active participants in it, had
its unpleasant side.

Fortunately, though protracted, detection had overtaken the offenders,
he declared--the principal offenders--as sooner or later it invariably
and surely did, let them be certain of that, and, with detection,
chastisement immediate and condign.

"It should be a matter of shame and grief to all of us," he went on,
"that one who for so long has held a position of responsibility and
trust should be the ringleader in these occasions of disorder and grave
offence--leading astray not only his younger schoolfellows, but also one
whom the humane and civilising spirit of a noble and self-sacrificing
organisation has rescued from a life of barbarism and degradation, and
sent here, where every opportunity is placed in his way to become a
credit to that organisation, and a shining light in the noble endeavours
to rescue from heathenism his barbarous fellow countrymen. I refer to
Anthony, upon whom, I trust, the punishment I am about to inflict will
act as a salutary warning and prove the turning-point in his school
life. The other boys in the room I hold in a lesser degree to be
participants in the grave scandal--I will not say breach of rules,
because obviously such an offence as to get outside the school walls
surreptitiously at night is one that no rule need be definitely
formulated to cover."

Here two or three of the smaller boys implicated began to snivel. The
whole lot would be swished, of course, they thought, and, indeed, such
was the opinion of the whole school. It was precious hard lines, for
they had no more hand in the affair than anybody else in the room; but
such was the Doctor's way.

"As for you, Haviland," he continued, "it is simply lamentable how you
have time after time betrayed your trust and shirked your
responsibilities--in short, gone from bad to worse. I had hoped you
would have taken warning when I was obliged to suspend you from your
office, and have behaved in such wise as to justify me in shortly
reinstating you; but, so far from this, you seem to have become utterly
reckless and abandoned. You are nearly grown up now, and should be
setting an example; but, instead of that, you are using the influence
which your age and strength give you in the eyes of your schoolfellows,
to lead your juniors into mischief and wrong-doing. It is clear,
therefore, that there is no further place for you among us. Yet I am
reluctant, very reluctant, to proce