The Hero of Garside School Part 41

"I'm sorry. I really had forgotten that you were in damp clothes. Why didn't you mention it before? You must change them at once."

Mr. Weevil seemed really sorry that he had not given a thought to Paul's condition before. Paul hastened off to change his damp cloth for dry ones. While he was thus engaged, Plunger and Baldry entered for the same purpose. Otherwise they seemed none the worse for the cold bath.

Plunger, in fact had got on good terms with himself again, and was as perky as ever.

"I should have punted across the river all right if it hadn't been for Hibbert," he explained. "The scream he gave threw me off my stroke. It was jolly good of you all the same to come to us, Percival. We shan't forget it in a hurry--shall we, Baldry?"

"No," was Baldry's emphatic answer. "By the by, how is Hibbert going on?"

"I was just going to ask the same thing. I would rather have gone under myself than that he should. Has the doctor been to him?"

Plunger spoke with unusual earnestness.

"Yes, Dr. Clack's been to him. He's with him now."

"And what does he say?"

"He says that it's been a near thing, but with careful nursing he may pull round."

Plunger paused with one arm in the sleeve of the jacket he was putting on, and sat down on the side of the bed. He was beginning to realize how near the Crusoe expedition had been to a tragedy--nay, the danger was not yet over. Silence fell on the room for some moments. Each was busy with his own thoughts.

"I haven't yet heard how it all happened," Paul at length inquired.

Plunger told him the origin of the "Crusoe expedition," and all that had happened up to the moment of the accident.

"I don't know anything about the savages that boarded us on the raft.

Baldry can tell you that part," he concluded.

"Oh, we found out all about the expedition, and didn't like being left out of it. We thought that we'd have a cut in on our own account. So Sedgefield, Bember, Viner, and myself got down to the plantation before Plunger, Moncrief minor, and Hibbert reached it on the raft. While they landed and got ready for their part, we got ready for ours. What was the use of Crusoe without the n.o.ble savages? So we got up as savages, and frightened the life out of Plunger and the other two by swooping down on 'em just like Indians would, you know."

"You didn't frighten me, I tell you," protested Plunger.

"Of course not; but Crusoe, when he first saw savages, never sprinted along half so quickly as you did, I'll warrant! Greased lightning wasn't in it with you, Plunger."

Plunger did not answer, but diligently set to work getting his other arm into the sleeve of his coat.

"Well, but what's become of the other fellows on the raft--Moncrief, Sedgefield, and the others?" inquired Paul.

"Oh, they were still on the raft, floating gaily along, when we left.

Goodness knows when they would get ash.o.r.e," says Baldry.

"It's a bit unfortunate, you see, for none of the fellows now left on the raft understand anything about punting," put in Plunger. "It's rather a pity I couldn't have got back to them."

"It's just that that makes me feel easy. There's a good chance of their pulling through, now you're not with them, Plunger," was Baldry's ungracious response. "Why, here they are!"

As he was speaking, in fact, three of the four entered--Bember, Sedgefield, and Harry Moncrief. After they had spent some time on the raft, drifting aimlessly on the river, a boatman had towed them ash.o.r.e.

Fixing the raft in its place by the bridge, they had returned in all haste to the school, anxious to know what had happened to their companions. When they had learned all particulars, Sedgefield exclaimed:

"I don't care what those Fifth Form fellows say or think, but will you take my hand, Percival?"

Paul willingly gripped the hand extended to him. Bember and the others, with the exception of Harry, followed suit. Harry struggled with himself for a moment. He could not help remembering, in spite of his effort to forget it, that Paul was responsible for the thras.h.i.+ng that his cousin had received at the hands of a Beetle, and that he had seen him shaking hands with the same obnoxious creature. Yet what could have been n.o.bler, Harry told himself, than the way in which, at the risk of his own life, Paul had gone to the rescue of Hibbert, and had returned a few minutes later to save Plunger and Baldry? He had witnessed it all from the raft, with his heart in his mouth. Yes, it was a n.o.ble deed. He had never seen a n.o.bler. What was the defeat of Stanley--the wound of his pride--compared with it? Instinctively his hand went out to Paul as the other hands had done, when Viner entered the room.

"Have you heard the news?" he questioned, greatly excited.

"The news! What news?" demanded Sedgefield.

"The school flag. It's gone!"

"Gone!" they echoed, as with one voice.

Paul's mind went back with a rush to when he had entered the grounds with Hibbert in his arms. His eyes had not deceived him, then. The flag had really gone.

"Nonsense!" cried Sedgefield.

"Not much nonsense about it. If you don't believe me, you'd better go and look for yourself."

The intelligence was so remarkable, that Plunger and Harry raced into the grounds. A minute later they returned.

"Viner's quite right. It's gone," they exclaimed in a breath.

"But how--where--when?" questioned Sedgefield. "Who has taken it?"

"No one knows. It must have happened while we were on the river, so we could know nothing about it. Somebody must have stolen up the turret stair and got on to the roof. That's the only possible way it could be done. The senior Forms are in a rare wax over it."

"I should think so," burst out Plunger. "What fellow can rest easy now that our flag's been hauled down? I only wish that I had hold of the one who did it."

"You'd give him a lesson in punting, wouldn't you, Freddy?" observed Baldry, with a wink at those around him.

Plunger glared at Baldry. He would have brought his knuckles down on his head, only he remembered what Baldry had done for him.

"Seriously," said Sedgefield, "it can't have walked. There's not a fellow in Garside who would have pulled down the old flag, even for a joke; I'm certain of that."

"And I." "And I." "And I," came in a chorus.

"A Beetle must have sneaked in. It must be the work of a Beetle."

"That's what I've been thinking," said Bember. "It's only one of those cads could have done a sneakish trick like that."

"Supposing it is a Beetle, which of them could have done it? Which of them could have made his way into the school without being seen, and then got to the door in the turret?" asked Baldry.

"Mellor knows all about the building. He could easily describe the way to any of the Beetles," said Viner. "That champion of theirs--Wyndham--has made us eat enough dirt already. He made our picked man turn tail"--every eye went to Paul as Viner spoke with bitterness--"and Moncrief eat dirt. Now we've lost the flag. Really, we're getting on. We can't sink much lower."

The atmosphere in the dormitory was getting oppressive. Every one felt uncomfortable. That allusion to Paul was true enough. He had turned away, like a frightened cur, from Wyndham; but who could accuse him of being a coward after what had happened that day? It was altogether inexplicable.

Baldry was the first to speak.

"You know what has happened this afternoon, Viner. Percival saved my life, and you're not going to fling mud at him while I'm standing by."

"And I say ditto to Baldry," bl.u.s.tered Plunger.