HIBBERT ASKS STRANGE QUESTIONS
The message brought back the minds of the boys with painful abruptness
to the struggle of a far different kind which was taking place in the
sick-room. In the loss of the school flag they had forgotten, for the
time being, the crisis through which Hibbert was passing. It was no time
for cheering; it was a time of sadness--Paul, at least, felt so as he
obeyed the message, and made his way to the sick-room.
"Percival," came in a low, faint voice, as he entered.
The face of the sick boy turned to him. Pale at all times, it now seemed
bloodless, as white as the pillow upon which it rested. It seemed, too,
to have shrunk, while the eyes had grown larger, and shone with a light
which Paul had never seen in them before.
"You were the first one he asked for when he came to his senses," said
Mrs. Trounce, as Paul stepped softly to the bedside. "I think he's a bit
better now; aren't you?"
"Much better, thank you," said the boy, with a painful attempt to smile
at her. Then the bright eyes went again to Paul's face and rested there.
"I'm glad to hear that, Hibbert," said Paul, taking the thin hand in
his. "You must make up your mind to get off that bed as soon as
possible, mustn't he, Mrs. Trounce?"
"Just what I tell him," said the matron, cheerfully, for she knew the
value of cheerfulness on the spirits of a patient. "If he makes up his
mind to it, he'll soon be about again."
"It's astonishing what we can do when we set our teeth hard, and go for
a thing," continued Paul, adopting her cheerful tone and manner.
"That's what you did when you came to me and saved my life. Oh,
Percival, it was terrible!"
And the thin hand went to the eyes with a gesture of pain.
"Terrible! Hooking you out of that river? That's what I call beastly
ingratitude. I think it's one of the best things I ever did in my life."
"No, no," cried the boy quickly; "don't think me ungrateful. I couldn't
bear that. You don't think me ungrateful?"
"Of course not. It's only my stupid way of putting things. All you've
got to do now is to forget about the river, and everything connected
with it. You're now on dry land--in a nice, warm, comfortable bed, where
you needn't trouble about anything except getting well again."
"Are the other fellows all right--Plunger and Moncrief, I mean?"
"Right? Rather! Going stronger than ever, especially Plunger."
"I'm glad of that. And--and the savages. Who were they?" asked Hibbert,
with a shudder.
"Can't you guess?" smiled Paul. "Nobody very dreadful. Three or four of
the fellows of your Form--Bember, Baldry, Sedgefield, Viner."
"I might have guessed it; but then I'm not like other boys. I'm such a
coward--coward. I've fought against it so hard, but I can't get over it.
I've tried to be brave--as brave as you are----"
"Hush! Don't talk of bravery. You're forgetting the sand-pit. Don't put
me on stilts, for I could never walk in them. We're just what God makes
of us. There are plenty of thorns and thistles about, heaps of 'em; but
not many sensitive plants. That's what you are Hibbert--a beautiful,
sensitive plant."
"Ah, you don't know what I am. If only I could tell you--if only I could
tell you. You would hate me--hate me. Yes, Percival--hate me. You can
call me a beautiful, sensitive plant, while all the time I'm a beastly
hypocrite. Oh, why didn't you let me die--why didn't you let me go down
in the river? Why did you save me?"
He spoke with a sudden outburst of energy, raising himself, in his
feverish excitement on his elbow.
"Come, come! Master Percival will have to leave you, if you take on that
way," said the matron.
"Yes, I think I'd better go now and come again to-morrow," said Paul,
alarmed at this sudden outburst, which he took to be a slight touch of
delirium.
"Don't leave me, Percival--don't leave me just yet!" pleaded the boy.
"I--I was forgetting myself. I'll be quieter if you'll stay with me a
little longer."
The thin fingers slipped into Paul's hand again, and clung to it
tightly.
"I'll stay with you a little longer, if you'll just do what I tell you."
"Yes, yes. What?"
"Just close your eyes and try to sleep."
Hibbert obeyed him implicitly. He closed his eyes, as though to sleep,
but still held fast to Paul's hand. In a few moments the pressure
relaxed, and he seemed to be really sleeping.
"I'll watch over him for a bit, if you like," whispered Paul to the
matron.
Mrs. Trounce looked at her patient. He seemed tranquil enough now, and
as she had other duties to attend to, she gladly availed herself of
Paul's offer.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," she whispered as she went out.
She hadn't been gone more than ten minutes before Hibbert's eyes opened
again.
"Still here, Percival? It's very kind of you." Then, looking round:
"Where's matron?"
"Gone out for a bit. I've promised to look after you. Do you want
anything?"
"No--except you. Matron's really gone?"--looking round again.
"What a suspicious chap you're getting!" smiled Paul. "Do you think
she's hiding somewhere?"
"I'm glad she's gone, Percival, because I wanted to speak to
you--alone."
"But you promised to sleep."
"Well, I've kept my promise. I've had quite a long doze."
"Very long--ten minutes."
"I can't sleep longer till I've said what I've got to say. Doesn't it
say somewhere in the Bible that we ought to confess our sins?"
Paul could now see clearly enough that there was something troubling
Hibbert, and that it would only increase the trouble if he were to
refuse to answer him. So he answered:
"Of course it does. Let me see--you must know the words as well as I
do--'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.'"
"Yes, those are the words I was trying to think of. I remember them
quite well now. The water from the river seems to have got into my
brain, and things aren't quite so clear to me now as they used to be,
you see."
"That will come all right presently, and things will be quite as clear
to you as ever they were. But you mustn't worry, or else they won't."
"I can't help it; but I shan't worry so much when what is on my mind is
off it."
"Shall I send for Mr. Weevil?"
"No, no," answered the boy quickly; "it's you I want to speak to. Don't
leave me."
Paul did not move. He kept his place beside the bed, though he had no
wish to hear any confession. He guessed what it was. Some boyish freak
or escapade, magnified into undue proportion by the sensitive boy now
that he was so weak.
"I won't leave you, but if you've got anything to say, I'm not the
fellow to say it to. There's One can do you a great deal more good than
I can, Hibbert. Just confess to Him when you say your prayers to-night.
He'll help you a lot more than I can."
"Supposing I have done that, Percival. Supposing I did it when I closed
my eyes a little while ago; and supposing even then a voice seemed
whispering in my ear, 'If you want peace, if you want to meet your
mother in heaven, act the hypocrite no longer. Speak to Percival.' What
then?"
"Then I should say use your own judgment. Do what seems best."
Hibbert closed his eyes for a moment, as though he were trying to decide
within himself what was best. At length he opened them again.
"Do you remember that afternoon when I came to you in the writing-room
and told you Mr. Travers wished to speak to you?"
"Quite well. Nearly all the fellows had deserted me but you. I was
wretched."
"You looked it. You gave me a letter to post. Do you remember that?"
"Yes," answered Paul shortly. He remembered it but too well. It was the
letter he had written to Mr. Moncrief, to which that gentleman had not
deigned to answer.
"When I came back to you in the writing-room you were tracing names on
the blotting-pad. I caught sight of one--Zuker. You noticed that I was
surprised at seeing it, and asked me if I knew anybody of that name. I
told you that I did. That I once knew a boy of that name when I was at
school in Germany. And then you told me something I'm never likely to
forget--never likely to forget to my dying hour. You may think it
strange, but the words came suddenly to my ears when I fell off the raft
into the river."
"Indeed! What was it I told you?"
"You told me that it was through a man of the name of Zuker that your
father lost his life."
"Yes, that's true enough. So it was--Israel Zuker. What about it?"
"What about it!" Hibbert made a painful effort to laugh. "Why,
Percival----"
He stopped abruptly, as the door suddenly opened, and Mr. Weevil
entered.
"What, Percival! You here?" exclaimed the master. "Where is Mrs.
Trounce?"
"Hibbert wanted me to sit by him, and I'm taking her place for a short
time. She'll be back presently, sir."
"Are you feeling better?" asked the master, as he turned from Paul to
the patient.
"Oh, yes, much better. It's done me good to have Percival here."
"I'm glad to hear it."
Mr. Weevil's hand went gently, lovingly over the boy's brow, and he
watched him anxiously through his half-closed eyes. Paul recalled the
master's grief when he first saw the boy after the accident, and other
little traits of kindness--traits which had shown him that Mr. Weevil
was not altogether the stern, harsh man he had one time thought him.
None the less, he was sorry that he had entered the room at that moment.
Hibbert had awakened his curiosity. What was it that was weighing on his
mind? What had he to tell him about the man Zuker? He wished Mr. Weevil
had kept from the room a bit longer.
Paul waited, hoping that he would go out. But the master did not move
from the position he had taken up at the bedside, and his hand continued
to move caressingly over the boy's forehead. After a minute or two's
silence he turned to Paul.
"You've had your fair spell of watching, Percival. I'll take your place
till Mrs. Trounce returns. Hibbert looks very flushed and feverish. I'm
afraid he's been speaking too much."
What could Paul say? He had no alternative but to obey. Hibbert's eyes
followed him as he went out.
"What was it he had to tell me, I wonder?" Paul asked himself, as he
passed along the corridor.
It was a long time before he slept that night. His mind kept travelling
back over the many events of a singularly eventful day. And when he at
last dozed off to sleep, he could hear the voice of Hibbert sounding a
long way off.
"Oh, why didn't you let me die? Why didn't you let me go down in the
river? Why did you save me? Don't leave me, Percival--don't leave me.
I'll be quieter if you stay with me a little longer."
Then the voice died away and all was blank.