"What do you want me for?" he demanded, with an attempt at bl.u.s.ter.

"What do you mean by not coming when we sent for you, when you know perfectly well what you are wanted for?"

"What am I wanted for?" asked Munger, glancing nervously round.

"You know well enough, Munger."

"How do I know, till you tell me?" snarled the boy.

"If he doesn't know," said Barnworth to Ainger, significantly, "we must do as we proposed. I'll go and get my papers and be ready for you in a minute."

This meaningless speech had a remarkable effect on Munger. He stared first at one prefect, then at the other; and when Barnworth rose as if to leave the room, he said,--

"Wait--don't do that. What is it you want to ask?"

"You know that as well as we do. Are you going to say what you know, or not?"

"I don't know how you got to know anything about it," began Munger; "it's a plot against me, and--"

"We don't want all that," said Ainger sternly. "What we want to know is, did you do it yourself, and if not who else was in it?"

"Of course I couldn't do it myself. _You_ couldn't, strong as you are."

"You helped, then?"

"I had nothing to do with the--the scragging," said Munger. "I--Oh, I say, Ainger, you aren't going to get me expelled, surely? Do let us off this time!"

"I'm not the head-master; you'll have to ask him that. Your only chance is to make a clean breast of it at once. What was it you did?"

"I only opened the door of the boot-box, and helped drag him in. I had nothing to do with the scragging. Brans...o...b.. did all that himself, and Clipstone hung to his legs."

It needed all the self-control of the three prefects to refrain from an exclamation of astonishment at this wonderful disclosure.

"Are you telling the truth?" demanded Ainger.

"I am--I swear it--I never even knew what they meant to do till an hour before. It was Clipstone's idea, and I--owed him money for betting, and he had a pull on me, and made me do it. But I swear I never touched Bickers except to help pull him in."

"Now, one question more. Was there anyone else in it, but just you three?"

"n.o.body, as sure as I stand here."

"Very well, you can go now. We shall have to tell the doctor, of course, and there's no knowing what he will do. But it's been your best chance to make a clean breast of it while you had the opportunity."

The wretched Munger departed to his bed, but not to sleep. He could not conceive how Railsford first, and then these three prefects, should have discovered his deeply hidden secret. Not a word about it had escaped his own lips. Brans...o...b.. was away, and Clipstone scarcely anyone in Railsford's house ever saw. But the secret was out, and what kept Munger awake that night was neither shame nor remorse, but fear lest he should be expelled, or, perhaps worse, arrested!

The three prefects sat late, talking over their wonderful discovery.

"It's good as far as it goes," said Barnworth. "But it doesn't clear up the question how Railsford got to hear of it, and what his motive has been in shielding the criminals. It can't have been on Munger's account, for the two have been at war all the term; and I don't suppose since the affair he has exchanged two words with either Brans...o...b.. or Clipstone."

"Don't you think," said the captain, "that now we do know all about it, we might go and ask him?"

It was a brilliant suggestion, and they went.

But Railsford was in bed and asleep; and his visitors, important as was their business, had not the hardihood to arouse him, and were reluctantly obliged to postpone their explanation till the morning.

Even then they seemed destined to be thwarted; for Railsford had gone for a bathe in the river, and only returned in time for call-over; when of course there was no opportunity for a private conference.

But as soon as breakfast was over they determined to catch him in his room, and put an end to their suspense there and then.

Alas! not five minutes before they arrived, Railsford had gone out, this time, as Cooke informed them, to the doctor's.

It seemed a fatality, and who was to say whether his next move might be to quit Grandcourt without even giving them a chance?

"The only thing to do is to go and catch him at the doctor's," said Ainger; "we've a right to go--at least I have--to report Munger."

"All serene," said Barnworth, "better for you to go alone. It would only put Pony's back up if we all went."

For once in his life Ainger felt that there were some dignities connected with the captaincy of a house; and for once in his life he would have liked to transfer those dignities to any shoulders but his own.

But he put a bold face on it, and marched across to the doctor's.

"Perhaps I shall only make it worse for Railsford," said he to himself.

"Pony will think it precious rum of us to have let two terms go by without finding the secret out, and then, when it suits us to find it, getting hold of it in half an hour. So it is, precious rum! And if Railsford has known the names all along and kept them quiet, it's not likely to make things better for him that we have discovered them on our own account. Anyhow, I'm bound to report a thing like this at once, and it's barely possible it may turn something up for Railsford."

As he crossed the quadrangle a cab drove in, and set down a tall, elderly gentleman, who, after looking about him, advanced towards the prefect, and said,--

"Can you direct me to the head-master's house?"

"Yes, sir," said Ainger, "I'm going there myself. It's this way."

It wasn't often strangers made so early a call at Grandcourt.

"A fine old building, this," said the gentleman; "how many houses are there?"

"Eight," said Ainger.

"And whose do you belong to?"

"Railsford's. That's his, behind us."

"And which is Mr Bickers?"

"This must be the father of one of Bickers' fellows," thought Ainger.

"That one next to ours," he replied.

The gentleman looked up at the house in an interested way, and then relapsed into silence and walked gravely with his guide to the doctor's.

The doctor's waiting-room was not infrequently tenanted by more than one caller on business at that hour of the morning. For between nine and ten he was at home to masters and prefects and ill-conducted boys; and not a few of the latter knew by painful experience that a good deal of serious business was often crowded into that short s.p.a.ce of time.