I was up in good time next morning, to find that Tom Mercer was
beforehand with me, waiting in the shrubbery, and making signs now as
soon as he saw me; but I turned away, and with a disconsolate look, he
dropped down among the bushes, and crouched where he would be screened.
He disappeared at breakfast-time, but he was back there before dinner,
and for a time after, but he suddenly rushed away, and I supposed that
some of the boys were coming round to that side of the great house.
Then came another weary time of waiting, and I was beginning to think
that I should escape again, when there were steps on the stairs--the
decided, heavy steps of Mr Rebble, who always stamped when he came up
by the boys' bedrooms--to give him importance, we used to say.
It was not a meal-time, so I felt that at last I was to be taken down to
the Doctor's library. Then the door was unlocked, thrown open, and the
master said loudly, "Burr junior, the Doctor wishes to see you in his
room."
My heart began to beat heavily as I followed him down-stairs, and then
through the door on to the front staircase with its thick carpet. The
hall was reached, and Mr Rebble crossed to the library, waited till I
was on the mat, threw the door wide-open and seemed to scoop me in.
A low murmur of voices fell on my ear as the door was opened, and I knew
that I was not to see the Doctor alone, but I did not anticipate facing
such a gathering as I gazed at wildly, with my heart throbbing, my
cheeks hot, and a film coming over my eyes.
For there before me were the Doctor and his lady, Mr Hasnip, and
Mercer, Burr major, and Dicksee. I saw them at a glance, my eyes hardly
resting upon them, for there were three strangers in the room, and I
divined now why it was that I had not been fetched before.
I was to meet those who had placed me at the school; while beside my
mother and my uncle there stood the old General, gazing at me with a
very severe scowl.
For a few moments no one spoke, and I felt giddy. A mist was before my
eyes, and everything looked blurred and strange, but through it all I
could see my mother's eyes gazing yearningly at me, and she half rose
from her seat to take me to her heart, but my uncle laid his hand upon
her arm and said firmly,--
"Wait, dear. Let us know the whole business first."
And then, as my mother sank back into her seat, I saw Mrs Doctor take a
seat by her side, whisper something, and my mother took her hand.
"Now, Doctor Browne, if you please," said my uncle in his sharp, quick,
military way, "we are all attention, and want to hear the truth of this
miserable business before the boy himself."
"Certainly, Colonel Seaborough," said the Doctor rather nervously, but
he spoke firmly directly after. "I thought it my duty first to ask you
to come, as I naturally was most loth to proceed to extremities."
"Naturally, sir, naturally," said my uncle sharply. "A prisoner's
allowed a fair court-martial, eh, Rye?"
"Yes, yes, of course," said the General, and he opened a gold box and
took snuff loudly.
As soon as I could tear my eyes from my mother's, I looked across at the
three boys defiantly: at Burr major, who turned his eyes away uneasily;
at Dicksee, who was looking at me with a sneering grin upon his
countenance, a grin which faded directly into a very uncomfortable look,
and he too turned away, and whispered something to Burr major; but by
this time my eyes were fixed fiercely upon Mercer, who met my gaze with
a pitiful expression, which I read directly to mean, "Don't, pray don't
say I did it. They'd never forgive me. They will you. Pray, pray,
don't tell!"
I turned from him with a choking sensation of anger rising in my throat,
and then stood listening, as all the old business was gone through, much
as it had been up in the loft, but with this exception, that in the
midst of Burr major's statement the General gazed at him so fiercely
that my school-fellow faltered, and quite blundered through his answers.
"One moment, Doctor Browne," said the General. "Here, you, sir; you
don't like Frank Burr, do you?"
"Well, sir, I--"
"Answer my question, sir. You don't like him, do you?"
"N-no, sir."
"Thrashed you well, didn't he, for bullying?"
"I had an encounter with Burr junior, sir."
"Yes, and he thrashed you well, I know."
"I beg your pardon, Sir Hawkhurst," said the Doctor warmly. "My pupil
here, Burr major, has, I am well aware, been exceedingly tyrannical to
his schoolfellows, and when it reached my ears by a side wind that he
had been soundly thrashed by his fellow pupil here, I must own to having
been glad; but as his tutor it behoves me to say that he is a boy of
strictly honourable feelings, and I do not believe he would speak as he
has done if he did not believe the truth of all he has said."
"Humph!" said the General. "Quite right, Doctor, quite right. I'm
afraid I was unjust."
Then Dicksee, who looked green, made his statement, and before he had
done, the General thumped his stick down on the floor loudly.
"Here, Doctor: this fellow won't do at all. He's a sneak and a
miserable, malicious scoundrel. You can see it all over his face.
You're not going to take up the cudgels for him, are you?"
"I am sorry to say I cannot," replied the Doctor gravely; "and if this
sad business rested upon his word alone, I should not have acted as I
have; but, as you have heard and will hear, Sir Hawkhurst, we have
terribly strong evidence. I wish it were otherwise."
And again the weary business went on, with my mental agony increasing as
I saw my mother's eyes fixed upon me. At first imploringly, then they
seemed to be full of pain, and later on it seemed to me as if she, were
suffering from a sorrow that was too hard for her to bear.
Then she would flush up angrily, and turn a reproachful look upon my
uncle, as he questioned the boys and the masters, entered into what
seemed to be angry controversies with the Doctor, and generally went
against me all through, until I began to look at him with horror, as the
greatest enemy I had in the room.
That I was not alone in my opinion was soon evident, for I heard the
Doctor sigh, and look reproachfully at him, while twice over Sir
Hawkhurst uttered a gruff,--
"No, no, sir. Oh, come, come, Seaborough, be just."
"I am trying to be just," said my uncle sternly, after the General had
said this last again. "Recollect, sir, I stand in the position of this
boy's father. He is my dear sister's only child, and it has been my
great desire to have him brought up as a worthy successor to his brave
father,--as a soldier and a gentleman,--and because I speak firmly and
feel warmly upon the subject, you say, `Be just.'"
"Well, well," cried the General, "you have struck me several times as
being hard."
"Yes, Sir Hawkhurst," assented the Doctor; "perhaps too hard."
"Absurd, gentlemen!" cried my uncle. "I'm not the boy's mother, to
forgive him after a few tears, and tell him he must be a good boy, and
never do so again."
"Colonel Seaborough," cried Mrs Doctor reproachfully, "and pray who is
to forgive, if it is not a mother?"
"A beautiful sentiment, madam," cried my uncle; "but you forget that,
after building up my hopes on this boy's success in life, I am suddenly
summoned, not to come ready to defend him from the foul charge, but to
have it literally forced upon me that my nephew--No, I'll discard him.
If this really is true, and he is proved to be a pitiful, unmanly,
contemptible thief, I have done with him for ever."
"No, no, sir," said the Doctor. "You shall not say that. You are a
Christian, and you belie your own belief."
"Belie it or no, sir, I cannot bear this!" cried my uncle fiercely.
"Now, Frank, speak out. Did you take that contemptible toy?"
"No, uncle," I said firmly.
"Come: that's something. That's the truth or a lie. That wretched
fellow says he saw you with the watch in your hand: is that true?"
"Yes, uncle."
"That he saw you hide it in the box?"
"Yes, uncle."
"You locked it up there?"
"Yes, uncle."
"Another question: did you know whose watch it was?"
"Yes, uncle."
"And that it was stolen?"
"Yes, uncle."
"And you were not going to speak about it being in your possession?"
"No, uncle."
There was a terrible pause, and in the midst of the silence, my uncle
went on.
"One word or two more, sir. On the day the watch was missed, you
refused to play?"
"Yes, uncle."
"And you went and lay down near the tent?"
"Yes, uncle; I had been very ill."
There was another pause, followed by a low murmur among those present,
and then, in a fierce voice full of contemptuous rage, my uncle
thundered,--
"Now, sir, have you any more to say?" and my mother sank back in her
seat with a low moan.