Kit unlocked the door at last, and Mr. Roylston entered. “What is the meaning of this unseemly commotion? What are you doing with locked doors when you are supposed to be out? What is the meaning of this strap? Why are these two Fourth Formers here crying? There has been bullying?”
Kit laughed. “That’s about it,” he said. An angry flush suffused Mr. Roylston’s countenance, as he exaggerated Kit’s laugh into impertinence. “You are going too far, Wilson. I shall report you to the Head for bullying and gross impertinence. You also, Deering——”
“You might as well take the trouble to find out what you are going to report us for,” said Kit.
“Shut up, Kit,” said Tony. “If you——”
“Silence, Deering,” interrupted Mr. Roylston. “I am perfectly capable of rebuking a boy for insolence without your assistance. You, Thornton and Dunstan, come with me. You, Deering and Wilson, go to your rooms, and wait there until you are sent for.”
He waited until they had crossed the hall and gone into Tony’s room; then he took Thornton and Dunstan into Mr. Morris’s study at the end of the hall and was closeted with them for half an hour. Later the boys saw him leave Standerland House, cross the quadrangle and disappear within the Old School. Then they sent Finch back to his room, reconnoitred, but found that Dunstan and Thornton had disappeared.
An hour later there came a tap on their door. Kit opened it, and admitted Mr. Roylston. The master took his place with his back toward the window, and made them stand in the light before him. He cleared his throat once or twice, as though he were at a loss quite how to begin. “I have made an investigation,” he said at last, “and have carefully thought over this afternoon’s affair.” He waited as if for a reply, but as the boys made none, he continued in a moment, a little more sharply and confidently. “I find that you are both guilty of the most wanton cruelty to boys younger and smaller than yourselves; though, I understand—they were singularly frank and direct with me—that you are not without what you will probably pretend is justification. Thornton admits that he had been horsing Finch——”
“Horsing Finch!” began Kit.
“Silence, Wilson; if there is any occasion for either of you to speak, pray, let Deering speak for you. I have endured about as much of your impertinence to-day as I can well stand. You undertook to punish younger boys, and did so cruelly. In my opinion your conduct is indefensible. However, I shall take into consideration your mistaken motives in the matter, and not report you to the Head, as I was at first convinced it was my duty to do. Doctor Forester is wont to deal severely with bullying. Instead, I shall gate you for a month, and require you to do a thousand lines of Virgil apiece for me within the next fortnight.”