All this had been said in an undertone, and the whole company was stirred by a feeling, partly of curiosity, and partly of discomfort. Mr. Miller was standing within earshot, and the Chairman nodded to him. Then Mr. Miller beckoned to Dick and led him down the ladder into the cabin.
The boys were then ordered to remain “at ease”, and every one looked at his neighbor as if to say:
“I wonder what is going to happen next?”
Presently Mr. Miller appeared on deck again and reported to the Chairman in a low voice; and, in a few minutes more, he went back to get Dick, and they both stood alongside the Chairman.
The general feeling of suspense by this time had grown extremely acute, when the Chairman said:
“Boys, Gray has asked permission to say something to us all before we go on with awarding the honors. I ask you to listen to him with careful attention. His only object in talking to you now is to do his full duty as a Boy Scout under very trying circumstances.”
Dick had had a good, frank talk with Mr. Miller in the cabin below, and had cleared his mind of a weight that had been pressing down on him for some time past, although he had not, until that morning, faced the necessity for action with perfect clearness. He now had determined to make a clean breast of the whole matter and to accept his just penalty—whatever that might be—like a man.
“I want to say, fellows,” said he, “that the umpire was wrong in the game at Hull, when he decided in my favor about second base. I never touched it. I got around to third and then home without ever having come within six inches of second base, except after I had been fairly put out. I haven’t any excuse; I knew it was wrong, but I did not know how wrong it was. I have done other things like that before, and I thought they were smart. Now you know it, and maybe I shall lose my scout badge. I have lost the right to wear it, anyway, and you can see as well as I that I can’t accept any honor for what happened at Salem.”
He then turned to the Chairman, who said with a very quiet voice:
“You may go below for the present, Gray.”