Glyn Severn's Schooldays Part 45

"Yes," said the Doctor slowly. "He was the late Prince's executor and Singh's guardian."

"Yes, sir; and Singh was very eager to have it--oh, months and months before we came over here to school, and my father used to smile at him and tell him that he had far better not have it until he had grown older, and asked him why he who was such a boy yet should want such a rich ornament, and told him it was vanity. But Singh said it wasn't that; it was because the people had been used to see his father wear it, and that now he was dead and he had become Maharajah they would think more of him and look up to him if he wore the belt himself. You see, sir, Singh told me it was like being crowned."

"I see," said the Doctor gravely, and he kept his eyes fixed upon the young speaker. "Go on."

"Well, sir, father always put him off, and Singh didn't like it, and asked for it again and again; but my father would never let him have it till we were coming slowly over here to England. We stopped for a month in Ceylon, and when we sailed again to come here, one day Singh asked father again to let him have it, so that he could wear the belt as soon as we reached England. And then father said he should have it if he would make a promise not to wear it unless he had to appear before the Queen. Then he was to put it away again, and not make a parade of himself in a country where the greatest people in the land were always dressed in the plainest way."

"Your father spoke wisely and well, my boy," said the Doctor gravely.

"Great men do not depend upon show, but upon the jewels of worth and wisdom with which they have adorned themselves in their careers. Well, I repeat I am very glad you have come. Go on."

"Yes, sir," said Glyn, clearing his throat. "Singh promised father that he would do exactly as he was told, and the next day my father told me to try and keep Singh to his word. He said it would be very absurd now that we were going among strangers and a lot of boys of our own ages if Singh were tempted to make a show of the royal belt. `You be watchful,'

he said, `and help him when he seems weak, for he has naturally a good deal of Eastern vanity and pride in him.'"

"Quite true," said the Doctor softly; "but he has improved wonderfully since he has been here."

"Yes, sir; but every now and then he has bad fits, and has wanted to show off; but I was always able to stop him. Then, you see, sir--"

Glyn broke down, and as he met the Doctor's steady gaze he seemed to make effort after effort to proceed, but in vain.

"I told you, my boy," said the Doctor encouragingly, "to speak to me as if I were your father."

"Yes, sir, I know," cried Glyn pa.s.sionately, "and I want to speak out plainly and clearly, but it won't come."

"Yes," said the Doctor gravely; "it will, my boy. Go on to the end."

"Yes, sir," cried Glyn. "Well, sir, there has been all this trouble about the belt when it was missed out of Singh's box."

The Doctor bowed his head.

"I seem to have been able to think of nothing else, and I couldn't do my lessons--I could hardly eat my meals--and at night I couldn't sleep for thinking about the belt and what my father would say about it being lost."

The Doctor bowed his head again very slowly and solemnly, and fixed his eyes once more upon Glyn's flushed face.

"You see, sir, my father said so much to me about Singh being as it were in my charge, and told me how he trusted in my example, and in me being ready to give Singh a sensible word whenever he was disposed to do anything not becoming to an English lad."

"Exactly, my boy," said the Doctor. "Your father is a worthy trustee of this young ward, and it will be a terrible shock to him when he hears of this--er--er--accident and the loss."

"Yes, sir, for you see, as he is the old Maharajah's executor, the royal belt was in his care till Singh is old enough to be his own master; and father will feel that he is to blame for giving way and letting Singh have it so soon."

"Exactly," said the Doctor; "but, my boy, it seems to me that you are rather wandering away from your purpose, and are not telling me everything exactly as I should wish."

"It's because, sir, it won't come; something seems to stop me. But I am trying, sir."

"Well, I believe you, my boy," said the Doctor. "Go on."

"Yes, sir. Well, I told you that I could hardly eat or sleep for thinking about it."

The Doctor sighed.

"And it seemed so horrid, sir, that so many people should be suspected for what one person alone must have done."

"Yes," said the Doctor, fixing him with his eyes again; and then as he met the boy's frank, unblenching eyes his brow began to wear a curious look of perplexity, and he disjoined the tips of his fingers, picked up his quill-pen, and began slowly to litter the table-top by stripping off the plume.

"Well, sir," continued Glyn, speaking very hurriedly now, "I have always been dreaming about it, and waking up with starts, sir, fancying I heard some one creeping into the room to get to Singh's box; and one night it was so real that I seemed to hear some one go to Singh's bedside, take out the keys from his pocket, crawl to his box, unlock it, and lift the lid, and then shut it and lock it again. And I lay there, sir, with my hands and face wet with perspiration, wanting to call out to Singh; but I couldn't stir. But when all was silent again I crept out of bed and went to his box to find the keys in it; and I opened it quickly and felt inside, feeling sure that it was one of the boys who had stolen the belt and who had repented and come and put it back again."

"And had he?" cried the Doctor, startled out of his grave calmness.

"No, sir; I think it was only my fancy. But I have been something like that over and over again."

"Ah!" said the Doctor gravely once more. "The workings, my boy, of an uneasy mind."

"Yes, sir, and that's what held me back from coming to you to speak out."

"Go on," said the Doctor; "and speak plainly and to the point, my boy.

What more have you to say?"

"Only this, sir," cried Glyn huskily, "that the night before last I lay awake for a long time, thinking and thinking about the belt and about Singh lying there sleeping so easily and not troubling himself in the least about the loss of the emeralds; and then all at once, when my head was so hot with the worry that I felt as if I must get out and drink some cold water.--I don't know how it was, but I began going over the big cricket-match in the field, and it was as if it was the day before, and I was fidgeting and fidgeting about the crowd there'd be, and a lot of strangers walking about the grounds and perhaps finding their way into the empty dormitories; and it all worried me so, sir, that it made me think that somebody dishonest might go to Singh's box and carry off the emeralds, and they would never be found again."

The Doctor leaned forward a little to gaze more fixedly in his pupil's eyes. Then rising slowly, he reached over and placed his cool white hand upon Glyn's forehead.

"Yes, sir," said the boy quickly, "it's hot--it's hot; but it comes like that sometimes. I believe it's from thinking too much."

"Ah!" said the Doctor, subsiding again into his chair.

"Well, sir, I was so worried about the belt that I thought I wouldn't say anything to Singh, but that I would take his keys, get out the case, and bring it to you in the morning."

"Ah!" cried the Doctor excitedly now. "It would not have been right, my boy. But you did not do that."

"No, sir," said the boy, with a bitter laugh; "for the next minute I thought you would put it in your table-drawer, and that it wouldn't be safe there, for strangers might come into this room, so I--" Glyn stopped, and the Doctor waited patiently. "It seemed so weak and foolish, sir," continued Glyn at last, after moistening his parched lips with his tongue, "but I must tell you. I seemed to be obliged to do it.

I took out the case and went downstairs past all the boys' rooms, and got out through the lecture-hall window to go across the playground to the cricket-shed where the boys' lockers are, and there I opened our locker and took out a ball of kite-string."

"Yes," said the Doctor. "Go on, go on."

"Then, sir, I came back across the playground and turned into the yard to go into the well-house, where I tied the end of the kite-string round the case very tightly and safely, and then leaned over and lifted one of the flaps of the well lid--"

"And lowered the case down into the well?" cried the Doctor excitedly.

"Yes, sir," said Glyn; "and I could smell the cool, damp sides of the place, and hear a faint dripping of the water as I let the string run through my fingers, till at last the case splashed and it ran down more slowly, seeming to jerk a little to and fro as a flat thing does when it sinks, till I felt it touch the bottom. And then I leaned over to feel for a place where I could tie the string to one of the loose bricks at the side."

"But there are no loose bricks at the side, my boy," said the Doctor.

"No, sir," said the boy. "I couldn't feel one; and then all at once, as I was feeling about, the ball slipped out of my fingers and fell below with a splash."

"So that you could not pull the case up again?" cried the Doctor.

"Yes, sir," said Glyn very slowly, and looking at him in a peculiar manner.

"And then," said the Doctor, "what did you do?"