Wraysford was not angry. There was more of pity in his face than anger as he took the small boy by the arm and led him to the door. Stephen no longer resisted. After giving vent to the first flood of his anger, misery got the upper hand of him, and he longed to go anywhere to hide it. He could have endured to know that Oliver was suspected by a good many of the fellows, but to find Wraysford among them was a cruel blow.
But in due time his indignation again came to the fore, and he ventured on another crusade. This time it was to Pembury. He knew before he went he had little enough to expect from the sharp-tongued editor of the _Dominican_, so he went hoping little.
To his surprise, however, Pembury was kinder than usual. He told him plainly that he did suspect Oliver, and explained why, and advised Stephen, if he were wise, to say as little about Oliver as possible at present. The young champion was quite cowed by this unexpected reception. He did his best to fly in a rage and be defiant, but it was no use, and he retired woefully discomfited from the interview.
Others to whom he applied, when once again his anger got the better of his wretchedness, met him with taunts, others with contempt, others with positive unkindness; and after a week Stephen gave it up and retired in dudgeon to the territory of the Guinea-pigs and Tadpoles, determined that there at least he would, at the edge of the knuckle, if needs be, compel a faction to declare for his brother.
In this undertaking, I need hardly say, he was eminently successful.
There were those among the Guinea-pigs and Tadpoles who were ready to declare for anybody or anything as long as there was a chance of a row on the head of it. Already the question of Greenfield senior had been occupying their magnificent minds. When the story first fell suddenly into their midst, it was so surprising that, like the frogs and the log in the fable, they were inclined to be a little shy of it. But, gradually becoming accustomed to it, and looking carefully into it from all sides, it seemed somehow to contain the promise of a jolly row, and their hearts warmed to it proportionally. No one quite liked to start the thing at first, for fear doubtless of not doing it full justice, but it only wanted a spark to kindle the whole lower school on the question of Greenfield senior. Stephen it was who supplied the spark.
He entered the Fourth Juror room one day, after one of the unsuccessful crusades of which we have spoken, utterly cast down and out of humour.
He flung his cap on to the peg, and himself on to his seat, in an unusually agitated manner, and then, to the astonishment of everybody, broke out into tears!
This was a rare and glorious opportunity, of course, for Bramble.
"Beastly young blub-baby!" exclaimed that doughty hero, "you"re always blubbing! I never knew such a fellow to blub, did you, Padger?"
Padger said it was worse than the baby at home, and the two thereupon started a mocking caterwaul on their own account, in which not a few of their nearest and dearest friends joined.
This performance had the effect of restoring Stephen"s composure.
Hastily dashing away his tears, he flew with unwonted wrath at his enemy. Bramble, however, managed to get behind Padger and the rest, and thus fortified shouted out, "Yah, boo, howling young sucking pig! go home to your mammy, or your great big cheat of a blackguard thief of a caddish big brother! Do you hear? Who stole the exam paper? Eh, Padger? Yah, boo, pack of sneaking Guinea-pigs!"
This last objurgation, which was quite unnecessary to the beauty or force of the speech, gave rise to a huge tumult.
The Guinea-pigs present took it up as a direct challenge to themselves, and it decided them instantly to declare in favour of Stephen and his big brother. Paul led the attack.
"Shut up, you young cad, will you?" said he; "you know well enough _you_ stole the paper."
Of course no one, not even Paul himself, attached any meaning to such an absurd accusation, but it came conveniently to hand.
This declaration of war was promptly taken up on all sides, and for a short period the Fourth Junior had a rather dusty appearance. When at length a little order was restored, a lively discussion on the crime of Greenfield senior ensued. The Tadpoles to a man believed in it, and gave it as their candid opinion that the fellow ought to be hung. "Yes, and expelled too!" added a few of the more truculent.
The Guinea-pigs, on the other hand, whatever they thought, protested vehemently that Greenfield senior was the most virtuous, heroic, saintly, and jolly fellow in all Saint Dominic"s, and denounced the Tadpoles and all the rest of the school as the most brutal ruffians in Christendom.
"They ought all to be expelled, every one of them," said one; "all except Greenfield senior, and I hope they will be."
"All I know is," said Paul, "I"ll let them have a bit of my mind, some of them."
"So will I," said another.
"You haven"t got any to give "em a bit of," squealed Bramble, "so now!"
"All right, I"ll give "em a bit of _you_ then," retorted Paul.
"You wouldn"t get any of them to touch him with a pair of tongs," added another.
This was too much for Bramble, and another brief period of dust ensued.
Then, comparative quiet once more prevailing, Paul said, "I tell you what, _I_ mean to stick to Greenfield senior."
"So do I," said another youth, with his face all over ink. "I mean _to f.a.g_ for him."
"So do I!" shouted another.
"So do I!" shouted another.
And a general chorus of a.s.sent hailed the idea.
"We"ll all f.a.g for him, I vote, eh, Stee?" said Paul, "the whole lot of us! My eye, that"ll be prime! Won"t the others just about look black and blue!"
It was a magnificent idea! And no sooner conceived than executed.
There was a great rush of Guinea-pigs to Oliver"s study. He was not there. So much the better. They would give him a delightful surprise!
So they proceeded straightway to empty his cupboards and drawers, to polish up his cups, to unfold his clothes and fold them again, to take down his books and put them up again, to upset his ink and mop it up with one of his handkerchiefs, to make his tea and spill it on the floor, to dirty his collars with their inky hands, to clean his boots with his hat-brush, and many other thoughtful and friendly acts calculated to make the heart of their hero glad.
In the midst of their orgies, Wraysford and Pembury pa.s.sed the door, and stopped to look in, wondering what on earth the tumult was about. But they were greeted with such a storm of yells and hisses that they pa.s.sed on, a little uneasy in their minds as to whether or no hydrophobia had broken out in Saint Dominic"s.
After them a detachment of Tadpoles, headed by Bramble appeared on the scene, for the purpose of mocking. But, whatever their purpose may have been, it was abandoned for more active opposition when Paul presently emptied a tumblerful of lukewarm tea in the face of Master Bramble.
A notable battle was fought on the threshold of Greenfield senior"s study, in which many were wounded on both sides, and in the midst of which Oliver arrived on the scene, kicking right and left, and causing a general rout.
How their hero appreciated the attentions his admirers had paid him during his absence the Guinea-pigs did not remain or return to ascertain. They took for granted he was grateful, and bashfully kept out of the way of his thanks for a whole day.
After that their enthusiasm returned, but this time it found a new vent.
They decided that, although they would all f.a.g for him to the end of his days, they would not for a season, at any rate, solicit jobs from him, but rather encourage him by their sympathy and applause at a more respectful distance.
So they took to cheering him in the playground, and following him down the pa.s.sages. And this not being enough, they further relieved themselves by hooting (at a respectful distance also) the chiefs of the senior school, whose opinions on the question of Greenfield senior were known not to agree with their own.
If Oliver was not grateful for all this moral support in his trouble, he must have been a villain indeed of the deepest dye. He never said in so many words he was grateful; but then the Guinea-pigs remembered that feelings are often too deep and too many for words, and so took for granted the thanks which their consciences told them they deserved.
Meanwhile a fresh number of the _Dominican_ was in progress, and rapidly nearing the hour of publication.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
THE "DOMINICAN" ON THE SITUATION.
The examination at the beginning of the term had seriously interfered with the prospects of the _Dominican_. Pembury knew well enough it was no good trying to get anything out of the diligent section of his cla.s.s-fellows at such a time; and he knew equally well that a number contributed entirely by the idlers of the Fifth would neither be creditable to the paper nor appreciated by any one outside.
So like a prudent man he held back patiently till the examinations were over, and then pounced down on his men with redoubled importunity.
"Look here," said he one day to Ricketts, "when are you going to let me have that paper of yours?"
"What paper do you mean?" demanded Ricketts.
"Why for the _Dominican_, of course; you don"t suppose I want one of your cast-off exam papers, do you?"