"No! And what might your suspicions be?"

"Oh, sir," replied the wretched Jonah, feeling like a blue-bottle on a pin, "I believe he's a murderer in hiding. I really do."

"Clever little ferret! You've found that out, have you?"

"I feel no doubt about it," said Jonah, plucking up a little confidence.

"Don't feel any. When and where did the interesting event take place?"

"Oh, you could tell me that better than I can tell you," stammered Trimble.

"Indeed!" said Mr Halgrove, his eyebrows going up ominously in the dark.

"Of course I shouldn't--that is--I should never dream of getting _you_ into trouble, sir."

Mr Halgrove took his cigar out of his mouth and stared at the speaker.

"I'd wait till you were safe away in America, sir; and even then I wouldn't let your name be known, you know, as an accomplice."

Mr Halgrove put his cigar back into his mouth, and changed his cane from his left hand to his right.

"Fetch him here, Julius," said he, stepping back into the middle of the road.

It was in vain the wretched Jonah howled and called for mercy.

"So you won't let my name be known as an accomplice! How very kind!"

And he gave practical proof of his grat.i.tude by caning Jonah till both were tired.

"Now good-night," said Mr Halgrove when he had done, "and thank you for a pleasant evening. I dare say Mr Jeffreys will make up for any little deficiencies on my part if you ask him. Ask him, with my compliments, to show you the little game he played with one of his old school- fellows. Good-night, Mr Trimble. Wish him good-night, Julius."

Julius once more pinned his affrighted victim to the bank, and then following at his master's heels, left the bruised and bewildered Jonah to limp home as best he could.

The day he had had yesterday had been nothing in comparison with to-day!

In the school, meanwhile, there was jubilation and thanksgiving over the fact that Jonah had a bad headache. Jeffreys, with the first and second cla.s.ses merged for the occasion into one, amazed Mrs Trimble by the order and industry which he commanded.

"The young man's worth his money," said the good lady, with a sigh of relief, for she had counted on losing her nap for that day at least, and was grateful beyond measure to find her fears disappointed.

As for the first cla.s.s, they got completely spoiled by their day's change of teacher, and vowed they would all become dunces in order to be put back in the second cla.s.s.

"I say, Jeff," said Teddy confidentially, as the school was being dismissed, "_is_ there any chance of his dying? It's been so ripping to-day without him."

"Hold your tongue, sir," said Jeffreys, in a tone which astonished his bloodthirsty young confidant; "you're old enough to know better than talk like that."

Teddy looked very miserable at this rebuke.

"Don't be in a wax with me, Jeff," he said appealingly. "Whatever would I do if you got to hate me?"

Jeffreys was not proof against this, and walked home with his two young friends, beguiling the way with cheery talk, which effectually dispelled the cloud which his pa.s.sing anger had roused.

On his way back he felt impelled to climb for a moment on the bank at his favourite spot. It amazed him to see the ground all torn up, and to find a trowel lying half bedded in the turf at the top. Still more did it surprise and perplex him to find a penknife, which he recognised at once as belonging to Trimble, and which he distinctly recollected having seen in that hero's hand during school the afternoon of the preceding day. What did it all mean?

CHAPTER NINE.

A THUNDERSTORM.

It did not add to Jonah's happiness to see the looks of evident disgust with which the first cla.s.s greeted his reappearance in the schoolroom.

Their pleasant experience yesterday had demoralised them, and they settled down listlessly at Jonah's bidding like voyagers who, after a day in still waters, put out once more to the rough sea. Teddy especially felt the hardships of the mighty deep. Jonah's eye transfixed him all day. If he spoke, if he fidgeted, if he looked about, the hand of the tyrant swooped down upon him.

He spent the greater part of the day standing on the form. The contents of his pockets (including some priceless marbles) were impounded; he had two columns of dates to commit to memory before he could go home; and, hardest of all, because of a little blot, he was reduced to the ineffable humiliation of writing all his exercises on a slate!

It took all the big heart of the little fellow to bear up against this mountain of calamity, and had it not been for an occasional glimpse of Jeffreys' face, turned sympathetically in his direction, his courage might have failed him.

School closed, and still his dates were unlearnt. His legs ached with standing hour after hour on the narrow form, and his head, lifted three feet higher than usual into the heated atmosphere of the room, swam ominously.

Freddy, after waiting about dismally for half an hour, had gone home alone. The voices of boys remaining to play or talk in the yard outside had one after another ceased. Jeffreys had long since taken himself and his books elsewhere, and only Jonah was left to keep watch over his prisoner.

The boy made a tremendous effort to master the dates, but they went through him like water through a sieve. He could not even keep his eyes on the book, and when he turned them towards the master's desk, Jonah seemed to be half hidden in mist. He edged cautiously to the end of the form nearest the wall, where at least he might get a little support. It was a perilous voyage, for he was two feet away, and scarcely dare move at a greater rate than an inch a minute. He got there at last, nearly done up, and with a sigh of relief leaned his head against the cold plaster.

"Rosher, stand at the other end of the form immediately, and learn twenty more dates for being idle."

Alas poor Teddy! He had held out long, and braved much. But his heart quailed now. He seemed glued to the wall, and the form all of a sudden seemed to contract into a tight-rope over a chasm.

"I'm so tired, sir, I--"

"Silence, sir! and do what you're told," thundered Jonah.

Teddy staggered forward half a step, but shrank back before he had finished it to the friendly wall.

Trimble rose from his seat.

"Do you hear me?" he shouted furiously. "Stand where I tell you."

"Please, sir, I can't. I--"

Here Trimble advanced towards him, and Teddy, fairly unnerved and almost fainting, slipped down from the bench and burst into tears.

"That's it, is it?" said Jonah; "we'll see whether you can or--"

At that instant the door opened, and Jeffreys entered the room.

It did not require the boy's sobbing appeal, "Oh, Jeff, Jeff!" to enable him to take in the situation at a glance. Nor did it need a second glance at the face of the intruder to induce Jonah to turn pale.

Jeffreys advanced without a word to the form, brushing Jonah out of his way with a swing that sent him staggering six paces down the floor, and putting his arm round Teddy, led him without a word from the room.

"Come along, little chap," said he, when they got outside; "come home."