deed, it was not until Wyndham himself referred to it that
afternoon that its gravity occurred to him.

Just as the special meeting of the Parliament (convened by private
invitation of Game and Ashley to a select few of their own way of
thinking) was assembling, Wyndham, in compliance with a message from the
captain, strolled out into the Big towards the _very_ bench where
yesterday he had had his memorable talk with Silk.

Riddell was waiting there for him, and as the boy approached, his
wretched, haggard looks smote the captain's heart with remorse.

He had scarcely the spirit to return Riddell's salute as he seated
himself beside him on the bench and waited for what was to come.

"Old fellow," said Riddell, "don't look so wretched. Things mayn't be
so bad as you think."

"How could they be anything else?" said Wyndham, dolefully.

"If you'll listen to me, and not look so frightfully down," said the
captain, "I'll tell you."

Wyndham made a feeble attempt to rouse himself, and turned to hear what
the captain had to say.

"You wonder," said Riddell, "how I came to know about that visit to
Beamish's. Would it astonish you to hear that till this time yesterday
I never knew about it at all?"

"What!" exclaimed Wyndham, incredulously; "you were talking to me about
it two or three days before."

"So you thought. You thought when I said it was my duty to report it,
and that the honour of the school was involved in it, and all that, that
I was talking about that scrape at Beamish's."

"Of course you were," said Wyndham. "What else could you have been
talking about? I confessed it to you myself."

"And you couldn't see what the honour of the school had to do with your
going to Beamish's, could you?" asked Riddell.

"Well, no. Perhaps it has, but I didn't see it at the time."

"Of course not," said the captain, "and if I had been thinking of
Beamish's I should never have said such a stupid thing."

"Why, what _do_ you mean?" said Wyndham, puzzled.

"Why, this. In all our talks you never once mentioned Beamish's. You
concluded what I suspected you of was this, and I concluded that the
scrape you were confessing was the one I suspected you of."

"What do you suspect me of, then?" inquired Wyndham, "if it wasn't
that?"

"I'm ashamed to say," said the captain, "I suspected you of having cut
the lines of Parrett's rudder at the boat-race."

Wyndham, in the shock of this announcement, broke out into an