Paul bowed to Mr. Lowington, and left the cabin. The investigation had ended as he had supposed from the beginning that it would end.
"Mr. Lowington, I protest against this decision," repeated Mr. Hamblin, angrily. "I feel obliged to say that there has been a great lack of judgment in managing this unpleasant business."
"And I feel obliged to remind you, Mr. Hamblin, that I am the principal of this academy squadron. My decision is final," replied Mr. Lowington, with dignity, as he rose from his chair and left the cabin.
"Snubbed by the boys, snubbed by the principal!" exclaimed the learned gentleman. "Dr. Winstock, did you ever witness a more ridiculous farce in your life?"
"Never, sir," replied the surgeon. "It seems to me that you insist upon condemning Captain Kendall, guilty or innocent."
"I have no doubt whatever of his guilt. Those boys are all in league with each other, Kendall included. There is a conspiracy to annoy me, and to get rid of me; but they will find they have mistaken their man in me, if they haven't in anybody else! Dr. Winstock, I tell you the letter Duncan held in his hand was a fiction! I have been with students all my life, and I know them."
"Why a fiction?"
"That Duncan, who is a very plausible young man, and a friend of Kendall, mind, is at the bottom of all this mischief. He wrote the Cologne letter himself. It was got up, and sent enclosed to the postmaster at Cologne, who of course forwarded it to Rotterdam. It is a trick to disprove the charge against Kendall."
Mr. Hamblin was very much excited, and developed his theory in full to the surgeon, who quietly pointed out its discrepancies. He insisted that the students of the Josephine had thorned and irritated him for the sole purpose of getting rid of him, and that Paul was at the bottom of the mischief.
"When Mr. Lowington has been among students as long as I have, he will understand them better," he added, triumphantly, for he was satisfied that he had established his position. "The Josephine is an utter failure! The plan is absurd and ridiculous. The senior professor has no authority; or it is divided with a boy who hates Greek!"