"Hullo! What have you got there?"
So said Charlie Grey, one of his classmates, seeing Rupert in the act of smuggling something which looked like a good-sized cage into an outhouse.
"It's a monkey for Marcia's birthday," replied Rupert, a bit breathlessly, for he had been hurrying somewhat; "only I don't want the Head to know, as I've had to go out of boundaries for it."
The boy, who was Dorothy Grey's brother, was much interested in the little creature, and pronounced it a bargain. Shortly after this, the dinner-bell rang. Just before the close of the afternoon's lessons, the head-master, Dr. Winston by name, came into the room with a very severe expression on his countenance.
"It has come to my knowledge," said he, "that one of you boys has been out of boundaries to-day. Snowden,—" here he fixed his spectacled eyes on Rupert's face—"what have you to say about the matter? Have you, or have you not, disobeyed me?"
Rupert stood up and, crimson with shame, confessed his fault.
"What made you do such a thing, when you know it's against the rules?" demanded the Head.
Rupert was silent, feeling inwardly very much disgusted at the turn of affairs.
The punishment which was meted out to him was pretty severe, and the boy fumed with anger against Grey, who, he felt sure, had been telling tales. He tackled his class-mate on the subject as soon as school was over.
"A pretty thing you are," he said in the hearing of Kenneth, "to split on me like that. A mean sneak—that's what I call you!"