“Oh, not at all,” said Riddell, dreading as he always did this sort of talk. “But, I say, what do you think ought to be done?”
“I think we’d better wait, as you say, till they’ve been to Paddy. Then if nothing has come out, you ought to see Gilks.”
“I think so, but I wish you’d be there too. As captain of the clubs, you’ve really more to do with it than I have.”
“You’re captain of the school, though,” said Bloomfield, “but I’ll be there too, if you like.”
“Thanks,” said Riddell.
And the two walked on discussing the situation, and drifting from it into other topics in so natural a way that it occurred to neither of them at the time to wonder how they two, of all boys, should have so much in common.
“I shall be awfully glad when it’s all cleared up,” said Riddell.
“So shall I. If it is cleared up the credit of it will belong to you, I say.”
“Not much credit in getting a fellow expelled,” said Riddell.
“Anyhow, it was to your credit sticking by young Wyndham as you did.”
“I was going to report him for it, though, the very day the matter was explained.”
“Well, all the more credit for making up your mind to an unpleasant duty like that when you might have shirked it.”
The bell for chapel began to ring at this point.
“There goes the bell,” said Bloomfield. “I say, how should you like to ask me to breakfast with you? I’d ask you to my room, only our fellows would be so inquisitive.”
Riddell jumped at the hint with the utmost delight, and to all the marvels of that wonderful term was added this other, of the two Willoughby captains breakfasting tête-à-tête, partaking of coffee out of the same pot and toast cut off the same loaf.
They talked far more than they ate or drank. It was more like the talk of two friends who had just met after a long separation, than of two schoolfellows who had sat shoulder to shoulder in the same class-room for weeks. Bloomfield confided all his troubles, and failures, and disappointments, and Riddell confessed his mistakes, and discouragements, and anxieties. And the Parrett’s captain marvelled to think how he could have gone on all this term without finding out what a much finer fellow the captain of the school was than himself. And Riddell reproached himself inwardly for never having made more serious efforts to secure the friendship of this honest, kind-hearted athlete, and gradually these secret thoughts oozed out in words.
Bloomfield, as was only natural and only right, took to himself most of the blame, although Riddell chivalrously insisted on claiming as much as ever he could. And when at last this wonderful meal ended, a revolution had taken place in Willoughby which the unsuspecting school, as it breakfasted elsewhere, little dreamed of.
“Upon my honour we have been fools,” said Bloomfield: “that is, I have. But we’ll astonish the fellows soon, I fancy. Do you know I’ve a good mind to break bounds or have a fight with some one just to make you give me an impot!”
“As long as you don’t do anything which calls for personal chastisement,” said the captain, laughing, “I’ll promise to oblige you.”
“I say,” said Bloomfield, as the bell for first school was beginning to ring, “I’m glad we — that is I — have come to our senses before old Wyndham comes down. His young brother has persuaded him to come and umpire for the school in the Templeton match.”
Riddell’s face became troubled.
“I hope young Wyndham may be here himself. You know, Silk threatened that unless I withdrew the names he would tell the doctor about that affair of Beamish’s and get Wyndham expelled to spite me.”
Bloomfield laughed.
“Not he. It’s all brag, depend on it. But why on earth doesn’t the young ’un go and make a clean breast to the doctor, before he gets to know of it any other way?”
“That’s just the worst of it. They made him promise he wouldn’t say a word about it to any one, and he’s such an honest young beggar that even though Silk tells of him, he won’t tell of Silk.”
“That’s awkward,” said Bloomfield, musing. “Did he tell you about it, then?”
“No. His mouth was shut, you see. If I hadn’t found out about it from Parson and Telson, who saw the three of them coming out, I shouldn’t have known it till now.”
Bloomfield’s face brightened.
“Then you found it out quite independently?” asked he.
“To be sure.”
“All right. Then the best thing you can do is to report him for it at once.”
“What?” exclaimed Riddell, aghast, “report him?”
“Yes. And then you can go to Paddy and tell him all about it, and explain how he was led into it, and he’s sure not to be very down on it.”
“Upon my word,” said Riddell, struck with the idea, “I do believe you are right. It’s the very best thing I could do. What a donkey I was never to think of it before.”
So it was decided that young Wyndham was forthwith to be reported for his transgression, and as the time had now arrived when all the school but Gilks and Silk were due in class, the two captains hurried off to their places, each feeling that he had discovered a friend; and in that friend a hope for Willoughby, of which he had scarcely even dreamed till now.
Chapter Thirty Four
A Busy Day for the Doctor
Riddell had not been many minutes in class before a message came from the doctor summoning him to the library.
On his arrival there he found, to his surprise, Silk standing alone in the middle of the room, while the doctor was quietly writing at his table.
“Riddell,” said the doctor, as the captain entered, “you reported two boys to me. Only one is here.”
“I told Gilks he was to be here at nine o’clock, sir,” said the captain.
“You had better go and see why he is not here.”
Riddell obeyed, and found on inquiry at the schoolhouse that Gilks was on the sick-list, and had obtained leave from the matron to remain in bed till after dinner.
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.”