CHAPTER XXVIII THE NEXT DAY
"Believe it! Of course we don't believe it. And I do not think that the Head does, either. You cheer up, old fellow! I know you were only trying to serve me; but you were silly to go without waking Warren, or myself."
The speaker was Ralph, and he addressed his chum Charlton, who was a prisoner. A prisoner, that is, inasmuch as the Head had forbidden him to go out into the playground until he had thoroughly gone into the incidents of the previous night.
It was all very well for Ralph to say "cheer up," but Charlton did not feel very cheerful. His sensitive nature shrank from the position in which he found himself, and his heart revolted at the wicked falsehoods which were told so calmly by both Dobson and Elgert. Besides, he was kept in, and that afternoon he had hoped to get across to see how his father was getting on.
And though we, who know the truth, may wonder how it was that the Head should do this, still, the doctor himself did not know the truth, and he could hardly think that two lads would tell such wicked deliberate lies; and, moreover, everything pointed to Charlton being guilty.
Dr. Beverly had been sitting up late, deep in a learned work with which he was greatly interested, when he had heard the noise in his class-room, followed by the voice of the head monitor, calling from above, and asking what was the matter; and he had hurried out—to find Charlton lying half dazed on the floor, having apparently fallen over a form and struck his head; and in his hand was Ralph's examination paper.
Charlton being a nervous boy, his very manner seemed guilty when the Head had questioned him; and his story seemed to be false, for upon Dr. Beverly hurrying upstairs, Elgert was found with only his trousers on, as if he had just slipped out of bed, and Dobson was the same. Moreover, the boys in the Fifth declared that Elgert was sitting up in bed when they were aroused; and even Ralph and Warren had to own that Dobson appeared as if he had only just woke up.
And both Dobson and Elgert declared that they had never been downstairs, and that Charlton had invented the story.
So, still under the suspicion, he was kept in, and Ralph and Warren seized the first opportunity of going to comfort him.