"Your guilt is only too clear, Williams. You will hear more of this. Go,
I tell you."

Eric's passion overcame him; he stamped furiously on the ground, and
burst out, "I _will_ speak, sir; you have been unjust to me for a long
time, but I will _not_ be--"

Mr. Gordon's cane fell sharply across the boy's back; he stopped, glared
for a moment; and then saying:

"Very well, sir! I shall tell Dr. Rowlands that you strike before you
hear me," he angrily left the room, and slammed the door violently
behind him.

Before Mr. Gordon had time to recover from his astonishment, Russell
stood by him.

"Well, my boy," said the master, softening in a moment, and laying his
hand gently on Russell's head, "what have you to say? You cannot tell
how I rejoice, amid the deep sorrow that this has caused me, to find
that _you_ at least are uncontaminated. But I _knew_, Edwin, that I
could trust you."

"O sir, I come to speak for Eric--for Williams." Mr. Gordon's brow
darkened again, and the storm gathered, as he interrupted vehemently,
"Not a word, Russell; not a word. This is the _second_ time that he has
wilfully deceived me; and this time he has involved others too in his
base deceit."

"Indeed, sir, you wrong him. I can't think how he came to write the
paper, but I _know_ that he did not and would not use it. Didn't you see
yourself, sir, how he turned his head quite another way when he
broke down."

"It is very kind of you, Edwin, to defend him," said Mr. Gordon coldly,
"but at present, at any rate, I must not hear you. Leave me; I feel very
sad, and must have time to think over this disgraceful affair."

Russell went away disconsolate, and met his friend striding up and down,
the passage, waiting for Dr. Rowlands to come out of the library.

"O Eric," he said, "how came you to write that paper?"

"Why, Russell, I did feel very much ashamed, and I would have explained
it, and said so; but that Gordon spites me so. It is such a shame; I
don't feel now as if I cared one bit."

"I am sorry you don't get on with him; but remember you have given him
in this case good cause to suspect. You never crib, Eric, I know, but I
can't help being sorry that you wrote the paper."

"But then Graham asked me to do it, and called me cowardly because I
refused at first."

"Ah, Eric," said Russell, "they will ask you to do worse things if you
yield so easily. I wouldn't say anything to Dr. Rowlands about it, if I
were you."

Eric took