terrified entreaty, were lifted to
his. He tried to forget the look. He wished he could make that foolish
chap understand that a caning was nothing, after all! All fellows worth
their salt got caned at school. Well, after all, he had to take his
chance with the others, but he wished he would not keep looking across
at _him_ in that beastly way, as if _he_ had the keeping of his
conscience!

"Well?" said the Doctor.

But no one spoke.

"I am sorry," said the Doctor more quietly, "that the boy who did it has
not had the courage to own up, but I will give him another chance. I
will take every boy's separate answer, and, after that, the whole school
will be kept in the playground until the end of the term, unless the
guilty boy will take the punishment on himself."

Haggart's face was very anxious as he, too, leant forth to see the
fourth-form fellows, but all he could catch a sight of was a smooth,
fair head that had drooped very low.

The Doctor, with a disappointed face, turned to the senior class. "It
seems hardly necessary to go through the form," he said. "I think I can
count on my senior boys. You, Crawley? You, Brown? You, Haggart?"

"I did it," said Haggart, in a clear, loud voice, and the Doctor's
outstretched finger fell.

"You, Haggart--_you_?" he said, in an incredulous voice. "Impossible!
You?" said the Doctor again.

"Yes, sir."

"Then there is nothing more to be said--_now_. Only, I am surprised,
and--disappointed. You can go now; you will sleep to-night in the small
spare room, and I will see you to-morrow. Go!"

Haggart moved slowly to the door, and as he turned the handle, he heard
a noise, and then the Doctor's voice, speaking sharply: "What is that?
What are they doing on the fourth form?"

"Harry Parker has a fit, or he's dead, or something," said a scared
voice.

"No, he has only fainted," said Mr Barclay. "Take him to Miss Simpson,
Barclay," said the Doctor. "He is a delicate little fellow."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wasn't there a fellow called something Curtius, who saved a city once?"
said a first-form boy, in a whisper.

"Yes; he leaped into a gulf."

"Well, that's what Haggart's done," said the boy.

"Rot!" said the other boy, still whispering.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nothing seemed very clear to Haggart's mind as he slowly undressed in
the cold, unused r