"Speak the truth, boy," he said, with a
tone that seemed to imply he rather doubted Gerald's strict adherence
to truth at all times and seasons.
Gerald turned crusty. "I don't know anything about it, sir. Won't I
pummel you for this!" he concluded, in an undertone, to Bywater.
"Besides that, sir," went on Bywater, pushing Gerald aside with his
elbow, as if he were nobody: "Charles Channing, I say, saw something
that led him to suspect Gerald Yorke. I am certain he did. I think it
likely that he saw him fling the bottle away, after doing the mischief.
Yorke knows that I have given him more than one chance to get out of
this. If he had only told me in confidence that it was he who did it,
whether by accident or mischief, I'd have let it drop."
"Yorke," said the master, leaning his face forward and speaking in an
undertone, "do you remember what I promised the boy who did this
mischief? Not for the feat itself, but for braving me, when I ordered
him to speak out, and he would not."
Yorke grew angry and desperate. "Let it be proved against me, sir, if
you please, before you punish. I don't think even Bywater, rancorous as
he is, can prove me guilty."
At this moment, who should walk forward but Mr. Bill Simms, much to the
astonishment of the head-master, and of the school in general. Since
Mr. Simms's confession to the master, touching the trick played on
Charles Channing, he had not led the most agreeable of lives.
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