"i tell you that it can be done. what danger is there, if we are only careful not to make a noise? what a miserable coward you are, dobson!"
so said horace elgert. he and dobson were together, and morning school was over. they had met that elgert might unfold his plan for preventing ralph rexworth having any chance of gaining the newlet medal, and also for getting him into disgrace by making it appear that he had been cribbing; and apparently dobson did not much like the plan, and had been making objections which had called forth elgert's angry remonstrance.
"what danger can there be?" the question came again, when dobson did not reply. "why, you have risked more than that when we have left the house at night! you have thought that a lark. and now we have only to go to the head's desk, and then sit in the class-room for an hour or so."
"it will be awfully cold there," shivered dobson.[pg 250] "and just think—stopping for two hours, and the chance all the time that some one will come!"
"rubbish! if it is cold, put on your overcoat. you don't call it cold when you stand for longer than that keeping goal, with an east wind blowing. it is no use trying to make objections. i am determined to try it, and you have just got to help me."
"i don't see how we can do it," grumbled dobson. "i think we had better leave him alone. after all, it don't matter to us if he gets the medal."
"everything matters that advances him. now, look here. after the exam. is over, all the papers are taken to the head, and he puts them in his desk, and sends them to the examiners in the morning. we know that much."
"yes," assented dobson.
"very well. now, the catch of the head's roller desk is broken. i heard him say yesterday that he had forgotten to send for a man to repair it. there the papers will be, with nothing to prevent us from getting hold of rexworth's. that is easy enough. we wait till the place is quiet, and then go to the head's class-room and take what we want. then we go to our own class-room, and have our bicycle lamps to give us light. you know that i can write like rexworth; and even if i did not, no one will know. the head does not examine the papers himself, and the chap he sends them to would not know the difference, even if you scrawled the answers."
[pg 251]
"but what do you want me for?" objected dobson. "we can't both write."
"you sneak! you want me to do it all. why, to keep me company, and to be in it as well as me. besides, i shall want you to read me some answers from grimwade. i have a copy; and i don't mean only to write wrong answers to some questions, but to put in extracts, so that it will look as if he had been using a crib——"
"it will take an awful long time! he takes all day over the papers."
"yes; but he has got to think of the answers, and we shall not have to do anything of the kind. we can copy a lot of what he has written—you reading and i writing. then we just take our set of papers back and put them with the others, and we destroy his, and who is to know a thing about it?"
"i don't like it," protested dobson. "i know that we shall get caught one of these days, and then we shall be expelled, and it will be all your fault."
"then you have just got to like it!" retorted elgert; and dobson burst out furiously—
"oh, have i? think i am going to be ordered about by you, horace elgert! why have i got to like it, pray?"
"because you changed that five-pound note!"
"but you gave it to me," retorted dobson, changing colour, and falling back upon his old plea; and elgert laughed.
[pg 252]
"you prove that, if you can. you are the only one implicated in it."
"you are a jolly mean sneak!" cried his companion; and again elgert laughed, this time rather menacingly.
"i wouldn't talk in that way if i were you, dobson," he said. "it is a bit foolish to quarrel with me. now, don't be silly, but say that you agree."
"i suppose i must," was the sulky reply; "but i tell you i think it risky. besides, all that we have yet done has not harmed rexworth; but it has jolly well hurt us."
"we will be more successful this time. but let us clear off, for that little sneak charlton is watching us, and he may get suspicious if he sees us talking together."
"punch his head!" said dobson. he was brave enough when it came to ill-treating boys weaker than himself. "he is alone; punch his head!"
"no. you forget we should have warren and all his gang down on us, and perhaps kesterway taking the matter to the head. let him go for the time. we will have him over his father yet, and that will be better than giving him a licking."
it was quite true that charlton had seen the two together, and he was indeed wondering what mischief they were plotting. ralph was still a prisoner over his examination papers, for until they were done he was not allowed to leave the class-room; and warren[pg 253] was at the moment away, so that charlton was alone.
he was very anxious for ralph's success, and perhaps that very anxiety made him suspicious of the two boys who were such bitter enemies of his chum. at any rate, charlton determined to keep a very sharp eye upon the movements of elgert and dobson, though he was quite ignorant of any way in which they could harm ralph.
but, in spite of his watching, nothing occurred. the dinner-hour passed and afternoon school began, and all went smoothly; and charlton managed to retrieve the loss which his anxiety had brought to him in the morning. and then, when the bell rang, and the boys filed out, free to do as they liked, until teatime, there ralph joined them, a trifle tired, it is true, but very hopeful, for he felt confident that he had answered every question that had been given to him without making a huge number of mistakes.
a general rush of fourth form boys occurred, and he was surrounded by a throng of eager questioners.
"how did you get on, rexworth? was it very stiff? could you manage it? how many questions did you get through?"
these and a score of kindred questions were asked; and when ralph answered that he thought he had managed all right, and that he had answered every question, a hearty cheer followed.
[pg 254]
"hurrah for rexworth and the fourth!"
dobson and elgert heard it, and the latter laughed quietly, and said, with a sneer upon his handsome face—
"go on; cheer away. you will have something to cheer for presently."
the evening wore away—tea, and preparation, and recess, and finally bed; and after the usual chatter and skylarking when monitors' backs were turned, the boys of marlthorpe college were all snugly in bed, the gas had been turned out in the dormitories, save for one faint glimmer at the end of each room, and silence reigned throughout the old school.
perhaps it was because he was so anxious for ralph's success, perhaps it was that he was thinking of dobson and elgert, or of his poor father away there in that dreary ruin, but somehow charlton could not get to sleep. he lay there thinking, thinking, long after the regular breathing from ralph, and the occasional gurgle and snore from warren, announced that his two chums were fast asleep.
would ralph get the medal? would his father ever get safely away? or, better still, would he ever be proved to be innocent? would——
a stealthy movement caused him to open his eyes. a boy, higher up the dormitory, had got out of bed; and that boy was dobson!
charlton held his breath and felt himself trembling with excitement. elgert and the bully had plotted[pg 255] something, after all, then; and—and—why, dobson was dressing! and now he crept out of the dormitory with careful, noiseless steps!
then charlton, as soon as he was gone, slipped from his bed also. at first he thought of rousing ralph and warren; but he paused. a strange ambition filled his heart. how lovely it would be to do this all by himself—to follow and see what mischief they were doing, and, if it was anything to harm ralph, to frustrate their plot, alone and unaided!
rapidly he slipped on his clothes. at any other time he would have trembled at the audacity of such a deed after hours; but now he was filled only with the one thought of serving ralph, and he neither considered the risk of being discovered, nor the seriousness of matching himself against two such boys as elgert and dobson—for he felt absolutely certain that elgert would also be in this business.
then, in his stockinged feet, he also slipped into the corridor and stood listening. where had dobson gone? how horribly dark it seemed—and how cold and desolate! he stood undecided for a moment; then he heard a stealthy sound—and from the entrance to the fifth he saw elgert come. ah, he had not been mistaken, then! he stepped back and peeped round the dormitory door. elgert was stealing down the stairs, and—yes, there dobson was awaiting him. the two glided on, noiseless as mice; and charlton, his heart thumping so that it seemed as if the two in[pg 256] front must hear it, creeping cautiously in the rear, determined to ascertain what they were going to do.
down, past the fourth class-room, they groped their way, and then to the head's room. the head's room! the room in which the examination papers were kept!
charlton, crouching at the door, watched them as they lit their bicycle lamps and stole to the big desk at the top of the room. then came a slight click and the top was rolled back, and he could see the two bending over the interior, searching for something.
"here we are!" whispered elgert, as he took up a neat little roll of papers. "mind your fingers, silly!"—and he let the top of the desk down with the greatest care. "you see how easy it is."
"best blow out the lamps until we get to the class-room," suggested dobson. "some one might see them. you never know." and elgert, willing enough to take every precaution, complied.
"we will precious soon spoil rexworth's chances now!" he laughed softly; and charlton understood—or thought that he did. they were going to destroy ralph's answers, and they should not do it!
regardless of secrecy or of self, he sprang from the darkness; and, before either of the startled boys could realize what had happened, he had snatched that roll of paper from elgert's grasp.
"you sha'n't have them!" he said aloud. "you want to destroy them, and you shall not have them!"
[pg 257]
"charlton!" cried elgert, in furious rage; and forgetful of all precaution, he struck a savage blow at him, which sent him spinning backwards over a form with a crash.
"keep quiet! you will rouse the whole school!" cried dobson in terror. "hark! i hear some one coming. run—run, i say, or we shall be found here!" and elgert, awakening to the danger of the position, glided away with him, as voices were heard calling and asking what was the matter.
"what shall we do now?" groaned dobson; but his companion answered in a fierce whisper—
"quick—get back to your room and pull off your clothes, as if you had just slipped out of bed. be quick! then come out on to the landing, as if you were only half awake. they are certain to catch him, and we must declare that we know nothing of it. he has the papers in his hand, and it is our word against his, and appearances are upon our side."
dobson nodded, and hastily dragging off his clothes, he sat on the edge of his bed, and called aloud: "who is there?" that roused the others; and he asserted that he had been scared by a noise downstairs. up tumbled warren and ralph and some more, and charlton's bed was seen to be empty.
then the fifth form boys, aroused by elgert, came out on the landing, only to be met by one of the masters, who quietly said that nothing was wrong, and directed them all to go back to bed again.
[pg 258]
nothing wrong! go back to bed! but why was charlton's bed empty? and what did that glimpse of the boy, in the custody of kesterway, the head monitor, mean? ralph looked at warren in dismay. whatever mischief had fred charlton been up to?
