The second Rendlesham match, the defection of Corder, the mutiny of the juniors, the disbanding of the clubs, the row with the head-master, and finally, the defeat of Brinkman by his own victim, might be held to be enough to chasten their spirits, and induce them to ask themselves whether the game was worth the candle.
But, such is the infatuation of wrong-headedness, they still breathed vengeance on some one; and this time their victim was to be Rollitt.
The grudge against him had been steadily acc.u.mulating during the term.
His outrage on the gentle Dangle was yet to be atoned for. His crime of playing in the fifteen was yet unappeased. His contempt of the whole crew of his enemies was not to be pardoned. Even his rescue of the lost juniors told against him, for it had helped to turn the public feeling of the School in favour of those recalcitrant young rebels. So far there had been no getting at him. He would not quarrel. He would not even recognise the existence of any one he did not care for.
But now a chance had come. The more they discussed it, the more morally certain was it that he was answerable for the disappearance of the money from the Club funds. The very reluctance of his own house to take action in the matter showed that they at least appreciated the gravity of the suspicion.
It was a trump card for the Moderns. By pushing it now, they would be doing a service to the School. They would pose as the champions of honesty. They would be mortifying the Cla.s.sics, even while they pretended to a.s.sist them; and, above all, they would wipe out scores with Rollitt himself, in a way he could not well disregard.
Clapperton and Dangle were not superlatively clever boys; but, whether by chance or design, they certainly hit upon an admirable method for bringing the matter to a crisis.
Dangle took upon himself to confide his suspicions, as a dead and terrible secret, to Wilc.o.x, a middle-boy of Forder"s house, and notorious as the most prolific gossip in Fellsgarth; who, moreover, was known to have several talking acquaintances in the other houses.
Wilc.o.x received Dangle"s communication with astonishment and--oh, of course, he wouldn"t breathe a word of it to any one, not for the world; it was a bad business, but it was Fisher major"s business to see it put right, and so on.
That night as Wilc.o.x and his friend Underwood were retiring to rest, the former confided to the latter, under the deadliest pledge of secrecy, that there was a scandal going on about the School accounts. He mightn"t say more except that the fellow suspected was one of the last he himself should have dreamt of, although others might be less surprised.
That was not all. Next morning he sat next to Calder, a Cla.s.sic boy, in Hall, and asked him if he could keep a secret. Oh yes, Calder could keep any amount of secrets. Then Wilc.o.x told him the same story that he had confided to Underwood, only adding that the amount in question was said to be several pounds.
Calder hazarded the names of several boys; but Wilc.o.x shrugged his shoulders at them all.
"You"d better not ask me," he said; "it will only get out and make trouble."
"Oh! but I promise I wouldn"t tell a soul," said Calder.
"I can"t tell you, though. But I"ll tell you this. You"d never guess the fellow had had as much in his pocket all his life."
"What--do you mean Rollitt?"
"I can"t tell you, I say. I"m not at liberty to mention names."
The rumour thus admirably started went on merrily.
Before nightfall it was known in half a dozen Modern studies that the Club funds had been robbed of 10 or 12 by a Cla.s.sic boy, and that he was being shielded by his own seniors. On the Cla.s.sic side four or five fellows whispered to one another that Rollitt had been caught in the act of stealing money out of Fisher major"s rooms a day or two ago.
Presently, one enterprising gossip sent the story of Widow Wisdom"s boat rolling in and out with the rumour of the stolen money. Encouraged by that, some one else hinted that there had been deficiencies last term as well as this; and in and out with the new story was started the report that last term Rollitt had set up with a fishing-tackle and book of flies worth ever so much.
A couple of days later the number of boys in the secret had multiplied fast, and Rollitt, as he walked across the Green to Hall or cla.s.s, was watched and pointed out mysteriously by a score or more of curious boys.
Of course the story grew to all sorts of curious shapes. Percy (who was the first of the invalided juniors to appear in his usual haunts) had it from Rix, who had had it from Banks, who had had it from Underwood, who had had it from Wilc.o.x, who had had it from Dangle, who had been present on the occasion, that Rollitt had met the head-master in a lane near Widow Wisdom"s, and holding a pistol at his head had made him turn out all his pockets, and relieved him of fifty pounds.
Percy said he didn"t believe it.
Whereupon Rix reduced the amount to thirty pounds.
Percy still could not accept the story.
Whereat Rix, anxious to meet his friend as far as possible, subst.i.tuted a walking-stick for the pistol.
Still Percy"s gullet could not swallow even what was left.
Whereupon Rix suggested that it was open to doubt whether it was the doctor who was robbed or Fisher major. It _might_ have been the latter.
Still Percy looked sceptical.
Which called forth an explanation that Rix did not mean to say that Dangle actually witnessed the occurrence; but that he knew it for a fact all the same.
Percy shook his head still.
And Rix, feeling much injured, laid the scene of the outrage in Fisher"s study, and conceded that the money might belong to the clubs, and might be only five pounds.
Percy had the temerity once more to express doubt. Whereupon Rix flatly declined to come down another penny in the amount, or alter his story one iota, with one possible exception; that the money may have been taken when Fisher major was not in his room.
Percy considered the anecdote had been boiled down sufficiently for human consumption, and grieved Rix prodigiously by saying that he knew all about it weeks ago, and what did he mean by coming and telling him his wretched second-hand stories?
However, whatever variations the rumour underwent as it pa.s.sed from hand to hand, it managed to retain its three most salient points all through--namely, that Fisher major had been robbed; that the money taken belonged to the club; and that the suspected thief was Rollitt.
For a week or two Rollitt remained profoundly ignorant of the charges against him. His unapproachable att.i.tude was the despair both of friend and enemy. Yorke, who would have given anything to let him have an opportunity of denying or explaining the charge, was at his wits" end how to get at him. Dangle, on the contrary, who was chiefly interested in the penalties in store for the thief, was equally at a loss how to bring him to bay.
He would see no one. He shut himself in his study and fastened the door. In cla.s.s and Hall he was practically deaf and dumb; and in his solitary walks by the river it was as much as any one"s comfort for the whole term was worth to accost him.
By one of those strange coincidences which often bring the most unlikely persons into sympathy, Yorke and Dangle each decided to write what they hesitated to say.
Yorke had endless difficulty over his letter. He could not bring himself to believe Rollitt a thief, yet he could not deny that suspicions existed. Still less could he evade his duty as captain to see things right. The latter duty he might have put off on Mr Wakefield or the doctor. But the mere reporting to them of the circ.u.mstances would fix the suspicions on Rollitt more pointedly than they were already, and certainly more pointedly than Yorke wished them to be.
"Dear Rollitt," he wrote, "I hope you will not resent my writing to tell you of a rumour which is afloat very injurious to you, and one which I feel quite sure you can dispose of at once. I would not write about it, only I am very anxious for the sake of everybody you should deny it, and so shut up others who would be glad enough if it were true. A sum of money, about 4 10 shillings, belonging to the Club funds has been lost from Fisher major"s room. The rumour is that you have taken it, and those who accuse you make much of the coincidence that about the time when the money was said to be lost, you spent a similar sum in the purchase of a new boat for Widow Wisdom. If I didn"t feel quite sure you would be able to deny the charge and explain anything about it that seems suspicious, I should not have cared to write this.
"Yours truly,--
"C. Yorke."
Dangle"s letter was less ingenuous.
"The secretary of the Fellsgarth clubs has been requested to ask Rollitt the following questions in reference to a sum of about 4 10 shillings missing from the funds in the treasurer"s hands.
"1. Is it true that Rollitt was seen at the door of Fisher major"s room on Sat.u.r.day afternoon, September 21, at a time when everybody else was absent from the house?
"2. Is it true that immediately afterwards Rollitt paid five pounds for a new boat for Widow Wisdom?
"3. Where did that money come from?
"4. Does Rollitt know that he is suspected by every boy in Fellsgarth of having stolen it; and that now that the clubs are dissolved the treasurer will be called upon to refund the money?
"5. What is Rollitt going to do? Does he deny it? If not, will he take the consequences?
"Signed for the Club Committee,--
"T. Dangle, Sec."