HIBBERT FINISHES HIS STORY
"Is he in pain?" whispered Paul, as he looked down upon the still
figure, for Hibbert's face looked strangely old and worn for one so
young, and it was as white as the pillow upon which it lay.
"I don't think so, but I've noticed, Master Percival, that he always has
that troubled look when he's sleeping, just as though he had something
on his mind," answered Mrs. Trounce.
Paul's mind went swiftly back to the last time he was in that room--to
the confession Hibbert had begun and left unfinished. Was it that which
was troubling him?
"Does he sleep well?"
"Not always like he's sleeping now. Often and often I've heard him
calling you in his sleep, as I told you just now. I'm good enough for
shaking up his pillow, giving him medicine, and that sort of thing, but
I've found out that boys are strange critters to deal with. They want a
lot of knowing, Master Percival, but I know 'em, and what Master Hibbert
wants sometimes is one of his own school-fellows to talk to. That's
better than medicine. Mr. Weevil's very kind to the boy, but he don't
understand him."
"Doesn't Mr. Weevil like my seeing Hibbert?"
"Well, he hasn't exactly forbidden it, or I shouldn't have let you in;
but he thinks you excited him when you were with him on the night of the
accident. But, as I sez, Mr. Weevil don't understand boys when they're
ill. When Mr. Colville was in charge it was different. He knew boys he
did. I wish he was back again. Since he went away things have all gone
wrong."
Paul heartily echoed her wish. Garside was quite different from what it
had been when Mr. Colville was there. He had hoped day by day that
intelligence would come of his return; but the Head still remained in
the south of France, too ill to attend to his duties at the school.
Presently the eyes of Hibbert slowly opened. A glad cry came from his
lips when they rested on Paul.
"Percival, is it really you? I thought they were never going to let me
see you again. Thanks, Mrs. Trounce; it's very kind of you."
A faint tinge of colour came to the pale cheek; the look of pain had
gone from the face. The sight of Paul seemed to have put new life and
vigour into him. The matron promptly noted the change, and was very
pleased that she had taken upon herself the responsibility of admitting
Paul into the room.
"There, there; you mustn't get excited, or I shall be blamed for letting
Master Percival in to see you, and he won't come again, will you?"
"Of course I won't," answered Paul promptly.
"I'm not the least excited, only glad--glad--so glad!"
He repeated the word three times, to make sure there might be no mistake
about it, and his thin fingers closed round Paul's, as though he feared
he might slip away.
"I hope the other fellows haven't got into trouble through me?" he
asked. "Mr. Weevil would never tell me anything."
"Oh, no; they've got off very lightly, so don't worry about that.
Plunger is going about as cheeky as ever."
A faint smile flickered over the boy's face.
"Plunger's rare fun. He was really just as much terrified as I was when
Baldry and the other fellows turned up as Indians on the 'desert
island.' I can laugh at it now, though I didn't laugh much then."
He lay placidly with his hand in Paul's, then turned pleadingly to the
matron.
"Let Percival stay with me a bit. It'll do me good, and I'm sure you
want a little change."
Mrs. Trounce could see that the presence of Paul had worked wonders, so
she had no hesitation in leaving the two together, giving Paul strict
injunctions before doing so that he was to ring the bell in case she
was needed. Immediately she had gone from the room Hibbert turned
eagerly to Paul.
"I've been waiting to go on with what I was telling you when you were
last here, Percival. It has lain here--here!"--beating his breast. "It
has kept me awake at night, and--and the time seemed so terribly long
and dreary. I watched and waited for your coming, but though you came
they would never let me see you. Mr. Weevil was the only one I could
speak to, and I could not tell him what was on my mind."
"Why not? He is very kind to you."
"Why not--why not! When I've told you, you will understand."
"You must not excite yourself. You must not talk. If you do I will ring
the bell and bring back Mrs. Trounce."
"You wouldn't be so cruel, Percival, when I've been waiting so long to
see you and speak to you again. It's that kept me back, made me weary,
and weak, and sick at heart. When I lay awake at night-time I kept
saying to myself, 'If I should die without seeing Percival again,
without telling him what is on my mind, God would never forgive me.'"
"If all of us were as good as you, we should be a good deal better than
we are, and God wouldn't have to forgive much," said Paul tenderly.
"But, there, don't get excited, and I will listen."
For Paul could now see clearly enough that Hibbert had really suffered a
good deal of mental pain and torture through not being able to complete
the confession he had begun to him.
"Thanks," came the eager answer. "It will not take long, for I haven't
much more to say. Let me see, where did I leave off? Oh, I was speaking
about the man who was a spy on your father on that day Mr. Weevil
entered the room, wasn't I?"
"Yes--Israel Zuker."
"I haven't forgotten the name," said Hibbert, with a painful smile. "I'm
not likely to forget it--never, never, never! For--for it happens to be
my name."
"Hibbert!" cried Paul.
"My name. Israel Zuker, the man who spied upon your father, and whose
life he saved at the risk of his own, was my father."
Paul staggered back, as though he had been smitten in the face. Hibbert
the son of the German spy! Hibbert the son of Zuker! Impossible! He was
wandering. The story he--Paul--had once told him about his own father,
and the way he had lost him, had got on the boy's mind.
"Ah, you shrink from me! I don't wonder at it!" cried Hibbert. "Didn't I
tell you what a hypocrite I was--how wicked?"
"No, no, Hibbert," answered Paul, taking again the hand he had let fall
from him; "nothing you can say will ever make me shrink from you.
But--but you have so surprised me. I cannot understand. Let me think for
a moment--Israel Zuker your father. How can that be when your name is
Hibbert?"
"That is a false name. I told you once that I knew of a boy of that name
in Germany. I was speaking of myself, for I spent three years of my life
at a school in Heidelberg before I came here."
"Then the man I saw this afternoon--the man who thanked me for saving
the life of his son, was----"
"Israel Zuker, my father--the man whose life your father saved, as you,
his son, have saved mine. Now can you understand what I have suffered,
Percival, by having this terrible secret on my mind? When I heard your
story that day you don't know what I felt--what a mean, contemptible
cad. I felt that I was a spy on you, just as my father had been a spy on
your father--a spy on you, who had been so good to me. Oh, it was
terrible! And then you saved my life, just as your father had saved my
father's years ago. And that was heaping coals of fire on my head. I
couldn't endure it."
He covered his face with his hands. He was choking back the sobs that
seemed of a sudden to convulse his frame.
"I shall really have to ring the bell and send for Mrs. Trounce," said
Paul firmly.
The threat had its desired effect. Hibbert uncovered his face; the sobs
died away in his throat. Then Paul put an arm round him, as he might
have done round a brother, and said, in a softer key:
"Look here, Hibbert--what your father may have done is no fault of
yours. God only judges us by what we do ourselves; and that's all I want
to judge you by. You've looked upon me as your friend; I want you to
look upon me as your friend still. Haven't I said that nothing you can
say will make me shrink from you?"
"How good, how noble you are, Percival!"
"Humbug! But listen to me--we're getting a little off the track. The
gentleman I was introduced to in the visitors' room this afternoon was
your father, Israel Zuker, you say?"
"Yes."
"Wearing a false beard, then?"
"Yes. But how did you know that? Have you met him before?" asked the boy
wonderingly.
Paul now understood what it was in the voice of the visitor that had
seemed familiar to him.
"I met somebody of that name during last vacation, so I suppose it must
have been the same," he answered, with pretended indifference; "but he
wasn't wearing a beard. It's a good disguise. What's he afraid of?"
"Well, he's obliged to. I'm telling you this as a secret, and I know I
can trust you not to repeat it. My father's an agent of one of the
foreign Governments, and he's obliged to put on a disguise sometimes to
get information."
"But what information does he want to get that makes him wear
disguises?"
"I never could quite make out, but I know it's to do with secret
service. He once told me that every Government has secret service.
That's all I ever knew."
He seemed to have an uneasy suspicion that his father's profession was
not a very honourable one, for his head sunk to his breast.
"Is your father a friend of the master's--Mr. Weevil, I mean?"
"Well, yes--more than a friend; but it's another secret I don't want to
get about the school. Mr. Weevil would be very angry if it did, so you
must promise me not to repeat it."
And Paul, scarcely knowing all his promise meant, promised him. Then the
boy leant very close to him and whispered: "Mr. Weevil's my uncle."
This information was almost as startling and unexpected as the
information that had preceded it. As it fell from Hibbert's lips, Paul
almost feared that the door would open and Mr. Weevil would walk in,
just as he had walked in before.
"Your uncle!" he repeated.
"Well, it's this way, you see. My mother was English. She was the only
sister of Mr. Weevil. I know he was very fond of her, for I've heard
mother say that he was a good brother, and that she was the only one for
whom he had a greater love than he had for science. My father first met
her when he used to give lessons in German and French--he knows three or
four languages--at the school where Mr. Weevil was master before he came
here. I think my father was then what they call a refugee. My mother
died three years ago; then I went to Heidelberg again, and last of all I
came here. You remember the day--at the opening of the term."
Remember the day! Paul was never likely to forget it. He remembered
every incident in connection with it--Hibbert coming to him in the
grounds, the insult put upon him by Newall, and the other incidents that
followed.
"I remember," he said gravely.
The door opened as he spoke, and Mrs. Trounce entered.
"What, sitting up!" she cried, for Hibbert was still sitting, with the
arm of Paul gently supporting him.
"Yes; I feel so much stronger and better," he answered brightly.
"I'm glad to hear it, but I think you'd better lie down now. If Mr.
Weevil came in now he would have a fit."
Paul thought it highly probable such a catastrophe would happen if the
master had any suspicion of what Hibbert had told him. So he gently laid
the patient down again.
"You'll come again, Percival?" he pleaded.
And Paul promised.