Haviland's Chum Part 8

The latter chuckled, for he knew that not one of them could get any nearer to him than he chose, when it came to running. He sprang down into the road again, quickly shovelled up a double handful of stones, and loped on. Then he turned, just as the pursuers came within easy range, and opened fire again. It was too much. With dire threats they beat a retreat. They would get hold of him again sooner or later, they declared, and that time he would not get off at any price. At all of which the Zulu boy chuckled and laughed, hurling abusive epithets at them in his quaint English.

The while poor Smithson, in the grasp of the big fellow who custodied him, was having a bad time, in the shape of a slight forestalment of what he might expect when the others returned. But for him, too, came relief--rescue, and it came in the shape of a couple of prefects who appeared in sight, sauntering along the field-path towards them.

"You'd better let me go," he said, "or I'll call out to Street and Cluer."

The other saw the force of this, and, with a threat and a sly cuff, acted upon it, and slunk away to give the alarm to the rest. Half an hour later Smithson and Anthony were forgathering under a hedge, talking over their escape.

"Well, you are no end of a brick, Cetchy," said the former. "Why, they'll make you c.o.c.k chief of your tribe one of these days, I should think."

"Ha--ha--ha!" chuckled the other. "Jarnley hurt more'n we hurt. All of 'em hurt. Ha--ha--ha!"

"Well, you got me out of it with those beasts. I say, Cetchy, old chap, I'm expecting a hamper next week, and won't we have a blow out then!" he added, in a burst of grat.i.tude and admiration.

"Hamper? What's that?"

"Why, a basket of tuck. Grub, you know, from home. No end of good things."

"Ha! All right," said the other with a jolly laugh.

That day Haviland was making the most of his time and his solitary ramble. His collecting boxes were fairly well filled; among other specimens he had hit upon a gra.s.shopper warbler's nest, whose existence he suspected, containing five eggs, beautifully fresh and thus easily blown, likewise a sedge-warbler's, hung cuplike, among the bulrushes of a reedy pond. The spoils of two wheatears, extracted with some difficulty from a deep burrow on the slope of Sidbury Down, had also fallen to his lot, and now, stretched on the springy turf on the summit of that eminence, he was enjoying a well-earned rest, thoroughly contented with himself and all the world. And what a view lay outstretched beneath and around--a fair, rolling champaign, green meadow and darker wood--here and there the shining surface of a pond: farm buildings too, picturesque with their red roofs and yellow corn-stacks, nestling among hanging elms noisy with the cawing of restless rooks, and the shrill whimsical chatter of jackdaws. The bark of a sheepdog, and the glad melodious shout of the cuckoo here and there, were borne upward on the still air--and far away over this beautiful landscape the brown high-pitched roofs of Saint Kirwin's, conveying a sort of monastic suggestion in its surroundings of field and wood.

Haviland had been making the most of his day--therefore this was his fourth expedition, and it was now late afternoon. His watch marked ten minutes past five, and chapel was at six. There was plenty of time, but he thought he would take it easy going back. So, having allowed himself another five minutes' rest, he took a final look around, and started to come down.

He had nearly reached the bottom of the slope when he stopped short, with an exclamation of unbounded amazement and unmistakable dismay. He stood listening, motionless, intent. Only the sound of a bell, pealing out with startling plainness through the sleepy afternoon air. Great heavens! It was the chapel bell at Saint Kirwin's.

No. It couldn't be! Why, it wasn't nearly time. Chapel was at six-- not half-past five. Eagerly, almost convulsively, he jerked forth his watch. Still the hands marked ten minutes past five.

He groaned aloud. The game was up. Not by any possibility could he now be in time for chapel. The bell always rang for a quarter of an hour, and he knew--none better--that exactly double that period of time was required to cover the distance between where he stood and the school gates, and that at a sharp run all the way. By a wellnigh superhuman effort it might possibly be done in twenty-five minutes, but not one second less, and here he was with something under a quarter of an hour to do it in. He was in despair.

For being late for chapel was one of the most heinous offences he could commit. The only chance for him was if for any reason the Doctor should happen to be absent himself. In that event the best he could expect was a stiff imposition from the master of the week. Should however the Head be there, as was nearly always the case--why then it would mean certain suspension for him at any rate.

He glared at the offending watch, and shook it savagely. It ticked feebly for a few seconds, then hopelessly stopped once more. A pretty trick it had played him, and he felt inclined to hurl it into the first pond he should pa.s.s, as he sped along at a hard steady run: for every minute he was late would, if possible, render his case worse.

CHAPTER NINE.

DISASTER.

Saint Kirwin's boasted a really beautiful chapel, large, lofty, rich in stained gla.s.s and abundant sculpture of first-rate design and execution.

The services, which were fully choral, were rendered by an excellent choir drawn from the school, and on Sundays and on certain saints' days its performance would have done credit even to the average cathedral.

The structure was in shape a parallelogram, the seats running in long rows, tier upon tier the whole length, certain stalls, however, being returned against the west wall on either side of the entrance. The princ.i.p.al of these was that of the headmaster, who thus had the whole a.s.semblage under his view. And his lynx gaze was quick to descry any irregularity, and woe indeed to the prefect in whose row such should occur, and still greater woe to the delinquent or delinquents.

We have said that Dr Bowen cut an imposing figure as he entered the big schoolroom in cap and gown amid an awed silence, but he looked, if possible, more imposing still in chapel, in his snowy voluminous surplice and great scarlet hood, as, preceded by a verger, he made his way along the aisle to read the Lessons from the great eagle lectern which stood in the middle of the choir; indeed, so majestic was his gait and bearing on these occasions as to be the source of a good deal of surrept.i.tious fun on the part of the more satirically minded, among whom, needless to say, was our friend Haviland.

Now the latter, on this ill-fated afternoon, was standing outside the door, striving to recover breath after the length and severity of his run. If only he could enter and reach his place unseen by the Doctor, it would be all right. The master of the week--in this case Mr Williams--his own dormitory master, a good-natured and genial athlete, would give him an imposition, as in duty bound, but would almost certainly not report him at head-quarters, which he was not strictly bound to do. But how on earth could he accomplish any such entrance seeing that the Doctor's stall was next to the door, and commanded everything that went on, as we have said? And then there occurred to him a desperate scheme, one which spoke much for his readiness and resource, and on that account alone deserved to succeed. What if he were to seize the opportunity when the Doctor should descend from his stall, and, the moment his back was turned, slip in and walk close behind him all the way to the lectern. Arrived there, the attention of the Great Panjandrum would be momentarily diverted while turning to ascend the steps, and he could slip into his seat, which, luckily, stood there hard by. The chance was a desperate one indeed, but it was his only one. He would risk it.

Would the chanting never cease? Haviland's heart thumped, and a mist seemed to come before his gaze. Ah, now for it! The voices were tailing off into an Amen; the organ stopped with a final snarl, then silence, only relieved by a rustling sound and that of footsteps on the stone floor. Now was his time.

The door, fortunately, was not quite closed, and so could be opened noiselessly. Now it was done, and Haviland was within the chapel, his rubber-soled shoes making no noise as he stole along, conscious of a confused sea of faces; and, indeed, that progress seemed to his excited brain like hours instead of minutes, and the great scarlet hood adorning the Doctor's back seemed like a huge red-hot furnace before his eyes.

This strange procession had reached the lectern. Haviland felt safe.

He had calculated his move to a nicety, and in a fraction of a second would have gained his place. But he had reckoned without the consummate shrewdness, which was the result of long experience, of the headmaster of Saint Kirwin's.

For the look of surprise, of interest, on the rows of faces on either side of him as he paced up the aisle had not escaped that potentate, but he was not going to impair the majestic dignity of his march by turning then. When he had gained his objective he did just half turn, and in the momentary compression of the lips and that one look on the Doctor's face Haviland knew that his fate was sealed. To many there who had witnessed the episode, and there were few who had not, it seemed that there was a menacing growl in the sonorous voice rolling out the splendid old Scriptural English.

"Well, Haviland, what have you got to say for yourself?" said Mr Williams, when our friend went to report himself afterwards.

"My watch stopped, sir. I thought I had plenty of time, and then heard the bell begin when I was just coming off Sidebury Down. Even then I tried to do it, but it was impossible."

"Well, I can't help that. You'll have to do four hundred lines,"

answered Mr Williams, fully intending to let him off half of them.

"One of my prefects, too," he added, half quizzically, half with a mock aggrieved air.

"Very sorry, sir."

The imposition was really less than he had expected. If only the matter were to rest there, he thought.

"I say, Haviland," subsequently remarked Laughton in hall. "You're a cool customer, marching in behind Nick in that stately manner. Did you think he wouldn't see you?"

"Yes. It was the only chance, and I took it. He wouldn't have, either, if all those a.s.ses hadn't given, the show away by gaping like so many idiots, confound them."

"What's Williams given you?"

"Four hundred. I believe I'll try and get him to let me off one. He hasn't gated me either. He's a good sort, is Williams. What do you think, Laughton? Think Nick'll take the thing any further? The old brute looked vicious, and he perfectly hates me. I don't know why."

Laughton wouldn't commit himself to an opinion, and the general feeling at the prefects' table was about evenly divided as to whether the Doctor would take it up or not.

"If you could only have seen yourself, Haviland!" cut in Cluer, another prefect. "It was enough to kill a cat, I swear it was. It looked for all the world as if you and Nick were trying which could crowd on the most side." And he spluttered over the recollection.

"Jolly good fun for you, Cluer, no doubt," said Medlicott, "and for all of us, but it's beastly rough on Haviland, remember."

"Rather, if Nick's in one of his rotten moods," said Laughton. "But let's hope he won't be."

Alas for any such hopes! On the way out of hall the fatal summons came: "Haviland to go to the Doctor's study after prep, bell."

"All up!" groaned the implicated one.

When, at the appointed time, Haviland entered the dread presence, there was no doubt but that the headmaster was "in one of his rotten moods,"

as Laughton had so graphically put it. Seated there at his study table, his face wore a very thundercloud of sternness, as he curtly invited the other to make his explanation. This was exactly the same as that offered to Mr Williams, but here it was received with a wrathful grunt--and then in his most magisterial manner the Doctor proceeded to deliver himself.

"You have been guilty of a double breach of rules, in that you were absent from calling-over--for a part of which, by virtue of your office, you were personally responsible--and you were late for chapel. It is no excuse to say that your watch stopped; if that were any valid reason, why then half the school might stay away from calling-over, and, indeed, we might as well do away with calling-over altogether, or any other rule. For a prefect to break the rules, which it is his bounden duty to help in enforcing--to do which, indeed, is the very reason of his official existence--has always been, in my eyes, a ten times greater offence than the same conduct on the part of a junior.

"Now, over and above this double breach of the rules you have been guilty of two further and very serious offences. You have disturbed the decorum and dignity of divine service by entering the chapel in the way you did, and you practised deceit in making that entrance in such manner that you hoped it would escape my observation. Let me tell you that nothing escapes my observation--"