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twg_000000049800 | in wrath, and ordered Gull to leave the room. "I shan't," returned the other. "Keep to yourself, and mind your own business." "That's just what I'm doing; you know the rules as well as I do. It's my business to keep order in this room." "Rubbish! Who do you think cares for your rules, you jack-in-office?" "Will you leave the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049801 | room?" "No, of course I won't. If you want to act 'chucker-out,' you'd better try it on." In desperation Lucas resolved to play his last card. "Look here, Gull," he said, rising from his seat. "You know I'm not your match in size or strength, or you wouldn't challenge me to fight; but this I will do: unless you leave | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049802 | the room, I shall go at once and report you to Dr. Denson." The offender, seeing perhaps that this was no empty threat, evidently considered it the wiser plan not to risk an interview with the head-master. "Oh, keep your wig on!" he answered, with a scornful laugh. "I shouldn't like to make you prove yourself a sneak as well | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049803 | as a coward. I'm going in a minute." The assembly, who for the most part considered the stocks joke very good fun, and were possessed with all the traditional schoolboy hatred for anything in the shape of telling tales, showed their disapproval with a good deal of booing and hissing as Gull sauntered out of the room, and Lucas bent | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049804 | over his accounts with the despairing sense of having lost instead of gained by the encounter. It soon became evident that the matter was not to be allowed to drop without some show of feeling, for on the following morning the unfortunate official was greeted with jeers and uncomplimentary remarks wherever he went. Just before tea Diggory and Jack Vance | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049805 | were crossing the quadrangle on their way from the gymnasium to the schoolroom, when they were accosted by Fletcher junior. "I say," remarked the latter, in rather a knowing manner, "if you want to see a lark, come to the reading-room before 'prep.'" "Why, what's up?" "Oh, never mind; don't tell any one I told you," and the speaker passed | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049806 | on. "Shall we go?" said Diggory. "We might as well," answered his companion, laughing. "I wonder what the joke is! Another moth-hunt, or some more of that 'stocks' business, I suppose." When the two friends entered the reading-room, it presented an unusually quiet and orderly appearance. About twenty boys were seated at the various desks and tables, all occupied with | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049807 | games of chess or draughts, or in the perusal of magazines and papers. Even Grundy, who never read anything but an occasional novel, was poring over the advertisement columns of _The Daily News_, with apparently great interest, while young Fletcher was equally engrossed in the broad pages of _The Times_. An attempt to put "Rats" in the stocks utterly failed, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049808 | from the fact that those who were usually foremost in acts of disorder refused to render any assistance, and even went so far as to nip the disturbance in the bud with angry ejaculations of "Here, dry up!"--"Stop it, can't you?" "I say," murmured Diggory, after sitting for a quarter of an hour listlessly turning over the pages of a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049809 | magazine, "Fletcher's sold us about that lark; I don't see the use of staying here any longer." Hardly had the words been uttered when some one in the passage outside crowed like a cock. There was a rustling of newspapers, and the next instant all four gas-jets were turned out simultaneously, and the room was plunged in total darkness. What | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049810 | followed it would be difficult to describe. The door was flung open, there was an inrush of boys from the passage, and the place became a perfect pandemonium. Tables were overturned, books and magazines went whizzing about in the darkness, a grand "scrum" seemed in progress round Lucas's desk, while amid the chorus of whoops, whistles, and cat-calls the latter's | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049811 | voice was distinctly audible, crying in angry tones,-- "Leave me alone, you blackguards; let go, I say!" Jack and Diggory listened in amazement to the uproar with which they suddenly found themselves surrounded, and not wishing to risk the chance of having a form or a table upset on their toes, remained seated in their corner, wondering how the affair | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049812 | would end. At length, piercing the general uproar, came the distant _clang, clang_ of the bell for preparation. The tumult suddenly subsided, and there was a rush for the passage. Hardly had this stampede been accomplished when some one struck a match and lit the gas-jet nearest the door: it was Gull. He stood for a moment looking round the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049813 | room with a sardonic smile upon his face, evidently very well pleased with the sight which met his gaze. The place certainly presented the appearance of a town which had been bombarded, carried by storm, and pillaged for a week by some foreign foe. Most of the furniture was upset or pulled out of place, magazines and papers lay strewn | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049814 | about in every direction, ink was trickling in black rivulets about the floor, and draughts and chess men seemed to have been scattered broadcast all over the place. In addition to our two friends, three other boys, who had evidently taken no active part in the proceedings, still remained at some seats next to the wall; while Lucas, with hair | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049815 | dishevelled, waistcoat torn open, and collar flying loose, stood flushed and panting amid the _debris_ of his overturned desk. "Well, I'm sure!" said Gull, with a short laugh; "you fellows seem to have been having rather a bit of fun here this evening. I thought I heard a row, and I was coming to see what it was; only just | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049816 | when I got to the door, about fifty chaps bounced out and nearly knocked me down.-- What have they been up to, eh, Lucas?" "Never you mind," answered the unfortunate official, choking with rage; "the bell's gone, so all of you clear out." "Well, you can't blame me this journey," retorted Gull, calmly striking another match and lighting the next | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049817 | gas-jet. "It seems to me this is a little too much of a good thing. You'll have to lick a few of them, Lucas, my boy; and if you can't manage it yourself, you'd better get some one else to do it for you--your friend Allingford, for instance." The master on duty in the big schoolroom had to call several | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049818 | times for silence before the subdued hum of muttered conversation entirely ceased. Every one had heard of the reading-room riot, and was anxious to discuss the matter with his companions. "Who did it? who did it?" was the question asked on all sides. "I don't know," would be the answer. "They say it wasn't the fellows who were in the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049819 | room--some of them put the gas out; but it was a lot of other chaps, who rushed in after, who did all the damage and caused such 'ructions.'" "It seems to me," remarked Diggory to his two chums, "that it was a put-up job, all arranged beforehand." "Then who d'you think planned it?" asked Mugford. "I don't know, but I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049820 | believe Gull had a hand in it." "Oh, I don't think that," answered Jack Vance. "He came in and lit the gas; if he'd been in it, he'd have skedaddled with the rest." "Um--would he?" returned Diggory, nodding his head in a sagacious manner; "I'm rather inclined to think he came in on purpose." By the end of supper a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049821 | fresh rumour spread which caused the affair to assume a still graver and more important aspect. Lucas had reported the whole thing to the head-master, and the latter had expressed his intention of inquiring into it on the following day. The truth of these tidings was proved beyond all possibility of doubt when, next morning at breakfast, an announcement was | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049822 | made that the school would assemble immediately after the boys left the hall, instead of gathering, as usual, at nine o'clock. Every one knew what this meant. The subject had been discussed for hours in most of the dormitories on the previous evening, and when Dr. Denson ascended his throne there was no necessity for him to strike the small | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049823 | hand-bell--the usual signal for silence; an expectant hush pervaded the whole of the big room, showing clearly the interest which every one felt in the business on hand. "I need hardly say," began the doctor, in his clear, decisive manner, "that my object in calling you together is to inquire into a disgraceful piece of disorder which took place in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049824 | the reading-room last night. I am astonished that such outrageous behaviour should be possible in what, up to the present time, I have always been proud to regard as a community of gentlemen. Such an offence against law and order cannot be allowed to pass unpunished. I feel certain that the greater number of those here present had no share | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049825 | in it, and I shall give the culprits a chance of proving themselves at all events sufficiently honourable to prevent their schoolfellows suffering the consequences which have arisen from the folly of individuals. Let those boys who are responsible for what occurred last evening stand up!" With one exception nobody stirred; a solitary small boy rose to his feet, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049826 | in spite of the gravity of the situation a subdued titter ran through the assembly. Apparently the whole of the row and disturbance of the previous evening was the handiwork of one single boy, and that boy the youthful "Rats." "Well, Rathson," said the head-master grimly, "am I to understand that you single-handed overturned forms and tables, scattered books and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049827 | papers to the four winds, and nearly tore the clothes off another boy's back?" "N--no, sir," answered "Rats" plaintively. "Then will you explain exactly what you did do?" "I was reading--and the gas went out--and some one emptied a box of chess-men over my head--and I--I hit him--and then there was a lot of pushing, and I pushed, and--" concluded | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049828 | "Rats" apologetically-- "and I think I shouted." "H'm!" said the doctor; "so that's all you did. Sit down, sir.--Lucas!" "Yes, sir." "Do you remember what boys were in the reading-room last night?" "Yes, sir, but I don't think they were responsible for what happened; it was done by others who came in from outside." There was a silence. "I ask | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049829 | once more," said the head-master, "what boys took part in this disturbance? let them stand up!" Once more young "Rats" alone pleaded guilty. "Very well, then," continued the doctor sternly; "the whole school will be punished: there will be no half-holiday on Wednesday afternoon, and the reading-room will be closed for a fortnight.--Sit down, Rathson; you are the only boy | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049830 | among the many who must have been connected with this affair--the only one, I say, who has any sense of manliness or honour. Write me a hundred lines, and bring them to me to-morrow morning." The prospect of having to work on Wednesday afternoon caused, the boys themselves to take up the doctor's inquiry, and the query, "Who did it?" | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049831 | became the burning question of the hour. The riot had evidently been carefully planned beforehand, and the plot arranged in such a manner that those who took part in it might do so without being recognized. It was impossible to discover who really were the culprits, though the majority of the boys put it down as having been done by | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049832 | "some of 'Thirsty's' lot," and as being a further proof of the latter's well-known animosity towards Allingford, who had, of course, appointed Lucas as keeper of the room. "Look here!" said Diggory, accosting Fletcher Two in the playground: "what made you tell us to come to the reading-room last night? How did you know there was going to be a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049833 | row?" "I didn't," murmured the other warily. "All I knew was that they were going to put 'Rats' in the 'stocks;' I hadn't the faintest idea there was going to be such a fine old rumpus." "Umph! hadn't you?" muttered Diggory, turning on his heel; "I know better." . THE CIPHER LETTER. The reading-room row, as it was called, had | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049834 | pretty well blown over, when one morning Diggory accosted Jack Vance and Mugford, who were both seated at the latter's desk, sharpening their knives on an oil-stone. "I say, you fellows, look what I've found." As he spoke, he laid on the desk a slip of paper; it was evidently a scrap torn out of some exercise-book, and inscribed upon | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049835 | it were several lines of capital letters, all jumbled together without any apparent object in their arrangement, and, to be more exact, placed as follows:-- NVVGRMGSVTBNDSVMGSVUVOOLD HKZHHLMGLHFKKVIGSVGDLXZM HLUDZGVIZIGHGZMWRMTRMHRW VGSVXFKYLZIWFMWVIGSVHGZRIH. "Well, what is there funny about that?" asked Jack; "it looks to me as if some one had been practising making capitals." "Is it a puzzle?" inquired Mugford. "No, but I'll | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049836 | tell you what I think it is," answered Diggory, sitting down, and speaking in a low, mysterious tone: "it's a letter written in cipher." "A letter?" repeated Mugford, glancing at the paper. "Why, how could any one read that rubbish--NVVG?" "Of course they can, if they know the key. Didn't I say it was written in cipher, you duffer? Every | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049837 | letter you see there stands for something different." "Then why didn't they write the proper letters at once, and have done with it?" grumbled Mugford. "Because, you prize ass," retorted Diggory, with pardonable asperity, "they didn't want it read." "Then if they didn't want it read, why did they write it at all?" exclaimed Mugford triumphantly. "Oh, shut up! you're | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049838 | cracked, you--" "Look here," interrupted Jack Vance, "where did you find the thing?" "Why, you know the window in the box-room that looks out on the 'quad;' well, there's a little crack under the ledge between the wooden frame and the wall, and this note was stuck in there. I should never have seen it, only I was watching a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049839 | spider crawling up the wall, and it ran into the hole close to the end of the paper. Some fellows must be using the place as a sort of post-office; don't you remember Fred Acton made one in the wainscotting at The Birches? only these fellows have invented a cipher. Well, I'm going to find it out, and read this | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049840 | note, just for the lark." "How are you going to do it, though? I don't see it's possible to read a thing like this; you can't tell where one word ends and a fresh one begins." "There is a way of finding out a cipher," answered Diggory; "it tells you how to do it in that book that we bought | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049841 | when Mug had his things sold by auction at Chatford." "What, in Poe's tales?" asked Mugford. "Yes; in one of the stories called 'The Gold Bug.' Where is the book?" "I lent it to Maxton, but I should think he's finished it by this time. I'll go and see." "All right," said Diggory, pocketing the slip of paper; "you get | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049842 | it, and then I can show you what I mean. Come on, Jack; let's go out." The two friends were just rising from the form on which they had been sitting, when they were accosted by Browse, who, strolling up with a pair of dilapidated slippers on his feet, which caused him to walk as though he were skating, inquired | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049843 | in drawling tones, "I say, have either of you kids got a watch-key?" Jack Vance handed him the required article, which happened to be of the kind which fit all watches. The Sixth Form "sap" was very short-sighted, and proceeded to wind up his timepiece, holding it close to his spectacles throughout the operation. "I can't think how it is," | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049844 | he continued, in his sing-song tone, "I'm always losing my key. I've had two new ones already this term. I always stick them in a place where I think they're sure not to get lost, and then I forget where I put them. Thanks awfully." "What a queer old codger Browse is!" remarked Diggory, as the big fellow moved away; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049845 | "no one would ever think he was so clever." "No," answered Jack Vance. "By-the-bye, did you hear that he had another row with 'Thirsty' last night?" "No; what about?" "Oh, the same thing as before. Some fellows were making a beastly row in Thurston's study, and Browse couldn't work, so he threatened if they weren't quiet he'd report them to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049846 | the doctor. 'Thirsty' came out in an awful wax, and said for two pins he'd knock Browse down; and young Collis, who was standing at the top of the stairs, says he believes he'd have done it if some of the other fellows in the Sixth hadn't come out and interfered." In the course of the afternoon Diggory secured Mugford's | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049847 | copy of Poe's tales, and (sad to relate) spent a good part of that evening's preparation in trying to unravel the secret of the mysterious missive which he had found in the box-room. So intent was he on solving the problem that, instead of going down to supper with the majority of his companions, he remained seated at his desk, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049848 | poring over the experiments which he was making according to directions given in the famous story of "The Gold Bug." "Well, how are you getting on ?" inquired Jack Vance, as the crowd came straggling back from the dining-hall. "Oh, pretty well," answered the other. "The first thing you have to do is to find E; it's the letter which | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049849 | occurs most frequently. Well, in this case V is the letter which comes oftenest--there are fourteen of them--so V is E. Then, when you know what E is, you search for the word 'the.' There are certain to be several 'the's' in the piece; so you look for instances in which the same two letters come before E, or, in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049850 | this case, before V. Well, here it is, G S V, five times; so you are pretty certain that G S V is 'the,' or, in other words, that G is T, S is H, and V is E. That's as far as I've got at present; but I mean to worry out the rest of it to-morrow." While Diggory | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049851 | was holding forth in the big schoolroom on his methods of reading a cipher, a conversation of a very different character, and on a matter of grave importance, was taking place in the study of the school captain. Allingford and John Acton were seated in front of the former's little fireplace talking over matters connected with the football club. Suddenly | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049852 | there was a sound of hurrying feet in the passage; the next instant the door burst open, and in bounced Browse. The two prefects gazed at him for a moment in open-mouthed astonishment; then Acton broke the silence, exclaiming, "Why, Browse, what's the matter?" The "sap" certainly presented an extraordinary appearance. His spectacles were gone; his hair was pasted all | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049853 | over his face, as though he had just come up from a long dive; his clothes were torn, and in a state of the wildest disorder; while the strangest part of all was that from head to foot he seemed soaking wet, drenched through and through with water, which dripped from his garments as he stood. "Why, man alive!" cried | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049854 | Allingford, "what have you been up to?" "It's those blackguards!" gasped Browse, choking with rage, and shaken for once in a way out of his usual drawl; "it's that Thurston and his crew--I know it was!" "But what was? what's the matter?" With some little difficulty the two prefects at length succeeded in extracting from their excited comrade an account | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049855 | of his wrongs; even then such an amount of cross-questioning was necessary that it will be best to make no attempt at a verbatim report, but rather to give the reader a more concise version of the story. From Browse's statement it appeared that just before supper some one had come to his study, saying: "Smeaton wants you in the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049856 | 'lab;' look sharp!" The door had only been opened about a couple of inches, and then closed again. From the few words thus spoken Browse did not recognize the voice; but thinking that his particular friend Smeaton (another tremendous worker) was engaged in some important experiments, and needed his assistance, he hurried away, never dreaming but that the message he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049857 | had received was genuine. In order to reach the laboratory, it was necessary to traverse the box-room and the gymnasium, both of which were in darkness, the lights being turned out by the prefect on duty when the boys assembled for preparation. Across the first of these chambers Browse groped his way in safety. Hardly, however, had he crossed the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049858 | threshold of the second, when he was suddenly seized and held fast by several strong pairs of hands. His indignant expostulations were met with a titter of suppressed laughter; he was roughly forced down upon his knees, and while in this position what seemed like two buckets of cold water were emptied over his devoted head. This having been done, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049859 | he was dragged to his feet, thrust back into the box-room, and the door leading into the gymnasium was slammed to and locked on the inside. From first to last not a word had been spoken, and at the very commencement of the struggle Browse's spectacles had been knocked off. These two circumstances had entirely prevented him from recognizing the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049860 | shadowy figures of his assailants. He made one attempt to force the door open, but finding it securely fastened, had come straight away to the captain's study. "It's that Thurston and some of his gang," he repeated in conclusion; "they did it to pay me out for interfering with their noisy meetings." Allingford and John Acton sprang to their feet. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049861 | The idea that the rowdy element should be so powerful in Ronleigh that a Sixth Form boy could with impunity be seized and drenched with cold water, was not very pleasing to one who was largely responsible for the order of the school, and the captain's face was as black as thunder. "All right!" he exclaimed; "leave this to me. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049862 | Go and change your clothes." The two prefects hurried down the passage. "Wait a minute," said Allingford. "Which is Thurston's study?" Acton knocked at the door; and receiving no answer, pushed it open and looked in. The room was empty. "Come on," cried Allingford; "the 'gym!' They may be there still." They rushed down the stairs, scattering a group of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049863 | small boys who were roasting chestnuts at the gas-jet in the passage, and on through the box-room, but only to find the door on the other side standing wide open, and the gymnasium itself silent and deserted--two empty water-cans, lying in a big pool of wet on the cement floor, being the only remaining traces of the recent outrage. "They're | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049864 | gone," said Acton. "What shall we do?" "We'll find one of them, at all events," replied his companion; and returning once more to the neighbourhood of the studies, he shouted,-- "_Thurston!_" There was a faint "Hullo!" and a moment later a door opened half-way down the passage. "Well, what d'you want?" Allingford walked quickly forward. "Look here," he demanded sternly, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049865 | "where have you been? What have you been doing?" "Doing!" echoed Thurston; "why, I've been sitting here for the last two hours with old Smeaton. I asked him to let me come and work in his study to-night. There's some of this Ovid I can't get on with, and he promised he'd help me out with it if I'd tell | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049866 | him what it was I didn't understand." The captain hesitated a moment, rather nonplussed by this unexpected reply. "I believe you know something about this affair with Browse," he continued. "Who did it?" "Who did what?" demanded Thurston snappishly. "If you mean when he came banging at my study door last night--" "No, I don't mean that," interrupted Allingford. "I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049867 | mean this blackguard's trick that was played on him to-night." "I don't know what you're talking about," retorted Thurston angrily. "Look here, Allingford, I'll thank you not to call me a blackguard for nothing, for I suppose that's what you're driving at. If you don't think I'm speaking the truth, ask Smeaton. I suppose you'll take his word, if you | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049868 | won't take mine." Smeaton, whose veracity it was impossible to doubt, confirmed the last speaker's assertions, and Allingford and Acton were forced to beat a retreat, feeling that they had certainly been worsted in the encounter. "What's to be done?" asked Acton, as they re-entered the captain's study. "I don't know," answered the other, flinging himself into a chair. "The | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049869 | only thing I can see is to report it to the doctor." "Oh, I shouldn't do that; it's more a piece of personal spite than any disorder and breach of rule, like that reading-room affair. I think it's a thing which ought to be put down by the fellows themselves. Who was in Thurston's study last night?" "I don't know. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049870 | It may have been those fellows Gull and Hawley, but you can't accuse them without some evidence; you see what I got just now for tackling Thurston. Ever since the elections there seem to be a lot of fellows bent on bringing the place to the dogs. Thurston's hand and glove with the whole lot of them, and it's hard | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049871 | to say who did this thing to Browse." A report of what had happened was rapidly spreading all over the school. One by one the other prefects dropped in to the captain's study to talk the matter over. Most of them were inclined to agree with Acton in considering it a thing to be taken up by the boys themselves, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049872 | and the discussion was continued till bedtime. "Well, I'll tell you what I think I'd better do," said Allingford, preparing to wish his companions good-night. "I'll report it to the doctor, and ask him not to take any steps in the matter until we've had a chance of inquiring into it ourselves." The story of Browse's mishap, as we have | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049873 | just said, soon passed from mouth to mouth, until it was common property throughout the college. The remarks which the news elicited were often of an entirely opposite nature, according to the character of the boys who made them. Noaks and Mouler laughed aloud, declaring it a rare good joke; but to the credit of the Ronleians of that generation | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049874 | be it said, the majority shook their heads, and muttered, "Beastly shame!" "What'll be done?" was the question asked on all sides. "Will it be reported to the doctor?" "If it is," said "Rats," "we shall lose another half-holiday. Confound those fellows, whoever they are! I should like to see them all jolly well kicked." On the following day the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049875 | first assembly for morning school passed without anything happening, though every one looked rather anxiously towards the head-master's throne as Dr. Denson took his seat. The brazen voice of the bell had just proclaimed the eleven o'clock interval, when the Triple Alliance, hurrying with their companions of the Lower Fourth along the main corridor leading to the schoolroom, found that | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049876 | the passage was nearly blocked by a large crowd of boys standing round the notice-board. "Hullo!" said Diggory, "another rhyme?" This time, however, the placard was in good plain prose, and ran as follows:-- "NOTICE. "A meeting of the whole school will take place directly after dinner in the gymnasium. A full attendance is urgently requested, as the matter for | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049877 | consideration is of great importance. "A. R. ALLINGFORD." "Humph," muttered Fletcher senior to himself, as he turned on his heel after reading the notice, "the fat's in the fire now, and no mistake." . DIGGORY READS THE CIPHER. The gymnasium was filled with a dense crowd of boys; "Rats," Maxton, and some other members of the Lower Fourth were fighting | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049878 | for seats on the parallel bars, and throughout tho whole assembly there was a subdued murmur of interest and expectation. The last gathering of the kind had been a court-martial held some two years previously on a boy suspected of stealing. Old stagers, in a patronizing manner, related what had happened to their younger comrades, adding, "What, weren't you here | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049879 | _then?_ Well, you are a kid!" and forgetting to mention that at the time they themselves were wearing knickerbockers, and doing simple arithmetic in the lowest form. At one end of the room was a big chest containing dumb-bells and single-sticks, and Allingford, mounting on the top of this as the last stragglers from the dining-hall joined the assembly, called | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049880 | for silence. There was no attempt at eloquence or self-assertion in Allingford's remarks; brief they were almost to bluntness, but well suited to the audience to whom they were addressed. It was the old, well-tried captain of Ronleigh who spoke, and the boys of Ronleigh who listened, and the manner in which the words were given and received might have | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049881 | reminded one of a speech of Sir Colin Campbell's in the Indian Mutiny, and the answer of the Highlanders he addressed:-- "Ninety-third, you are my own lads; I rely on you to do yourselves and me credit." "Ay, ay, Sir Colin; ye ken us, and we ken you." "I think you all know," began the captain, "the reason of this | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049882 | meeting being called together. Last night Browse was set on in this room--in the dark, mind you--knocked down, and drenched with cold water. Some fellows may think it a good joke. I don't; I think the fellows who did it were cads and cowards. I reported the matter to the doctor, and he consented to act in accordance with the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049883 | wishes of the prefects, and leave the matter in the hands of the boys themselves rather than inquire into it himself, which would probably only have meant another punishment for the whole school." ("Hear, hear!") "Now, what I want to say is this. I've been here a good many years-- longer than any one, except Oaks and Rowlands and two | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049884 | or three more. I love the place, and I'm proud of it. I'd sooner be captain of Ronleigh than of any other public school you could mention" (cheers); "but I tell you plainly, the place is going down. There's been a good deal too much of this rowdy element showing lately, and it's high time it was put a stop | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049885 | to. "Some of you, I know, have lately taken a dislike to me, and think I don't act rightly." ("No, no!") "If I'm to blame, I'm sorry for it, for I've always tried to do my best. I ask you not to look upon this matter as a personal affair, either of mine or of any of the other prefects, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049886 | but to consider only the welfare of the school. I say again that if Ronleigh is to retain its reputation, and be kept from going to the dogs, it's high time these underhanded bits of foul play like the reading-room row and this attack on Browse were put a stop to; and I beg you all to join in taking | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049887 | measures to prevent anything of the kind occurring again in the future." The speaker concluded his remarks amid a general outburst of applause. "So we will," cried several voices; "three cheers for old Ally!" "In my opinion," began Oaks, as soon as order was restored, "the first thing is to try to find out who did it; surely a fellow | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049888 | can't be set on by three or four others without somebody knowing something about it.-- Haven't you yourself any idea who it was, Browse?" "Well, I can't swear," answered Browse readily. "I couldn't see, because it was dark, and my spectacles were knocked off; but I'm pretty certain it was some of Thurston's lot--Gull, or Hawley, or some of those | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049889 | fellows. They did it because I complained when they kicked up a row and interfered with my work." This reply created a great sensation, and the air was rent with a storm of groans, cheers, and hisses. Oaks, who seemed to have taken upon himself the duties of counsel for the prosecution, held up his hand to procure silence. "Shut | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049890 | up!" he exclaimed; "every one will be heard in time. Browse thinks it might have been Gull, Thurston, or Hawley.--Now, Gull, what have you got to say? Where were you last night?" "In bed, asleep," answered Gull promptly. There was a laugh. "I don't mean that. What we want to know is, what were you doing after 'prep'?" "Well, I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049891 | was about some private business of my own." "What was it?" "I don't see why I should tell you all my private affairs." "Well, in this instance we mean to know; so out with it. What were you doing directly after 'prep' last night?" There was a hush of expectation. Every one thought an important disclosure was about to be | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049892 | made. "All right," answered Gull calmly; "if you must know, I'll tell you. I was in the matron's room, getting her to sew two buttons on my waistcoat." A roar of laughter interrupted the proceedings; the defence had scored heavily. Oaks was for the moment completely nonplussed, and Thurston seized the opportunity of making a counter-attack. He strode forward, and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049893 | mounting the chest addressed the assembly as follows:-- "Gentlemen, however low Ronleigh may have sunk, there is still, I believe, left among us a certain amount of love of fair play, and therefore I ask you to give me a hearing. The saying goes, 'Give a dog a bad name and then hang him.' I'm a dog on which certain | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049894 | people have been good enough to bestow a bad name. I know I've got it, and to tell you the truth I don't much care. All the same, I don't see why I should be hung for a thing which is no fault of mine. You've just heard what Gull's had to say. I can prove that I was in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049895 | Smeaton's study when this thing happened; and I daresay, if Hawley is to be cross-examined, he'll be able to show that he was somewhere else at the time. What I say, however, is this--that it's very unfair and unjust to practically accuse fellows of a thing without having some grounds for so doing. I don't want to brag, but there | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049896 | have been times, as, for instance, at the last Wraxby match" (cheers), "when the school thought well of me" (loud cheers). "Now I'm a black sheep; but there ought to be fair play for black sheep as well as for white ones." ("Hear, hear!") "Allingford said something about underhanded bits of foul play. Well, I, for one, am not afraid | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049897 | to be open and speak my mind. If the place is going to the dogs because of it's being continually in a state of disorder, then the fault lies with the prefects." (Sensation.) "They're the ones who ought to check it, and if they are incompetent, and can't do their duty, it's no excuse for their trying to shift the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049898 | blame on to fellows who are innocent, but who happen to stand in their bad books." The speech had just the effect which Thurston intended it should have. The English schoolboy has always been a zealous champion of "fair play," though sometimes misled in his ideas as to what the term really implies. A vague sense that the prefects were | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000049899 | at fault, and that this inquiry was a blind to cover their shortcomings, spread through the meeting. Oaks was interrupted and prevented from questioning Hawley, and it seemed as though the good influence of Allingford's opening speech would be entirely lost, and that the meeting would bring about a still more hostile attitude on the part of the rank and | 60 | gutenberg |
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