Yes, the Head with his cane, and the masters with their canes, coming to insist upon order, and to show Marlthorpe that it could not be permitted to do just as it chose even with boys like Dobson and Elgert. It certainly looked as though some one was going to get caned just then.
But Warren uttered a whoop.
"Hallo, Ralph! Fellows, here is Rexworth turned up. Just too late to see the fun! You ought to have heard Dobby yell, my boy! It was lovely!"
"Here is Rexworth!" echoed the boys.
They pounced upon him. They grabbed arm or leg, whichever they could get hold of, and dragged him somehow upon their shoulders, and marched back triumphantly; while the Head and the masters did not know what to do.
And behind Ralph came Mr. Rexworth, and Mr. St. Clive and Irene—a very radiant Irene—who whispered to Tom Warren that the gentleman with the injured arm was Ralph's father, and that he was Lord Rexworth, because he was the son of the old Lord Stephen, and his right name was Rexworth Stephen, and Ralph would be the Honourable Ralph Rexworth Stephen. She told it very excitedly, and Tom Warren whistled, and then yelled—
"Three cheers for Ralph's father—Lord Rexworth Stephen! And three more cheers for the Honourable Ralph Rexworth Stephen! Come on, you fellows, out with it!"
What shouting and cheering there was then! And how, while Mr. Rexworth, as we will still call him, was talking to the Doctor, Ralph got nearly pulled to pieces. Why, they even forgot the birching in the excitement of Ralph's return. They had to hear his story, and how he had found his father; and then Warren explained how they had found out that Mr. Charlton was innocent.