“If you don’t stand properly,” said the Dux, “I’ll make you sit down. Come along, young Brown, it’s time we went up to school.”
“How long am I to stay, please?” I inquired.
“Till you’re in water up to the knees,” said the Dux, as he turned away, with the faithless Dicky beside him.
Up to the knees! I stood loyally for five minutes, during which the water gained about an eighth of an inch up my ankles. Then the second bell rang, and things became desperate.
Accordingly I knelt in the water until I could confidently assert that I was wet, very wet indeed, up to the knees; which done, I posted as fast as my ill-used legs would carry me to morning school.
Chapter Three.
“When shall we three meet again?”
Once more Dr Plummer reserved himself for the afternoon. Perhaps it was the haunting tyranny of the defunct Hector; perhaps it was pique at being baffled, so far, in finding the culprit; whatever may have been the reason, he was in an ominously uncompromising mood when at last he returned to the fateful question.