HOW THE FLAG FOUND ITS WAY BACK TO THE TURRET
Paul got safely back to Garside with his prize. He mounted with it to his dormitory and undid the covering in which it was encased. Yes, there was the old flag, none the worse for its temporary absence from the school. Paul's heart beat the quicker. He was as proud of the flag as any boy at Garside, and as he looked at it he realized in some degree the feelings of a soldier when he has recaptured the colours from the enemy.
Folding it up again, he hid it under one of the cubicles, and went in search of the boys who had been with him in the dormitory when the loss of the flag was first discovered.
He was not long in finding Moncrief minor, who was wandering about the ground like a lost spirit. He was unhappy at the absence of his companion in mischief, the redoubtable Plunger. He began to think that he had been left out in the cold. What a hero Plunger would be if, through him, the flag were brought back again to the school!
As he was thus thinking he saw Paul coming towards him. He quickly turned his head and walked off as though he had not seen him, but Paul came up with him in a stride or two, and, clutching him by the arm, twisted him round till he was in front of him.
"You needn't run away, Harry. I want you to do me a favour."
"What is it?" asked Harry, reluctantly.
"You remember that afternoon when the flag was lost?"
Harry looked up quickly. What was coming out about the flag now? Ha, ha, he guessed what it was! Percival had begun to smell a rat. He meant trying to pump him, so he answered cautiously.
"Of course I do, and so do most of the fellows here, I'm thinking. I wonder if we shall ever get it back again?"
"I wonder. It was Viner who brought us the news, I remember, and besides yourself there were several other fellows in the dormitory at the time—Baldry, Plunger, Sedgefield, Bember. I want you to get together again the same fellows if you can, and bring them to my dorm. Would you mind doing that for me?"
"What for?" was the curious answer.
"Oh, I'll explain what for when you're there. Will you do it?"
Harry thought for a moment before answering. What was Percival's game? He was curious to know; but there couldn't be any harm in doing as he asked.
"I can't bring Plunger—he's got something special in hand, but I'll hunt up some of the others, and bring them along with me, if I can."
So he ran off, and Paul returned to the dormitory. Half an hour elapsed before he heard the welcome sound of footsteps on the stairs. Harry had succeeded in capturing three out of the five, Sedgefield, Baldry, Viner. They were just as curious as Harry was to know what Paul could want with them.
"I'm much obliged to you for coming along," said Paul, "it's really very good of you, considering the dead-set against me. But I wanted to get together the fellows who were here when Viner brought up the bad news about the flag. I wish all six were here, but I must be satisfied with four out of them. At any rate, there's enough of you to remember what I said. I said, you'll remember, that through me the school had eaten dirt."
"Oh, yes, we remember that well enough," said Viner bitterly, "because it was so true."
"So true; yes, Viner. As your memory's so good on that point, perhaps you can remember what else was said?"
"Of course I do. We all do, for one or two of us have laughed over it since. You talked some nonsense about the school suffering through you, and through you being lifted up again."
"And that you meant getting the flag back again, and putting it in its old place on the turret," added Sedgefield.
"You're right, Viner, and so are you, Sedgefield. I'm glad you remember things so well. I made that promise, uncertain whether or not I should be able to carry it out, but determined to do my best. Well, by God's help, I'm able to keep my word."
To the profound amazement of the boys, he drew out the flag.
"Where did you find it? Where did you get it from?" cried Viner.
Harry did not speak. He could only stare at the flag. Was it really the old flag? There could be little doubt about that. How, then, had Percival come by it? Had he stolen a march upon Plunger and the others?
"Where did I get it from? Well, that's my secret for the present. I've got the flag, and kept my promise. Now I want you to mount with me to the turret, so that we can put it back again in its old resting-place."
He waved the flag over his head, and Baldry and Sedgefield gave a cheer. Harry echoed the cheer in a dazed, bewildered fashion. He had not yet recovered from his surprise. Viner remained silent. They followed Paul to the turret, where once again the flag was placed on the summit with another cheer.
Meanwhile Plunger was inside the shed, awaiting with no small trepidation the arrival of the "Mystic Brethren." He had not long to wait before six of the masked brethren entered. The foremost of these was Mellor, followed by five of his companions. They had put on their masks outside the door, so that Plunger was just as much in the dark as to who they were as ever.
"Gargoyle with the eyebrows, greeting!" exclaimed Mellor.
"Greeting," repeated the other masks, bowing.
"Now, then, greet," came a peremptory cry, as Plunger received the point of two or three knees in different parts of his body, which sent him staggering round the circle. It revived painful memories of a similar performance on his part on a previous occasion, and he hastily stammered out, "Gr-gr-greeting," and jerked his head in imitation of the brethren.
"We are glad thou hast obeyed the call; but where is thy brother novice—Henry Moncrief?"
"He—he's otherwise—engaged," stammered Plunger, not knowing what to say.
"Otherwise engaged! Know this, Gargoyle with the wiry thatch, no engagement should keep him from answering the call of the Mystic Brethren. It shall be inquired into."
As he spoke, Plunger saw, with fear and trembling, that one of the number had drawn from the box the weapons he so well remembered—the sticks with bladders attached to the ends. He guessed what was coming, and it came.
"Describe the Mystic Circle!" cried Mellor.
It was useless resisting. Down flopped Plunger on his knees and hands, and crawled round the ring as quickly as possible three times, while the bladders showered upon his head with amazing rapidity. Then the brethren joined hands, and galloping wildly round him, repeated as before:
"Beetles of the Mystic Band
Wind we round thee, hand in hand;
Whene'er thou hear'st thy chieftain's call,
Rest not, pause not, hither crawl,
Or to the realms of Creepy-crawly,
Shivery-shaky we will haul thee."
And once again, to the strains of this extraordinary incantation, Plunger was sent whirling about the ring from side to side, as though he were an indiarubber ball. The last time two of them—Harry and himself—divided honours; but this time Plunger had it all to himself. Owing to this fact the brethren were able to give him their sole and undivided attention, and they did it with such effect that Plunger began to wonder whether he was himself or someone else.
"Dost thou like the Mystic Circle?" inquired Mellor, when they paused.
"Oh, y-y-yes," stammered Plunger, with a painful attempt to laugh, "very much." And then he added quickly, as he saw the uplifted bladders ready to descend: "But—but if you've got any more of it, you might keep it for my brother novice."
"It shall be as thou askest, Gargoyle with the eyebrows," said Mellor. "And now to business."
"To business? Do they call what I've just gone through pleasure?" thought Plunger, as he waited in fear and trembling what was to come next.
"Thou belongest to the Third Form?"
Plunger nodded.
"A wonderful scholar art thou, Gargoyle with the wiry thatch," was the cutting comment.
"Oh, I could be much higher in the school," exclaimed Plunger, blushing to the roots of the "wiry thatch"; "but I don't like the boys in the upper Forms, you know. They put too much side on for me."
"You look a modest, retiring kind of fellow. That's the reason the Mystic Brethren have taken such a fancy to thee."
Down came the bladders on Plunger's back as tokens of brotherly affection. Plunger felt flattered at this testimony of the brethren to his virtues, but he wished at the same time they had expressed it in some other way.
"It's very kind of you," he gasped.
"Though thou dost despise the bounders of the Upper Form, peradventure thou wouldst not mind taking a small present from the Mystic Brethren of the Fifth?"
"A present?" repeated Plunger, pricking up his ears. "Not at all. Shall be delighted to make myself useful."
"Let me see. The head boy of the Fifth is one named Hasluck, is he not, wearer of goggles?"
"Yes."
"Is there not also in that same Form one named Leveson, famous timekeeper, owner of a stop-watch?"
Plunger nodded, marvelling at the accuracy of the brethren's information. At a sign from Mellor, one of the masks, who was no other than Crick, left the circle, and brought from the corner of the shed a long parcel, wrapped in American leather-cloth—a facsimile, in fact, of the parcel which Paul had received from Wyndham a little earlier.
"Give this to Hasluck, in the presence of the timekeeper Leveson and as many other menials of the Fifth as thou canst find. It is a souvenir from thy brethren to celebrate thy initiation to the Mystic Order. Dost thou understand?"
Fluttering with excitement, Plunger clutched the parcel, and declared that he understood perfectly.
He had not got far on the homeward road before he was rejoined by his companions, who had been lying in wait for him behind the friendly shelter of a hedge.
"I've got it!" he gasped.
"Got what?" demanded Newall.
"The flag!" he cried, flourishing the precious parcel.
"Bravo, Plunger!" exclaimed Newall.
"Hurrah!" shouted Parfitt. "How did you get it?"
"Presented to me in honour of my initiation to the Mystic Order."
"Let's have a look at it."
"It mustn't be opened till we get to the school. Hasluck's got to open it, in the presence of Leveson."
As Plunger had faithfully followed out their instructions, they could not very well object to this condition, so they ran by his side, questioning him by the way as to what had happened to him in his absence. Plunger answered to the best of his ability, colouring considerably the part he had played in the ceremony, and the esteem in which he was held by the brethren.
"Why—why, what's that?" exclaimed Stanley, coming to a dead stop. The others did the same. Their eyes followed his to the turret. There was the old flag flying from the top!
Plunger turned pale; then a sickly hue went over his face as he looked from the flag to the parcel in his hand.