Dr. Jolliffe's Boys Part 17

"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 p.a.w.ning 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 a.s.sociation 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 a.s.sembled to transact business. They learned what funds were in hand, what subscriptions had been paid and what were in arrear, also the expenditure for b.a.l.l.s, 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 a.s.semblages 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 j.a.panned 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sed, and he saw his clothes strewn about over a couple of chairs and the j.a.panned box standing in a corner by his bureau. Saurin pa.s.sed 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 repa.s.sed 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 rea.s.sured; 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 a.s.sembled 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 j.a.panned 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 princ.i.p.al 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 e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns, 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 princ.i.p.al 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 gra.s.s 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."