"Not unless he went to Sadler Street for anything, and then he might," said the master. "You see, he was very intimate with a boy who lived there, and he may have persuaded him to go home with him for something. I believe he went there to help him to make a rabbit hutch when he played truant from the class, for I have heard from another lad who met him that he was on his way here in the company of Bond, but he never appeared, and that was what decided me to take the step I did, and tell him that he could not come to the class again."
"When was he told that?" asked the widow, with a sigh. For this was a trouble she had not expected, and it did but increase her anxiety concerning Tom.
"I told him myself the last day he was at school. He was not here yesterday all day."
"No; he was taken ill yesterday morning, and could not get up. You think he may have gone to this Sadler Street?" she added.
"I think it is very possible he went there, although I warned all the school not to go through that street on their way home, if they could avoid it. A few months ago I should have said that Tom would not have disobeyed that order, but lately he has given us a good deal of trouble, and it is just possible that his companion Bond persuaded him to go there in spite of all I said. If you will wait a minute, I will ask some of the boys, before they leave, if they know anything about it;" and he went at once to the room where Tom's class was preparing to go home.
Up went half a dozen hands as he had asked the question.
"Please, sir, Winn and Bond were making a rabbit hutch together in Bond's yard. Tom told me, and asked me to go and see it."
"Did you go?" asked the master.
"No, sir. You had told us to keep away from Sadler Street, unless we wanted to be ill. Bond said you had a spite against Sadler Street, and him too, and that's why you had told us not to go!"
"Very well, that will do, Wicks. Winn believed Bond, it seems, and went there with him, and he is dangerously ill his mother tells me."