In School and Out Part 21

"Come, fellows, we have no time to spare," said Kennedy, when the party were seated, and Richard fastened to the tree. "We must finish this business at once."

"We are all ready," replied Dobbin.

"Ready for what?" demanded Richard.

"Ready to settle your case. We are going to give you the biggest licking you ever had in your life."

The prisoner thought this was rather doubtful; but as they could not be supposed to have any knowledge of the thras.h.i.+ng inflicted upon him by "Old Batterbones," he was willing to excuse any exaggerations of which they might be guilty. When the young ruffian spoke of flogging him, Richard could not help recalling the incident at the barn of the farmer on the Hudson. Then he was guilty, now he was innocent; and his feelings on the present occasion were as different from those of the former one as light is from darkness.

He had been captured while in the discharge of his duty, and was not conscious that he had given his a.s.sailants any cause of offence. He could not explain how it happened that he was not angry. He did not chafe in the bonds that confined him. The consciousness of being innocent of all offence before his comrades, sustained and supported him; and he felt a kind of proud superiority over his captors, which placed him out of the reach of fear, and even out of the reach of malice and revenge.

Richard was a courageous boy; he had been so in his foolish and vicious enterprises; but he was doubly so now, when his soul was free from the stain of transgression. He did not borrow any trouble about what his persecutors intended to do, though he felt a very natural curiosity to see the end of the adventure.

"Go on," replied Richard, calmly, as the spokesman of the party announced their intentions.

"Shall we tell him what for? Shall we try him?" asked Kennedy.

"Yes; let us give him a drum-head court martial. The licking won't do him any good if he don't know what it is for," replied Dobbin.

"Grant," said Kennedy, with the solemnity of a judge, "you have ruined the best fellow in Company D."

"He ruined himself," replied Richard.

"No, he didn't. Of what you did in fair fight in the grove, we haven't a word to say. But you have prejudiced the colonel against him, and caused him to be deprived of his warrant, which will prevent him from obtaining his commission at the next election. You set yourself up as a leader among the fellows before you had been a week in the school. Have you any thing to say?"

"Nothing, except that all your charges are false," answered Richard; and if there had been light enough to see it, a smile would have been discovered upon his countenance.

"In the interview with the princ.i.p.al, you pretended to be a saint, and to be sorry for what you had done. You did not stand up like a man, and take the consequences of your acts."

"Go on; I have nothing to say," added Richard, when the speaker paused.

"You are a dangerous fellow in the school. You intend to climb up yourself by pus.h.i.+ng others down. We won't submit to it."

"What are you going to do?" coolly asked the prisoner.

"We are going to thrash you, as you deserve."

"You are brave fellows!" sneered Richard. "What you are afraid to do in the daylight, with fair play, you do by stealth and trickery in the night. You are a set of cowards, and if you will untie my hands I will whip the whole of you."

"That is very fine talk, Grant," said Kennedy, "but it don't amount to any thing."

"No talk is necessary to prove your cowardly meanness. Go on, and do your best. I am not afraid of the whole of you, even with my hands tied behind me. I despise the whole of you."

"We will give you a chance to escape."

"I don't ask any chance to escape."

"Grant, you talk like a fool."

"Better be a fool than a knave and a coward."

"We don't want to hurt you. There are fellows enough in our crowd to make Tunbrook Inst.i.tute too hot to hold you. We advise you to write to your father, advising him to send you to some other school. Will you do so?"

"I will not," replied Richard, promptly.

"Then you must take the consequences. We are organized, and we are determined that you shall leave. If you ask your father, and insist upon it, no doubt he will take you away."

"Very likely he would," added Richard, "but I shall not ask him to do so."

"You plainly don't understand what is in store for you. Our plans are well laid, and we have been through the same mill once before. A fellow about your size, and one who could fight as well as you do, had to leave about a year ago. He undertook to be a leader before his time came. We hunted him out, as we shall you."

"When you hunt me out, I will go, but not till then."

"Grant, this is all idle talk on your part. You don't understand your situation. We can count up fifty fellows belonging to our a.s.sociation.

We can drive out any fellow who makes himself obnoxious. We mean to be fair, and we are willing that any fellow who works his way up should have all the honors he wins. But do you suppose we fellows, who have been here two or three years, and who have worked ourselves up, are going to step one side for a fellow who has been here only a week or two?"

"Who asks you to step aside?" demanded Richard, indignantly, for this show of fair play had touched him in a tender spot, and in spite of himself he began to be interested in the argument.

"You do; you have licked the best fellow in the school, and then you begin to play saint, and curry favor with the colonel. You mean to lead, and not follow."

"I mean to be and do just what circ.u.mstances require."

"Grant, there is no such thing as misunderstanding your position. What your looks indicate is more than all you may say with your mouth, or do with your hands. You are a dangerous fellow, and you must leave, or compromise."

"What do you mean by compromise?"

"We'll let you stay if you will keep in your proper position."

"What is my proper position?"

"At the foot of the ladder, of course, till the fellows above you have got out of the way."

"You mean Nevers?"

"Nevers and others."

"I will agree to no such compromise. All the officers, I am informed, are chosen by ballot."

"They are."

"Then, of course, the fellows can choose whom they please."

"They can; and since you have whipped Nevers, they will elect you; and those who have done their duty for two or three years must go into the shade. If you will agree to step one side, we will promise to let you alone. Will you do it?"

"I will not."

"Mind what you do, for if the 'Regulators' make war upon you, they will drive you out."