"I wonder at your speaking to that fellow," said Bull, as the two new comers joined the group at the fire-place.
"You will be yourself ashamed of having ever suspected him before long," said Montagu warmly; "ay, the whole lot of you; and you are very unkind to condemn him before you are certain."
"I wish you joy of your friend, Duncan," sneered Barker.
"Friend?" said Duncan, firing up; "yes! he is my friend, and I'm not ashamed of him. It would be well for the school if all the fellows were as honorable as Williams."
Barker took the hint, and although he was too brazen to blush, thought it better to say no more.
CHAPTER XII
THE TRIAL
"A plot, a plot, a plot, to ruin all." TENNYSON, The Princess.
On the Monday evening, the head boy reported to Dr. Rowlands that the perpetrator of the offence had not been discovered, but that one boy was very generally suspected, and on grounds that seemed plausible. "I admit," he added, "that from the little I know of him he seems to me a very unlikely sort of boy to do it."