“You may be sure of that,” replied Gilks, “but what’s all this got to do with me?”
Wyndham looked up in surprise.
“Why,” said he rather nervously. “Of course you know, we, that is you and I and Silk, are all sort of in the same boat over this affair. That is, if it all came out. But I fancy Riddell only suspects me.”
“Well, if he does,” said Gilks, “it’s all the less any concern of mine.”
“I promised, you know,” said Wyndham, “to you and Silk to say nothing about it.”
“Of course you did,” said Gilks, “and you’d better stick to it, or it’ll be the worse for you!”
“I think,” continued the boy, “and Riddell says so—if I were to go and tell the Doctor about it, only about myself, you know, he might perhaps not expel me.”
“Well?” said Gilks.
“Well,” said Wyndham, “of course I couldn’t do it after promising you and Silk. But I thought if I promised not to say anything about you and make out that it was all my fault, you wouldn’t mind my telling Paddy.”
Gilks looked at the boy in perplexity. This was a code of morality decidedly beyond him, and for a moment he looked as if he half doubted whether it was not a jest.