This seemed more dreadful than the prospect of being hanged had done, but it could be done more quickly. Benny determined at once that he must find out the worst, and be ready for it; so he waited until the injured man and his supporters had turned the corner of a street, and were out of sight; then he bounded into the alley again, hurried home, seized a basket that was lying beside the back door, and a moment later was sauntering along the street, whistling, and moving in a direction that seemed to be that in which he might manage to meet the three as if by accident. He did not take much comfort out of his whistling, for in his heart he felt himself to be the most shameful hypocrite that had existed since the days of Judas Iscariot, and the recollection of having been told by his Sunday-school teacher within a week that he was the best boy in his class seemed to make him feel worse instead of better; and his mind was not relieved of this unpleasant burden until at a shady corner he came suddenly upon the organ-grinder and his supporters, when he instantly exchanged his load for a new one.
“Why, what’s the matter, Paul?” asked Benny, with as much surprise in his tone and manner as he could affect.
Justice Stott had just gone into an adjacent yard for water for the Italian, when Grayson answered, with a very sober face, “You know as well as I do, Benny, and I saw the whole crowd.”
“I don’t!” exclaimed Benny, in all the desperation of cowardice. “I didn’t do or see—”
“Sh—h!” whispered Grayson, “the Justice is coming back.”
Benny turned abruptly and started for home. He felt certain that his face was telling tales, and that Justice Stott would learn the whole story if he saw him. There was one comfort, though: it was evident that Grayson did not want the Justice to know that Benny had taken part in the affair.
There was a great deal of business transacted by the boys of Laketon that night. How it was all managed no one could have explained, but it is certain that before bedtime every boy who had taken part in the assault on the Italian knew that the man was not dead, but had merely been stunned and cut by a stone, and Paul Grayson knew who were of the party that chased the man up the alley. Various plans of getting out of trouble were in turn suggested and abandoned; but several boys for a long time insisted that the only chance of safety lay in calling Grayson out of his boarding-house, and threatening him with the worst whipping that the boys, all working together, could give. Even this idea was finally abandoned when Will Palmer suggested that as Grayson boarded with the teacher, and seemed to be in some sort a friend of his, he probably would already have told all he knew, if he was going to tell at all. Some consolation might have been got out of a report of Benny’s short interview with Grayson, had Benny thought to give it, but he had, on reaching home, promptly feigned headache, and gone to bed; so such of the boys as did not determine to play truant, and so postpone the evil day, thought bitterly of the morrow as they dispersed to their several homes.
There was not as much playing as usual in the school-yard next morning; and when the class was summoned into school, the teacher had no difficulty in discovering, by the looks of the various boys, who were innocent and who guilty. Immediately after calling the roll Mr. Morton stood up and said:
“Boys, a great many of you know what I am going to talk about. Usually your deeds done out of school-hours are not for me to notice; but the cowardly, shameful treatment of that organ-grinder began in the school-yard, and before you had gone to your homes, so I think it my duty to inquire into the matter. Justice Stott thinks so too. When any one has done a wrong that he cannot amend, the only manly course is to confess. I want those boys who followed the organ-grinder up the alley to stand up.”
No boy arose. Benny Mallow wished that some one would give the bottom of his seat a hard kick, so that he would have to rise in spite of himself, but no one kicked.