“King, I am ashamed of you! A boy of your age to do such a paltry trick!”
“Please, sir, I only did it for a joke.”
“A joke! A joke is only a joke when both sides can laugh. It was a mean, despicable trick to do, and Davidson might have been unjustly punished for it. You are leaving at the end of this term, King, or I should feel very much inclined to send you to the dean. I shall cane you both now before the whole school as a warning to others, and a just punishment to yourselves.”
Mr. Harmer was as good as his word, and the two boys returned to their places not only in pain, but in humiliation. King felt the disgrace even more keenly than his companion, for he was the biggest boy in the school.
All the class had of course stopped work and looked on, many of them in fear, as Mr. Harmer was very rarely as angry as they saw him that morning. When the lessons and services were over, Cox and King slunk away by themselves.
Alfred had arranged to meet his two friends about half a mile beyond the old pit. He did not accompany them, as he was going to write a letter to his father, and it took Alfred much longer to write such a letter than Walter and Steve would care to wait. He had arranged, therefore, to join them at the place at which they usually fished. The two boys had gone in a boat, but Alfred was to take a short cut across the fields in order that he might not lose too much time.
The letter was written and posted, and away Alfred ran to find his chums. He was as happy as a boy could be at the prospect of meeting all his family again, and he was also very glad that his innocence was proved. When he was passing near the old pit which Mr. Harmer had forbidden the boys to visit, he saw King and Cox playing together, or rather trying to amuse themselves. King threw his cap at Cox, and, missing him, it fell down the pit.
“That serves you right,” exclaimed Cox, laughing at King. “Now you’ve lost your cap.”
“No, I haven’t. I shall climb down and get it. It isn’t deep. I have been down several times before.”
The pit was not apparently very deep, owing to the sides having fallen in after some very heavy rains. There was a rude fence round the mouth of it, formed by lashing scaffold poles together. These the boys used to untie, knot the pieces of cord together, and let each other down. One pit in the vicinity had lately been flooded, and in the bottom of this old one there was some water.