The Jester of St. Timothy's Part 7

"Oh, you'll see."

Irving closed the door of his room quietly. "We'll see, will we?" he muttered, pacing back and forth. "Yes, I guess some one will see."

CHAPTER IV

THE BAITING OF A MASTER

The room in which the Sixth Form a.s.sembled for the lesson in Geometry was on the top floor of the Study building; the windows overlooked the pond behind the Gymnasium. The teacher's desk was on a platform in the corner; a blackboard extended along two walls; and there were steps beneath the blackboard on which the students stood to make their demonstrations.

Irving arrived a minute before the hour and found his cla.s.s already a.s.sembled-a suspicious circ.u.mstance. There was, too, he felt, an air of subdued, joyous expectancy. He took his seat and, adjusting his spectacles, peered round the room; his eyesight was very bad, and he had, moreover, like so many bookworms, never trained his faculty of observation.

He read the roll of the cla.s.s; every boy was there.

"Scarborough, you may go to the blackboard and demonstrate the Fifth Theorem; Dennison, you the Sixth; Westby, you the Eighth. The rest of you will solve at your seats this problem."

He mounted to the blackboard himself and wrote out the question. While he had his back turned, he heard some whispering; he looked over his shoulder. Westby was lingering in his seat and had obviously been holding communication with his neighbor.

"Westby,"-Irving's voice was sharp,-"were you trying to get help at the last moment?"

"I was not." Westby's answer was prompt.

"Then don't delay any longer, please; go to the blackboard at once."

"Yes, sir."

Westby moved to the blackboard on the side of the room-the one at right angles to that on which Irving and Scarborough were at work.

Irving finished his writing, dusted the chalk from his fingers, and returned to his seat. The boys before him were now bent industriously over their tablets; Scarborough, Westby, and Dennison were drawing figures on the blackboard, using the long pointers for rulers and making beautiful circles by means of chalk attached to pieces of string. A glance at Westby showed that youth apparently intent upon solving the problem a.s.signed him and at work upon it intelligently. Irving began to feel serene; he proceeded to correct the algebra exercises of the Fourth Form, which he had received the hour before.

A sudden t.i.tter from some one down in front, hastily suppressed and transformed into a cough, caused him to look up. Morrill, with his mouth hidden behind his hand, was glancing off toward Westby, and Irving followed the direction of the glance.

Westby had completed his geometrical figures and was now engaged in labeling them with letters. But instead of employing the usual geometrical symbols A, B, C, and so on, he was skipping about through the alphabet, and Irving immediately perceived that he was not choosing letters at random. Irving observed that the initials of his own name, I, C, U, formed, as it were, the corner-stone of the geometrical edifice.

At that moment Westby coughed-an unnatural cough. And instantly a miracle happened; every single wooden eraser-there were half a dozen of them-leaped from its place on the shelf beneath the blackboard and tumbled clattering down the steps to the floor. At the same instant Westby flung up both arms, tottered on the topmost step, and succeeded in regaining his poise with apparently great difficulty.

The cla.s.s giggled.

"Mr. Upton, sir! Mr. Upton, sir!" cried Westby excitedly. "Did you feel the earthquake? It was very noticeable on this side of the room. Do you think it's safe for us to stay indoors, sir? There may be another shock!"

"Westby," Irving's voice had a nervous thrill that for the moment quieted the laughter, "did you cause those erasers to be pulled down?"

"Did I cause them to be pulled down? I don't understand, sir. How could I, sir? Six of them all at once!"

"Bring me one of those erasers, please."

Westby stooped; there was a sound of snapping string. Then he came forward and presented the eraser.

"You tied string to all these erasers, did you?" Irving examined the fragment that still clung to the object. "And then arranged to have them pulled down?"

"You see how short that string is, sir; n.o.body could have reached it to pull it. Didn't you feel the earthquake, sir? Didn't you see how it almost threw me off my feet? Really, I don't believe it's quite safe to stay here-"

"You may be right; I shouldn't wonder at all if there was a second shock coming to you soon," said Irving, and the subdued chuckle that went round the cla.s.s told him he had scored. "You may now demonstrate to the cla.s.s the Theorem a.s.signed you."

"Yes, sir." Westby turned and took up the pointer.

"We have here," he began, "the two triangles I C U and J A Y-with the angle I C U of the one equal to the angle J A Y of the other." The cla.s.s t.i.ttered; Westby went on glibly, bending the lath-like pointer between his hands: "Let us now erect the angle K I D, equal to the angle I C U; then the angle K I D will also be equal to the angle J A Y-things equal to the same thing are equal to each other."

Westby stopped to turn a surprised, questioning look upon the snickering cla.s.s.

"Yes, that will do for that demonstration," said Irving. He rose from his seat; his lips were trembling, and the laughter of the cla.s.s ceased.

"You may leave the room-for your insolence-at once!"

He had meant to be dignified and calm, but his anger had rushed to the surface, and his words came in a voice that suggested he was on the verge of tears.

"I beg your pardon, sir, but I don't think I quite understand," said Westby suavely.

"You understand well enough. I ask you to leave the room."

"I'm afraid, Mr. Upton, that my little pleasantries-usually considered harmless-do not commend themselves to you. But you hurt my feelings very much, sir, when you apply such a harsh word as insolence to my whimsical humor-"

"I'll hold no argument with you," cried Irving; in his excitement his voice rose thin and thrill. "Leave the room at once."

Westby laid the pointer and the chalk on the shelf, blew the dust from his fingers, and walked towards his seat. Irving took a step forward; his face was white.

"What do you mean!-What do you mean! I told you to leave the room."

Westby faced him with composure through which showed a sneer; for the first time the boy was displaying contempt; hitherto his att.i.tude had been jocose and cajoling.

"I was going for my cap," he said, and his eyes flashed scornfully.

Then, regardless of the master's look, he continued past the row of his cla.s.smates, took up his cap, and retraced his steps towards the door.

Irving stood watching him, with lips compressed in a stern line; the line thinned even more when he saw Westby bestow on his friends a droll, drooping wink of the left eyelid.

And then, while all the cla.s.s sat in silence, Westby did an audacious thing-a thing that set every one except Irving off into a joyous t.i.tter.

He went out of the door doing the sailor's hornpipe,-right hand on stomach, left hand on back, left hand on stomach, right hand on back, and taking little skips as he alternated the position. And so, skipping merrily, he disappeared down the corridor.

Irving returned to his platform. His hands were trembling, and he felt weak. When he spoke, he hardly knew his own voice. But he struggled to control it, and said,-

"Scarborough, please go to the board and demonstrate your theorem."

There was no more disorder in cla.s.s that day; in fact, after Westby's disappearance the boys were exceptionally well behaved. Slowly Irving recovered his composure, yet the ordeal left him feeling as if he wanted to shut himself up in his room and lie down. He knew that he had lost command of his temper; he regretted the manner in which he had stormed at Westby; but he thought nevertheless that the treatment had been effective and therefore not entirely to be deplored. The boys had thought him soft; he had shown them that he was not; and he determined that from this time forth he would bear down upon them hard. If by showing them amiability and kindliness he had failed to win their respect, he would now compel it by ferocity. He would henceforth show no quarter to any malefactor.

Walking up to his room, he fell in with Barclay, who was also returning from a cla.s.s.

"What is the extreme penalty one can inflict on a boy who misbehaves?"