Smith walked into the room and shut the door
behind him. What happened inside we never exactly knew. After half an
hour, which seemed to us as long as a day, the three emerged, and walked
straight down the passage and up the stairs that led to Miss Henniker's
room. Smith, with the screwdriver, walked in the middle, very solemn
and very pale.

Stealthily we crawled up after them, and hid where we could observe what
was to follow.

Mr Ladislaw knocked at the Henniker's door.

"Well?" said a voice within.

The word was mildly spoken, and very unlike the snap to which we had
been accustomed in former days.

"It is I," said Mr Ladislaw, "and Mr Hashford."

"I shall be glad if you will immediately have my door opened," was the
reply.

"Smith, unscrew the door at once," said Mr Ladislaw.

Smith solemnly proceeded to do as he was bid, and presently the screws
were both dislodged.

"Is it done?" said the Henniker when the sound ceased.

"Yes, Miss Henniker; the door is quite free."

"Then," said the Henniker--and there positively seemed to be a tremor in
the voice--"please go; I will be down presently."

So the little procession turned and once more walked down the stairs,
Smith, with his screwdriver, still walking solemnly in the middle. We
who were in hiding were torn by conflicting desires. Our first impulse
was to remain and enjoy the spectacle of the crestfallen Henniker
marching forth from her late prison. But somehow, rough boys as we
were, and not much given to chivalric scruples, the sound of that
tremble in the Henniker's voice, and with it the recollection of the
part we had taken in her punishment, made us feel as if, after all, the
best thing we could do was not to remain, but to follow the others down
stairs.

As we were doing so the ten o'clock bell rang for morning classes, and
we naturally sought the schoolroom, where, with Mr Hashford in the
desk, school was assembled just as if nothing had happened. Hawkesbury
was the only absentee.

I certainly admired Mr Hashford on this occasion. He appeared to be
the only person in the room who was not thoroughly uncomfortable.
Indeed, as we went on with our work, and he, almost pleasantly, entered
into it with us, we felt ourselves getting comfortable too, and could
hardly believe that the usher now instructing us had, an hour ago, been
our prisoner, and that we so recently had been shouting words of mutiny
and defiance all over the school. It