The Willoughby Captains Part 26

Game could have thrashed the captain as easily as he could Telson, and the thought flashed through Riddell's mind as he paused to reply. He would much have preferred saying nothing, but somehow the present seemed to be a sort of crisis in his life. If he gave in now, the chance of a.s.serting himself in Willoughby might never return.

"I'm the captain," he replied, steadily, "and as long as I am captain I'm responsible for the order of the school, and I prefer to do my own work!"

There was something in his look and tone as he uttered these inoffensive words which took Game aback and even startled Telson. It was not at all like what fellows had been used to from Riddell, certainly very unlike the manner he was generally credited with. But neither Telson nor Game were half so amazed at this little outburst as was the speaker himself.

He was half frightened the moment he had uttered it. Now he was in for it with a vengeance! It would go out to all Willoughby, he knew, that he meant to stand by his guns. What an awful failure, if, after all, he should not be able to keep his word!

Game, with a forced smile which ill accorded with his inward astonishment, left the study without another word, heedless even of the laugh which Telson could no longer repress.

Of course many perverted stories of their adventure immediately got abroad in Willoughby. Telson's highly-coloured version made it appear that a pitched battle had been fought between Game and the new captain, resulting in the defeat of the former chiefly through Telson's instrumentality and a.s.sistance. As, however, this narrative did not appear in the same dress two hours running, it was soon taken for what it was worth, and most fellows preferred to believe the Parretts'

version of the story, which stated that Riddell had announced his intention of keeping order in Willoughby without the help of the monitors, and had had the cheek to tell Bloomfield to mind his own business.

The indignation of Parrett's house on hearing such a story may be imagined. It was even past a joke. Bloomfield seriously offered to resign all pretensions to authority and let things take their course.

"It makes me seem," he said, "as if I wanted to stick myself up. If he's so sure of keeping order by himself, I don't see what use it is my pretending to do it too."

"It would serve him right if you did so," said Game. "But it would be so awfully like giving in now, after you have once begun."

This view of the matter decided the question. But Bloomfield all the same was considerably impressed by what had happened.

He knew in his heart that his only t.i.tle to the position he a.s.sumed was the whim of his schoolfellows. He was a usurper, in fact, and however much he tried to persuade himself he was acting solely for the good of Willoughby, he knew those motives were only half sincere. And in spite of all his efforts, the school was as rowdy as ever. If he did thrash a batch of juniors one day, or stop some disorderly Limpets of their play, it never seemed to make much impression. Whereas the one or two rioters whom Riddell had ventured to tackle had somehow distinctly reformed their habits. How was it?

Bloomfield, as he thought the thing over, was not quite happy. He had been happier far last term when, under old Wyndham, he had exerted himself loyally for the good of the school. Was he not exerting himself now? Why should he be unhappy? It was not because he felt himself beaten--he scorned the idea--or that he felt unequal to the task before him. That too was preposterous. And yet, he felt, he certainly needed something. If only now he were first cla.s.sic as well as captain of the clubs, what a pull he would have!

And as this thought occurred to him, he also recalled Crossfield's famous speech at the last Parliament and the laughter which had greeted it. Could he translate "Balbus hopped over a wall" without the dictionary? Ah! He thought sometimes he would try, just to prove how slanderous Crossfield's insinuation had been. The result of all these cogitations was that Bloomfield began to discover he was not quite such an "all-round" man as his friends had told him. And that being so, had not he better qualify himself like an honest man for his post?

He did not like to confide the idea to his friends for fear of their laughter, but for a week or two at least he actually read rather hard on the sly. The worst of it was, that till the examinations next term there could be nothing to show for it. For the Sixth did not change their places every day as the lower forms did. There was no chance of leaping to the top at a bound by some lucky answer, or even of advancing a single desk. And therefore, however hard he worked this term, he would never rise above eighteenth cla.s.sic in the eyes of the school, and that was not--well, he would have liked to be a little higher for the sake of Willoughby!

The outlook was not encouraging. Even Wibberly, the toady, and Silk, the Welcher, were better men than he was at cla.s.sics.

Suppose, instead of spending his energy over cla.s.sics, he were to get up one or two rousing speeches for the Parliament, which should take the s.h.i.+ne out of every one else and carry the school by storm? It was not a bad idea. But the chance would not come. No one could get up a fine speech on such a hackneyed subject as "That Rowing is a finer Sport than Cricket," or that "The Study of Science in Public Schools should be Abolished!" And when he did attempt to prepare an oration on the subject of Compulsory Football, the first friend he showed it to pointed out so many faults in the composition of the first sentence that prudence prompted him to put the effusion in the fire.

Meanwhile his friends and admirers kept him busy. Their delight seemed to be to seize on all the youngsters they could by any pretext lay hands on and hale them to appear before him. By this means they imagined they were making his authority known and dealing a serious blow at the less obtrusive captain in the schoolhouse.

Poor Bloomfield had to administer justice right and left for every imaginable offence, and was so watched and prompted by officious admirers that he was constantly losing his head and making himself ridiculous.

He gave one boy a thras.h.i.+ng for being found with a paper dart in his hand, because Game had reported him; and to another, who had stolen a book, he gave only twenty lines, because he was in the second-eleven.

Cusack and Welcher, who was caught climbing the schoolhouse elms one Monday, he sentenced to an hour's detention; and Pilbury, whom he caught in the same act on Tuesday, he deprived of play for a week--that is, he said he was not to leave his house for a week. But Pilbury turned up the very next day in the "Big," under the very nose of the Parrett captain, who did not even observe his presence.

It was this sort of thing which, as the term dragged on, made Bloomfield more and more uncomfortable with his position. It was all very well for Game, and Ashley, and Wibberly to declare that but for him Willoughby would have gone to the dogs--it was all very well of them to make game of and caricature Riddell and his failures. Seeing is believing; and Bloomfield, whose heart was honest, and whose common sense, when left to itself, was not altogether feeble, could not help making the unpleasant discovery that he was not doing very much after all for Willoughby.

But the boat-race was now coming on. There, at any rate, was a sphere in which he need fear no rival. With Parrett's boat at the head of the river, and he its stroke, he would at any rate have one claim on the obedience of Willoughby which n.o.body could gainsay.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

TELSON AND PARSON GO TO AN EVENING PARTY.

It was the Sat.u.r.day before the boat-race, and the excitement of Willoughby was working up every hour. Boys who were generally in the habit of lying in bed till the chapel bell began to ring had been up at six for a week past, to look at the practices on the river. Parliament had adjourned till after the event, and even the doings of the rival captains indoors were forgotten for a while in prospect of the still more exciting contest out of doors.

Everybody--even the Welchers, who at the last moment had given up any attempt to form a crew, and "scratched"--found it hard to think or talk of any other subject, and beyond the school bounds, in Sh.e.l.lport itself, a rumour of the coming race had got wind and attracted many outsiders to the river banks.

But it was not the prospect of the coming race which this Sat.u.r.day afternoon was agitating the mind of Master Henry Brown.

Brown was a Limpet, belonging to the schoolhouse, who occupied the distinguished position of being the only day-boarder in Willoughby. His parents lived in Sh.e.l.lport, and thus had the benefit of the constant society of their dear Harry; while the school, on the other hand, was deprived of that advantage for a portion of every day in the term.

It was probably to make up for this deprivation that Mr and Mrs Brown made it a practice of giving an evening party once a term, to which the doctor and his ladies were always invited, and also any two of dear Harry's friends he liked to name.

In this way the fond parents not only felt they were doing a polite and neighbourly act to their son's schoolmaster and schoolfellows, but that they were also the means of bringing together teacher and pupil in an easy unconstrained manner which would hardly be possible within the walls of the school itself.

It was the prospect of one of these delightful entertainments that was exhilarating Brown this Sat.u.r.day afternoon.

And it must be confessed the excitement was due to very opposite emotions in the breast of the day-boarder. The doctor and his ladies were coming! On the last two occasions they had been unfortunately prevented, which had been a great blow to Brown's "pa and ma" but a relief to Brown himself. And now the prospect of meeting these awful dignitaries face to face in his own house put him in a small panic. But on the other hand, he knew there would be jellies, and savoury pie, and strawberries, and tipsy-cake, at home that night. He had seen them arrive from the confectioner's that morning, and, Limpet as he was, Brown smiled inwardly as he meditated thereon. This was a second ground for excitement. And a third, equal to either of the other two, was that Parson and Telson were invited and were coming!

He had tried one or two other fellows first. He had sounded Coates on the subject, but he unfortunately was engaged. He had pressed Wyndham to come, but Wyndham was busy that evening with the library. He had appealed to one or two other schoolhouse Limpets, but all, on hearing that the doctor and Co. were to be present, respectfully declined.

Finally Brown dropped upon Telson, and condescendingly proposed to him to be present as one of his two friends.

Telson thought the matter over and fancied it promised well. He liked the sound of the jellies and the tipsy-cake, and just at present he knew of no special reason for "funking" the doctor. As for the doctor's ladies, Telson had never seen them, so they did not weigh particularly with him.

"Who else is going?" he asked.

"Oh, I don't know yet," said Brown, rather grandly. "I've one or two fellows in my mind."

"Why don't you ask young Parson?" suggested Telson, innocently.

"Parson? he's not a schoolhouse kid."

"I know he's not, but he and I are very chummy, you know. I wouldn't mind coming if he went."

"I'll see," said Brown, mightily, but secretly relieved to know of some one likely to come as his second "friend."

"All right," said Telson. "I've not promised, mind, if he can't come."

"Oh, yes, you have!" replied Brown, severely, as he left the room.

In due time he found Parson and broached the subject to him.

Parson viewed the matter in very much the same light as Telson had. He liked the "tuck-in" better than the company.

It never occurred to him it was odd that Brown should come all the way from the schoolhouse to invite him, a Parrett's junior, to his feast; nor did it occur to him either that the invitation put him under any obligation to his would-be host.

"I tell you what I'll do," said he, in a business-like manner, much as if Brown had asked him to clean out his study for him, "if you ask Telson to come too, I'm game."

Brown half doubted whether these two allies had not been consulting together on the subject, so startling was the similarity of their conditions.

"Oh! Telson's coming," he said, in as offhand a way as he could.

"He is! Then I'm on, old man; rather!" exclaimed the delighted Parson.