At the sight of the policeman I gave myself up for lost. The sins and
errors of my youth all rose in a hideous procession before me. I
recalled vividly the occasion when, years ago, I had borrowed Dicky
Brown's "nicker" without acknowledgment, and lost it. I recalled a
dismal series of assaults and libels in my guardian's office. I
recollected with horror once travelling on a half-ticket two days after
my twelfth birthday. Above all, the vision of that ill-favoured effigy
under the grating rose gibbering and mocking me to my face, and claiming
me for penal servitude, if not for the gallows itself.
How well I remember every detail of that scene as I entered the doctor's
study! The bust of Minerva looking askance at me from above the book-
case; the quill in the doctor's hand with its fringe all on end;
Tempest's necktie crooked and showing the collar stud above; Mr
Jarman's eye coldly fixed on me; and the policeman, helmet in hand,
standing with his large boots on the hearthrug, the picture of content
and prosperity.
"Jones," said the doctor, "we have sent for you to tell us what you did
at the gymnasium last night. You were there, I understand, after dark?"
I looked first at the doctor, then at Tempest. I would have given
worlds to be able to have two minutes' conversation with him, and
ascertain what he wished me to say, if indeed he wished me to say
anything at all. The memory of a similar dilemma at Dangerfield only
served to confuse me more, and make it impossible to decide how I should
act now; while the presence of the policeman drove from my head any
ideas that were ever there. Would Tempest like me to say that I went
there at his bidding, and if not, how could I explain the matter? I
wished I only knew what had been said already, so that at least I might
put my evidence on the right side.
"Yes, sir," said I, "I saw Mr Jarman there."
"What were you doing there, eh, young master?" said the policeman.
This was an unexpected attack from the flank of the battle for which I
was wholly unprepared. I could have told the doctor, or even Mr
Jarman. But to be questioned thus by a representative of the law was
too much for my delicate nerves.
"Really, it wasn't me," said I. "I didn't do it, and don't know who
did. I only went to get a blazer, and left it there directly Mr Jarman
told me to do so."
"A blazer?" said the policeman, with the air of a man who has made a
discovery. "What sort of a thing is that? A blazer? Was it alight?"
Here Tempest laughed irreverently, much to the displeasure of the
policeman. I was, however, thankful for the cue.
"What," said I, "don't you know what a blazer is? Anybody knows that.
It's what you have in the fields."
"Come, young gentleman," said the officer, whom Tempest's laugh had put
on his dignity, "no prevaricating. What were you doing with that there
blazer?"
"What was I doing with it? Fetching it."
The policeman was evidently puzzled. He wished he knew what a blazer
was, but in the present distinguished company did not like to show his
ignorance.
"That blazer must be produced," said he; "it'll be evidence."
I looked at Tempest, as the person best able to deal with the matter,
and said,--
"I left it in the gym. Mr Jarman made me."
"How long was that before the explosion? Was it alight when you left
it?"
"The blazer? Oh no."
"A blazer," explained the head master blandly, "is a flannel jacket. I
don't see what use it can be as evidence."
"I suppose," said Tempest jauntily, who was evidently recovering his
presence of mind, "he thought it was a lucifer match."
"You'll laugh on the wrong side of your face, young gentleman," said the
policeman wrathfully; "this here matter will have to be gone into.
There's been a party injured, and it'll be a matter for the magistrate.
You'll have to come along with me."
"I tell you," said Tempest, becoming grave once more, "I've had no more
to do with it than you have."
"And yet," said Mr Jarman, speaking for the first time, "the explosion
took place immediately after you were there, and when it was impossible
for any one else to be there."
"I say I know nothing at all about it," said Tempest shortly, "and I
don't care what you think."
"Come, Tempest," said Dr England, "no good will be gained by losing
temper. It is very necessary to get to the bottom of this business,
especially as some one has been injured. It seems almost impossible the
explosion could have happened by accident; at the same time, knowing
what I do of you, I do not myself believe that you are the boy who would
commit an outrage of this sort. As the policeman intends to report the
affair to the magistrate, you had better go with him and let him
investigate the matter. Don't do yourself injustice by losing your
temper. Mr Jarman, your attendance will probably be necessary; and
Jones had better go too, although so far he has not thrown very much
light on the matter. Constable, if you will take my compliments to
Captain Rymer and ask him when he can see us--"
"Beg pardon, sir," said the constable, evidently sore about the blazer,
"the young gent must come along with me now. That's my duty, and I
can't take no instructions contrary."
"Very well," said the doctor stiffly; "we will go to Captain Rymer at
once."
"Hadn't you better handcuff me?" said Tempest, who appeared to be seized
with a wild desire to exasperate the man of the law.
The policeman glared as if he was disposed to take him at his word.
"None of your imperence, I can tell you, my beauty!" said he. "I ain't
a-going to stand it--straight. Come, stir yourself."
"It is not necessary," said the head master, "for you to come with us.
I give my word that we shall be at the police court immediately. But I
wish to avoid the public scandal of one of my boys going through the
streets in charge."
"I ain't a-going to let him out of my sight," said the ruffled
constable. "I know his style."
Tempest smiled provokingly.
"I'd sooner walk, sir," said he. "If the policeman holds me on one side
and Mr Jarman on the other--"
"Silence, sir," said the doctor sternly, while Mr Jarman raised his
brows deprecatingly.
"Am I to come too?" said I.
"Yes."
"I should like Pridgin and some of the fellows to be there too, sir,"
said Tempest. "They saw me just before and just after the explosion."
"It does not seem necessary to have more boys," said Mr Jarman.
"Not to you!" said Tempest hotly; "the fewer _you_ have the better. But
if you choose to accuse me, I sha'n't ask you whom to have to speak for
me."
"Tempest," said the head master, "you are only doing yourself harm by
this. Jones, go and fetch Pridgin, and any of the others he speaks of,
to the police court; and kindly do not say a word of what has passed
here. Now, constable, are you ready?"
The school was fortunately all within doors at the time, so that, except
to the few who chanced to be gazing from the windows, the little
procession, headed by the doctor and Mr Jarman, with the policeman and
Tempest bringing up the rear, passed unobserved.
I was full of apprehensions. Whatever the result, I knew Tempest well
enough to be sure that the effect on him would be bad, and would call
out in him all that spirit of insubordination and defiance which had
before now threatened to wreck his career. A strong sense of
responsibility was all that had hitherto held it in check. If that were
now shattered--and how could it help being upset by this charge?--it
would break out badly and dangerously. I was not long in speeding over
to Sharpe's, where I found Pridgin just going over to class.
He heard the doctor's message with a groan of weariness.
"What's the use of my going?--_I_ can't tell them anything," said he.
"You can tell them Tempest never did it," said I.
"If they don't believe him, they won't me. Anyhow, I am coming."
Thereupon I was inspired to tell him the secret history of the effigy of
Mr Jarman, and my theory as to the cause of the explosion; namely, that
Tempest might have dropped a match through the grating, not knowing on
what it would fall, and that in the natural perversity of things it had
lit on the projecting tongue of the guy.
"You'd better make a clean breast of that guy," said Pridgin, "if you
want to get Tempest out of this mess. You'll probably get expelled or
flogged, but Low Heath can spare you better than it can Tempest. It
strikes me you'd better fetch down one or two of your lot to corroborate
you. It sounds too neat a story as it is."
Whereupon I sought out Langrish and Trimble, and had the satisfaction of
making their hair stand on end for once. At first they flatly refused
to come, and reminded me that, as President of the Conversation Club,
the entire responsibility for the guy rested on me.
"All serene," said I, "only come and let them know how Jarman brought it
all on. The more we go for him, the better for our man."
They failed to see the force of my logic, but curiosity and love of
adventure induced them to venture into the lion's den. On our way,
moreover, we captured Dicky Brown, who, to do him credit, was only too
eager to come with us and stand by his old Dux.
Contrary to our expectations, when we arrived, instead of finding a
crowded court, we were ushered into the magistrate's parlour, where, to
judge by appearances, a comfortable little party was going on.
The captain, a cheery old boy, familiar to all Low Heathens for his
presence on speech day, sat at a table with his clerk beside him. The
doctor and Mr Jarman were also sitting down, and Tempest was standing
restlessly near the window. The lodge-keeper's son, with his head bound
up (for he was the victim of the explosion, and I suppose, the
prosecutor), was standing beside the policeman, cap in hand, on the mat.
At the sight of the three juniors the doctor frowned a little, and Mr
Jarman scowled.
"What are these boys doing here?" said the former.
"Please, sir, we thought you wanted to hear how it went off," said
Langrish.
"So we do," said the magistrate; "sit down, my lads. We'll hear what you
have to say in time."
"Please, sir," said Tempest, "may I speak to Pridgin?"
"Certainly, my lad," said the captain again.
So the two friends hastily conferred together in the window, while we
stared round with an awestruck, and apparently disconcerting, gaze at
the gentlemen on the doormat, who severally represented the majesty of
the law and injured innocence.
"Now, then," said the magistrate presently, "let us hear what this is
all about. One of your boys, doctor, I see, is charged with attempting
to blow up part of the school gymnasium last night, and injuring this
poor fellow here. Who makes the charge, by the way? Do you?"
"No," said the doctor, "I understand Mr Jarman does."
"Which is Mr Jarman?" said the captain, looking blandly round. "Ah,
you. Well, sir, this is a serious charge to make; _let_ us hear what
you have to say. This is not a sworn examination, but what you say will
be taken down, and the boy you accuse will have a right to ask any
question. Now, sir."
Mr Jarman, thereupon, with very bad grace, for he felt that the
magistrate's tone was not cordial, related how he was walking in the
court at such and such an hour, when he saw a boy attempting to enter
the gymnasium. That he stopped him and demanded his name. That the boy
pushed past him and entered the gymnasium. Upon which Mr Jarman turned
the key on the outside in order to detain him there, by way of
punishment. That the boy began to kick at the door, and after half an
hour broke it open and made his escape. That the boy was Tempest, and
that scarcely two minutes after he had left, and just after Mr Jarman,
having stayed to examine the damage to the door, had turned to go away,
the explosion occurred; that he heard a cry from young Sugden, the
lodge-keeper's son, who was passing at the time, and was thrown
violently forward against the railings, cutting his head badly.
"How do you know the boy was Tempest?" asked the magistrate.
"I recognised him in the dark," said Mr Jarman. "In fact, I expected
him."
"Expected him?"
"Yes, he had sent his fag for a jacket just previously, and I had sent
the fag back."
"Why?"
"Boys are not allowed to enter the gymnasium after dark."
"Is that a rule of the school?"
"It is my rule."
"Does it apply to senior boys as well as juniors?" asked Tempest.
"I am responsible for the gymnasium, and--"
"That is not the question," said the magistrate. "Have you ever allowed
senior boys in the gymnasium after dark?"
"I may have; but I forbade Tempest to enter last night."
"What harm was there in his fetching his coat, if it was not against
rules?"
"It was against rules to go in when I told him not."
"Well, well," said Captain Rymer, "that is a matter that need not detain
us. Have you any more questions, Mr Tempest?"
"Yes, please, sir. You said you were expecting me, Mr Jarman. What
made you do that?"
"I expected, from my knowledge of your conduct, that you would come and
try and get the blazer."
"When have I disobeyed you before?"
"You know as well as I do, Tempest."
"Yes, but I don't," said the magistrate. "Answer the question."
Mr Jarman thereupon gave his version of the affair at Camp Hill Bottom.
"The offence being," said the magistrate, "that the boys, Tempest among
them, were out, on the afternoon of a holiday, half an hour from the
school, with only a one quarter of an hour to get back. You punished
the boys, I understand."
"Yes."
"And Tempest took his punishment with the rest."
"Yes."
"I suppose it is a special indignity to a senior boy, captain of his
house, to be paraded for extra drill with a lot of small boys, eh, Dr
England?"
"I should consider it so," said the doctor.
"I did not feel myself called upon to make any difference," said Mr
Jarman.
"Apparently not. And on account of this affair, you say you expected
Tempest would attempt to defy you last night?"
Mr Jarman bit his lips and did not reply.
Tempest resumed his questions with a coolness that surprised us.
"You were smoking, I think, Mr Jarman?"
"What if I was?"
"Nothing, only I wanted the magistrate to know it. And you locked me
into the gymnasium for half an hour till I kicked myself out. I say you
had no right to do that. What did you do while I was inside?"
"I walked up and down."
"Did you try to stop me when I got out?"
"No."
"Why?" asked Tempest, with a sneer that made us all contrast his broad
shoulders with the master's slouch.
"I decided to deal with the matter to-day."
"How did you see what I had done to the door in the dark?"
"I saw by the light of a match."
"You say it was two minutes after I left that the explosion took place,
and immediately after you left?"
"That's what I said."
"And you were striking matches during the interval?"
"Yes."
"And yet you suggest that it was I who blew the place up?"
"I say it was suspicious, knowing your frame of mind and the passion you
were in at the time."
"How could I blow up the place without explosives?"
"There must have been some there already."
"He didn't know anything about that! That was our affair, wasn't it,
you chaps?" blurted out Trimble.
"Rather," chimed in all of us.
The sensation in the court at this announcement may be better imagined
than described.
The magistrate put on his glasses and stared at us. Mr Jarman looked
startled. The doctor looked bewildered.
"You see, it was this way," said Trimble, who had been working himself
up to the point all through the previous cross-examination. "We had--"
"Wait a moment, my boy," said the magistrate. But the witness was too
eager to listen to the remark.
"It was this way. We had a guy belonging to the Ph.C.C, you know, and
he was chock-full of fireworks. We were keeping him for Guy Fawkes'
Day, you know. You wouldn't have known he was Jarman (Mr Jarman, I
mean), to look at him, but he was, and Sarah, being president, offered
to look after him. It was too big to stick under the bed, so--"
"So," continued I, "I thought the safest place to stick him would be in
the lumber room under the gym.; and I never thought any one would be
dropping matches through the grating on his touch-paper tongue. Tempest
didn't know anything about it, and--"
"You see," said Langrish, taking up the parable, "we meant to keep it
dark, and only the Philosophers were in it; he had on Sarah's hat and
boots, and a top-coat we found somewhere about. He'd have never gone
off of himself, and he wouldn't have done any harm on the Fifth, when we
should have hung and blown him up in the open. Tempest--"
"Tempest," broke in Dicky Brown, putting in his oar, "isn't the kind of
chap to do a thing like that on purpose; and it must have been Mr
Jarman blew him up by mistake, with one of his matches or the end of a
cigar or something--"
"It was a mulish thing of Sarah to stick him there," said Trimble, "but
he knows no better, and thought it was all right. So did we, and
Pridgin says it was quite an accident, sir, and--"
"And if any one's to get in a row," said I, "we'd better, because he was
our guy, and the mistake we made was letting his touch-paper tongue hang
out so far. He'd have never blown up if it hadn't been for that."
Here there was a general pause for breath, and the magistrate, who
evidently had a sense of humour, said,--
"And pray who is Sarah, my man?"
"That's what they call me when they're fooling; it's not my real name,
really, sir. Jones iv. is my real name."
"That's right," said Trimble; "he's only called Sarah because he looks
like it. He's not more in it than the rest of us, because he only had
to take care of the guy because he was president. We're all sorry the
tongue was made so long."
The magistrate did his best to look grave as he turned to Mr Jarman.
"Does this explanation help to clear up the mystery?"