“I wouldn’t be in your shoes, that’s all I know,” remarked the messenger brutally. “It’ll be all the worse if you don’t cut.”
“Where is he?”
“In the captain’s room at the School House.”
I went off with my heart in my boots. And I had hoped so much to show up well to Redwood! It was all Jarman’s fault, and I wrote down yet another grudge against him in my mental book.
The captain was alone, and evidently expecting me, as he rose and came to meet me when I appeared.
“Here you are, then, youngster,” said he, in a tone which, if it meant a licking, was a very deceptive one.
“I’m very sorry,” said I; “I tried to bring the belt round yesterday evening, but—”
“Hang the belt!” said the captain. “That’s not what I want you for. Why didn’t you tell me what happened at home yesterday afternoon?”
Then it was another row altogether I was in for! What, I wondered, had I done! Surely he didn’t suspect me of having pushed his young sister into the water?
“I didn’t like, while the match was on. I didn’t know Mamie had tumbled in, or I would have stopped her.”