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diff --git a/21187.txt b/21187.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..add80b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/21187.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6719 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dr. Jolliffe's Boys, by Lewis Hough + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Dr. Jolliffe's Boys + +Author: Lewis Hough + +Illustrator: Frank Feller and S. Thurdale + +Release Date: April 18, 2007 [EBook #21187] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DR. JOLLIFFE'S BOYS *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +Doctor Jolliffe's Boys + +by Lewis Hough +________________________________________________________________ +This a very enjoyable book about life in a boy's boarding school in the +late nineteenth century. Despite school-rules, the boys get out of +bounds for a number of reasons, for instance visiting a forbidden tuck +shop; engaging in various cruel country sports, like rat baiting; going +skating on a frozen lake, especially near the thin ice; poaching on a +large nearby estate; and suchlike attractions. + +Every scene is beautifully drawn, and I have wondered many times why the +author did not write more, and indeed why this book is not more well +known than it is. Until I found a copy in an old book shop I had never +heard of either the author or of the book. + +The characters of the various principal actors in the story are very +well drawn, and one feels one knows them all quite well by the end of +the book. + +There was in fact another contemporary author of the same name, who was +an expert in economic and currency affairs, and who also wrote using, +and about, a novel way of getting books printed. N.H. +________________________________________________________________ + +DOCTOR JOLLIFFE'S BOYS + +BY LEWIS HOUGH + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +A TALE OF WESTON SCHOOL. + +WESTON _versus_ HILLSBOROUGH. + +"Well cut, Saurin, well cut! Run it out! Four!" The ball was +delivered again to the bowler, who meditated a shooter, but being a +little tired, failed in his amiable intention, and gave the chance of a +half-volley, which the batsman timed accurately, and caught on the right +inch of the bat, with the whole swing of his arms and body thrown into +the drive, so that the ball went clean into the scorer's tent, as if +desirous of marking the runs for itself. + +"Well hit indeed! Well hit!" + +The Westonians roared with delight, and their voices were fresh, for +they had had little opportunity of exercising them hitherto. Crawley, +the captain of their eleven, the hero in whom they delighted, had been +declared out, leg before wicket, when he had only contributed five to +the score. Only two of the Westonians believed that the decision was +just, Crawley himself, and the youth who had taken his place, and was +now so triumphant. But he hated Crawley, and rejoiced in his +discomfiture, even though it told against his own side, so his opinion +went for nothing. + +Well, no more did anybody's else except the umpire's, who after all is +the only person capable of judging. + +"Saurin has got his eye in; we may put together a respectable score +yet." + +"He is the best player we have got, when he only takes the trouble; +don't you think so?" said Edwards, who believed in Saurin with a faith +which would have been quite touching if it had not been so irritating. + +"He thinks so himself at any rate," replied the boy addressed, "and we +are a shocking bad lot if he is right. Anyhow he seems to be in form +to-day, and I only hope that it will last." + +The batsman under discussion hoped so too. If he could only make an +unprecedented score, restore the fortunes of the day, and show the world +what a mistake it was to think Crawley his superior in anything +whatever, it would be a glorious triumph. He was not of a patriotic +disposition, and did not care for the success of his school except as it +might minister to his own personal vanity and gain, for he had a bet of +half-a-crown on his own side. But his egotism was quite strong enough +to rival the public spirit of the others, and raise his interest to the +general pitch. + +The match between Weston and Hillsborough was an annual affair, and +excited great emulation, being for each school the principal event of +the cricketing season. One year it was played at Weston and the next at +Hillsborough, and it was the Westonians' turn to play on their own +ground on this occasion. + +Hillsborough went in first and put together 94 runs. Then Weston went +to the wickets and could make nothing of it. There was a certain left- +handed Hillsburian bowler who proved very fatal to them; it was one of +his twists which found Crawley's leg where his bat should have been. +Result, eight wickets down for twenty, and then Saurin went in and made +the 9 we have witnessed. + +Between ourselves the cut was a fluke, but the half-volley was a genuine +well-played hit, which deserved the applause it got. The next ball came +straight for the middle stump, but was blocked back half-way between the +creases, and another run was stolen. + +"Over!" + +The new bowler went in for slows. The first, a very tempting ball, +Saurin played forward at, and hit it straight and hard into the hands of +long field on, who fumbled and dropped it, amidst groans and derisive +cheers. + +Warned by this narrow shave he played back next time, and seemed to +himself to have missed a really good chance. This feeling induced +hesitation when the next ball was delivered, and the result of +hesitation was that the insidious missile curled in somehow over his bat +and toppled his bails off. Saurin was so much mortified as he walked +back to the tent that he could not even pretend to assume a jaunty +careless air, but scowled and carried his bat as if he would like to hit +someone over the head with it. Which, indeed, he would. + +There was one consolation for him, he had made ten, and that proved to +be the top score. + +For the first time within living memory Weston had to follow its +innings! + +Now when you consider that the presidents of Oxford and Cambridge Clubs +kept an eye on this match with a view to promising colts, you may +imagine the elation of the Hillsburians and the dejection of the +Westonians when Crawley and Robarts walked once more to the wickets. +Their schoolmates clapped their hands vigorously indeed, and some of +them talked about the uncertainty of cricket, but the amount of hope +they had would not have taken the room of a pair of socks in Pandora's +box. + +But Crawley was a bowler as well as a batsman, and Robarts was the +Westonian wicket-keeper, so that both were somewhat fagged when they +first went in, whereas they were now quite fresh. Again, the +Hillsburian bowling champion found his dangerous left arm a little +stiff, and his eyesight not so keen as it had been an hour before. One +is bound to find a cause for everything, so these may be the reasons why +the pair, after defending their wickets cautiously for an over or two, +began to knock the bowling about in great style. + +"What a jealous brute that Crawley is!" said Saurin, sitting down by +Edwards. + +"Awful!" replied Edwards, not at all knowing why, but following Saurin +blindfold, as he always did. + +"I was the only one who made any stand in the first innings, and yet he +does not send me in early. He will keep me to the last, I daresay." + +The wonderful stand spoken of had not lasted two overs, but Edwards only +observed: + +"It's mean." + +"Not that I care," said Saurin. + +"Of course not." + +"Only I do hate spite and jealousy." + +"He ought not to be captain." + +"Bah! the soft-spoken humbug; it's a wonder to me that fellows don't see +through him." + +"It _is_ strange," echoed the complacent Edwards. + +The number 30 went up amidst a storm of clapping, and Saurin relapsed +into prudent silence, but he thought "hapes," like the Irishman's dumb +parrot. The dinner-bell rang, the pair were not separated, and the +score stood at 50. + +"It will be a match yet," was the general opinion on the Weston side, +and their opponents also thought that the affair did not look quite such +a certainty, and agreed that they must not throw a chance away, though +they hoped much from dinner, which sometimes puts a batsman off his +play, the process of digestion inducing, especially in hot weather, a +certain heaviness which impairs that clearness of brain necessary for +timing a ball accurately. At the same time the bowlers would get a good +rest, and the left-handed artist, who had been acting as long-stop, +might reasonably be expected to regain his cunning. True that the +midday meal tells most upon the field, which very generally grows +sluggish after eating: but the Hillsborough boys fancied that would not +matter so much, if they could only separate those two. + +But "those two" had a due sense of their responsibilities, and ate a +very moderate meal, which they washed down with nothing stronger than +water. They also played very careful cricket on first going in again, +and risked nothing until they had got their hands in. _Item_, Crawley +had mastered the left-handed bowler's favourite ball, and by playing +very forward hit it away before it took the dangerous twist. It looked +very risky, and the Hillsborough wicket-keeper was in constant hope of +stumping him, but he never missed, and scored off every ball of that +sort which came to him. When the same twisters came to Robarts he +played back, contenting himself with simply guarding his wickets with an +upright bat. + +Altogether the two put 85 together before Robarts was caught at point. + +As they were going in to dinner Crawley had said to Saurin: + +"You go in the first wicket down. You showed good form in the first +innings, and it was a very unlucky ball that settled you so soon. But +you will have a good chance again presently." Which speech had the +unintended effect of making Saurin more exasperated than ever. +"Confound his patronising!" he said to himself; but he could not find +any excuse for any audible utterance except the conventional "All +right," and he now drew on his gloves, took up his bat, and issued from +the tent. + +"Play careful cricket, Saurin," said Robarts as he passed him; "the +great thing is to keep Crawley at the wicket as long as we can." + +"A likely story!" he thought to himself as he strode across the turf, +"to make myself a mere foil and stop-gap for that conceited brute! Not +I." Far from practising the abstinence of the other two, he had eaten +as much as he could stuff and drunk all the beer he could get, and this, +combined with resentment at Robarts' words, caused him to go in for +slogging just to show that he was not to be dictated to. + +The first ball he got he hit as hard as he could, and well on to the +ground, but it was cleverly stopped before a run could be made. The +second he sent into the hands of the fielder standing at mid-wicket, who +stuck to it, fast as it came, and threw it up amidst the cheers of his +friends. Saurin stalked away with his duck's egg. + +Four more wickets fell before Crawley was run out, by which time he had +scored 90 off his own bat, the total standing at 150. Thirty more was +added before the Westonians were all out, and the score stood--first +innings, 40; second, 180; total, 220, against 94. So that Hillsborough +now had to make 126 to tie, and 127 to win. + +It was a good match; anybody's game. During the remainder of the +afternoon Saurin behaved disgracefully. His temper had completely +mastered him, and he was sulky and careless to an extent which made even +Edwards ashamed for him. He let balls pass with hardly an attempt to +stop them, picked them up and threw them in in a leisurely manner, which +gave more than one run to the other side, and showed such indifference +that he was hissed. + +For every run was of importance. The fact was that Weston that year was +decidedly weak in the bowling, Crawley being the only one to be depended +upon, and he could not be kept at it for ever; and, though the fielding +generally was good, the Hillsburians scored fast. At seven o'clock they +were 100 for seven wickets, and the excitement was very great when +Crawley, who had had an hour's interval, went on once more to bowl. + +His first ball was cut for five. His second took the middle stump +clean. His third came back into his hands. His fourth, the nastiest of +shooters, glided under the bat into the wicket. Three wickets in three +consecutive balls--something like a sensational over! + +The match was over, and Weston had won by 21 runs. + +There could be no doubt to whom the victory was due, and Crawley was +pounced upon, hoisted, and carried home in triumph amidst the most +enthusiastic cheering. + +"All right!" he said, colouring and laughing as they put him down; "I am +glad we won, but that last ball was the most awful fluke I ever made in +my life. I lost my balance as I delivered it, and nearly came down. To +tell the truth, I feared it would be wide, and could hardly believe my +eyes when I saw the bails off." + +One would have imagined that Saurin's evil genius was taking part in the +events of the day, and piling success upon the rival he hated in order +to exasperate him to madness. His state of mind, indeed, was little +short of that as he went sullenly to his tutor's house, with the sight +of Crawley, raised on his comrades' shoulders, in his eyes, their cheers +ringing in his ears, and the thoughts of Cain in his heart. + +"I shall give up cricket," he said to Edwards next day; "it's a beastly +game." + +"I don't care for it myself," replied his friend; "only, what is one to +do?" + +"Lots of things; you don't know Slam's. I tell you what--I'll take you +there." + +"Thank you; that will be very jolly; only don't you think if one were +caught, you know--eh?" + +"We should get into a jolly row, no doubt; but there is no fear of being +caught. And, as you say, if one does not play cricket, what is one to +do?" + +One thing which induced Saurin to relinquish the game which he had at +one time practised with some hope of success, was that he shrewdly +suspected that, after what occurred, he would no longer be retained in +the eleven. And he was right, for at the very next meeting of the +committee it was unanimously agreed that a fellow who failed so utterly +to keep his temper was of no use at all, even if he were a much better +player than Saurin; and this opinion was intimated to him without any +squeamishness in the choice of terms. Had Weston lost the match his +conduct on the occasion might have resulted in his being sent to +Coventry; but success is the parent of magnanimity, and, since his lack +of public spirit had not proved fatal, it was condoned. But it +certainly did not increase his popularity. The whole affair was most +unfortunate. Saurin was a disappointing sort of fellow. He was rather +good-looking, and on ordinary occasions his manners were those of a +gentleman. His abilities were certainly above the average, and his eye +and hand worked together in a manner which was calculated to ensure +success in all games, especially as he was fleet of foot and muscular. +Thus he was always giving promise of distinguishing himself, and dying +away to nothing. The explanation is that he was very vain and very +indolent, and his vanity induced him to engage in different pursuits +which would excite admiration, while his indolence prevented him from +persevering long enough for success. Directly anything bored him he +dropped it. Self-indulgence seemed to him the only true wisdom. He +never resisted the whim of the moment except through fear of the +consequences, and unfortunately many of his propensities were vicious. + +He had taken up cricket rather warmly, and seemed less inclined to get +tired of it than of most healthy and innocent diversions, and cricket +kept him out of mischief; so it was very unlucky, both for himself and +for those over whom he had influence, that his jealousy of Crawley had +led him to make such an idiot of himself. + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +SLAM'S. + +About a mile from Weston College there was a dilapidated old house with +a large yard and an orchard. There had been a farm attached to it once, +but the land had been taken into the next estate, and the old homestead +let separately many years before. The landlord would gladly have got +rid of the present tenant, but he had a long lease, and, while he paid +his rent, he was secure, and could snap his fingers at the squire, the +clergyman, the magistrates, and all other people who did not appreciate +him. Not that he ever did so snap his fingers; on the contrary, Mr +Slam, though practically defiant, was remarkably civil, not to say +obsequious, in his demeanour when he came into contact with the gentry. +By profession he was a rat-catcher, and he had an intimate knowledge of +the habits and frailties of all the small predatory animals of Great +Britain, and knew well how to lure them to their destruction. In a +game-preserving community such talents ought, one would imagine, to have +met with appreciative recognition; but unfortunately Slam was suspected +of being far more fatal to pheasants, hares, and rabbits than to all the +vermin he destroyed. He protested his innocence, and was never caught +in the act of taking game; but if anyone wanted to stock his preserves, +Slam could always procure him a supply of pheasants' eggs, and more than +one village offender who had been sent to expiate his depredations in +jail was known to have paid visits to Slam's yard. + +Slam was a dog-fancier as well as a rat-catcher, and therefore doggy +boys were attracted to his premises, which, however, were sternly +interdicted. In the first place they were out of bounds, though this of +itself did not go for very much. There was no town very near Weston, +and so long as the boys made their appearance at the specified hours +they were not overmuch interfered with. Paper chases, or hare and +hounds as they are sometimes called, were openly arranged and +encouraged; and if boys liked to take walks in the country, they could +do so with a minimum of risk. If they were awkward enough to meet a +master face to face when out of bounds, he could hardly help turning +them back and giving them a slight imposition; but if they saw him +coming, and got out of his way, he would not look in their direction. + +But to enter an inn, or to visit Slam's, was a serious offence, +entailing severe punishment, and even expulsion, if repeated. + +Yet one beautiful warm summer's evening, when the birds were singing and +the grasshoppers chirruping, and all nature invited mankind to play +cricket or lawn-tennis, if there were no river handy for boating, four +youths might have been seen (but were not, luckily for them) approaching +the forbidden establishment. A lane with high banks, now covered with +ferns and wild flowers, and furrowed with ruts which were more like +crevasses, ran up to the house; but they left this and went round the +orchard to the back of the yard, in the wall of which there was a little +door with a bell-handle beside it. On this being pulled there was a +faint tinkle, followed by a canine uproar of the most miscellaneous +description, the deep-mouthed bay of the blood-hound, the sharp yap-yap +of the toy terrier, and a chorus of intermediate undistinguishable +barkings, some fierce, some frolicsome, some expectant, being mixed up +with the rattling of chains. Then an angry voice was heard amidst the +hubbub commanding silence, and a sudden whine or two seemed to imply +that he had shown some practical intention of being obeyed. A bolt was +drawn, the door opened, and a short wiry man, dressed in fustian and +velveteen, with a fur cap on his head and a short pipe in his mouth, +stood before them. + +"Come in, gents," said he. "Your dawg's at the other end of the yard, +Mr Stubbs, that's why you don't see him. He's had an orkardness with +Sayres, Mr Robarts' dog, as was in the next kennel, and I thought +they'd have strangled themselves a-trying to get at one another, and so +I had to separate them." + +"Will it be safe to let him loose?" asked Stubbs. + +"No fear; he will never go near the other while he's loose and the other +one chained up; besides, he'll be took up with seeing you, he will." + +It was very pleasant to the feelings of Stubbs that his dog knew him, +which he evidently did, for he danced on his hind-legs, and wagged his +tail, and whimpered, and did all that a bull-terrier can do in the way +of smiling, when his proprietor approached for the purpose of freeing +him from his chain. Their interviews were not as frequent as either dog +or boy would have desired, but then they were very pleasant, for they +brought the former a short spell of liberty, a meal of biscuit or +paunch, and sometimes--oh, ecstasy!--the worrying of a rat, while Stubbs +enjoyed the sense of proprietorship, and the knowledge that he was doing +what was forbidden. He had dreams of leaving school and taking Topper +home with him, and owning him as his friend before all the world, and he +talked to Topper of that happy prospect, and Topper really quite seemed +to understand that Stubbs was his master, who had paid money for him, +and was now put to considerable expense for his board and lodging, let +alone the danger he ran in coming to visit him. To an outsider, calmly +reflecting, it did not seem a very good bargain for Stubbs, but still +very much better than that of Perry, his friend and present companion, +who kept a hawk, and vainly endeavoured to teach the bird to know him +and perch on his wrist. But Perry was fond of hawks, and much regretted +that the days were gone by when hawking was a favourite pastime. + +The other two visitors at Slam's that evening were Saurin and Edwards. +Edwards had never been there before, and consequently his feelings were +curiously compounded of fear and pleasurable expectation. He had looked +from a distance at the place, the entrance to which was so sternly +forbidden, and imagined all sorts of delightful wickedness--how +delightful or why wicked he had no idea--going on inside. He was +considerably disappointed to find himself in a dirty yard full of +kennels, to which dogs of all sorts and sizes were attached, none of +whom looked as if it would be safe to pat them. There were a good many +pigeons flying about, but he did not care for pigeons except in a pie. +Perry's hawk was only interesting to Perry. There was a monkey on a +pole in a corner, but he was a melancholy monkey, who did nothing but +raise and lower his eyebrows. + +"Does the gentleman want a dawg?" asked Slam. + +"He will see," replied Saurin; "if there is a real good one that takes +his fancy he may buy him. It's all right; he's a friend of mine. Have +you got that tobacco for me?" + +"To be sure; you will find it in your drawer." + +Saurin went to a little wooden outhouse which contained a table, a chest +of drawers, a cask of dog-biscuits, cages of rats, and other +miscellaneous articles, and opening a locker which seemed to be +appropriated to him, he took out a meerschaum pipe and a tobacco-pouch, +and came out presently, emitting columns of blue fragrant smoke from his +mouth. Edwards looked at his friend with increased respect, the idea of +being intimate with a fellow who could smoke like that made him feel an +inch taller. + +"I think it's beginning to colour, eh?" asked Saurin. + +"Beautifully, I should say," replied Edwards. + +"Won't you try?" + +"Thanks; I think I should rather like," said Edwards, who began to feel +ambitious, "but I have not got anything to smoke." + +"Oh, Slam will let you have a pipe, or a cigar if you like it better." + +Edwards, calling to mind that cigars smelt nicer than pipes, thought he +should prefer one. + +"Slam, my friend wants a cigar." + +"Well, sir, as you know, I can't sell such things without a licence; but +if the gent likes to have a few rats for one of the dawgs to show a bit +of sport, I'll _give_ him a cigar with pleasure. It's sixpence for half +a dozen." + +"And, by the by, Edwards, it is usual to stand some beer to pay your +footing. A couple of quarts of sixpenny will do." + +"That will make eighteenpence altogether," responded Edwards cheerfully, +producing that sum. + +"I'll send out for the beer at once," said Mr Slam, taking the money +and going towards the house. + +Where he sent to is a mystery, for there was no public-house within a +mile, and yet the can of beer arrived in about five minutes. It is much +to be feared that Slam set the excise law at defiance when he felt +perfectly safe from being informed against. + +"Rats for Topper!" exclaimed Stubbs. "Oh, I say, Edwards, you _are_ a +brick, you know. I have been hard up lately, and he has not had a rat +for ever so long. You won't mind my letting them out for him, will you? +You see, I should like him to think it was I who gave him the treat, if +you don't mind." + +Edwards had no objection to become a party to this innocent deception, +and the cage of rats was brought out from some mysterious place where +there was an unlimited supply of those vermin. Whereupon every +individual dog in the establishment went off his head with excitement, +and began barking and tearing at his chain in a manner to soften the +hardest heart. That rats should be so near and yet so far! The +building, which was once a stable, had been fitted up expressly as an +arena, where dogs might exhibit their prowess, and thither the cage was +now carried by Stubbs, Topper going almost the whole way on his hind- +legs, with his nose close to the wires. Considering the amount of +excitement the entertainment did not last long; the rats were turned out +into the arena, where Topper pounced upon them one after the other with +a nip and a shake which was at once fatal. In a couple of minutes there +were six fewer rats in the world, and Topper was extremely anxious to +diminish the number still further. Doctor Johnson, the compiler of the +dictionary, said he had never in his life had as many peaches and +nectarines as he could eat, and that was Topper's feelings with regard +to rats. Edwards did not enjoy the spectacle quite as much as he felt +that he ought. Besides, he was engaged in desperate efforts to light +his cigar. Match after match did he burn, sucking away all the time +like a leech, but no smoke came into his mouth. + +"Let us go into the orchard and finish the beer," said Saurin. + +The orchard was surrounded by so thick a hedge that it was just as +private as the yard. A cobby horse was cropping the grass, an +ungroomed, untrimmed animal, very much better than he looked, his +master, for reasons of his own, being as anxious to disguise his merits +as most proprietors of the noble animal are to enhance them as much as +possible. There were possibilities of recreation here, though they were +somewhat of a low order. Quoits hung up on several large nails driven +into a wall, and there was a covered skittle alley. For there were a +good many small farmers of the class just above that of the a labourer +in the neighbourhood, and some of them frequented Slam's, and were +partial to skittles. + +The four boys and the proprietor of the establishment seated themselves +on benches in this orchard and gulped the beer. + +"Your cigar does not seem to draw well," said Saurin. + +"No," replied Edwards; "I can't think what is the matter with it; I +never smoked a cigar like this before." + +Which was perfectly true, as it was the first he had ever put into his +mouth. + +"Let me look at it. Why, you have not bitten the end off! You might as +well expect smoke to go up a chimney that is bricked up at the top. +Here, I'll cut it for you with my penknife; now you will find it go all +right. What a row that hawk of yours makes, Perry!" + +"Yes, he ought to be hooded, you know. Hateful times we live in, don't +we! How jolly it must have been when education meant learning to ride, +fly a hawk, train a hound, shoot with the bow, and use the sword and +buckler, instead of mugging at abominable lessons." + +"Right you are, sir," said Mr Slam; "why, even when I was a lad a fight +or a bit of cocking could be brought off without much trouble, but +nowadays the beaks and perlice are that prying and interfering there's +no chance hardly. And as for them times Mr Perry was speaking of, why, +I've heard tell that the princes and all the nobs used to go to see a +prize-fight in a big building all comfortable, just as they goes now to +a theayter. And every parish had to find a bull or a bear to be bated +every Sunday. Ah! them was the good old times, them was." + +Edwards did not find his cigar very nice. The smoke got down his throat +and made him cough till his eyes watered, and the taste was not so +pleasant as the smell. However, Saurin seemed to like it, so there must +be some pleasure about it if he only persevered. + +He laboured under a delusion here, for Saurin would rather not have +smoked, as a matter of fact, though he had a great object in view, the +colouring of his pipe, which supported him. His real motive in this, as +in all other matters, was vanity. Other boys would admire him for +smoking like a full-grown man, and so he smoked. He would never have +done it alone, without anyone to see him, being too fond of himself to +persevere in anything he did not like, out of whim, or for the sake of +some possible future gratification, of the reality of which he was not +very well assured. + +"Did you ever play at quoits, Edwards?" asked Saurin presently. + +"Yes, I have played at home; we have some." + +"Suppose we have a game, then. Why, hulloa, how pale you look! don't +smoke any more of that cigar." + +"I do fee--feel a little queer," said Edwards, who certainly did not +exaggerate his sensations. A cold sweat burst out on his forehead, his +hands were moist and clammy, and though it was a warm evening he +shivered from head to foot, while he had a violent pain in his stomach +which prevented his standing upright. + +"Come, man alive, don't give way. We must be getting back soon," said +Saurin, who was rather dismayed at the idea of taking his friend to his +tutor's in that condition, and the consequent risk of drawing suspicion +on himself. "Would not a drop of brandy be a good thing, Slam?" + +"Well, no, not in this here case," said Slam. "The missus shall mix him +a little mustard and warm water; that's what he wants." + +"You are sure it's only the cigar," groaned Edwards. "I am not poisoned +or anything?" + +"Poisoned! how can you be? You have taken nothing but the beer, and we +have all drunk that. No, it's the tobacco; it always makes fellows +rather seedy at first, and I expect you swallowed a lot of the smoke." + +"I did." + +"Well, then, drink this and you will be all right presently." + +Edwards took the emetic, which had the effect peculiar to that +description of beverage. It was not a pleasant one; indeed, he thought +he was going to die; but after a while the worst symptoms passed off, +and he was able to walk home. + +Saurin and Edwards lodged at the same tutors, and they went up to the +room of the latter without attracting attention. Here Edwards, under +the other's directions, washed his face, cleaned his teeth, changed his +jacket and neck-tie, and put some scented pomatum on his hair, and then +lay down on his bed till the supper-bell should ring. + +"I shall not be able to eat," he remonstrated. "Do you think I need go +down?" + +"Oh, yes; come and have a try, or else it will excite suspicion. You +would have to show at prayers directly afterwards, you know, so it will +not make much difference. You have nothing to do with old Cookson +between this and supper--no exercise or anything?" + +"No, thank goodness!" + +"That's all right. You have a good hour for a nap, and your head will +be better then. I must go and sweeten myself now." + +I regret to say that "old Cookson" was the shockingly disrespectful way +in which this flagitious youth spoke of his reverend and learned tutor. + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +TOM BULLER. + +Weston College was a polishing-up establishment. Boys were not admitted +under the age of fourteen, or unless they showed a certain proficiency +in Greek and Latin, in the first book of Euclid, in arithmetic and +algebra up to simple equations. And the entrance examination, mind you, +was no farce. If a candidate was not well grounded they would not have +him; and it was necessary to be particular, because the first or lowest +form assumed a certain amount of knowledge in the commencement of that +course which proposed to land the neophyte in the Indian Civil Service, +the army, or a good scholarship at one of the universities. + +Though fourteen was the age of possible admission, very few boys were +qualified until they were at least a year older, and consequently there +was no organised system of fagging, and flogging was a very rare and +extreme measure; but otherwise the system somewhat resembled that of the +large public schools. The head-master and three other masters each had +a house full of boarders, whose preparation of lessons on certain +subjects he superintended; and every boy had a separate apartment, which +was his study and bedroom. + +It was an expensive school, and the discipline of Dr Jolliffe was more +lax than many parents and guardians quite liked; and yet few of the boys +who went there were rich. It was very rarely, that is, that one of them +had not to make his own way in the world. And the number, which was +limited, was always complete. For results speak for themselves, and the +examination lists showed triumphant successes for Weston. It is true +that if they only took boys of considerable proficiency, and got rid of +all who made no progress, they might be expected to show a good average; +but then, on the other hand, there was no cramming, and every +encouragement was given to healthy athletic exercise. Three or four +years were taken to do the work which is too often jammed into a few +months. That was the secret; and, though of course there were failures, +it answered well on the whole. + +This is an explanatory digression, just to let you know what sort of +stage our characters are acting upon. + +It was Saturday afternoon, and a half-holiday, and there was only one +boy left in Dr Jolliffe's house. His name was Buller, and he was +neither sick nor under punishment. His window was wide open, for it was +very hot and stuffy in his little room, into which the sun poured, and +on the other side of a lane which ran underneath was the cricket-field, +from which the thud of balls struck by the bat, voices, and laughter +resounded in a way to tempt any fellow out of his hole. But there he +stuck with his elbows on the table and his head in his hands, forcing +himself to concentrate his attention upon a book which lay open before +him. + +"Because _a divided by b_ equals _c divided by d_," he murmured, "the +first quotients _m m_ are equal. Yes, I see that; again, since _a +divided by b_ equals _m_ plus _x divided by b_, and _c divided by d_ +equals _m_ plus _r divided by d_, hum, hum, why, in the name of all +that's blue--oh, yes! I see. But then--oh, a thousand blisters on the +idiot who invented this rot! But I won't be licked." + +And he began again and again, sticking to it for another half-hour, when +he suddenly cried out, "I have it! What a double-distilled ass I am! +Of course it is simple enough. If _a divided by b_ equals _c divided by +d_, and _a_ and _b_ be prime to each other, _c_ and _d_ are +equimultiples of _a_ and _b_. Of course they are; how could they be +anything else? The other fellows saw it at once, no doubt. What a lot +of trouble it gives one to be a fool! Now, I'll go and practise +bowling." + +Buller was no fool; indeed he would not have thought himself one if he +had been; but he was slow at everything--learning, games, +accomplishments--though he had this compensation, no slight one either, +that when he had once mastered a thing he had got it for ever. His +school-fellows called him a duffer, but it did not vex him in the least, +for he considered it a mere statement of a patent fact, and was no more +offended than if they had said that he had two legs. But he had a +strong belief that perseverance, _sticking_, he called it, could make up +in a great measure for want of natural ability. The fable of the hare +and tortoise had given him great encouragement, and, finding in practice +that he passed boys who had far more brilliant parts than himself, he +never gave way to despair, however hopeless the task before him might +seem. + +His ambition--never expressed, however, to anyone--was to get into the +eleven. Had it been known it would have been thought the very height of +absurdity, and have become such a standing joke that its realisation +would have been rendered well nigh impossible. It proved that Buller +had sound sense that he was able to see this. He did not much expect to +succeed, but he meant to try all he knew, ever since the day he was +called "old butter-fingers" in a game in which he showed especial +incapacity to catch the ball. He began by mastering that; whenever he +could he got fellows to give him catches. He practised throwing the +ball up in the air and catching it again. When he went home for the +holidays he would carry a tennis-ball in his pocket, and take every +opportunity of throwing it against a wall and taking it at the rebound +with both hands, with the right hand, and with the left. At last he got +quite dexterous--and sinistrous, too, for that matter. + +But the mere fact of being able to manipulate the ball smartly, though +it is of supreme importance in cricket, would never gain him admission +into the eleven of his house, let alone that of the school. For that, +as he well knew, he must cultivate a speciality, and he decided upon +bowling. Wicket-keeping could only be practised in a regular game, and +no side would agree to let him fill the post--it was not likely. +Batting everyone wanted to practise, and it would be very rarely that he +would be able to get a good bowler to bowl for him. There was a +professional, indeed, who was always in the cricket-fields during the +season, but his services were generally in request, and, besides, they +were expensive, and Tom Buller had not much pocket-money. But there was +almost always some fellow who was glad to get balls given to him, and, +if not, you can set a stump up in front of a net and bowl at that. + +To have worked all this out in his mind did not look like lack of +intelligence or observation, and to act upon it steadily, without saying +a word about it to anybody, showed considerable steadfastness and +resolution. He now put his algebra and papers into his bureau, took out +his cricket-ball and ran down-stairs and round to the fields. At first +it seemed as if he would be obliged to have recourse to his solitary +stump, for, it being the Saturday half-holiday, there were two matches +going on, and those present not taking part in them were playing lawn- +tennis. But presently he espied Robarts, who had been in and out again +in the game he was engaged in, and was now waiting for the innings of +his side to be over, standing in front of a net, bat in hand, with two +boys bowling to him. + +"May I give you a ball, Robarts?" he asked. + +"Of course you may, Buller; the more the merrier," was the reply; "only, +if you are so wide as to miss the net, you must go after the ball +yourself." And Robarts raised his bat, prepared for a good swipe if the +ball came within reach, which he did not much expect. + +Buller measured his distance, took a short run, and sent the ball in +with the energy begotten of long mugging at algebra on a fine afternoon. +Every muscle in his body seemed to long for violent exertion; the pent- +up strength in him, like steam, demanded an outlet, and, with his hand +rather higher than the shoulder, he sent the ball in with a will. + +"By Jove! that was straight enough, and a hot one too!" exclaimed +Robarts, who had only just managed to block it. "It made my hands +tingle." + +The two others delivered their balls, which were hit away right and +left, and then Buller came again with another which had to be blocked. +The other bowlers who had been playing, and were going in again +presently, were glad to stop and leave Buller to work away alone, which +he did in a deliberate, determined manner, proving that his first +attempts were not chance shots. Twice he sent the wickets down, and +once, when the ball was driven back to him, he caught it with the left +hand, high up. + +"Well," said Robarts when he was called away to go and field, "and you +are the fellow they called a duffer! Why, it is like magic! Were you +playing dark last year, or what?" + +"No; but I have been practising." + +"You have practised to some purpose, then. If you could only vary your +bowling a little more you would be very dangerous. You see, if you +always send the same sort of ball, a fellow knows how to meet it after a +bit." + +Robarts as an all-round player was only reckoned inferior to Crawley, +and his words of approval were very gratifying to Buller, who felt +himself a step nearer one particular goal. He did not indulge in +daydreams, however, not being of an imaginative disposition. The actual +difficulty which he had to master at the time took up all his thoughts +and energies, and the distant object to be attained, though never +absolutely lost sight of, was never dwelt upon or brooded over. + +He at once looked about for someone else to bowl for, and found his +particular chum, Penryhn, who, after fagging out through the heat of the +day, had gone to the wicket with the sun in his eyes, and been clean +bowled the first ball. + +"Will you really bowl for me?" he said eagerly in reply to Buller's +offer. "What a good fellow you are!" + +"Why? for doing what I want? That is laying in a stock of good works +cheap. You won't mind a few wides, I hope; Robarts says there is too +great a sameness about my bowling, so I want to practise twisters and +shooters. You won't mind if I bowl at your legs?" + +"Not a bit; _ignis via_--fire away." + +The necessity for violent exertion had been taken out of Buller, indeed +it was now oozing away from every pore of his skin. So he did not try +fast bowling, except now and then when he attempted to put in a shooter, +but concentrated his attention principally upon placing his ball, or on +pitching it to leg with an inward twist towards the wicket. He +constantly failed; sent easy ones which were hit about to the peril of +neighbouring players; cut Penryhn over once on the knee-cap and once on +the ankle. But he never once delivered the ball carelessly, or without +a definite object. And when his arm got so tired that his mind could no +longer direct it, he left off and Penryhn bowled in turn to him, his +great object then being to keep an upright bat rather than to hit. + +"I'll tell you what, Tom, you have improved in your cricket awfully," +said Penryhn as they strolled back in the dusk. "Why, you took Robarts' +wickets twice." + +"Yes, but I should not have done it in a game; fellows step out and hit +recklessly in practice." + +"No matter for that; you are quite a different bowler from what you +were." + +"The fact is it takes me all my time to learn to do what comes to other +fellows naturally." + +"That's a bit too deep for me; some fellows can do one thing easily and +others another, and every fellow has to work hard to learn those things +which belong, as it were, to the other fellows. There are chaps, I +suppose, like the Admirable Crichton, who are born good all round, and +can play the fiddle, polish off Euclid, ride, shoot, lick anyone at any +game, all without the slightest trouble, but one does not come across +them often, thank goodness. I say, do you know what genius is?" + +"Not exactly; that is, I could not define it." + +"Well, I have heard my father say that some very clever chap has said +that it is `an infinite capacity for taking pains,' and if that's true, +by Jove, you must be a genius, Tom!" + +And they both burst out laughing at the notion, and went in and changed +their flannels. And Buller lit his candle and mugged at a German +exercise till the supper-bell rang. + +Half-holidays did not necessarily preclude work in the tutor's pupil- +rooms, which was preparatory to that in school, though practically the +hours of recreation were never interfered with in fine weather. But +after the hour of "All In," as the local phrase went, when the roll was +called, and every boy had to be in for the night, an hour which varied +with the time of the year, it was different. And on this Saturday +evening Mr Cookson had some arrears of Historical Theme correction to +make up. For since history plays a considerable part in modern +competitive examinations, every boy had to read up a certain portion of +some standard work every week, and write a theme upon it, without the +book, in the pupil-room. This theme was looked over with him by his +tutor before being sent in to the head-master, and if it did not reach a +certain standard it was torn up, and he had to read the subject again +and write another one. Edwards was one of the essayists whose paper had +not yet been examined, and he stood at this tutor's elbow while he read +it over. "`After he had been some years in England Sir Elijah Impey was +tried by Doctors' Commons.'" "_House_ of Commons, boy," said Mr +Cookson, "people are not impeached at Doctors' Commons, that's where +wills are proved," and he made a correction,--"`and proved he hadn't +murdered the rajah. And so Sir Philip Francis, the author of a book +called _Junius_, the writer of which was never discovered,'"--"why, +that's a bull;" Mr Cookson could not help chuckling as he made a dash +and a correction,--"`and deaf Burke,'"--"`I never heard that he was +deaf--oh, that was another man, a prize-fighter, ho, ho, ho, +ahem!'"--"`and Burke were very much ashamed of themselves, and were +hissed, and never alluded to the subject, from which originated the +phrase of "burking the question,"'"--"Pooh, pooh, never make shots like +that:"--"`and Sir Elijah Impey was found Not Guilty, and all his +property was taken from him to pay the lawyers with.'" "Well, well, it's +not so bad," said Mr Cookson, signing his name at the bottom of the +last page. "And now, Edwards," he added, turning and looking the boy +straight in the eyes, "I have a good mind to have you flogged." + +"Me, sir!" exclaimed Edwards, turning pale; "what for, sir?" + +"Doctor Jolliffe does not flog for many things, but there are certain +offences he never fails to visit with the utmost severity. Smoking is +one of them." + +"I assure you, sir, I have not--" + +"Lying is another, so do not finish your sentence. I can smell the +stale tobacco." + +And indeed Edwards was wearing the jacket in which he had indulged in +that emetical luxury, his first cigar, two evenings previously. + +"But really, sir, it is no lie," he urged; "I have not been smoking, and +I cannot tell where the smell comes from, unless it is my jacket, which +I wore in the holidays, when I sat in the room with my father when he +was having his cigar sometimes, and which has been in my box till the +other day. I am certain it cannot be my breath or anything else." + +"Come nearer; no, your breath and hair are free from the taint. Well, +it may be as you say, and I am loth to suspect you of falsehood. But +listen to me, my boy; I am not assuming that you have been smoking, +mind, but only, as we are on the subject, that you might do so. It may +seem very arbitrary that the rules against it are so very severe, +considering how general the practice is, but they are wise for all that. +However harmless it may be for those who have come to their full +growth, smoking tobacco is certainly very injurious to lads who are not +matured. And indeed until the habit is acquired--it affects the +digestion and the memory of every one. Now, in these days of +competitive examinations, when every young fellow on entering life has +to struggle to get his foot on the first rung of the ladder, and all his +future prospects depend on his doing better than others, how +inexpressibly silly it is for him to handicap himself needlessly by +taking a narcotic which confuses his brain and impairs his memory, and +which affords him no pleasure whatever. I treat you as a rational +being, and appeal to your common sense, and speak as your friend. Now, +go." + +Edwards was not such a ready liar as you may think him, though he +certainly prevaricated. He _had_ worn that jacket in his father's +smoking-room, and it _had_ lain in his box during the early part of the +term. He had not smoked again since the occasion commemorated, and that +was two days previously, and he persuaded himself that his tutor's +question applied to that day. But he knew in his heart that it didn't, +and with the kind tones of his tutor's voice ringing in his ears he felt +as if he ought to be kicked. + +But when he went up to his room he found Saurin there, and any feelings +of self-reproach he had had soon melted away. + +"What's up, now?" asked his friend. "You look as if you had seen a +ghost." + +"I nearly got into an awful row, I can tell you!" replied Edwards. "My +tutor smelt my jacket of smoke while he was correcting my theme." + +"By Jove! And how did you get out of it?" + +"I told him I had worn the jacket in my father's smoking-room." + +"Ha, ha, ha! that was a good un. Well done, old fellow! I did not +think you had so much presence of mind. You will make your way yet." + +Edwards was on the point of protesting that what he said was the fact, +but his guide, philosopher, and friend seemed so much pleased with the +ingenuity of his plea that he could not bear to rob himself of the +credit of it, and so he looked as knowing as he conveniently could, and +chuckled, taking a pride in what five minutes before he was ashamed of. + +"That's the worst of cigar-smoking, the smell clings so to the clothes +and hair. Now, a pipe is much easier to get sweet again after, unless, +of course, you carry it about in your pocket. Wore the jacket in your +father's smoking-room about a month ago! and old Cookson was soft enough +to swallow that. How old Slam would chuckle! I must tell him." + +"Do you know, I am not quite certain that my tutor did altogether +believe that I had not been smoking," said Edwards, his conscience +stirring again a little bit now that he saw the man who had spoken so +kindly to him incurring the terrible risk of forfeiting Saurin's esteem +through a false imputation of too great credulity. "You see, he's a +good-natured chap, and I think he wanted to believe if he could, and as +my hair and breath did not smell, he gave me the benefit of the doubt." + +"Thought it would bring discredit on his house if it were known to +contain a monster who smoked tobacco," said Saurin, "and so was glad to +pretend to believe the papa-smoking-room story. Well, it is possible; +old Cookson may not be so great a fool as he looks. Anyhow, I am glad +for your sake that he did not report you; old Jolliffe would not have +been humbugged. He would have said, `Your jacket stinks of tobacco, and +jackets don't smoke of themselves.' And you would have got it hot, old +fellow, for Jolliffe is mad against smoking." + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +AN OUTSIDE PROFESSOR. + +Saurin's master passion of vanity caused him to be fond of low company. +This may sound odd to some, because many vain people are sycophants, who +will do anything to be seen in the company of persons of title or high +social position, and who cut the acquaintance of old friends, and even +benefactors when they dare and can do without them, when they are of +inferior grade. These are contented to shine with a reflected light; +but Saurin's pride was of a different description, and he chafed at +being a satellite, and always wanted to figure as a sun, the centre of +his companions, who must revolve around him. How small a sun did not +matter. And so, though really possessed of considerable abilities, he +was happier when in the company of boors and clodhoppers, who owned his +superiority and deferred to all he said, than he was with his equals, +who presumed to question his opinions, differ in their tastes, and laugh +at his failures. This natural disposition had, unfortunately, been +fostered by circumstances. He was an only child, born in India, and had +been sent over to England in his early infancy, and committed to the +care of an uncle. His parents died before they could come home, and he +never knew them. His uncle and guardian lost his wife very soon after +the boy was sent to him. He was older and had settled in life very much +earlier than his brother, and his two children (girls) were married and +living, at a distance. He resided nominally in the country, but after +his wife's death lived a great deal in London. So there was no one to +look properly after the orphan, who associated with grooms and +gamekeepers, and played with the village boys. Unfortunately the best +of these went to work, and it was only the idle good-for-nothings who +were available as playmates. When his uncle had an inkling of what was +going on he sent him to school, where he did not get on badly so far as +learning was concerned, but unfortunately he did not unlearn the lessons +taught him by bumpkin ne'er-do-weels, and when he went home for the +holidays he renewed his acquaintance with them with fresh zest. He had +a good voice, and would sing to the revellers at harvest homes and other +rural festivities as they sipped their ale, and delighted in their +applause and wonder at his cleverness, and in the deference they paid +him. When he went to Weston his ambition took at first a higher flight, +and he dreamed of dominating the school. With this idea he began to +study with some ardour, and his natural ability enabled him to make good +progress. At all the games in which success brought consideration he +also tried to attain proficiency, and he endeavoured in every way he +could think of to court popularity. But there were others as clever and +cleverer than himself, as good and better at football, running, and +cricket, and very many whose manners and disposition were more +attractive. He had not got the patient persistency of Tom Buller, or +with his superior quickness he might have gone far towards success. But +he wanted to establish his position at a jump, and every failure +discouraged and irritated him. And so his efforts became more and more +spasmodic, and he confined himself to trying to become the head of a +clique. But his overbearing vanity and selfishness would show itself +too glaringly at times, and many who accepted him as a leader at first +grew weary of him, and Edwards was his only really faithful follower. +Therefore he fell back upon Slam's, where certain young farmers of the +neighbourhood, for whom he sometimes provided drink, applauded his songs +and jokes, and fooled him to the top of his bent. But he none the less +chafed at his want of appreciation in the school, and bitterly hated +Crawley, who in a great measure filled the place which he coveted. + +Since the cricket match in which he had figured so ignominiously, Saurin +had become a confirmed loafer, and frequented the old reprobate's yard +almost daily. And, indeed, a new attraction had been added to the +establishment. Wobbler, the pedestrian, a candidate for the ten-miles +championship of Somersetshire, was residing there during his training +for that world-renowned contest. It cannot be correctly said that +Wobbler was very good company, for indeed his conversational powers were +limited, which was perhaps fortunate, seeing that his language was not +very choice when he did speak. But he was a man of varied +accomplishments; not only could he walk, but he could run, and swim, and +box. Indeed he had only deserted the pugilistic for the pedestrian +profession because the former was such a poor means of livelihood, +closely watched as its members were by the police. Now, Saurin had long +wished to learn to box, an art which was not included in the curriculum +of the Weston gymnasium, and here was an opportunity. The professor's +terms were half-a-crown a lesson, provided there was a class of at least +four. The ordinary allowance of pocket-money at Weston was +eighteenpence a week, _plus_ tips, _plus_ what was brought back to +school after the holidays. In the words of Mr Slam, "it wouldn't run +to it." There were seven occasional frequenters of the forbidden yard +who were anxious to acquire the rudiments of the noble art of self- +defence, but half-a-crown a lesson was a prohibitive tariff. Indeed it +seemed contrary to principle to pay to learn anything. Saurin hit on a +way out of the difficulty; he wrote this letter to his guardian: + + "My dear Uncle,--I should like to learn gymnastics, fencing, boxing, + and those things, but the regular man appointed to teach such things + here is a duffer, and makes it a bore, keeping you at dumb-bells and + clubs and such stupid work for ever, just to make the course last out, + for the charges are monstrous. And so, hearing about this, Professor + Wobbler, a first-rate instructor, I am told, has engaged a room in the + neighbourhood, where he gives lessons at half-a-crown each, or a + course of ten for one pound. It has to be kept secret, because the + man appointed by the school would have the boys forbidden to go there + if he knew. If you don't mind, will you please send the pound to me + or to Professor Wobbler. I will send you his receipt if you pay him + through me. Please do not mention the matter if it does not meet with + your approval, as I should be very sorry to take the poor man's bread + out of his mouth." + +This part of the epistle, a cunning combination of the _suppressio veri_ +and _suggestio falsi_, was given to all the others who were in the plot +to copy. I am sorry to say that in several instances, including those +of Saurin and Edwards, it was successful, and the class was formed. + +The professor was not beautiful to look at. His forehead was low and +projecting, his eyes small, his nose flat, his lower jaw square and +massive. Neither were his words of instruction characterised by that +elegance which public lecturers often affect, but they were practical +and to the point, which after all is the chief thing to be looked at. + +"You stands easy like," he said to Saurin, who was taking his first +lesson in an unfurnished room of Slam's house, the fine weather having +terminated in a thunderstorm, and a wet week to follow. "Don't plant +your feet as if you meant to grow to the floor, and keep your knees +straight--no, not stiff like that, I mean don't bend them. You wants to +step forwards or to step backwards, quick as a wink, always moving the +rear foot first, or else you'd stumble over it and get off your balance, +and that would give t'other a chance. You must be wary, wary, ready to +step up and hit, or step back out of reach. Keep your heyes on +t'other's, and that will help you to judge the distance. Take 'em off +for a bit of a second and you'll have his mawley well on your nose at +once. Now, your left arm and fut in advance, not too much; keep your +body square to the front. Your right arm across, guarding what we calls +the mark, that's just above the belt, where the wind is. Let your left +play up and down free, your foot and body moving with it graceful like. +That's better. Now, try to hit me in the face as hard as you can; you +won't do it, no fear; I should like to bet a pound to a shilling on that +every time, and I won't hold my hands up neither. It's just to show yer +what judging the distance is." + +Saurin hesitated at first, and hit gently; but urged to try his best he +at last struck out sharply, but could not reach the professor's visage. +Sometimes he turned it slightly to the right, sometimes to the left, and +the blow went past his ear. Some times he just drew his head back, and +the pupil's fist came to within an inch of what he called his nose, but +never touched it. This was a way the professor had of showing his +credentials--it was his unwritten diploma proving his efficiency to +instruct in the noble art. After this the boxing gloves were put on, +and the pupil was directed to walk round the professor in a springy +manner, leading off at his face, the instructor throwing off the blows +with an upward movement of the right arm. Next, after a pause for rest, +they went on again, Saurin leading off, the professor parrying and +returning the blow, slowly at first, then quicker as the pupil gained +skill and confidence in warding off the hit. Then the instructor led +off, and the pupil parried and returned. Then one, two, three, four. +And so the first lesson ended, and Stubbs, who was another of the class, +was taken in hand. Now Stubbs had naturally let his beloved Topper +loose as he passed through the yard, and the dog followed him into the +room where the lesson was going on. So long as Stubbs led off at the +professor Topper was quiet and happy; his master he thought was worrying +someone, it was his human equivalent to killing a rat; but when the +professor led off at _him_, the case was different, and Topper, without +warning, went straight at the supposed assailant's throat. Fortunately +the professor had a bird's-eye handkerchief round his neck, which +protected it from the dog's teeth, for Topper sprang right up and fixed +him. It was frightful to look at, but Stubbs had the presence of mind +to seize his animal round the throat with both hands immediately and +drag him away; his teeth were so firmly set in the handkerchief that +that came too. No one is a hero at all hours, and Wobbler came as near +being frightened as a soldier or a pugilist can be supposed, without +libel, to do. This made him angry, and he used language towards the dog +and his anatomy, and his own anatomy, which is not customary in polite +society. Stubbs carried the offender down to his kennel and chained him +up, and on his return offered a peace-offering of beer, which was well +meant but unkind, seeing that the professor was in training and +restricted as to his potations. However, Topper's fangs had not broken +the skin, thanks to the handkerchief, though certainly not to Topper. +Mr Wobbler recovered his equanimity, and affably condescended to +apologise for his remarks. + +"I'm almost afeard as I swore, gents," he observed, and his fear was +certainly well founded. "I was a trifled startled, you see, and +expressed myself as I felt, strong. Bull-terriers is nice dogs, and I'm +very partial to them, in their proper place, but that's not a hanging on +to my wind pipe; at least that's _my_ opinion. But I'm sorry if I spoke +rough, which is not in my habits. Nobody can say that Job Wobbler is +uncivil to his backers or his patrons." + +A speech which was perhaps rather lacking in dignity for a professor. +The lesson then went on, and was succeeded by others, sometimes in the +room, sometimes in the orchard, according to the weather. And when the +pupils had attained a certain degree of proficiency they were paired off +against one another, first for leads-off, at the head, parry and return +at the body, stop and return at the head, and so forth. Finally, for +loose sparring, the professor standing by and stopping them when they +got wild, or began punching indiscriminately. Saurin made considerable +progress, and was a long way the best of the class--so much so, indeed, +that he had to play lightly with the others, or they would not all set +to with him. Even such a critic as Slam expressed his approval, and +this superiority was sugar and sack to Saurin, being indeed the first +consolation he had received since the mortification of being turned out +of the eleven. But, alas! sparring was not a recognised item of Weston +athletics, and he could not gain the applause of the whole school by his +proficiency, which was only known to a very few of the initiated. +Unless, indeed,--and here a thought which had long lain dormant in his +mind, for the first time assumed a distinct shape. Suppose he happened +to come to an open outbreak with Crawley, and it ended in a fight, what +an opportunity it would be to gratify his ambition and his hatred at the +same time! He did not actually plan anything of the kind, or say to +himself that he would pick a quarrel. The idea was merely a fancy, a +daydream. Man or boy must be bold as well as bad deliberately to form a +scheme for bringing about an encounter with a formidable enemy, and +Saurin was not particularly bold, certainly not rashly so, and Crawley +would be likely to prove a very awkward customer. Instructors of any +sort, whether they are professors of mathematics, or Hebrew, or of +dancing, or boxing, have this in common, that they are sure to take a +special interest in apt pupils; and so Mr Wobbler paid more attention +to Saurin than to the others, and showed him certain tricks, feints, and +devices which he did not favour everybody with. He also gave him some +hints in wrestling, and taught him the throw called the cross-buttock. +Saurin used likewise to go to the highroad along which the professor +took his daily walks in preparation for his match, and sometimes held +the stop-watch for him, and learned how to walk or run in a way to +attain the maximum of speed with a minimum of exertion. The mere +learning to box, and the necessary association with a man like Wobbler, +would not have done the boys much harm of itself. The deception +practised in order to obtain the money to pay him with, and the skulking +and dodging necessary for approaching and leaving Slam's premises +without being seen, were far more injurious to them, especially since +the great freedom allowed to the boys at Weston was granted on the +assumption that they would not take advantage of it to frequent places +which were distinctly forbidden. And to do them justice, the great +majority felt that they were on honour, and did not abuse the trust. +But for Saurin, and for Edwards and a few others who followed Saurin's +lead, the mischief did not end here. Mr Wobbler sometimes unbended-- +Mr Saurin was such a "haffable gent" there was no resisting him--and +told anecdotes of his past experiences, which were the reverse of +edifying. It was a curious fact that every action upon which he prided +himself, or which he admired in his friends, was of a more or less +fraudulent nature; and Mr Slam, who was always present on these +occasions, shared these sentiments, and contributed similar +reminiscences of his own. It was true that the boys looked upon these +two, and upon the young sporting farmers who sometimes dropped in, and +boasted of poaching, and horse-cheating exploits in a spirit of +emulation, as "cads," who had a different code from their own; but it is +very difficult to associate with persons of any station in life who +think it clever to defraud others, and consider impunity as the only +test of right or wrong, and to laugh at their dishonourable tricks, +without blunting our own moral sense. We cannot touch pitch without +being defiled. + +Another great evil was the beer-drinking, at any time, whether they were +thirsty or not, which went on. Worse still, spirits were sometimes +introduced. The frequenters of Slam's spent all their pocket-money at +that place in one way or another; and the pity of it was, that most of +them would much rather, certainly at starting, have laid it out in +oyster-patties, strawberry messes, and ices, than in forming habits +which they would very probably give their right arms to be rid of in +after-life. The best hope for them, next to being found out, was that +their course of boxing lessons would soon be over, and Mr Wobbler would +go away to walk his match and clear out of the neighbourhood, and that +then they would give up frequenting this disreputable hole before the +bad habits which they were so sedulously acquiring got a complete hold +upon them. As it was at present, Topper was the only living being that +had tried to do a good turn for them; if he had succeeded in worrying +the professor, the whole clique would have broken up. + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +HOSTILITIES COMMENCED. + +Many Weston boys who had nothing to do with Slam, who did not care for +ratting, and saw no fun in being the proprietor of a dog that could only +be seen occasionally and by stealth, took a perfectly legitimate +interest in Wobbler as a competitor in the Somersetshire ten-miles +championship, and when it became generally known that he was training in +the neighbourhood (which was not for some time, nor until the number of +boxing lessons subscribed for by the Saurin class had been pretty well +exhausted), a good many repaired when time allowed to the nice bit of +straight highroad some two miles off where the pedestrian pounded along +daily, with his body inclined somewhat forward, his arms held in front +of his chest, a little stick in his right hand, fair heel and toe, at a +rate of over seven miles in the hour. A group, of which Penryhn was +one, were walking in that direction one afternoon, when Buller overtook +them at a sharp run, pulling up alongside his friend. + +"So you have come then after all?" said Penryhn. + +"Yes," replied Buller, mopping his forehead. "I finished the task I set +myself directly after you started, and thought I could catch you up. +But it's hot!" + +"Is it true that you have been elected into the house eleven?" + +"Yes," replied Buller; "it seems rum, doesn't it?" + +"I don't know why it should. I am sure I am very glad, old fellow, for +I know that you wished it." + +"Well, yes I did. I am uncommonly fond of cricket, don't you see, and +have tried hard to improve." + +"That you must have done, by Jove! But how was it?" + +"Well, Robarts said something to Crawley, and Crawley came up to me the +day before yesterday and said he had heard that I could bowl a bit; +would I come and give him a few balls. So I went and bowled to him for +an hour, and the result was that he called a house meeting, and I was +put into the eleven." + +"You will be in the school eleven next year, you see." + +"I don't know," replied Buller; "it depends on how I get on, you know. +I might make a regular mull of it." + +"Bosh! not you; you have gone on improving too steadily for that," said +Penryhn confidently. "This is one of the milestones the chap comes to; +he will be here presently if we wait. What's the row over there?" + +"Oh! one of those men with images, and some of our fellows, Saurin, +Edwards, and that lot, chaffing him." + +An Italian with a large tray of plaster of Paris figures on his head was +tramping from one town to another, and seeing the groups of boys +gathered in different parts of the road, thought he might do a stroke of +business, so taking down the tray he solicited attention. + +"I makes them all myself; I am poor man, but artist." + +"Ah! and how do you sell them?" asked Saurin. + +"Sheap, oh mosh too sheap; what you like to give." + +"Will you take a shilling for the whole lot?" + +"Oh! young gentleman, you make fun, you joke. Ha, ha! One shilling for +the beautiful little statues! What joke!" + +"Too much, is it? I thought so; not but what they would make capital +cockshies." + +A large pile of flints, hammered into a convenient size and form for +missiles, lay handy, ready for repairing the road, and the coincidence +caused Saurin's idea to become popular at once. + +"Let's have one for a cockshy. Here's Bismark." + +"He's a German, and I hate German; most abominable language I have had +to tackle yet. Stick Bismark up on that gate, and we will shy from the +other side of the road. Stick him up, I say, you jabbering idiot." + +"Oh! sare, what pity to throw stone at the beautiful cast! Buy him and +take him home, no break him." + +In spite of his remonstrances the great chancellor was set up on the +five-barred gate, and the boys began to pelt him from the heap of stones +on the opposite side of the road. + +"And who is to pay me for my beautiful images?" asked the Italian, in +some trepidation for his money, it being difficult to say which of all +these eccentric young savages was the actual purchaser. + +"Oh! whoever does not hit it shall owe you for it." + +"But I should like that you pay now, before you throw." + +"Why, you idiot, how can we tell who hits and who misses beforehand. +Stand out of the way can't you!" + +"Good shot!" "That was near." "That has got him!" and down went the +bust in fragments. Then a Cupid was exposed to missiles far more +substantial than his own, and succumbed. His mama was next sent up by +these young Goths; fancy Venus herself being put in the pillory and +stoned! What one thing after that could they be expected to respect? +Not the infant Samuel, who, in spite of his supplicatory attitude, found +no pity. Not Sir Garnet Wolseley, who was exposed to as hot a fire as +he had ever been under before, with worse luck; not Mr Gladstone, nor +Minerva, nor Tennyson. The spirit of mischief, the thirst for +destruction, grew wilder by gratification, and soon the whole stock of +models was reduced to a heap of plaster fragments. + +"Ah! well, I have sell them all quick to-day," said the Italian, putting +a good face on the business, which yet looked to him rather doubtful, +and it is very rare for people to indulge in mischief at their own +expense. "It is twenty shilling, one pound you owe me, sare," he added +to Saurin. + +"I owe you!" cried Saurin. "I like that! Why, I hit more of them than +anyone else, and it was those who missed the lot who were to be +responsible. Go to them, man." + +"Oh! gentleman, kind gentleman, you are making fun of me. You speak to +me first; you say, `Put up the figures for shy.' I poor man, you +gentleman. You laugh! Give me my money, you sare, or you, or you;" and +the Italian grasped his long black hair with both hands, and danced +about in a manner which amused his tormentors greatly, and their +laughter put him a rage. + +"You rob me," he cried, "I will go to the police; I will have you put in +prison if you no pay me. Give me my money." + +"We will make a cockshy of you if you don't look out," said one; and +another actually threw a stone at him, an example which others were +preparing to follow, when Crawley, with a group of boys who had seen +nothing of the early part of the business, came up, and seemed inclined +to take the Italian's part. The aggressors dropped their stones quietly +and began to slip away. + +"It's a beastly shame, and a disgrace to the school," said Crawley +indignantly. Saurin heard him as he hurried off, and if he had had any +money in his pocket he would have turned back, thrown it to the image +man, and asked Crawley what he meant. But being without funds he was +obliged to make off while he could, or the Italian would fix on him and +follow him home. For to break away and show him a fair pair of heels +across country would be impossible after an altercation with his school- +fellow; it would be putting himself in too humiliating a position. So +he walked on at a sharp pace, choking with suppressed passion. + +"Where he live, that fellow; where he live?" cried the Italian. "Per +Baccho, I will have the police to him! You know him, excellenza; tell +me where he live?" + +"I will not tell you that," said Crawley. "But here's half-a-crown for +you." + +A considerable number of boys had now collected, and as example, whether +for good or evil, has an extraordinary effect on either boys or men, a +collection was started. Some gave a shilling, some sixpence, and a sum +of ten shillings was made up altogether, which was probably quite as +much as the figures were worth. So the Italian calmed down and dried +his eyes, for he had been crying like a child, and with a profusion of +thanks took up his board and went his way. And it being time to go back +to Weston, all the boys started off in that direction, leaving Mr +Wobbler to tramp backwards and forwards between his milestones in +solitude. Of course some kind friend told all this to Saurin, and it +exasperated him still more, if that was possible. One thing he was +determined upon, Crawley must be repaid the money he had given to the +Italian figure-seller at once. After hunting in all his waistcoat +pockets and his drawers he could only raise eighteenpence, so he went to +Edwards' room. + +"Look here, old fellow," he said; "lend me a shilling till Monday, I +want it particularly." + +"I'm awfully sorry," replied Edwards, "I have not got one." + +"I'll pay you back on Monday, honour bright." + +"I know you would; it isn't that. I assure you I am not making excuses; +you should have it directly if it were possible; but I am as penniless +as a fellow can be, not so much as a postage-stamp have I got." + +"I must get a shilling somehow; whom to ask?" + +"Ask Griffiths; he always has money," suggested Edwards. + +"Hang the fellow, yes," said Saurin. "But he will make such a favour of +it if he lends it, and he is just as likely as not to refuse. I have +it, though! He offered me half-a-crown for my crossbow last term, and I +would not let him have it; he shall now." + +The crossbow in question was an ingenious little thing about six inches +long, the bow of steel, the string of catgut, the stock and barrel of +wood, and it projected marbles or spherical bullets with very +considerable force. It would raise a bump on the head at twenty yards, +and break a window at thirty. Griffiths also lived in Mr Cookson's +house, so that Saurin had only to go to his own room, get out, dust, and +rub up the article, which had lain in a corner forgotten, and go up the +other staircase. + +"I say, Griffiths," he began; "in turning out some old things I have +just come across this little steel bow which you wanted to buy of me, +you know. I am tired of it now, and so you can have it if you like. +Half-a-crown, I think, you said that you would give, was it not?" + +Griffiths coveted the toy as much or more than ever he had done, but he +was a born dealer; and when he saw that the other was anxious to sell he +assumed indifference in order to lower the price. + +"Why, you see," he said, "last term is not this term. I was pretty +flush just then, and had a fancy for the thing. Now the money has gone, +and I don't so much care." + +"You won't have it then? oh! very well; all right." + +"Stop, don't be in a hurry; I'll give you eighteenpence for it." + +"Make it two shillings," urged Saurin. + +"No; eighteenpence or nothing," Griffiths persisted. + +"You old Jew! Well, here it is then," said Saurin. + +"Have you got a shilling?" asked Griffiths. "I have only got half-a- +crown; but if you can give me change--" + +Saurin took the coin, giving back a shilling without further remark. He +was thinking that it would be more effective to offer Crawley the larger +coin, instead of fumbling with small money, and the notion pleased him. +Besides he was not particularly disappointed; so long as he got what he +wanted at the moment, it was not his nature to look much further. But +he did not sleep much that night. Again this Crawley had scored off +him, by putting himself in the position of generous benefactor and +chivalrous defender of the weak, with him (Saurin) for his foil. There +was one comfort; he was not so much afraid of Crawley as he did not +conceal from himself that he had once been. Hitherto he had feared that +if it came to a quarrel, he would not get the best of it, and this had +caused him to restrain himself on many occasions when he had longed to +give vent to his feelings. But, now that he had skill and science on +his side, the case was different, and the balance in his favour; and if +this wonderful Crawley, whom everybody made such a fuss about, did not +like what he had to say to him, he might do the other thing. + +The boys were gathered about the quadrangle in groups, waiting to go in +for eight o'clock school, for the different class-rooms were not open +till the master of each came with his key and unlocked the door, by +which time all the class were expected to be outside, ready to go in +with him. And so it was the custom to assemble rather early, and now, +though it was ten minutes to the hour by the big clock, the majority had +arrived. Directly Saurin came he looked for Crawley, and saw him +standing chatting with some other fellows. He walked straight up to +him. + +"Oh, Crawley!" he said, "I hear that you paid that Italian blackguard +half-a-crown for his broken crockery yesterday, and since he made his +claim upon _me_, though I owed him nothing, I don't choose to let it +look as if you had paid anything for me, so here is your money back;" +and he tendered the half-crown, which the other did not put his hand out +to receive. This exasperated Saurin still more. "Take it," he said; +"only I'll thank you not to be so confoundedly officious again." + +"I don't want your money," said Crawley quietly. "You are entirely +mistaken; I paid nothing for you. If I knew the image man's address I +would forward him your half-crown, but I do not. So you must hunt it up +for yourself if you want to make restitution." + +"But you paid him the money." + +"That was an act of private charity. The man whom you call a +blackguard--I don't know why, for _he_ had not been destroying any +defenceless person's property--had had a scoundrelly trick played him, +and I and some other fellows got up a subscription for him, as anyone +with a spark of gentlemanly feeling would be inclined to do. I am sorry +that your contribution is tendered too late, but so it is." + +"So you call me a blackguard and a scoundrel, do you?" hissed Saurin, +who was quite beside himself with rage; and certainly Crawley's speech +was the reverse of soothing. "You stuck-up, hypocritical, canting, +conceited prig, I should like to break your nose for you." + +"Break away, my hearty," said Crawley, putting his hands up; "but I am +not a plaster of Paris image, mind you, and can hit back." + +The sneer was another spur to Saurin's passion; his temples throbbed as +if they would burst, and his look was as evil as a painter, wanting a +model for Mephistopheles, could have desired, as he sprang at his enemy +with an inarticulate cry, and struck at him with all his force. The +boys closed round them, eager, expectant, those at a distance running +up. But blows were hardly exchanged before someone cried, "Look out; +here's the Doctor!" and the combatants were separated, and the crowd +dispersed in an instant. + +"We will meet again, I hope," said Saurin. + +"Any time you like," replied Crawley. + +"On Saturday afternoon in The Dell, then." + +"I shall be there, and I hope we shall not be interrupted." And they +walked off in different directions, trying to look as if nothing was the +matter, which was not so easy, Saurin being hardly able to restrain his +excitement, and Crawley being flushed about the forehead, where the +other's fist had struck him; otherwise he was no more discomposed than +usual, and, being put on to construe soon after entering the school, +acquitted himself very well and with the most perfect _sang froid_. +Fortunately Saurin was not subjected to the same ordeal or he would have +been considerably flustered, if not totally unable to fix his mind on +the subject; and he might have excited suspicion as to something unusual +going on, which again might have caused inquiry, and so spoiled sport. +But he was not called up, the redness of Crawley's brow remained +unnoticed, and all was satisfactory. This was Thursday, so there was a +day's intermission before the fight, which was the general school topic. +The weather, which had been very fine in the early part of the term, +had broken up, the sodden grass was unfavourable for cricket and lawn- +tennis, so that this little excitement came in just at the convenient +time. I wonder why everything connected with fighting is so +interesting! Little children love playing at soldiers best of all +games, and delight in destroying whole tin armies with pea-shooting +artillery. With what silent eagerness the newspapers are devoured in +war-time when the details of a battle appear! If two cocks in a farm- +yard get at one another the heaviest bumpkin from the plough-tail, who +seems incapable of an emotion, grows animated. I suppose it is because +of the animal nature of which we partake which frequently excites us to +prey on other animals and quarrel with one another. Fights were very +rare at Weston, but they took place occasionally, and there was even a +traditional spot called the Fairies' Dell, or more commonly The Dell, +where they were brought off. But for a boy of the standing and position +of Crawley,--in the highest form, captain of the eleven, secretary and +treasurer of the cricket and football clubs--to be engaged in such an +affair was unprecedented, and the interest taken in it was so great as +to set the whole school in a ferment. The dislike borne by Saurin to +the other was well known, as also that he had attributed his expulsion +from the eleven to him, though unjustly, since public opinion had been +well nigh unanimous on the point. As for the chances of the combatants, +only the small clique who frequented Slam's, most of whom had seen him +sparring with the gloves, favoured that of Saurin. The general idea was +that the latter was mad to try conclusions with one so superior to him +in every way, and that Crawley would lick him into fits in about ten +minutes. As for the champions themselves, they awaited the ordeal in +very different frames of mind. To Crawley the whole thing was an +unmitigated bore. It would get him into some trouble with the +authorities probably; it was inconsistent with his position in the +school, and was setting a bad example; then he could hardly expect to +avoid a black eye, and it was only three weeks to the holidays, by which +time his bruises would hardly have time to disappear. His family were +staying for the summer at Scarborough, and his sisters wrote him +enthusiastic accounts of the lawn-tennis parties there. How could he +present himself in decent society, with one of his eyes in mourning? +But he saw something comic in his own annoyance, and it did not affect +him sufficiently to interfere with his studies or amusements. He +neither feared the contest nor desired it. He had no wish to quarrel +with Saurin, a fellow he did not care for, it is true, but whom he did +not think sufficiently about to dislike. He thought rather better of +him for having the pluck to attack him, and was a little ashamed of his +own bitter words which had goaded the other into doing it. But really +the fellow had addressed him in such an overbearing and insolent manner +that he could not help replying as he did. After all, if he had to +fight someone, he would rather it were Saurin than anyone else, since he +appeared to hate him so much. + +But if Crawley was cool about the matter, his antagonist was very much +the reverse. When his passion expended itself, he was not free from +apprehension of the consequences of what he had done. Supposing he were +ignominiously defeated, after having provoked the contest, what a +humiliating position he would be placed in? In every way in which he +had competed with Crawley he had hitherto been worsted, and he could not +help fearing lest this superiority should still be maintained. However, +the die was cast, he was in for it now, and must go through with it as +best he could, and, after all, his recently acquired skill must stand +him in good stead. Reason in this way as he might, however, he was +nervous, and could not settle to anything for long. On Friday night, +while Crawley was working in his room, there came a knock at the door, +and when he called out, "Come in!" Tom Buller entered. + +"I have got something I want to tell you, Crawley," he said. "I have +just found out that Saurin has been taking lessons in boxing." + +"Oh! of whom? Stubbs, Edwards, or someone equally formidable?" + +"No; of Wobbler the pedestrian, who was once a pugilist, and who has +been giving boxing lessons at Slam's." + +"Oh! I see, that is what has screwed his courage up to the proper +pitch. I understand it all now." + +"Yes, but avoid wrestling with him; he is good at the cross-buttock, I +hear. May I be your second?" + +"Certainly you may, if you like; Robarts is the other, and thank you for +wishing it, Buller." + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +THE FIGHT. + +Beyond the fields where cricket was played there was a little wood, and +in this wood a circular hollow, like a pond, only there was no water in +it. It was a wonderful spot for wild flowers in the spring, and that +was probably the reason why some romantic person had named it The +Fairies' Dell. The boys, who were not romantic, as a rule, dropped the +Fairies, and called it The Dell. As has been said, this spot was chosen +as the arena for the few fistic encounters which the annals of Weston +could enumerate, and a better place for the purpose there could hardly +be. There was plenty of room for a ring at the bottom, and the gently +sloping sides would accommodate a large number of spectators, all of +whom had a good sight of what was going on, while the whole party were +concealed from view. + +At four o'clock on the Saturday afternoon this hollow was thickly +studded with Westonians, and all the best places taken. The masters +usually took advantage of the half-holiday to go out somewhere for the +afternoon, but still ordinary precautions to avoid observation had not +been neglected. The boys did not repair to the appointed spot in large +noisy bodies, but in small groups, quietly and unostentatiously. Some +of them took their bats and balls out, and began playing at cricket, and +then stole off to the rendezvous, which was close to them. Saurin was +first on the ground; he stood under the trees at the edge of the dell +with Edwards and Stubbs, who acted as his seconds, trying to laugh and +chat in an unconcerned manner, but he was pale, could hardly keep +himself still in one position, and frequently glanced stealthily in the +direction by which the other would come. Not to blink matters between +the reader and myself, he was in a funk. Not exactly a _blue_ funk, you +know, but still he did not half like it, and wished he was well out of +it. + +Presently there was a murmur, and a movement, and Crawley, with Robarts +and Tom Buller on each side of him, and a knot of others following, +appeared. Without saying a word both boys went down the sides of the +dell to the circular space which had been carefully left for them at the +bottom, took off their jackets, waistcoats, and braces, and gave them to +their seconds, who folded them up and laid them aside, tied pocket- +handkerchiefs round their waists, turned up the bottoms of their +trousers, and stepped into the middle of the arena. + +"Won't you offer to shake hands?" said Stubbs to Saurin. "I believe it +is usual on such occasions." + +"Pooh!" replied Saurin, "that is in friendly encounters, to show there +is no malice. There is plenty of malice here, I can promise you." He +finished rolling up his shirt sleeves to the armpits as he spoke, and +walked to the middle of the ring, where Crawley confronted him. All +were wrapped in breathless attention as the two put up their hands, and +every note of a thrush singing in a tree hard by could be distinctly +heard. + +The two boys were just about the same height and age, but Crawley had a +slightly longer reach in the arms, and was decidedly more "fit" and +muscular. But, on the other hand, it was evident directly they put +their hands up, that Saurin was the greatest adept at the business. The +carriage of his head and body, and the way he worked his arm and foot +together, showed this. He moved round his adversary, advancing, +retiring, feinting, watching for an opening. Crawley stood firm, with +his eyes fixed on those of his antagonist, merely turning sufficiently +to face him. At length Saurin, judging his distance, sent out his left +hand sharply, and caught Crawley on the right cheekbone. Crawley hit +back in return, but beat the air; Saurin was away. Again Saurin came +weaving in, and again he put a hit in without a return. The same thing +happened a third, a fourth, and a fifth time, and then Crawley, stung by +the blows, went at the other wildly, hitting right and left, but, over- +reaching himself, lost his balance and rolled over. The lookers on were +astonished; they had expected Saurin to be beaten from the first, and +though Crawley was so popular, murmurs of applause were heard, such is +the effect of success. Buller knelt on his left knee so that Crawley +might sit on his right. In the same manner Saurin sat on Edwards' knee. +Saurin's face had not been touched, while that of Crawley was flushed +and bleeding. + +"You will not be able to touch his face just yet," said Buller. "Fight +at his body and try to hit him in the wind. And never mind what I said +yesterday about closing with him, we must risk his cross-buttock, and +your superior strength may serve you." + +"Time! time!" cried the boys, and the antagonists jumped up from their +seconds' knees, and met again. Saurin had lost all his nervousness now; +his superiority was evident, and he felt nothing but triumph and +gratified malice. He did not stop to spar now, but directly he was +within reach hit out with confidence. Crawley took the blow without +flinching or attempting to parry it, and sent his right fist with all +his strength into Saurin's ribs, just as Buller had directed him. +Saurin recovered himself, and the round went on, Crawley being further +mauled about the face, neck, and head, but getting a hit in now on the +other's body, now a round right-hander on his side or the small of his +back. In the end they grappled, wrestled, and rolled over together, and +were then helped by their seconds to their respective corners. Saurin's +face was still untouched, but he puffed and panted for breath, and +seemed to feel the effect of the body blows. + +"That is capital," said Buller to Crawley; "stick to that for the +present, he will soon begin to tire." + +"Why, Buller, you seem to be quite up to this sort of thing!" said +Robarts in surprise. + +"My elder brother went in for the Queensbury cups, and is always talking +about boxing and fighting: that's how I know," replied Buller quietly. + +"And that is why you wished to be my second?" asked Crawley, who, though +his face was a pitiable object, was perfectly cool and self-possessed, +and not a bit blown or tired. + +"Yes," replied Buller; and "Time!" was again called. + +The mass of the spectators looked upon the fight as won by Saurin +already, and all the cheering was for him now. This opinion was further +strengthened presently, for Crawley, seeing his antagonist panting, +thought that at last he might get on equal terms with him, and rushed in +to fight at close quarters, but he was met by a straight blow from +Saurin's left fist right between the eyes, which knocked him fairly down +on the broad of his back, where he lay quite dazed for a moment, till +Robarts and Buller assisted him to his corner. The cheering and the +cries of "Bravo, Saurin!" "Well hit, Saurin!" were loud and long; many +thought that Crawley would not come up again. But though puffed about +both eyes, and with a considerably swollen nose, Crawley was soon all +right again, and as lively as when he began. + +"If I only could mark him!" he said to his seconds. "It is so absurd to +see him with his face untouched." + +"Wait a bit," replied Buller. "Keep on pegging at his body and +wrestling; I'll tell you when to go for his face. He is getting weaker +for all that hit last round." + +This was true, for Saurin's blows, though they got home, had no longer +the force they had at first. In one round, after a severe struggle, he +threw Crawley heavily, but the exertion told more upon himself than upon +the one thrown. And he began to flinch from the body blows, and keep +his hands down. Loafing, beer-drinking, and smoking began to tell their +tale, in fact, and at last Buller said, "Now you may try to give him one +or two in the face." + +They had been at it nearly half an hour, and Crawley, who had been +taking hard exercise daily and leading a healthy temperate life, was as +strong as when he first took his jacket off. He could hardly see out of +his right eye, and his face and neck were so bruised and tender that +every fresh blow he received gave him exquisite pain. But his wits were +quite clear, he had not lost his temper, and when down, in a few minutes +he was ready to stand up again. He easily warded off a nerveless blow +of his antagonist, returned it with one from his left hand on the body, +and then sent his right fist for the first time straight into Saurin's +face. Saurin got confused and turned half round; Crawley following up +his advantage, followed him up step by step round the ring, and at last +fairly fought him down amidst cheers from the boys, the tide of +popularity turning in his favour again. + +"You have marked him now, and no mistake," said Buller to Crawley as he +sat on his knee. And there could be no doubt about that. The revulsion +of feeling Saurin had gone through was great. After establishing his +superiority, and feeling confident of an easy victory, to find his +adversary refuse so persistently to know when he was beaten! To see him +come up time after time to take more hammering without flinching was +like a nightmare. And he felt his own strength going from the sheer +exertion of hitting; and when he knocked Crawley down he hurt his left +hand, which it was painful to strike with afterwards. Again, the body +blows he received and thought little of at first began to make him feel +queer, and now, when the other took a decided lead, he lost his head and +got wild. For he was not thoroughly "game:" he had not got that +stubborn, somewhat sullen spirit of endurance which used to be so great +a characteristic of the English, and we will hope is not extinct yet, +for it would be sad indeed to think that it had passed away. A +brilliant act of daring with plenty of spectators and high hope of +success is one thing; but to stand at bay when all chance seems gone, +determined to die hard and never give in, is quite another. I like to +see a fellow spurting when he is distanced; catching his horse, +remounting, and going in pursuit after a bad fall; going back to his +books and reading harder than ever for another try directly the list has +come out without his name in it--never beaten, in short, until the last +remotest chance is over. That is the spirit which won at Agincourt, at +Waterloo, at Meeanee, at Dubba, at Lucknow, at Rorke's Drift. It was +this that Saurin was deficient in, and that would have now stood him in +such stead. Edwards was not the one to infuse any of it into him, for +he was as much dismayed by the effects of the last round as his friend +himself. Stubbs, indeed, tried to cheer him, inciting him to pull +himself together, spar for wind, and look out for a chance with his +sound right hand, but he was not a youth to carry influence with him. + +In the next round Crawley closed with his adversary, who, when he at +last struggled loose, rolled ignominiously over on the ground, and in +point of beauty there was nothing to choose now between the visages of +the two combatants. + +"I--I can't fight any more," said Saurin, as he was held up on Edwards' +knee, to which he had been dragged with some difficulty. + +"Oh! have another go at him," urged Stubbs; "he is as bad as you are, +and you will be all right presently if you keep away a bit, and get down +the first blow. Just get your wind, and science must tell." + +"But I'm so giddy, I--I can't stand," said Saurin. + +"Time!" was called, and Crawley sprang off his second's knee as strong +as possible, but he stood in the middle of the ring alone. + +"It's no good; he can't stand," cried Edwards. And then a tremendous +cheering broke out, and everybody pressed forward to congratulate +Crawley and pat him on the back. But he made his way over to Saurin, +and offered to shake hands. + +"It all luck," he said. "You are better at this game than I am, and you +would have licked me if you had not hurt your left hand. And look here, +I had no right to speak as I did. And--and if you thought I wanted to +get you out of the eleven you were mistaken." + +Saurin was too dazed to feel spiteful just then; he had a vague idea +that Crawley wanted to shake hands, and that it would be "bad form" to +hold back, so he put his right hand out and murmured something +indistinctly. + +"Stand back, you fellows," said Crawley, "he is fainting. Give him a +chance of a breath of air." + +And indeed Saurin had to be carried up out of the dell, laid on his back +under the trees, and have water dashed in his face, before he could put +on his jacket and waistcoat and walk back to his tutor's house. And +when he arrived there he was in such pain in the side that he had to go +to bed. Crawley himself was a sorry sight for a victor. But his +discomforts were purely local, and he did not feel ill at all; on the +contrary, he was remarkably hungry. Buller was with him when he washed +and changed his shirt, for he had been applying a cold key to the back +of his neck to stop the nose-bleeding, and now remained, like a +conscientious second, lest it should break out again. + +"I say, Buller," said Crawley suddenly, "_you_ never go to Slam's, I +hope?" + +"Not I." + +"Then how do you know such a lot about prize-fighting?" + +"I told Robarts; my elder brother is very fond of everything connected +with sparring, and has got a lot of reports of matches, and I have read +all the prize-fights that ever were, I think. I used to take great +interest in them, and thought I might remember something which would +come in useful. There is a great sameness in these things, you know, +and the principles are simple." + +"I am sure I am much obliged to you for offering to be my second; I +should have been licked but for you." + +"I don't know that. I think you would have thought of fighting at his +wind when you could not reach his face for yourself, and tired him out +anyhow. But if I have been useful I am glad. You took pains to try my +bowling when most fellows would have laughed at the idea; and there is +the honour of the house too. What I feared was that you would not +follow what I said, but persist in trying to bore in." + +"Why," replied Crawley, laughing, "Saurin backed up your advice with +such very forcible and painful examples of the common sense of it, that +I should have been very pig-headed not to catch your meaning. But what +rot it all is!" he added, looking in the glass. "A pretty figure I +shall look at Scarborough, with my face all the colours of the prism, +like a disreputable damaged rainbow!" + +"There are three weeks yet to the holidays; you will be getting all +right again by then," said Buller. + +"I doubt it; it does not feel like it now, at all events," replied +Crawley; and when supper-time came he was still more sceptical of a very +speedy restoration to his ordinary comfortable condition. It was an +absurd plight to be in; he felt very hungry, and there was the food; the +difficulty was to eat it. It hurt his lips to put it in his mouth--salt +was out of the question--and it hurt his jaws to masticate it, and it +hurt his throat to swallow it. But he got it down somehow, and then +came prayers, conducted as usual every evening by Dr Jolliffe, who, +when the boys filed out afterwards, told him to remain. + +"By a process of elimination I, recognising all the other boys in my +house, have come to the conclusion that you are Crawley," said the +doctor solemnly. + +"Yes, sir," replied Crawley. + +"Quantum mutatus ab illo! I should not have recognised you. +Circumstantial evidence seems to establish the fact that you have +engaged in a pugilistic encounter." + +"Yes, sir." + +"And with whom?" + +"I beg your pardon, sir; I hope that you will not insist on my telling. +It was my fault; we had a dispute, and I spoke very provokingly." + +"Your mention of his name would not make much difference, if you were as +busy with your fists as he seems to have been. But I am disappointed in +you, Crawley; it vexes me that a boy of your age and standing in the +school, and whose proficiency in athletic sports gives you a certain +influence, should brawl and fight like this." + +"It vexes me too, sir, I assure you." + +"You should have thought of that before." + +"So I did, sir, and also of the figure I should cut when I went home." + +"Well, certainly," said the doctor, unable to help smiling, "I do not +advise you to have your photograph taken just at present. But you +know," he added, forcing himself to look grave again, "I cannot overlook +fighting, which is a very serious offence. You must write a Greek theme +of not less than two pages of foolscap, on the Blessings of Peace, and +bring it me on Tuesday. And apply a piece of raw meat, which I will +send up to your room, to your right eye." + +Crawley ran up-stairs rejoicing, for he had got off easier than he +expected, and the application of raw meat gave him great relief, so that +next day the swellings had very much subsided, though his eyes were +blood-shot, and his whole face discoloured. But Saurin did not come +round so soon: there were symptoms of inflammation which affected his +breathing, and induced his tutor, Mr Cookson, to send for the doctor, +who kept his patient in bed for two days. He soon got all right again +in body, but not in mind, for he felt thoroughly humiliated. This was +unnecessary, for it was agreed on all sides that he had made a first- +rate fight of it, and he decidedly rose in the estimation of his school- +fellows. But Saurin's vanity was sensitive to a morbid degree, and he +brooded over his defeat. A fight between two healthy-minded boys +generally results in a close friendship, and Crawley made several +overtures to his late antagonist; but as they were evidently not +welcome, he soon desisted, for after all Saurin was not one of "his +sort." And the term, as it is the fashion now to call a "half," came to +an end, and though his wounds were healed, and his features restored to +their original shape, Crawley had to go to Scarborough like one of +Gibson's statues, tinted. + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +TREATING OF AN AIR-GUN AND A DOOR-KEY. + +Saurin met with a disappointment when he returned home. His uncle had +intended to go abroad and take him with him, but this intention was +frustrated by an attack of gout, which kept him to his country home, +where his nephew had to spend the entire vacation, and he found it the +reverse of lively. Sir Richard Saurin's house stood in the midst of a +well-timbered park, and there were some spinneys belonging to the place +also. At one time he had rented the shooting all round about, and +preserved his own woods; but it was a hunting country, and the havoc +made by foxes was found to be so great that he gave up preserving in +disgust, and so, growing lazy, made that an excuse for dropping the +other field shooting, which passed into different hands. So now there +was no partridge-shooting, unless a stray covey chose to light in the +park, and there were very few pheasants, though the rabbits were pretty +numerous. + +Sir Richard, being free from any paroxysm of his complaint when his +nephew arrived, laughed at his black eye. + +"Is that the result of your course of lessons in boxing?" he asked. + +"Well, Uncle Richard, I should have come worse off if I had not had +them," replied Saurin; "but one cannot fight without taking as well as +giving." + +"But why fight at all? That is not what you are sent to school for." + +"I never did before, and it is not likely to happen again, only I was +forced on this occasion to stand up for myself." + +"Well, well," said Sir Richard, "I have something more serious to speak +to you about." + +Saurin felt his heart beat; he feared for a moment that his visits to +Slam's, and the impositions he had practised, had been discovered; but +this was not the case. + +"It is not a very good report I have received of you this time," +continued his guardian. "It seems that you have grown slack in +attention to your studies, and have not made the progress which might +fairly be expected from a boy of your age and abilities. Now, it is +only right to warn you that the income left you by your father very +little more than covers the expense of your education; and since a +considerable portion of it consists of a pension, which will cease on +your being twenty-one, it will not be sufficient for your support, so +that you must make up your mind speedily what profession you will adopt, +and must exert every effort to get into it. Our vicar here, a young man +newly come, is a mathematician and a good German scholar, two subjects +which gain good marks, I am told, in all these competitive examinations, +and I have made arrangements for you to read with him every morning for +a couple of hours." + +This was not a very bright look-out for the summer holidays. "Since it +was so very necessary for him to work, it was perhaps well that he +should not have too much to distract him," he said sarcastically; but +found some truth in the words, for he was forced into taking an interest +in a German novel which the clergyman, with some tact, chose for him to +translate. But the life _was_ dull; when he sought out his former +companions, the village scapegraces, he found that there had been a +grand clear out of them; it was as if the parish had taken a moral +purgative. Bill had enlisted; Tom, the worst of the lot, had (it was +his mother who spoke) "got into bad company and gone to Lunnon;" Dick +and Jim were in prison, and Harry had reformed and been taken into a +gentleman's stables. Solitude! + +His principal amusement was shooting rabbits. September was close at +hand, and if he had sought the society of his equals, instead of making +a bad name in the neighbourhood in former years, he would probably have +had more than one invitation to better sport amongst the partridges; but +he had such an evil reputation that the gentlemen of the county did not +covet his society for their sons. Now, rabbit shooting in the winter, +with dogs to hunt the bunnies through brushwood, furze, or bracken, so +that snap-shots are offered as they dart across open places, is very +good fun; but the only way Saurin had of getting at them at this season +was by lying in wait in the evening outside the woods and shooting them +when they came louping cautiously out. He found excitement in this at +first, but it was impossible to miss such pot-shots for one thing, and +he got very few chances for another. The report of the gun frightened +them all into the wood, not to venture out again for some time, probably +till it was too dark to distinguish them. The only chance was, when a +rabbit had been got at one place, to go off at once to another wood at +some distance and lie in ambush again there. In this way two, or at +most three shots might be got in the short period of dusk. Fond as he +was of carrying a gun, Saurin found this sport unsatisfactory after a +week or so, though it was infinitely better than not shooting anything +at all. But one day when he rode over to the county town, seven miles +off, for cartridges, he saw a small air-gun of a new and improved +pattern in the shop, which took his fancy very much indeed. It was +beautifully finished, charged in the simplest way imaginable, and would +carry either a bullet or a small charge of shot, killing easily, the man +said, with the former at fifty yards, and with the latter at five-and- +twenty. It would require some skill to hit a rabbit in the head with a +bullet; and as there was no report to speak of, only a slight crack, +killing or missing one would not scare the others. The price was not +high, and as Sir Richard never objected to his having anything in reason +that he wanted, and was, moreover, glad that the rabbits who committed +sad havoc in the garden should be thinned down, he took it home with him +and tried it that evening. Just about sunset he repaired to his +favourite spot, a clump of three trees growing close together, behind +which he could easily conceal himself. A wood, full of thick +undergrowth, well nigh impenetrable, ran in front and made an angle to +the right, so that there were two sides from which the rabbits might +come out. The air was perfectly still, not a leaf was stirring, and +every note of a bird that was warbling his evening song, positively the +very last before shutting up for the night, fell sharp and clear upon +the ear, as Saurin knelt behind the trees, gun in hand, eagerly +watching. Presently he saw something brown, rather far on his left, +close to the wood. It came a little further out, and the long ears +could be distinguished. + +Saurin was rather doubtful about the distance, but, eager to try his new +weapon, he took a steady aim and pulled. No smoke, no fire, nothing but +a slight smack such as a whip would make. The rabbit raised its head, +listened, and hopped quietly back into the wood. A palpable miss. But +there on the right was another, not thirty yards off this one. Saurin +slewed round, got the sight well on its head, and pulled again. This +rabbit did _not_ go back to the wood, but turned over, struggled a +little, and then lay still. Saurin did not run out to pick it up, but +kept quiet, and presently another came out, to see what was the matter +with its friend apparently, for it louped up to the body; and he nailed +that. And he missed two and killed two more, and then the rabbit +community began to suspect there was something wrong, and kept in the +wood. But, returning home, he stalked and shot another in the park, +making a bag of five altogether, which pleased him immensely. + +Next day he tried the shot cartridges on blackbirds and sparrows in the +garden, and slaughtered not a few, to the gardener's great delight. It +was not only the efficiency of so toy-like a weapon which pleased +Saurin; the silence and secrecy with which it dealt death had a charm +for him. And so it happened that when the time came for him to return +to Weston, he took the air-gun with him. It went into a very small +compass, and was easily stowed in his portmanteau. He could smuggle it +to Slam's and keep it there, and if he had no chance of using it, he +could still show it off to Edwards and his other intimates, and also to +the perhaps more appreciative eyes of Edwin Marriner and another, +perhaps two other scamps of sporting tastes whom he met at Slam's on +certain afternoons, when they guzzled beer, and smoked, and played +sometimes at bagatelle, sometimes at cards, or tossed for coppers. And +they won his money in a small way, and laughed at his jokes, and took +interest in his bragging stories, and went into ecstasies over his +songs, and really liked and admired him in their fashion. So the +departure of Mr Wobbler did not keep him away, and he went to the yard +as much as ever. If he had won the fight it would probably have made a +difference, and he might have tried once more to compete for influence +and popularity in the school. But now he had quite given up all ideas +of that kind. He spoke to Crawley, and shook his hand with apparent +cordiality when they first met after coming back, because he felt that +it would be ridiculous to show a resentment which he had proved himself +powerless to gratify; but he hated him worse than ever, if possible. If +the breaking up of the boxing-class did not diminish Saurin's visits to +Slam's, it had that effect on the other members of it. Stubbs was +faithful to his dog, and Perry to his hawk, and there were other boys +who had pets there, or who liked to go on a wet day to see ratting, or +the drawing of the badger, an animal who lived in a tub, like Diogenes, +and was tugged out of it by a dog, not without vigorous resistance, when +anyone chose to pay for the spectacle; the poor badger deriving no +benefit from the outlay. But such visits were fitful. Edwards, indeed, +was faithful to his friend, but even Edwards did not care for Slam's any +longer. He had taken a violent passion for football, and often played, +leaving Saurin to go to the yard alone. On Sundays, indeed, he could +not play football, but neither did he like playing cards on that day. +Saurin laughed him out of his scruples, but not all at once. But Saurin +did not want companionship; he preferred that of Marriner and Company. + +Edwin Marriner was a young farmer in the neighbourhood of Weston +College, and he farmed his own land. Certainly it was as small an +estate as can well be imagined, consisting of exactly two acres, +pasture, arable, cottage, and pig-stye included, but undoubted freehold, +without a flaw in the title. He was just twenty-one when his father +died, a year before the time we are treating of, and then Lord +Woodruff's agent made him an offer for his inheritance, which he stuck +to like a very Naboth. + +The price named was a good and tempting one, far more indeed than the +land was worth; but when the money was spent he would have nothing for +it but to become a mere labourer, or else to enlist, and he did not +fancy either alternative, while he could manage to live, as his father +did before him, on his patch, which spade-labour made remunerative. He +worked for hire in harvest-time, and that brought something; the pig- +stye yielded a profit, so did a cow, and there were a few pounds reaped +annually from a row of beehives, for the deceased Marriner, though not +very enlightened generally, had learned, and taught his son the +"depriving" system, and repudiated the idiotic old plan of stifling the +stock to get the honey. All these methods of making both ends meet at +the end of the year were not only innocent but praiseworthy; but the +Marriners had the reputation of making less honourable profits, and that +was why Lord Woodruff was so anxious to get rid of them. The two acres +lying indeed in the midst of his lordship's estates, was of itself a +reason why he should be inclined to give a fancy price for them; but +when the proprietor was suspected of taking advantage of his situation +to levy considerable toll on the game of his big neighbour, who +preserved largely, he became a real and an aggravated nuisance. + +Marriner, as his father had done, openly carried a gun, for which he +paid his license, and it was impossible, with reason, to blame him, for +the rabbits alone would have eaten up every particle of his little stock +if he took no measures against them. If he shot an occasional pheasant, +or his dog caught a hare, or even two, in the course of the season on +his own land, why, no one could wonder. But it was not necessary to sow +buckwheat in order to attract the pheasants. And he had no right +whatever to set snares in Lord Woodruff's covers, which, though they +could not catch him, the gamekeepers were certain he did. One thing +decidedly against him in the opinion of the gentry round about, was that +he frequently visited Slam's, and Slam was regarded as a receiver of +stolen goods, certainly so far as game was concerned, perhaps in other +matters also. Edwin Marriner was a wiry-looking little man, with red +hair and whiskers, quick bright eyes, and a look of cunning about his +mouth. He had two propensities which interfered with one another: he +was very fond of strong drink and very fond of money. The drink was +delightful, but to spend the money necessary to procure it was a fearful +pang. The best way out of the dilemma was to get someone to treat him, +and this he did as often as he could. He had plenty of cunning and +mother wit, and was skilled in woodcraft, but he was utterly innocent of +anything which could fairly be called education. He had been taught to +read, but never exercised the gift; he could do an addition sum, and +write, with much labour, an ill-spelled letter, and that was all. And +this was the individual selected by Saurin for a companion, and, whose +society he preferred to that of all his schoolfellows, Edwards not +excepted. On half-holidays he would go to his little farm (which was +half-an-hour's walk too far for ordinary occasions, now the days had +grown short, and "All In," was directly after five-o'clock school), and +talk to him while he was at work, for Marriner was industrious, though +with a dishonest twist, and if he went to Slam's yard so often now it +was because his gentleman friend brought some grist to his mill, besides +often standing beer for him, and because he had business relations with +Slam; though he liked the boy's company too, and admired his precocious +preference for crooked ways, and hatred of lawful restraint. The fact +was that they were drawn together by a strong propensity which was +common to both, and which formed a never-failing topic of interesting +conversation. This propensity was a love of sport, especially if +indulged secretly, unlawfully, and at the expense of somebody else; in a +word, they were arrant poachers, the man in fact, the boy at heart. Not +but what Saurin had snared a hare too in his time. + +For some time Marriner had been chary of confessing his depredations, +for he was careful about committing himself, especially to a gentleman, +who might naturally be supposed to side with the game-preservers. But +when the ice was broken he talked freely enough, and from that time the +intimacy commenced. Yet at times he had qualms, and feared that he had +been rash to depart from his custom of close secrecy; and it often +occurred to him that it would be well to draw Saurin into some act of +complicity, and so seal his lips effectually and for ever. He felt and +expressed great admiration for the air-gun, and suggested that they +should try it some moonlight night upon the roosting pheasants. This +was treated as a joke at first; a romantic idea which could not, of +course, be carried into practice; but after it had been referred to, and +discussed again and again, it did not look so utterly impossible. The +principal difficulty was the getting out at night, but after many +careful inspections of his tutor's premises Saurin saw how this might be +managed. There was a small back-yard into which the boys had access at +any time; this was surrounded by a high wall with a _chevaux de frise_ +at the top, which might be considered insurmountable unless one were +Jack Sheppard or the Count of Monte Christo. But there was a door at +the bottom, seldom used, hardly ever, indeed, except when coals came in. +Outside there was a cart track, and then open field. It was the +simplest thing, a mere question of obtaining a key to this door, and he +could walk out whenever he liked. Yes, but how to get the key, which +was taken by the servant to Mrs Cookson when not in use? To watch when +coals were next brought in for an opportunity of purloining it would be +worse than useless, for a new lock would be put to the door, and +suspicion aroused. An idea occurred to him; he had read of impressions +of keys being taken in wax, and duplicates being made from them. He +asked Marriner if it were possible to get this done, and the reply was +yes, that he knew a friendly blacksmith who would make a key to fit any +lock, of which he had the wards in wax, for a matter of say five +shillings, which was leaving a handsome margin of profit for himself, we +may remark in passing. Five shillings was a lot, Saurin thought, when +he was not sure that he would use the key if he had it. Marriner did +not know, perhaps it could be done for three; at any rate he might as +well have the wax by him in case he got a chance. Curiously enough, he +thought he had some in the house, though he sold all his honey in the +comb as a rule. But a hive had been deserted, and he knew he had melted +the wax down, and it must be somewhere. It was, and he found it, and he +got a key and showed Saurin how to take an impression of it. + +"Why, you have done it before then!" said Saurin. + +"P'raps," replied Marriner, with a side glance of his cunning eyes. "A +poor man has to turn his hand to a bit of everything in these hard +times." + +It was an early winter, and the weather turned very cold, which caused a +great consumption of fuel. And one morning, on coming in to his tutor's +from early school, Saurin heard the small thunder of coals being poured +into the cellar, and saw the yard door open, a wagon outside, and a man +staggering from it under a sack. He ran up to his room, threw down his +books, took the wax, and went back to the yard door, where he took a +great interest in the unlading of the sacks. A fine sleet was falling, +with a bitter north-east wind, to make it cut the face, so that there +were none of the servants outside, and no one to see him but the two men +who were busied in their work. Never was such an opportunity. He had +the least possible difficulty in taking the key out of the lock, +pressing it on the wax in the palm of his hand, in the way Marriner had +shown him, and replacing it without attracting observation. Then he +returned to his room, whistling carelessly, and putting the wax, which +had the wards of the key sharply defined upon it, in a seidlitz-powder +box, to prevent the impression being injured, he locked it up in his +bureau and went to breakfast. + +Now that this had been accomplished so favourably, it seemed a pity not +to have the key made. He might probably never want to use it; but +still, there was a pleasant sense of superiority in the knowledge that +he was independent of the "All In," and could get out at any hour of the +night that he chose. So the next time he went to Marriner's cottage he +took the box containing the wax with him, and Marriner paid him the high +compliment that a professional burglar could not have done the job +better. A week after, he gave him the key, and one night, after +everyone had gone to bed, Saurin stole down-stairs, out into the yard, +and tried it. It turned in the lock easily, the door opened without +noise, and he was free to go where he liked. Only there was no place so +good as bed to go to, so he closed and locked the door again, and went +back to his room, feeling very clever and a sort of hero. I am sure I +do not know why. No one was taken into his confidence but Edwards, and +he only because it was necessary to talk to somebody about his poaching +schemes, and to excite wonder and admiration at his inventive skill and +daring courage, and this Edwards was ready at all times to express. He +was never taken to Marriner's, but he still occasionally accompanied his +friend to the yard--on Sundays, usually, because of the card-playing, to +which he had taken a great fancy. He still thought in his heart that it +was very wrong, but Saurin laughed at such scruples as being so very +childish and silly that he was thoroughly ashamed of them. Saurin, who +was so clever and manly that he must know better than he did, saw no +harm. Besides, he was very fond of playing at cards, and though he did +not much like the very low company he met at Slam's yard now, he told +himself that what was fit for Saurin was fit for him, and it was +desirable, beneficial, and the correct thing to see life in all its +phases. His hero's defeat by Crawley had not diminished his devotion +one iota, for he attributed it entirely to Saurin having crippled his +left hand when he knocked his adversary down. Even then he believed +that Saurin would have won, only Crawley was in training, and the other +was not. Crawley was all very well, but he lacked that bold and heroic +defiance of authority which fascinated Edwards (himself the most +subordinate soul by nature, by the way). The idea of Crawley's daring +even to dream of going poaching, or breaking out at night, or having a +false key made! No, he was a good commonplace fellow enough, but Saurin +was something unusual,--which it is fervently to be hoped he was. Poor +Edwards, with his weak character, which made it necessary for him to +believe in someone and yield him homage; what a pity it was he had not +fixed on a different sort of hero to worship! + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +ANOTHER PROJECT OF EVASION. + +Frost, hard, sharp, crisp, and unmistakable; do you like it? It is very +unpleasant when you get up of a morning; the water is so cold. And then +going to school shivering, and being put on to construe when you have +the hot ache in your fingers, is trying to the patience, especially if +one is inclined to self-indulgence, and is aided and abetted when at +home by one's mother. + +But everything has its compensations. Without work play would become a +bore; if there were no hunger and thirst there would be no pleasure in +eating and drinking; even illness is followed by convalescence, with +story-books to read instead of lessons, and licence to lie in bed as +long as you like, and so there is the delight, in very cold weather, of +getting warm again; and there is also skating. Whether we like it or +not we have to put up with it when it comes, and it came that year at an +unusual time, before the end of November. We often indeed have just a +touch at that period, three days about, and then sleet and rain; but +this was a regular good one, thermometer at nineteen Fahrenheit, no +wind, no snow, and the gravel-pits bearing. The gravel-pits were so +called because there was no gravel there. There had been, but it was +dug out, and carted away before the memory of the oldest inhabitant, and +the cavities were filled with water. There were quite three acres of +available surface altogether, and not farther than a mile from Weston; +but "_Ars longa, vita brevis est_;" the art of cutting figures is long, +and the period of practice short indeed. Considering the price spent on +skates in England, and the few opportunities of putting them on, it +seems barbarous of masters not to give whole holidays when the ice +_does_ bear. But then what would parents and guardians say? A boy +cannot skate himself into the smallest public appointment, and the rule +of three is of much more importance to his future prospects than the +cutting of that figure. The Westonians made the most they could of +their opportunity, however, and whenever they had an hour to spare the +gravel-pits swarmed with them. Their natural tendency was to rapid +running, racing, and hockey; but Leblanc, who was born in Canada, where +his father held an appointment, and who had worn skates almost as soon +as he had shoes, did such wonderful things as set a large number of them +practising figure skating. Buller was bitten by the mania; he had never +tried anything before but simple straightforward running on the flat of +the skate with bent knees, so he had a great deal to learn; but with his +usual persistency, when he once took anything in hand he did not regard +the difficulties, and only dreaded lest he should not have sufficient +opportunity of practising. He began, of course, by endeavouring to +master the outside edge, which is the grammar of figure skating, and +watched Leblanc, but could make nothing out of that, for Leblanc seemed +to move by volition, as some birds appear to skim along without any +motion of the wings. He could not give hints, or show how anything was +done, because he could not understand where any difficulty lay. It was +like simple walking to him; you get up and walk, you could not show any +one exactly _how_ to walk. + +But there were two or three other fair skaters from whom more could be +learned; Penryhn, for example, was a very decent performer of simple +figures. He came from a northern county, where there was yearly +opportunity of practice, and had been taught by his father, who was an +excellent skater. + +"The first great thing you must always bear in mind," said he, "is that +the leg upon which you stand, while on the outside edge, must be kept +straight and stiff, with the knee rigidly braced. You see some fellows +there practising by crossing the legs; while they are on one leg they +bring the other in front, and across it, before they put it down on the +ice. This certainly forces you to get on to the outside edge, but it +twists the body into a wrong position--one in which the all-important +thing in skating, balance, cannot be acquired. Besides, it gets you +into a way of bringing the foot off the ground to the front, whereas it +ought always to be a little behind the one you are skating on, and it +takes as long to get out of that habit as to learn the outside edge +altogether pretty well. Why, here is Old Algebra positively with a pair +of skates on!" + +"Old Algebra," as a mathematical genius, whose real name was Smith, was +called, skated very well too. + +"Look here, Algebra," cried Penryhn, "I am trying to show Buller how to +do the outside edge; can't you give him a scientific wrinkle?" + +"The reason why you find an initial difficulty in the matter," said +Algebra gravely, adjusting his spectacles, "is that you naturally +suppose that if you bend so far out of the perpendicular, the laws of +gravity must cause you to fall. But that is because you omit the +centrifugal force from your consideration; remember what centrifugal +force is, Buller, and it will give you confidence." + +"Oh, I have confidence enough!" said Buller; "it's the power of getting +on to the edge without overbalancing myself that I want, and all that +rot about the laws of gravity won't help me." + +"I fancied they wouldn't, but Penryhn asked for a scientific wrinkle. +If you want a practical one, keep the head and body erect, never looking +down at the ice; when you strike out with the right foot, look over the +right shoulder; body and foot are sure to follow the eye, and clasp your +hands behind you, or keep them at your sides; do anything but sway them +about. That's it, you got on to the outside edge then; now boldly with +the left foot, and look over the left shoulder. Never mind (Buller had +come a cropper); you fell then because you did not let yourself go, but +when your skate took the outside edge you tried to recover. You lacked +confidence, in short, in the centrifugal force, and bothered yourself, +instinctively, without knowing it, with the laws of gravity. Try again; +you stick to that. Rigidity. Right foot--look over right shoulder, not +too far, just a turn of the head. Left foot--look over left shoulder. +There, you did not fall then. Trust to the centrifugal force, that's +the thing," and he swept away with a long easy roll. + +"A capital coach he would make," said Penryhn, admiringly. "He always +tells you just what you want to know without bothering." + +"Yes," said Buller, "I have asked him things in lessons once or twice, +and he made it all as clear as possible, but I didn't know he was good +for anything else. This is a grand idea for learning to skate, though; +look here, this is all right, is it not?" + +"Yes, you have got it now; lean outwards a little more, and don't bend +forward. The weight should be on the centre of the foot." + +There are few sensations more delightful than the first confident sweep +on the outside edge, with the blade biting well into the clear smooth +ice, and Buller felt as if he could never have enough of it, and he kept +on, trying to make larger and larger segments of a circle, not heeding +the falls he got for the next half-hour, when it was time to be getting +back, and he had reluctantly to take his skates off, and jog home at a +trot. The next chance he had he was back to the ice and at it again. + +Others who had got as far as he had began practising threes, or trying +to skate backwards, but not so Buller. He must have that outside edge +perfectly, and make complete circles on it, without hesitation or +wobbling, much less falling, before he attempted anything else. +Progress did not seem slow to him, he was used to that in everything, +and he was surprised at improving as quickly as he did. All he dreaded +was a heavy snow-fall, or a breaking up of the frost, and either +calamity was to be expected from hour to hour. Before going to bed on +the night of the third day of the ice bearing, he drew the curtain and +looked out of window. The moon was nearly full, there was not a breath +of wind stirring to shake the hoar-frost off the trees; all was hard, +and bright, and clear. How splendid the pits would be now! How +glorious to have the whole sheet of ice to one's self! why, with such a +chance of solitary practice he might well expect to cut an eight, for he +could already complete entire circles on each foot. If it were not for +the bars to his window he would certainly go. The lane below had no +building to overlook it; none of the windows of that part of the house +where Dr Jolliffe and his family, and the servants slept, commanded the +lane. He would have no other house to pass on the way to the gravel- +pits; really there would be no risk to speak of at all. The window was +barely more than six feet, certainly not seven from the ground, and the +brick wall old and full of inequalities where the mortar had fallen out, +and the toe might rest; with a yard of rope dangling from the sill, to +get in again would be the easiest thing possible. The more he thought +about it the more simple the whole scheme seemed; if it were not for the +bars. He examined them. The removal of one would be sufficient. + +"You beast!" said Buller, seizing and shaking it. It seemed to give a +little, and he shook it again: it certainly was not very tight, and he +examined it further. It fitted into the woodwork of the window-frame at +the top, and terminated at the bottom in a flat plate, perforated with +three holes, by which it was secured by nails to the sill. Nails? no, +by Jove, screws! Only the paint had filled in the little creases at the +top of them, and it was simple enough to pick that off. His pocket- +knife had a screw-driver at the top of it, he applied this and turned +it; the screw came up like a lamb. So did the second; so did the third. +The bar was free at the bottom, and when he pulled it towards him it +came out in his hand! He replaced it, just to see if it would be all +right. It was the simplest thing in the world, you could not tell that +it had been touched. So he took it out again, laid it aside carefully, +and considered. + +He had no rope, but there was a leather belt, which he buckled round one +of the other bars, dropping the end outside. Perhaps that would give +rather a slight grip, so he also got out a woollen scarf, such as is +sometimes called a "comforter," which he possessed, and fastened that to +the bar also. With that there could be no difficulty in getting in +again. Should he give Penryhn or any other fellow a chance of +accompanying him? Well, on the whole, no. It was impossible that it +should be discovered, but still, apparent impossibilities do happen +sometimes. Suppose one of the masters had a fancy for a moonlight +skate! He did not mind risking his own skin, when the risk was so +slight, but to get another fellow into a row was an awful idea. +Besides, two would make more noise getting out and in than one, and the +other might laugh, or call out, or play the fool in some way or another. +And as for being alone in the expedition, Buller rather liked that than +otherwise. He was rather given to going his own way, and carrying out +his own ideas unhampered by other people's suggestions. + +So he quickly determined to keep his counsel and disturb no one. He had +blown his candle out before first trying the bar, and had been working +by the bright moonlight. Then he fastened his skates round his neck, so +that they should neither impede his movements, nor clatter, and put one +leg out of window, then the other, turned round, let himself down by the +hands, and dropped into the lane. He looked up to see that the scarf +was hanging all right; it was within easy reach of both hands; he gave +it a pull to try it, and being satisfied, got over into the field, and +started at a jog-trot for the gravel-pits. It was glorious; utter +stillness--the clear sheet of ice flooded with the moonbeams, a romantic +sense of solitude, and a touch of triumphant feeling in having got the +best of the world, and utilising such a magnificent time, while others +were wasting it in bed. He put his skates on and began. Whether the +exhilaration of stealing a march upon everybody, or the impossibility of +running up against anyone, or the confidence inspired by solitude, and +the absolute freedom from being laughed at if he fell, were the cause, +he had never gone like this before. Striking out firmly from the start, +he went round the sheet of ice in splendid curves, the outside edge +coming naturally to him now. A long sweep on the right foot, a long +sweep on the left, round and round, with arms folded or clasped behind +him. Not a trip, not a stumble, not a momentary struggle to retain the +balance. It was splendid! Then at last he began with the circles which +he was so anxious to perfect himself in. Round he went on his right, in +smaller compass than he had ever accomplished one yet, with plenty of +impetus to bring him round at the end. Then round on the left, quite +easily, without an effort. Again with the right, and so on, a capital +eight. It was like magic, as if he had acquired the art in an instant. +Or was he in bed and dreaming that he was skating? It really seemed +like it. If it were so, he did not care how long it was before he was +roused. But no, he was wide awake, and the phenomenon was simply the +result of confidence, following on good and persevering practice in the +right direction. Breaking away from his eight, he swung round and round +the pond again as fast as he could go. Then he tried a three; the first +half on the outside edge, forwards was easy enough, and he found no +difficulty in turning on the toe, but he could not complete the tail on +the inside edge backwards without staggering and wobbling. He had a +good two hours of it, and then the moon disappeared behind a bank of +clouds and he prepared to go home. Skating in the dark would be poor +fun, and besides it was very late, so he made for the bank, took his +skates off, and jogged back. + +Mr Rabbits, one of the masters, who was great at chemistry, and could +tell you to a grain how much poison you swallowed in that water for +which the Gradus sarcastically gives _pura_ as a standing epithet, had +been asked by the vicar of Penredding, a village five miles off, to give +a lecture in his school-room to the parishioners, one of a series of +simple entertainments which were got up to cheer the long evenings in +the winter months. The vicar was an old college friend of Mr Rabbits, +who gladly consented, and like a wise man chose the subject which he was +best up in, writing a very amusing and instructive but very elementary +paper on Light, with plenty of illustrations and simple experiments, +which kept his audience in a state of wonder and delight the whole +evening, and sent them home with plenty to think and talk about +afterwards. It was necessary to have a very early and hurried dinner, +the lecture beginning at seven, so Mr Rabbits went back to the vicarage +after it was over, to supper, after which there was a chat about the old +college boat and so forth, and it was rather late when he started for +home. He had refused the offer of a conveyance, considering that the +five miles walk on a bright still frosty night would be a luxury, and so +he found it, though for the latter part of his journey the moon was +obscured. It was not so dark, however, as to prevent his distinguishing +objects, and as he passed along the lane by which he entered Weston he +was sure he saw someone lurking under the wall at the back of Dr +Jolliffe's house. Suspecting there was something wrong, he got into the +shade under the hedge and crept noiselessly along, taking out of his +pocket a piece of magnesium wire which he had made use of in his +lecture, and a match-box. Presently he saw the figure raise itself from +the ground towards a window, and immediately struck a match and ignited +the wire, which he held over his head. The whole side of the house was +at once as bright as day, and a boy was distinctly seen getting in at +the window. + +"Buller!" exclaimed Mr Rabbits, "what are you doing there?" + +"Please, sir, I am getting in," said poor Buller. + +"So I perceive," said Mr Rabbits; "but what right have you there?" + +"It's my own room, please, sir." + +"Well, but what right then had you out of it at this time of night?" + +"None at all, sir, I am afraid." + +"Then why did you do it?" + +"I hoped not to be seen, sir." + +"Hum! What have you been doing?" + +"Skating, sir." + +"I shall report you in the morning." + +Poor Tom Buller! How crest-fallen he felt as he conscientiously +replaced the bar, and screwed it down again. How heavy his heart was as +he took his clothes off and got into bed? What a fool he had been, he +thought, and yet at the same time how awfully unlucky. Wrecked at the +moment of entering the port! However, it was done now, and could not be +helped; he must stand the racket. He supposed he should get off with a +flogging. Surely they would not expel him for such a thing as that. Of +course they would make an awful row about his breaking out at night, but +he had not done any harm when he _was_ out. And the doctor was a good- +natured chap, he certainly would let him off with a rowing and a +flogging. He had never been flogged; did it hurt very much, he +wondered? at all events it would soon be over. He had thought for a +moment while skating that perhaps it was a dream; how jolly it would be +if it could only prove a dream, and he could wake up in the morning and +find that the whole business was fancy. What a good job that he had not +told Penryhn, and got him into a row as well. What a nuisance that old +Rabbits was to come by just at the wrong moment; five minutes earlier or +five minutes later it would have been all right. What thing was that he +lighted? What a tremendous flare it made, to be sure. Well, it was no +use bothering; happen what might he had a jolly good skate, and was firm +on the outside edge for ever. Now the thaw might come if it liked, and +Tom, who was a bit of a philosopher, went to sleep. + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +THE POACHERS. + +Buller was not the only Weston boy who broke out unlawfully that night. + +From Mr Cookson's house as from Dr Jolliffe's an adventurer stole +forth. But Saurin's object was not so innocent as Buller's, neither was +it so unpremeditated. For he nursed felonious designs against Lord +Woodruff's pheasants, and the project had been deliberately planned, +and, as we know, the key which was to open the yard door cunningly +manufactured, a long time beforehand. + +Edwards, as a result of talking about the expedition, and his friend's +glowing anticipation of the fun of it, became quite anxious to join in. +But Marriner did not think this advisable when Saurin put the matter to +him. They only had one air-gun, and two were quite enough for a +stealthy excursion of this kind. A third could take no part in the +proceedings, and would only be an extra chance of attracting +observation. As a matter of fact, Marriner would rather have been quite +alone, as his custom was on these predatory occasions, and it was only +his desire to make Saurin an accomplice, and so seal his mouth, which +induced him to depart from his ordinary custom now. And to tell the +truth, when the time actually came, and Edwards saw his friend steal +along the yard, unlock and open the door at the further end, and close +it behind him, he was glad in his heart that he was not going too. Not +because it was wrong: he had got his ideas so twisted that he thought it +an heroic piece of business altogether, and admired Saurin for his +lawless daring. But he felt conscious of not being cast in the heroic +mould himself, and actually shuddered at the thought of gliding about +the woods at dead of night, thinking that someone was watching him +behind every tree, and might spring out upon him at any moment. +Especially when he curled himself up in bed, and pulled the blankets +snugly round him, did he feel convinced that he was far more comfortable +where he was than he would have been in Lord Woodruff's preserves. + +Saurin had no compunctions of this sort; _he_ did not flinch when the +time came; on the contrary, when he found himself out in the fields he +felt a keen thrill of enjoyment. There was just enough sense of danger +for excitement, not enough for unpleasant nervousness. To be engaged in +what was forbidden was always a source of delight to him, and here he +was braving the rules of his school and breaking the laws of his country +all at once: it was like champagne to him. Yet it was the very height +of absurdity to risk expulsion, imprisonment, perhaps penal servitude +for _nothing_, literally for _nothing_. + +He had no earthly use for the game when it was stolen, Marriner would +have it and sell it, but the question of Saurin's sharing in the profits +had not even been mooted. To do him justice he had not thought of such +a thing, the sport was all that tempted him. The field of their +operations was not to be near Marriner's house, but in a part of the +estates a good bit nearer Weston, and on the other side of it. Marriner +had learned that there was to be a poaching expedition on a large scale +that night at the other extremity of the preserves, a good three miles +off. He knew the men and their method. They used ordinary guns, killed +off all they could in a short time, and got away before the keepers +could assemble in force, or if they were surprised they showed fight. +He never joined in such bold attacks, but when he knew of them took +advantage, as he proposed to do on the present occasion, of the keepers +being drawn away, to do a little quiet business on his own account in +another direction. The place appointed for Saurin to meet Marriner was +a wood-stack reached by a path across the fields, two miles from Weston. +Closing the yard door behind him, but not locking it, he started off at +a sharp walk, keeping in the shade whenever he could, though all was so +still and noiseless that he seemed almost to be the only being in the +world, when he had once got quite out of the sight of houses. But no, a +night-hawk swept by him, so close as to make him start, and a stoat met +him in the middle of a trodden path across a ploughed field; showing +that there were other game depredators besides himself abroad. The way +seemed longer than it was in the daytime, but at last he got to the +wood-stack, where he saw no one, but presently a figure stole round the +corner and joined him: Marriner with the air-gun and a sack. + +"It's all right," he said, "I heard the guns nigh half-an-hour ago. +There's never a watcher nor keeper within more nor a couple of miles +off, and we have a clear field to ourselves." + +Saurin took the gun, for it was an understood thing beforehand that he +was to have all the shooting, which indeed was but fair, and Marriner, +carrying the sack, led the way to a coppice hard by, indeed the wood +forming the stack had been cut out of it. He crept on hands and knees +through the hedge and glided into the brushwood, Saurin following, for +some little distance. Suddenly he stopped, laid his hand on his +companion's arm, and pointed upwards. Perched on the branch of a tree, +and quite clear against the moonlit sky, was a round ball. + +"Pheasant?" asked Saurin. + +"Yes," was the reply. "And there's another roosting there, and another +yonder, and another--" + +"I see them," replied Saurin in the same whispered tones. And raising +his air-gun he got the roosting bird in a line with the sights, which +was as easy to do pretty nearly as in broad day, and pressed the +trigger. The black ball came tumbling down with a thump on the ground, +and Marriner, pouncing upon it, put it in his sack. A second, a third +were bagged without stirring from the spot. A few steps farther on +another, who had been disturbed by the whip-cracks of the air-gun, had +withdrawn his head from under his wing. But he did not take to flight +at once, being comfortable where he was and the sounds not very +alarming, and while he hesitated he received a violent shock in the +middle of his breast, which knocked him off his perch powerless and +dying. A little further on another, and then yet another were bagged: +it was a well-stocked coppice, and had not been shot yet. Lord Woodruff +was reserving that part for some friends who were coming at Christmas, +and with the prospects of whose sport I fear that Saurin somewhat +interfered that night. The sack indeed was pretty heavy by the time +they had gone through the wood, and then Marriner thought that it would +be more prudent to decamp, and they retraced their steps by a path which +traversed the coppice. Once back at the wood-stack they were to +separate, so before they left the coppice Marriner put down his now +heavy sack, and Saurin handed him the air-gun, which he stowed away in +his capacious pocket. Then they went on, and just as they were on the +edge of the wood came suddenly upon a man. + +"Hulloa! young gentleman," exclaimed he to Saurin, who was leading, +"what are you up to? What has the other got in that sack?" + +Marriner slipped behind the trees. + +"I have got _you_, at any rate," said the man, seizing Saurin by the +collar. + +The latter would not speak lest his voice should be recognised +afterwards, but he struggled all he knew. The man soon overpowered him; +but Marriner came to the rescue. Throwing down the sack of pheasants, +he had taken from his pocket an implement of whalebone with a heavy knob +of lead at the end, and coming behind the man, both whose hands were +holding on to Saurin, he struck him with it on the head as hard as he +could. The keeper's grasp relaxed, he fell heavily to the ground, and +Saurin was free. The man lay on his back with his head on the path, and +the moonbeams fell on his face. + +"Simon Bradley," muttered Marriner. "To be sure he lives this way, and +was going home after the alarm on t'other side." + +Saurin was seized with a violent shivering from head to foot. + +"He isn't, I mean to say you have not--eh?" he said. + +"Dunno, and don't much care, curse him!" replied Marriner. "It would be +laid to t'other chaps if he is." + +"But we ought to do something; get him some help," urged Saurin, who had +not become sufficiently hardened to like such devil's work as this. "If +he is living he will be frozen to death lying out such a night as this." + +"Oh, he will be all right!" said Marriner. "He's only stunned a bit. +He will come to in ten minutes and get up and walk home." + +"But can't we leave word at his house, and then be off?" + +"That would be a fool's trick, that would. Why, it would bring +suspicion on us, and if he is a gone coon--it's impossible, you know, +almost--but _if_ he is, we should get scragged for it. Come, I didn't +think you was so chicken-hearted, or I wouldn't have brought you out. +Let's get away home at once while we can, and don't go a putting your +neck in a halter for nowt." + +Fear overcame compunction, and Saurin turned and fled. How he got home +he did not know, but he seemed to be at the back-door of the yard +immediately almost. Then he steadied himself, went in, locked the door, +and stole up to his room and to bed. _He_ did not sleep that night. +The face of the gamekeeper lying there in the moonlight haunted him. He +wished, like Buller, but oh, much more fervently, that the whole +business might turn out to have been a nightmare. But the morning +dawned cold and grey, and he got up and dressed himself and went in to +school, and it was all real. He could not fix his attention; his mind +would wander to that coppice. Had the gamekeeper come to, tried to +struggle up, fainted, fallen back, perished for want of a little +assistance? Or had he got up, not much the worse, and had he seen his +face clearly, and, recognising that it was a Weston boy, would he come +to the school and ask to go round and pick him out? + +"Saurin!" + +It was only the voice of the master calling on him to go on with the +construing, but he had so entirely forgotten where he was that he +started and dropped his book, which caused a titter, for Saurin was not +habitually either of a meditative or a nervous turn. He felt that he +really must pull himself together or he would excite suspicion. + +"I beg your pardon, sir," he said; "my hands are numb, and I dropped the +book. Where's the place?" he added _sotto voce_ to his neighbour. + +"I think your attention was numb," said the master. + +Saurin had the chorus in the play of Euripides, which was undergoing +mutilation at his fingers' ends, so he went on translating till he +heard, "That will do. Maxwell!" and then he relapsed into his private +meditations. After all, he had not struck the blow, Marriner's trying +to drag him into a share of the responsibility was all nonsense. They +might say he ought to have given the alarm, or gone for a doctor, but +nothing more. And yet he fancied he had heard somewhere that to be one +of a party engaged in an unlawful act which resulted in anyone being +killed was complicity or something, which included all in the crime. +One thing was clear, he must keep his counsel, and not let Edwards or +anyone know anything about it, because they might be questioned; and he +must guard against showing that he was at all anxious. And why should +he be? A man did not die for one knock on the head; he was probably all +right again. And he could not have seen his face so as to recognise +him; it was quite in the shade where they had been struggling. It was +all nonsense his worrying himself; and yet he could not help listening, +expecting a messenger to come with some alarming intelligence, he could +not define what. After school Edwards came up to him and drew him aside +confidentially, full of eagerness and curiosity. + +"Well," he said, "was it good fun? How did it all go off?" + +"It was a regular sell," replied Saurin, smothering his impatience at +being questioned, and forcing himself to take the tone he was accustomed +to assume towards his chum in confidential communications. + +"How! did you not meet Marriner?" + +"Oh, yes! I met him all right; but it was no good. There were other +poachers out last night, and we heard their guns, so of course we could +not attempt anything, because the gamekeepers would all have been on the +look-out. You were well out of it, not coming, for it was precious cold +work waiting about, and no fun after all." + +"What a bore! But you will have better luck next time, perhaps." + +"I hope so, if I go; but the fact is, I have lost confidence in Marriner +rather. He ought to have found out that those other fellows were going +out last night, don't you see? At least he always brags that he knows +their movements. And it will be some time before the moon serves again; +and then the Christmas holidays will be coming on; and by next term the +pheasants will all have been shot off. The chance has been missed." + +"Well, at all events, you have got all right and not been discovered. +Do you know, when one comes to think about it, it was an awful risk," +said Edwards. + +"Of course it was," replied Saurin; "that made all the fun of it. +Rather idiotic, though, too, since one hopes to preserve game one's self +some day. It would be a better lark to go out to catch poachers than to +go out poaching." + +"A great deal, I should say. Not but what that is risky work too. +Those fellows do not flinch from murder when they are interrupted." + +"What makes you say that?" cried Saurin quickly, turning and catching +him sharply by the arm. + +"I don't know!" replied Edwards, astonished at the effect of his words. +"I have read about fights between gamekeepers and poachers in books, and +heard of them, and that; haven't you? How queer you look! Is there +anything the matter?" + +"Not a bit of it," said Saurin, regretting his imprudence; "only, I was +frozen hanging about last night, and when I got back I could not sleep +for cold feet, so I am a bit tired. And I think I have caught cold too. +And you know," he added, laughing, "having enlisted in the ranks of the +poachers last night, at least in intention, I feel bound to resist any +attacks on their humanity. + +"But, as a matter of fact, I believe that they do show fight for their +spoil and their liberty when they find themselves surprised. Shots are +exchanged and mischief happens sometimes. But my poor little air-gun +would not be a very formidable weapon in a row, I expect. Its +peppercorn bullets are good for a rabbit or pheasant, but would hardly +disable a man. The gamekeeper with his double-barrel would have a good +deal the best of it. But, I say, my cold has not taken away my +appetite. Let us get in to breakfast, and hang poaching." + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +THE FATES ARE DOWN UPON BULLER. + +Tom Buller had finished his breakfast, and was ruefully preparing his +lesson in his room, when he heard his name being called up the +staircase. "Buller! I say, Buller!" + +"Well, what's the row?" he asked, opening his door with a sinking heart. +The voice of the caller sounded singularly harsh and discordant, he +thought. + +"Oh, Buller! the doctor wants to see you in his study." + +"All right!" replied Buller; "I will come at once." + +But though his mouth said "All right," his mind meant "All wrong." He +had entertained the absurd hope, though he hardly admitted the fact to +himself, that Mr Rabbits, with whom he was rather a favourite, would +not report him, forgetting, or not realising, the great responsibility +which Mr Rabbits would incur by failing to do so. Well, he would know +the worst soon now at any rate, that was one consolation, for there is +nothing so bad as suspense, as the man said who was going to be hanged. + +Dr Jolliffe's study was in a retired part of the house, not often +visited by the boys. Here the uproar of their voices, and their noisy +tread as they rushed up and down the uncarpeted staircases, could not be +heard. Here thick curtains hung before the doors, which were of some +beautifully grained wood (or painted to look like it), and gilded round +the panels. Thick carpets lined the passages, rich paper covered the +walls; all the surroundings were in violent contrast to the outer house +given up to the pupils, and gained an exaggerated appearance of luxury +in consequence. + +Buller, with his heart somewhere about his boots, tapped at the awful +door. + +"Come in!" was uttered in the dreamy tones of one whose mind was +absorbed in some occupation, and who answered instinctively, without +disturbance of his thoughts. + +Buller entered and closed the door behind him. + +The doctor, who was writing, and referring every now and then to certain +long slips of printed paper which were lying on the table at his side, +did not speak or look up, but merely raised his hand to intimate that he +must not be disturbed for a moment. So Buller looked round the room; +and noted things as one does so vividly whenever one is in a funk in a +strange place; in a dentist's waiting-room, say. The apartment was +wonderfully comfortable. The book-cases which surrounded it were +handsome, solid, with nice little fringes of stamped leather to every +shelf. The books were neatly arranged, and splendidly bound, many of +them in Russia leather, as the odour of the room testified. Between the +book-cases, the wall-paper was dark crimson, and there were a few really +good oil-paintings. The fireplace was of white marble, handsomely +carved, with Bacchantes, and Silenus on his donkey--not very appropriate +guardians of a sea-coal fire. On the mantel-piece was a massive bronze +clock, with a figure of Prometheus chained to a rock on the top, and the +vulture digging into his ribs. And Buller, as he noticed this, +remembered, with the clearness afforded by funk spoken of above, that an +uncle of his, who was an ardent homeopathist, had an explanation of his +own of the old Promethean myth. He maintained that Prometheus typified +the universal allopathic patient, and that the vulture for ever gnawing +his liver was Calomel. The clock was flanked on each side by a +grotesque figure, also in bronze. Two medieval bullies had drawn their +swords, and were preparing for a duel, which it was apparent that +neither half liked. A very beautiful marble group, half life-size, +stood in one corner, and gave an air of brightness to the whole room. +And on a bracket, under a glass case, there was a common pewter quart +pot, which the doctor would not have exchanged for a vase of gold. For +it was a trophy of his prowess on the river in old college days, and +bore the names of good friends, now dead, side by side with his own. +The table at which the doctor sat was large, with drawers on each side +for papers, and a space in the middle for his legs, and was covered with +documents collected under paper-weights. It took Tom Buller just two +minutes to note all these objects, and then the doctor looked up with an +expression of vacancy which vanished when he saw who stood before him. +He tossed his quill-pen down, took off his spectacles, and said: + +"Well, Buller, what have you got to say for yourself?" + +Tom hung his head, fiddled with a button of his jacket, and murmured +something to the effect that he did not know. + +"It is a very serious offence of yours that has been reported to me, +nothing less than breaking out of the house, out of _my_ house, in the +dead of night. A most enormous and unparalleled proceeding. Why, in +the whole course of my experience I never knew of a boy having the +audacity--at least it is extremely rare," said the doctor, somewhat +abruptly breaking the thread of his sentence. For he suddenly +remembered, conscientious man, that when an Eton boy himself he had +committed a similar offence for the purpose of visiting the Windsor +theatre. "Suppose that in consequence of your example the custom +spread, and the boys of Weston took to escaping from their rooms at +night and careering about the country like--" He was going to say like +rabbits, but the name of the master who had detected the offender +occurred to him, and dreading the suspicion of making a joke he changed +it to--"jackals, howling jackals." "Have you been in the habit of these +evasions?" + +"Oh, no, sir!" cried Tom, encouraged by something in the doctor's tones +to speak out. "I never thought of such a thing till last night, just as +I was going to bed. But the moon was so bright, and the bar was so +loose, and the ice bears such a short time, and I take so much longer +than others to learn anything, and I was so anxious to get perfect on +the outside edge, that I gave way to the temptation. It was very wrong, +and I am very sorry, and will take care nothing of the sort ever happens +again." + +"So will I," said the doctor drily. "These bars shall be looked to. +And who went with you?" + +"No one, sir, no one else knew of it. I just took my skates and went. +I did not see how wrong it was, sir, then, as I do now. I am slow, sir, +and can only think of one thing at a time." + +"And the outside edge engrossed all your faculties, I suppose." + +"Yes, sir." + +Dr Jolliffe would have given something to let him off, but felt that he +could not; to do so would be such a severe blow to discipline. So he +set his features into the sternest expression he could assume, and said, +"Come into my class-room after eleven-o'clock school." + +"Yes, sir," replied Buller, retiring with a feeling of relief; he was to +get off with a flogging after all, and he did not imagine that +castigation at the hands of the doctor would be particularly severe. +For the head-master's class-room contained a cupboard, rarely opened, +and in that cupboard there were rods, never used at Weston for +educational purposes. For if a boy did not prepare his lessons properly +it was assumed that they were too difficult for him, and he was sent +down into a lower form. If he still failed to meet the school +requirements, his parents were requested to remove him, and he left, +without a stain on his character, as the magistrates say, but he was +written down an ass. Such a termination to the Weston career was +dreaded infinitely more than any amount of corporal punishment or +impositions, and the prospect of being degraded from his class caused +the idlest boy to set to work, so that such disgraces were not common. +The birch, then, was had recourse to simply for the maintenance of +discipline, all forms of imprisonment being considered injurious to the +health. And an invitation to the doctor's class-room after school meant +a short period, quite long enough, however, of acute physical sensation, +which was not of a pleasurable character. + +But everything is comparative in this world, and Tom Buller, who had +feared that expulsion might be the penalty exacted for his offence, or +at any rate that his friends at home would be written to, and a great +fuss made, was quite in high spirits at the thought of getting the +business over so quickly and easily. He found a group of friends +waiting for him to come out of the doctor's study, curious to know what +he had been wanted for, Tom not being the sort of fellow, they thought, +to get into a serious scrape; and when he told them that he had got out +of his window the night before to go skating, that Mr Rabbits had +caught him as he was getting in again by lighting up some chemical dodge +which illuminated the whole place, and that he was to be flogged after +eleven-o'clock school, they were filled with admiration and +astonishment. What a brilliant idea! What courage and coolness in the +execution! What awfully bad luck that old Rabbits had come by just at +the wrong moment! They took his impending punishment even more +cheerfully than he did himself, as our friends generally do, and +promised to go in a body and see the operation. One, indeed, Simmonds, +lamented over his sad fate, and sang by way of a dirge-- + + "`Here a sheer hulk lies poor Tom Bowling, + The darling of our crew,'" + +in a fine tenor voice for which he was celebrated. And this being taken +as an allusion to the branch of cricket, in which Buller had learned to +become a proficient, was considered a joke, and from that time forth the +object of it was known as Tom Bowling. + +Eleven o'clock came, and they all went into school, and Buller did his +best, to fix his attention on what he was about, instead of thinking of +what was coming afterwards. Dr Jolliffe's class was select, consisting +of a dozen of the most proficient scholars, Crawley and Smith being the +only two of those mentioned in this story who belonged to it. He had +hardly taken his chair ten minutes before a servant came in with a card +and a note, stating that a gentleman was waiting outside, and that his +business was very pressing. The doctor glanced at the card, which was +Lord Woodruff's, and then tore open the note, which ran thus: + + "Dear Dr Jolliffe, can I speak to you a moment. I would not, you may + be sure, disturb you during school hours if there were not urgent + reason for the interruption." + +"Where is Lord Woodruff?" he asked, rising from his seat. + +"Waiting in the cloister at the foot of the stair, sir." + +And there indeed he found him, an excitable little man, walking up and +down in a fume. + +"Dr Jolliffe," he cried, directly he saw him, "were any of your boys +out last night? Tut, tut, how should you know! Look here. There were +poachers in my woods last night, and the keepers, hearing the firing, of +course went to stop, and if possible arrest them. The rascals decamped, +however, before they could reach the place, and the keepers dispersed to +go to their several homes. One of them, Simon Bradley, had some +distance to walk, his cottage being two miles and more from the place. +As he passed through a coppice on his way he came upon a boy and a +figure following with a sack, whether man or boy he could not say, as it +was in deep shadow. He collared the boy, who was big and strong, and +while he was struggling with him he was struck from behind with a life- +preserver or some such instrument, which felled him to the ground, +bleeding and senseless. After some time he came to, and managed to +crawl home, and his wife sent off to tell me, and I despatched a man on +horseback to fetch a surgeon. And Bradley is doing pretty well; there +is no immediate fear for his life. Of course he has recovered his wits, +or I could not give you these details, and he is certain that the fellow +he was struggling with was a Weston boy." + +"Well, you see, Lord Woodruff," said the doctor, "unless the poor fellow +knew the boy, he could hardly be sure upon that point, could he?" + +"Pretty nearly, I think, Dr Jolliffe. Your boys wear a distinctive cap +of dark flannel?" + +"Yes; but when they get shabby they are thrown aside, and many of the +village youths round about get hold of them and wear them." + +"Aye," said Lord Woodruff, "but Bradley is confident that this was a +young gentleman; he wore a round jacket, with a white collar, and stiff +white cuffs with studs in them, for he felt them when he tried to grasp +his wrists. No young rustic would be dressed in that fashion, and, +taken together with the cap, I fear that it must have been one of your +boys." + +"It looks suspicious, certainly," said the doctor, somewhat perplexed. + +"I am very sorry indeed to give you trouble, and to risk bringing any +discredit on the school," said Lord Woodruff. "But you see one of my +men has been seriously injured, and that in my service, and if we could +find this boy, his evidence would enable us to trace the cowardly +ruffian who struck the blow." + +"Then you would want to--to prosecute him, in short." + +"In confidence, doctor, I should be glad not to do so if I could help +it, and if he would give his evidence freely it might be avoided. But +it may be necessary to frighten him, if we can find him, that is. And, +doctor, allow me to say that if this were merely a boyish escapade, a +raid upon my pheasants, I should be content to leave the matter in your +hands, considering that a sound flogging would meet the case. But my +man being dangerously hurt alters the whole business. I owe it to him, +and to all others in my employ, not to leave a stone unturned to +discover the perpetrator of the outrage, and I call upon you, Dr +Jolliffe, to assist me." + +The doctor bowed. "Can your lordship suggest anything you would like +done towards the elucidation of this mystery?" he said. "In spite of +the jacket and cuffs, I find it difficult to suppose that any Weston boy +is in league with poachers. But you may rely on my doing all in my +power to aid you in any investigation you may think desirable." + +"I expected as much, and thank you," replied Lord Woodruff. "It +occurred to me, then, that it might be well, as a preliminary measure, +to collect the boys together in one room and lay the case before them, +promising impunity to the offender, if present, on condition of his +turning queen's evidence." + +"It shall be done at once," said the doctor. "Will you speak to them, +or shall I?" + +"It does not much matter," replied Lord Woodruff. "Perhaps the pledge +would come better from me, the natural prosecutor." + +"Very good." + +The doctor returned to his class-room, not too soon. One of the young +scamps had taken his chair, and was delivering a burlesque lecture, near +enough to the head-master's style to excite irreverent laughter. They +listened for his step upon the stair, however, and when he entered the +room they might have been taken for a synod discussing a Revised Edition +by the extreme gravity of their demeanour. + +"We must interrupt our studies for a short time, I am sorry to say," +observed Dr Jolliffe. "I wish you to assemble at once, but without +noise, in the schools. And, Probyn, run round to the other class-rooms, +and tell the masters, with my compliments, that I wish their classes +also to go there at once, and arrange themselves in their proper places, +as on Examination Days." + +The "Schools" was a large room which held all Weston; but the college +was liberal in the matter of accommodation, and only three classes were +habitually held in it, that so the hubbub of voices might not be +inconvenient. For some persons are so constituted that when you seek to +instruct them in Greek, they take an intense interest in mathematics, if +treated upon within their hearing, and _vice versa_. But every class +had its appointed place in the schools, all the same, and in a few +minutes after the summons had gone forth, the boys, not quite broken- +hearted at having to shut up their books, were reassembled in the large +room, wondering what on earth had happened to cause such an unparalleled +infraction of the daily routine. One sanguine youth suggested that they +were to have an extra half-holiday in consequence of the fine condition +of the ice, and he had many converts to his opinion; but there were many +other theories. Saurin alone formed a correct guess at the real matter +in hand, conscience prompting him. + +No sooner were all settled in their places than the head-master came in +accompanied by Lord Woodruff, who was known to most present by sight, +and curiosity became almost painful. + +"It is he who has begged us the half-holiday," whispered the prophet of +good to his neighbour. "Shall we give him a cheer?" + +"Better wait to make certain first," replied his more prudent auditor. + +Next the roll was called, and when all had answered to their names Dr +Jolliffe announced that their visitor had something serious to say to +them; and then Lord Woodruff got up. + +"No doubt some of your fathers are preservers of game for sporting +purposes," he said, "and you all know what it means. I preserve game in +this neighbourhood; and last night one of my keepers was going home +through a wood where there are a good many pheasants, for it has not +been disturbed this year, when he met two persons. They may not have +been poachers, but poaching was certainly going on last night, for the +guns were heard, and the man naturally concluded that they were +trespassing in pursuit of game, for why else should they be there at +that hour of the night. And so, as was clearly his duty, he endeavoured +to secure one of them. But just as he had succeeded in doing so, he was +struck down from behind with some weapon which has inflicted serious +injuries upon him. He has recovered his senses, and laid an information +that the person he seized was a Weston boy." + +There was a murmur and a movement throughout the assembly at this +sensational announcement. Saurin, who felt that he was very pale, +muttered, "Absurd!" and strove to assume a look of incredulous +amusement. + +"Now, boys, listen to me. I take a great interest in Weston College, +and should be sorry to see any disgrace brought upon it. And indeed it +would be very painful to me that any one of you should have his future +prospects blighted on first entering into life, for what I am willing to +look upon as a thoughtless freak. But when the matter is once put into +the hands of the police I shall have no further power to shield anyone, +and if they trace the boy who was in that wood last night, which, mind +you, they will probably do, safe as he may think himself, he will have +to stand his trial in a court of justice. But now, I will give him a +fair chance. If he will stand forward and confess that he was present +on the occasion I allude to, and will say who the ruffian was that +struck the blow, for of complicity in such an act I do not for a moment +suspect him, I promise that he shall not be himself proceeded against in +any way." + +There was a pause of a full minute, during which there was dead silence; +no one moved. + +"What!" continued Lord Woodruff; "were you all in your beds at eleven +o'clock last night? Was there no one out of college unbeknown to the +authorities?" + +He looked slowly round as he spoke, and it seemed to Buller that his +eyes rested upon him. Though he knew nothing of this poaching business, +he was certainly out, and perhaps Dr Jolliffe had told Lord Woodruff +so, and this was a trap to see if he would own to it, and if he did not, +they might suspect him of the other thing. He half rose, and sat down +again, hesitating. + +"Ah!" said Lord Woodruff, catching sight of the movement; "what is it, +my lad? speak up, don't be afraid." + +"I was certainly out of the college last night," said Buller, getting on +to his feet, "but I was not near any wood, and I did not meet any man, +or see or hear any struggling or fighting." + +"It has nothing to do with this case, my lord," interposed the doctor. +"This boy went late to the gravel-pits to skate, and was seen by one of +the masters. It was a breach of the regulations, for which he will be +punished, but nothing more serious." + +"Oh! if he was seen skating by one of the masters that is enough. Might +I speak to the gentleman?" + +"Certainly." + +And Mr Rabbits was called forward and introduced. + +"Oh! Mr Rabbits, you actually saw this boy skating last night, did +you?" + +"No, not exactly. He was getting in again at his window when I +surprised him?" + +"May I ask at what time?" + +"About half-past twelve." + +"And how, if you did not see him, do you know that he was out skating?" + +"He said so," replied Mr Rabbits innocently. + +"And his word is the only evidence you have that he was not elsewhere?" + +Mr Rabbits was obliged to confess that it was. + +"Buller! come here," cried the doctor. "Now, did anyone see you at the +gravel-pits, or going there, or coming back?" + +"No, sir." + +"Think well, because you may be suspected of having gone in an exactly +opposite direction. If any friend was with you I am certain that he +would be glad to give himself up to get you out of a really serious +scrape. Shall I put it to the boys, my lord?" + +"It is of no use, sir," said Buller. "I was quite alone, just as I told +you, and no one knew I was out. I did not think of it myself till a few +minutes before, when I found the bar loose. And I did not open my door +even. And I saw no one, going or returning, till Mr Rabbits lit his +chemical as I was getting in at the window." + +"It is very painful to--ah--to seem to doubt your word, in short," said +Lord Woodruff with hesitation, for he was a gentleman, and Tom's manner +struck him as remarkably open and straightforward. "But you know it is +impossible to accept anyone's unsupported evidence in his own favour, +and I really wish that you could produce some one to corroborate your +rather unlikely story. Assuming for a moment that you were in the +company of poachers for a bit of fun last night, and that you saw +something of this affray, and being caught as you got home, were +frightened into accounting for your being out at so late an hour by this +story of going skating in the moonlight; I say, assuming all this, I +appeal to you to save yourself from serious consequences, and to forward +the ends of justice by telling anything you know which may put us on the +traces of the fellow who has injured my poor gamekeeper. A fellow who +would come behind and strike a cowardly blow like that, trying to murder +or maim a man who was simply doing his duty, does not deserve that you +should shield him. Come, will you not denounce him?" + +"But how can I tell about things of which I have no knowledge whatever?" +cried Buller, who was getting vexed as well as bewildered. "What I have +said is the exact truth, and if it does not suit you I cannot help it. +Believe me or not, as you like, there is no good in my going on +repeating my words." + +"I cannot accept the responsibility of taking your bare word in such a +matter," said Lord Woodruff, more stiffly, for Tom's tone had offended +him; "a magistrate may do so. Of course I shall not adjudicate in my +own case," he added, turning to Dr Jolliffe. "Mr Elliot is the next +nearest magistrate, and I shall apply for a warrant against this youth +to him." + +Tom Buller experienced a rather sudden change of sensation in a short +period. A quarter of an hour ago he felt like a culprit, now his heart +swelled with the indignation of a hero and a martyr. To be accused of +poaching, and asked to betray a supposed accomplice in what might prove +a murder, just because he happened to be out after ten one night, was +rather too strong, and Tom's back was up. + +"You had better go to your room, Buller, and wait there till you hear +further," said Dr Jolliffe, not unkindly. + +To tell the truth the doctor was a good deal ruffled by this accusation, +brought, as it seemed to him, on very insufficient grounds, against some +member of the school. But he was determined to be as cool and quiet +about it as possible, and not to give any one a chance of saying that he +had obstructed the ends of justice. For if he took the highly indignant +line, and it were proved after all that one of his boys was involved in +the scrape, how foolish he would look! + +"And you really mean to have this boy up before Mr Elliot on a charge +of poaching?" he asked. + +"What else can I do?" said Lord Woodruff. "His own obstinacy in +refusing to tell what he knows is to blame." + +"But supposing that he really knows nothing, how can he tell it? I know +the boy well, and he is remarkably truthful and straightforward. +Intensely interested, too, in the studies and sports of his school, and +the very last to seek low company or get into a scrape of this kind." + +Lord Woodruff smiled and shook his head. + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. + +Have you ever stood near a bee-hive when something unusual was going on +inside? When a swarm was meditated, or you had cut off the +communication with a super which you meant to take? Just such a buzz +and murmur as then arises might have been heard in Weston court-yard +when the boys poured out from the schools, only increased so much in +volume as the human vocal organs are more powerful than the apiarian. +And surely not without cause, for the scene which had just been enacted, +without any rehearsal, for their benefit was simply astounding. + +"Fancy Tom Buller the chief of a gang of poachers!" cried Saurin. "By +Jove, I did not think it was in him, and fairly confess that I have not +done him justice. He is a dark horse and no mistake." + +"Why, you don't for a moment suppose that there is anything in it, do +you?" asked Robarts, who heard him. + +"I don't know, I'm sure," replied Saurin; "perhaps not. Awful liars +those keeper chaps, no doubt. We shall know all about it in time, I +suppose." + +"It would not be bad fun if one got a fair price for the game one took," +said Griffiths. "But the risk and difficulty of selling it would be so +great that one would be certain to be robbed." + +"What an ass Tom Bowling was to give himself up; it would have been all +right if he had sat still." + +"I don't know that. He had already been caught breaking out of college, +don't you see, and they would have been certain to put this and that +together." + +"Who would?" + +"Old Jolliffe." + +"Not a bit of it. I twigged his face when Buller stood up, and he +looked as vexed as possible. _He'd_ never have told." + +"I am not sure of that, and I think Buller was right not to risk it." + +"Fussy old chap, Lord Woodruff!" + +"Not a bad sort altogether, I believe, if you rub him the right way." + +"No more am I; give me everything I want, and never thwart me, and I am +the easiest fellow to live with in the world." + +That is a sample of the way the matter was discussed and commented upon. +But the most astonished of the whole school, and the only one who could +not trust himself to make any remark at all in public, was Edwards. For +the second time that day he had to watch his opportunity for a private +conference with Saurin, and when he found it he opened on him eagerly. + +"What a chap you are! And so you had a regular fight with keepers, and +nearly did for one; and all you said this morning was that the whole +thing was a failure and a sell. And even when we talked about +gamekeepers catching poachers, and the poachers resisting, you kept it +all dark." + +"Why, it was a serious thing to talk about, you see," said Saurin. + +"Well, I think you might have trusted me at all events," replied Edwards +somewhat reproachfully. + +"Trust you! My dear fellow I would trust you with my life," said +Saurin. "But I thought it better to keep Marriner's attack on this +keeper secret for your sake. There was sure to be a row, and in case of +the inquiry coming in this direction, and your being questioned, it +would be so much jollier for you to be able to say that you knew nothing +about it. Whereas, if I had entered into all the details, it would have +bothered you. For, to tell the truth, I feared the man was killed; now +he is not hurt much, I don't care." + +"They would not have got anything out of me," said Edwards. + +"Perhaps not," replied Saurin. "But those lawyers are awful fellows +when they get you into the witness-box, and make you say pretty nearly +what they like. I had much rather have nothing to tell them myself if I +were to be put in such a position, and I thought you would feel the +same." + +"You are right, so I do," said Edwards. "What a fellow you are, Saurin, +you think of everything!" + +"It is different, now that they have got hold of that ass, Buller; what +a joke it all is, isn't it?" + +"Yes," replied Edwards, in a tone of hesitation, however, as if he did +not quite see the humour of it. "Rather rough upon Buller, though, +don't you think?" + +"Not a bit of it; he has got off his flogging." + +"But suppose he comes in for something worse?" + +"How should he? They cannot prove that he was in the coppice when he +was about three miles in the opposite direction, you know. Now, if I +were once suspected, they would find out that I constantly went to +Slam's, who finds agents to sell the game for all the poachers round, +and some of the keepers too, if the truth were known, and that I had +been seen in Marriner's company; who is considered to make a regular +income out of Lord Woodruff's pheasants, and they would have some +grounds to go upon. But Buller is all right." + +But though he spoke like this to quiet Edwards, Saurin did not care +whether Buller got into serious trouble or not. He was a friend of +Crawley's, had seconded him in the fight, and given him advice which +contributed as much as anything else to Saurin's defeat. If he were +expelled and sent to prison it would not break his (Saurin's) heart. +The only fear was that if Edwards blabbed--and he was so weak that he +could not be absolutely trusted--fellows would think it horribly mean to +let Buller be punished unjustly, for what he himself had done. And on +this account, and this account only, he hoped that Buller would get off. + +Mr Elliot, the magistrate, lived at Penredding, the village where Mr +Rabbits had gone to lecture, and thither Tom Buller was driven in a +close fly, the doctor accompanying him. Lord Woodruff, who had come to +Weston on horseback, rode over separately. Mr Elliot was a man of good +common sense, though his opinions were not quite so weighty as his +person, which declined to rise in one scale when fifteen stone was in +the other. He was a just man also, though perhaps he was less dilatory +in attending to the wishes of a member of one of the great county +families than he might be in the case of a mere nobody. If a rich man +and a poor one had a dispute, he considered that the presumption was in +favour of the former, but he did not allow this prejudice to influence +him one iota in the teeth of direct evidence. + +Just after the fly had left Weston some snow flakes began to fall. +"Ah!" thought Tom, "it may snow as hard as it pleases now. I have had a +good turn at any rate. I was not able to do the outside edge when the +frost set in, and now I can cut an eight. I wish, though, I could keep +my balance in the second curl of those threes. I must practise going +backwards, and stick to that next time I have a chance." + +Dr Jolliffe, who saw that he was absorbed in reflection, thought that +he was dwelling upon the serious nature of the position, in which he +found himself, and would have been amused if he could have read the real +subject of his meditations. But he could not do that, so he read the +proof-sheets of his new treatise on the digamma. The snow fell thicker, +and by the time they reached Penredding the country was covered with a +white sheet. + +Mr Elliot, who had been warned of their coming, was ready to receive +them, and Lord Woodruff came forward with an inspector of rural police, +and told his story, which was written down by a clerk and read over. +Then the whole party set out on their travels again and drove to the +cottage of the wounded gamekeeper, where they were received by a young +woman, who had been crying her eyes red, and to the folds of whose dress +two little children clung, hiding their faces therein, but stealing shy +glances now and then at the quality, and the awful representative of the +law, who had come to visit them. + +"The doctor has told us that it would do your husband no harm to say +before me what he has already told Lord Woodruff," said Mr Elliot to +her. "I was rejoiced to hear that he is doing so well. It was a most +shameful, brutal, and cowardly attack, and we are most anxious that the +offender should be brought to justice." + +"Yes, sir," said the woman. "Doctor thinks it may quiet him like to +have his dispositions took, and then he may go to sleep." + +"Exactly. Will you be so kind as to tell him that we are here?" + +She pushed the children into an inner room, ran up-stairs, and presently +reappeared, asking them to walk up. Bradley was in bed, propped with +pillows. A handkerchief was tied round his head, and his face was pale +from loss of blood. Either from that cause, or on account of the shock +to the nervous system, he was also very weak. + +"How do you feel now, Bradley?" asked Lord Woodruff gently, going to the +bed-head. + +"Rayther queer as yet, my lord," was the reply. + +"No doubt. But you have a good hard head, and there is nothing serious +the matter, the doctor says. But it may be some days before it will be +prudent for you to go out, so, as we want to get on the traces of the +fellow who struck you at once, Mr Elliot has kindly come over to take +your deposition here, instead of waiting till you were fit to go to +Penredding." + +When Tom Buller saw the woman and children, and then afterwards their +strong bread-earner reduced to such a condition, he indeed felt heartily +glad that there was no truth in the accusation against him. To have had +any part in bringing about such a scene of family distress would have +been too much for him. + +The wounded man told his story clearly enough, and then Tom Buller was +told to stand in the light where he could see him clearly. + +"Noa," said the wounded man, "I could not say who it wor. There was a +bright moon, but the boy was in the shadow, and I got no clear look at +his face; but he wor one of the Weston young gentlemen, I am sartin of +that. A bit bigger than him, I should say, but I couldn't say for sure. +He wor a strong un, I know that." + +When all this was written down, back they went to Penredding again, +slower now, for the snow was getting deep, and assembled once more in +Mr Elliot's study, where Buller was warned against criminating himself, +and then allowed to speak. He had been out that night, but in a +contrary direction, skating; no one had seen him, and he had no +witnesses. + +"There is hardly any case," said Mr Elliot. "The boy owns that he was +out the night of the assault, and the gamekeeper swears he was +struggling with a boy, whom he thinks was rather bigger. But there are +no marks of any struggle having taken place upon the lad. There may be +reason for suspicion, but nothing more." + +"Exactly; and I do not ask for a committal, but only for a remand, to +give the police an opportunity of collecting further evidence," said +Lord Woodruff. + +"And I do not oppose the remand," said Dr Jolliffe. "I am perfectly +convinced of the boy's complete innocence; but in his interest I should +like the matter to be gone into further, now the accusation has once +been made." + +"Very good; this day week, then. And I will take your bail for his +appearance, Dr Jolliffe." + +And it being so arranged, everybody went home through the snow; and the +police took up a wrong scent altogether, that, namely, of the gang that +had been taking game in another part of the preserves earlier in the +night, and to which it was somewhat naturally supposed the other two +belonged. And one of them was traced, and a reward, together with +impunity, was offered to him if he would turn queen's evidence, and say +who had struck down the keeper. But the man, of course, could tell +nothing about it. + +As for Tom Buller, he went back to his lessons as usual, and was a hero. +It was something novel to have a fellow out of prison on bail at +Weston, and the boys racked their brains for some evidence in his +favour. His flogging was put off _sine die_, for the doctor felt it +unjust to deal with his case scholastically while the question of his +punishment by the laws of the country was still pending. The only boy +who thought of anything practical was Smith, "Old Algebra," as they +called him. He went up privately to Mr Rabbits one day and said, "I +beg your pardon, sir, but might I speak to you for a moment?" + +"Certainly, Smith," said Mr Rabbits; "what is it?" + +"When you saw Buller getting in at the window by the light of your +magnesium wire, did you notice his skates?" + +"Bless me!" cried Mr Rabbits; "now you mention it, I think--nay, I am +sure I did. They were hanging round his neck. To be sure; why, that +tends to corroborate his assertion that he went skating." + +"Will it not be enough to clear him, sir?" + +"Well, not quite, I fear. You see, they may say that he might have +started to go skating, and met with this poacher, and gone off with him +out of curiosity. But still it is worth something, and I shall make a +point of appearing before the magistrate and giving evidence on the +point. It was a very good idea of yours--very." + +When the snow ceased, the boys took brooms with them to the gravel-pits +and cleared a space, which grew larger every time they went to skate on +it, some of the hangers-on of the school helping forward the work, for +what coppers and sixpences they could pick up. But they were lazy, +loafing dogs, and the boys did most of it for themselves. Buller did +not go to the ice any more, however; though not expressly forbidden, he +thought the doctor would not like it; it would look as if he did not +take his position seriously enough. It was for the sake of skating that +he had broken out at night and got into this scrape, and so now he would +deny himself. + +The week passed, and Buller again went over with Dr Jolliffe to Mr +Elliot's house at Penredding, Mr Rabbits this time accompanying him. +The frost still held, and the boys went skating. + +I have said that there was no recognised system of fagging at Weston; +yet, when a fellow in the head-master's class told a boy in the lowest +form to do anything, why, it so happened that he generally did it. So, +when Crawley observed: + +"There's a beautiful bit of smooth ice under here. I say, you two, +Penryhn and Simmonds, suppose you take those brooms and clear a bit of +it." + +Penryhn and Simmonds acted on the suggestion. After clearing some +twenty square yards of beautiful black ice, Simmonds turned up something +hard, which he picked up and invoked Jupiter. + +"What is it?" asked Penryhn. + +"Findings, keepings," responded Simmonds. + +"Let's look," said Penryhn. "Why, that is Buller's knife!" + +"Ah, ah! how do you know that?" + +"Why, it has a punch in it; he lent it me to punch a hole in my strap +when we got home from skating one day. It has his name engraved upon it +somewhere; there it is, look, on that plate--`T. Buller'." + +"Like my luck!" sighed Simmonds; "I never found anything yet but what it +belonged to some other fellow." + +"What was that you said, Penryhn, about Buller lending you his knife?" +asked Crawley, who was cutting threes on the new bit of ice. "What day +was it?" + +"The day before the snow; yesterday week, that was." + +"What time?" + +"In the evening, just before supper, when I was cleaning up my skates +for next day. By Jove! I see what you are driving at. Buller has not +been any day since, so he must have dropped it when he came that night." + +"Of course. Now, you and Simmonds run back to school, find Cookson, who +is senior master now the doctor's out, ask leave to go over to +Penredding, and cut there as hard as you can split." + +The pair were off before he could finish his sentence. + +The party assembled in Mr Elliot's library was the same as on the week +previously, with the addition of a detective, who had detected nothing, +and Mr Rabbits, who now testified that he saw skates hanging round +Buller's neck when he was getting in at the window. The question was +concerning a further remand, for the magistrate firmly refused to commit +the boy for trial on the evidence before them. "I grant that it is +suspicious; he was out late at night when he had no business to be, and +that same night a Weston boy was, almost to a certainty, seized by +Bradley in the coppice. But if one boy could get out another might, and +now it is proved that this one had his skates with him at the time. No +jury would convict on such evidence." He did not even like granting a +remand, but neither did he like to stand out too strongly against the +wishes of Lord Woodruff. + +At this juncture voices were heard outside, and presently a constable +opened the door and said that two young gentlemen from Weston had +something to say. + +"Found the real culprit, perhaps," muttered Lord Woodruff. + +"Bring them in," said the magistrate, and Simmonds and Penryhn entered, +hot, excited, and still panting for breath. + +"Please, sir, we have leave from Mr Cookson, and I have found Tom +Bowling--I mean Buller's knife," said the former, addressing Dr +Jolliffe, who waved his hand towards Mr Elliot in silence, and frowned. + +"Wait a bit, my lad, do not be flurried," said the magistrate; "stand +there. Let him be sworn," he added to the clerk. And Simmonds took his +first legitimate oath. + +Then he told the simple story which we know. And when he had done +Penryhn kissed the book in his turn and completed the chain of evidence. +It was really quite sufficiently clear, that unless yet another boy had +got out, and gone skating on the gravel-pits that night, taking Buller's +knife with him and losing it, that he himself had been there as he said; +and therefore that he was not in the coppice, two miles on the other +side of Weston. Lord Woodruff himself was convinced, and Buller was at +once discharged, everybody shaking hands with him. + +"And, Buller," said Dr Jolliffe as they left the house, "as I hope that +the anxiety you have been subjected to by your own unlawful action will +prove sufficient punishment, I shall not take any further notice of your +breaking out that night. Let it be a lesson to you, that you cannot +engage in what is unlawful without assuming something which is common to +_all_ criminals, and running the risk of being mixed up with them." +Which was a beautifully mild preachee to take the place of floggee. + +Tom Bowling received quite an ovation next day, and did not know what to +do with his popularity. He was ready enough to skate now, but a thaw +came, and there was no other chance afforded that term. + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +A HOLIDAY INVITATION. + +A week before the Christmas holidays a boy named Gould came up to +Crawley and said, "I wish you would come and stay with me a week or so +this Christmas at my father's place in Suffolk, Nugget Towers. The best +of the shooting is over, the partridges being very wild by now, and it +is not a pheasant country, as there are no woods to speak of. But there +are a good many snipe down towards the river, so you had better bring +your gun. Besides we will have a day's partridge driving, for there are +plenty, if you could only get at them. And there is a pack of foxhounds +that meets about ten miles off once a week at least, and some harriers +close by. I generally go out with the harriers. We can give you a +mount; you do not ride above twelve stone I should say, do you?" + +"No, I should think not, but I have not been weighed lately," replied +Crawley. "You are very kind, I am sure, but does your father know? +Perhaps he has made arrangements to fill his house." + +"Oh no! it is all right. My father does not bother his head about such +things; he is perpetually going to London, and thinking of business. +But my mother and sisters want you to come, and have told me to ask +you." + +"I am much obliged to them, they are very good. And I should like it +very much," said Crawley, somewhat more hesitatingly than it was his +wont to speak. + +For this invitation was rather a hot coal on his head. Gould had +courted his acquaintance and he had rather snubbed him, not liking him +particularly. He was rich, which mattered to nobody, but he gave +himself airs on the strength of it, and that did. There are few things +more irritating than to hear anyone perpetually bragging of his money, +and if you happen to be poor yourself I do not think that it helps you +to sit and listen more patiently. And then Gould was an injudicious +flatterer; he made the flattered fellow uncomfortable. It is a nice +thing, flattery, and causes one to feel good all over, if it is +delicately applied with a camel's-hair brush, as it were. But Gould +laid it on with a trowel. He only courted success; if anyone were down +he would be the first to spurn him. + +Now, Crawley was undoubtedly the boy held in greatest estimation in the +school: captain and treasurer of the cricket and football clubs, good- +looking, pleasant in manners, open, generous, clever at lessons, he was +a special favourite with masters and boys, and therefore Gould burnt his +incense before him. For to be Crawley's chum was to gain a certain +amount of consideration in the school, and Gould did not mind shining +with a reflected light. He was not like Saurin in that respect, whose +egotism saved him at least from being a toad-eater. Gould was vain +enough, but his vanity was of a different kind. But hitherto all his +efforts had been in vain, and Crawley had rather snubbed him. This had +not prevented Gould from talking about him, exaggerating his merits, and +bragging about his intimacy with him at home. It was always "my friend +Crawley and I" did this, that, and the other. So that Mrs Gould wrote +to him one day asking whether he would not like his inseparable to come +and stay with him during the holidays; and Clarissa Gould added a +postscript to the effect that as he was so clever he would be of great +use to them in their private theatricals. + +Crawley was one boy amongst a rather large family of girls; the father +was dead, and the mother, though able to live in ordinary comfort, was +far from rich. She could not indulge in carriages and horses, or men- +servants, for example, and she lived near London for the sake of her +daughters' education. So that Crawley had never had an opportunity of +gaining proficiency in those sports which cannot be indulged in without +a good deal of expenditure, and he looked upon hunting and shooting as +sublime delights far out of his reach at present, though perhaps he +might attain to them by working very hard, some day. His ambition was +to enter the army, not that he thought drill any particular fun, or +desired the destruction of his fellow-creatures, or ever indulged in +dreams of medals, bars, triumphal arches, and the thanks of parliament, +but simply because he might get to India, stick pigs, and shoot tigers. +Shooting! hunting! Gould's words made his nerves tingle from head to +foot with excitement. And he had thought the fellow who now offered him +a taste of such pleasures a muff, a bore, a sycophant, and done his best +to avoid him! How wrong it is to have prejudices! + +"Well, then, when will you come?" asked Gould. + +"As soon as it is convenient to have me after Christmas," replied +Crawley. "I must spend the Christmas week at home, you know; but then I +am free. I should tell you, though, that I cannot shoot or ride a +little bit. I have never had any practice, and you will find me an +awful duffer." + +"All right; fellows always say that." + +"Yes, I know they do sometimes, in mock modesty. But in my case it's a +fact, and I warn you, that I may not spoil your fun." + +"My dear fellow," said Gould, "you could not do that unless your want of +skill were catching. I should be glad if I could put you up to a +wrinkle or two." + +"On those terms, then, I shall be very glad to come." + +"That is all right." + +What a happy stroke for Gould! he had come to call Crawley "my dear +fellow" already. + +The idea of his new friend putting him up to a "wrinkle or two" rather +tickled Crawley. Gould was so poor a performer at cricket, fives, lawn- +tennis, football everything which required a ready hand, a quick eye, +and firm nerves--that Crawley could not imagine his beating him even +with the advantage of previous knowledge. Yet he had not exaggerated +his own deficiencies. Bring his gun, indeed! The only gun he had to +bring was a single-barrelled muzzle-loader which had belonged to his +father. With this he had shot water-rats, sparrows, and, on one +occasion when they were very numerous, fieldfares; but not flying--he +had never attempted that. No; he had stalked his small bird till he got +within thirty yards of the bough where it was perched, and taken a +steady pot-shot. As for riding, when a very little boy during his +father's lifetime he had had a pony; and two or three times since, when +staying at watering-places in the summer, he had mounted a hired hack. +So that his ideas of sport were gathered entirely from books and +pictures, to which, when they treated of that subject, he was devotedly +attached. What happy hours he had spent poring over _Jorrock's Hunts, +Mr Sponge's Sporting Tour_, and the works of the _Old Shekarry_! When +he went to a picture-gallery he was listless until he came upon some +representation of moving adventure by flood or field, and then the rest +of the party could hardly drag him away. He had a little collection of +coloured prints in his room at home, gathered at various times, and +highly esteemed by him, which conveyed a somewhat exaggerated idea of +equine powers. For in one a horse was clearing a stream about the width +of the Thames at Reading, and in another an animal of probably the same +breed was flying a solid stone wall quite ten feet high. Now he was to +have a little taste of these often-dreamed-of joys, and the idea +absorbed his thoughts and made him restless at night. + +To do him justice, he did not think about it on first meeting his mother +and sisters when he went home; but on the second day of his return the +invitation and all it promised came back to him, and he broached the +matter to Mrs Crawley at breakfast-time. "Please, Mother, I have had +an invitation to spend a week with a school-fellow after Christmas." + +"Oh, and who is he?" asked Mrs Crawley. + +"A chap named Gould; they are awfully rich people--just the sort I ought +to know, you know. They live in Suffolk at a place called Nugget +Towers." + +"And what sort of boy is he? Because, of course, Vincent, we must ask +him here in the summer in return." + +"Well, he is always very civil to me, and I don't know any harm of him; +but he is not good at games and that, and not much fun to talk to--so I +have never been quite so thick with him as he wished. That makes it all +the more civil of him. He must have talked about me at home, for his +mother sent the invitation." + +"Well, Vincent, I am glad you spoke of it at once, for we must make +haste to look over your linen, which generally comes home in a terrible +state. You had better go to-day to the tailor and get measured for your +dress clothes; but you were to have had them for Christmas any way, so +that will be nothing extra." + +For Crawley, it must be mentioned, had arrived at an age and height when +a tail-coat was a necessary garment if he went anywhere of an evening. + +"No, Mother," he said, "except a pair of porpoise-hide boots and some +leggings; and could I have a gun, do you think? There will be some +shooting, you know." + +"A gun, Vincent! Will not the one you have already do?" + +"Oh, no, Mother--it is so old and out of date, I should be laughed at. +I might just as well take an arquebus or a crossbow." + +"Is not a gun a very expensive thing?" + +"Why, you may make it so, of course; but I don't want that. I have been +studying the _Field_, and I can get a good central-fire breech-loader +for L10." + +"Ten pounds is a good deal," said Mrs Crawley thoughtfully; "but I +suppose you must have a gun if you want one. Only remember, Vincent, +that I am not rich, and your education and other expenses are very +heavy. And there are your sisters to be thought of--what with their +dresses and their music, drawing and dancing, I have to be very +careful." + +"Oh, of course, Mother," said Crawley, going round and kissing her; +"what a dear you are!" + +And his heart smote him as he thought of certain "ticks" he owed at +school, and had not yet had the courage to confess to. For Vincent +Crawley, though he had many good qualities, was by no means perfect. He +was rather spoiled by indulgence at home and popularity at school, and +thought a good deal too much of himself for one thing, and for another +he was inclined to be thoughtless and extravagant in money matters. It +is excellent to be generous with money which is absolutely our own; but +to seek to get the credit for generosity at other people's expense is +quite another, and not at all an admirable thing. Crawley knew this in +theory, but practically, if he wanted anything and could get it, he had +it; and if a friend had a longing for ices, strawberry mess, oyster- +patties, or any other school luxury, he would treat him, running up a +score if he had not the cash in his pocket to pay with. And if there +was generosity in this impulse, I fear that there was ostentation too. +It added to his popularity, and popularity had become as the air he +breathed. _For the only real test of generosity is self-denial_. If +you go without something you really want in order to oblige someone +else, that is genuine, admirable, and somewhat rare. But if you have +everything you want and forego nothing whatever by conferring a favour, +you may show good nature, careless indifference to the value of money, +or a pleasant sense of patronage, but not necessarily true generosity. +That _may_ be the spirit which dictates your conduct, but the act does +not prove it. + +Now, in Crawley's case, his mother was the only one who had to exercise +self-denial. But he never thought of that. He prided himself on being +a very generous fellow, and so he was by nature, but not so much so as +he took credit for, and he was growing more selfish than otherwise; +which was a pity. He went up to London, and was measured for his dress +clothes, and got his boots and gaiters, and then sought out and found +the gun-shop, mentioned in the _Field_, and instead of pretending to be +knowing about firearms, wisely told the shopman why he came to him, and +that he trusted him entirely, being quite unable to judge for himself, +which made the man take particular pains to select him a good one, and +show him how to judge if the stock suited him; namely, by fixing his +eyes on an object, and bringing the gun sharply up to his shoulder. +Then closing the left eye, and looking along the barrel with the right, +to see whether the sight was on the object. If he had to raise or lower +the muzzle to obtain that result, it was obvious that it did not come up +right for him. At length he got one which suited him exactly, and he +was shown the mechanism by which the breeches were opened and closed, +and learned how to take it to pieces, put it together again, clean it, +and oil it. + +Finally he bought it, together with a hundred cartridges, fifty being +loaded with snipe-shot, and fifty with number five; all on the +gunmaker's recommendation, to whom he explained the kind of shooting he +expected to have. He would not let it be sent home for him, but took it +off himself. + +"You only hold it straight, sir, and I'll guarantee the gun will kill +well enough," said the maker as he left. + +What a charm there is in a new bat, a new gun, a new fly-rod, a new +racket; how one longs for an opportunity to try it! Really it is often +a consolation to me to think that very rich people lose all that. When +everything is so easily obtained, nothing is of any value. Crawley at +any rate was delighted with his new possession. He took it to pieces +and put it together again for the benefit of every member of the family, +besides a good many times for his own private delectation, and practised +aiming drill and position drill by the hour together, without knowing +that there were any such military exercises. + +The frost set in again, however, a week before Christmas, and when the +ice bore, he had to leave his new toy alone, for besides practising +himself, his sisters required tuition in the art of skating. And you +must not think that he found the time hang heavy to the day of his +departure; he was too fresh home, and of too genial a disposition for +that, besides which it was Christmas time. But he did look forward with +pleasurable excitement to his visit, for all that. + +The day came at length, and he started for Barnsbury, snugly ensconsed +in a first-class carriage, with wraps, and comic papers, and a story by +Manville Fenn with a thrilling picture on the cover, and his beloved gun +in the rack over his head. His mother had suggested travelling second- +class, but he durst not, for fear someone should meet him at the +station. He was right in that expectation, for when the train stopped +at Barnsbury he saw Gould and a man in livery waiting for him on the +platform. + +"All right! how are you, old fellow?" said Gould, shaking him by the +hand. "How good of you to come! No hunting in such a frost as this, so +I thought I would drive over myself." + +Crawley said something civil, and the groom touched his hat and asked +what luggage he had, taking his gun-case from him as he spoke. + +"It will be brought after us in the tax-cart," said Gould, "which has +come over too. I hate a lot of luggage in the trap I am driving, don't +you? Leave it to William and come along; it will be all right;" and he +led the way out of the station, where there was a dog-cart with another +liveried servant on the seat, and a handsome nag in the shafts, waiting +at the door. + +The man jumped down and touched his hat; Crawley got in; Gould gathered +up the reins, sat beside him, and started, the man springing up behind +as they moved off, and balancing himself, with folded arms, as smart and +natty as you please. + +Crawley wondered more and more that he had never perceived any +superiority in Gould; surely he must be very blind. + +"It is only half-an-hour's drive, behind an animal like this," said his +new friend. "The frost is giving, so we may have a run with the +harriers in a few days. In the meantime there are a good many snipe. +We will have a crack at them to-morrow morning, if you like." + +"I should like very much," replied Crawley. + +The country they were driving through was not very picturesque, as it +wanted wood, a strange want for Suffolk; but they soon came to a lodge +with a gate, opened for them by a curtseying woman, and admitting them +to a park where there were trees, and fine ones, though standing about +by themselves, not grouped together. They spun along through this up to +a large white house with a colonnade in front, and a terrace, with urns +for flowers and statues all along it, looking bare and cheerless enough +at this time of year. But the hall made amends when they entered it, +for it was warm, luxurious, and bright enough for a sitting-room. Two +footmen in plush and with slightly powdered hair inhabited it, and one +of them helped Crawley to get rid of his wraps, and then Gould led the +way to the drawing-room, where Mrs Gould and three daughters were +drinking tea and eating muffins and things, for fear they should have +too good appetites for dinner, I suppose, and introduced him. + +Crawley shook several hands and accepted a cup of tea, and sat down on a +very low and very soft seat, which he could have passed the night in +luxuriously if beds had run short, and felt as awkward as you please. +He always was shy in ladies' society. Not in that of his sisters, of +course; he patronised them and made them fag for him. It was certainly +their own fault if they did not like it, for they had taught him. But +they did like it, he being one of his sort, and not often at home, and +in return he waltzed with them, which was a bore, and gave them easy +service at lawn-tennis, which made him slow, and was generally an +amiable young Turk. + +But the Misses Gould did not look like being fagged, rather the reverse. +They were all grown up, at least to look at, though one was not yet +"out." Clarissa, the next, a girl of eighteen, came and sat down by him +and talked to him, for which he felt very grateful, for he was beginning +to wish the floor to open and let him through. At first, indeed, she +talked of things he knew nothing about: balls, and levees, and the four- +in-hand club, and the Orleans. But finding the service was too severe, +and he could not send the ball back, she asked if he was fond of the +theatre, and as he was, very, and had been to one a few nights before, +he became more like himself, and showed some animation in his +description of the piece he had seen, and the performers. + +At this juncture a quiet-looking man out of livery came softly into the +room, and asked him deferentially for his keys, as his luggage had +arrived. Seizing the idea that he proposed to unpack for him, an +operation he disliked, he gladly gave them up, wondering whether these +rich people ever did anything for themselves at all. + +"I see that you are great upon acting," said Miss Clarissa when the +valet was gone, "and I am so glad! For we are getting up some private +theatricals; you will take a part?" + +"Why," said Crawley in some dismay, "I never yet tried to act myself; I +am afraid I should spoil everything." + +"Oh no! we have heard all about you from my brother, you know; you have +a good memory, have you not?" + +"I believe so; I have never found much difficulty in learning by heart." + +"That is one good thing to begin with; we will soon see if you can act +at all. Some of our friends are coming over to-morrow for rehearsal. +We have agreed to try _St. Cupid, or Dorothy's Fortune_, and we want a +`Bellefleur.' You will take the part, will you not? I am to be +`Dorothy Budd.' You will not have so very much to do. Do you know the +play?" + +"No, unfortunately, and I--" Crawley began, meaning to back out; but +Miss Clarissa cut him short. + +"No matter," she said, "I will fetch you a copy," and she got up and +returned presently with a little book. "You had better read it all +through, and mark your parts with the tags. The tags, you know, are the +last sentences of the speaker before you, to which you have to reply. +You can learn some while you are dressing for dinner; that is a capital +time. And I will give you a hint or two this evening in the billiard- +room. You don't mind?" + +What could Crawley say? He _did_ mind, not bargaining for learning +lessons in the holidays; but he could not show himself so uncivil a boor +as to refuse. So he promised to do his best, and when the gong sounded, +took his little book up into the bedroom with him. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +CRAWLEY IS TAKEN DOWN THREE PEGS. + +"Good gracious!" A large fire was burning in the grate; an easy-chair +was drawn up on one side of it; over the back of an ordinary one +opposite a clean shirt was warming itself, with the studs inserted in +the front and the wristbands. On the bed the dress clothes were neatly +laid out; the patent-leather boots stood at attention on the hearth-rug; +hot water steamed from a japanned jug on the wash-hand stand; two wax +candles lit up the dressing-table; two more stood on another near the +fire, which had also writing materials on it. The room could not have +been prepared for a duchess, because a duchess would not wear a black +coat and trousers; and besides, they were certainly _his_ clothes. + +Dressing took Crawley about ten minutes, and he had an hour for the +operation. So he looked hurriedly through the play, and marked the +parts allotted to Ensign Bellefleur. It did not seem very much, so he +felt a little encouraged, and taking Miss Clarissa's advice, set the +book open on the table and began learning what he would have to say, +while going on with his toilet. He had a really surprisingly retentive +memory, and picked up a good bit even in that little time. + +He found Mr Gould in the drawing-room when he went down, and the old +gentleman asked him after his progress in study, and what profession he +intended to adopt, in a pompous and condescending way; but it was only a +few sentences, for there were other gentlemen there, who came up and +button-holed him seriously, and with whom he seemed to hold portentous +conversation, politics, perhaps, or shares, or something of that kind. +Then the ladies assembled, and the second gong boomed, and the people +paired off. Crawley timidly offered his arm to Miss Clarissa, rather +fearing he was doing wrong, and ought to go to someone else. But she +took it all right; and he quoted from the play he had been studying: + +"`Here we escape then. Come, cousin! nay, your lips were set for pearls +and diamonds, and I'll not lose the promised treasure.'" + +"`Well, good counsel is a gem,'" the young lady responded smartly. +"`But, George, I fear me you'll never carry the jewel in your ears.' +The quotation is not apt, though, for you evidently have carried my good +counsel in your ears, and been learning your part already. How good of +you!" + +Here was a chance for Crawley to say something pretty; but he could not +think of what it should be till afterwards. + +If the ladies' society was a little thrown away upon him he appreciated +the dinner, which was by far the most luxurious meal he had ever seen in +his life. A _table-d'hote_ at Scarborough had hitherto been his _beau +ideal_ of a feed, but that was not in the race with the Gould banquet. +And the champagne; on the few occasions when he had had a chance of +tasting that wine, he had got all he could and wanted more. But now his +only care was not to take too much of it, lest it should get into his +head. + +"Are you studying your part?" asked his neighbour, for he had been +silent for some time. + +"No," he replied; "I was thinking that if your brother lives like this +every day, he must find the fare rather unpalatable when he goes back to +Weston." + +"I believe he does," said Miss Clarissa laughing. "At least he writes +home grumbling letters enough, and we have to send him hampers of good +things--Perigord pies and that. Don't stop longer than you like," she +added as the ladies rose. "Papa will go on talking about stupid things +all night." + +And shortly afterwards young Gould, who had taken his sister's place +when she went, proposed that they should go to the billiard-room and +knock the balls about. So they went and made a four-handed game with +two of the girls. And then Miss Clarissa read over the scenes in which +Crawley had to take part with her, and made him repeat what he had +learned, with appropriate action. And he got partially over his +shyness, and spent rather a pleasant evening, thanks, a little bit, I +fancy, to a little vanity. His friend came to have a chat with him +after they had gone up to their rooms, and when he left Crawley could +not help thinking what a pity it was that his sister Clarissa had not +been the boy and he the girl. She was such a much better sort of fellow +for a friend; had more go, and was heartier. Before he finally turned +in he read the part of Ensign Bellefleur over again, for he felt too +much excited by the novelty of everything to sleep, if he went to bed. +At last, however, reading the same words over repeatedly quieted his +nerves, and he slept soundly till morning. + +"You are still inclined to have a try for the snipe?" asked Gould at +breakfast. "It is still thawing, and the ground will be very sloshy; I +hope you have got thick boots." + +"Yes, and if I hadn't I do not mind a little wet," replied Crawley. +"But I can't find my gun anywhere." + +"Oh, that is all right in the gun-room." + +This was another new idea to Crawley, who previously thought that it was +only ships in Her Majesty's navy, and not houses, that had gun-rooms. +They visited it presently, and Crawley found his property taken out of +its case, put together, and standing side by side with others in a glass +cupboard. He took it down and left the house with his companion. On +the terrace they found a keeper with the dogs, and started off for the +marshy ground by the river. + +"Put a few cartridges loose in your pocket," said Gould. "William will +carry the rest." + +The low-lying lands were intersected by deep trenches, which divided +them into fields just as hedges would. These were now frozen over, but +the ice was melting fast, and water stood on the top. Along them walked +the two gunners, William the keeper following with Scamp, the retriever, +in a leash; for Scamp would hunt about and put everything up far out of +range. + +"Look out, Crawley!" cried Gould, as a snipe flushed in front of him. + +He would not have known it was a snipe unless Gould had told him, as it +was the first he had ever seen alive. He tried to take aim at it, +shutting the left eye as if he were shooting at a target with a rifle, +which caused him to twiddle his gun about as if he were letting off a +squib, for the bird darted about as though on purpose to dodge him. So +he pulled one trigger, and then, quite by accident, for he did not know +how to find it in his flurry, the other, and I don't suppose went within +two yards of the snipe with either barrel. With a steadier flight, +having now got well on the wing, it sailed within reach of Gould, who +knocked it over. + +"Wiped your eye, old fellow!" he cried triumphantly as Scamp came back +with the bird in his mouth. + +"Yes; I told you I was a duffer," replied Crawley, who took note that +the best way was to wait for the bird to have done his zigzagging. So +he steadied himself, and the next chance he had he did wait. But not a +bit could he cover the bird with that little knob of a sight, and when +the smoke cleared away he saw it careering like a kite with too light a +tail in the distance. Gould also missed twice, and then shot one the +moment it was off the ground, before the erratic course commenced. + +"That looks the easiest dodge," thought Crawley, and the next shot he +had he tried it with the first barrel, missed, waited till the snipe was +flying more steadily and gave it the second barrel, missed again. He +got quite hot, and felt sure the keeper was laughing at him, but that +official only said: + +"I'd put in a cartridge with bigger shot now; there's some duck, I +think, in yon bit of rushes by the river." + +They did as he advised, and they walked down to the spot. In went the +spaniels, and out came a fine mallard, ten yards in front of Crawley, +and sailing away from him as steady as a ship. He could cover this +large evenly-flying mark as easily as if it were on a perch nearly, and +when he pulled trigger the duck stopped in his flight, and fell with a +heavy splash in the river, into which Scamp plunged as if it were +midsummer, and presently brought the duck to land. Crawley felt the +elation which always accompanies the first successful shot at a bird on +the wing; at any rate he had killed something, and might do well yet +when the strangeness wore off. + +He had another chance at a duck a little while afterwards, but this time +the bird flew across and not straight away from him, and as he held his +gun still at the moment he got the sight on the duck and fired, of +course, since the duck had not the politeness to stop too, the charge +went about two yards behind it. + +"I beg your pardon, sir," said William, "but if you takes aim like that +you will never hit 'em; 'tain't possible. You must forget all about +your gun, and only look at the bird, and pull the trigger the moment you +gets a full sight of him. The gun will follow your eye of itself, +natural." + +"I know I ought to keep both eyes open," said Crawley, "but I forget." + +"Well, that is best, to my thinking, though I have known some good shots +too who always shut the left eye. But whether or no the chiefest thing +is not to see that sight on your gun when you shoot, but only to look at +the bird." + +They went on to another snipe patch, and soon Crawley missed again. + +"Never mind, sir," said William, "it's a knack, snipe-shooting is, and +no one can catch it without practice. I've seen good partridge, aye, +and rabbit shots, miss 'em time after time, and I've knowed good snipe- +shots poor at anything else too." + +At last, by trying to follow the keeper's directions, Crawley did hit a +snipe as it was flushed, but it was his only one. They were much more +plentiful than usual in that part, and lay like stones, so that they had +plenty of shooting, and William groaned in spirit over the opportunity +of sport that had been wasted on two boys. What a tip Sir Harry would +have given him in his delight if he had come out with him on such a day! + +Thirty-five cartridges had Crawley burned when they turned homewards in +the afternoon, and the result was one duck, one snipe; if he had +possessed a tail, how closely it would have been tucked between his +legs! He hardly dared look the animals who had those appendages in the +face; how they must have despised him! Gould, who was a bad shot, had +bagged five couple, and patronised him insufferably. When they got home +he found a warm foot-bath ready in his room, which was a most refreshing +luxury, and having made himself presentable he went down to the drawing- +room, where the neighbours who were going to act in the forthcoming play +were assembled at afternoon tea, preparatory to the rehearsal. And +presently they adjourned to the library and went through the play, a +certain Mr Foljambe, to whom everybody paid implicit obedience, +directing and instructing them. + +Crawley knew his part, and paid attention to what he was told, and the +great man considered that he would do, if he could only get over a +certain shy awkwardness. And indeed it was a provoking thing to +Clarissa Gould, that when they went through their scenes alone together +he acted in a manner that really showed great promise, but if a third +person were present he was not so good, and with every additional +spectator the merit of his performance diminished. There was only one +scene in which he managed completely to forget himself and become the +person he represented, and that was where he crosses swords with the +hero, and is disarmed. He could fence a little, and did not quite like +playing at getting the worst of it when it was not certain that he ought +to have done so; but still, the violent action, and the clash of steel +helped him to get rid of that feeling that he was making a tom-fool of +himself, which confused him when he had to make a lot of spoony speeches +to the girl. + +Mr Foljambe encouraged him with the assurance that being dressed for +the part would give him confidence; in a strange dress, a false +moustache, and a painted face, he would not know himself in the glass, +and would feel that the spectators did not entirely recognise him +either. It was necessary to make the best of him, for there was no +other Ensign Bellefleur available. + +The men of the day before had taken their departure, and were succeeded +by a more lively lot, for there was to be a partridge drive and a big +lunch on the morrow, and most of those who were to take part in it slept +at Nugget Towers that night. So, instead of shares and companies, Mr +Gould the father held forth upon agricultural prospects, the amount of +game, and the immediate renewal of hunting, in consequence of the +complete change in the weather. + +"You ought to have had a good many snipe by the way, Gould," said one of +the guests. "They are always found in those water meadows of yours at +the end of a frost." + +"My son and his young friend can tell you best about them," replied Mr +Gould. "I believe they have been out after them to-day." + +"Ah! and what sport had you?" asked the inquirer, turning to young +Gould. + +"Oh, I got five couple." + +"And your friend?" + +"I only shot one," said Crawley with an uneasy laugh. + +"Come, I say, Lionel," said Clarissa Gould to her brother, "I am not +going to have my cousin Bellefleur treated in this manner. You are a +nice sort of host to leave your guest the worst of the shooting." + +"He had as many shots as I had," said young Gould, whose desire of self- +glorification smothered any soupcon of good taste which he might have +acquired, "only he missed them all." + +"Indeed, yes," said Crawley, concealing his sense of humiliation in the +very best way; "why I fired two barrels at one snipe before Gould killed +it for me. I am a perfect novice at all field sports." + +"Ah!" observed the first inquirer, "I know I fired away a pound of lead +before I touched a snipe when I first began. But what a lot of them +there must have been if you killed five couple, Lionel." + +"I do not think I should care for shooting if I were a man," said +Clarissa to Crawley. "But hunting, now, I should be wild about. I hunt +sometimes, but only with the harriers. Mama will not let me go out with +the foxhounds, and they meet so far off that I cannot fall in with them +by accident, for there is no cover near here. But the harriers are to +go out the day after to-morrow, if the frost does not return, and I am +looking forwards to a good gallop. Are you fond of hunting?" + +"I know that I should be," replied Crawley, "but I do not own a horse, +and never have a chance of it." + +"Oh, well, we will mount you; I think Daisy will be quite up to your +weight, Sir Robert certainly would, but Daisy is the nicest to ride." + +After dinner there was music, and Crawley was asked if he could sing. +There was no backing out, for young Gould had bragged about his friend's +voice, which was indeed a good one though untrained. But he only sang +_Tubal Cain_, _Simon the Cellarer_, and one or two others of that sort, +of which the music was not forthcoming. At last, however, Julia Gould, +who was the pianist, found _John Peel_, which he knew, and he found +himself standing by that young lady, confused and shamefaced, trying to +make his voice master a great lump there seemed to be in his throat. To +make it worse the hubbub of voices ceased at the first notes, though it +had swelled the louder during previous performances. All the men began +marking the time with heads and hands, and when the chorus came first +one and then another joined in, and it ended in a full burst of sound, +just as when Crawley sung it at school. This gave him confidence, and +he sang the second and remaining verses with spirit, the choruses +swelling louder and louder, and when he finished there was much hand- +clapping. So at last he had a gleam of success, and Lionel Gould, who +had been growing a little supercilious, returned partially to his old +conciliatory manner. + +Next day a large party sallied forth with their guns, and Crawley was +placed under a high, thick hedge, and told to look out for partridges as +they came over his head. Young Gould was some little distance on his +left; and at about the same interval on his right Sir Harry Sykes, a +neighbouring squire famous for his skill with the gun, had his station. +Beaters had gone round a long way off to drive the birds towards them, +and soon shots were heard to right and left; and then Crawley saw some +dark specks coming towards his hedge, and prepared to raise his gun. +But it was like a flash of lightning; they were over and away before he +could bring his gun up. Gould had fired, indeed, though ineffectually, +but Sir Harry had a brace. Three more appeared; this time Crawley fired +his first barrel at them before they were within shot, and then turning +round, gave them the second after they had got far out of it. More +came; Gould got one, Sir Harry another; a brace, flying close together +passed not directly over Crawley, but a little to his right; and Sir +Harry having just fired and being unloaded, Crawley let fly at them, and +by a lucky fluke they both came rushing to the ground, stone-dead. + +"Good shot, boy!" cried Sir Harry. He had hardly spoken before more +birds came directly towards him; Crawley watched; he shot one as it came +on, and immediately, without turning round, raised his gun, head, and +arms, till it seemed as if he would go over backwards, and fired again +with equally deadly effect. + +This second feat Crawley did not attempt to imitate, but a steady shot +as they came on he did keep trying, and not entirely without success, +for every now and then a partridge came tumbling nearly into his face. +But Gould shot two to his one, and he did second worst of the party. +However, it was such quick and wholesale work that individual prowess +was taken little notice of. And then there was a long, hot luncheon, +which some of the ladies came out to, and another drive a few miles off +in the afternoon. + +It was all very exciting, and Crawley found the day a great deal too +short; but still he would have preferred the snipe-shooting, if he could +only be alone with no one to see his misses. There seemed more sport in +finding your game than in having it driven up to you. + +When he went up to dress for dinner he found a hamper of game there, +with a blank label attached, for him to put any address he liked. So he +wrote his mother's; and when it arrived she gave him most unmerited +credit for skill, forethought, and trouble-taking. The Goulds certainly +did things in a princely way. + +It rained softly all that night, clearing up about nine in the morning, +when those who were going out with the harriers had been half-an-hour at +breakfast--Miss Clarissa, who was one of them, taking that meal in her +habit. Crawley could hardly eat for excitement. The moment the water +for his tub had been brought he had jumped up, and, directly he was +dressed, hurried to the stables to see the horse he was to ride. + +"And which is it to be?" asked Miss Clarissa. + +"Well, I meant to take your advice and Daisy; but the groom said she had +a delicate mouth and required a light hand, which I cannot have, you +know, for want of practice. And he said Sir Robert was the stronger +animal and would stay better, though not so fast. So I fixed on Sir +Robert." + +"And he will carry you very well if you can hold him; Lionel can't." + +"What can't I do?" asked young Gould across the table, with his mouth +full of game-pie. + +"Hold Sir Robert." + +"Why, his mouth is a bit hard, but I can sit him anyhow." + +"Oh, yes, he goes easy enough." + +The horses were soon brought round, and they all--a party of five--went +out. Miss Clarissa, the only lady, put her foot into Mr Foljambe's +proffered hand and vaulted lightly into the saddle. Crawley could mount +without awkwardness; he had learned enough for that, and he knew what +length of stirrup suited him, and could trot along the road or canter +over the grass without attracting attention; so all went well till they +reached Marley Farm, where the meet was. But directly Sir Robert saw +the hounds he got excited and wanted a gallop--a thing the frost had +debarred him of for weeks. So he kicked up his heels and shook his +head, and capered about in a manner very grateful to his own feelings, +but most discomposing to his rider, who was first on the pommel, then on +the crupper, then heeling over on the near side, then on the off--though +both sides threatened to be off sides if these vagaries took a more +violent form. + +When the hounds were turned into a field and working, Sir Robert +evidently thought: "Come! I can't be standing still all day while those +dawdling dogs are bothering about after a hare; a gallop I must have!" +And he began to fight for his head; and it took all Crawley's strength-- +and he was a very muscular youngster--to hold him. Sir Robert did get +away half across the field once and nearly demolished a hound, with +twenty voices halloing to Crawley to come back, and the master using +language which his godfathers and godmother never taught him, I am +certain. I can only quote the mildest of his reproofs which was: "Go +home to your nursery and finish your pap, you young idiot, and don't +come endangering the lives of animals a thousand times more valuable +than yourself!" + +Poor Crawley, wild with shame and rage, managed to haul his horse round +and get back to the others, when it did not improve his temper to see +the broad grin on young Gould's face. + +"Don't fight with your horse, youngster," said an old gentleman kindly. +"The more you pull, the more he will pull too." + +And Crawley loved that old gentleman, and would have adopted him for a +father, or at least an uncle, on the spot, especially when he found his +advice serviceable; for, loosing his reins when Sir Robert did stand +still, and only checking him lightly when he tried to dart forward, kept +him much quieter. + +But would they never find that hare? Yes, at last there was a whimper, +and another, and then a full burst, and away went the hounds, and the +field after them, and, with one final kick up of his heels, Sir Robert +got into his stride. Crawley forgot anger, vexation--everything but the +rapture of the moment. The life of the scene, the contagious excitement +of dogs, horses, and men, the rapid motion, it was even beyond what he +had imagined. + +So across a field to a little broken hedge, which Sir Robert took in his +stride without his rider feeling it. Then sharp to the right towards a +bigger fence, with a ditch beyond; nothing for a girl to crane at, but +having to be jumped. Crawley, straining his eyes after the hounds, and +not sitting very tight, was thrown forward when the horse rose, and, +when he alighted, lost his stirrup, reeled, and came over on to mother +earth; and when he rose to his feet he had the mortification to see Sir +Robert careering away in great delight, and he proceeded to plod through +the heavy ground after him. + +"Whatever made you tumble off? Sir Robert never swerved or stumbled!" +cried Miss Clarissa as she swept by him. But his wounded vanity was +hardly felt in the greater annoyance of being out of the hunt. + +But the best of harriers is that you hardly ever _are_ out of the hunt. +The hare came round again; some good-natured man caught the horse and +brought him back to the grateful Crawley, who remounted and soon fell in +with the hounds at a check. + +"I say, you know," said Mr Foljambe, "if you get another fall I shall +exert my authority as theatrical manager and send you home. I cannot +have my Ensign Bellefleur break his neck when the part is not doubled." + +"No!" said Miss Clarissa, "not before Wednesday." + +Whimper, whimper; they hit it off and away again. Another fence with +hurdles in it, and a knot of rustics looking on in delight. More +cautious now, Crawley stuck his knees in and leaned back, and, when Sir +Robert alighted, was still on, with both feet in the stirrups, but very +much on the pommel, and not in an elegant attitude at all. + +"Oh, look at he!" cried a boy with a turnip-chopper in one hand and a +fork for dragging that root out in the other. "He be tailor." + +"It's agwyne to rai-ain, Mister Lunnoner!" added another smockfrock; +"won't yer get inside and pull the winders up?" + +Even the clodhoppers jeered him; and that confounded friend of his, +Gould, was close beside and laughed, and would be sure to repeat what he +heard. Never mind, it was glorious fun. He came off again later in the +afternoon, but that was at a good big obstacle, which most of the field +avoided, going round by a gate, and Sir Robert stumbled a bit on +landing, which made an excuse. But this time the horse, who was not so +fresh now, waited for him to get up again. He felt very stiff and sore +when it was all over and they were riding home again; especially it +seemed as if his lower garments were stuffed with nettles. As for his +tumbles, the ground was very soft, and he had not been kicked or trodden +on, so that when he had had a warm bath he was as right as ninepence, +only a little stiff. + +Gould came to see after his welfare while he was dressing, and hoped he +was not hurt, and expressed an opinion that he would learn to ride in +time, and was glad they had only gone out with the jelly dogs instead of +the foxhounds, or his friend and guest would not have seen anything of +the run. All which was trying, coming from a fellow who had looked upon +him as an oracle, and to whom he had condescended. At dinner, too, he +was chaffed a little; but the hardest rider in the county, who had +condescended to go out with the harriers to try a new horse, the +foxhounds not meeting that day, and who was dining with Mr Gould +afterwards, came to his rescue. "Never mind them, lad," he said; "you +went as straight as a die. I saw you taking everything as it came, +never looking for a gap or a gate, and it is not many of them can say +the same." + +This was Saturday, and Crawley was glad of a day of rest when he got up +next morning, he was so stiff. On Monday preparations for the private +theatricals began in earnest. Dresses came down from London, and were +tried on and altered; the large drawing-room was given up to the hands +of workmen, who fitted up a small stage at one end of it, with sloping +seats in front, that all the guests might see. Those who were to act +were always going into corners and getting some one to hear them their +parts, and there were rehearsals. It was all a great bore to Crawley, +who would fain have spent the time in shooting or riding, of which he +got but little, so exacting was Miss Clarissa; and he was to go home on +the Thursday, the day after the entertainment. + +As the time approached, too, he felt more and more uncomfortable; he had +found out from young Gould that the whole thing had been got up by his +sister Clarissa, who thought herself a very good actress, and wished to +show off; and he could easily see that he would not have been asked to +the house at all, if it had not been for his school-fellow's talk, about +what a clever individual he was--able to do everything. Now, next to +Sir Valentine May, no character in the comedy is so important for the +display of Dorothy Budd's (Clarissa's) performance as Ensign Bellefleur; +and the more clearly Crawley saw this, the more fervently did he wish +that he was out of it. It was too late now, however, and as he got on +very fairly in the rehearsals, he began to hope he should pull through +somehow. + +On Tuesday the house was filled with company, and he was asked to give +up his room and go to the top of the house, which, however, was no +trouble to him. His clothes of seventeen hundred and fifteen were +though, when the eventful evening came, and his wig, and the man who +fitted it and daubed his face. And yet, when all the fidgeting was +over, he wished that it had to begin again, that he might have a further +respite. + +The play began, and during the first scene he stood at the side envying +the cool self-possession of Captain Wingfield, who had the part of +"Valentine," and every one of whose speeches was followed by laughter +from the unseen audience. When the second scene opened Miss Clarissa +joined him, looking charming in her old-world dress; they were to go on +in company, and he made a strenuous effort to pull himself together. +But when he found himself in the full glare of the foot-lights, and +looking before him saw the mass of expectant faces which rose, rank +behind rank, half-way to the ceiling, his head went round, his brain +became confused, and his first sentence was inaudible. "Speak up!" said +Miss Clarissa in a loud whisper, and he uttered, "And have you no +ambition?" in a louder key indeed, but in trembling accents, and +standing more like a boy saying a lesson. + +The audience cannot hiss in private theatricals, but they could not help +a suppressed titter, which confused Crawley still more. He forgot what +he had to say, and looked appealingly to the prompter, who prompted +rather too loudly. Altogether the scene was spoilt, and Clarissa +furious. + +He did a little better in the second act, but not one quarter so well as +he had in rehearsals, and was ready to punch his own head with vexation +when the whole thing was over, and he had got rid of his costume and the +messes on his face. + +He went to bed instead of to supper, and next morning at breakfast no +one alluded to the performance before him. Soon afterwards he took his +leave of all but Miss Clarissa, who kept out of his way, and Lionel +Gould drove him to the station very sulkily, for his sister had vented +her displeasure upon him. And so they said an uncomfortable good-bye, +and Crawley felt much relieved when he found himself alone in the train, +with the humiliations of his visit behind him. They did not do him any +harm, quite the contrary; he was made of better stuff than that. Of +course he felt sore at his failures, when he was used to play first +fiddle. When the devil of conceit is cast out of us the throes are +severe. But by the time he got home Crawley was able to laugh at his +own mishaps. Perhaps Gould got the worst of it after all. "_That_ +friend of yours an Admirable Crichton!" said his sister. "A fine set +you must be!" + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +THE DESCENT OF AVERNUS. + +A worse resident than Mr Wobbler the pedestrian took up his abode at +Slam's, and this was no other than his son, Josiah Slam, who had gone to +London as the only field wide enough for his talents ten years before, +and had only been occasionally heard of since. Now, however, he thought +fit to pay his parents a visit, and did not appear to be in prosperous +circumstances, though it is probable that he had money, or money's +worth, or the prospect of it, for Slam was not the man to kill the +fatted calf for a prodigal son, unless he saw the way to making a good +profit out of the veal, the hoofs, and the skin. + +Josiah was a young man of varied accomplishments, all of which were +practised for the purpose of transferring other people's cash from their +pockets to his own. He called himself a sportsman, and no doubt the +operation alluded to was sport, to him. Arriving about Christmas time, +when holiday making was general, he gleaned a little at the game of +skittles, at which many of the agriculturists round about thought they +were somewhat proficient; but cunning as he was he could not go on +disguising his game for ever, and so directly he saw that the yokels +were growing shy of playing with him, he gave it up. The Sunday pitch- +and-toss and card assemblages were also a source of profit to him. +Marriner thought he could cheat, and had indeed stolen money in that way +from his companions, and there was nothing Josiah Slam liked better than +dealing with a weaker member of his own fraternity. He allowed Marriner +to cheat him a little, and pretended not to discover it; played at being +vexed; drew him on, and fleeced him of his ill-gotten gains. + +But it was apparent that he played too well at these amusements also, so +then he showed them a game at which everybody might win, except himself. +Where it was all chance, and skill could not interfere. Roulette, in +short. The room in which Professor Wobbler had given his boxing lessons +had a table fitted up in it, and on this table the wheel-of-fortune, +with its black and red compartments, and its little ivory ball to rattle +round and finally fall into one of them, was placed, with a cloth marked +in compartments answering to those in the wheel for the gamblers to +stake their money upon. This game proved very fascinating to the +dissipated amongst the farmers' sons round about, and to some of the +farmers too, and money which ought to have gone to buy stock, or for the +rent, was lost at that table. Of course some of them won occasionally, +and considerable sums, for them, too; that formed the fascination of it. + +But the agricultural interest was depressed, and ready money not +forthcoming to the extent Josiah Slam desired; so upper servants of the +neighbouring gentry were admitted, under strong vows of secrecy, and +more than one gamekeeper's and huntsman's family was short of coals and +meat that winter, because the money to provide such necessaries was left +on that satanic, innocent-looking table. Every night this gambling went +on, and Josiah made a good deal of money by it, being prepared, however, +to clear out of the neighbourhood at the first symptom of the police +having caught scent of the affair. + +Ready money was waning and business growing slack when the Weston boys +came back from the Christmas holidays, and Josiah, who knew that some of +them frequented his father's yard, saw a fine opportunity of augmenting +his gains by setting his little ball rolling in the daytime for their +especial benefit. The scheme was nearly stifled by its own success; on +the very first occasion a boy won four pounds, and could not conceal the +triumphant fact from two or three intimate friends, who each whispered +it to two or three others, and the consequence was that on the next +Saturday afternoon no fewer than thirty Westonians came to Slam's yard +seeking admittance. This alarmed old Slam, who saw a speedy prospect of +discovery, and of that hold upon him which the authorities had long been +seeking, being afforded them, to the consequent break up of his +establishment. Better small safe profits which should last, he thought, +than a haul, which after all must be limited to the amount of the +school-boys' pocket-money, and be shared with his son, and the stoppage +of all his little sources of profit. Not to mention the prospect of +legal punishment. So the thirty had to go away again grumbling, with +their money in their pockets. _O fortunati, si sua bona norint_. + +But small parties of the initiated were still admitted, amongst them, of +course, Saurin and his shadow, Edwards. The latter, who, as was said in +a former chapter, had a peculiar fondness for games of chance, was +positively infatuated with this device of young Slam's. It interfered +with his studies by day, and he dreamed of it by night, so much did it +engross his thoughts. He was never easy unless staking his shillings on +that table, and watching eagerly whether the little ball would drop into +a red hole or a black one. Saurin did not take half the interest in it +at first, the principal attraction for him lying in the illegality, and +the tampering with what he had heard and read of as having been the ruin +of so many thousands. And he thought what fools they must be. There +were many ways in which he could well imagine anyone spending his last +penny, but not over a toy like this. But one day he came away a winner +of a couple of sovereigns, and there was something in seeing the +shillings and half-crowns gathering into a pile before him which caused +him to catch the sordid fever with which his friend was infected. +Hitherto he had made his stakes carelessly, but now he took a deeper +interest in the thing. Sometimes he had won a few shillings and Edwards +had lost, and at other times it went the other way, but the winner's +gains were never so great as the loser's losses, and it was evident that +the difference must remain with the conductor of the game, Josiah Slam. + +"Why, we have been practically playing against each other for that +rogue's benefit!" exclaimed Saurin, when he made this discovery. "In +future we must always stake our money the same way." And this they did. + +Then Saurin had another bright idea. It was an even chance each time +whether red or black won, just the same as heads or tails in tossing, so +it could not go on very long being one or the other in succession. +Then, supposing they staked on red, and it turned up black several +times, they had only to persevere with red and increase the stake and +they must win their losses back, while if it was red several times they +would have a clear gain. + +This appeared to Edwards as a stroke of genius, and he was in a state of +fever till they had an opportunity of putting it in practice. And it +answered at first; but presently one colour, the wrong one, won so many +times running that all their united capital went into Josiah's bank. + +They looked at one another in blank dismay; there was an end to their +speculations for the rest of that term, and by the next Mr Slam junior +would have decamped from the paternal abode, for when the racing season +commenced he flew at far higher game than the purses of rustics and +school-boys. + +"Can't come no more, can't yer?" said Josiah. "I'm sorry for that, +though I expect I should be a loser, for you play well and knows a thing +or two, you do. But it's the sport I care for more than the money, and +I should have liked yer to have another chance. I know what I did once +when I were in that fix; I just took and pawned my watch, and with the +money I got on it I won back all I'd lost and more on the back of it, in +a brace of shakes, and then took the ticker out again all comfortable." + +"But there is no pawnbroker near here." + +"No, in course not, and such a thing might not suit gents like you +neither. Not but lords and markisses does it often; and if ever you +really did want a pound or two very bad, for a short time, there's my +father, as goes over to Cornchester perpetually, would pop anything +light and small for yer, and bring yer back the money and ticket safe +enough." + +The hint took; old Slam was intrusted with Edwards' watch that evening, +and shortly afterwards with Saurin's; and later on with all the pins and +rings they possessed, though these were not worth much. + +This may all sound accountable in Edwards, who was so weak and soft; but +Saurin, though vicious, was no fool, and such excessively absurd conduct +may appear to you inconsistent with his character. But that is because +you do not know the rapidly enervating and at the same time fascinating +mastery which gambling has on the mind of one who gives way to it. It +is a sort of demoniacal possession; the kind-hearted, amiable man +becomes hard and selfish, the generous man mean and grasping, the +strong-minded superstitious under its influence. It may seem strange to +enact laws to prevent people from risking their own money if they +choose, but every civilised government has found it absolutely necessary +to do so. For the losing gamester always thinks that with a little more +money to risk he would certainly win all back again, and the thought +maddens him so that he will not even shrink from crime to obtain it. + +One day when the pair were penniless, and had no more means of raising +money, young Slam generously offered them a loan, only requiring them to +sign a paper acknowledging the transaction. To prevent their feeling +themselves placed under an obligation he delicately allowed them to sign +for more than they had received a proposition which Saurin acceded to +with alacrity. Edwards, though he also signed, did so with hesitation, +and expressed fears about the safety of the transaction afterwards. + +"Pooh!" said Saurin, "the I O U is mere waste paper; we are both under +age, and can snap our fingers at him if he demands payment. Besides, we +will pay him back the first time we win enough." + +"But supposing we don't win enough? we have been very unlucky lately," +objected Edwards. + +"All the more reason why luck should change," replied Saurin. "But +suppose it does not, all the money will have gone into the fellow's +pocket, so we shall have repaid him in reality, don't you see?" + +Edwards didn't quite. If you borrow a shilling of any one to gamble +with, and lose the stake and pay him with the shilling you have borrowed +from him, he does not exactly get what is due to him. However, Edwards +made no reply; no doubt Saurin knew best. + +Crawley lost a little of the estimation in which he had been held that +term. It was extremely mean of Gould to gossip about his guest's +discomfitures at Nugget Towers, but the temptation to glorify himself at +the other's expense was too strong. He had plenty of pocket-money +always, and rich men or rich boys are sure to have some one to listen to +them with a certain amount of deference, and if Gould was not popular +exactly, his hampers were. + +"I had Crawley to stay with me at Christmas, you know," he said. "He's +a good fellow; pity he's so awfully poor. He had never been in a decent +house before, and was awfully astonished. He had what they call `the +keeper's gun,' a ten-pound thing; our head-keeper twigged it. Good gun +enough, I daresay, but not what a gentleman has for himself. But he +could not use it; worst shot I ever met, by Jove! I showed him a thing +or two, and he began to improve by my hints. He is not above taking +hints, I will say that for him; and his riding! Why, I thought from +those prints in his room that he was ever such a swell; but I don't +believe he was ever outside a horse before. Even the ploughmen laughed +at him. `Get inside and pull up the windows!' they called out." + +And so he went on, somewhat exaggerating all Crawley's failures, not so +much out of any ill-will as for self-glorification. You may know the +pastime of boring a hole through a chestnut, threading it on a string, +and fighting it against other chestnuts: if you hit on a very tough +chestnut, and with it broke another one, it is, or used to be the rule +that your chestnut counted all the victories of the one it split in +addition to its own, of which a careful account was kept. So that if a +chestnut was a fiver, and it beat a tenner, it became at one leap a +fifteener. In something the same way Gould had an idea he might score +by Crawley, who was thought so much of for his proficiency in many +things. If he himself was so much richer, such a better rider and shot, +it ought to be assumed that if he took the trouble he could also beat +him at cricket, football, mathematics, German, and freehand drawing. It +was not very logical, and indeed he did not put the matter to himself so +nakedly as that, but that was the sort of idea which influenced him +nevertheless. + +At the same time I fear that there may have been a little spite in his +feelings too; he had been a good deal snubbed by his sister Clarissa for +introducing a friend who had gone far to spoil her triumph in the play +she had got up with such pains and forethought, and he much regretted +having ever asked him. Gould's bragging would not have been much +believed, only Crawley confirmed it. "Yes," he said, "I went to stay +with Gould's people; very kind of them to ask me. They live in grand +style; I thought I had got to Windsor Castle by mistake at first. I +should have enjoyed it immensely if they had not made me act in private +theatricals, which I hate, and I am afraid I came to utter grief over +it. Took me out snipe-shooting; did you ever shoot at a snipe? bad bird +to hit; Gould got some. I suppose one would pick up the knack of it in +time. And, yes, we went out with the harriers; I had never sat a horse +when he jumped anything before, and I came a couple of croppers. But it +was great fun, and I did not hurt myself. Gould did not get a fall, oh +no; he is used to it." + +A good many were rather disgusted with Gould when he talked in the way +he did, and Buller let him see it. "It's awfully bad form to ask a +fellow to your house, and then boast that he can't do things that he +never tried before, so well as you can," he blurted out. + +"Oh, of course, we and know that Crawley is perfect in _your_ eyes," +sneered Gould. + +"That's rot," said Buller elegantly; "but I do know this, that you might +have practised anything you know, shooting, riding, anything, all your +life, and if Crawley had a week's practice he would beat your head off +at it; come, then, I'll bet you what you like." + +"That is impossible to prove." + +"No matter, it does not need proof; every fellow with eyes in his head +must see it. But that's nothing. If you were ever so much better it +would be just as mean to brag about it." + +Crawley had no idea that Gould bore him any grudge, and being grateful +to him for his invitation, sought to give him those opportunities of +intimacy which he had evidently coveted before. But it was Gould now +who drew back, somewhat to the other's relief, for he could not bring +himself to care much about him. + +Well, all this foolish talk of Gould's did have a certain effect: a good +many boys lost some faith in their idol, and began to suspect that its +feet might be of clay. And then Crawley took to reading very hard that +term, for his time for trying to get into Woolwich was approaching, and +he was very anxious not to fail; and this made him less sociable, which +affected his popularity. It did not interfere with his sports; he was +as energetic at football as ever, and took his usual pains to make the +boys pay up their subscriptions, for he was secretary and treasurer. +But that was not exactly a genial duty, though everybody was glad that +somebody else would take the trouble. And for the rest, he was now +always working hard or playing hard. + +"Hulloa, Edwards!" he said one day about the middle of term, "you have +been very lazy about your football lately; you promised to be good at +it, you know. It's a pity to give it up." + +"But I have not," said Edwards. "I am going in for it again now." And +he meant it; for the last penny of the loan had vanished, and he felt +the need of excitement and action of some kind. + +"That's right, old fellow," said Crawley. "Of course you play for your +house against ours in the match." + +"I believe so." + +"Come and have a game this afternoon," said Crawley, turning back after +they had parted; for the pallid and careworn face of the other struck +him, and he thought very likely a little exercise and bustle was just +what he wanted, but that he felt listless, as one does sometimes, when +one is glad afterwards if some one else will save us the trouble of +making up our minds, and start us. + +"No, thanks," replied Edwards, "I can't come to-day, I have something +else I must do. But I shall practise regularly after to-day." And he +went on his way to meet Saurin, and go with him to Slam's yard. + +For a crisis had arrived in their affairs which assumed a most serious +aspect. It was no longer a question of obtaining the means of +continuing their gambling; they had awakened from that dream, and saw +what dupes they had been. And indeed the Slams, father and son, found +that their little game was being talked about in the neighbourhood too +freely for safety, and had abruptly discontinued it. Josiah, indeed, +was about to take his departure altogether, and in announcing that +intention to Saurin and Edwards, demanded immediate payment of the money +he had advanced them, in consideration of which they had jointly signed +an acknowledgment for five pounds. They had, indeed, kept away from the +yard when their money was all gone, but Josiah Slam was not to be balked +in that manner. He went over to Weston, and accosted Saurin in the +street. + +"I cannot pay you just now; don't speak to me here, we shall be seen," +said Saurin. + +"What do I care for that?" replied Josiah. "If you don't come to me +I'll come to you." + +"I will come to the yard to-morrow afternoon, only do go away now," +urged Saurin. + +"You had better," said the man significantly. And so Saurin and Edwards +were now on their way to the yard. + +"Well, gents, have you got the money?" asked Josiah Slam, who admitted +them. "I hope so, for I wants to be off, and I'm only a-waiting for +that." + +"No," replied Saurin, "we have not got it; it is not likely. We did not +sign that paper until we had lost everything to you, and we shall not +have any more till after Easter. Perhaps we may pay you then, though I +don't consider we owe you anything really. You have won it all back, +and a lot more besides." + +"What's that to do with it?" cried young Slam. "You had as good a +chance of winning of me, hadn't yer?" + +"No, of course not," replied Saurin. "I am not certain that we had any +chance at all." + +"What d'yer mean? yer--" + +"Oh, don't bluster and try to bully," said Saurin. "I'm not afraid of +you." + +"Oh, you're not, ain't yer, my game chicken? but I have got your I O U." + +"Much good may it do you! Why, we are under age, and it's of no value +at all." + +"And you call yerself a gentleman! Yah! But I'm not so green as yer +think, my boy. Of course I knowed it warn't a legal dokiment. But it's +proof enough for me. If you don't pay I shall take it to yer master, +and see if he won't pay it for yer." + +"Don't be a fool; you know very well he would not." + +"No, I don't; at any rate I shall try it on." + +"It would do you no good, I tell you." + +"If not, it would do you two chaps harm, I know; why, you would get it +pretty hot if yer master knowed yer had come here at all; and if he +found you'd been playing cards on a Sunday, and roulette, and pawning +yer watches and things, I'll bet a hundred it wouldn't make it better. +Gents like you can allus get money somehow; write to yer friends; it's +only two pun ten apiece, and they won't stick at that to get you out of +such a shindy as this will be. This here's Thursday and I'm bound to go +on Monday. If you don't bring them five pounds by then, I'll go to your +master with that 'ere I O U in my hand on Monday morning as sure as I +stand here. So now you know." + +And with this ultimatum the rascal dismissed them. They walked slowly +along the lane leading to Weston with hearts as heavy as could be, for +indeed they were at their wits' end. If this fellow fulfilled his +threat, and they had no doubt he would, it most certainly would result +in expulsion for them both. To write home for more money was out of the +question, for each had exhausted every conceivable excuse for doing so +already, and any further application would only bring a letter to Dr +Jolliffe asking the reason for all this extravagance, instead of cash, +and so precipitate the calamity rather than ward it off. A less +shameful peccadillo might have been confessed, but this low-lived +gambling, this association with a fellow like Josiah Slam, how could it +be spoken of? Impossible! Well, but what was to be done? Anything, +anything to stave off the immediate peril; but what? That thought +haunted each of them all day and during a sleepless night, and when they +met on the following morning each looked at the other to see if he could +detect any gleam of hope in his face. + +"Look here," said Saurin, "there is just a chance, not a good one, but +still a chance. That fellow Gould always has heaps of money, and from +all these stories of Crawley's visit to him at Christmas his people must +be very rich. Now he is not a generous fellow, but he likes to show +off. And if we went to him and told him all about it, and that we were +dead certain to be expelled if we could not raise five pounds, do you +not think he might lend it us till after Easter?" + +"I am afraid he won't," replied Edwards, "but it is worth trying." + +"You see, it would be something for him to brag about afterwards," +continued Saurin. "It would make him look important and influential +that he had got two fellows out of such a row, and was the only one in +the school who could do it." + +"It is worth trying at any rate," said Edwards. "Ask him this +afternoon." + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +A CRIME. + +Once every term the cricket and football committees assembled to +transact business. They learned what funds were in hand, what +subscriptions had been paid and what were in arrear, also the +expenditure for balls, nets, goals, stumps, rolling the ground, and all +other items. After which, rules were discussed, and arrangements for +future matches made. It was part of the principle of the school that +the boys should manage all these things for themselves, as it was +considered that to learn practically how to set such matters going and +keep them in order was quite as educational as to acquire the right use +of the subjunctive. All that the authorities had to do with the +arrangement was that when the day and hour for a committee meeting was +fixed, the master in whose house the secretary was, gave leave for his +pupil-room to be used for the occasion; and it was also customary to ask +one of them to audit the accounts. These assemblages were of a twofold +character: during the first part, when the accounts were read out, and +what had been done gone over, any boy who liked might attend and ask +questions. But when arrangements for the future were discussed, the +room was cleared of all but the committee. Experience had brought that +about; for when outsiders had been allowed to remain, the number and +variety of absurd and futile suggestions which were made, prevented any +conclusion being come to at all. + +Since Crawley was the secretary and treasurer of both the cricket and +football clubs there was only one general meeting, at which the accounts +of both were taken together, instead of two in the term, as when those +offices were vested in different individuals. Crawley had found these +burdens rather onerous this term; with that stiff examination looming +nearer and nearer every month he began to feel serious, for he had set +his heart upon getting into the artillery if he could, and he was going +at his subjects in downright earnest, with no shirking or trifling when +the humour was not on him. So that the time it took him to prepare +these accounts, and still worse, to collect the subscriptions, he did +rather grudge. But he never dreamed of resigning on that account; he +had undertaken these duties, and would go on with them without +grumbling. Perhaps he had the feeling which energetic folk who are +accustomed to other people leaning on them are naturally apt to acquire, +that things would get into a muddle without him. However he had got in +the subscriptions, docketed his papers, and prepared everything for the +meeting that evening, and the last finishing stroke being put, he locked +all up in the japanned box which he kept in his room, with "Weston +Cricket Club" neatly painted on it in white letters, changed his clothes +for flannels, and ran out to the football field. + +He had not been gone a quarter of an hour before Saurin and Edwards +approached the house on their visit to Gould, who was also an inmate of +Dr Jolliffe's. They had chosen that time in order to find him alone, +for he had had a slight sprain of the ankle--not enough to lay him up +altogether, but sufficient to prevent his playing at football; and as he +was rather glad than otherwise of an excuse to sit in with a novel, the +chances were that he was now so occupied. It was a fine March day, with +a bright sun and a cold east wind--not high enough to be unpleasant +though, unless you dawdled about. When they came to the side-door which +led to the boys' part of the house, which was a separate block of +buildings from the doctor's residence, though joined to and +communicating with it, Saurin stopped and said: "I think perhaps you had +better wait here for me; I shall get on better with him alone." + +"All right!" replied Edwards with a feeling of relief, for he dreaded +the interview with Gould beyond measure. It is nervous work to ask +anyone to lend you money, unless you are quite hardened. Saurin felt +that too; it was a bitter pill for his pride to swallow, with the +prospect on one side of a refusal and on the other of being subjected to +insolent airs of superiority, for Gould was not the fellow to grant a +favour graciously. But he had a stronger will than Edwards, and the +situation made extreme measures necessary. + +He entered the passage alone, then, and mounted the staircase, not +meeting anyone. Dead stillness pervaded the house except for the trills +of a canary at the far end of the second landing. Crawley's door was +open as he passed, and he saw his clothes strewn about over a couple of +chairs and the japanned box standing in a corner by his bureau. Saurin +passed on, the song of the canary growing louder as he advanced, and +knocked at Gould's door; there was no response. "Gould!" he cried, +"Gould! are you in?" As there was still no answer he turned the handle +and looked in; there was the canary hanging in the window, through which +the sun poured, and his shrill notes went through his head; but no +Gould. "Plague take it!" muttered Saurin; "it is all to do now another +time, and I cannot get this suspense over. I wonder where the fellow +has gone to!" + +He closed the door again and retraced his steps slowly. When he +repassed Crawley's room he stopped and listened. Not a sound except the +bird's song. His heart beat so quickly that it was like to choke him, +and he grew quite giddy. "Crawley!" he said in an unsteady voice, for +though he saw the room was empty he had an insane fancy that he might be +there, invisible, or that this mist before his eyes might prevent his +seeing him. Then he mastered his apprehensions with an effort, and +stepped into the room. Going to a chair, he felt the coat which hung +over the back; there were keys in the pocket. Then he listened again; +not a sound, for the singing of the canary had stopped. Ten minutes +later Saurin went down-stairs quietly, stealthily. He found Edwards +waiting for him outside, took him by the arm, and led him away. + +"Have you seen anyone?" he asked eagerly, but in a voice which he could +not keep from trembling. + +"Not a soul," replied Edwards. + +"Then, come a long to my tutor's--quick! get your flannels on; and we +will go into the football field. We are late, but can get in on one +side or another." + +"But, have you succeeded? Will Gould lend the money?" + +"No, he won't; and I would not have fellows know I asked him for worlds; +so I am glad no one saw us." + +Saurin was as white as a sheet, he trembled all over, and there was a +look in his eyes as of a hunted animal. That one in whose courage, +presence of mind, and resources he trusted so entirely should be +affected to such a degree as this, appalled poor Edwards; what a black +gulf, indeed, must yawn before them! + +"Is there no chance at all, then?" he asked in piteous accents. + +"Yes, it will be all right; I--I have thought of something else," +stammered Saurin. "Don't mind me--I'm knocked over by asking a favour +and being refused; that's all. I shall be all right directly. Only +swear you will never say a word to anyone about it. I tell you I have +thought of a way to silence that villain Slam, and I will go and see him +the first chance. It will be all right if you only hold your tongue. +And now look sharp and let us change and go and play football; there's +lots of time." + +They had reached their own rooms by this, and Edwards did what Saurin +told him, wondering, but partly reassured; and in a few minutes they +were on their way to the football field, where they were hailed by their +own house and paired off on different sides. + +Saurin had sulkily retired from all the school sports for some time, and +the boys wondered at the energy with which he now rushed into the game. +The fact was he felt the necessity for violent exertion to escape +reflection and drown thought in fatigue. He could not do it, but he +succeeded in regaining the mastery over his nerves, his looks, his +speech. As for Edwards, he played more listlessly than usual; and the +thought occurred to several that afternoon that if Saurin would only +take up regular practice again he would be a greater source of strength +to the house team than Edwards. And they wanted to be as strong as +possible, for the match with the doctor's house was approaching, and +they feared that they were a little overmatched. + +That evening a good many boys were assembled in Dr Jolliffe's pupil- +room to hear the reports concerning the cricket and football clubs, +which were really one, as the same subscribers belonged to both, and it +was only for clearness and to avoid confusion of accounts that they were +treated separately; besides that, one boy could not always be found to +undertake, like Crawley, the management of both. There were the +committees, and besides them a sprinkling of the curious, who did not +care to listen to the debit and credit accounts, but had the Anglo-Saxon +instinct for attending public meetings of any kind, so that the room, +though not half full, contained a respectable audience, when Crawley +with his japanned box in his hand entered, and went to the place +reserved for him at the head of the table. + +"I have not a long story to tell you," he said, producing his keys and +inserting one in the lock of the box. "Fellows have paid up pretty +well, and we are rather in funds. The principal expense has been a new +roller which we were obliged to have, the old one being quite worn out, +and besides, as many of you have often observed, not heavy enough. +Indeed the committee have been blamed rather severely by enthusiastic +cricketers on this score, as if they had taken weight out of the roller, +or could put extra weight into it; and I have sometimes thought that if +the critics would have sat on the roller instead of on us, it would have +been more effective." Laughter; for a little joke goes a long way on +these solemn occasions. "Mr Rabbits has kindly audited our accounts, +which are satisfactory, I believe; here they are, if any one likes to +look at them. We do not owe anything, and there are two pounds in hand +for the football, and seven pounds twelve shillings for the cricket +accounts, which I have here. Hulloa! what is this?" and Crawley changed +countenance as he opened a _portmonnaie_ which he took out of the box, +and drew from it a five-pound note. "I have been robbed!" he cried. +"There were four half-sovereigns, two sovereigns, and twelve shillings +in silver, besides this bank-note in the purse this morning, and now +there is only the five-pound note here!" + +The consternation caused by this announcement was so great that for +quite a quarter of a minute there was a dead silence, and then +ejaculations, suggestions, questions, began to pour. + +"Perhaps it is loose in the box," said some one, and the papers were +immediately all taken out, and the box turned upside down to prove the +futility of that perhaps. + +"Well, never mind; of course I am responsible," said Crawley presently, +recovering himself. "I was taken by surprise, or I should not have made +all this fuss. The money will not be wanted till the cricketing season +begins next term, and I can make it good by then." + +Outsiders then took their departure, leaving the committee to any +deliberations that might remain, and carrying the news of the robbery +far and wide, so that it became the principal topic of conversation +throughout the school that evening. Of course it lost nothing in the +telling, and some received the information that Crawley's room had been +regularly cleared out that day, all his books, clothes, and pictures +taken, besides five pounds of his own and twenty of the public money. + +The committee had not much business to transact. The day for the match +at football between Dr Jolliffe's and Mr Cookson's houses was settled, +a suggestion that some new turf should be laid down on a part of the +cricket-field where the grass had been worn past recovery was agreed to, +and the members who did not board at Dr Jolliffe's were back at their +own houses before "All In." + +But the excitement about the loss of this money was naturally greater in +the house where it had taken place than anywhere else, and as the boys +talked about it at supper the servants heard of it. It was evident that +though no accusation might be made, suspicion would be very likely to +fall upon them, and as they were anxious to have the matter sifted, the +butler was deputed to report the whole affair to the doctor. So when +prayers were over Dr Jolliffe told all present to remain where they +were, and then calling up Crawley, he asked him whether the account he +had heard was correct. + +"I did not mean to report it, sir," said Crawley, "but it is true that +four pounds in gold and twelve shillings in silver were taken from the +tin box belonging to the cricket and football club this afternoon." + +"When did you last see this money?" + +"At about a quarter to three, sir. As it was a half-holiday I thought I +would get all my papers ready against the cricket and football meeting +this evening. I set to work at that at a little after two; it did not +take me very long, as they were all ready before, and only wanted +arranging, and a little memorandum written out of what I wanted to say, +for fear I should forget anything. When I had done I counted out the +money in hand, and put it in a purse which I have always used for the +subscriptions; there was the sum I have mentioned and a five-pound note. +I put the purse back in the box, locked it, placed the keys in my coat- +pocket, changed my clothes, and went out to play at football. I heard +the clock strike three just after I had begun to play." + +"And when did you miss the money." + +"At the meeting, when I opened the box." + +"You had not done so again till then after locking it up, when you went +out?" + +"No, sir." + +"You are sure?" + +"Positive, sir." + +"And the five-pound note was not taken?" + +"No, sir; that was left." + +"Was it in the same compartment of the purse as the gold and silver?" + +"No, sir; but it could be seen if the purse was opened, and why it was +not taken too I cannot imagine." + +"That is not so difficult of explanation. But now I must ask you a +painful question; but it is your bounden duty to answer it without +reserve. Have you any suspicions as to who may have taken it?" + +"None whatever, sir. I am almost certain that there was not a boy in +the house. I was the last to remain in. Indeed I found all but three +in the football field, and I know where they were, for I saw them +playing at fives as I passed the court. At least two were playing, and +the third, who had hurt his foot, was looking on." + +"Do you mean to say, for it is necessary to be accurate, that you +recognised every boy in the house except these three in the football +field yourself?" + +"Not exactly, sir; but we have been talking the matter over, and those +whom I did see can answer for all the rest." + +"And who were the three boys in the Fives Court?" + +"I was the looker-on, sir," said Gould, stepping forward. + +"And when did you leave?" + +"When the others left off play, sir. We all returned together at tea- +time." + +"That is right, sir," said Smith and Simmonds. "We were the two playing +at fives, and Gould went and returned with us." (Of course it is not +meant that they said all this together, in chorus, as people do in a +play; but they both stood forward, and Smith was the spokesman.) + +"And now, Crawley," resumed the doctor, "are you sure that the money was +not taken _after_ your return. You left your room again, perhaps, +before the meeting?" + +"Yes, I did for a short time, sir; but then I had the keys in my pocket; +and the box was fairly unlocked. There are no marks of violence; and +it's a Brahma, so, whoever did it, must have had the right key." + +"I am very glad that all the boys in my house seem able to prove so +clear an _alibi_," said the doctor. "That will do." + +When they had all dispersed Dr Jolliffe made inquiries amongst the +servants. The fat cook indignantly demanded that her boxes should be +searched; but one coin of the realm is so like another that there did +not appear to be much object in that, beyond the pleasure of inspecting +a very smart bonnet in reserve for Easter, and other articles of +apparel. The maids who waited on the boys were very much cut up about +it. They never went near the rooms after they had once cleaned them up +in the morning till supper-time, when they turned down the beds (which +were set on end, and shut up to look like cupboards during the day), and +filled the jugs and cans with fresh water, etcetera. But it was +impossible for them to prove their absence during those two hours--from +three to five--so clearly as the boys could, though they could testify +to one another's not having been away for many minutes at a time. It +was extremely unpleasant for them, and for the butler and another man- +servant in a less degree also, for, though they had no business to go +into the boys' part of the house, it was possible that they might have +gone there without having any business. + +But there was no reason to conclude that anyone residing in the house at +all was the guilty party; any person could walk in from the street at +any hour. Itinerants often passed through the place with mice, +squirrels, and other things, which they tried to sell to the boys, and +one of these might have slipped up-stairs. But, no; a man like that +would not have known that there was likely to be money in that +particular box; it certainly looked more like the action of someone who +had good information. + +Such were the speculations and reasonings which were rife in Weston for +the next few days; and then the topic began to grow stale, for no one +had been seen hanging about the house that afternoon, and there was no +satisfactory peg upon which to hang conjecture. One hard fact remained; +poor Crawley was answerable for four pounds twelve shillings which had +been stolen from him, and this came at a time when he was particularly +anxious to spend as little money as possible. He did not make much fuss +about it, and only to Buller, his friendship with whom grew stronger the +more they knew of one another, did he speak his mind. + +"My poor mother!" he said during a Sunday walk the day after the +robbery; "I shall have to ask her for the money, and it is precious hard +upon her. I have been abominably extravagant, and she is not rich, and +there are a lot of us. I owe a good bit to Tiffin, and to my London +tailor too, but he will wait any time. Tiffin duns me, hang him! though +why he should be devoted to capital punishment for asking for his due I +don't know either. I should not have had such a lot of patties, fruit, +ices, and stuff. He will have to be paid at latest when I leave; and at +that time, if I get into Woolwich, there will be my outfit. And then I +must needs buy a gun and a license for just three days' shooting with +Gould last Christmas; and tipping the groom and keeper was a heavy item +besides. One of my sisters is delicate, and can't walk far; and they +could keep a pony-carriage if it wasn't for me. And now, here is +another flyer I must rob my mother of, just because I left my keys in my +coat when I changed my dress--sheer carelessness!" + +"Never mind; you will get into Woolwich next examination, and then you +will soon get a commission, and draw pay, and not want so much from your +mother." + +"Yes, I think of that, and it is some consolation; but still it is in +the future, don't you see, and I must ask her for this stolen money at +once. By Jove! I wish I had come back unexpectedly for something, and +caught the fellow taking it! I wonder who on earth it can be!" + +"I have no idea. Not Polly the maid, I'll take my Davey; I have so +often left money and things about, and never lost a halfpenny." + +That same Sunday Saurin and Edwards were standing with two or three +others in the quadrangle, when Gould limped by. + +"How is your ankle getting on, Gould?" one of the group called out. + +"Better, thanks," he replied, joining them. "I say, if it had kept me +in yesterday afternoon Crawley might have thought I took the money! +What a joke, eh? Fancy my wanting a paltry four pounds odd." + +"You were not in?" cried Edwards; and he could have bitten his tongue +out immediately afterwards. + +But the surprise was too great for his prudence. He and Saurin had gone +to their own tutor's house before repairing to the football field, you +may remember, and that route did not pass the Fives Court. So that it +was the first intimation Edwards had that Saurin lied when he said he +had asked Gould for a loan, and been refused. + +"No," said Gould, looking at him in surprise; "what made you think I +was?" + +"Only your sprain," said Edwards, recovering himself. "Some fellows +were saying that if you were in, the thief must have trod very lightly +for you not to have heard him, as your room is so near. But as you were +out, and all the other fellows too, he had the coast clear, you know." + +"What is your idea about the whole thing, Saurin?" asked Gould; "you are +a sharp chap." + +"Oh, I don't know," said Saurin. "I should not be very much surprised +if the money turned up, and there proved to have been no robbery at +all." + +"What on earth do you mean?" + +"The chances are I am wrong, no doubt, but it is possible. Crawley is a +very careless fellow, you know, about money matters." + +"But how could he have made a mistake, when he counted out the money +such a short time before?" asked one of the group. "I was present at +the meeting, and you should have seen his surprise when he took up the +purse." + +"Oh, I dare say it is all as you think," said Saurin. "I only know that +if I had charge of money I should always be in a muddle. I never know +anything about my own, and it is little enough to calculate; if I had to +keep it separate from that of other people I should always be bothered +between the two. But no doubt Crawley is better at business than I am." + +"I say; he is awfully poor, Crawley is, and tries to make a show as if +he were rich," said Gould. "I know he has been dunned by old Tiffin +lately, and it is quite possible he may have paid him out of the club +money and got confused, eh? Of course, what I say is strictly between +ourselves." + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +AN ACCIDENT. + +"It is no business of mine," said Saurin, turning on his heel. "But if +any fellow likes to get up a subscription to make good Crawley's loss, +real or imaginary, I'll subscribe." And he sauntered off, whistling +carelessly. + +Edwards had already detached himself from the group, feeling that he +must be alone to think upon the tremendous and horrible revelation which +had just dawned upon his mind. As Saurin passed him he hissed in his +ear the one word "Fool!" And there was such an evil look of mingled +rage and fear on his face as the human countenance is seldom deformed +by. + +But Edwards met it without quailing, and there was nothing but aversion +in the glance he gave him back. The scales had fallen from his eyes, +and his infatuation was dissipated. Never again was he to listen +greedily to Saurin's words, and think them wiser than any others. Never +more would he admire and applaud him; build castles in the air, forming +wild projects for the future, in his company, or associate willingly +with him. They exchanged no other word, and Saurin went his way, +strolling in a leisurely manner till he was out of sight; and then +quickening his pace he took the direction of Slam's yard. At the rate +he was walking he soon got there, and going round to the well-known +back-door, he knocked. It was not long before he saw an eye +reconnoitring him through a crack. + +"Come, do not keep me waiting here all day while you are squinting +through that hole!" he cried with a savage oath. "Let me in." + +Josiah Slam said apologetically that he wanted to make sure who it was, +and admitted him. + +"Have you got the money, master?" he asked. + +"I have got four pounds, and that is all we can raise. It is as much as +we have had in cash, and if you will give up that memorandum for it I +will pay it you." + +"Nonsense! it's for five pund, I tell yer, and five pund I will have." + +"No you won't; I cannot get it. So if you won't take the four, let me +out. You may do your worst." + +"Come, say four ten." + +"You fool, don't you see I am in earnest!" cried Saurin, his suppressed +rage bursting out. "Why, I would cut your dirty throat if--" He +restrained himself and said, "Fetch the paper if you mean to; I cannot +breathe the same air as a man who has threatened me, and I won't stand +bargaining here a minute longer." + +Josiah Slam knew when he had got his victim in a corner, and desperate +to biting pitch; so without another word he fetched the I O U and gave +it to Saurin, who simultaneously handed him _two sovereigns and four +half-sovereigns_. The fellow took it with a chuckle, for he had never +had the slightest intention of getting himself into trouble, which he +assuredly would by attempting to make any use of that bit of paper. +Call upon Dr Jolliffe indeed, to get a couple of school-boys, whom he +had fleeced, into a shindy! Not worth the trouble for him, indeed. But +it occurred to him that the threat might bring cash, and it had. + +"Won't yer come in and have something?" + +"Let me out!" + +"Well, if you must go, here you are. Good-bye, young gent, and better +luck next time. And if when yer goes racing, yer wants--" Saurin was +out of hearing. + +"Bless 'em," continued Mr Slam, junior, "I should like to know a few +more like them two young gents a good bit richer. Well, they are about +somewhere, if one could but light on 'em." + +Saurin did not return to Weston at once, but walked as fast as he could +put foot to ground along the lanes and the highroad, trying by physical +exertion to numb thought, and he partly succeeded, now and then, for a +short time, but black care soon caught him up again, and brooded over +his shoulder. + +A voice which did not seem to emanate from his own brain kept repeating, +"What you have done can never be undone; never, never. Not if you live +to be a hundred; not for all eternity." "It can, it shall," he replied. +"Only let me escape suspicion, and I will make it up over and over +again." "That would not make what has happened, not to have happened." +"It is only one act." "Self-deceiver, you have been growing to it for +years, your corruption has been gradual, and this is the natural result. +You will go on now; each time it will come easier to you, until you +grow to think nothing of it. Read your future--outcast, jail-bird." +"No, no; I will lead a new life, work hard, avoid bad company." "Avoid +bad company! I like that! What company can be worse than your own +_now_?" "I will _not_ sink deeper; no one knows." "You forget; one +does know, others _may_ know, _will_ know." "I could not bear that; I +would destroy myself and escape the shame." "Destroy yourself indeed! +I defy you; you cannot do it. You may kill yourself; it is not at all +unlikely; but that is not destruction, but only the commission of +another crime." + +This inward voice became so real to him that he thought he must be +possessed or else going mad. Suppose it were the latter, and he let the +truth out in his delirium! He determined to live by rule, to study +hard, to be conciliatory, not to draw observation on himself. And to +begin with, he must be getting back to Weston; it would never do to be +late, and risk questioning. + +The first time he had an opportunity of speaking to Edwards alone he +said, "I have seen that man as I promised, and there is nothing to fear +from him. I have secured his silence." + +"At what a price!" sighed Edwards. + +"Look here," murmured Saurin, turning on him fiercely; "if it is as you +think, you take advantage of it, which is just as bad. We are in the +same boat, and must sink or swim together. What is done cannot be +undone; don't be a fool. If your weakness excites suspicion it will be +ruin to both of us." + +"I know, I know," said Edwards, turning away with loathing. + +They hated the sight of one another now, these two inseparables. What +revolted Edwards most of all was the other's insinuation about Crawley. +It was all of a piece with his conduct when Buller was accused of that +poaching business, and showed his true character. Days went by and they +never spoke to one another of the shameful secret they shared, and +indeed rarely on any other subject. They would have avoided all +association if it had not been for the fear of exciting suspicion. They +were more attentive to their studies, and at the same time took a more +prominent part in the school games than either had done for a long time: + +Edwards, because it was his natural bent to do so when freed from other +influences; and Saurin, partly from prudence, partly because he was +making a struggle to escape from the net which he felt that evil habits +had thrown around him. He was like one who has been walking in a fog +along the brink of a precipice, and discovers his position by setting a +foot on the very edge and nearly falling over. He shrank from the abyss +which he now saw yawning for him. At the same time he exerted himself +to become popular, and since he was no longer anxious to thrust himself +perpetually into the foremost place, he was not without success. + +"What a much better fellow Saurin is now he has given up going to that +Slam's yard!" said one of his intimates, and his hearers acquiesced. He +had never repeated that abominable hint about the possibility of +Crawley's not having lost the money at all; but Gould had taken up the +idea, and the gossip had spread, as such ill-natured talk about any one +who is popular or in a higher position than others, is sure to do. Very +few, if any, really believed that there was a grain of truth in the +notion, but some thought it clever to talk as if they did, just to be +different from the majority. Others might jump to a conclusion, +swallowing all that the popular idol chose to tell them, but they +withheld their judgment. Unluckily these rumours reached Crawley's +ears; some friendly ass "thought he ought to know," as is always the +case when anything unpleasant is said, and it fretted and annoyed him +exceedingly. + +It also had the effect of annulling a movement which was being set on +foot to make up the missing money by subscription, the notion of which +emanated curiously enough from the same source as the scandal. Saurin +had thrown out the hint as a sneer, not a suggestion, but it was taken +up by some honest lad in the latter sense. It had been submitted to the +masters, who not only approved but were anxious to head the +subscription, and the whole thing could have been done at once without +anyone feeling it. But Crawley called a special meeting, and the pupil- +room was crammed to overflowing this time to hear what he had to say, +which was this: "I have asked you to come for a personal and not a +public reason. I am told that it is proposed to raise a subscription to +make up the four pounds twelve the fund has been robbed of. Now, though +I was perhaps not careful enough, I could hardly expect my keys to be +taken out of a coat and the box opened during a short absence, and so I +should have been very glad not to have to bear this loss, for which, of +course, I am solely responsible, alone. But some kind friends (Gould, I +believe, started the idea) are pleased to say that I have robbed myself; +that is, I have spent the money intrusted to me and invented the story +of a robbery." ("Oh! oh! shame! shame!") "Well, yes, I think it was +rather a shame, and I am glad you are indignant about it. But the +accusation having been once made, of course I cannot accept the kind +suggestion to make the loss good." + +There was a great hubbub and loud protestations, but Crawley was firm. +His honour was at stake, he said, and he must repay the money himself; +then his traducers at all events could not say that he had profited by +holding the office of treasurer. Those who had indulged in idle +innuendoes were heartily ashamed and sorry, and Gould for a short time +was the most unpopular boy in the school. Crawley cut him dead. + +The day following this special meeting was Saturday, exactly one week +after the robbery, and the day appointed for the football match between +the houses of Head-master and Cookson. I fear that a detailed account +of this match would hardly interest you, for this reason. The Head- +master, whose scholarship and capacity worked up Weston to that state of +prosperity which it has maintained ever since, was an Etonian, and the +games instituted under his auspices were played according to Eton rules. +Dr Jolliffe had also been educated at the same school, and thought +everything connected with it almost sacred. So it happened that the +Rugby game of hand-and-football had never supplanted the older English +pastime, which it has now become so much the fashion to despise, and +which, indeed, if it were not for the Eton clubs at Oxford, Cambridge, +and elsewhere, might disappear as the national rats did before the +Hanoverian. The Westonians then used round, not oblong footballs; their +object was to work the ball between the goal-posts, not over a bar at +the top of them; and it was unlawful to touch it with the hands unless +caught in the air, and then only for a drop-kick. + +I do not advocate one game more than the other; both to my thinking are +excellent, and I have no sympathy with those who would suppress every +pastime which is fraught with some roughness and danger. The tendency +of civilisation is naturally towards softness, effeminacy, and a dread +of pain or discomfort; and these evils are far more serious than +bruises, sprains, broken collar-bones, or even occasionally a more +calamitous accident. + +However, the chances are that my reader is all in favour of the Rugby +game, and would therefore follow the changes and chances of the present +match with but little interest. It was exciting enough, however, to +those who were engaged in it, for Cookson's made a better fight of it +than their opponents expected. They had been practising with great +pains, and their team worked well together and backed each other up +excellently. So that, quite early in the match, the ball having been +some time at their end, and they acting solely on the defensive, +Jolliffe's thought they were going to carry all before them and got a +little rash and careless; those who should have kept back to guard their +own end pressing too far forwards, when Edwards, who was fleet of foot +and really good at seizing chances, got a clear kick at the ball which +sent it over the heads of the attackers into the middle of the field, +and, getting through to it again, began dribbling it towards the hostile +goal with a series of short kicks, having a start of the field, who, +seeing their error, were now racing back to their own end. The goal- +keeper dashed out and met Edwards in full career, both kicking the ball +at the same time; but another on the Cookson side, who had been keeping +close in view of such a contingency, got a fair chance at the ball, +which slipped sideways from the two, and sent it sheer between the +posts, scoring a goal for Cookson's. + +The success of such a simple manoeuvre was equivalent to a "fools' mate" +at chess, and was a lesson to Jolliffe's never to despise their enemy. +They were not to be caught napping again, however, and, by dint of +steady, persistent, concentrated play, they too got a goal and equalised +matters. Then, after a considerable period, during which the advantages +fluctuated, they obtained a rooge. If, in the old game, the ball is +kicked behind the goal-posts but not between them, there arises a +struggle between the contending sides to touch it with the hand. If one +of the defenders, those behind whose goal the ball has passed, does so +first, nothing has happened, and the ball is kicked off again for +renewal of the game. But should one of the opposite side so touch it, a +rooge is gained. The rooge is formed close in front of the defenders' +goal, they being clustered in a semicircle with their backs to it, and +with a big and heavy member of the team for the central pillar, who +plants his heel firmly in the ground, the ball being placed against his +foot. The opposite side complete the circle, leaving an opening for one +of their number to rush in and get a good kick at the ball--they +instantly closing upon him and endeavouring to force the whole surging, +struggling mass bodily back between the posts, ball and all; if they +cannot make an opening they send the ball through alone--the defenders, +of course, endeavouring to force the ball out sideways, and either touch +it down behind their goal or get it away from their end altogether. One +goal counts more than any number of rooges; but when no goal is made at +all, or the number of them on each side is equal, the rooges decide the +game. + +Ends were changed, and after a good deal of play without result +Cookson's also scored a rooge, and matters were equal again; after which +the Jolliffe team, which was the strongest physically, kept the ball +entirely in the neighbourhood of the Cookson goals. For the latter had +made great exertions, and were tiring fast. The time fixed for leaving +off play was now approaching; and if they could only keep matters as +they were a little longer they would make a drawn match of it, which +would be of itself a triumph, considering that their opponents, with the +redoubtable Crawley at their head, were reckoned so much the stronger. + +"Come, we _must_ get one more rooge," said the Jolliffe captain, "and +weak as they are getting we ought to turn it into a goal." And pursuing +his determination he dribbled the ball up close to the base line, sent +it behind the goal-posts, and rushed forward to touch it down. Edwards +ran up to it at the same time to touch it first, and a collision ensued +which sent him flying. Near that spot there was a tree with seats round +it, and Edwards fell heavily with his side against a corner of this +wooden settle. Crawley touched the ball down. + +"You have given us all our work to get this!" he called out to the +other, laughing; and then seeing that Edwards was lying on the ground, +he added, "You are not hurt, old fellow, are you? Only blown?" + +But as the other was not in the position in which any one would lie +still a moment to get breath, he went up to him and repeated his +question. + +"I don't know; I--I feel rather queer," was the reply. + +Crawley stooped, and put his arms round his body to raise him up, but +Edwards shrieked out, "Ah! don't; that hurts!" + +The other players now gathered round, and many offered well-meaning but +absurd suggestions. One practical youth ran off, however, to Cookson's +house to report what had happened, and then returned with a chair. By +the time he got back Edwards had managed to rise, and was sitting on the +settle, very faint. They managed to transfer him to the chair, and +carried him home in it very gently, and by the time he was laid on his +bed, which had been got ready, the doctor arrived. A couple of ribs +were broken, he said, after an examination which made poor Edwards groan +a good deal; but he did not think there was much more the matter, which +words were a great comfort to Crawley, who began to fear that he might +have been the cause of the boy's death. He was quite sufficiently sorry +and vexed as it was, and would have liked to nurse him if he had been +allowed. + +It was just as well for his reading that they were not in the same +house, for he spent all the hours that he was out of school, and not +necessarily in his own tutor's, by Edwards' bedside. You cannot fall +with your side against a sharp angle heavily enough to break a couple of +ribs without feeling it afterwards, I can tell you, so you had better +not try, and Edwards suffered a good deal from pain and difficulty of +breathing for a few days, and when the inflammation was got down, and he +felt more easy, he was kept back by a great depression of spirits. + +"One would say that the boy had something on his mind!" said the doctor +to Mr Cookson, "but that is impossible. At his age we possess no minds +worth speaking about to have anything upon;" and so he lost the scent +after hitting it off to go on the trail of a witticism, which after all +was not very brilliant. + +Edwards was delirious one night, and astonished the housekeeper, a +motherly dame who sat up with him, by his talk on the occasion. + +"Look here!" he said; and thinking he wanted drink or something she got +out of her chair and leaned over him; "let us have five shillings on the +black this time; it has gone red four times running, and that can't go +on, can it?" + +"Certainly not," said Mrs Blobbs, wondering whatever the boy's +distracted fancy was running on. "Don't do it! Don't do it!" he then +cried. "I'll have nothing to say to it. Let us stand our chance +rather. Not that way; not that way; no, no, that's making bad worse. I +won't! I won't!" + +That was only one night, however, the third after the accident, and he +was all right in his head next morning, only so terribly depressed. +Saurin never came near him. + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +COMPOUNDING A FELONY. + +"I know what is the matter with you," said Crawley, replacing the pieces +on a backgammon board at the end of the game. + +"Do you?" replied Edwards, turning if possible a shade paler, while his +heart palpitated under his sore ribs. + +"Yes," continued the other; "you are worrying because you cannot get on +with your reading, and the prospect of examination is getting +uncomfortably distinct. I hear from Mr Cookson that you have been +mugging lately, just as I have. Well, you will not lose much time, and +you will find yourself all the clearer for lying fallow a little. And +look here, I am a little more forward than you, and if you will come and +stay with us in the holidays I will read with you; I think I could help +you a bit. My mother would be very glad to see you. Or if that can't +be, I'll come to you. I am sure we could more than make up for any lost +time." + +Edwards was able to sit up now, and Crawley read amusing books, and +played games with him whenever he could leave school or pupil-room. + +"What a kind chap you are!" said Edwards with a broken voice, and with +water in his eyes, for he was very weak and nervous; "I--I don't deserve +it." + +"Not?" exclaimed Crawley. "Why, surely I ought to do what I can, when +it is my fault that you got hurt. I am most unlucky this term; I get +robbed, and am suspected of inventing the story of it to cover my +misappropriation of the money; and then I wind up with breaking a +fellow's ribs!" + +"No one thinks for a moment that you were not robbed as you say; I am +certain of it!" cried Edwards. + +"I don't know about that; some of them said they did, and I would give +anything to prove that they did me wrong. It will stick in my gizzard a +long time, I can tell you." + +Edwards buried his face in his hands and fairly sobbed. + +"I can bear it no longer," he cried at last. "You so kind to me and +all! I know who robbed you." + +"You!" exclaimed Crawley, thinking the boy had gone delirious again. + +"Yes, I," repeated Edwards. "I did not see it done, and he never told +me he had done it, but I know he did, and--and, I profited by the money +and never said anything." + +"Come, come, Edwards, you are ill and weak, and exciting yourself too +much. We will talk about this another time." + +"No, no, now; I must speak; it is killing me." + +And then he rapidly told the whole story; how Saurin and he had gambled +and lost, and the peril they had brought themselves into; and how Saurin +had gone that fatal Saturday afternoon to try and borrow money of +Gould--all he knew, in short. + +"Saurin!" said Crawley, when he had heard all. "I never thought very +much of him, but I had no idea he was so bad as that. But don't you +fret, Edwards; you were put in a very queer position, and nobody could +say what he would do if he suddenly found it his duty to denounce an +intimate friend for a crime which was committed to get out of a scrape +in which he himself was implicated. It would be an awful hole to be in! +How far have you told me all this in confidence?" + +"I leave that quite to you. I do not ask to be spared myself, but if +you could be cleared and satisfied without Saurin being publicly tried +and sent to prison, I should be very grateful." + +"All right! I think I can manage that. And now, don't you bother +yourself; you shall not get into any row, that I promise." + +"Oh, Crawley, what a good fellow you are!" cried Edwards. "I wish I had +got killed, instead of only breaking a couple of ribs!" + +"And let me in for being tried for manslaughter!" exclaimed Crawley, +laughing. "Thank you for nothing, my boy." + +Crawley made up his mind that night what he would do. The next morning +he asked Robarts, Buller, and Smith, _alias_ "Old Algebra," to come to +his room when they came out of school at twelve. Then he made the same +request of Gould, who looked surprised and flustered. + +"You will condescend to speak to me at last, then?" he said, sulkily. + +"I could not suppose that you wished to hold any communication with a +defaulter," replied Crawley, "and I am sure I could not trust myself in +the company of any fellow who thought me one. I ask you to come to my +room now because I have discovered who took the money, and I want to +clear myself in your eyes." + +"All right! I will come if you wish it." + +"Thank you very much." + +Having thus arranged for his court of inquiry, the next thing was to +secure the attendance of the accused. He found Saurin talking to a knot +of boys, and asked if he could speak to him privately for a moment. + +"Well, what is up?" Saurin asked. "You look as grave as a mute at a +funeral." + +"Yes," said Crawley, "what I have to say is rather grave. It is about +that four pounds twelve shillings you took out of my box." + +"It's a lie!" cried Saurin, turning pale as death. + +"And yet the evidence against you is very clear," said Crawley quietly. +"Do you know a man named Josiah Slam, a son of the fellow who lives near +here? Come, I do not wish to prosecute you, unless you force me; I want +to give you a chance. Robarts, Buller, Smith, and Gould are coming to +my room at twelve o'clock to-day, and I mean to take their advice as to +what should be done if you will come there too, and meet them." + +"And if I refuse?" said Saurin. + +"In that case I shall go to Dr Jolliffe, and put the matter in _his_ +hands," replied Crawley. + +"Well, I do not mind coming to hear what cock-and-bull story you have +trumped up," muttered Saurin, turning away. He feared lest an unguarded +word should betray him. + +His anxiety was terrible. What did Crawley know? What was mere +conjecture? Of course Edwards had put him on the track; but had he done +so distinctly, or had this suspicion been aroused by his wandering talk +when delirious? Everything might depend on his exercising calm judgment +just now, but his head was in a whirl and he could not collect his wits. +Should he make a bolt? Oh, no! that would be confessing himself +guilty. Should he defy Crawley? That would bring about a trial, in +which he might be found guilty. It seemed safest to go to Crawley's +room at twelve and hear what he had to say. + +So he went. Robarts and Gould sat on the two chairs with which the room +was supplied, Buller perched himself on the table, Smith on a box--all +full of curiosity and expectation. Crawley and Saurin remained +standing. The door was closed and a mat placed against it, to prevent +any sudden entry without warning. + +"I am not going to beat about the bush," said Crawley. "I accuse Saurin +there of having come to this house, one Saturday when we were all out; +of having gone into my room, taken my keys out of the pocket of a coat +lying there, opened the cricket and football japanned box, and +abstracted four pounds twelve shillings from a purse inside it. Then I +assert that he put the keys back in the coat-pocket, having first locked +the box and put it back in its place, and ran back to his tutor's house, +where he changed and went out to play at football. The motive of this +theft was that he had been gambling at Slam's yard, lost all the money +he had or could raise; went on playing on credit, lost again, and was +threatened with exposure unless he paid up. He had meant to borrow the +money he wanted of you, Gould, and came to the house with that +intention. But as you were not in, he got it the other way." + +"It is all a pack of lies!" cried Saurin. "At least about robbing, I +mean; for it is true that I lost money playing roulette, and that I +meant to borrow of Gould, only I squared matters with the man without." + +"What day did you come to apply to me for that loan?" asked Gould. + +"I don't know exactly; it was not on a Saturday I am not sure that I +came at all," replied Saurin, who could not for the life of him help +stammering. "It's all lies; though appearances might be got up against +me." + +"They certainly are so already," said Crawley, "or I should not have +accused you. Of course, if you can prove your innocence, or even if you +are convinced that no one can prove your guilt, you will prefer to stand +a trial. Otherwise you might prefer to pay back the money and leave +Weston quietly. What do you say?" he added, turning to the others. +"Would it not be best for the credit of the school?" + +"Yes, yes," said Robarts; "let us wash our dirty linen at home." + +"But how am I to leave?" asked Saurin with a groan. + +"I don't know; tell your guardian the truth if you like, you must manage +that. Only, if you come back next term I shall lay the whole matter +before the head-master. And if you leave, and the money does not come, +I shall give information to the police." + +"That's fair enough," said Buller; "take the chance, Saurin, if you are +not a fool." And the others assented. + +Not one of them had any doubt as to Saurin's guilt: his confusion and +equivocation condemned him. + +"What a cool fish you were to suggest that Crawley might have spent the +money himself!" said Gould. "You regularly humbugged me." + +"You are assuming a good deal, I think," said Saurin bitterly; "making +yourselves accusers, juries, judges, executioners, and all. And I am +very much in your power, for if this came to a trial, though I should +certainly be found innocent of robbery, yet I cannot deny the gambling +and having gone to Slam's yard, and I should be expelled for that. So I +suppose I had better agree to your terms. I will not come back, and-- +what sum did you say you demand as the price of your silence? Four +pounds ten, or twelve, I think; you shall have it." And turning on his +heel with an attempt at swagger which was not very successful, Saurin +went out, kicking the mat aside, and banging the door after him. + +Of course Edwards had betrayed him, he said to himself; it was not for +nothing that Crawley had been constantly with him since his accident. +He longed to go to Edwards' room and upbraid him with his treachery, but +he durst not trust himself. He was not out of the wood yet; the other +three could be trusted, but Gould _must_ tattle, and if the story got +abroad and reached one of the master's ears, it would no longer be in +Crawley's power to hush it up. And then Edwards almost always had some +one with him; but if not, and he saw him alone, could he keep his hands +off his throat? From the throbbing of his temples when the idea +occurred to him he thought it doubtful. No, he must not see him. + +"How on earth did you find it out?" cried the others to Crawley when +Saurin's footstep died away on the staircase. + +"I have promised not to name my witnesses unless it is necessary to call +them forward," replied Crawley. "I am very much obliged to you for +coming here, and I feel that it is awfully bad not to take you into full +confidence and give up names. But you see I have passed my word and +cannot help myself. There's one thing I can tell you, Buller. Saurin +was the poacher for whose moonlight excursion you were taken up." + +"By Jove!" exclaimed Buller. "Well, I should have imagined that he +might have done that, but not such a dirty business as this." + +"I suppose he felt himself up a regular tree, poor beggar!" said +Robarts. + +"Well, Gould," said Crawley, "I hope that your doubts as to my story of +having been robbed are set at rest." + +"I don't know that I ever had any," replied Gould rather sullenly; "only +when a thing like that happens, and nothing can be found out, one puts +it in every possible light. Saurin said you were a careless fellow +about money matters, and might have mixed up the club money with your +own and paid it away without knowing, and then thought you had been +robbed. Of course one sees now why he put the idea about; but at the +time it looked just possible, and fellows discussed it, I amongst them." + +"Well, it was not pleasant for me, as you may easily understand," said +Crawley. "However, that is all over, and we will say nothing more about +it. And now, of course we will all keep our council about this business +for some time. It would be breaking faith with Saurin if we let a word +escape before he has left the school; because, if the doctor heard of +it, he would insist on expelling him at any rate." + +"Yes; and we had better hold our tongues for our own sakes," observed +Robarts. "My father's a lawyer, and I have heard him talk about +something of the same kind. And I have a strong idea that we have just +committed a crime, as that chap in the French play talked prose without +knowing it." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Just this, that to make terms with a thief, by which you agree not to +prosecute him, is a legal offence called `compounding a felony.'" + +This notion of Robarts, whether right or wrong, had the useful effect of +sealing Gould's lips for some time to come. It only wanted a week to +the holidays, so the struggle was not so very prolonged. + +Crawley went to see Edwards directly the council-board broke up, and +found him nervous and depressed. + +"Perhaps I had no right to speak," he said. "It was not for me to tell. +I wouldn't; only you thought yourself under suspicion, and you have +been so good to me." + +Well, Crawley could not but thank him and tell him he was quite right; +but he was not able for the life of him to say so in very cordial tones. + +"Look here!" persisted Edwards, noticing this, "tell me honestly; if you +had been situated like me, would you have told of him?" + +"Not to save my life!" blurted out Crawley; "I mean," he added hastily, +"I fear that I should not have had the moral courage." + +The week passed, and Weston School once more broke up. What story +Saurin told to Sir Richard to induce him to take his name off the boards +quietly I do not know, but it had the desired effect; and when the boys +reassembled for the summer term Saurin's place was known no longer +amongst them. The scandal about him soon began to leak out, and the +story ran that but for Crawley's extreme generosity towards him he would +have now been in penal servitude at Portland. + +Stubbs, too, went away that Easter vacation, taking Topper with him, and +the pair went out to China together, Stubbs having lucrative employment +in that country. Crawley returned, but that was his last term, and soon +afterwards he succeeded in getting into Woolwich. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. + +EPILOGUE. + +A young man stood on the platform of the South-Western Railway pointing +out his luggage to a porter. There was a good deal of it, and every +package had _Serapis_ painted upon it. _Serapis_, however, was not the +name of that young man; that was inscribed on another part of the trunk, +and ran, "Vincent Crawley, RA." _Serapis_ indicated the ship into whose +hold all these things were to go. They had other marks, for some were +to go to the bottom--_absit omen_!--the bottom of the hold, I mean, not +of the sea, and were to remain there till the end of the voyage. But +one trunk was to lie atop, for it contained light clothing to be worn on +entering the Red Sea. Minute were the printed directions about these +matters which had been sent him directly he got his route. It is the +fashion to cry out against red tape, but red tape is a first-rate thing +if it only ties up the bundles properly. There is nothing like order, +method--routine in short. By following it too closely on exceptional +occasions absurd blunders may now and then be committed; but think of +the utter confusion that would prevail every hour for the want of it. + +With a cold March wind blowing how should a young fellow who had never +been out of his own country know that in a few days it would be so hot +that his present clothes would be unbearable? Or how should he +understand the way to meet the difficulty if he did know it? I am all +for rules and regulations, and down with the grumblers. + +Mrs Crawley and the girls agreed with me, for the official directions +saved them a world of trouble. They wanted to go down to Portsmouth in +a body and see him off, but he begged them not. + +"I had sooner say good-bye here, Mother," he said, "if you don't mind. +There's a detachment, and I shall have my men to look after, and if I am +with you I shall be bothered. And, well, you know, parting is a +melancholy sort of business, and it is better to get it over in private, +don't you think?" + +Mrs Crawley saw wisdom in her son's words, and yielded with a sigh, for +she yearned to see the very last of him. Ah! we do not half value the +love of our mothers until we miss it, and the opportunity for making any +return is gone for ever. It seems such a matter of course, like the sun +shining, which no one troubles to be grateful for. But if the sun _went +out_. + +Well, it was a painful business--a good deal worse than a visit to the +dentist's--that morning's breakfast, with the table crowded with his +favourite dainties, which he could not swallow. And then the final +parting, when all the luggage was piled on the cab. It was a relief +when it was over, and he found himself alone and trying to whistle. +Even now, as he stowed the smaller articles in the carriage, he had a +great lump in his throat. + +The guard began shutting the doors, so he got in, and as he had fellow- +passengers it was necessary to look indifferent, and as if he were +accustomed to long journeys. The train moved out of the station and he +found several things to distract his thoughts. Presently on the right +they passed the Wimbledon Lawn-tennis Grounds, and he thought of a +wonderful rally he had seen there between Renshaw and Lawson. Then +further on they came to Sandown on the left, where a steeple-chase was +in progress. The horses were approaching the water jump, and the +travellers put down their newspapers and crowded to the window. + +"Something in Tom Cannon's colours leading; he's over. That thing of +Lord Marcus is pulling hard. By Jove he is down! No, he has picked him +up again. Well ridden, sir!" + +"Who is it up?" + +"Why, Beresford himself. He will win, too, I think. Oh, hang it, I +wish they would stop the train a moment!" + +Everybody laughed at this, though it was provoking not to see them over +the next fence; but the engine gave a derisive scream, and away they +rushed to Farnborough. + +"There's Aldershot, and the Long Valley, and that Cocked Hat Wood. +British generals would beat creation if they might only let their left +rest on Cocked Hat Wood." + +They were all army men in the carriage, and the conversation never +flagged now it had been started. + +"Are you going by the _Serapis_?" asked a gentleman sitting opposite +Crawley, seeing _cabin_ painted on his busby case in the net overhead. + +"Yes," replied Crawley. And then learning that he was bound for India +the other inquired the presidency and the station, and it so happened +that he had left that district only the year before, and was now settled +in Hampshire, having been superannuated, at which he grumbled much, and +indeed he was a hale young-looking man to be laid on the shelf. And so +the time sped rapidly till they reached Portsmouth harbour, where a +conspicuous white vessel, which was pointed out to Crawley as the +_Serapis_, lay moored to a quay. Then he superintended the loading of +his luggage in a cart, and, taking a cab, accompanied it through the +dock-yard gates to a shed, where he saw it deposited as per regulation. +Then he went to the "George," where he had secured a bed, and on +entering the coffee-room heard his name uttered in a tone of pleased +surprise: "Crawley!" + +"What, Buller! How are you, old fellow?" + +"All right. Are you going out in the _Serapis_?" + +"Yes; and you?" + +"Yes." + +"That is jolly. What regiment are you in?" + +"First Battalion Blankshire. Do you know I got into Sandhurst direct +the first time I went up!" + +"Of course you did; you would be sure to do anything you really meant; I +always said so. I must go and report myself now and see about my +detachment, for there are some men going out with me; but we shall meet +at dinner." + +They dined together at a small table by themselves, and had a long talk +afterwards about the old Weston fellows, of whom Buller had recent +information through Penryhn, who lived near his people at home. + +"I know about Robarts," said Crawley; "he is in the Oxford eleven; but +there is your chum Penryhn, what is he doing?" + +"Oh, he is in a government office in Somerset House. Not a large +income, but safe, and rounded off with a pension. Better than our line, +so far as money goes anyhow." + +"I suppose so; but I should not like office work. And Smith, Old +Algebra, have you heard of him?" + +"Yes, he is mathematical master at a big school." + +"And Gould?" + +"Why, don't you know? It was in all the papers. Gould's father smashed +and died suddenly; did not leave his family a penny. Some friends got +Lionel Gould a clerkship in some counting-house; his sister Clarissa, +your old friend, you know, supports herself and her mother by the +stage." + +"Dear, dear, I am sorry for them; it must be precious hard when they +were used to such luxury. And that chap Edwards, have you ever heard of +him?" + +"Oh, yes, he is at Cambridge, and intends to take orders when he gets +his degree." + +"I hope it will keep him out of mischief; I always fancied he might come +to grief, he was such a weak beggar." + +"Yes, he was, and is still, I hear. But he has had the luck to get into +the clutches of a man who keeps him straight; a fellow as good as gold, +and earnest enough to make all the Edwardses in the country believe in +him." + +"Lucky for Edwards; if he marries a stiffish sort of wife with the same +opinions he will live and die a saint. Saurin would have made the other +thing of him. By the by, have you ever heard anything of that fellow?" + +"Not lately. He had a row with his uncle and guardian, and went to +Australia, I believe; but I have heard nothing of him for years." + +They chatted late into the night, and when Crawley went to bed his heart +smote him to remember how little he had thought of his mother. + +The _Serapis_ was to sail on the following day at noon, so when Crawley +had seen his gunners safely embarked, and the two friends had reported +themselves at the little office outside the saloon, had traversed that +lofty palatial apartment (how different from the cabins of the old +troop-ships!), carefully removing their caps as a placard directed them, +had made acquaintance with the little cabin which they were to share +together, and had stowed away their minor properties within it, they +took a last turn on shore, principally to get one or two little comforts +which they had forgotten till then. + +As they passed a low public-house on their way back to the ship, a +remarkably smart corporal of marines came out of it, and since they were +in uniform, saluted. But as he did so, he suddenly turned his head away +and quickened his pace. + +Crawley and Buller looked at one another. + +"Did you recognise him?" + +"Yes." + +It was Saurin. + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dr. Jolliffe's Boys, by Lewis Hough + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DR. JOLLIFFE'S BOYS *** + +***** This file should be named 21187.txt or 21187.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/1/8/21187/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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