As soon as they perceived he was going to do neither the first nor the second, and knew he was going to do the last, they groaned. They could have endured a stampede round the Quad; they could have brought themselves to see their leader immolated in a good cause; but to have to stand still and hear Jupiter speak—what had they done to deserve that?
“Look here, you youngsters,” began Mansfield, needing not even a motion of his hand to command silence, “I’ve not come as an enemy, but a friend.”
“What will it be like,” mused Coote, “when he comes as an enemy?”
“And I’ve only a very few words to say to you.”
Was it a sigh of relief or disappointment that escaped the Den? Mansfield didn’t know; he wasn’t well up in sighs.
“There’s a great deal goes on in the Den that isn’t right. Some of you youngsters think the only use of school rules is to break them, and that it’s a fine thing to disobey the monitors. You’re wrong, and, unless you give up that sort of thing, you’ll find it out. The school rules are made to be kept, and the monitors are appointed to see they are kept; and any boy that says otherwise is an enemy to Templeton, and he will be treated accordingly. Some of you don’t approve of all that goes on here, and yet you don’t like to stand up against it. That’s not right. You can’t be neutral. If you mean to be steady, you are bound to stand out and have nothing to do with the bad lot. I want you all to understand this once for all, and not say you’ve had no warning. I warn you now. Rules are made to be kept, and you must keep them. Pontifex—”
The Captain had to stop; for the Den, which had stood in breathless silence thus far, sprang, at the mention of the name, into a cheer which spoke quite as much for the tension of their own feelings at this moment as for their affection for the old Captain.
Mansfield let them have it out; he liked them none the worse for their love to his friend, and what he had to say would by no means spoil by keeping till the cheers were over.
They were over at last. The sight of the Captain there, tall, upright, determined, with his dark eyes bent on them, cut them short and brought the Den back to silence as deep as that which had just been broken.
“Pontifex was fond of you youngsters. He said to me a day or two before he went, ‘Give the little chaps a chance.’”