and entering the stable.
My ears seemed to have bells ringing in them as we stood there, and I
heard the Doctor say,--
"Rather an awkward place for me to get up, Mr Rebble; but I suppose I
must try."
He made the effort after we had all gone before, and reached the top no
worse off than by the addition of a little dust upon his glossy black
coat. Then, clearing his voice, as we all stood near the bin, in much
the same positions as in the library, he began,--
"Ah, that is the straw, I suppose. Burr junior and Mercer have used
this place a good deal, I believe, as a kind of atelier or workshop?"
"Yes, sir," said Burr major promptly.
"Then that is the bin, is it, Dicksee?"
"Yes, sir."
"And you say you saw Burr junior lock it up. Have you the key, Burr?"
I stood gazing at him wildly without answering, and then I glanced at
Mercer, who met my eye with a look of terror and misery that was piteous
to see. For now it was all to come out, and the theft would be brought
home to him, for the poor lad to be expelled in disgrace and go home
despairingly to those who loved him, and all because he could not
restrain that horrible feeling of covetousness.
"I said, `Have you the key, Burr junior?'" continued the Doctor more
sternly, and I shuddered as the thought struck me now that I was
becoming mixed up with the trouble, that they would not believe me if I
told the truth--that truth which would be so difficult to tell for
Mercer's sake.
"Burr junior," cried the Doctor very sharply now, "have you the key of
that padlock?"
"Yes; sir," I faltered, giving quite a start now, as his words roused me
as from a dream, and I felt horrified as I fully saw how guilty all this
made me appear.
"Take the key, Mr Rebble, if you please," continued the Doctor, looking
more and more pained, as I withdrew the rusty little instrument from my
pocket. "Open the bin, please, and see if Dicksee's statement is made
out."
Mr Hasnip was, I found, looking at me, and I felt a choking sensation
as he shook his head at me sadly.
Then I glanced at Mercer, and found he was looking at me in a horrified
way, and I let my eyes drop as I said to myself,--
"Poor fellow! I shall not have to speak; he'll confess it all. I wish
I could save him."
And all the while the usher was unlocking the padlock, taking it from
the staple, and throwing open the great lid back against the whitewashed
wall, every click and grate of the iron and the creak of the old hinges
sounding clear and loud amidst the painful silence.
"Will you come and look, sir?" said Mr Rebble.
"No," said the Doctor sternly. "Is there a rabbit-skin there, as this
boy described?"
"Yes, sir."
"Take it out."
Mr Rebble obeyed, and once more I met Mercer's eyes gazing at me
wildly, and, as I interpreted the look, imploring me not to speak.
The miserable stuffed distortion was brought out, and I felt half
disposed to laugh at it, as I thought of my school-fellow's queer ideas
for a group in natural history. But that was only a flying thought,
succeeded by a mental pang that was most keen, as the rabbit was laid on
the floor, and, acting on the Doctor's instructions, Mr Rebble went
down on one knee, held the stuffed animal with one hand, and began to
draw out the tow with the other.
A great patch came out, and Mr Rebble pressed it together and then
opened it out, and I fancied I heard the Doctor sigh with satisfaction
at nothing being found.
"It's further in, sir," cried Dicksee eagerly.
"Ah! you seem to know a great deal about it, Dicksee," said the Doctor.
"Yes, sir; I saw him put it in."
Mr Rebble thrust in his hand again, and my spirits sank lower as he
drew out another tuft of tow, compressed it, and then, frowning heavily,
began to tear it open.
"There is nothing there, then, Mr Rebble?" cried the Doctor eagerly.
"I am sorry to say, sir, there is," said the usher, as he laid open the
tow till it was like a nest, with the little silver watch lying
glistening in the middle; and the Doctor drew a long breath, his
forehead now full of deeply-cut lines.
"Burr major," said the Doctor huskily. "Have the goodness to look at
that watch. Is it yours?"
My school-fellow stepped to the Doctor's side and looked.
"Yes, sir," he said eagerly. "That's the watch I lost."
"How do you know, sir?"
"My father had my initials cut in the little round spot on the case,
sir. There they are."
The Doctor took the watch, glanced at the letters, and laid it down.
"Yes," he said sadly, "that is quite right.--Mercer!" Tom started as if
he had received a blow, and looked wildly from one to the other.
"Come here."
"Oh, poor, poor Tom!" I sighed to myself, and I looked at him
pityingly, while he glanced at me.
"Hah!" ejaculated the Doctor; "there seems to be some understanding
between you. Now, sir, that bin has been used by you for some time, has
it not, for your collection?"
"Yes, sir," faltered Mercer.
"You and Burr junior have, I noticed, always been companions."
"Yes, sir."
"He joined you in collecting natural history objects?"
"Yes, sir; a little."
"Could he obtain access to that bin when he wished? Had he a key?"
"He could always get the key, sir, when he liked." The Doctor sighed,
and there was silence once more, while I glanced at Mercer wildly, and
if he could have read my eyes, he would have known that they said,
"Speak out now. Confess, and ask the Doctor to forgive you for giving
way to this terrible piece of covetousness."
"Now," said the Doctor, and we both started at the firm, sonorous tones,
"speak out frankly, sir. This is no time for trying to conceal the
truth so as to screen your friend, for I tell you that it would be an
unkind act, and you would be injuring his future by such a mistaken
policy. Tell me, did you know that the watch was hidden there?"
Mercer was silent.
"Speak, sir," cried the Doctor. "I insist!"
"No, sir," faltered Mercer, after another appealing look at me; and in
my agony, as I heard his words, I started forward.
"Burr junior!" roared the Doctor; and I stopped as if fascinated.
"Now, Mercer," he continued, "tell me. Did you know that your
school-fellow had that watch in his possession?"
"Oh no, sir!" cried Mercer eagerly. "I'm sure he hadn't."
"Humph!" ejaculated the Doctor. "That will do.--I wish, gentlemen," he
continued, turning to the two masters, "to make this painful business as
short as possible."
I turned to him quickly, and as I met his eyes, I thought at first that
he was looking at me sadly and pityingly, but his face was very stern
next moment.
"You are sure, Thomas Mercer," he said, "that you did not know the watch
was in that bin--hidden away?"
Tom looked at me again wildly, and then, with his brow all wrinkled up,
he said in a hopeless tone full of sadness,--
"No, sir--no, sir; I didn't know it was there."
My hands clenched, and a burst of rage made me turn giddy for the
moment. For I felt as if I could have dashed at him, dragged him to his
knees, and made him speak the truth.
But that passed off as quickly as it came, and a feeling of pity came
for the boy who, in his horror of detection, had felt himself bound to
save himself at another's expense, and I found myself wondering whether
under the circumstances I should not have done the same.
These thoughts darted through my mind like lightning, and so did those
which followed.
"I want to save him," I said to myself, in the midst of the painful
silence during which the Doctor stood thinking and softly wiping his
forehead and then the palms of his hands upon his white pocket
handkerchief; "but I can't take the credit of it all. It is too
horrible. But if I tell all I know, he will be expelled, and it will
ruin him. Oh, why don't he confess?--why don't he confess?"
It was as if the Doctor had heard these last words as I thought them,
for he said now in a deep, grave voice, as he turned to me, just as I
was feeling that it would be too cruel to denounce my companion,--
"This is a sad--a painful affair, Burr junior. I wanted to disbelieve
in your guilt, I wanted to feel that there was no young gentleman in my
establishment who could stoop to such a piece of base pilfering; but the
truth is so circumstantially brought home through the despicable
meanness of a boy of whose actions I feel the utmost abhorrence, that I
am bound to say to you that there is nothing left but for you to own
frankly that you have been led into temptation--to say that you bitterly
repent of what you have done, and throw yourself upon my mercy. Do this
at once, boy, for the sake of those at home who love you."
I felt my face twitch at these words and the picture they evoked, and
then, numbed as it were, I stood listening, slightly buoyed up by the
feeling that Mercer would speak directly and clear me.
"You were entrusted to my care, Burr junior," continued the Doctor, "as
a youth who was in future to enter upon one of the most honourable of
careers, that of a soldier; but now that you have disgraced yourself
like this--"
"No, no, sir!" I cried. "Don't--pray don't think I took the wretched
watch!"
There was so much passionate agony in my voice that the Doctor paused
for a few moments, before, in the midst of the solemn silence which
ensued, he said coldly,--
"Do you deny that you took the watch?"
"Yes, yes. Indeed, indeed I did not take it, sir!" The Doctor sighed.
"Do you deny that you were seen by Dicksee this morning with the watch
in your hands?"
"No, sir; that is true," I said, with a look at Mercer, who hung down
his head.
"Then I am bound by the statements that have been made, painful as it is
to me, to consider that in a moment of weak impulse you did this base
thing. If I am wrong, Heaven forgive me, for _humanum est errare_. The
truth, however, seems too clear."
"I--I found it there," I panted.
The Doctor shook his head.
"It is like charging your school-fellow with stealing the watch. Do you
do this?"