The captain had his private doubts as to the seriousness of the invalid’s case, especially as, of the two, he was the less damaged in yesterday’s fight. However, he had no right to question the matron’s decision, and returned accordingly to report the matter to the doctor.
“Humph!” said the doctor, who also evidently considered it a curious coincidence that Gilks should be taken unwell the very morning when his presence was required in the library; “he had better have come. You say he is to be up after dinner?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then let him know he is to come here at four o’clock, and you, Silk, come too at that hour.”
Silk, who had evidently screwed himself up for the present interview, looked disappointed.
“I should like just to say, sir—” began he, with a glance at Riddell.
But the doctor interrupted.
“Not now, Silk. Go to your class now, and come here at four o’clock.”
“But it’s not about—”
“Do you hear me, sir?” said the doctor, sternly.
Silk went.
The captain was about to follow his example, when it occurred to him he might not have so favourable an opportunity again that day for acting on Bloomfield’s advice respecting Wyndham.
“Can you spare a few minutes, sir?” said he, turning back.
“Yes, what is it?” said the doctor.
“It’s about young Wyndham, sir.”
“Ah! Nothing wrong, I hope. He has seemed a good deal steadier than he was, of late.”
“So he is, sir. But this is about something he did some time ago.”
The doctor settled himself judicially in his chair, and waited for the captain’s report.
“He got into bad company early in the term, sir, and was tempted down into the town without leave, and once let himself be taken to Beamish’s Aquarium.”
The doctor gave a grunt of displeasure, which sounded rather ominous.
“How long ago was this?”
“A few days before the boat-race, sir. It has been weighing on his mind ever since.”
“Did he tell you of it?” asked the doctor.
“No, I found it out accidentally. When I spoke to him about it he admitted it and seemed very sorry.”
“And why did he not come to me himself at once?”
“That’s just it, sir,” said the captain. “I advised him to do it, and he told me he had promised the — the companions with whom he went never to mention the matter to anybody, and this prevented his coming. He even went to them, and begged them to let him off the promise so that he might come and confess to you, but he did not succeed.”
“Did he ask you, then, to come and tell me?”
“No, sir. But he is in constant dread of your hearing about it from any one else, so that I thought it would be the best thing to tell you of it myself.”
The doctor nodded his head.
“He does not know, of course, of your doing this?”
“Oh no, sir.”
“And who were the companions who you say took him to this place?”
Riddell coloured up and felt very uncomfortable.
“Do you mind me not telling you, sir?” he said. “Wyndham only wanted you to know about his part in it. I’ll tell you if you wish,” added he, “but I’d rather not if you do not mind.”
“You need not do so at present,” said the doctor, greatly to the captain’s relief, “but you had better send Wyndham to me.”
“Yes, sir,” said Riddell, turning to go, but lingering for one final word. “I hope, sir — you — that is, if you can — you will take a lenient view of it. Young Wyndham’s very steady now.”
“I must see Wyndham before I can decide,” said the doctor, “but you have acted rightly in the matter — quite rightly.”
The captain went to find Wyndham, hoping for the best, but decidedly anxious.
That young gentleman was engaged in the agonies of Euclid when the school messenger entered, and announced that the doctor wanted to see him at once. His face fell, and his heart beat fast as he heard the summons. It needed not much effort to guess what it all meant. Gilks and Silk had of course been up before the doctor, and the latter had carried out the threat of which Riddell had told him; and now he was summoned to hear his fate!
At the schoolhouse door he found Riddell waiting for him.
“Oh, Riddell, I say!” exclaimed he, in tones of misery, “I’ve to go to the doctor at once. Silk has told about me. I say, do come with me.”
“Silk hasn’t told about you at all,” said the captain; “I’ve reported you myself.”
“You!” cried Wyndham, in tones of mingled amazement and reproach; “oh, why?”
“Wouldn’t you sooner have had me do it than Silk?” asked Riddell.
The boy saw his meaning at once, and as usual flew from one extreme to the other.
“Oh, of course! What a brute I was not to see it. Thanks awfully, old man. What awful grief I should have come to if it hadn’t been for you!”
“I don’t know at all what view the doctor takes of the matter,” said the captain, gravely; “you had better not expect too much.”
Wyndham groaned.
“If only I’m not expelled!” said he. “I suppose you can’t come too?”
“No. The doctor wants to see you alone, I think.”
“Well, here goes. By the way, of course, you didn’t mention the other fellows’ names?” he added.
The manner in which he said this made Riddell feel doubly glad that the doctor had not insisted on his telling.
“No — I didn’t,” he said.
And off went Wyndham, dismally, to the doctor’s study.
It was an anxious morning for the captain. Wyndham had not returned before first school was over, and Riddell felt he could not rest till he knew his fate.
He told Bloomfield of his morning’s proceedings, but even this new friend’s encouragement failed to shake off the suspense that weighed upon him.
Presently when he could wait patiently no longer, it occurred to him Wyndham might possibly have gone back to his study unobserved, and be waiting there for him. So he went across to the schoolhouse to find out.
But nearly all the studies in the schoolhouse, Wyndham’s included, were empty, as they almost always were at this hour of the day during summer; and the captain was about to return, more uncomfortable than ever, to the Big, when a door at the end of the passage opened, and some one called his name.
It was Gilks, who, as he was dressed, had evidently recovered from his indisposition earlier than was expected.
He beckoned as the captain looked round; and Riddell, inwardly wondering when his work as a police-officer would cease, and he would be able to retire again into private life, turned and entered his study.
Gilks shut the door carefully behind him. He had a haggard look about him which may have been the result of his ailment, or may have been caused by mental trouble, but which certainly was not the expression to which the captain had been used.
“I’m to go to the doctor at four?” he asked.
“Yes. He put it off, as you were reported on the sick-list.”
“Of course he thinks I was shamming?”
“I don’t know.”
“I was — and I wasn’t. I couldn’t make out what to do, that was it, so I stayed in bed. Was Silk there?”
“Yes.”
“Did he say anything?”
“No; the doctor told him to come again at four.”
Gilks took one or two uncomfortable turns up and down the room, and then said, “I may as well tell you, it’s no use keeping it back any longer, for it’s sure to come out. I was the fellow who cut the rudder-line. Did you know that?”
“I had heard it.”
“Who told you — Silk?”