Riddell had not been many minutes in class before a message came from
the doctor summoning him to the library.
On his arrival there he found, to his surprise, Silk standing alone in
the middle of the room, while the doctor was quietly writing at his
table.
"Riddell," said the doctor, as the captain entered, "you reported two
boys to me. Only one is here."
"I told Gilks he was to be here at nine o'clock, sir," said the captain.
"You had better go and see why he is not here."
Riddell obeyed, and found on inquiry at the schoolhouse that Gilks was
on the sick-list, and had obtained leave from the matron to remain in
bed till after dinner.
The captain had his private doubts as to the seriousness of the
invalid's case, especially as, of the two, he was the less damaged in
yesterday's fight. However, he had no right to question the matron's
decision, and returned accordingly to report the matter to the doctor.
"Humph!" said the doctor, who also evidently considered it a curious
coincidence that Gilks should be taken unwell the very morning when his
presence was required in the library; "he had better have come. You say
he is to be up after dinner?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then let him know he is to come here at four o'clock, and you, Silk,
come too at that hour."
Silk, who had evidently screwed himself up for the present interview,
looked disappointed.
"I should like just to say, sir--" began he, with a glance at Riddell.
But the doctor interrupted.
"Not now, Silk. Go to your class now, and come here at four o'clock."
"But it's not about--"
"Do you hear me, sir?" said the doctor, sternly.
Silk went.
The captain was about to follow his example, when it occurred to him he
might not have so favourable an opportunity again that day for acting on
Bloomfield's advice respecting Wyndham.
"Can you spare a few minutes, sir?" said he, turning back.
"Yes, what is it?" said the doctor.
"It's about young Wyndham, sir."
"Ah! Nothing wrong, I hope. He has seemed a good deal steadier than he
was, of late."
"So he is, sir. But this is about something he did some time ago."
The doctor settled himself judicially in his chair, and waited for the
captain's report.
"He got into bad company early in the term, sir, and was tempted down
into the town without leave, and once let himself be taken to Beamish's
Aquarium."
The doctor gave a grunt of displeasure, which sounded rather ominous.
"How long ago was this?"
"A few days before the boat-race, sir. It has been weighing on his mind
ever since."
"Did he tell you of it?" asked the doctor.
"No, I found it out accidentally. When I spoke to him about it he
admitted it and seemed very sorry."
"And why did he not come to me himself at once?"
"That's just it, sir," said the captain. "I advised him to do it, and
he told me he had promised the--the companions with whom he went never
to mention the matter to anybody, and this prevented his coming. He
even went to them, and begged them to let him off the promise so that he
might come and confess to you, but he did not succeed."
"Did he ask you, then, to come and tell me?"
"No, sir. But he is in constant dread of your hearing about it from any
one else, so that I thought it would be the best thing to tell you of it
myself."
The doctor nodded his head.
"He does not know, of course, of your doing this?"
"Oh no, sir."
"And who were the companions who you say took him to this place?"
Riddell coloured up and felt very uncomfortable.
"Do you mind me not telling you, sir?" he said. "Wyndham only wanted
you to know about his part in it. I'll tell you if you wish," added he,
"but I'd rather not if you do not mind."
"You need not do so at present," said the doctor, greatly to the
captain's relief, "but you had better send Wyndham to me."
"Yes, sir," said Riddell, turning to go, but lingering for one final
word. "I hope, sir--you--that is, if you can--you will take a lenient
view of it. Young Wyndham's very steady now."
"I must see Wyndham before I can decide," said the doctor, "but you have
acted rightly in the matter--quite rightly."
The captain went to find Wyndham, hoping for the best, but decidedly
anxious.
That young gentleman was engaged in the agonies of Euclid when the
school messenger entered, and announced that the doctor wanted to see
him at once. His face fell, and his heart beat fast as he heard the
summons. It needed not much effort to guess what it all meant. Gilks
and Silk had of course been up before the doctor, and the latter had
carried out the threat of which Riddell had told him; and now he was
summoned to hear his fate!
At the schoolhouse door he found Riddell waiting for him.
"Oh, Riddell, I say!" exclaimed he, in tones of misery, "I've to go to
the doctor at once. Silk has told about me. I say, do come with me."
"Silk hasn't told about you at all," said the captain; "I've reported
you myself."
"You!" cried Wyndham, in tones of mingled amazement and reproach; "oh,
why?"
"Wouldn't you sooner have had me do it than Silk?" asked Riddell.
The boy saw his meaning at once, and as usual flew from one extreme to
the other.
"Oh, of course! What a brute I was not to see it. Thanks awfully, old
man. What awful grief I should have come to if it hadn't been for you!"
"I don't know at all what view the doctor takes of the matter," said the
captain, gravely; "you had better not expect too much."
Wyndham groaned.
"If only I'm not expelled!" said he. "I suppose you can't come too?"
"No. The doctor wants to see you alone, I think."
"Well, here goes. By the way, of course, you didn't mention the other
fellows' names?" he added.
The manner in which he said this made Riddell feel doubly glad that the
doctor had not insisted on his telling.
"No--I didn't," he said.
And off went Wyndham, dismally, to the doctor's study.
It was an anxious morning for the captain. Wyndham had not returned
before first school was over, and Riddell felt he could not rest till he
knew his fate.
He told Bloomfield of his morning's proceedings, but even this new
friend's encouragement failed to shake off the suspense that weighed
upon him.
Presently when he could wait patiently no longer, it occurred to him
Wyndham might possibly have gone back to his study unobserved, and be
waiting there for him. So he went across to the schoolhouse to find
out.
But nearly all the studies in the schoolhouse, Wyndham's included, were
empty, as they almost always were at this hour of the day during summer;
and the captain was about to return, more uncomfortable than ever, to
the Big, when a door at the end of the passage opened, and some one
called his name.
It was Gilks, who, as he was dressed, had evidently recovered from his
indisposition earlier than was expected.
He beckoned as the captain looked round; and Riddell, inwardly wondering
when his work as a police-officer would cease, and he would be able to
retire again into private life, turned and entered his study.
Gilks shut the door carefully behind him. He had a haggard look about
him which may have been the result of his ailment, or may have been
caused by mental trouble, but which certainly was not the expression to
which the captain had been used.
"I'm to go to the doctor at four?" he asked.
"Yes. He put it off, as you were reported on the sick-list."
"Of course he thinks I was shamming?"
"I don't know."
"I was--and I wasn't. I couldn't make out what to do, that was it, so I
stayed in bed. Was Silk there?"
"Yes."
"Did he say anything?"
"No; the doctor told him to come again at four."
Gilks took one or two uncomfortable turns up and down the room, and then
said, "I may as well tell you, it's no use keeping it back any longer,
for it's sure to come out. I was the fellow who cut the rudder-line.
Did you know that?"
"I had heard it."
"Who told you--Silk?"
"Yes."
"I thought so. I knew he would. And he'll tell Paddy this afternoon.
I don't care if he does."
"I scarcely believed it when he said so," said Riddell.
"Eh? I suppose you thought it was rather too low even for me. So it
would have been once," he said, bitterly.
"But you backed the Parrett's boat all along," said Riddell. "Oh, that.
If that's all that puzzled you it's easily explained. Perhaps if you
were doing a thing like that in the dark, expecting to be caught out
every moment, you might make a mistake too."
"Then you meant to cut _our_ lines?" asked the captain, seeing the whole
mystery explained at last.
"Of course I did; and so I should have done if the rudders hadn't been
shifted, and Parrett's put into the schoolhouse boat." He took a few
more turns, and then continued, "You may fancy what a pleasant state of
mind I've been in since. I daresay you'll be glad to hear I've been
miserable day and night."
"I'm very sorry for you," said Riddell, so sympathetically that the
unhappy boy started.
"You wouldn't be if you knew it was all to spite you. I was as bad as
Silk in that, though it was his idea about cutting the lines. The
accident turned out well for us in one way--nobody suspected either of
us. But Silk has led me the life of a dog ever since. I've not known
what minute it might all come out. He was always holding it over my
head, and I had to do anything he told me. I can tell you I've thought
of bolting more than once, or telling Paddy."
"It must have been a dreadful time for you," said Riddell. "So it was.
But I'm glad it's all over now. I shall be glad to be expelled. I've
been ashamed to look any one in the face for weeks. I used to be happy
enough before I knew Silk, but I don't expect ever to be happy again
now."
There was a tremble in his voice as he said this, which went to the
captain's heart.
"I hope it's not so bad as that," said he, quietly. "Everybody here
hates me, and they'll hate me all the more now," said Gilks. "You and
young Wyndham are the only fellows that have been good to me, and I've
done both of you nothing but mischief."
"I think," said Riddell, "the fellows will soon forgive. They would, I
know, if they guessed how you have suffered already."
"You are right. I have suffered," said Gilks. Another long pause
followed, during which the minds of both were full.
The one sensation in the captain's heart was pity. He forgot all about
the crime in commiseration of the wretchedness of the criminal. Yet he
knew it was useless to hold out any hope of a reprieve, even if that had
been to be desired. All he could do was to let the poor fellow know at
least that he was not friendless; and this sign of sympathy Gilks
gratefully appreciated.
"I don't know why you should trouble yourself about me," he said, after
some further talk. "You owe me less than anybody. I've been nothing
less than a brute to you."
"Oh, no," said Riddell; "but, do you know, I think it would be well to
go to the doctor at once?"
"I mean to go at once. Do you think he'll let me go off this afternoon,
I say? I wouldn't dare to face the fellows. I've got most of my things
packed up."
"I expect he would. But you stay till the morning. You can have my
study. It's quieter than this."
Perhaps no more hospitable invitation had been issued in Willoughby, and
Gilks knew it. And it was too welcome not to be accepted gratefully.
The captain soon afterwards departed, leaving the penitent behind him,
subdued and softened, not by any sermon or moral lecture, which at such
a time Riddell felt would be only out of place, but by sheer force of
kindness--that virtue which costs so little, yet achieves so much.
In this new excitement the captain had for the moment forgotten young
Wyndham, but he was soon reminded of that afflicted youth's existence on
reaching the Big.
He was there, waiting impatiently. A glance sufficed to show that at
any rate the worst had not happened, but Wyndham's face was such a
mixture of relief and woe that the captain felt some misgivings as he
inquired eagerly what was the news.
"He was frightfully kind," said Wyndham, "and talked to me like a
father. I never felt so ashamed of myself. I'm certain it's what you
said made him let me off so easy--that is, so what he means for easy.
He said nothing about expelling, even when I couldn't tell him the names
of those two fellows. But he's gated me till the end of the term! I
may only go out for the half-hour after first school, and half an hour
after half-past five. And you know what that means," he added, with a
groan.
"What?" asked Riddell, too rejoiced that his friend was safe to be over-
curious as to the exact consequence of his sentence.
"Why!" exclaimed Wyndham, "it's all up with the second-eleven!"
It was a blow undoubtedly--perhaps the next hardest blow to expulsion--
but so much less hard that not even the boy himself could for long
regard it as a crushing infliction.
He had had his lesson, and after the suspense of the last few weeks he
was ready to expiate his transgression manfully, if sorrowfully.
"Anyhow," said he, after pouring out all his disappointment into the
captain's sympathetic ear, "it's not as bad as being sent off home. And
if it hadn't been for you that's what might have happened. I say, and
think of my brother coming down to umpire, too! What a fool I shall
look! Never mind; it can't be helped. I'm sure to get into the eleven
next season. I say, by the way, I've no right to be standing out here.
I shall have to go in."
And so ended the story of young Wyndham's transgressions.
Riddell had to officiate at yet one more investigation that eventful
day.
Scarcely had Wyndham disappeared when a message reached him that the
doctor wished to see him again.
With no doubt this time as to the purport of the summons, he obeyed.
He found Gilks standing in the doctor's presence, where Silk had stood
an hour or so earlier.
"Riddell," said the doctor, whose face was grave, and whose voice was
more than unusually solemn, "Gilks here has just been making a very
serious statement about an accident that happened early in the term--the
breaking of the line at the boat-race, which he confesses was his doing.
I wish you to hear it."
"Gilks told me of it just before he came to you, sir," said the captain.
"I never expected to hear such a confession from a Willoughby boy," said
the doctor. "The honour of the whole school has suffered by this
disgraceful action, and if I were to allow it to pass without the
severest possible punishment I should not be doing my duty. Gilks has
done the one thing possible to him to show his remorse for what has
occurred. He has confessed it voluntarily, but I have told him he must
leave the school to-morrow morning."
Gilks remained where he was, with his eyes on the ground, while the
doctor was speaking, and attempted no plea to mitigate the sentence
against him.
"I find," continued the doctor, "that if he tells the truth he has not
been the only, and perhaps not the principal, culprit. He says he did
what he did at the suggestion of Silk. Perhaps you will send for Silk
now, Riddell."
Riddell went off to discharge the errand. When he returned Gilks looked
up and said, nervously, "Need I stay, sir? I don't want to see Silk."