hem--as he felt
sure--little Wilton. The very moment, however, that he caught sight of
them, the fourth boy, seeing him on the cliff, had taken vigorously to
his heels and scrambled away behind the rocks. Walter had neither the
wish nor the power to overtake him, and as he had not so much _seen_
Wilton as inferred with tolerable certainty that it was he, he only
reported Harpour, Mackworth, and Jones to Dr Lane; at the same time
sending for Wilton to tell him of his suspicion, and to give him a
severe and earnest warning.

Dr Lane, on the best possible grounds, had repeatedly announced that he
would expel any boy who had any dealings with the scoundrel Dan. He was
not likely to swerve from that declaration in any case, still less for
the sake of boys whose school career had been so dishonourable and
reprobate as that of these three offenders. They were all three
publicly expelled without mercy and without delay; and they departed,
carrying with them, as they well-deserved to do, the contempt and almost
the execration of the great majority of the school.

In the course of their examination before the headmaster, Jones, with a
meanness and malice thoroughly characteristic, had said, "that he did
not know there was any harm in going to Dan's, because Kenrick, one of
the monitors, had done the same thing." At the time, Dr Lane had
contemptuously silenced him, with the remark, "that he would gain
nothing by turning informer;" but as Dr Lane was always kept pretty
well informed of all that went on by the Famulus, he had reason to
suspect, and even to know, that what Jones said was in this instance
true. He knew, too, from other quarters how unsatisfactorily Kenrick
had been going on, and the part he had taken in several acts of
insubordination and disobedience. Accordingly, no sooner had Harpour,
Jones, and Mackworth been banished from Saint Winifred's, than he sent
for Kenrick, and administered to him a reprimand so uncompromising and
stern, that Kenrick never forgot it to the end of his life. After
upbraiding him for those many inconsistencies and follies, which had
forfeited the strong esteem and regard which he once felt for him, he
pointed out finally how he was wasting his school-life, and how little
his knowledge and ability could redeem his neglect of duty and betrayal
of trust; and he ended by saying, "All these reasons, Kenrick, have made
me seriously doubt whether I should not degrade you altogether from y