It sounded a simple answer, but it was rank treason. For it was as good as saying Plummer had a right to ask these questions, and that he, Faulkner, would inform if he only knew who the culprit was.
After that it was evident the game, the Dux"s game and mine, was up.
Boy after boy was called up and interrogated, and one by one they followed Faulkner in his submission. A few--like Graham junior-- attempted to hold out, but broke down under pressure. A few feebly compromised by explaining that had they known the culprit they would not have answered; but as they did not they saw no reason for not saying so.
"It comes to this, then," said the doctor: "that out of the entire school, three boys, and three only, are silent. The only conclusion I can draw from their conduct is that they dare not deny that they know something of this shameful outrage. Tempest, you are the head boy. I have always looked on you as a credit to the school, and a good example to your youngers. You see your present behaviour involves trouble to others than yourself. I do not wish to be hasty in this matter, and am willing to give you one more opportunity of answering my question. Do you know anything of this affair, or have you any grounds for suspecting any one of being connected with it?"
The Dux flushed with indignation, glared straight at the head master by way of reply, and closed his lips.
"Very well, sir. Jones, I now repeat the question to you. You are a little boy, and there is more excuse for you, as you were led astray by the bad example of a senior. I caution you now to do as the others have done, and give me a plain answer to a plain question. Otherwise you must take the consequences."
I am afraid I blushed and looked far less determined than I would have liked. But I did my best to glare back and tighten my lips like the Dux.
"Very well. Tempest and Jones, go to my study and remain there till I come."
We had not long to wait for our doom. The doctor was in the study almost as soon as we.
We stood there while he wrote some letters and put away some books on the shelves. Then he rang the bell, and handed the letters to the servant to post. After that he sat in his chair for a quarter of an hour in silence, evidently ruminating.
At last he deigned to notice our presence.
"Tempest," he said, "I am very grieved at this. I had hoped better things of you. You know what the consequence must be to you?"
"I"m to be expelled, I know," said the Dux. "The sooner the better."
The doctor raised his eyebrows. There was no dealing with a reprobate like this.
"I have written to your grandfather to say you will return home to- morrow."
"I"m sorry it"s not to-night," said the Dux.
"And you, Jones," said the doctor to me, not heeding the last speech,--"I am more sorry for you. You are a foolish, misguided boy.
Even now, if you atone for your fault by replying to my questions, I am willing to spare your mother the misery you seem bent on bringing upon her."
This was a cruel thrust. The thought of my mother had crossed my mind once or twice already, and almost brought the tears to my eyes. It would be hard to explain all to her--and yet, and yet, anything was better than turning sneak.
"I won"t answer," said I. "I"d sooner be expelled."
"Your desire shall be gratified," said the doctor drily; "to-morrow you will go too."
"Thank you, sir."
"Tempest, you will remain here for the rest of the day--Jones, you will go to the dormitory and remain there. I forbid you, either of you, to hold any communication with your late schoolfellows while you remain here."
Next morning after breakfast we were finally brought up before the whole school and harangued publicly by the head master. Our punishment, he told us, we had deliberately brought on our own heads. Aggravated insubordination like ours was not to be tolerated in any school. He was sure we should soon regret and be ashamed of our conduct, if we were not so already. For his own part he would try to forget the unfortunate affair, and to think kindly of us both. Mr Ramsbottom would see Tempest to the station, and the matron would escort me.
"Good-bye, Tempest," said he, holding out his hand.
"Good-bye," said the Dux, not heeding the hand, and walking to the door.
"Good-bye, Jones."
I shook hands. After all, Plummer, I thought, meant to be kind, though he took an odd way of showing it. I was thankful when the ceremony was over, and the Dux and I found ourselves with our luggage in the hall waiting for our cabs.
All at once the old school we were leaving seemed to become dearer than I had thought.
The hall where we stood was full of the memory of jolly comings and goings. The field out there seemed to echo with the whizzing of b.a.l.l.s and the war-whoops of combatants. The very schoolroom we had just left, from which even now came the hum of work in which we were no more to join, had its pleasant a.s.sociations of battles fought, friends gained, difficulties mastered. How I would have liked to run down to get a last look at the pond, or upstairs for a farewell glance round the dormitory!
But now we were out of it--Dux and I. The place belonged to us no more. We were outsiders, visitors whose time was up, and whose cabs were due at the front door at any moment.
And what was it all for?
"If it hadn"t been for that beast Hector," said the Dux rather dismally, "we shouldn"t have been out here, Tommy."
He rarely called me by my Christian name. It was always a sign he was out of sorts.
"I do wish you"d missed him," said I.
"Missed him! What on earth do you mean?"
"Not made such a good shot--that"s what I mean."
"Shot! Young Brown, are you crazy?"
"Most likely," said I, beginning to get hot and cold at the same time.
"Why, do you mean to say you didn"t, then?"
"Didn"t what?"
"Shoot him."
"Shoot him? Me shoot? I no more shot the beast than you did."
The perspiration started to my forehead.
"But the pistol. Dux?"
"What pistol?"
"The one I found in your locker, when I went to get your book, you know."
"That thing? It"s been there all the term. It hasn"t even got a trigger!"
"It"s not there now. It"s at the bottom of the pond."
The Dux looked at me as if he were about to eat me up, I looked back as if I were ready for it.
"You didn"t shoot Hector, then?" I faltered.
"What do you take me for, you young a.s.s? Of course not."