The captain's first impulse on receiving from Silk this astounding piece
of information was to go at once to the schoolhouse and confront Gilks
with his accuser.
But his second impulse was to doubt the whole story and look upon it as
a mere fabrication got up in the vague hope of preventing him from
reporting the fight to the doctor.
It was absurd to suppose Gilks had cut the rudder-lines. Not that it
was an action of which he would be incapable. On that score the
accusation was likely enough. But then, Riddell remembered, Gilks,
though a schoolhouse boy, had all along been a strong partisan of the
Parretts' boat, and, ever since he had been turned out of his own boat,
had made no secret of his hope that Parrett's might win. He had even,
if rumours spoke truly, lost money on the race. How was it likely,
then, he would do such an absurd thing as cut the rudder-lines of the
very boat he wanted to win, and on whose success he had even made a bet?
It was much more likely that Silk had made this wild charge for the sake
of embarrassing the captain, and leading him to reconsider his
determination to report the fight.
And what followed partly confirmed this idea.
"You don't want to get both Gilks and me expelled?" said Silk, with a
half-whine very different from his late bullying tones.
"The doctor never expels fellows for fighting."
"But he will when he finds out all this other business," said Silk.
"I really can't help that," said the captain, not quite seeing how the
two offences were involved one with another.
"It's bound to come out," continued Silk, "and Gilks will bring me into
it too. I say, can't you get back the names?"
"Certainly not," said the captain.
"You were glad enough to hush it all up when you thought it was young
Wyndham had done it," said Silk.
The captain winced, and Silk was quick enough to see it.
"You profess to be fair and honest. Do you call it fair to shelter one
fellow because he's your friend, and tell about another because he
isn't? Eh, Riddell?"
It was not a bad move on Silk's part. The question thrust home, and had
he been content to leave the matter there, it might have been some time
before the captain, with his own scrupulous way of regarding things,
would have detected its fallacies. But, not for the first time, Silk
overdid it.
"Besides," said he, seeing he had made an impression, and foolishly
thinking to follow it up--"besides, young Wyndham's a long way from
being out of the wood himself yet. Of course I don't want to do it, but
I could make it rather awkward for him if I chose."
The captain fired up scornfully, but Silk did not notice it, and
continued, "You wouldn't like to see him expelled, would you? If I were
to tell all I know about him, he would be, to a certainty."
Riddell, on whom these incautious words had acted with a result wholly
different from what was intended, could scarcely contain himself to talk
coolly as he replied, "Please leave my room. I don't want you here."
Silk looked round in a startled way at the words, and his face changed
colour.
"What?" he demanded. "Please leave my room," replied the captain. "Not
till you promise to get back the names."
"I shall do nothing of the sort."
"You won't? You know the consequence?" Riddell said nothing. "I shall
tell of Wyndham," said Silk. "Please leave my room," once more said the
captain. Silk glared at him, and took a step forward as though he meant
to try one last method for extorting the promise.
But Riddell stood his ground boldly, and the spirit of the bully
faltered.
"You'll be sorry for it," snarled the latter. Riddell said nothing, but
waited patiently for him to go. Seeing that nothing more was to be
gained, and baffled on all points--even on the point where he made sure
of having his enemy, Silk turned on his heel and went, slamming the door
viciously behind him.
Riddell had rarely felt such a sense of relief as he experienced on
being thus left to himself.
The suddenness of Silk's disclosure and the strange way in which it had
been followed up had disconcerted him. But now he had time to think
calmly over the whole affair.
And two things seemed pretty clear. One was that, strange as it seemed,
there must be something in Silk's story. He could hardly have invented
it and stuck to it in the way he had for no other purpose than
embarrassing the captain; and the pressure he had applied to get Riddell
to withdraw the names before the doctor saw them, confirmed this idea.
The other point made clear was that his duty, at whatever cost, even at
the cost of young Wyndham himself, was to report the fight and make no
terms with the offenders. If the result was what Silk threatened, he
could only hope the doctor would deal leniently with the boy.
One other thing was clear too. He must see both Wyndham and Bloomfield
in the morning.
With which resolve, and not without a prayer for wisdom better than his
own to act in this crisis, he retired to bed.
Early next morning, before almost any sign of life showed itself in
Willoughby, the captain was up and dressed.
The magic that so often attends on a night's sleep had done its work on
him, and as he walked across the quadrangle that fresh summer morning
his head was clear and his mind made up.
The outer door of the schoolhouse was still unopened, and he paced
outside, as it seemed to him, for half an hour before he could get in.
He went at once to Wyndham's study, and found that young athlete
arraying himself in his cricket flannels.
"Hullo, Riddell!" cried he, as the captain entered; "have you come to
see the practice? We're going to play a scratch match with some of the
seniors. You play too, will you?"
The captain did not reply to this invitation, and his serious face
convinced Wyndham something must be wrong.
"What's up, I say?" he inquired, looking concerned.
"Nothing very pleasant," said Riddell. "You heard of the fight last
night?"
"Eh? between Silk and Gilks? Yes. I half guessed it would come to
that. They've been quarrelling a lot lately."
"I reported them, and they are to go to the doctor's after breakfast,"
said Riddell.
"They'll catch it, I expect," said Wyndham. "Paddy's sure to be down on
them because they're seniors."
"They expect to catch it. At least, Silk says so. He came to me last
night and tried to get me to withdraw the names. And when I said I
couldn't be threatened to tell about you, and get you into a row."
Wyndham's face changed colour.
"What? I say, do you think he really will?" he exclaimed.
"I think it's very likely," said the captain.
"Of course, you can't withdraw the names?" said the boy.
"I've no right to do it--no, I can't," replied the captain.
"Oh, of course. But I say, what had I better do?" faltered the boy. "I
hoped that bother was all over."
"I would advise you to go to the doctor before chapel and tell him
yourself."
The boy's face fell.
"How can I? I promised I wouldn't, and Silk wouldn't let me off when I
asked him."
"But he is going to tell of you, he says. You had much better let the
doctor hear it from you than from him."
"If only I could!" exclaimed the boy; "but how can I?"
"I don't want to persuade you to break a promise," said the captain,
"but I'm sorry for it."
"I suppose I'm sure to get expelled," said the boy, dismally; "they're
sure to make it as bad against me as they can."
Riddell reflected a little, and then said, "Perhaps it's only a threat,
and no more. At any rate, if the doctor is told he is sure to give you
a chance of telling him everything, so don't give up hope, old man."
Poor Wyndham did not look or feel very hopeful certainly as he thought
over the situation.
"Thanks for telling me about it, anyhow," said he. "I say, shall you be
there to hear what they say?"
"I don't know. I don't think so. But if you are sent for let me know,
and I'll go with you."
With this grain of comfort the captain went, leaving Wyndham anything
but disposed to show up at the cricket practice. Indeed, for a little
while he gave up all thought of going out, and it was not till a
messenger arrived to tell him he was keeping everybody waiting that he
screwed himself up to the effort and went.
Riddell meanwhile, with the other half of his mission still to execute,
went over to Parrett's. Parson was lounging about at the door, with a
towel over his arm, waiting, as any one might have guessed, for Telson.
"Has Bloomfield gone out?" asked the captain of this youthful hero.
Parson, who ever since the famous breakfast in Riddell's room had looked
upon the captain with eyes of favour, replied, "No, I don't think so,
I'll go and see if you like."
"Thanks. If he's in, tell him I want to speak to him."
"All serene. Hold my towel, do you mind? It's Bosher's, and he may try
to collar it if he sees me. And tell Telson I'll be back in a second."
And off he went, leaving the captain in charge of Bosher's towel.
He soon returned with a message that Bloomfield was getting up, and
would be out in a minute or two.
"I say," said he, after the two had waited impatiently some time, each
for his own expected schoolfellow, "did you see much of the fight last
night?"
"No," said Riddell, "I didn't see it at all."
"Oh, hard lines. I got there late, as I went to tell Telson. Gilks
used his right too much, you know. We both thought so. He keeps no
guard to speak of, and-- Hullo! where on earth have you been all this
time?"
This last exclamation was in honour of Telson, who appeared on the scene
at that moment, and with whom the speaker joyfully departed, leaving
Riddell only half informed as to the scientific defects in Gilks's style
of boxing.
In due time Bloomfield appeared, not a little curious to know the object
of this early interview.
Riddell, too, was embarrassed, for the last time they met they had
parted on anything but cordial terms. However, that had nothing to do
with his duty now.
"Good-morning," he said, in reply to Bloomfield's nod. "Do you mind
taking a turn? I want to tell you something."
Bloomfield obeyed, and that morning any one who looked out might have
witnessed the unusual spectacle of the Willoughby captains walking
together round the quadrangle in eager conversation.
"You heard of the fight?" said Riddell.
"Yes; what about it?" inquired Bloomfield.
"I've reported it. And last night Silk came to me and asked me to get
back the names."
"You won't do it, will you?" asked Bloomfield.
"No. But the reason why Silk wanted it was because he was afraid of
something else coming out. He says it was Gilks who cut the rudder-
lines."
"What! Gilks?" exclaimed Bloomfield, standing still in astonishment.
"It can't be! Gilks was one of us. He backed our boat all along!"
"That's just what I can't make out," said the captain; "and I wanted to
see what you think had better be done."
"Have you asked Gilks?" inquired Bloomfield.
"No. I thought perhaps the best thing was to wait till they had been up
to the doctor. They may let out about it to him, if there's anything in
it. If they don't, we should see what Gilks says."
"If it had been your lines that were cut," said Bloomfield, "I could
have believed it. He had a spite against all your fellows, and
especially you, since he was kicked out of the boat. But he had betted
over a sovereign on us, I know."
"I shouldn't have believed it at all," said Riddell, "if Silk hadn't
sent me an anonymous note a week or two ago. Here it is, by the way."
Bloomfield read the note.
"Did you go and see the boat-boy?" he asked.
"Yes; and all I could get out of him was that some one had got into the
boat-house that night, and scrambled out of the window just in time to
avoid being seen. But the fellow, whoever he was, dropped a knife,
which I managed to get from Tom, and which turned out to be one young
Wyndham had lost."
"Young Wyndham! Then it was true you suspected him?"
"It was true."
And then the captain told his companion the story of the complication of
misunderstandings which had led him almost to the point of denouncing
the boy as the culprit; at the end of which Bloomfield said, in a more
friendly tone than he had yet assumed, "It was a shave, certainly.
Young Wyndham ought to be grateful to you. He'd have found it not so
easy to clear himself if you'd reported him at once."
"I dare say it would have been hard," said Riddell.
"I'm rather ashamed of myself now for trying to make you do it," said
Bloomfield.
"Oh, not at all," said Riddell, dreading as he always did this sort of
talk. "But, I say, what do you think ought to be done?"
"I think we'd better wait, as you say, till they've been to Paddy. Then
if nothing has come out, you ought to see Gilks."
"I think so, but I wish you'd be there too. As captain of the clubs,
you've really more to do with it than I have."
"You're captain of the school, though," said Bloomfield, "but I'll be
there too, if you like."
"Thanks," said Riddell.
And the two walked on discussing the situation, and drifting from it
into other topics in so natural a way that it occurred to neither of
them at the time to wonder how they two, of all boys, should have so
much in common.
"I shall be awfully glad when it's all cleared up," said Riddell.
"So shall I. If it is cleared up the credit of it will belong to you, I
say."
"Not much credit in getting a fellow expelled," said Riddell.
"Anyhow, it was to your credit sticking by young Wyndham as you did."
"I was going to report him for it, though, the very day the matter was
explained."
"Well, all the more credit for making up your mind to an unpleasant duty
like that when you might have shirked it."
The bell for chapel began to ring at this point.
"There goes the bell," said Bloomfield. "I say, how should you like to
ask me to breakfast with you? I'd ask you to my room, only our fellows
would be so inquisitive."
Riddell jumped at the hint with the utmost delight, and to all the
marvels of that wonderful term was added this other, of the two
Willoughby captains breakfasting _tete-a-tete_, partaking of coffee out
of the same pot and toast cut off the same loaf.
They talked far more than they ate or drank. It was more like the talk
of two friends who had just met after a long separation, than of two
schoolfellows who had sat shoulder to shoulder in the same class-room
for weeks. Bloomfield confided all his troubles, and failures, and
disappointments, and Riddell confessed his mistakes, and
discouragements, and anxieties. And the Parrett's captain marvelled to
think how he could have gone on all this term without finding out what a
much finer fellow the captain of the school was than himself. And
Riddell reproached himself inwardly for never having made more serious
efforts to secure the friendship of this honest, kind-hearted athlete,
and gradually these secret thoughts oozed out in words.
Bloomfield, as was only natural and only right, took to himself most of
the blame, although Riddell chivalrously insisted on claiming as much as
ever he could. And when at last this wonderful meal ended, a revolution
had taken place in Willoughby which the unsuspecting school, as it
breakfasted elsewhere, little dreamed of.
"Upon my honour we _have_ been fools," said Bloomfield: "that is, I
have. But we'll astonish the fellows soon, I fancy. Do you know I've a
good mind to break bounds or have a fight with some one just to make you
give me an impot!"
"As long as you don't do anything which calls for personal
chastisement," said the captain, laughing, "I'll promise to oblige you."
"I say," said Bloomfield, as the bell for first school was beginning to
ring, "I'm glad we--that is I--have come to our senses before old
Wyndham comes down. His young brother has persuaded him to come and
umpire for the school in the Templeton match."
Riddell's face became troubled.
"I hope young Wyndham may be here himself. You know, Silk threatened
that unless I withdrew the names he would tell the doctor about that
affair of Beamish's and get Wyndham expelled to spite me."
Bloomfield laughed.
"Not he. It's all brag, depend on it. But why on earth doesn't the
young 'un go and make a clean breast to the doctor, before he gets to
know of it any other way?"
"That's just the worst of it. They made him promise he wouldn't say a
word about it to any one, and he's such an honest young beggar that even
though Silk tells of him, he won't tell of Silk."
"That's awkward," said Bloomfield, musing. "Did he tell you about it,
then?"
"No. His mouth was shut, you see. If I hadn't found out about it from
Parson and Telson, who saw the three of them coming out, I shouldn't
have known it till now."
Bloomfield's face brightened.
"Then you found it out quite independently?" asked he.
"To be sure."
"All right. Then the best thing you can do is to report him for it at
once."
"What?" exclaimed Riddell, aghast, "report him?"
"Yes. And then you can go to Paddy and tell him all about it, and
explain how he was led into it, and he's sure not to be very down on
it."
"Upon my word," said Riddell, struck with the idea, "I do believe you
are right. It's the very best thing I could do. What a donkey I was
never to think of it before."
So it was decided that young Wyndham was forthwith to be reported for
his transgression, and as the time had now arrived when all the school
but Gilks and Silk were due in class, the two captains hurried off to
their places, each feeling that he had discovered a friend; and in that
friend a hope for Willoughby, of which he had scarcely even dreamed till
now.