That Scholarship Boy Part 4

'What do they want you to do?'

'Haven't I told you? They say I must get the pater to remove Howard from the school at once. And one of the fellows told me as I came home that he overheard Taylor and Curtis say that, if it wasn't pretty soon done, they'd send me to Coventry, and find out some other way to get rid of Howard.'

'I wouldn't care if I was you.'

'Wouldn't you? If you was a boy, you'd know what it was to be sent to Coventry, perhaps, and let me tell you, you wouldn't want a second dose. It's none so pleasant, I can tell you, to have this fellow turn his back, and begin to whistle if you attempt to speak to him. Why, they make it so strict at Torrington's that if the master sends a message to a fellow in Coventry, they fetch a junior to deliver it.

Oh, I know enough to make me hate the thought of it, and so would you.'

'Girls are not so nasty as that,' said Florence, 'but I tell you what you could do if they send you to Coventry--chum up with the new boy. I should think he was a nice fellow.'

But Leonard turned up his nose at the suggestion. 'He isn't much at games,' he said. 'I don't think he ever saw a fives court until he came to Torrington's; and I do like a good game at fives.'

'I'd play by myself then,' said his sister.

'Ah! and see every other fellow pick up his ball and walk out of the court as soon as you appeared. You'd feel like playing then, wouldn't you?' he added.

His sister sighed. She was very fond of Leonard, although he was not very brave, she feared. Still, big lads like Taylor and Curtis could make things very uncomfortable for the younger and weaker lads, like Leonard.

'Now just see if you can't help me out of this hole, Flo,' said the boy, after another pause. 'I told the fellows I'd do something to-night, and I must, you know.'

'Do something!' repeated his sister, 'what do you want to do?'

'I don't want to do anything. The poor beggar might stay at Torrington's for ever if he liked; but you see the others have set their faces against it, and they say I must either make the pater remove him, or else think of another plan to get rid of him. Don't you see, Duffy, I must do one or the other?'

'No, I don't see; and you shan't call me Duffy either, if you mean to help these wretched cads at Torrington's, and I'll never own you for a brother again!' His sister spoke calmly, but with the utmost scorn and contempt in her tones, and then laid her head on the table and burst into tears. 'I'm ashamed of you, I am!' she sobbed through her tears.

Leonard stared at her in silent amazement for a minute or two, and then said slowly, 'You don't know this scholars.h.i.+p boy, do you?'

She shook her head. 'Of course I don't,' she said, as soon as she could speak.

'Then what are you crying for? I'd be ashamed to cry for a fellow I'd never seen; and you a girl too!'

Florence started to her feet as her brother uttered this taunt; and das.h.i.+ng away her tears, with blazing eyes she exclaimed, 'It is not for this strange boy I am crying, but for _you_--that you are as much a cad as Taylor and the rest!' Then, gathering up her books, she marched out of the room with the air of an offended d.u.c.h.ess.

'Ah, you're only a girl!' exclaimed Leonard as she departed; and he broke into a whistle, but it soon ended in a sigh, when the door closed and he was left to himself.

'I wonder what girls are made of,' he said, as he slowly opened his lesson books. 'To think of Duffy flying at me like that! She called me a cad too, nasty little thing! I won't speak to her for a week, when we come in here to lessons. I'll give her a taste of Coventry, and see how she likes it.' And Leonard set himself to master a Latin verb. But before he had conned it three minutes his thoughts had wandered to his sister, and from her to Taylor and the lads at school, who expected him to solve the problem that they had made into a bogey--how to get rid of the scholars.h.i.+p boy, since all their efforts thus far had failed.

Before he got to school the next morning he met half a dozen of his schoolfellows.

'Well, what's the news, Morrison?' asked two or three in a breath.

'You know, of course, Taylor expects you to bring a message from your father about that fellow to-day.'

'Blessed are they that expect nothing, for they shall never be disappointed,' said Leonard in a tantalising tone.

'Well, you can cheek us, of course, little Morrison, but it won't do for Taylor, let me tell you. He don't mean to stand any nonsense. That fellow's got to go. We don't mean to have any board school boys here.

Torrington's was founded for gentlemen, and we don't mean to have cads here. We've made up our minds about it, and the sooner your father and that precious Council understand this the better.'

'Did Taylor tell you to say all that?' said Morrison sneeringly, 'How long have you been his f.a.g?' he asked of the lad who had spoken.

'Oh, well, f.a.g or no f.a.g, you'll know it when Taylor comes.' And, as if in verification of his words, Taylor called to them the next minute to wait for him.

'We're late now,' shouted Leonard back, and then he started off at a sharp pace towards the school, for he had not quite made up his mind yet what he should tell Taylor, by way of excuse for not speaking to his father, and so he did not want to meet him just now.

He could not help noticing, as he ran, that none of the rest attempted to join him, but waited at the corner of the road they had been crossing for Taylor to come up.

'So Morrison has skulked off,' he said, as soon as he joined them.

'I believe he wanted to get out of your way,' said one.

'I shouldn't wonder,' said the bigger lad; 'but he need not think he's going to do it. I tell you that I've been ferreting out things a bit, and I know now that it was Dr. Morrison that persuaded the County Council to send that fellow to Torrington's, and so he must and shall take him away, and that pretty soon too, and I mean to tell Morrison that.'

'How are you going to do it?' asked one.

'Oh, through Morrison junior, of course. There isn't much s.p.u.n.k about him, and he'll soon cry Peccavi! when we put the screw on.'

'What will you do--how will you do it?' asked one.

'Send him to Coventry as we did the other,' was the prompt reply.

'Oh, that be bothered; we can't be worried with two there at once. You must think of something else.'

'Bless you, the threat of it will be enough for little Morrison. He'll give in when he hears the mystic word Coventry!'

'You'll give him another chance it he hasn't brought the message?'

'Well, I shall hear what he's got to say first. Now look alive, there's the last bell, and we shall all get an imposition instead of a pleasant talk with little Morrison, if we don't get inside that gate.'

As he spoke the heavy clang of the school gate was heard, and the boys looked at each other as Taylor e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, 'Dash it all! they haven't rung that last bell two minutes, and that's the regulation time.' They propped their backs against the wall and rested after their run, for the gate would not be opened again until prayers were over in school, and then their names would be taken as they went in, and an extra lesson would be exacted from them in the dinner hour.

'Don't let little Morrison get off without seeing me in the afternoon,' said Taylor. 'I sha'n't be able to nail him in the dinner hour, but it will give me a bit more time to think of some other plan.'

'It's a beastly shame they ever sent that scholars.h.i.+p boy to Torrington's!' said another lad, as though he did not like the task of hunting him out.

'Oh, well, he's here, and we must get him out,' said Taylor, as though he rather liked the hunt. Just then the gate opened, and the lads filed in. Nearly a dozen were late from the whole school; and each as he pa.s.sed was asked if he had brought a note to excuse this breach of the rule, and then they pa.s.sed on to their different cla.s.s-rooms instead of going to the hall for prayers.

The being late and consequent imposition of an extra lesson did not improve Taylor's temper, and when he met Leonard at the close of afternoon school he was in a towering rage.

'Now, then, Morrison, out with it! What message has your father sent to the school for his abominable behaviour--what has he to say for himself?'

Leonard looked a little scared at the abruptness and tone of this question, and he answered very quietly, 'My father was busy last night, and I could not speak to him about it.'

'Busy, was he? Well, it won't be good for you if he's busy to-night, let me tell you, for the school don't mean to wait any longer, and if that fellow isn't soon removed, you shall both go. Do you hear, little Morrison, we mean to clear the school of all vermin at once?'

'Why didn't you tell him to take himself off?' said one, when Taylor had walked away. 'This is getting a bit too much. You stand up for yourself and your father, if he comes any more of that bullying. What right has he to say who shall come to Torrington's? If he had spoken of my father like that, he should have had a black eye, if he killed me for it afterwards!' added his friend.

Leonard sighed, 'You don't know Taylor as well as I do,' he said. 'He isn't a bad sort of fellow, if you let him have his own way.'