“i know what is the matter with you,” said crawley, replacing the pieces on a backgammon board at the end of the game.
“do you?” replied edwards, turning if possible a shade paler, while his heart palpitated under his sore ribs.
“yes,” continued the other; “you are worrying because you cannot get on with your reading, and the prospect of examination is getting uncomfortably distinct. i hear from mr cookson that you have been mugging lately, just as i have. well, you will not lose much time, and you will find yourself all the clearer for lying fallow a little. and look here, i am a little more forward than you, and if you will come and stay with us in the holidays i will read with you; i think i could help you a bit. my mother would be very glad to see you. or if that can’t be, i’ll come to you. i am sure we could more than make up for any lost time.”
edwards was able to sit up now, and crawley read amusing books, and played games with him whenever he could leave school or pupil-room.
“what a kind chap you are!” said edwards with a broken voice, and with water in his eyes, for he was very weak and nervous; “i—i don’t deserve it.”
“not?” exclaimed crawley. “why, surely i ought to do what i can, when it is my fault that you got hurt. i am most unlucky this term; i get robbed, and am suspected of inventing the story of it to cover my misappropriation of the money; and then i wind up with breaking a fellow’s ribs!”
“no one thinks for a moment that you were not robbed as you say; i am certain of it!” cried edwards.
“i don’t know about that; some of them said they did, and i would give anything to prove that they did me wrong. it will stick in my gizzard a long time, i can tell you.”
edwards buried his face in his hands and fairly sobbed.
“i can bear it no longer,” he cried at last. “you so kind to me and all! i know who robbed you.”
“you!” exclaimed crawley, thinking the boy had gone delirious again.
“yes, i,” repeated edwards. “i did not see it done, and he never told me he had done it, but i know he did, and—and, i profited by the money and never said anything.”
“come, come, edwards, you are ill and weak, and exciting yourself too much. we will talk about this another time.”
“no, no, now; i must speak; it is killing me.”
and then he rapidly told the whole story; how saurin and he had gambled and lost, and the peril they had brought themselves into; and how saurin had gone that fatal saturday afternoon to try and borrow money of gould—all he knew, in short.
“saurin!” said crawley, when he had heard all. “i never thought very much of him, but i had no idea he was so bad as that. but don’t you fret, edwards; you were put in a very queer position, and nobody could say what he would do if he suddenly found it his duty to denounce an intimate friend for a crime which was committed to get out of a scrape in which he himself was implicated. it would be an awful hole to be in! how far have you told me all this in confidence?”
“i leave that quite to you. i do not ask to be spared myself, but if you could be cleared and satisfied without saurin being publicly tried and sent to prison, i should be very grateful.”
“all right! i think i can manage that. and now, don’t you bother yourself; you shall not get into any row, that i promise.”
“oh, crawley, what a good fellow you are!” cried edwards. “i wish i had got killed, instead of only breaking a couple of ribs!”
“and let me in for being tried for manslaughter!” exclaimed crawley, laughing. “thank you for nothing, my boy.”
crawley made up his mind that night what he would do. the next morning he asked robarts, buller, and smith, alias “old algebra,” to come to his room when they came out of school at twelve. then he made the same request of gould, who looked surprised and flustered.
“you will condescend to speak to me at last, then?” he said, sulkily.
“i could not suppose that you wished to hold any communication with a defaulter,” replied crawley, “and i am sure i could not trust myself in the company of any fellow who thought me one. i ask you to come to my room now because i have discovered who took the money, and i want to clear myself in your eyes.”
“all right! i will come if you wish it.”
“thank you very much.”
having thus arranged for his court of inquiry, the next thing was to secure the attendance of the accused. he found saurin talking to a knot of boys, and asked if he could speak to him privately for a moment.
“well, what is up?” saurin asked. “you look as grave as a mute at a funeral.”
“yes,” said crawley, “what i have to say is rather grave. it is about that four pounds twelve shillings you took out of my box.”
“it’s a lie!” cried saurin, turning pale as death.
“and yet the evidence against you is very clear,” said crawley quietly. “do you know a man named josiah slam, a son of the fellow who lives near here? come, i do not wish to prosecute you, unless you force me; i want to give you a chance. robarts, buller, smith, and gould are coming to my room at twelve o’clock to-day, and i mean to take their advice as to what should be done if you will come there too, and meet them.”
“and if i refuse?” said saurin.
“in that case i shall go to dr jolliffe, and put the matter in his hands,” replied crawley.
“well, i do not mind coming to hear what cock-and-bull story you have trumped up,” muttered saurin, turning away. he feared lest an unguarded word should betray him.
his anxiety was terrible. what did crawley know? what was mere conjecture? of course edwards had put him on the track; but had he done so distinctly, or had this suspicion been aroused by his wandering talk when delirious? everything might depend on his exercising calm judgment just now, but his head was in a whirl and he could not collect his wits. should he make a bolt? oh, no! that would be confessing himself guilty. should he defy crawley? that would bring about a trial, in which he might be found guilty. it seemed safest to go to crawley’s room at twelve and hear what he had to say.
so he went. robarts and gould sat on the two chairs with which the room was supplied, buller perched himself on the table, smith on a box—all full of curiosity and expectation. crawley and saurin remained standing. the door was closed and a mat placed against it, to prevent any sudden entry without warning.
“i am not going to beat about the bush,” said crawley. “i accuse saurin there of having come to this house, one saturday when we were all out; of having gone into my room, taken my keys out of the pocket of a coat lying there, opened the cricket and football japanned box, and abstracted four pounds twelve shillings from a purse inside it. then i assert that he put the keys back in the coat-pocket, having first locked the box and put it back in its place, and ran back to his tutor’s house, where he changed and went out to play at football. the motive of this theft was that he had been gambling at slam’s yard, lost all the money he had or could raise; went on playing on credit, lost again, and was threatened with exposure unless he paid up. he had meant to borrow the money he wanted of you, gould, and came to the house with that intention. but as you were not in, he got it the other way.”
“it is all a pack of lies!” cried saurin. “at least about robbing, i mean; for it is true that i lost money playing roulette, and that i meant to borrow of gould, only i squared matters with the man without.”
“what day did you come to apply to me for that loan?” asked gould.
“i don’t know exactly; it was not on a saturday i am not sure that i came at all,” replied saurin, who could not for the life of him help stammering. “it’s all lies; though appearances might be got up against me.”
“they certainly are so already,” said crawley, “or i should not have accused you. of course, if you can prove your innocence, or even if you are convinced that no one can prove your guilt, you will prefer to stand a trial. otherwise you might prefer to pay back the money and leave weston quietly. what do you say?” he added, turning to the others. “would it not be best for the credit of the school?”
“yes, yes,” said robarts; “let us wash our dirty linen at home.”
“but how am i to leave?” asked saurin with a groan.
“i don’t know; tell your guardian the truth if you like, you must manage that. only, if you come back next term i shall lay the whole matter before the head-master. and if you leave, and the money does not come, i shall give information to the police.”
“that’s fair enough,” said buller; “take the chance, saurin, if you are not a fool.” and the others assented.
not one of them had any doubt as to saurin’s guilt: his confusion and equivocation condemned him.
“what a cool fish you were to suggest that crawley might have spent the money himself!” said gould. “you regularly humbugged me.”
“you are assuming a good deal, i think,” said saurin bitterly; “making yourselves accusers, juries, judges, executioners, and all. and i am very much in your power, for if this came to a trial, though i should certainly be found innocent of robbery, yet i cannot deny the gambling and having gone to slam’s yard, and i should be expelled for that. so i suppose i had better agree to your terms. i will not come back, and—what sum did you say you demand as the price of your silence? four pounds ten, or twelve, i think; you shall have it.” and turning on his heel with an attempt at swagger which was not very successful, saurin went out, kicking the mat aside, and banging the door after him.
of course edwards had betrayed him, he said to himself; it was not for nothing that crawley had been constantly with him since his accident. he longed to go to edwards’ room and upbraid him with his treachery, but he durst not trust himself. he was not out of the wood yet; the other three could be trusted, but gould must tattle, and if the story got abroad and reached one of the master’s ears, it would no longer be in crawley’s power to hush it up. and then edwards almost always had some one with him; but if not, and he saw him alone, could he keep his hands off his throat? from the throbbing of his temples when the idea occurred to him he thought it doubtful. no, he must not see him.
“how on earth did you find it out?” cried the others to crawley when saurin’s footstep died away on the staircase.
“i have promised not to name my witnesses unless it is necessary to call them forward,” replied crawley. “i am very much obliged to you for coming here, and i feel that it is awfully bad not to take you into full confidence and give up names. but you see i have passed my word and cannot help myself. there’s one thing i can tell you, buller. saurin was the poacher for whose moonlight excursion you were taken up.”
“by jove!” exclaimed buller. “well, i should have imagined that he might have done that, but not such a dirty business as this.”
“i suppose he felt himself up a regular tree, poor beggar!” said robarts.
“well, gould,” said crawley, “i hope that your doubts as to my story of having been robbed are set at rest.”
“i don’t know that i ever had any,” replied gould rather sullenly; “only when a thing like that happens, and nothing can be found out, one puts it in every possible light. saurin said you were a careless fellow about money matters, and might have mixed up the club money with your own and paid it away without knowing, and then thought you had been robbed. of course one sees now why he put the idea about; but at the time it looked just possible, and fellows discussed it, i amongst them.”
“well, it was not pleasant for me, as you may easily understand,” said crawley. “however, that is all over, and we will say nothing more about it. and now, of course we will all keep our council about this business for some time. it would be breaking faith with saurin if we let a word escape before he has left the school; because, if the doctor heard of it, he would insist on expelling him at any rate.”
“yes; and we had better hold our tongues for our own sakes,” observed robarts. “my father’s a lawyer, and i have heard him talk about something of the same kind. and i have a strong idea that we have just committed a crime, as that chap in the french play talked prose without knowing it.”
“what do you mean?”
“just this, that to make terms with a thief, by which you agree not to prosecute him, is a legal offence called ‘compounding a felony.’”
this notion of robarts, whether right or wrong, had the useful effect of sealing gould’s lips for some time to come. it only wanted a week to the holidays, so the struggle was not so very prolonged.
crawley went to see edwards directly the council-board broke up, and found him nervous and depressed.
“perhaps i had no right to speak,” he said. “it was not for me to tell. i wouldn’t; only you thought yourself under suspicion, and you have been so good to me.”
well, crawley could not but thank him and tell him he was quite right; but he was not able for the life of him to say so in very cordial tones.
“look here!” persisted edwards, noticing this, “tell me honestly; if you had been situated like me, would you have told of him?”
“not to save my life!” blurted out crawley; “i mean,” he added hastily, “i fear that i should not have had the moral courage.”
the week passed, and weston school once more broke up. what story saurin told to sir richard to induce him to take his name off the boards quietly i do not know, but it had the desired effect; and when the boys reassembled for the summer term saurin’s place was known no longer amongst them. the scandal about him soon began to leak out, and the story ran that but for crawley’s extreme generosity towards him he would have now been in penal servitude at portland.
stubbs, too, went away that easter vacation, taking topper with him, and the pair went out to china together, stubbs having lucrative employment in that country. crawley returned, but that was his last term, and soon afterwards he succeeded in getting into woolwich.
