THE PENALTY
I arranged to see Bourne that evening, when we should have heard the doctor's report on Aspinall. In the evening Bourne strolled into my room, looking a little less gloomy than I expected. "Briggs says that there is nothing broken, and that as soon as Aspinall gets over the shock he will be all right. The cut may leave a scar, but that will be about all. All the same, Carr, I think that's too heavy a price to pay for the bad temper of one of our fellows who can't stand a tumble into the mud at 'footer.' You saw the villainy, didn't you?"
"I can't say I actually saw him trip, but there's no doubt whatever that it was an abominable foul."
"None at all. I saw him, worse luck, tolerably plainly."
"Do you know anything about him?"
"Practically nothing."
"I think Biffen's rather fancy he's going to lift them out of the mire."
"Can't say I envy them their champion."
"What strikes me as odd is that such a magnificent player should do such a vile trick."
"Rum, certainly. The affair will give quite a professional touch to our 'Socker' fixtures, and the Carthusians will ask us to bar our bullies when they come down again. Oh, this is sweet!"
"I say, Bourne, this business must not move one inch further. You've spoken to no one?"
"Is it likely?"
"We'll not have any of our dirty linen washed coram populo, old chap. Frightful bad form. No one knows but you, Aspinall, and self."
"Surely Aspinall will——"
"You don't know Aspinall, old man. He'd shrivel up sooner than say a word more. Bet you he'll speak of it as an accident. Remember, he was captain of the school here once."
"Which makes it a blacker shame than ever," said Bourne, wrathfully.
"I've inquired casually of the Fifth, and it seems our friend once distinguished himself in the gym. Lost his temper—as per recipe—and Hodgson had to knock him down before he could see that we put on the gloves here for a little healthy exercise, and the pleasure of lifting some of the public schools championships. He, however, apologized to Hodgson, but I don't think he'll do the honourable here."
"Then, the chief attraction of the beauty is its temper?"
"Or want of it."
"Who is he, anyhow?"
"Yorkshire people, I believe. Own half a town and no end of coin. Been to school in France and Germany, and consequently came here rather late. I know his head-piece Is all right, and I imagine his amiability is only a little foreign blood working its way out. He will be with us in the Sixth at Christmas."
"Delightful prospect. What I want to know is—how are we to settle this business as far as he is concerned? Ought Moore to know?"
"I don't think so. Never trouble Corker more than you can help, old man. That's a tip for you when I'm gone. Besides, masters generally mishandle affairs of this sort. I rather fancy I'll put it to Aspinall when he pulls through."
"Do. One thing, though, is pretty certain. He'll never get his cap as long as I'm captain of the footer eleven. I'd rather come out of it myself."
"Of course. I see there's no help for that, but, all the same, it will make complications. What a pity he can play!"
"It is, for he is a back out of a thousand."
Bourne's voice had in it a ring of genuine regret, and whilst I could almost have smiled at his unaffectedly tragic tone, I could see the vista which his resolution opened up. I heard the school shouting at Bourne to let the finest player out of the eleven in, and all the shouting would be across "seas of misunderstanding." I know Bourne saw the difficulties himself, and he left my study soon after with a rather anxious look on his face. Personally I determined not to think about the matter until I had seen Aspinall. From the very first I had never expected any help from Acton. There was something about the whole of his bearing in the caddish business that told me plainly that we would have to treat him, not as a fellow who had been betrayed to a vile action by a beastly temper and was bitterly sorry for it, but as a fellow who hated us for finding it out.
I saw Aspinall two days later, and as we walked towards the station I broached the matter.
"Certainly; I thought he tripped me, but he has written me and said how sorry he was for my accident, so, of course, it rests there."
"Candidly, Aspinall, have you any doubt yourself?"
"No, old fellow. I'm sorry, but I really think he tripped me. He was riled at a little hustling from Shannon's lot, and I may have upset him myself occasionally. But it is a small matter."
I looked at the bandages across his cheek, and I didn't think it small.
"But, Aspinall, even if we leave you out of the business, it isn't a small matter for us, especially for Bourne."
"Well, no; hardly for you," he admitted. "'Twas a piece of sheer bad form. It shouldn't be done at our place at all."
"If you were in Bourne's place would you bar him his place in the eleven?"
Aspinall considered a full minute.
"On the whole, I think I should—at least, for one term; but I'd most certainly let him know why he was not to have his cap—privately, of course. I should not like it to get about, and I do not fancy Acton will say much about it."
That night Bourne and I crossed over to Biffen's, and waylaid Acton in his den. I'm pretty sure there wasn't another room like his in the whole school. No end of swell pictures—foreign mostly; lovely little books, which, I believe, were foreign also; an etching of his own place up in Yorkshire; carpets, and rugs, and little statuettes—swagger through and through; a little too much so, I believe, for the rules, but Biffen evidently had not put his foot down. Acton was standing on the hearthrug with his back to the fire, and on seeing us he politely offered us chairs with the air of a gentleman and a something of grace, which was a trifle foreign.
I saw that Acton's polite cordiality nettled Bourne more than a little, but he solemnly took a chair, and in his blunt, downright fashion, plunged headlong into the business.
"Only came to say a word or two, Acton, about Thursday's match."
"A very good one," he remarked, with what Corker calls "detached interest." "Aspinall's accident was more than unfortunate."
"The fact is," said Bourne, bluntly, "neither Carr nor I believe it was an accident."
"No? What was it, then? Every one else thought it was, though."
"We know better. We know that you deliberately fouled him, and——"
Acton paled, and his eyes glittered viciously, though he said calmly, "That is a lie."
"And," continued Bourne, "though there is not a fellow even a respectable second to you at 'footer,' I shall not give you your cap as long as I am captain of the eleven. That is all I came to say."
Acton said quite calmly (why was he so uncommonly cool, I asked myself?)—though his face was red and white alternately: "Then listen carefully to what I say. I particularly wanted to have my footer cap—why, does not concern any one but myself—and I don't fancy losing it because a couple of fellows see something that a hundred others couldn't see, for the sufficient reason that there wasn't anything to see. I shall make no row about it; and, since you can dole out the caps to your own pet chums, and no one can stop you—do it! but I think you'll regret it all the same. I'm not going to moan about it—that isn't my way; but I really think you'll regret it. That is all; though"—this with a mocking sneer—"why it requires two of you to come and insult a man in his own room I don't understand."
"I came to say that if you'd apologize to Aspinall things might straighten."
"Might straighten! Oh, thanks!" he said, his face looking beastly venomous. "I think you'd better go, really."
So we went, and I could not but feel that Bourne was right when he said on parting, "Our friend will make himself superbly disagreeable over this, take my word for it! But he won't get into the eleven, and I won't have a soul know that old Aspinall's scar is the work of a fellow in St. Amory's, either. If they have to know, he must tell them himself."