"HUZZA! WE'RE HOMEWARD BOUND!"
The first wet day there had been for a month. It seemed as if Mother
Nature had been saving up all her rain in a great cistern, and was then
letting it out at once.
No glorious sapphire seas and brilliant skies; no golden sunshine
pouring down on tawny sands, over which waved the long pinnate leaves of
the cocoa-nuts palms; no brilliant-coloured fish that seemed to be
waiting to be caught; no glorious life of freedom, with their boat to
enable them to glide from isle to isle, where it was always summer; but
rain, rain, rain, always rain, pouring down from a lead-black sky.
A dreary prospect, but not half so dreary as Dexter's spirits, as he
thought of what was to come.
If ever boy felt miserable, he did that next morning, for they were all
going back to Coleby. The romantic adventure was at an end, and he was
like a prisoner.
Why had he left the doctor's? What had he gained by it but misery and
wretchedness. Bob had turned out one of the most contemptible cowards
that ever stepped. He had proved to be a miserable tyrannical bully
when they were alone; and in the face of danger a wretched cur; while
now that they were caught he was ready to tell any lie to save his own
skin.
What would Helen say to him, and think of him? What would Mr Hippetts
say--and Mr Sibery?
He would be sent back to the Union of course; and one moment he found
himself wishing that he had never left the schools to be confronted with
such misery as he felt now.
They were on their way back by rail. The doctor, who had not even
looked at him, was in a first-class carriage with Sir James, and the
plans being altered, and the boat sent up to Coleby by a trustworthy
man, Bob and Dexter were returning in a second-class carriage, with
their custodians, Peter and old Dan'l.
They were the sole occupants of the carriage, and soon after starting
Bob turned to Dexter--
"I say!" he exclaimed.
Dexter started, and looked at him indignantly--so angrily, in fact, that
Bob grinned.
"Yer needn't look like that," he said. "If I forgives yer, and begins
to talk to yer, what more d'yer want!"
Dexter turned away, and looked out of the window.
"There's a sulky one!" said Bob, with a coarse laugh; and as he spoke it
was as if he were appealing to old Dan'l and Peter in turn. "He would
do it. I tried to hold him back, but he would do it, and he made me
come, and now he turns on me like that."
"You're a nice un," said Peter, staring hard at the boy.
"So are you!" said the young scamp insolently. "You mind yer own
business, and look arter him. He's got to look arter me--ain't yer,
sir!"
"Yes," said old Dan'l sourly; "and I'm going to stuff a hankychy or
something else into your mouth if you don't hold your tongue."
"Oh, are yer!" said Bob boldly. "I should just like to see yer do it."
"Then you shall if you don't keep quiet."
Bob was silent for a few minutes, and then amused himself by making a
derisive grimace at Dan'l as soon as he was looking another way.
"It was all his fault," he said sullenly. "He would take the boat."
"Ah, there was about six o' one of you, and half a dozen of the other,"
said Peter, laughing. "You'll get it, young fellow. Six weeks hard
labour, and then four years in a reformatory. That's about your dose."
"Is it?" said Bob derisively. "That's what he'll get, and serve him
right--a sneak."
Dexter's cheeks, which were very pale, began to show spots of red, but
he stared out of the window.
"I shouldn't have gone, only he was allus at me," continued Bob.
"Allus. Some chaps ain't never satisfied."
Old Dan'l filled his pipe, and began to smoke.
"You'll get enough to satisfy you," said Peter. "I say, Dan'l, you
wouldn't mind, would you?"
"Mind what?" grunted Dan'l.
"Giving me one of the noo brooms. One out o' the last dozen--the long
switchy ones. I could just cut the band, and make about three reg'lar
teasers out of one broom."
"What, birch-rods?" said Dan'l, with a sort of cast-iron knocker smile.
"Yes," said Peter.
"Mind? no, my lad, you may have two of 'em, and I should like to have
the laying of it on."
"Yah! would yer!" said Bob defiantly. "Dessay you would. I should like
to see yer."
"But you wouldn't like to feel it," said Peter. "My eye, you will open
that pretty mouth of yours! Pig-ringing'll be nothing to it."
"Won't be me," said Bob. "It'll be him, and serve him right."
Dexter's cheeks grew redder as he pictured the disgrace of a flogging
scene.
"Not it," continued Peter. "You'll get all that. Sir James'll give it
you as sure as a gun. Won't he, Dan'l!"
"Ah!" ejaculated the old gardener. "I heerd him say over and over again
that ha wouldn't lose that boat for a hundred pounds. You'll get it, my
gentleman!"
"No, I shan't, 'cause I didn't do it. He'll give it to him, and sarve
him right, leading me on to go with him, and boasting and bouncing
about, and then pretending he wanted to buy the boat, and saying he sent
me with the money."
"So I did," cried Dexter, turning sharply round; "and you stole it, and
then told lies."
"That I didn't," said Bob. "I never see no money. 'Tain't likely.
It's all a tale you made up, and--oh!"
Bob burst into a regular bellow of pain, for, as he had been speaking,
he had edged along the seat a little from his corner of the carriage, to
bring himself nearer Dexter, who occupied the opposite diagonal corner.
As Bob spoke he nodded his head, and thrust his face forward at Dexter
so temptingly, that, quick as lightning, the latter flung out his right,
and gave Bob a back-handed blow in the cheek.
"Oh! _how_!" cried Bob; and then menacingly, "Here, just you do that
again!"
Dexter's blood was up. There was a long course of bullying to avenge,
and he did that again, a good deal harder, with the result that the yell
Bob emitted rose well above the rattle of the carriage.
"Well done, young un," cried Peter delightedly. "That's right. Give it
him again. Here, Dan'l, let 'em have it out, and we'll see fair!"
"No, no, no!" growled the old gardener, stretching out one hand, and
catching Bob by the collar, so as to drag him back into his corner--a
job he had not the slightest difficulty in doing. "None o' that.
They'd be blacking one another's eyes, and there'd be a row."
"Never mind," cried Peter, with all the love of excitement of his class.
"No, no," said Dan'l. "No fighting;" and he gave Dexter a grim look of
satisfaction, which had more kindness in it than any the boy had yet
seen.
"Here, you let me get at him!" cried Bob.
"No, no, you sit still," said Dan'l, holding him back with one hand.
The task was very easy. A baby could have held Bob, in spite of the
furious show of struggling that he made, while, on the other hand, Peter
sat grinning, and was compelled to pass one arm round Dexter, and clasp
his own wrist, so as to thoroughly imprison him, and keep him back.
"Better let 'em have it out, Dan'l," he cried. "My one's ready."
"Let me go. Let me get at him," shrieked Bob.
"Yes, let him go, Dan'l," cried Peter.
But Dan'l shook his head, and as Bob kept on struggling and uttering
threats, the old man turned upon him fiercely--
"Hold your tongue, will you?" he roared. "You so much as say another
word, and I'll make you fight it put."
Bob's jaw dropped, and he stared in astonishment at the fierce face
before him, reading therein so much determination to carry the threat
into effect that he subsided sulkily in his corner, and turned away his
face, for every time he glanced at the other end of the carriage it was
to see Peter grinning at him.
"Ah!" said Peter at last; "it's a good job for us as Dan'l held you
back. You made me shiver."
Bob scowled.
"He's thoroughbred game, he is, Dan'l."
Dan'l chuckled.
"He'd be a terrible chap when his monkey was up. Oh, I am glad. He'd
ha' been sure to win."
"Let him alone," growled Dan'l, with a low chuckling noise that sounded
something like the slow turning of a weak watchman's rattle; and then
muttering something about white-livered he subsided into his corner, and
solaced himself with his pipe.
Meanwhile Peter sat opposite, talking in a low tone to Dexter, and began
to ask him questions about his adventures, listening with the greatest
eagerness to the short answers he received, till Dexter looked up at him
piteously.
"Don't talk to me, please, Peter," he said. "I want to sit and think."
"And so you shall, my lad," said the groom; and he too took out a pipe,
and smoked till they reached Coleby.
Dexter shivered as he stepped out upon the platform. It seemed to him
that the stationmaster and porters were staring at him as the boy who
ran away, and he was looking round for a way of retreat, so as to escape
what was to come, when Sir James and the doctor came up to them.
"You can let that boy go," said the doctor to Dan'l.
"Let him go, sir?" cried the gardener, looking at both the gentlemen in
turn.
Sir James nodded.
Bob, whose eyes had been rat-like in their eager peering from face to
face, whisked himself free, darted to the end of the platform, and
uttered a loud yell before he disappeared.
"Look here, Dexter," said the doctor coldly; "I have been talking to Sir
James on our way here. Now sir, will you give me your word not to try
and escape?"
Dexter looked at him for a moment or two.
"Yes, sir," he said at last, with a sigh.
"Then come with me."
"Come with you, sir?"
Dexter looked at his stained and muddy clothes.
"Yes," said the doctor; "come with me."
Sir James shrugged his shoulders slightly, and gave the doctor a meaning
look.
"Good-bye, Grayson," he said, and he shook hands.
"As for you, sir," he added sternly, as he turned to Dexter, "you and
your companion have had a very narrow escape. If it had not been for
your good friend here, matters would have gone ill with you--worse
perhaps than you think."
Dexter hung his head, and at a sign from the doctor went to his side,
and they walked out of the station with Dan'l and Peter behind.
The doctor stopped.
"You have given me your word, sir, that you will come quietly up to the
house," he said coldly.
"Yes, sir," said Dexter sadly.
The doctor, signed to Dan'l and Peter to come up to them.
"You can go on first," he said; and the men passed on.
"I don't want you to feel as if you were a prisoner, Dexter," said the
doctor gravely. "It is one of the grandest things in a gentleman--his
word--which means his word of honour."
Dexter had nothing he could say; and with a strange swelling at the
throat he walked on beside the doctor, gazing at the pavement a couple
of yards in front of him, and suffering as a sensitive boy would suffer
as he felt how degraded and dirty he looked, and how many people in the
town must know of his running away, and be gazing at him, now that he
was brought back by the doctor, who looked upon him as a thief.
Every house and shop they passed was familiar. There were several of
the tradespeople too standing at their doors ready to salute the doctor,
and Dexter's cheeks burned with shame. His punishment seemed more than
he could bear.
In another ten minutes they would be at the house, where Maria would
open the door, and give him a peculiar contemptuous look--the old look
largely intensified; and but for the doctor's words, and the promise
given, the boy felt that he must have run away down the first
side-turning they passed.
Then, as Maria faded from his mental vision, pleasant old Mrs Millett
appeared, with her hands raised, and quite a storm of reproaches ready
to be administered to him, followed, when she had finished and forgiven
him, as he knew she would forgive him, by a dose of physic, deemed by
her to be absolutely necessary after his escapade.
The house at last, and everything just as Dexter had anticipated. Maria
opened the door, and then wrinkled up her forehead and screwed up her
lips in a supercilious smile.
"Your mistress in!" said the doctor.
"Yes, sir, in the drawing-room, sir."
"Hah!" ejaculated the doctor.
"Found him, sir? _And_ brought him back!" cried a familiar voice; and
Mrs Millett hurried into the hall. "O you bold, bad boy!" she cried.
"How dare you? And you never took your medicine that night. Oh, for
shame! for shame!"
"Hush, hush, Mrs Millett!" said the doctor sternly. "That will do."
He signed to the old lady, and she left the hall, but turned to shake
her head at the returned culprit as she went, while Maria gave him a
meaning smile as soon as the doctor's back was turned, and then passed
through the baize door.
The doctor stood there silent and frowning for a few minutes, with his
eyes fixed upon the floor, while Dexter awaited his sentence, painfully
conscious, and longing for the doctor to speak and put him out of his
misery.
"Now, sir," he said at last; "you had better go in and speak to Miss
Grayson. She is waiting, I suppose, to see you in that room. I sent
word we were coming."
"No, no," said Dexter quickly. "Don't send me in there, sir. You'd
better send me back to the school, sir. I'm no good, and shall only get
into trouble again; please send me back. I shouldn't like to see Miss
Grayson now."
"Why not!" said the doctor sternly.
"Because you don't believe me, sir, and she won't, and--and--you had
better send me back."
"I am waiting to see you here, Dexter," said Helen gravely, and the boy
started away with a cry, for the drawing-room door had opened silently,
and Helen was standing on the mat.